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<blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 5825834" data-attributes="member: 70">The omnipresent wilderness hex map is only one way to depict the outdoors in a RPG.&nbsp; At its simplest level, the conventional RPG hex map is a pseudo-natural plan (or satellite) view of an outdoor area with a fixed hex grid laid over the top.&nbsp; The hex bears no relationship to natural features.&nbsp; Each hex can be viewed as a &quot;room&quot;, the inhabitants of which are determined by a random die roll.This is &quot;hexcrawl&quot; adventuring at its most basic and elementary: hundreds of rooms of identical sizes, with randomly generated monsters.&nbsp; No one would argue this is interesting, compelling, or meaningful dungeon design, but it's somehow transformed into the epitome of adventuring when the base map depicts a wilderness instead of a dungeon.The concept remains the same regardless of hex size, or if encounters are determined by time rather than distance (in which case each hex or room is a span of time rather than space).The concept begins to acquire some versimilitude if the hexes, or rooms, or encounter areas, are flexible in dimension, each one encompassing a homogeneous region.&nbsp; One hex might be 40 miles of unremarkable woodland, while the second is a dangerous river crossing barely a half-mile wide, the third a treacherous mountain pass ten miles long, and the fourth hex being the night of the full moon.The order of hexes isn't important: characters can go from the &quot;river crossing hex&quot; to the &quot;mountain pass hex&quot;, or upstream to the &quot;bridge hex&quot;, or downstream to the &quot;waterfall hex&quot;.&nbsp; There's still player choice; it just becomes important.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nellisir, post: 5825834, member: 70"] The omnipresent wilderness hex map is only one way to depict the outdoors in a RPG. At its simplest level, the conventional RPG hex map is a pseudo-natural plan (or satellite) view of an outdoor area with a fixed hex grid laid over the top. The hex bears no relationship to natural features. Each hex can be viewed as a "room", the inhabitants of which are determined by a random die roll. This is "hexcrawl" adventuring at its most basic and elementary: hundreds of rooms of identical sizes, with randomly generated monsters. No one would argue this is interesting, compelling, or meaningful dungeon design, but it's somehow transformed into the epitome of adventuring when the base map depicts a wilderness instead of a dungeon. The concept remains the same regardless of hex size, or if encounters are determined by time rather than distance (in which case each hex or room is a span of time rather than space). The concept begins to acquire some versimilitude if the hexes, or rooms, or encounter areas, are flexible in dimension, each one encompassing a homogeneous region. One hex might be 40 miles of unremarkable woodland, while the second is a dangerous river crossing barely a half-mile wide, the third a treacherous mountain pass ten miles long, and the fourth hex being the night of the full moon. The order of hexes isn't important: characters can go from the "river crossing hex" to the "mountain pass hex", or upstream to the "bridge hex", or downstream to the "waterfall hex". There's still player choice; it just becomes important. [/QUOTE]

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