I started to incorporate some of your ideas at my table and both me and my players are having a lot of fun! Thanks for the amazing content and keep `em coming!
I, like you, am the "equipment guy". And when doing some kind of expedition I make a list of equipment/supplies and figure out the expenses and then I tell the rest of the party how much they each need to chip in and if there is anything special that they want. And being that I'm doing the work and my character is usually a Thief, well I pad the bill a little bit. Sort of a fee for doing the planning. Because if I didn't do the planning then these guys would be sleeping outside in a rainstorm while my character slept in his cozy tent.
This video brought me back to 1976 and trying to explain D&D to someone who thought we were running around in the woods with fake swords. And a lot of people did back then. Just listening brings back a very intense feeling of nostalgia! Sitting in someone's faux wood paneled basement, with bags of chips and sodas, we had to organize our marching order, worry about getting lost, and move across an unknown world mapping hexes. We used those original books and our own homebrewed additions, but it was 90% of what you are describing. And I did try to explain just that, though I was very young and not as articulate as you, so my friends or family members who didn't play D&D glazed over after one minute. It's amazing that now gamers are out there rediscovering the style of play we did in our basements way back then. You are a prophet my friend!
In 1981, AD&D for my friends and I morphed into "running around in the woods with fake swords". None of us really understood the rules and any adventure was inevitably blown up by someone getting pissed off. So heading out into the actual woods became the easier option at the time. We should have been playing Moldvay Basic, but we all thought we were Advanced kids... LOL.
I love that you are outlining the barebone procedures as per the rulebooks. One of the reasons why I love old school D&D is that I can add my own procedures which don't overburden the system or play, I've been thinking a lot about hexcrawls and my journey on really solidly formulating my own theory of best play started with the famous article on the Alexandrian (which is largely 5e oriented) and eventually I moved to something closer to 0E like yourself. I think that wilderness regions need stat blocks, and brief ones that can fit on one side of a 3x5 card. Sure, regions do not have to have homogeneity in terrain type if using a 6+ mile hex but should have a dominant terrain type as our dividing wilderness into regions is typically contingent on this and even political boundaries are often built along the path of least resistance (rivers and mountains serving as excellent natural barriers to the creep of borders.) A region stat block should have: 1. Name of region 2. If the region is broadly wilderness, borderlands or civilized (and a table for dungeon restock, which is shorter the more wild the land is) 3. Features (Phrases you can use in tandem to hex terrain to give the region its vibes, hazards and boons that exist as a trait that can make actions possible, impossible, easier or harder, this can be mitigated by equipment which would really promote the player character prep phase of the adventuring day and really gives marching orders more dynamism, this also helps with preconfiguring encounter scenes.) I also am running Castles and Crusades these days, so I also use their terrain and obstacle DC ranges by type/severity and apply this die roll actions in their siege engine mechanic. 4. Encounter table used (I've always preferred the 2e 2d10 bell curve distribution table over the BECMI by terrain type, but YMMV and this wouldn't be necessary in B/X if you like the latter, I like the former because I can scale wilderness regions by their adjacency like dungeon floors like I'm running a primitive MUD/MMO) 5. Encounter tilt table (My usual encounter procedure also includes a creature motivation table with scaling die type as intelligence of creature grows, so a mindless creature uses a d4 for needs like food, rest, whereas an intelligent creature would use a d12, with scaling motivations like 12 being "seeking spiritual/philosophical meaning". The tilt is just a way to reinforce big themes/problems/world states that the players can remove/alter while having random encounters and in tandem/like the motivation table this creates a variety of choice in play beyond FIGHT, RUN, PARLAY. I also REALLY like this because it forces me to be creative on the fly while still giving me a firm foundation and reinforcing the greater world state. A regional tilt can be things like "exhausted iron mine, dysjunction in the weave due to the magical shenanigans of local wizard tower, planar rupture to/from the elemental plane of fire, famine, etc". So if we rolled a result of "bandit (creature) seeking food (motivation) dysjunction in the weave due to the magical shenanigans of local wizard tower (tilt)" would force me to come up with something wacky on the the fly. In this case I've already figured out what's going on with the tilt as I've already figured out what's going on with the tower and what it's immediate effects are. In this case I would consider the epiphenomenon and do a bit of abductive reasoning to create a scene. Maybe the bandits are starving because all of the substantial fauna have fled from the magical tremors caused by the wizard tower, then I reason what sort of mechanics come into play, penalties to attacks? Bonuses to PC parley? Possible situation of mutual aid between the bandits and players? The options are endless and the simple 1D4 ELF, FLEEING *roll on table again* WINTER TROLL, MAGICAL COLD/SNOWSTORM encountered in an area with FEATURES such as ENDLESS BOGS, TALUS CAVES, can create hours of roleplaying scenarios where the players drag the (1) unconscious elf that broke the ice as they fell into one of these bogs frozen and covered by powder snow while they were fleeing a winter troll that will arrive in say 1d3 turns. The players find succor in a talus cave, where they will outfit such a cave with the equipment they brought-turning it into a warm and dry area, dress the wounds of the elf and nurse them back to health. Maybe that elf becomes a follower because players have a lead on the magical cold/snowstorm (or maybe the elf has one on a successful roll under their INT score?) Or maybe I will roll again on the motivation table to explain exactly WHY the elf was exploring the region to begin with. Will the troll find the players back to their makeshift lair? The "story" (or more accurately, the situation) is created first, the mechanics merely follow so they do not need to be delineated!
