Starting a Hex Crawl Campaign

I've been reading a lot about hex crawls, specifically how to generate terrain, special features, random encounters, and how to handle time and distance. It's made me want to try a solo hex crawl and see what emerges. I also wanted to start something simpler than my homebrew Twilight 2000 game, because playing that takes a lot of mental prep for some reason.  

So, I printed out a hex map, a bunch of random tables, and bought some dry erase pens. I came up with a simple "West Marches" style campaign where different PCs could emerge. Some of them would die and some would survive and maybe become legends. The general premise is that the world is recovering from a dark age. The campaign starts at a frontier keep called Fenro, at the edge what is considered civilization. There are unexplored wilds to the south, east, and west. Alongside the Keep, sits the town of Windcross with a population of about 200 people. 

Windcross is where I'll pull my PCs. Problems will occur and they'll go out exploring. Again, some of them will die and other return to try again.

Tools:

• I'm using Cairn as my main system supplemented with the travel system from Lavender Hack.
• Wilderness Hexploration to generate terrain
• Weird & Wild: A Travel Generator by Academic Kobold to generate random features and encounters
• Barrow Delver by ManaRampMatt for solo rules
• And d30 Sandbox Companion for a bunch of random tables, specifically for NPC generation

A Note about Cairn

Cairn, I think, is a very elegant system: three ability scores, armor reduces damage from hits, inventory is slot based, things like that. It's very to-the-point and has a dark, dreary vibe. Your PC starts out very weak and the spells take up inventory slots. It's a system that makes me feel how brittle my PCs are. I haven't done any combat yet, but both starting PCs have 2 hit points each. Yikes. And there's no level system. If I'm understanding it correctly, your PCs become more "powerful" through gear. Cool. 

I rolled up two characters, Ethex the alchemist and Borrid the gravedigger, and sent them out to explore. I hope they find some adventure and live to tell about it!

Dawn, Session 5: Emo Folk Band

Chaos Factor: 7

After the run-in with the postal carrier, the group decides to double back a bit in attempt to avoid anyone who may have been alerted to the gunfire. However, they are determined to find some formula after their aborted attempt the previous day.

Roll

Roll for stress
Old Bear, D8, result=1, gain 1 point
Clove, D8, result=5, gain 1 point
Crow, D8, result=2, gain 1 point

The firefight shook everyone up. It was too reminiscent of the first few weeks of the Collapse.

Roll

Roll against CF:7, D10, result=10, begins as expected.

They continue south, leaving and hiding their bicycles behind. After an hour they reach their destination, one of those hypermarket superstores common in Portland. They scout before they proceed, using binoculars, but see nothing.

Roll

Roll on random encounters, d100, result=66, nomads, musicians

They head for the entrance, using the abandoned cars, carts, and other debris as cover. The sliding doors are wide open and they step inside and jump over the swing gate barriers. As soon as all three are a few feet from it, they hear a voice say, "Stop right there."

Old Bear goes low, looks around but doesn't spot anyone. "Please don't raise that gun," the voice says.

Old Bear positioned his hands away from his body and says, "We're good, we're good. Relax. We came here for the same reason as you: Just to get some stuff and leave. We have a baby back at home that we need to find formula for."

After a few moments, a young woman emerges from behind table with a pile of jeans on top of it, a bow in her hand pointed at the group.

"You don't sound like them," they say.

"Them?"

"They took our friend," they say. "Some hippie dippie cultists."

"Yeah, we are definitely not them."

The woman puts down her bow and two more come out, both women, one with a knife and the the other with a shotgun.

Old Bear explains where they are from and mentions the baby again. The first woman smiles.

"We've heard of you all," they say. "We were actually heading up there for a visit. We are a band. On tour, you could say."

Roll

Roll on Mythic, Is there formula, I judge this as a near sure thing, result=40, yes.

Result of Scene

New NPCs: 5 (one was inside the store)

• Moss Concrete, band

Stress:

• Clove: 2
• Crow: 1
• Old Bear: 2

New thread:

• Moss Concrete, the emo folk band, lost their roadie to the unidentified cult

Resolved thread:

• Found baby formula

31 characters

I came across a blog that mentioned a “31 characters in 31 days” challenge. I thought it would be interesting to do, so I’m going to try it. However, I don’t really like “challenges,” so I’m just going to go at my own pace. I’m going to start with a character I created for a Black Hack 2nd Edition, play-by-post, hex crawl on Discord I’m part of.

