D&D General How much time exploring a 6 mile hex?

Racing Breca

Villager
It could be as simple as climbing a butte and making observations which might take 2 hours. It could be as difficult and time consuming as ravines and difficult terrain with plant and animal identification, which could take weeks.

Decide what the cartographer expects the surveying to include. Have the players decide what type of surveying they are doing.
It might be fun to have the cartographer inspect their work. "How many fish in that stream?" Or "Are you sure you didn't see any dragonwood trees?
 

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not-so-newguy

I'm the Straw Man in your argument
That would depend upon a lot of factors. Your visibility is going to be impacted by things that block line of sight, weather, height, etc...

Generally, you can see about 3 miles of flat earth around you. When things stick up out of the earth and are large, you can see them from a furthe distance. If you fly up in the air (or climb something tall), you can see farther. From 100 feet you could see 12 miles, and from 500 feet up you could see 30 miles.

If all you're trying to do is decide whether to label something as jungle, plains, water, hill, mountain or desert, you might be able to get some elevation and place those labels for many hexes around you.

However, if you want to know if there are ruins in the jungle, a village amongst the trees, etc... you likely need to be much closer.

Here are some of my basic rules for Hexploration:

1.) I use 6 mile hexes, but each hex is subdivided into 7 zones. C (center) and 1 through 6 (in clockwise order). Each subhex is roughly 2 miles across. I use these subhex notations to identify which part of a 6 mile hex things are located within when hexplored. I think of the map in 6 mile hexes, but these subhexes are used to organize the finer details, if that makes sense.

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2.) There are four tiers of 'hex information' - Unexplored, Seen, Explored and Searched. An Unexplored hex has never been seen and it could be anything. A Seen hex has been seen from a distance, but the smaller details of the hex are unknown. You could say it is forest or that there is a large lake within it, but not know if there are ruins in the forest or a village along the lake. Explored has been seen to a level where landmarks that are not concealed are now known, and Searched is a level where you have a good chance to uncover hidden secrets like an overgrown mine shaft, a faerie ring in a dense forest, or ruins at the bottom of a lake.

3.) If the PCs move at typical speed, have access to no flight, and are dealing with easily traveled terrain, it takes 2 hours to See a hex that is relatively clear. It takes a day of adventuring to Explore a hex. It take three days to fully Search a hex. If the terrain is rough, we double that time.

4.) If they have access to elevated sight, they can see much further, potentially Seeing many hexes. From 50 feet they can see hexes around their current hex. From 125 feet they can see 2 hexes in every direction. From 250 feet 3 hexes. From 400 feet 4 hexes. From 1000 feet they can see 5 hexes. From 1500 feet 6 hexes. This often is achieved with the assistance of flying familiars, a flying PC, etc...

5.) Mountains can be seen from 8 hexes away if there is line of sight (no jungle blocking, etc...)

6.) For each thing that is available to be discovered on a map, I indicate four things: Location (Hex/Subhex), Chance detected when seen, chance detected when explored and chance detected when searched. Some thing will automatically be found when explored or searched, while there is a chance to detect it when seen. Other things have no chance to be noted when seen, a slight chance when explored, and a greater chance when searched.

7.) The chance to detect is labeled as a percentage chance, and when I roll to determine whether it will be discovered I add either 1.) The best passive perception in the party, or 2.) The result of a perception roll (which is likely at advantage due to assistance) from the party. The only ones that can participate are the ones that are looking. If the detection requires manipulation (as in the ruins are beneath something that can't be seen unless an obstruction is removed) I substitute investigation for perception.

8.) The party can split into sub groups and explore in smaller groups - but splitting the party can be dangerous. If your 6 PC party wants to explore 6 hexes in a day, they can do so ... but they may not all survive.

How does this play out in "real life"?

Usually, one PC has a way to see from a high elevation (raven or owl familiar, aarakocra, flying tiefling), so there are a lot of "seen" hexes right off the bat. This influences where they want to explore and search. My DM map of the area tracks what has been explored and seen, and I give them a separate map (consider using these: Tabletop Games | Headless Hydra Press) to show what they've seen. My map has checkboxes in each hex for seen, explored and searched.

PCs often miss things in hexes, even when searched, because they just fail the rolls. They have other ways to uncover these secrets via speaking to native creatures/beings of the area, so I let that occur naturally.

60% of my hexes are "interesting" as a general rule - enough that there is stuff to do, but not so much that PCs feel like they likely missed something if they do not find anything.
Copy & pasting this into my notes. Thanks!
 


31 square miles is about 864,230,400 square feet, or 34,569,216 five foot squares. If they take one six second turn to search each square it will take them 57,615 hours to do so. If they do so 12 hours per day and 365.25 days per year they can complete the project in about 13.145 years. If the party has five members and they all search different squares at the same time it will take only about 2.629 years. By then they'll have to start searching all over, to find everything that has changed in the last 31 months.

Therefore the search will take forever....
"This hex contains Zeno's Arrow..."
 



aco175

Legend
A lot of mapmakers and cartographers take a lot of liberty and make assumptions on their maps. If a lord or such wanted a map of the island, they would not be handed that map. Now a lot would be wrong, but half would be good enough. Maybe they took a boat around the island and talked to some natives. They would see a large mountain in the middle and some stories would fill in more, but the end would be more artistic license.

It also takes forever to walk through a jungle without roads and rivers. in the daytime it is about 1mile/hour and at night it took us 6 hours to travel 1/2mile. The muddy hills and ravines are filled with vines and thorns that slow everything. There may be sections that are more open, but overall I think it would take a week to explore a hex good enough to know several of the things in that hex. To just pass through a place a tree or hill on the hex may be a whole day.
 

Dioltach

Legend
Terry Pratchett had a bit in one of his earlier books where he explains that Discworld explorers would grab a native, point out a landmark and write down whatever the native said. So various forests, mountains and lakes ended up with names that translated as "Just a mountain", "I don't know, what?" and "Your finger you fool".
 

A lot of mapmakers and cartographers take a lot of liberty and make assumptions on their maps. If a lord or such wanted a map of the island, they would not be handed that map. Now a lot would be wrong, but half would be good enough. Maybe they took a boat around the island and talked to some natives. They would see a large mountain in the middle and some stories would fill in more, but the end would be more artistic license.

It also takes forever to walk through a jungle without roads and rivers. in the daytime it is about 1mile/hour and at night it took us 6 hours to travel 1/2mile. The muddy hills and ravines are filled with vines and thorns that slow everything. There may be sections that are more open, but overall I think it would take a week to explore a hex good enough to know several of the things in that hex. To just pass through a place a tree or hill on the hex may be a whole day.
I think this is good thinking. The time takes what it takes - what level of quality they're expecting to bring back. Are they just wanting to assess threat/no-threat from that area? Are they concerned only with materials etc? Makes me think of my understanding of the Toledo War between Michigan and Ohio in 1835 over Toledo. Michigan lost, so Ohio got Toledo and its location with the Erie Canal. Michigan lost... and got the Upper Pennisula, which they discovered wasn't as much swamp as was thought but was full of good mining and animals to kill.

Going back into gaming lore, the Crane clan from Legend of the Five Rings make insane good use of maps, and because of that and their political mastery are able to punch above their weight militarily. The Daidoji family keeps maps of the Empire supposedly detailed down to individual trees because they're primarily saboteurs, and also because a sudden harvesting of forests may mean other things economically or militarily.
 

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