Point Crawl vs Hex crawl in D&D
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this video I discuss why we might use a Hex Crawl vs Point Crawl in our dnd Games
You can find the Adventures I mention in the video at these links.
Slumbering Ursine Dunes
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Wormskin Issue 1
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Wormskin Issue 2
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Chainmail PDF
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Basic Set PDF (BX)
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Expert Set PDF (BX)
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
OSE Tome PDF
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
Check out my other channel BANDIT'S KEEP ACTUAL PLAY:
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My podcast can be found here: anchor.fm/daniel-norton
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Exploration is THE THING missing from 5e. Rangers and druids have their abilities totally shat on because of a lack of processes like these not being discussed in the dmg
Totally - BTW I sent you an email - perhaps it went to junk? I’ll send another
Right on. I am an avid ranger fan, and by association, a fan of travel, time elapsed, exploration, and all things "in between the stuff". Ranger are complained about when a table doesn't use the ENTIRE PART OF THE GAME that they excel at.
@@BanditsKeep yeah I didn't get it and don't see it in spam 🤔
Just tried again! I probably messed up the address
@@johnandrewbellner Indeed!
From what I've heard, "Point Crawl" sounds more like how navigation was for most people in medieval Europe. You stuck to the paths and stayed out of the woods. More by landmarks than distance and compass heading.
Good observation
@@BanditsKeep Thank you! Great video.
You would usually keep to the natural lines in the landscape too. You could follow the edge of the forest, the river, edge of the mountain, etc. I use natural lines like this in my pointcrawl maps
I love the hexcrawl for an exploration game. I like the pointcrawl because it better resembles how people actually travel. The pointcrawl conjures the LotR scene where they have to pick which path to take. Sometimes I'll put a finite hexcrawl on the map as a point in the pointcrawl. You pointcrawl to the Yawning Woods, then you hexcrawl the forest to find "the lost temple."
Nice!
Watching this video I was almost inspired to do the opposite! Have the overworld as a hexcrawl and if the party decides to stop for a moment and explore the hex, then elaborate the hex as a Pointcrawl where they can find hunting or foraging opportunities, maybe a dungeon entrance if I have it prepared, or even a secret other entrance to a dungeon (and different dungeon exits link to different points within the hex)
Based on the terrain, they can skip the direct links in the Pointcrawl but maybe at a cost of more time or resources. His example of dunes could easily be swamp too deep to wade in, or briar thicket slowing down travel
Hex crawls sound fun. I've been on an "old school" D&D binge of late and I feel like there's so many gems in it.
For sure
It's so cool to me that the older version just recommended incorporating a different game, right there in the text of the book. You can get a lot of great stuff like that. I've want for a while now to pay a game of Small World and use it as the basis for a region's history, then play DnD in that region. I especially enjoy games these days like, "Call to Adventure," that have built in mechanics to add stuff to your RPG.
Yes! I’ve been thinking about make a video on just this subject - I’ve had loads of fun incorporating other games into an ongoing campaign
D&D was originally just a supplement for Chainmail. It makes sense they’d accept other games were enough to plug and play. I like it that way.
It’s one of the problems with the depth of ad&d. You can’t plug and play very easily.
Hex crawl: star trek
Point crawl: starwars
In more ways than one actually. Their narrative structures are like that, but also their faster than light travel is such too.
Kind of nifty.
Indeed
I've been using both in the system I've been building with fairly good results, and for most of the reasons you covered here. Whenever they are going out in the borderlands, explicitly exploring the unknown, or any limited/rarely traveled trails, its a hex crawl. Once they've established a trail or known path, its a point crawl. This keeps the sense of adventure and danger alive when going into the unknown, but once they've figured out a solid path to an exploration site or wherever, it removes a lot of the tedium.
Makes sense
i have been planning on making a campaign with hex crawl but knowing my players they would get sick of it quickly, but i think your idea with combining the two gives a great opportunity and balance for exploration and convenience. it could even give them opportunities to try explore new paths to cut travel time, Thank you!