Thanks a bunch for explaining all of your personal procedure, you've put down really well all the steps to create a well detailed hexcrawl region system, at least Ihmo; Now, may I ask you about, if and when you're willing, about the meaning of the acronyms in the 4th point (Except MMO) and also if you're willing to share some of your own notes and tables? I'd like to run someday this type of campaign, but having some pre - existing structure and inspiration surely does help!
@@Pampa-bs YMMV = Your mileage may vary and MUD = Multi user dungeon (MMO that typically consisted of crude ascii art graphics and a text parser that you could enter commands and read descriptions of the nodes you occupied. I use one table that I found on the internet scales based on monster intelligence d4 mindless/d6 beast/d8 bestial/d10 man 1 Safety 2-3 Supplies 4 Comfort 5 Territory 6 Social/Emotional 7 Treasure 8 Allies 9 Knowledge 10 Higher Needs And the "tilt" table depends on the campaign! Say you wanted to create a d8 table for a high-stakes setting with a lot of strife, not only is the kingdom in an armed conflict with its neighbor, but an ancient dragon has awakened due to an order of wizards trying to create a weapon like an atomic bomb to thwart the attackers that only created vast ripples of arcane dead zones and planar rifts. Not only that, the grey elves are sweeping south from their home in the mountains and wiping out human villages and leaving grotesque monuments of cobbled human flesh with branded runes in them. 1 Iron shortage 2 War/Invasion 3 Planar rift 4 Dragon 5 Famine 6 Elves 7 Arcane rift 8 Wizard duel Keep in mind that these are not NECESSARILY encounters with the source, but rather the context in which the encountered creature exists in. I generally dial it back and my tilt table has more to do with nearby dungeons/lairs that the players haven't dealt with yet. But the idea is that they are a reminder to the players that the problems exist and they have a source that can be eliminated, changed, etc by them.
More than any other channel, you have made me adopt BX for my group. We're starting our campaign soon based on B1 and B2 and a village called Larm from Labyrinth Lord. I like the procedural approach you cover in your videos, and this one on hex crawls spells it out so clearly. Thank you, Daniel.
Dude this is one of my most ravenously devoured topics; I feel like I can never get enough advice about this. I'm really excited to hear yours! Man I really gotta get around to your discord too.
I want to try and run some hex crawling, but I have almost no experience. Advice of this sort is very valuable for me, so I don't fumble around in the dark quite as much. Thank you Sir.
I didn't realize how much fun wilderness exploration was until I started playing old school games. Before I got into White Box and other clones the only wilderness exploration experience I had was with Tomb of Horrors for 5e and the mechanics and classes completely negated everything that makes the wilderness interesting. I like adding extra steps for myself as a DM, like rolling for man-made or natural landmarks, towns that might not be on the maps etc. I find it really pushes that feeling of discovery.
I noticed you were doing that with the manual Hexterity , I actually picked that up, but I haven’t tried to use it yet. I’m really enjoying your solo plays
Have seen a lot of your videos now. This is one of very few channels about TTRPG I can enjoy! Helpful experience and reminding's.... instead of bs talk. Pointing out what really to focus on. Even I know a bunch of the details, its nice to hear and remember, because in game its way to easy to forget the essentials and how much they have to offer usually. And I have to admit: Overland travel... I`m bad presenting it, always have been and pace it mostly. Will put special afford in this part from now on. Thanks for the great work dude! Just a pity we`ll never meet at the table!
