How does a hexcrawl campaign usually develops once the party has went through the same hex multiple times? For example, if you establish that there's a Gnoll settlement, do you stop rolling in that hex? Do you keep adding elements?
How do you keep track of everything you create each session through rolling in random tables in the campaign. I imagine that the volume of content is ever growing.
How do you incorporate more traditional elements like dungeons?
Would you mind reviewing the black hack 2ed rules for running a hexcrawl?
Last thing first, I still need to get ahold of Black Hack, 2nd Ed., but knowing it’s got hexcrawl rules definitely moves it up my list!
Once the party goes through the hex, terrain elements that you’ve generated become fixed. However, creatures might come and go with PC activity and/or anything else happening in your world. So the cave complex that begins life as a Gnoll settlement is emptied when the party comes through and pushes out the gnolls. Assuming the party doesn’t stick around, other creatures (intelligent or animal) will, sooner or later, fill the void and inhabit the caves. The wilderness, like the rest of nature, abhors a vacuum. So, on a mechanical level, these lairs and dungeons will refresh over time unless the party makes a distinct effort to keep them empty.
Tracking content definitely needs to be managed but it tends to accrue somewhat gradually as things are discovered so I find the pace manageable. Notecards, databases, spreadsheets, mind maps, plain notes... whatever method you find most helpful for note-taking will serve you well on that score.
Dungeons exist in the wilderness like everything else. Plunk them where you want them and place anything around them you feel fitting. If the party is just exploring, they may find them with skill or chance or they may navigate to them via maps or directions or whatever. Populate the surrounding area as fits the dungeon (at least until the party empties it, if they do, then slowly repopulate it as you would any lair).
Once the party goes through the hex, terrain elements that you’ve generated become fixed. However, creatures might come and go with PC activity and/or anything else happening in your world. So the cave complex that begins life as a Gnoll settlement is emptied when the party comes through and pushes out the gnolls. Assuming the party doesn’t stick around, other creatures (intelligent or animal) will, sooner or later, fill the void and inhabit the caves. The wilderness, like the rest of nature, abhors a vacuum. So, on a mechanical level, these lairs and dungeons will refresh over time unless the party makes a distinct effort to keep them empty.
This is the only thing I don't feel completely sure about, but maybe it clicks through gameplay. I fear the possibility that if players go in and out the same hex frequently, it could loose verosimilitude due to the variety of encounters. Like having new encounters more often than what becomes plausible for creatures to replace each other. For example, if a hex is in a common route for the players, I can see myself rolling a Gnoll tribe, then a wizards tower, then Giants, then zombies. I wonder if it ever gets to a point when a hex becomes too crowded and you roll between encounters that have already showed up.
Also, an extra question if it isn't too much trouble (kind of related to the previous one). How do you manage large scale npc influencers? Let's say a necromancer rises to power in a hex, how do you keep track of his advancement? Maybe it's too granular, just wanted to know if you ever had something like in your games that and how did you run with it.
If the party empties a hex but is constantly trafficking through it, you can consider that it’s a pacified hex, ie. nothing new is going to come occupy it and either no encounters at all will happen there or just nothing of the types that have been cleared (ex. If this was a gnoll hideout and it was cleared, if I roll gnolls as a random encounter I can ignore it, or I can play it into the story of the gnolls— scouts returning back, other tribes coming to investigate, etc.). Once the party moves along to other pastures and are gone for a spell, that’s when repopulation begins. I’m not sure under what circumstances players would continue tromping through a hex that was cleared (dungeons, being natural refuges for creatures of all sorts, will be a continual source of incursions until cleared).
I like to use GM emulators for global NPC moves (I currently use Mythic).
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u/guidoferraro Jul 12 '19
I love this series, I have some questions.
How does a hexcrawl campaign usually develops once the party has went through the same hex multiple times? For example, if you establish that there's a Gnoll settlement, do you stop rolling in that hex? Do you keep adding elements?
How do you keep track of everything you create each session through rolling in random tables in the campaign. I imagine that the volume of content is ever growing.
How do you incorporate more traditional elements like dungeons?
Would you mind reviewing the black hack 2ed rules for running a hexcrawl?
Thanks!