I find that for West Marches campaigns mixing point crawls and hex crawls works best. The campaign map is first laid out in a hex grid, then roads/paths between locations are added to accommodate point crawls. The party is always free to go exploring hex by hex, but the risk of getting lost and running into random encounters makes it a bit risky.
That makes sense!
Hey Daniel, this comment is not about this video. I just wanted to tell you that I really like your calm style of making an argumenten. That's what makes me coming back to this channel.
Thank You! (Glad I took out the parts with me screaming at the camera 😂)
You’ve inspired me to try old school ttrpgs to rekindle my love of these games. Can’t wait to GM again!
Awesome!
My educational background is in GIS, so I like making topo maps of my settings and just toss in a few locations that I know about ahead of time (usually a starting town and a couple of dungeon entrances). The party will just tell me what direction they’re traveling in and for how long, and I roll for encounters and getting lost and all of that at that point. No hexes necessary really in that system, and it ends up being similar to a point crawl by the end once they’ve discovered a bunch of stuff.
Cool
Great video as always, Daniel! Another good reference for pointcrawls would be the map for the Fighting Fantasy adventure "Scorpion Swamp" published in 1984.
Cool, I’ll check it out
Arn't point crawls just locations?? Don't get the fuss about "crawls".
@@BanjoSick It's just a way of organizing travel and exploration. Think of the difference between a hexcrawl and a pointcrawl. Within a hex you can have an area with no clear paths, or empty space. Within the structure of a pointcrawl, everything is a point of interest in a node map, connected by often literal paths. In a hexcrawl, you can choose whatever route you like to get from A-Z. Within a pointcrawl, you have a fixed number of choices in a certain order to get to a certain location on the map.
Another interesting video.
Thank You!
I’ve always preferred hex maps because they are more exotic and seem organic in many ways. To mix hex crawl with point crawl, I usually have portents or impact of the location in that hex. If the party is downwind then they may smell smoke or a stench, or the environment is different from other locations with the same type of terrain. Possibly, the party may see warnings carved in a tree, marks, or even a hunter who warns the party. A cabin in the woods, cottage in the glade, tower in the crags, etc. Each may have extended effects.
Great explanation, esp the bit about pointcrawl being like an outside dungeon - thank you!
Thank You!
I've always thought of hex crawls as the way to do wilderness, having only heard of point crawls within the last year. I have to admit I completely misunderstood what a point crawl was, interpreting it as just jumping to any desired location as might be done in a town. Generally I use hexes of 1, 6, or 24 miles with paths and roads in more civilized areas layered over-top (providing faster movement and avoiding getting lost); basically what I remember from the expert set.
Nice, yeah I think point crawls are not discussed much so I can see possible confusion
I managed a point crawl in my prior campaign with out understanding what I was doing, I have an underground region.
@@seanrea550 nice!
@@seanrea550 I think the module "The Hall of Rock" may have been a simple point crawl, but the version included in the "In Search of Adventure" anthology left out all but one path (turning it into more of a railroad). I don't think people called it that back them, though, or at least I never saw it in print.
@@BlackJar72 I was coming up with the campaign as I ran it,
Thank you for this video!
As a new DM there is SO much assumed knowledge in other videos (even “How to” videos) which is never explained.
Right! Sometimes we forget terms in TTRPGs are not common etc. thanks
I use a combination of both. My campaign map is a hex crawl style. but there are adventure locations are pointed out depending on what story threads the party has pulled. I count each hex as a days travel on foot as a general rule, could be less or more depending on method of travel and the biome. Each day spent traveling requires 10 Supplies (Rations, Water etc.), each PC can carry 20 supplies without becoming encumbered. A pack animal or the like can carry 60 supplies. I find this focus's their traveling and exploration outside of any town or village, as running out of supplies will cause escalating levels of exhaustion. If a Ranger is in the party, or someone has the Wanderer background they can offset the supply cost a bit with successful survival checks as they travel.