Hi Danial, I'm a fan of your work (youtube and podcasts). I'm preparing a b/x campaign. This is what i had in mind for a procedure for wilderness exploration. Did i miss anything? morning -note the date -any healing or exhaustion? -what Spells are prepared for that day? -weather conditions roll -players planned direction of travel? / travel speed/ marching order? -foraging? / hunting? / forced march? -getting lost roll -wandering monster roll(s) evening - find shelter from the elements? (may affect healing and spell prep) -note rations consumed (or not consumed) for that day -update players map -pc's set the watch for the night night -wandering monster roll(s)
That looks pretty thorough to me, you’ll probably make adjustments as you play a few sessions. That’s generally the way things work with me anyways, have a great game!
For me the wilderness is either the adventure or part of it, ie the space between locations (dungeons or towns), so I think of it as a hexcrawl to explore the wilderness itself or a point crawl along the paths between other places. One is slower and the other faster, the procedures work for it all really, so any campaign may be the dungeon delve after starting at a town then point crawl to the hex where obe explores to find that dungeon. For me it is this building blocks style that lets the GM organize pieces and encounters to the theme but let players have choices flowing from choices, a good balance of prep versus improv.
This is great information as always. I haven't had an opportunity to play any of the OSR games, only 5th edition. I love the idea in old school games of tracking equipment, hexcrawls, dungeon, crawls, etc. I love the idea of integrating this into my game and of all the videos I've seen on this. This is the one that spells out practical application and a viable way. Good work as always
Great video! The variety of encounters from hostile, friendly, or even just environmental you can have in the wilderness add so much flavour and opportunity for unexpected adventure. Even in a more "modern" system, random encounter tables and reaction rolls enhance the experience
Regarding the trickiness of representing the party being lost...if you simply describe things to the players and let them make their own map, you don't have to worry about managing it. Sure, it can be confusing to them, but that's part of the fun of exploring. It helps if the party is expecting certain landmarks, like a river, that they don't encounter.
Hey! I noticed you subscribed to my channel, so I returned the favor. B/X travel always felt boardgamey to me. But while listening to your video I realized... I was kid when we played B/X. We likely made everything feel boardgamey back then. I always liked turn based dugneon exploration. So... I might revisit turned based wildreness travel. Thanks for the idea and the nostalgia!
I do pointcrawls because I thhink the procedural part of it is easier on the GM. I try to incorporate many different routes and to adopt a random player-exclusive route they come up during play, to avoid a linear "corridor" exploration. And then I count the distance between nodes in numbers of chance random encounters rolled (which can be adjusted if the party is slowed by encumbrance or some other effect).
As a DM I was always more lenient on PC's who made some effort to designate admin and supplies for travel, even if it was not perfect it didn't matter, they tried and I rewarded that. Those who ignored it suddenly lost hp each day when they ran out of rations or got lost because they made no attempt to find a map or research the location by questioning locals.
I use a combination of the BX style rules for travelling combined with the ideas and practices that were shown in the video game adaptation of Pathfinder's Kingmaker. In my opinion alot of the exploration rules from old school style D&D was lost with 3.0 and onward. It needs to be emphasized for sure.
I'm planning a sandbox campaign in the Silver marches in the FR, this implies a lot of overland travel, I was a bit scared by it but it helps a lot ! I don't plan to do hexcrawl, just planning travels with a ruler to see distances, like a real trek, I will see if it works or not.
Hmmm... I dunno about the getting lost thing. It might be more fun to give them a map, but not a marker. Then just describe what they see while tracking their location like you might track a monster's HP. I dunno, I don't have proper experience with this.
I have a non-electronic simplehuman trash can. It really is well made and nice to use. But I cannot be arsed with buying their bags. I just put a small cardboard box in the bottom and I can use the regular 13 gallon bags from Costco.
