HOW TO HEX CRAWL

INTRODUCTION

I want you to think of hex crawling as playing your TTRPG like a board game. On the players turn, they travel a number of hexes and then roll to see what happens, good or bad. Hex crawling is a very simple, rules lite way to explore a portion of the game world as large as a 10s or hundreds of miles. Rules for hex crawling have been explained more clearly in legacy editions of D&D and in retro clones than in current editions, which is one reason why I'm writing this. Hex crawling emphasizes exploration and discovery rather than combat or talking. The risk-reward elements and in essence the "game" elements are in resource management including time and food, avoiding hazards and obstacles, plotting routes, evading dangerous wild beasts or wandering warbands or scouts, and discovering secret locations.

BASICS OF A HEX

Why a hex? A hex represents a circle, but circles do not interlock as neatly as hexagons, so we use hexes instead. A hex assumes you are standing in the very center of the hex, and the boundaries of hex represent your horizon.

A hex represents a distance in miles. That distance is based on the scale of the map. If you look at an entire continent, one hex might be 60 miles, but we don't hex crawl hexes that big. We zoom in so that a hex is more manageable. There are different philosophies about how big a hex can be or should be, but to keep the math at the simplest, we're going to assume all hexes are either 2, 4, or 8 miles. The math below is based on humans being able to marching 24 miles per day which is reasonable. 

Your map will have a hex-grid on top. Hexes themselves come in different scales and sizes. I don't know if there are standard shaped and sized hexes for this practice. I've seen sheets of paper with 15 hexes on the short side and 27 hexes on the long side, 15 hexes on the long side and 20 hexes on the long side, 15 hexes on the short side and 18 hexes on the long side. You could probably do this with square gird paper (graph paper) perfectly well. The goal is to have paper that is a lot of grids across, so it's not too quickly explored.

HEXCRAWL MOVEMENT RULES

• Scales: Maps can show an area or region at different SCALES. Make these assumptions:
• Large Scale or Kingdom Scale: 1 hex = 8 miles. The hex counts shown below are for traveling pace are based on 8-mile hexes.
• Medium Scale (a seldom used in-between scale): 1 hex = 4 miles, double hex counts shown below. 
• Small Scale or Province Scale: 1 Hex = 2 miles, quadruple hex counts shown below.
• Note, province scales are actually1 mile hexes. Using 2 miles hexes simplifies my mini-game.
• Normal Pace: Move 3 hexes per day.
• Slow Pace: Move 2 Hexes per day. Bonus to stealth and perception.
• Fast Pace: Move 4 Hexes per day. Only navigation is possible and possibly penalized.
• Difficult Terrain: -1 Hex
• Encumbered: -1 Hex if movement while encumbered is possible.
• Forced March: +1 Hex per day and roll vs exhaustion. The roll is more difficult in Difficult Terrain or if encumbered.

GENERAL HEX RULES
Note that rules are intentionally rules-lite. GM rulings are encouraged.

• 1 Day = 1 Turn. Players can move a number of hexes per day, and can do one action per turn.
• Players subtract 1 day's rations / provisions at the end of each day. If you are out of rations, make a roll vs exhaustion.
• Hot regions double water requirements per day. 
• Assume you are in the center of the hex. 
• Don't do fractions of a hex.
• You automatically discover any landmarks or locations in a hex you're in.
• You can see for 2 miles in all directions unless obstructed by terrain. This is true at sea level. At higher altitudes, people can see further. 
• Roll 1 encounter per day and 1 encounter per night. 
• Roll more or less encounters depending on the region. 
• Encounters are not always detrimental; they can also be beneficial or neutral. Having potentially good encounters may make rolling for encounters exciting. 
• For the purposes of defining an encounter, an encounter roll may be an event such as weather or anything that may provide an interesting roleplay prompt.

PLAYER ACTIONS
Players can do 1 thing per day:

• Other / Specify: Be creative, I can't think up everything.
• Navigate: The lead player character in marching order navigates. Navigation is automatically successful on roads or in familiar regions. If success is uncertain, make a roll. 
• On a failure, stray off course by one 8-mile hex without realizing. 
• On a really bad failure, end the day in either the same hex or in a random adjacent hex and the party is sure they're off course but they don't know how badly.
• Some terrain and weather may make navigation more difficult.
• Hire an NPC guide who knows the region. Such a guild does not need to roll to navigate.
• Map: This player may make a map of the party's progress on blank hex paper. 
• They must map their progress faithfully to the navigation rolls, even the failures.
• Forage: Search for wild edibles, drinkable water, medicinal plants, firewood and tinder. On a success, add 1d4+Perception Provisions.
• Geography can affect the availability of resources. This generally makes the difficulty higher or lower, but can also make foraging impossible.
• Hunt / Track: Search for signs of wild game or some other quarry. Roll to succeed / fail. On a success, you encounter wild game or track it to its den.
• Scout: You search for enemies, hazards, and other sources of danger. On a success, you detect the danger in time and can't be surprised by it. You may also have a bonus to surprise enemies at the GM's option.

OPTIONAL RULES

You could use the standard and more traditional 6 mile hex for kingdom scale and 1 mile hex for province scale. In which case, use the adjusted chart below. 

• Scales: Maps can show an area or region at different SCALES. Make these assumptions:
• Kingdom Scale: 1 hex = 6 miles.
• Province Scale: 1 Hex = 1 mile, sextuple hex counts shown below.
• Normal Pace: Move 4 hexes per day.
• Slow Pace: Move 3 Hexes per day. Bonus to stealth and perception.
• Fast Pace: Move 5 Hexes per day. Only navigation is possible and possibly penalized.
• Difficult Terrain: -1 Hex
• Encumbered: -1 Hex if movement while encumbered is possible.
• Forced March: +1 Hex per day and roll vs exhaustion. The roll is more difficult in Difficult Terrain or if encumbered.