OSR/Hexcrawl

Hey Veeky Forums, I've been gaming for a while now, and have always wanted to run a true blue old school hex-crawl game, where the narrative is more shaped by player action than anything else (or however its supposed to work). But I've no idea how really, how does one run a proper old school game? How does one manage a hex crawl? Is there still a plot?

Other urls found in this thread:

discord.gg/HzcQM
batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html
carjackedseraphim.blogspot.com/search/label/summer2013?m=0
github.com/lifelike/hexmapextension
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Hello! I've run games like this in the past. I'm starting one up right now, via Discord. You are free to join us if you would like an example of how it can be done. discord.gg/HzcQM

Anyway, the easiest way to do it would be to use an existing hex map like Carcosa (like I'm using) or Quelong (I hear that's supposed to be much better, but I don't own it yet.)

Basically, you have a hex-map with adventuring locations in each hex, and random encounters. Each of these is a potential plot seed.
Some of these should reference locations and events in other hexes to help build cohesion and create the illusion of a living world.

Don't worry so much about crafting a formalistic plot. Just let it emerge naturally.

Use resource management to keep players moving. Remember that time is a resource, too.

I agree with but also ask on /osrg/.

Here's a (very in depth) guide.
batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html

Remember that players don't necessarily have to interact with the hex system at all--it's just an organizational tool. In fact it can be fun to have them draw their own map (and deal with the consequences if they get lost or take poor notes).

As a sandbox, the plot tends to kind of grow and emerge organically as you go. I prefer to seed mine with three or four NPC interests pursuing their own agendas that I update every once in a while as game-time passes, and sketch out a rough "what happens if the PCs do nothing" timeline that includes major events they would likely find out about or notice. If they go down site rabbit hole and ignore Serious Threats A, B, and C, they'll emerge from an adventure site one day to find refugees, plagues, and other mid-calamity calls-to-adventure pointing them somewhere hopefully interesting.

Mostly I find that hexcrawls are too much work to do thoroughly. You end up with lots of material the party never sees.

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Isn't that a good place to start then? How to get away with the absolutely barest amount of prep work for adventuring in a very big location?

These are important for a good OSR sandbox hexcrawl:
Reaction rolls
Morale
Random encounters
XP for gold (mostly); minimal XP for combat
No skill system
Encumberance matters
Time tracking is important
Rulings; not rules
Combat as war; not combat as sport
Emergent story; not pre-planned story
Plot hooks; not plots
DM is a referee; not a storyteller
Player skill; not character skill

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Here's an example of a hexcrawl for newbies.

Besides making a hex map try to populate some "big" spots as well dungeons citys/towns whatever.

I find it easier to do "new frontier" games where the players are right on the edge of civilization exploring, mapping the land, clearing out ruins for pay.

carjackedseraphim.blogspot.com/search/label/summer2013?m=0

>You end up with lots of material the party never sees.
This is where random encounters, one page dungeons, and so forth come in handy.

I also think it's not unfair to ask players to announce their plans for the next session at the end of the night, so you can prepare adequately.

Then you just need a sentence or two to describe major features the players discover/hear about, instead of an involved breakdown of maps, NPCs, etc.

If the players decide to pursue the bandits who waylaid them back to their lair... well, that map you had handy for a secret cult compound ought to do for the bandit hideout.

I want to run a sci-fi hexcrawl, any suggestions?

Traveler!

Or, and maybe straying away a touch, railroad them into being stuck in 'somewhere' - spore outbreak traps them in town, rock fall closes the cave, lost their door keys, etc

+1

This. Traveller is the king of the old-school sci fi games. When I was a kid in the early 80s it was all D&D, Traveller, or Runequest, in that order.
There's a general thread up. If you want something a little more D&Dish, Stars Without Number is pretty good. It's best parts are the faction tools, though.

> implying anyone wants to listen to some 40 year old grog fuck on Skype rolling dice to determine what is in his imaginary shitland he is randomly generating hex by hex as the PCs move slowly around
> implying anyone wants to use the gargantuan mess that is OSR systems these days, because they are designed by cucks who can't stand to slaughter the sacred cows of AD&D
> implying D&D is not outdated entirely and lingers on through name recognition and acclimation rather than actual quality
> implying anyone in this thread is under the age of 45

AD&D is over. D&D 3.5 is over. Get over it, and move on to a new system.