This sounds like a good, workable system. I tend to thirst for more realism, but playability has to come first, and this way is clearly playable. One question I would have is the effect of equipment on evasion. It seems obvious to me that it should be way easier for Sam and Frodo on foot to duck behind a rock or tree while 400 orcs pass by than if they have two pack mules and a wagon. It seems to me that for purposes of “group size” on the OSE evasion table, each horse or mule should count as an additional party member, and a cart or wagon as at least two additional members. How do you handle this? Also, what do you do about weather? I like to include it, as it makes encounters more unique: screaming winds blow arrows off target, heavy fog causes you not to see the enemy until you’re almost on top of them, etc. But rolling for weather each day is quite tedious and slows down the game. I prefer to type out a weather calendar in advance, so I don’t have to roll anything at the table, and I can just tell the players that it rains on day 5 or whatever, and mud is slowing the wagon to half speed.
Animals etc count as figures (unless a person is riding them) as far as carts - they slow you down, which does have an impact on the evasion. I don’t tent to use weather much unless it is extreme or I am running a survival scenario
I'm a amateur DM/player I have been running/playing for 22 years. I have just started running my second ever hex crawl campaign and with your advice I'm sure it will go smoother. I can't go much worse lol. I mean really what are the chances of me running two parties back to back who burn a innocent pregnant woman to death twice in a row? Please 😭🙏 tell me I don't have to go through that again....
Part of the problem is the Party wanting to explore a monster lair that they have found that you did not prep for how do you do a small dungeon on the fly
I want to run this kind of game very badly, but nearly everyone I know has no interest in it. I speak from experience when I say people won't be swayed. I will send this video to them, since your Charisma score is way higher than mine
@@Agell That's how I tried. 5e has only 15% chance of random encounters, and the table is d8 + d10 for a "trapezoid" curve in results, which I thought was a very cool idea for giving the DM some control of which monsters are more common. I also enjoyed the mods on how many hexes could be travelled in a day, and very basic foraging rolls - encouraged planning ahead without being too punishing for newbs
I tried running a hex crawl in 5e, but there was a ranger in the party. Getting lost or running out of food or water was off the table. The ranger class description effectively negated that aspect of the game.
I was going to reply and deleted your comment by mistake! Sorry about that - I can definitely see forest being a good choice - perhaps after they crossed the forest they might find swamps or mountains?
I keep seeing these videos and realise just how BAD my 2e ad&d rulebooks were at explaining how to play - they are excellent errata and update compilations but they absolutely need the foundations of procedural play in BX etc to justify their existence. Without procedure from BX etc you are left with some information about speed and encounter tables - and no logical way to apply it.
I started to incorporate some of your ideas at my table and both me and my players are having a lot of fun! Thanks for the amazing content and keep `em coming!
That’s awesome
I, like you, am the "equipment guy". And when doing some kind of expedition I make a list of equipment/supplies and figure out the expenses and then I tell the rest of the party how much they each need to chip in and if there is anything special that they want. And being that I'm doing the work and my character is usually a Thief, well I pad the bill a little bit. Sort of a fee for doing the planning. Because if I didn't do the planning then these guys would be sleeping outside in a rainstorm while my character slept in his cozy tent.
Nice
You’re the party Quartermaster. I love doing that too!
This video brought me back to 1976 and trying to explain D&D to someone who thought we were running around in the woods with fake swords. And a lot of people did back then. Just listening brings back a very intense feeling of nostalgia! Sitting in someone's faux wood paneled basement, with bags of chips and sodas, we had to organize our marching order, worry about getting lost, and move across an unknown world mapping hexes. We used those original books and our own homebrewed additions, but it was 90% of what you are describing. And I did try to explain just that, though I was very young and not as articulate as you, so my friends or family members who didn't play D&D glazed over after one minute. It's amazing that now gamers are out there rediscovering the style of play we did in our basements way back then. You are a prophet my friend!
In 1981, AD&D for my friends and I morphed into "running around in the woods with fake swords". None of us really understood the rules and any adventure was inevitably blown up by someone getting pissed off. So heading out into the actual woods became the easier option at the time. We should have been playing Moldvay Basic, but we all thought we were Advanced kids... LOL.
I knew people that did that...and still do!@@Grumpy-Dice
Thank you good sir!
I love that you are outlining the barebone procedures as per the rulebooks.
One of the reasons why I love old school D&D is that I can add my own procedures which don't overburden the system or play, I've been thinking a lot about hexcrawls and my journey on really solidly formulating my own theory of best play started with the famous article on the Alexandrian (which is largely 5e oriented) and eventually I moved to something closer to 0E like yourself.