As far as random encounters and such, I have the party roll a 1D6 for each day of travel, 1 is always a complication, either an encounter or bad weather, etc. 2-5 will be a point of interest or a story moment relating to the PC who rolled the D6 that day. A 6 is always a Boon of some sort, a traveling merchant, an oasis, or they stumble upon a supply cache. This makes the in between of adventure locations fun and interesting, as well as keeps the party focused on their destinations without too many random decisions which makes for excessive improv on my part. Also it makes Towns and Villages feel like a true place of refuge and relative safety.
Preping for this style of play is very light. So long as the party has a plan and location in mind I can ensure I have that locations content ready, and making a 1D6 table for each player allows me to weave in story beats and RP moments much more organically. It also limits how many random encounters i need to have ready, 1 or 2 is always enough, even if they roll poorly and there are many 1's on the luck checks, its easy to narrate a big storm, or a complication with their method of travel. Allowing the players to think / use their skills to solve these problems seems to be just as satisfying to them as slaying the Orc ambush, that laid in wait for them until nightfall.
I Run a 5e game, but I am starting to see, after watching many of your videos, that I use a lot of Old school DnD methods at my table. The best of both worlds perhaps. At least from my POV. :)
Nice video. Thanks for creating and sharing.
Thanks for watching
I didn’t even know about point-crawl before you talked about it, but admittedly I was already kinda comin’ up with it for my metroidvania-style big-ol’-dungeons I got planned.
Speakin’ of, this video was perfect for helpin’ me plan em’. Thanks!
Awesome
Like your vibe man! Thanks for this video, I’ve been getting into the old school stuff lately and I wasn’t familiar with these terms-really useful design paradigms!
Thanks 😊
I've used a combination of both over the years. Some games are very explicitly set up for hexcrawls like Worlds Without Number or Forbidden Lands. Other times, when I'm running big epic campaign, I prefer the point crawl to focus the players on the story and the specific location-based adventures rather than free-form exploration. Like you said, both have their uses and both make for different-feeling games. Personally I prefer point crawls just a little bit more because they are easier to prepare for, but every now and again I like running a hexcrawl too.
Cool
You make some great points here (pun not intended). I haven't actually tried laying out a point crawl but I really like the idea of it. I think I am also really attracted to the option of wandering anywhere like how the hex systems are designed in Hot Spring Island. I just feel like most hex generators are a bit burdensome to use.
I think it’s important to do some prep ahead of time - making a few dozen hexes - that way you are covered for several sessions
Good video and conversation! I agree both have their uses. Looking a bit more forward to my next hexcrawl campaign more than the point crawl one. But a mixture is golden.
I agree, a mixture is my preference
Just ran into your channel. Love this idea. Thanks for sharing.
Thank You!
A friend of mine shared this video after chatting about the topic. It's interesting, Forbidden Lands from Free League seems to strike a happy median between point and hex.
Cool, that still sits unopened on my shelf
I was JUST talking about point crawls vs hex crawls in Discord this morning, then this is at the top left of the start page. Expeditious!
Excellent
very informative, thanks!
Thank You!
I wrote a Python program that creates randomized ‘encounter networks’ (point crawls) for Star Wars-themed RPG play. I use the generated graphs in Obsidian. I made a small adventure where the party has to commandeer an Imperial hyperspace interdictor cruiser and it’s pretty fun.
Awesome
I do both. I use point when traveling on the beaten path and hex crawl exploration when I'm feeling adventurous.
Same
Just added a hexcrawl for my players who wanted to go exploring. Been super fun for all of us so far. I used a combo of D100 and Forbidden lands to make it as the game had no mechanic for travel or exploration. Great video and advice. Thanks for posting.
Nice!
