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<blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 7938141" data-attributes="member: 17913">Thanks!Well, I can say that if you're specifically talking 5e, I've published Hexcrawling: Wilderness Survival and Random Encounters on DMsGuild. I saw a need for it because 5e specifically doesn't worry about what &quot;getting lost&quot; means: you just wander around for 1d6 hours (maybe trigger an encounter or two), and then you're back on course.Hexcrawling and open world play doesn't have to worry about getting lost if the map is especially small, or there are some really obvious landmarks (mountains, gigantic trees or pillars or floating castles), but I think part of the beauty of sandboxes is that mixture of rumors/legends about what you might face in a particular direction, plus the chance of blundering into something wholly unexpected.My biggest piece of advice for any edition, and spelled out in a lot of words and examples in Hexcrawling, is that you should build encounter tables that hint at the world. &quot;1d6 kobolds&quot; isn't enough. &quot;1d6 kobolds; a scouting party for a lair of 10d8 kobolds, 1d6 krenshar, and 1d4 dire weasels in Hex 16.23&quot; is more interesting. Depending on how you write them, you'll want to seed clues about what's nearby, drop in minor lairs, and put in things that the players will want to explore but may have no or limited purpose. That really confounds them!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="timbannock, post: 7938141, member: 17913"] Thanks! Well, I can say that if you're specifically talking 5e, I've published Hexcrawling: Wilderness Survival and Random Encounters on DMsGuild. I saw a need for it because 5e specifically doesn't worry about what "getting lost" means: you just wander around for 1d6 hours (maybe trigger an encounter or two), and then you're back on course. Hexcrawling and open world play doesn't have to worry about getting lost if the map is especially small, or there are some really obvious landmarks (mountains, gigantic trees or pillars or floating castles), but I think part of the beauty of sandboxes is that mixture of rumors/legends about what you might face in a particular direction, plus the chance of blundering into something wholly unexpected. My biggest piece of advice for any edition, and spelled out in a lot of words and examples in Hexcrawling, is that you should build encounter tables that hint at the world. "1d6 kobolds" isn't enough. "1d6 kobolds; a scouting party for a lair of 10d8 kobolds, 1d6 krenshar, and 1d4 dire weasels in Hex 16.23" is more interesting. Depending on how you write them, you'll want to seed clues about what's nearby, drop in minor lairs, and put in things that the players will want to explore but may have no or limited purpose. That really confounds them! [/QUOTE]

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