I think that wilderness regions need stat blocks, and brief ones that can fit on one side of a 3x5 card. Sure, regions do not have to have homogeneity in terrain type if using a 6+ mile hex but should have a dominant terrain type as our dividing wilderness into regions is typically contingent on this and even political boundaries are often built along the path of least resistance (rivers and mountains serving as excellent natural barriers to the creep of borders.)
A region stat block should have:
1. Name of region
2. If the region is broadly wilderness, borderlands or civilized (and a table for dungeon restock, which is shorter the more wild the land is)
3. Features (Phrases you can use in tandem to hex terrain to give the region its vibes, hazards and boons that exist as a trait that can make actions possible, impossible, easier or harder, this can be mitigated by equipment which would really promote the player character prep phase of the adventuring day and really gives marching orders more dynamism, this also helps with preconfiguring encounter scenes.) I also am running Castles and Crusades these days, so I also use their terrain and obstacle DC ranges by type/severity and apply this die roll actions in their siege engine mechanic.
4. Encounter table used (I've always preferred the 2e 2d10 bell curve distribution table over the BECMI by terrain type, but YMMV and this wouldn't be necessary in B/X if you like the latter, I like the former because I can scale wilderness regions by their adjacency like dungeon floors like I'm running a primitive MUD/MMO)
5. Encounter tilt table (My usual encounter procedure also includes a creature motivation table with scaling die type as intelligence of creature grows, so a mindless creature uses a d4 for needs like food, rest, whereas an intelligent creature would use a d12, with scaling motivations like 12 being "seeking spiritual/philosophical meaning". The tilt is just a way to reinforce big themes/problems/world states that the players can remove/alter while having random encounters and in tandem/like the motivation table this creates a variety of choice in play beyond FIGHT, RUN, PARLAY. I also REALLY like this because it forces me to be creative on the fly while still giving me a firm foundation and reinforcing the greater world state. A regional tilt can be things like "exhausted iron mine, dysjunction in the weave due to the magical shenanigans of local wizard tower, planar rupture to/from the elemental plane of fire, famine, etc".
So if we rolled a result of "bandit (creature) seeking food (motivation) dysjunction in the weave due to the magical shenanigans of local wizard tower (tilt)" would force me to come up with something wacky on the the fly. In this case I've already figured out what's going on with the tilt as I've already figured out what's going on with the tower and what it's immediate effects are. In this case I would consider the epiphenomenon and do a bit of abductive reasoning to create a scene. Maybe the bandits are starving because all of the substantial fauna have fled from the magical tremors caused by the wizard tower, then I reason what sort of mechanics come into play, penalties to attacks? Bonuses to PC parley? Possible situation of mutual aid between the bandits and players?
The options are endless and the simple 1D4 ELF, FLEEING *roll on table again* WINTER TROLL, MAGICAL COLD/SNOWSTORM encountered in an area with FEATURES such as ENDLESS BOGS, TALUS CAVES, can create hours of roleplaying scenarios where the players drag the (1) unconscious elf that broke the ice as they fell into one of these bogs frozen and covered by powder snow while they were fleeing a winter troll that will arrive in say 1d3 turns. The players find succor in a talus cave, where they will outfit such a cave with the equipment they brought-turning it into a warm and dry area, dress the wounds of the elf and nurse them back to health. Maybe that elf becomes a follower because players have a lead on the magical cold/snowstorm (or maybe the elf has one on a successful roll under their INT score?) Or maybe I will roll again on the motivation table to explain exactly WHY the elf was exploring the region to begin with. Will the troll find the players back to their makeshift lair?
The "story" (or more accurately, the situation) is created first, the mechanics merely follow so they do not need to be delineated!
Cool, I like the region stat idea
Thanks a bunch for explaining all of your personal procedure, you've put down really well all the steps to create a well detailed hexcrawl region system, at least Ihmo;
Now, may I ask you about, if and when you're willing, about the meaning of the acronyms in the 4th point (Except MMO) and also if you're willing to share some of your own notes and tables? I'd like to run someday this type of campaign, but having some pre - existing structure and inspiration surely does help!
@@Pampa-bs YMMV = Your mileage may vary and MUD = Multi user dungeon (MMO that typically consisted of crude ascii art graphics and a text parser that you could enter commands and read descriptions of the nodes you occupied.
