Best System for Wilderness Exploration

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

I've run wilderness exploration in 4E at my game table using the skill challenge system with never a hex in sight.

A friend uses classic D&D plus massive amounts of homebrew with a detailed hex map.

What are your experiences with Wilderness Exploration? What worked and what didn't?

Any thoughts on wilderness exploration adventuring in general? Like or dislike?

 

[Grimstaff]

I don't think system matters much, at least not as much as great maps, a thorough set of random generation tables, and some inspirational reading.

 

[howandwhy99]

I use a set of modified Wilderness Survival(tm) rules. Wilderness is really anywhere all the walls are out of sight for me, so the players tend to do a lot of path following. When they go off the path, that's when the majority of the rules for getting lost, blazing trails, and trying to survive the rigors of the wilderness come to the forefront.

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

What makes for a great map?

 

[Bluenose]

What makes for a great map?

For a wilderness exploration game?

1. A range of terrain types rather than all one thing. Slogging along through exactly the same type of terrain day after day rarely keeps people interested.

2. Different challenges. Which of course partly stems from the above. Make sure the problems the characters face aren't the same every day. Sometimes you're crossing a ravine, other times you'll be trying to find your way up a ridge, and others you're looking rather depressed because of a swamp.

3. Occasional set piece locations. Not necessarily fantastic ones. Discover the Angel Falls, or the Grand Canyon, or the ruins of Machu Picchu. Something to make the players go "Wow".

4. Plausibility. Which means different things to different people, of course. But don't suddenly decide you want a forest in the middle of a steppe or turn an area into a desert through magic, unless you've got a plausible explanation. And note that if one of your players knows more about it that plausible explanation needs work, and you have to understand the implications, if they're going to care about plausibility.