D&D General Let's talk about sandboxes, open worlds and hexcrawling

[Oofta]

I don't remember the last time I did a hexcrawl even though I have a very open sandbox campaign.

In my campaigns I establish the setting, organizations and NPCs. I then decide what possible conflicts are and what type of challenge is available to the PCs - usually 3-6 options are open.

Then I just let the players decide. If we've wrapped up the current thread at the end of a session I ask what they want to do next, reminding them of current options. They can also suggest an option if they want.

That does mean that some threads I thought would be cool never get pulled, but that just means that the conflict plays out without the PCs intervention. In my current campaign, they don't realize but if they don't start paying attention to X then Y will happen which could even lead to Z. Most likely they'll choose to deal with Y before it gets out of hand, but it would have been a lot easier to deal with it earlier.

But hex crawls? Just never been my style, people usually have a goal which I'll resolve some way other than just picking a random direction.

 

[JeffB]

Go download a copy of Relics and Ruins- its a free OSR game on drive Thru. It has the neatest little randomized hexcrawl sandbox/adventure in the back. I'm totally swiping it.

That said, not normally a fan of the Hex crawl-but the above sounds super fun to me.

 

[timbannock]

If you all like hexcrawls or sandbox play, check out the Populated Hexes patreon. It's OSR (using Old School Essentials), but the gist of it and the ease of swapping out stat blocks for 5e equivalents makes it an extremely useful series. It shows how to do the interconnectedness thing very well, by having random encounter tables that draw from surrounding hexes to populate them.

 

[Reynard]

As I have been building my sandbox, I have realized I want the action to be largely player driven primarily by want of treasure (because I want a decent amount of dungeon and lair raiding). The things, it is really hard to find stuff for players to spend money on in 5E.

Does anyone know of any DMGuild or other 3rd party resources that develop a good economy for 5E -- from downtime business investment to training costs to benefits from carousing and so on? What I do not want is the primary money sink to be powering up (especially in the form of buying or making magic items).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

As I have been building my sandbox, I have realized I want the action to be largely player driven primarily by want of treasure (because I want a decent amount of dungeon and lair raiding). The things, it is really hard to find stuff for players to spend money on in 5E.

Does anyone know of any DMGuild or other 3rd party resources that develop a good economy for 5E -- from downtime business investment to training costs to benefits from carousing and so on? What I do not want is the primary money sink to be powering up (especially in the form of buying or making magic items).

Strongholds and Followers is a place to start. "good economy"? Not so sure, but at least it gives your players something to finally spend money on.

BTW, 5e doesn't quite have the magic item economy that pathfinder and 4e had. Magic items are supposed to be pretty rare, except for expendable ones (scrolls, potions). That's why there's a limit on how many MIs you can have attuned...

Strongholds & Followers - Hardcover & PDF

Strongholds & Followers is a supplement for 5th Edition that gives your character something to spend their money on and extend their influence in the local area. Raise armies! Research spells! Spy on your enemies!

shop.mcdmproductions.com

 

[Reynard]

I was thinking about how I wanted to do rests -- I think I am going to try long rests require 24 hours unless you are both safe and comfortable, such as in an inn, an ally's secure residence or a Tiny Hut or whatever -- and it got me thinking about something I haven't considered before: different encounter tables based on whether the characters are sedentary versus traveling.

It is probably more effort than it is worth, but since we often try and include more than simply "Monsters Attack!" on hexcrawl encounter charts, does it make sense to create a different table for when the party isn't moving? For example, you aren't going to "run into" an "Impassable cleft; the PCs must go around and lose 2d6 hours of travel time" on their third encounter check of a day long rest. But a group camping for an extended period might get investigated by bears looking for trash to eat or even a couple helpful faeries that have noticed how hurt the PCs are.

Has anyone created for themselves or seen in a published product encounter tables with this level of granularity. The most I can say I have seen is different ones for night and day.

 

[timbannock]

As I have been building my sandbox, I have realized I want the action to be largely player driven primarily by want of treasure (because I want a decent amount of dungeon and lair raiding). The things, it is really hard to find stuff for players to spend money on in 5E.

Does anyone know of any DMGuild or other 3rd party resources that develop a good economy for 5E -- from downtime business investment to training costs to benefits from carousing and so on? What I do not want is the primary money sink to be powering up (especially in the form of buying or making magic items).

There's a great article here: The Gold Problem, and Solving it with Rest Variants

It doesn't fully flesh out things, but it's a great start, and includes some ideas on switches and dials so you can concentrate on the stuff relevant to your campaign. So if you don't want to focus on strongholds, for instance, it goes into depth about spending money on training and basic "support staff" for an adventuring party.

 

[Reynard]

There's a great article here: The Gold Problem, and Solving it with Rest Variants

It doesn't fully flesh out things, but it's a great start, and includes some ideas on switches and dials so you can concentrate on the stuff relevant to your campaign. So if you don't want to focus on strongholds, for instance, it goes into depth about spending money on training and basic "support staff" for an adventuring party.

Nice article. Thanks.

 

[dave2008]

tl;dr the duration of the rest is unchanged, but 4 hours per day is spent in trance instead of 8 in sleep

Breather
A breather is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, ...

Short Rest
A breather in which characters go on to sleep or trance may be extended into a short rest...

Long Rest
A short rest can be extended into a long rest of around three days.

Why not just use the standard terms short rest (breather), long rest (short rest), and one new term for the new rest: extend rest (long rest). It seems like your just making things more confusing.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Here's a couple of hex-crawls I helped create:

Jungle Hex Crawl
Desert Hex Crawl
Arctic Hex Crawl