Been toying around with the idea of “flex crawling”. I’m sure it’s not totally revolutionary. But making a hex map and placing a point crawl over top of it for known routes. Having it be relatively branching and “jaquayed”. But you could always leave the beaten path and hex crawl at any point. Thinking there could be unexplored routes as sort of sub-points on the lines between major points. You could then branch off and hex crawl to add new connections on the point crawl layer, sort of like shortcuts and things. Maybe ranger type characters would be necessary to identify these points, or a hired NPC ranger henchman. Or just hearing some lore.
Some points might be a dungeon that must be navigated to continue on that route, or you could hex crawl through the wilderness for days. A point could also be a nested “wilderness dungeon” like you mentioned.
Really into the idea of “world as dungeon” lately. Just keeping that flow going all time…
Something I’m going to be implementing in my next game. Running B/X raw for the first time.
Very cool
Very cool video, I like no both hex crawls and point crawls, although I tend to stick with hexes since I find them less labour intensive in the initial setup phase for my online games. That said, ive just got a supplement which is about using a deck of playing cards to create a point crawl so I'll definitely be looking to try that out soon 🙂👍
That sounds really interesting! Using cards for prep is a great idea
One of the simplest and direct explanations of what a point crawl is.
In my Herous Journey 2e campaign I was looking at some necessary wilderness travel/exploration and despite the romanticism of hexcrawls in the OSR, I knew it wasn’t a good fit. At the same time, I knew it needed impactful choices that would foreshadow the elements of the world to come. So I went with a closed matrix point crawl.
Cool, I need to bust out that system again, good stuff
Ancient Odysseys:Treasure Awaits by Precis Intermedia uses a pointcrawl system in book one to generate random dungeons and reskins it in book two (More Treasure) for generating wilderness maps. Using pointcrawl fits random generation very well. I've used it for years, but only heard the term recently. Good vid, thanks.
Cool
Great video. I feel like hexes have become an OSR trope, and you see them used even when they're not really appropriate. I think it's good to break out of that mold.
Hexes work best for large areas where the terrain has few unique features and can be adequately represented by abstraction. Forests, grasslands, hills - these terrain types are generic and repeatable. A big empty world with occasional special sites works well with the wilderness exploration game type (think of the Fellowship travelling across Middle Earth).
Hot Spring Island, Evils of Illmire, Neverland*, and other settings use hexes, but they're all filled in and special. Leave one unique hex and you're immediately in another. In these cases a point crawl makes more sense. You're never really out in the open wild, and exploration is much more focused. It might just be my particular GMing style, but I find the hex crawl mechanics artificial in these cases.
If you're interested in point crawls, Electric Bastionland has a great guide for making them. Focus on routes first, whether it's a river, road, or some exotic form of travel. Then once you have the routes settled, you sprinkle points along them, especially at intersections and such. It gives you a quick skeleton of a point crawl, and it helps keep everything internally logical and consistent.
*Not ripping on these - they're all awesome. I just think they're point crawls that have been shoehorned into hexes.
Oh yes! I totally forgot about Electric Bastionland what’s great book - into the Odd was one of my first super light RPGS
Great video as always! If you’re taking topic requests I’d love to see one on downtime and procedures for things that can occur on that like rumor gathering and carousing. Do you use tables, is it mainly RP? I know you have mentioned in the past that you’re a fan of mini games, do you just zoom out and tell players when entering a town that they can roll on the rumor chart x number of times?
I tend to have tables for down time rumors (and zoom out) and have RP rumors during adventures - ideally (if I’m on track) any one session of my open world campaign could lead the party in several directions do to interaction with NPCs
@@BanditsKeep thank you so much for this. You've been an absolute godsend for me learning B/X
If our latest campaign they literally are on rails for the point crawl portions of the map since they have a train. The first maps they are working this is a combo Hex and point. The points are where the rails are and the hex for traveling on foot. They have reasons to get off the train. The main one is they are hunting a giant monster. It’s lair is not on the rail, but the weapons they need to defeat are mounted on the rail. So they need to explore to find the monster, and then lure it back to the rail.
I love the idea of the PCs having a train - is this a fantasy, western, or modern game?