I use one table that I found on the internet scales based on monster intelligence
d4 mindless/d6 beast/d8 bestial/d10 man
1 Safety
2-3 Supplies
4 Comfort
5 Territory
6 Social/Emotional
7 Treasure
8 Allies
9 Knowledge
10 Higher Needs
And the "tilt" table depends on the campaign! Say you wanted to create a d8 table for a high-stakes setting with a lot of strife, not only is the kingdom in an armed conflict with its neighbor, but an ancient dragon has awakened due to an order of wizards trying to create a weapon like an atomic bomb to thwart the attackers that only created vast ripples of arcane dead zones and planar rifts. Not only that, the grey elves are sweeping south from their home in the mountains and wiping out human villages and leaving grotesque monuments of cobbled human flesh with branded runes in them.
1 Iron shortage
2 War/Invasion
3 Planar rift
4 Dragon
5 Famine
6 Elves
7 Arcane rift
8 Wizard duel
Keep in mind that these are not NECESSARILY encounters with the source, but rather the context in which the encountered creature exists in.
I generally dial it back and my tilt table has more to do with nearby dungeons/lairs that the players haven't dealt with yet. But the idea is that they are a reminder to the players that the problems exist and they have a source that can be eliminated, changed, etc by them.
More than any other channel, you have made me adopt BX for my group. We're starting our campaign soon based on B1 and B2 and a village called Larm from Labyrinth Lord. I like the procedural approach you cover in your videos, and this one on hex crawls spells it out so clearly. Thank you, Daniel.
That’s awesome!
Dude this is one of my most ravenously devoured topics; I feel like I can never get enough advice about this. I'm really excited to hear yours!
Man I really gotta get around to your discord too.
Glad to hear it!
I want to try and run some hex crawling, but I have almost no experience. Advice of this sort is very valuable for me, so I don't fumble around in the dark quite as much. Thank you Sir.
I’m happy to have been of some help
I didn't realize how much fun wilderness exploration was until I started playing old school games. Before I got into White Box and other clones the only wilderness exploration experience I had was with Tomb of Horrors for 5e and the mechanics and classes completely negated everything that makes the wilderness interesting.
I like adding extra steps for myself as a DM, like rolling for man-made or natural landmarks, towns that might not be on the maps etc. I find it really pushes that feeling of discovery.
I noticed you were doing that with the manual Hexterity , I actually picked that up, but I haven’t tried to use it yet. I’m really enjoying your solo plays
@@BanditsKeep Thanks. The Manual of Hexterity is a good resource. I like that they give you a word doc as well to make your own.
Have seen a lot of your videos now. This is one of very few channels about TTRPG I can enjoy!
Helpful experience and reminding's.... instead of bs talk. Pointing out what really to focus on. Even I know a bunch of the details, its nice to hear and remember, because in game its way to easy to forget the essentials and how much they have to offer usually. And I have to admit: Overland travel... I`m bad presenting it, always have been and pace it mostly. Will put special afford in this part from now on.
Thanks for the great work dude!
Just a pity we`ll never meet at the table!
Thank You!
Hi Danial, I'm a fan of your work (youtube and podcasts). I'm preparing a b/x campaign. This is what i had in mind for a procedure for wilderness exploration. Did i miss anything?
morning
-note the date
-any healing or exhaustion?
-what Spells are prepared for that day?
-weather conditions roll
-players planned direction of travel? / travel speed/ marching order?
-foraging? / hunting? / forced march?
-getting lost roll
-wandering monster roll(s)
evening
- find shelter from the elements? (may affect healing and spell prep)
-note rations consumed (or not consumed) for that day
-update players map
-pc's set the watch for the night
night
-wandering monster roll(s)
That looks pretty thorough to me, you’ll probably make adjustments as you play a few sessions. That’s generally the way things work with me anyways, have a great game!
For me the wilderness is either the adventure or part of it, ie the space between locations (dungeons or towns), so I think of it as a hexcrawl to explore the wilderness itself or a point crawl along the paths between other places. One is slower and the other faster, the procedures work for it all really, so any campaign may be the dungeon delve after starting at a town then point crawl to the hex where obe explores to find that dungeon. For me it is this building blocks style that lets the GM organize pieces and encounters to the theme but let players have choices flowing from choices, a good balance of prep versus improv.
