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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8645205" data-attributes="member: 82106">Comparison of 1e and 5e in hexcrawl terms:1e has pretty detailed procedural rules, which I would call actual RULES, they tell you 'do this' or 'do that'. There's a good bit of advice and 1e CLEARLY thinks the DM is going to filter all this to a degree, but you can basically run a hexcrawl virtually entirely with the dice. There are a few minor gaps and places where stuff is not fully explained in terms of procedure, but the core 'loop' of exploration is VERY clear. I could drop a party onto a blank hex map and the DMG will take me entirely through tables that will generate the terrain, tell us how and when to check for encounters, and presents tables that we can use to generate those encounters, as well as definite rules for encounter distance, surprise, reactions, negotiation, etc. Its rules on things like encumbrance and movement seem (and I can confirm this from experience) to be fairly well-calculated to generate hard choices and force the players to deal with the environment and situation. If a story were to emerge from this process, it will be purely constituted of tales of encounters, discovery of settlements and camps/forts, and the various actions taken to secure food, shelter, and equipment. The gist of any agenda, as far as the rules are concerned would be either clearing out an area, or passing through it and probably mapping it.It isn't easy to say exactly what rules are constitutive of the 'hexcrawl' vs other stuff, but there are AT LEAST 30 pages of rules in 1e that are primarily concerned with this kind of exploration, maybe 60 pages if you take a bit of a broader view.5e has certainly got 10's of pages, maybe even as much as 1e that could be related to hexcrawls, but it is much less easy to say. Most of what is in 5e is more in terms of suggestions, and usually is in terms of how a DM can place their desired story elements within the context of a wilderness. There are a few tables here and there, and a fair number of places where a check is noted, etc. but overall how, when, and where these things are employed is much less specified in 5e, and usually talks about 'story' vs a kind of mechanical process with a defined structure. On the whole I would say that both systems require some kinds of specific DM input to instantiate a crawl, but 1e is much more definite about what the process is and how to go about it. The biggest thing you need to establish in 1e is the general character of the wilderness, what is its population density, what is the climate, and what kind of terrain is present (but you can generate that). The DM is then obviously free to add whatever else, like keyed encounters, but wouldn't absolutely have to do so. 5e's 'system' isn't really that much of a system, it wouldn't be possible to simply start with a blank map. There is, for one thing, a strong presupposition that there is a 'story' behind all the activity. There simply aren't detailed generators for most things, and the rules don't really establish, for instance, a 'core loop' of movement, rest, and encounter checks. All these things are individually discussed, but there isn't really a 'top level' to it, which 1e has (and starts with). Also I can't judge if 5e's rules would really all work together to produce the sort of 'hard journey' story that seems to be embedded in the 1e rules. PCs can carry a lot of stuff, and I'm not clear on whether the rules really bring out a logistical challenge, or if that is even intended. Perhaps you can kind of get to the place 1e is at without actually rewriting anything in 5e, but I think you'd need another 10 pages of 'glue'.And none of this is covering other points, like magic. 5e Wizards and Clerics have a LOT of unlimited or easily accessed magic, and not so many casting restrictions and difficulties as a 1e caster would face in the wilderness. So, presumably even 1-3rd level 5e PC casters are going to be HIGHLY useful, and continue so. I'd note that even 1e does have druids and clerics that are somewhat less restricted than wizards, and can help a lot with logistics. Still, they can only cast memorized spells! At higher levels (maybe 9th and above) this will perhaps start to undermine the 1e resource stuff, but at that point the DM is fully justified in sending the party to another plane, or something like that anyway! 1e also has less issues with resource recovery. Fighters effectively (if you have some cleric and healing magic) are at about the same daily rate as wizards. However, with encounters being 1 or 2 per day in most cases this probably won't get to be a problem, unless the PCs get into a more involved 'mini-adventure' perhaps.</blockquote>

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