@@BanditsKeep A bit of a mix of all three. The setting is fantasy with magic and uses the excess magic radiating from the ethereal and astral plane as an alternative to electricity. So they have something close to 1920’s technology and aesthetics. But a little bit better because of magic. Guns are stunted to medieval era however.
The party’s adventures take them from a hub city where they load up and get jobs. Then travel out into an unexplored frontier with their tasks. Building connections to the frontier and back.
The players are having a lot of fun customizing their train even with stuff that has no mechanical value. Like a Triton player that just had sensory deprivation tank installed to sleep in. Also a tank of lobsters he liberated from the market.
Point crawls are also good for spaces that are difficult to map. I used one recently for the interior of a crashed ship, where most of the space was too damaged to access, and there was a lot of crawling through a maze of crawlspaces. Challenges/encounters in between points, some predetermined, some random, with the big spaces functioning as the points.
Yes! Great example
I use hex crawls for the "open world" but when a specific outdoor location needs to be explored within a hex or sub hex I like to use point crawls.
At the end of the day that is really just variation of rooms and corridors for a dungeon exploration.
They are also good for a treauremap where it is assumed that you want to follow the directions and might not see the landmarks using fast transport
Makes sense - a treasure map is a good example
I'm currently planning a point crawl campaign based around players owning a caravan and travelling to a far off location somewhat inspired after ultraviolet grasslands, because the idea of a long travelogue campaign sounded fun to me but I prefer predefined locations to random generation for my campaigns.
Cool, I backed UVG - gotta get that to the table at some point!
In the early '80s there was a Polyhedron-published module called the Great Bugbear Hunt, it was a fantastic hex crawl.
That sounds cool, was it a hunt for bugbears or did the PCs play bugbears?
@@BanditsKeep The bugbears had stolen the wizard's spell book. Then they disappeared into the wilderness which was a large hax map area, hilly and filled with valleys and groves where you encountered various and sundry critters. The goal was simply to get the spell book back.
I usually use a point crawl type setup myself, but I do want to try a hex crawl at some point.
~ Adam
Cool
This is easily the clearest explanation of the difference between the two methods. I was almost going to use hex crawl for my fast paced narrative story, when obviously point crawl was the best of all worlds
For sure, point crawl seems good for that
I have a lot to say on this having run both.
Ultimately I think point crawls make more sense when you abstract out a point of interest as not merely a hex or single interest point, but a set of hexes (or a region to then explore). It's described by the capstone element (the interest in the point of interest) but more exists! Example: PoI labeled: the manse of lord dunsamere. That isn't just the manor -- it's the hunting grounds, the boathouse on the lake, the family burial mounds, and more!
A point crawl campaign could easily be like the region to region point crawls. Imagine going from the area around salt marsh into the next point: fever swamp, or further inland is the tower of the silveraxe area (and adjacent to that region are the hills around B2). Transitions across these points of interest could easily be hexcrawls in these regions (or also point crawls within the regions). They're recursive like that. It comes down to preference and whether the journey or the destination is what's satisfying. My experience is mostly west marches games so, sadly, journeying gets more abstacted in favor of getting in that session's adventure "content" or whatever.
Nice breakdown
Hex crawl is good for wide swaths of "nobody knows what's going on here" (wilderness)
Point crawl is good for wide swaths of "everybody knows what's going on here" (civilization)
True
It makes a very interesting Post Apocalypse gaming world if you use the Outdoor Survival Map.
True - I’ve been using it in my OD&D campaign.
I recently pulled up a Point Crawl in an OSE campaign I'm GMing. The characters went to a forest that I had totally not prepared yet, so I came up with some nodes of localities I've already been thinking about. It wasn't as you described, a path already trodden, becase the players didn't have access to my map, so they were making decisions on where to go inside the forest, eventually reaching a road. Then it was a little bit more linear. Anyway, I tend to find very difficult to run a hexcrawl smoothly, and without turning it into a mindless roll-fest. So I think point crawls can be interesting to organize the space of your campaign if you happen to have the same difficulties as me, and being flexible to player ideas that might circumvent the pre-established route between nodes.
