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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Emulating exploration without the hexcrawl
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<blockquote data-quote="Primitive Screwhead" data-source="post: 5822353" data-attributes="member: 20805"><p>I once used an alternate 'wandering monster' method that had large scale hexes that the PCs could dash through on known trails/roads or dig into and explore. Research or clues could lead them to a explore a particular hex.</p><p></p><p> Within the hex, similar to Tonguez, there are encounters and events. The twist was that the PCs would use Survival to search the local area and depending on the results could be surprised by any 'encounter'... or they could be on the other end and be able to sneak up to or sneak around the encounter.</p><p></p><p>With 3x it broke down due to my group having a Druid and Ranger whose Survival skills were pumped way up and they rapidly got to the point of avoiding whatever they wanted.</p><p></p><p>The nice thing about this approach was that you could have various CR of encounters, with the higher level set-piece encounters giving of a 'stay away' vibe. At higher levels the PCs get to encounter the big nasties out hunting as well...</p><p></p><p>This approach has the advantage of allowing for cutting to the chase, or letting the PCs dig into that ravine that was created by a recent earthquake and the odd man-made looking wall that was uncovered <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>and you could leave the drawing of the map to the players <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p> </p><p>If I were to buy a product that did this, I would prefer to see a macro level map that shows large geograpic areas and massive landmarks and terrain types {deserts, temperate, etc}, Then smaller scales maps for regions of interest, and then sets of cards for each region. Some cards would be one of a kind {Pyramid of Set} while others could be used multiple times {Oasis, small village, farming community, etc..} and others would be the generic and used for the majority of the region.</p><p></p><p>If each card covers a days worth of travel to cross without going off the main roads, that would work pretty well.</p><p></p><p>To make it entertaining, each table that runs the adventure could randomly roll for what the next card/hex contains <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Primitive Screwhead, post: 5822353, member: 20805"] I once used an alternate 'wandering monster' method that had large scale hexes that the PCs could dash through on known trails/roads or dig into and explore. Research or clues could lead them to a explore a particular hex. Within the hex, similar to Tonguez, there are encounters and events. The twist was that the PCs would use Survival to search the local area and depending on the results could be surprised by any 'encounter'... or they could be on the other end and be able to sneak up to or sneak around the encounter. With 3x it broke down due to my group having a Druid and Ranger whose Survival skills were pumped way up and they rapidly got to the point of avoiding whatever they wanted. The nice thing about this approach was that you could have various CR of encounters, with the higher level set-piece encounters giving of a 'stay away' vibe. At higher levels the PCs get to encounter the big nasties out hunting as well... This approach has the advantage of allowing for cutting to the chase, or letting the PCs dig into that ravine that was created by a recent earthquake and the odd man-made looking wall that was uncovered :) and you could leave the drawing of the map to the players :) If I were to buy a product that did this, I would prefer to see a macro level map that shows large geograpic areas and massive landmarks and terrain types {deserts, temperate, etc}, Then smaller scales maps for regions of interest, and then sets of cards for each region. Some cards would be one of a kind {Pyramid of Set} while others could be used multiple times {Oasis, small village, farming community, etc..} and others would be the generic and used for the majority of the region. If each card covers a days worth of travel to cross without going off the main roads, that would work pretty well. To make it entertaining, each table that runs the adventure could randomly roll for what the next card/hex contains :) [/QUOTE]
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