The hidden stage of prepping a hexcrawl
Into the wilderlands of high fantasy, creatures!
I don’t think people talk enough about how the of a hexcrawl comes from the freedom to explore a realistic, responsive, fleshed out world.
I’ve been prepping a hexcrawl (well, two) for almost half a year now, on and off. One for my Icewind Dale Sequel game (which may never happen) and one much younger game, set in my world.
My first pass of the map was shit, not enough stocked, the no roads to follow, no thought given to towns or their placement. It was my first go! And it sucked.
I realised this about 3 sessions into the game. It felt “hollow.” Like nothing meaningful was happening session to session. Like we explored 5 hexes today… Cool?
I think the reason is because the setting was not cohesive, and so actions in the game world were limited in scope. I have plenty of hexes stocked with strange monsters and odd things, but I didn’t know much about the people that live here. What they think of the surrounding wilds, of distant cities. How they live and move and work.
The world did not feel lived in, at least not to me, and the game was falling flat.
I redesigned the map, and I have a more conscious idea of what my setting is supposed to feel like, which helps me get into the head of the people who live here, which helps contextualize these events. Even if the moment to moment gameplay is the same, it feels more real to me, and that gives the game meaning. More meaning than a critical role style plot, which is what I almost turned to. You have Wolves upon the Coast to thank for that.
I thought the focus was on wild and weird hexes, dungeons with tricky monsters, hills with talking statues, pools with talking squids. That stuff is cool, but real consideration needs to be given to the culture and history of settlements and settlers. Who lives here, what do they believe.
And not just the main population, but monsters too. How do they feel about each other? What do they eat? What do they do each day? I think Luke Gearings idea of limiting your monsters is designed to tease out those ideas. Make you really think about the monsters.
I came to this conclusion somewhat on my own. I think it’s implicit in a lot of hexcrawl advice, but I think it deserves to be expressed more clearly. I think all D&D games can benefit from understanding the human experience, especially a sandbox. I’m starting to see the real magic I assume they had back in the day.