For sure, point crawls tend to have the advantage as far as organization goes IMO
Point Crawl = Guided Exploration. Hex Crawl = Free Exploration.
Indeed
I bought Outdoor Survival Years ago. it's a cool old school game... brutal though.
For sure!
My frustration with hex crawls is the lack of the overused ‘verisimilitude’. Wandering across the wilderness hoping to find something? C’mon.
There should be road networks between cities and towns and minor pathways. Urban developments depend on markets and farmlands. Why wouldn’t adventurers use the reliability and security afforded by roadways. Now certainly there are more remote, uncharted regions. Dicey thing wandering off the road. That’s where the side-quests come in based on rumors and plot hooks. But just aimlessly wandering around the wilderness like Lewis & Clark is bizarre even in a fantasy game.
I like the way you tie the point crawl to a narrative motivation, @Daniel. There’s got to be a good reason to take those kinds of risks. Random sandbox hex crawls? Ehhh not my thing. Thanks!
If you are running a frontier game there would be no roads.
Absolutely. Somewhere on the edge of “civilization”. Thx Daniel. 👍🏼
Technically, I use neither. Blank paper flows better for my area maps; no straight lines in nature and I find it creatively restricting. I don't use scale on the maps, that I show my players. They can plan, rough travel times, follow roads or go cross-country. They don't feel confined, until they breach into a dungeon. For those. I want the restrictions and confinements; so I use Graph paper.
Cool! How do they plan supplies for overland journeys?
@@BanditsKeep They may want to ask locals, about distance and keep around 5 days of dry stores (rations) on them. Hire a guide, (expert class) if they have no foraging or forestry skills. Oh for those that do, knowledge herbology. Leaves of 3, leave it be. Leaves of 4, eat some more.🤣
@@mathewstoker2131 do you find having no way to plan prevents people from risking exploration?
@@BanditsKeep Most of the games I'm running at the moment, have at least one off-road Explorer in the group (Ranger, Fringer, Gypsy, Guide). I plan from the settlements and have at least 2-3 local area quest options. Also the domain they are running around in; is around 150 by 150 miles, a single county with settlements dotted around a handful of days apart at most. Roads are patrolled and fairly well travelled. All of the characters were raised within the area and are at least, roughly familiar with the geography. They are fairly confident about going out bush.
@@mathewstoker2131 cool
Point crawls make the most sense for cities.
True
Do you recall what podcast you were listening to? Don’t have many RPG podcasts in my feed!
Oh boy, not sure - but I mostly listen to 3. Down in a Heap, The Nerd’s RPG Variety Cast and Clerics Wear Ringmail.
I figured I could help feed the engagement algorithm with a comment and suggest you have the strengths of Hexcrawl and Pointcrawl reversed. A Hexcrawl is far more managed and less random, each hex being in essence a node in a pointcrawl that always has 6 adjacent equidistant nodes. It also makes it quite hard to get lost as players quickly note misalignment of nodes (if they expect a mountain to the south-east and its the south the jig is up). Pointcrawls, especially going back to AD&D (or at least 2e) allowed for an infinite number of points from each node that could be any distance. Being abstracted from the view of the players getting lost (there were tables based on the type of terrain, presence of landmarks, and the type of trail (a road was nearly impossible while a game trail or foot path was easy). Players might not realize they are lost until they are two games days past their destination in a forest. This allowed them chances to stumble upon other potential locations in the general area (and if they get unlost, unlock this as a new point).
I’ve never heard of that type of point crawl - also to say it’s hard to get lost in a hex crawl tells me you must not hike in the wood much 😉 - it’s tricky to go in a straight line and judge distance. I don’t really understand this 2e point crawl but you’ve got me interested - I’ll have to break out those books! Thanks
@@BanditsKeep I apologize, I meant its hard in a metagame sense for players to get lost in a hex. That you can walk 20 feet to the left of an overgrown building and see no trace of it in a real forest is why I tend to use hex-crawls for "easier" wilderness travel where I want to hide the fact that at how much time it would really take to meaningfully explore a 6-mile forest, or god forbid a swamp, hex. I use pointcrawls when I want to stress that if you don't know where you are going you are stumbling about blind.