Indeed
Dolmenwood has expansive hexcrawling rules. The setting isn't something I thought I'd like much, but after 2 of their modules, our group loves it.
I have some of the early zines, some cool stuff there with camping etc
Mate i just wanna let you know that binging your content lately. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Awesome, thanks so much
Your videos are well done.
Thank You!
Great video! Thanks for the link to your actual play ~ have to add that to the queue 🙂
Hope you enjoy it!
This is great information as always. I haven't had an opportunity to play any of the OSR games, only 5th edition. I love the idea in old school games of tracking equipment, hexcrawls, dungeon, crawls, etc. I love the idea of integrating this into my game and of all the videos I've seen on this. This is the one that spells out practical application and a viable way. Good work as always
Thank You!
Great video Daniel! I love your channels. Your Actual play has inspired me to take up solo gaming with OSE. Thanks dude.
Awesome!
I wanted to say that I love the demeanor and attitude you bring to these videos. It's very inclusive, friendly, approachable, etc.
Thank You! I appreciate that.
Great video! The variety of encounters from hostile, friendly, or even just environmental you can have in the wilderness add so much flavour and opportunity for unexpected adventure. Even in a more "modern" system, random encounter tables and reaction rolls enhance the experience
For sure
Perfect! Just about to start Isle of Dread (goodmans update but played with DCC)
Cool
Thanks
Welcome
I don't do any hexcrawling (yet), but I have players who are interested. I'm specifically eying Luke Gearing's Wolves Upon the Coast.
Cool
Regarding the trickiness of representing the party being lost...if you simply describe things to the players and let them make their own map, you don't have to worry about managing it. Sure, it can be confusing to them, but that's part of the fun of exploring. It helps if the party is expecting certain landmarks, like a river, that they don't encounter.
I feel like that only works if as you say they are expecting landmarks - like they have a map or directions of some sort.
Hey! I noticed you subscribed to my channel, so I returned the favor.
B/X travel always felt boardgamey to me. But while listening to your video I realized... I was kid when we played B/X. We likely made everything feel boardgamey back then. I always liked turn based dugneon exploration. So... I might revisit turned based wildreness travel.
Thanks for the idea and the nostalgia!
Thanks for subscribing, I’m enjoying your channel, the town building (and the accompanying dungeon) was very cool.
Thanks! @@BanditsKeep
Thank you for your information video
Thanks for watching
I do pointcrawls because I thhink the procedural part of it is easier on the GM. I try to incorporate many different routes and to adopt a random player-exclusive route they come up during play, to avoid a linear "corridor" exploration. And then I count the distance between nodes in numbers of chance random encounters rolled (which can be adjusted if the party is slowed by encumbrance or some other effect).
Cool
Great video
Thanks!
As a DM I was always more lenient on PC's who made some effort to designate admin and supplies for travel, even if it was not perfect it didn't matter, they tried and I rewarded that. Those who ignored it suddenly lost hp each day when they ran out of rations or got lost because they made no attempt to find a map or research the location by questioning locals.
Makes sense
I use a combination of the BX style rules for travelling combined with the ideas and practices that were shown in the video game adaptation of Pathfinder's Kingmaker. In my opinion alot of the exploration rules from old school style D&D was lost with 3.0 and onward. It needs to be emphasized for sure.
Kingmaker video game? That sounds pretty cool
YAY! next in series. :)
Yes!
great vid
Thank You!
I'm planning a sandbox campaign in the Silver marches in the FR, this implies a lot of overland travel, I was a bit scared by it but it helps a lot ! I don't plan to do hexcrawl, just planning travels with a ruler to see distances, like a real trek, I will see if it works or not.
Sounds awesome!
A great video. If I may ask, where is the art in the thumbnail from? It's so evocative of the dangers in the wilderness
Obligatory comment for GURPS system with D&D setting for the win.
If that’s your jam, awesome
Hmmm... I dunno about the getting lost thing. It might be more fun to give them a map, but not a marker. Then just describe what they see while tracking their location like you might track a monster's HP. I dunno, I don't have proper experience with this.
Interesting, not sure how that would play out, but certainly one way to try it
I prefer the outdoor survival lost method as well. It makes the table a litlte easier to handle for the reasons you stated.
Nice video Daniel.
Thanks!
