D&D 5E Becoming lost -- how exactly does it work?

[Prakriti]

This goes especially if yo ugot hard resting rules 8hour short- and weekend/1week long rest e.g.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to use Slow Natural Recovery or Gritty Realism if I run a hex-crawl in 5E. Otherwise, why even have random encounters?

Sadly, though, neither of those variants perfectly captures the flavor of AD&D, which is what I would want to get out of an exploration-heavy game.

Maybe Slow Natural Recovery (i.e. you don't gain hit points after a long rest), plus a reduction in the number of Hit Dice you regain after a long rest -- maybe 1 instead of 1/2 your level. That would make random encounters a lot more consequential.

 

[Coroc]

This! Sadly, the ranger’s niche is not “I’m really good at engaging with the exploration pillar” so much as “I’m so good at exploring that we can just ignore that pillar all together! Hooray!”

My ranger has now favoured territory underdark at 6th level in Oota. My DM handles this like i always know the correct general direction to a destination, but if there is no passage through the stone in that direction i got tough luck. Of course on some skill checks like tracking or such, i got insane modifiers now (double prof and advantage)

 

[Coroc]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to use Slow Natural Recovery or Gritty Realism if I run a hex-crawl in 5E. Otherwise, why even have random encounters?

Sadly, though, neither of those variants perfectly captures the flavor of AD&D, which is what I would want to get out of an exploration-heavy game.

Maybe Slow Natural Recovery (i.e. you don't gain hit points after a long rest), plus a reduction in the number of Hit Dice you regain after a long rest -- maybe 1 instead of 1/2 your level. That would make random encounters a lot more consequential.

i recommend to just track rations, give exhaustion levels (i hate this as a player) for not enough food or sleep, but do not make healing grittier than 8 hour short 1 week long rest. 5e is not designed for that.

You also got to analyse the classs depending on short rests in your PC party, best have none for this kind of adventure or compromise a bit. Like short rest 10 minutes just for regaining combat and spell abilities for those classes and 8 hours for hit dice and such

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to use Slow Natural Recovery or Gritty Realism if I run a hex-crawl in 5E. Otherwise, why even have random encounters?

Random encounters still work fine in overland exploration with the standard rest lengths, you just need enough random encounters in a day to tax the players’ resources. To hit that 6-8 encounters per adventuring day benchmark you basically need to be rolling every hex, with a pretty high chance of an encounter each time.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I do random encounters with a detailed set of interrelating tables based solely on the terrain or specific area. Party level plays no role, since random encounters are intended to simulate what someone might run into in the area, not what would be an "appropriate challenge" for X party of adventures.

If the party is mid-level, the challenge will normally end up being speed bumps (or just scenery when the party has no reason to attack a pod of dolphins, for instance), with an occasional "oh crap" where flight or avoidance is your best option. To minimize the risk of TPKs I implemented a new mechanic for surveying wilderness areas to attempt to spot signs of an upcoming encounter before it happens (ie, this is before you get to the Perception check point) so you can try to sneak up on them or avoid them.

I decided I wanted to make encounters more interesting than just that though, so I made an extra system when rolling up the encounter to determine a variety of possible interesting elements--from terrain, to hazards, to multiple monsters fighting each other, etc.