@@zzarchovkowolski4356 ah, that makes sense, but what about when there are clear paths like Ursine Dunes, what would you call that?
@@BanditsKeep I would still consider S.U.D a pointcrawl, merely a simple one. Much as a five room dungeon is still a dungeon, it just doesn't take advantage of the medium to the same extent as a megadungeon.
@@zzarchovkowolski4356 That makes sense. You’ve really got me thinking about this! BTW I’m a big fan of your work!
Hey Daniel! I’m trying to run an exploration based campaign set in the Warhammer Fantasy world and am having a tough time. While the entire world isn’t necessarily discovered, most of the civilized areas have been heavily colonized. Aside from putting my players in a literal wasteland, how would you tackle an exploration campaign in a world that’s mostly been explored?
I’d likely focus on smaller, harder to explore areas - mountains, deep forest etc. places that most people would not go.
@@BanditsKeep appreciate the feedback!
Meant to run a hexcrawl but characters built a party better suited for trade routes so my hexmap has gotten very Pointcrawly.
Nice, gotta love when players have a plan
I feel like the assumption that a point crawl is through well-known locations is false. The way Point Crawls were sold to me is that it’s a good way to have an open ended campaign structure without needing to map out the countryside in detail. You have a few areas connected by pathways and your players can choose which pathways to take. If you add in ‘wilderness’ points that aren’t really points of interest, but exist to demonstrate the vastness of the wilderness and allow points to connect and loop on each other more naturally.
They don’t necessarily need to know where the pathways go, or which pathways are connected where. You could do an entirely unexplored land point-crawl style. If the players ‘get lost’ while travelling between points, maybe they end up at a hidden point, a nearby point that’s not connected, or they just get turned around and end up back where they came from. You could also have the players able to discover hidden points by deliberately exploring between points.
I agree that they’re not as freeform. You’re definitely losing ‘freedom’, but a point crawl need not be well known or well explored to be a point crawl.
Well known to those who use the paths, not necessarily the players
I have done point crawl to hand wave a huge bulk of the map burden for my kids playing my game. If there is a road, or a river, between a populated area and another, let’s not grind the game to a halt. It’s too frustrating and I really don’t think there is much to be gained from minutiae unless that is the actual adventure that session. Which is ok!
Indeed
It seems lately people have it that hex crawls are hard? Pick a direction, roll the randoms, pick another direction. Maybe the newer systems don't cover travel? 3e kinda did but I stopped there. Coming up BECMI dungeon and hex crawling came naturally to our groups.
I don’t think it is covered as much in the later editions, true, but I also think the wilderness being random and dangerous makes some DMs nervous they will have a TPK 🤔
Lol what's an inch. I never realized how much respect I had for the translators who had to convert everything into metric. Here we move 3m per round, AS GOD INTENDED
I believe for war-games it would be 3cm 🤷🏻♂️ - the idea is that it is not a fixed number - the map scale and time scale changes the way it is used.
What about normal travel rules. Never got the point of hexcrawl. We use maps that have scales and an encounter table. Simple, no need for hex or point crawl. Never heard of them in the 90's or 2000's. When I came back to rpgs, suddenly everybody talks about hexcrawls.
Hexcrawls are from the Original game, a way of exploring the unknown world where there is no map. From a player point of view (and a character for that matter) the hexes themselves don’t exist - they would just have a map/scale. I was not playing in the 90s so I cannot speak on those techniques
@@BanditsKeep I havn't played a lot (A)D&D, but we played Merp and Rolemaster and I never heard of hexcrawls. I understand how they work. I just don't get why people would do that. What is the benefit?