>implying OSR is all about AD&D and rules bloat

Here's your (You), you cunning ruseman.

>implying OSR is all about AD&D and rules bloat

Well, enlighten me then. What else is there?

Stop shilling Traveller. Traveller is really a terrible system, even the Mongoose edition. It uses the same garbage "stat score and stat bonus" pairing that is unnecessary, it uses stat + skill in a 2d6 system which games like Apocalypse World and Dungeon World have already basically proven as the wrong way to do things, the chargen is confusing and you don't get any traits / feats to optimize your character, the combat system is complex as fuck, as well as the range system (Near, Distant, Very Far, etc. type shit for ranges, a bunch of meaningless adjectives that is even more complicated than range increments or a range table would be), the skill system is kinda shitty and overall there are just much better systems out there. Also rolling for stats, which is pretty much objectively bad and is only used in games like D&D (which still use shit like Alignment so that should say something about how good they are).

>This is where random encounters, one page dungeons, and so forth come in handy.
I'm all for random encounters and concisely-written locations, but I don't want to produce a "quantum ogre" situation where my players just have an illusion of choice.

To try and limit the location-bloat, I try to crib notes from previous campaigns. A lot. So that gnomish death cult Party 1 never ran into is available for Party 2 to run into.

Also I try to detail out a couple of proper adventure sites that I know I'm about to drop hooks for. Once I know where they are in relation to the player's current location, I re-evaluate what's located along a couple of likely routes, and flesh them out a bit if I think they're too sketchy. Most of the hexes on my current map are just terrain types until I think I'm within a session or two of actually using them.

>make hexcrawl
>realize I just plotted out a JRPG's overworld complete with random encounters

I wonder how long I can go before one of my players notices the monsters I'm using came out of a video game.

All that stuff came from TTRPGs (or the same sources as TTRPGs) anyway, so no problem.

>I'm all for random encounters and concisely-written locations, but I don't want to produce a "quantum ogre" situation where my players just have an illusion of choice.

That's why you keep a bunch of those 1 page dungeons and things, and when the players hit an area that hasn't been mapped, you rifle through and pick out something suitable for the region. Sort 'em beforehand by the kind of hex they should go in, and you're good. Once you've placed it, that's where it is from now on.

I'll bite.

> implying anyone wants to listen to some 40 year old grog
What does age have to do with it?

>rolling dice to determine what is in his imaginary shitland he is randomly generating hex by hex as the PCs move slowly around
That's not how a hexcrawl works. The ENTIRE POINT of a hexcrawl is that you need to have the hexes ready BEFORE you start.

> implying anyone wants to use the gargantuan mess that is OSR systems these days
OSR systems, are on average, vastly more ruleslight than more modern fantasy adventure games. Compare a Labyrinth Lord character sheet with a Pathfinder sheet as an example.

> implying D&D is not outdated entirely
RPGs don't have an expiration date.

>Stop shilling Traveller. Traveller is really a terrible system, even the Mongoose edition. It uses the same garbage "stat score and stat bonus" pairing that is unnecessary, it uses stat + skill in a 2d6 system which games like Apocalypse World and Dungeon World have already basically proven as the wrong way to do things

It was PROVEN to be wrong.
Well shit sherlock, I guess if someone managed to produce mathematical proof that rolling 2d6 is inherently wrong then there's nothing we can do about it! I'd really love to read that paper, though.


Now, back to OP.
>But I've no idea how really, how does one run a proper old school game? How does one manage a hex crawl? Is there still a plot?

I'd say that, if you want to run a really "free" hexcrawl, you have to give up the idea that there is a plot.

It can be hard if you're used to see RPG campaigns in the sense of an overarching narrative, in the "cinematic" way so to speak, with the PCs as the Main Protagonists of the Story.

Now, I'm not saying that that outlook is wrong. It's not. But it's GENERALLY hard to make it compatible with hexcrawls.

(continues)

>Well, enlighten me then. What else is there?
Most of OSR is actually based on OD&D or B/X, often with changes made to streamline the system (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, for example, has a much easier-to-handle encumbrance system). As far as rolling dice to determine what's in the next hex, if you do roll dice instead of deciding on your own, it's generally done between sessions. I have never even played a game based on AD&D.

Also, in what sense is D&D outdated? What system actually handles "you're a bunch of crazy assholes willing to climb into a hole full of monsters and steal their shit to avoid making an honest living, and maybe because you get some kind of sick thrill out of it" better than D&D?

