West Marches Original Dungeons and Dragons - Hexcrawl Rules (Overland Rules)

PREFACE

Whenever I write on rules on this blog, I will put my musing together with them. This will be unbearable for some, but it is for a reason: I am not writing a rulebook here, "straight to the point", I am discussing how I run my game. If people want to employ whatever I do in their game, they need to understand why I do it so they can check if it suits their own needs.

Also, I use Worldographer as my main tool of mapping, taking notes, etc. so be aware.

INTRODUCTION

I use my own rules for outdoor traveling. It's not because the ones from Wilderness Survival, AD&D or others are bad. It's just that with my timeframe of play, my setting, and the West Marches campaign style, I wanted to modify those rules to suit my needs. Therefore instead of using abstract "watch system" like some do, or using the 6-miles hex approach (I use 12-miles hex, more to follow), I took upon myself to do something different.

WHY 12-HEX MILES ?

My reasoning was really simple for this. I wanted a map where I could have swamps, forests, mountains, badlands/desert and snow all on the same map. Since I had traveled in New Zealand before and remembered that you could get all of this in this beautiful country, I calculated how long to get all this in a same "map". I then divided by 6 miles. It gave me an insane number of hex. So I cut in half: 12-hex miles for 30 by 30.

Also, having done lots of trekking, I knew that walking 12 miles is basic. If you do a pilgrimage on a perfect road in perfect condition, you can do 36 miles per day. Intense ? Of course, but doable.

Therefore having the players move maybe two-hex per day was perfect for me. It gave a sense of "oh wow, this is huge, and it will take a long time !". My first WM iteration had 6-hex mile, and then point crawl. Both of them dissatisfied me.

If you have less crazy goal (for example, just making a map for the sake of it and therefore having it ending up smaller in terms of climate change and probably more realistic), then 6-hex miles is probably better.

THE RULES - THE MAP

Players have access to a simple hexgrid map that I printed, blank. I then drew what they knew on it, and from there it's theirs. When they move, they use it and they write on it as if it's a dungeon. I am very lenient on this: I help them with their map, as long as it's an honest mistake.

If I tell them "You look south and see a huge mountain about 10-15 miles further from your path with a castle on it", and they ask me "is this hex so-and-so ?", I will reply positively.

But if they say to each other: "I remember that the dungeon is east of there", I will not say anything, true or not, even if they ask me. That's up to them.

THE RULES - DIRECTION

Players must give their intention within the hex. Let's say they start at the bottom south of the Haven hex. They will choose to go south. I will describe the way going south as per what they see on it. Most of the hex keys have emplacement keyed at particular spot. Therefore if there is a temple deep in the forest in the east, if you come from the north to the west, you will most likely not see it. 12 miles is big, unless it's something very evident: a huge tower upon a mountain cliff ? Easy to spot no matter where you are. A house on a hill in the grassland ? Will probably spot it no matter what.

This is what I use as cardinal directions.

Up until now, as with all my rulings on the spot, I always take the approach of helping my players as the Referee. Therefore if they are unclear, I will ask for clarification. I don't like the "gotcha" approach. I expect their character not to walk for 12 miles in the direction they didn't want to go at first.

That being said, they need to know where to go. If they have no road or river to follow, nothing to triangulate (such as a high mountain), no map or worse, no manner of having the north (deep forest with no access to the sun or such), then they can get lost.

My ruling is thus: I roll 1d10 or if I think their situation is dire, 2d10 and I take the worst result:

• 1: They are totally lost and loose a ration (more on this). They will end up going in a random direction to another hex. This is normally only possible in terrain where everything is the same (forest, desert, water, etc.). I roll 1d8 as per the hexagram up there (1 being north, 8 being north-west) and make them travel for 1d6 hours or until they can make up they are lost. 
• 2: They get lost but come back to their initial position. They lose a ration.
• 3: They get lost a bit (+1 hour, more to follow). I then roll d6. 1-2 they go left of where they wanted to go (for example, east becomes north-east). 3-4 they get on track. 5-6 they go right. 
• 4: They get momentarily lost. They get there with 1 or 2 (depending on terrain) extra hours. 
• 5+: They are good to go. 

THE RULES - RATIONS

Grognard and true old school player would not be happy with this, but I went the easy bookkeeping way with this. I decided that everything (water, food, warm clothes, etc.) was an indefinite item called "rations". One rations takes up 50gp of space (I use OD&D rules). Some events (such as a hurricane, heat wave, etc.) will make you lose rations. Not because you lose food, but because you lose something that help you survive in the wild. For me that's what the outdoor ressource is about. It's my equivalent of torchlight in the dungeon for the outdoor. 

Rations are consumed when the players take rest and sleep. If this is not done, they are fatigued. I impose various ailment on them. One of them being that they can lose "Vitality" (homebrew rules that's basically a Grit/Flesh). Stacking fatigue can lead to death. 