I have a non-electronic simplehuman trash can. It really is well made and nice to use. But I cannot be arsed with buying their bags. I just put a small cardboard box in the bottom and I can use the regular 13 gallon bags from Costco.
Nice
@BanditsKeep I was typing this for another video on my Watch Later list and it changed to your's right before I posted. Sorry.
You forgot to link that fangs go out adventure
Here you go - Original D&D Solo Actual Play - Session 5; The Fangs of Pebluff 1
th-cam.com/video/nifldJPAiDM/w-d-xo.html
The link to my AP channel is there
@@BanditsKeep thank you!
This sounds like a good, workable system. I tend to thirst for more realism, but playability has to come first, and this way is clearly playable.
One question I would have is the effect of equipment on evasion. It seems obvious to me that it should be way easier for Sam and Frodo on foot to duck behind a rock or tree while 400 orcs pass by than if they have two pack mules and a wagon. It seems to me that for purposes of “group size” on the OSE evasion table, each horse or mule should count as an additional party member, and a cart or wagon as at least two additional members. How do you handle this?
Also, what do you do about weather? I like to include it, as it makes encounters more unique: screaming winds blow arrows off target, heavy fog causes you not to see the enemy until you’re almost on top of them, etc. But rolling for weather each day is quite tedious and slows down the game. I prefer to type out a weather calendar in advance, so I don’t have to roll anything at the table, and I can just tell the players that it rains on day 5 or whatever, and mud is slowing the wagon to half speed.
Animals etc count as figures (unless a person is riding them) as far as carts - they slow you down, which does have an impact on the evasion. I don’t tent to use weather much unless it is extreme or I am running a survival scenario
Wilderness travel, sadly many groups glaze over or ignore it all together
True
I'm a amateur DM/player I have been running/playing for 22 years. I have just started running my second ever hex crawl campaign and with your advice I'm sure it will go smoother. I can't go much worse lol. I mean really what are the chances of me running two parties back to back who burn a innocent pregnant woman to death twice in a row? Please 😭🙏 tell me I don't have to go through that again....
Yikes! Let’s hope it goes smoother this time
Hi Daniel awesome video! You said to roll surprise before distance,would you do the same in dungeon exploration?
I'm not Daniel but that's how I've been running any surprise encounter,
Urban, dungeon, wilderness.
Surprise = Distance-50%
Yes
@@BanditsKeep Do you do "Distance-50%" like @SapphireRidge900 if they are surprised?
@@Grumpy-Dice typically there are rules for it based on the system you are using - but if not, 50% makes sense to me
Part of the problem is the Party wanting to explore a monster lair that they have found that you did not prep for how do you do a small dungeon on the fly
I’ve got a few techniques for this, perhaps this is a good video idea.
I want to run this kind of game very badly, but nearly everyone I know has no interest in it. I speak from experience when I say people won't be swayed.
I will send this video to them, since your Charisma score is way higher than mine
You can actually do this procedure with 5e, if that's the game you're stuck playing, all of the old-school procedures just work with the 5e DMG.
Perhaps you just have to sprinkle a little into the normal game and see how they like it in play vs on paper so to speak
@@Agell That's how I tried. 5e has only 15% chance of random encounters, and the table is d8 + d10 for a "trapezoid" curve in results, which I thought was a very cool idea for giving the DM some control of which monsters are more common. I also enjoyed the mods on how many hexes could be travelled in a day, and very basic foraging rolls - encouraged planning ahead without being too punishing for newbs
@@BanditsKeep hmm, little at a time. Nice. I'll try sprinkles :)
I tried running a hex crawl in 5e, but there was a ranger in the party. Getting lost or running out of food or water was off the table. The ranger class description effectively negated that aspect of the game.
Isn’t that specific to their chosen domain?
I was going to reply and deleted your comment by mistake! Sorry about that - I can definitely see forest being a good choice - perhaps after they crossed the forest they might find swamps or mountains?
Funny how hex crawls are not being streamed
Streamed?
There not something you can script as easily.
20yr campaing which is 80% hex crawl --
Nice
I keep seeing these videos and realise just how BAD my 2e ad&d rulebooks were at explaining how to play - they are excellent errata and update compilations but they absolutely need the foundations of procedural play in BX etc to justify their existence. Without procedure from BX etc you are left with some information about speed and encounter tables - and no logical way to apply it.
Interesting- I’ve only dipped my toe into 2e