I'm not even 30.

So, you need to embrace the idea that the PCs are not INHERENTLY special. They are special for the things they do. Because they're the only ones brave enough to venture in the wildlands? Because they're the only ones with high enough levels to have a chance? Because they're more motivated? Luckier? They have their backs to the wall and have no choice? Because they're in the wrong place at the right time? But not because they're the "main characters" or the "heroes of the story".

There is no plot. There is no dramatic necessity, there is no expectation that the story will follow an easily recognizable narrative structure. Throw out your Graph of Narrative Tension out of the window together with your copy of The Hero With A Thousand Faces or what have you.

The PCs explore a predetermined world. They have complete freedom in doing so, within the boundaries of the fictional setting you established.

If you've decided that Hex 2011 has a fucking dragon, and the PCs immediately explore Hex 2011, you let them do just that. You don't fudge the decision and change what it contains because it would be dramatically inappropriate for the PCs to immediately encounter a dragon at the start of their adventure. Hex 2011 has a dragon, and they get a dragon.

Stop seeing yourself as a storyteller, and start seeing yourself as a referee. You mediate between the PCs and the game world, neither helping them, nor hindering them, nor trying to pilot them towards what you perceive as a "dramatically interesting" story.

Because in a hexcrawl the story is literally "the things that happen". Just let them happen, and embrace them the way they happen, without trying to get a fantasy novel out of it. Let the "story" emerge from the PC's actions, without your active interference.

If you want an excellent example of a hexcrawl, X1 Isle of Dread is pretty much the archetypal wilderness adventure.

I've always wanted to run a hexcrawl based on two or three different "features".

1. A unique setting to explore that's still within "comfort", in other words, make a world and don't worry about trying to avoid tropes. Try and think of a few good ideas for a general setting and build around those.

It's weeaboo as fuck, but recently I've wanted to build a setting with a large number of legendary/artifact swords/weapons/etc, two of which are hinted at in creation myth and implied to be the ancestors of all other weapons. This, plus some other elements- such as mana not being something innate, but rather an otherworldly force very difficult to use outside of enchanting and similar schools.

2. "Living world" simplified:
Between each setting, make the world live and breathe. Even very small things, like traders that move semi-randomly through the map, can enhance the experience. If there are big players, they should be doing things. You can go deep here- track the progress of wars, camps of soldiers clashing, supply lines, the shift of power, winners and losers, kingdoms being sacked- even if it all happens in the background, you'll have a story (that can be set up all over again later, too.) The PCs may not ever be able to sway the tide of war, but they'll see it happen, and interacting with it is possible. Treat the world a bit like Dwarf Fortress history- you don't have to sim everything, but major events aren't locked to a single hex permanently in stasis until interacted with, either.

3. Offer timeskips, character retirement, and story options. Once big things happen, give the players a chance to try new roles, letting the old ones meld into the setting.

What programs/utilities/files do people use to make these hexmaps, and where can I get them? Free would be preferrable, as I'm not willing to shill out cash for anything at the moment.

Get Inkscape, add
github.com/lifelike/hexmapextension

And go nuts generating transparent hexmaps you can overlay on an image of your choice.

Thanks muchly, user. In exchange, I'll talk more at length about my shitty setting ideas.

Tied to the swords-thing, but let's focus more on mana and enchantments. Turns out, certain minerals- usually anything with a regular crystalline structure, though exceptions exist- can "trap" the otherworldly essence of mana. Spellcasters require a focus with large and extremely pure crystal minerals if they plan on casting anything greater than a magic missile, and high-level spells require years of research and magical theory on top of high resource costs.

Ultimately, one of the biggest things in the setting is the use of sub-caster quality stones in the art of weapon-crafting, enchantment, and smithing applications. The finest weapons are shrouded in mysticism, quality weapons are worked in ways unique to each smith, and even common weapons may carry a slight touch of magic. There are many methods of adding a magic touch to weapons and armor before, during, and after their creation, and this feeds heavily into the "legendary weapons" mythos.

Swords vary the absolute most- it is said that the two weapons of creation myth are both swords, and that a sword is the "purest" weapon. This does not mean that one cannot find legendary-quality spears, polearms, daggers, claws, maces, etc, however- it's simply a facet of the myth, mysticism, and statistics of the "legendary" weapons out in the wild.

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