THE RULES - TIMING

“Game time is of utmost importance. Failure to keep careful track of time expenditure by player characters will result in many anomalies in the game. The stricture of time is what makes recovery of hit points meaningful. Likewise, the time spent adventuring in wilderness areas removes concerned characters from their bases of operations – be they rented chambers or battlemented strongholds. Certainly the most important time strictures pertains to the manufacturing of magic items, for during the period of such activity no adventuring can be done. Time is also considered in gaining levels and learning new languages and more. All of these demands upon game time force choices upon player characters and likewise number their days of game life…YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.” - Dungeon Master’s Guide (page 37), Gary Gygax

I have a sheet that I stole elsewhere that is excellent and that I use where I keep track of everything. I'll come back to dungeon timing later. 

My outdoor rule is this:

• Resting is 8-12h, depending on who does guard (hirelings or players) and what they did during the day
• Hunting takes 1d6 hours (more to follow)
• Searching the hex takes the same time as traveling the hex
• Marching through the hex takes time

The time taken for every hex is different with a basic number of 6h for a normal terrain (such as an easy plain), as per this formulae:

• Road: -1h
• On a mount (depends on the number of people on horseback, the type of mount and the capacity of the mount to profit from the terrain or be hindered by it): -1h to -3h
• Forest: +1h
• Dense forest: +2h
• Hills: +1h
• Mountains: +3h
• Swamp: +3h
• Extreme temperature (cold or heat): +2h
• +1h per character with encumbrance level

THE RULES - KEYS AND DESCRIPTION

Every hex as a description box that I use for first time traveling in. Sometimes I have to adapt it, but it's not too difficult. I like having pre-written description so that I can give something quick to the player while I get to other stuff. Here is a general example of an hex:

"018.019 - Giant Wasp + Campsite

Description: Very dense forest with trees bigger than nature with juicy fruits. The whole hex is a big valley. At any given moment, an observator can see through a clearning that deep down in the valley there seems to be a glade with a campsite and a wooden observation tower. There is a wooden cabin in the north of the hex, atop a small hill. A trail goes from the north (cabin) to the campsite, and then branches off to the east, ouest and south. 

• North road: There is a roadside shrine to a local deity with the scene of a gruesome murder. A woman's body, dressed in blood-stained white robes, lies in the middle of the road as if dragged and dropped there. You see bloody steps heading away from the corpse towards the woods. 
• Notes: The trail becomes untrackable after some distance. In reality it leads to the primitives now residing in the Qantari temple of hex 019.018 (northeast).
• Cabin: Seems to have been abandonned for a while. Good construction. Perfect place to sleep. 
• Campsite (about in the middle): Abandonned for a while. The tower itself has become a huge nest for Giant Wasps that takes their nutriments from the giant fruits of the valley. There is always 3d6 with 1/6 chance of having 6d6. They hate fire. 
• In the camp, players can find old stuff totaling 1d6 rations, 2 random starting kit and 34GP stashed behind the bed of the watcher of the tower. "

With this, I also have information on the type of terrain and where the keys are. From there, I can link the visual map, the keys, the description I gave and the player's intent to patch the rest. I prefer not to waste the players time, and so I don't make them travel forever and ever to tell them there is nothing. It will be wasting their character time anyway, and since this one is precious (12-miles hex takes its toll), I don't have to waste our personal time since it's only 3-4 hour for game night. 

THE RULES - RANDOM ENCOUNTER

Every single hex has an encounter table. The reason I did this was twofold. First it gives me the chance of having specific encounter for the hex if need be when I copy paste it. The other is that I only have to look at my general printed documents with all the charts and my hex notes to be able to play. 

I roll every time they enter an hex, get to sleep, leave the hex. If they fiddle around the hex for copious amount of time, I might roll again too, depending on where they are and what they do (deep in the forest without a fire vs in the open field yelling). If they are not careful when/where they sleep, I will roll for each guard shift (every 2-3 hours). Here is an example of my random encounter from another hex in a swamp area:

"TABLE 1d6 (1 = encounter, 2-3 = omen)

• 1 - 5: Zombie (common regional creature)
• 6 - 9: Skeles (low hd regional creature)
• 10 - 11: Troll (high hd regional creature)
• 12 - 13: Skeles (creatures linked with the hex or with an important adjacent hex)
• 14 - 15: Bandits (local or regional NPC)
• 16: Primitif (ambush)
• 17: Wyvern (rare monster/NPC)
• 18: Special encounter
• 19: Recurring NPC
• 20: Dragon"

I follow the block stats from the AD&D monster manual. 

Special encounter is divided between fire stuff (heatwave, firestorm, forest fire, etc.), water stuff (drought, flood, etc.), earth stuff (landslide, sinkhole, etc.), magical stuff, psionic stuff and other stuff. Suit it to your campaign needs. 

Recurring NPC is according to whatever NPC they have been dealing with recently or that I know act within the region at the moment. Generally those are "friendly" NPC, whereas they #14-15 are local/regional, therefore generally less friendly. 

I have dragons because I remember reading a blogpost somewhere about putting more Dragons in Dungeons and Dragons. I agree with that sentiment. 

Omen are queues to your players about the kind of creatures that exist there. If I roll twice on omen, the second time I automatically have an encounter of whatever omen they had last time. This creates tension and foreknowledge. They are: tracks, sights, sounds, body parts, victims, smells and vapors, environment damage, intentional markings, lair (roll %), housings. For NPC, if they are friendly, I'll just have them see each other to the advantage of the players. Again I don't want to waste my time having players chasing friendly NPC in the forest, even if it would sometimes be worthwhile and fun. Again, context. 

I have a table for both what the monsters are doing, and what the players are doing when the encounter takes place. I also have one for the intention of the monster, to be used in conjunction with the usual reaction roll (if available to the monster). 

THE RULES - HUNTING AND FORAGING

If they want to forage special plants and such (and I roll them sometimes in advance to put in hex in specific/interesting places for landmark/natural features reasons, more to follow), I have a 2d6 table for every region (forest, swamp, mountain, etc.) with special/magical herbs they can gather.

For hunting and ration gathering, I roll 1d6. If they have a solid plan, a ranger-type, tools of the trade, etc. I give them +2. If whatever they do make sense, only +1. If the terrain is a perfect hunting ground (such as a protected forest with low threat), I roll 2d6 and take the best result. Then I use this table:

• 1: Whoever is hunting lose a ration trying to hunt
• 2: Don't find anything + random encounter
• 3 - 4: Find one ration for every party member, but random encounter
• 5: Find one ration for every party member
• 6: Find two rations for every party member

HEX CREATION

I will not go too much in details, but it's useful for now to at least give a basic of what I put in an hex. I will go bullet point for simplicity:

• Type (region, flora, fauna)
• Natural feature (including any special herbs, but also elevation, water, passage/trail, etc.)
• Landmark (they don't all have one since sometimes, natural features will take the role of a kind-of-landmark): this ranges from towers to ruins to castles to landslide to huge tree in the middle of the road, etc. It helps players to set boundaries and guide themself. It also helps to give some lift and context. 
• Encounters (not all of them have one): this is handcrafted

I have tables to generate these, which I mix with my own ideas and whatever suit the hex/region/action of monsters/groups. All this together will help me generate my description and my hex keys. Because I have an hexcrawl and I have a hexmap for my players, it takes away the fun of the players to put down where they saw whatever they saw. But it's a price I'm willing to pay for clarity and simplicity of play since they know that the "burnt tower" is in "hex ...". 

CONCLUSION - AN EXAMPLE

To sum up. My players are in an hex. They decide to go south. I tell them whatever they see leaving the hex and entering the new one (terrain is changing) with my description block. I roll for random encounter. It happens or not. Then they end up north of the hex. If there is nothing there, I will lead them to the center of the hex and narrate whatever is happening there. In any cases, I will then tell them what is the current status of what they see and saw, and ask them what they want to do with it. They pick a decision and the keep with it. If they were following a road/river/something, it doesn't change except that I use this as a general reminder for myself when describing and verifying what they encounter. At any given time, I tell them about how much they walked in miles, and about how much time it took.

For example:

"You leave the road and decide to go south. The first thing you encounter is a steep forest hill. On the other side, things change fast. You have before you a very dense forest with trees bigger than nature with big juicy fruits of every kind. Before you is a huge valley for about 10-12 miles. At any given moment, an observator can see through a clearning that deep down in the valley there seems to be a glade with a campsite and a wooden observation tower. You (speaking to any player with better eyes, such as a ranger/elf type) see further west, there seems to be a trail goes from the north to the campsite, and then branches off to the east, ouest and south. What do you do ?

(head for campsite)

It would take multiple hours as you estimate about 5-6 miles to get there. Do you still want to proceed ?

(yes, DM roll for random encounter)

You walk in the forest for about 6h and as you reach near the campsite you see... etc."

That's more or less how I do it. My description, hex keys, etc. are all tools for me. Sometimes I switch them on the spot, or I don't use them because I see that it would cause a problem that I created myself (such as if I described something wrong beforehand). My goal is (perceived) smoothness in all cases.

Something I try to do is that I never give useless description. My description will try to either aim for:

• Describing change of weather
• Describing change of flora/fauna, at least to give hints regarding hunting/foraging
• Describing new elements
• Describing omens
• Describing hints regarding distance traveled or time of the day
• etc.

If whatever I am describing cannot help the players to make a new, or a better, decision, then it's useless to me and to them. If I feel I'm going that way, then I will at least roll for special flora/fauna to give them some stuff to gather/hunt/eat, to write down for future reference, etc. That's also why random encounter are useful, you don't have to use them NOW. You can keep them for later in the hex when it's more fitting for them to see whatever they are now bound to see.

Is this the perfect way ? I don't know. But it works for me and it seems to be aligned with what I read in the books, so it's good enough.