Falyn

Falyn, 30, halfling thief

Falyn is a thief in the land of Osterra, a land where Darkness had taken over. Somehow the city of Ridgeholme maintained its light and sanity and as the Darkness slowly faded, heroes and brigands are steadily retaking back the land.*

For as far as Falyn could remember, he’s been an orphan, having to find family and comradery wherever and whenever he could. Living was hard and so he become harder. This eventually led him to join one of the street gangs of Ridgeholme–although “gang” is probably too strong a word. They were just a bunch of ruffians and rejects searching for the next piece of coin so that they could eat, shit, and sleep in peace. Eventually, someone, maybe Falyn himself, had the foolish idea to take their little band up north. They had heard that Rivik, the crime lord holding it down in the north had been run off, maybe even killed, by some big shot Duke.

The idea was to do some highway robbery, maybe even take some territory. But other gangs–real gangs–had the same idea. One by one, Falyn’s friends either got killed, joined up with a gang, or just slipped away back to Ridgeholme. Falyn tried to join up with one of the gangs but no one would take him–too short, too scrawny, they’d say and laugh. Eventually, he headed back to Ridgeholme, defeated.

On the way back, he ran into a strange little kobold.** The kobold smelled of death and had a pack of beetles always following him. But Falyn was lonely and he was looking for a new gang. Why not start one with a possibly undead kobold? Somehow, he figured out that the little kobold called himself “Lucky.” (Or maybe Falyn named him that?) And somehow, they found themselves back at Ridgeholme, Falyn unsure of who was following whom.

Falyn went back to his stealing and conning, doing the legitimate odd job or two when a business or merchant would have him, and sometimes convincing Lucky and his beetles to do some street performing for a few coins. But all along he kept his eyes and ears open for a new opportunity, some plan less half-baked with people with more promise and respectability. Then one day–thank Ondra***–as Lucky and him were slumming it at their favorite tavern, two oafs–a Lorne and Carnran****–struck a conversation about searching for some adventure and treasure.

Using his natural charisma, Falyn convinced them to let Lucky and him joint their little venture. Now he hopes that this expedition is more fruitful than the last and that he can finally get some real coin so that he could eat, shit, and sleep in peace.

*This is part of the setting lore for the Discord server
**Lucky the NOT-a-necromancer Kobold is one of the PCs

***Again, a piece of lore from the Discord server. She's one of the gods: Ondra, the goddess of Mercy, Healing, and Nature.
****Another set of PCs, a human fighter and a half-dwarf fighter

Stats:

[Halfling] [Thief] 

HP 3/3 || HD 1d6 [

Black Leather hood and vest] || AV: 2/2 

Experience: 0 || Coin: 0 

Background: [May or may not be a former follower of the Brigand Rivik. A fickle adherent of the goddess Ondra (just the mercy bit). Always chewing on darkgrass, and as a result, spits a lot.] 

Attributes

------------------

STR: 9 

DEX: 14 

CON: 7 

WIS: 5 

INT: 6 

CHA: 12 

Inventory

------------------
Bag of knuckle bones 

Stolen heart - still beating 

Two short swords 

Throwing knife (unlimited)

Dawn, Session 4: Postal Carrier

Having lost a day, Old Bear, Crow, and Clove get up early to set out again. They follow the same route as yesterday, through the railroad bridge and the industrial area on the west side of the river. This time they get further in.

Roll

Roll for stress for going to unexplored hexes
Old Bear, D8, result=5, fail, 1 stress
Crow, D8, result=6, success
Clove, D8, result=2, fail, 1 stress

For a quick moment, Old Bear feels the weight of "command," a burden he takes on because of a sense of duty to his community

Even though Clove volunteered, being so far from The Uni is making her nervous.

Roll

Roll for random encounter, D100, result=96, mailcarrier
Roll for distance, D8, result=6, long range
Roll for recon, Clove, D8, result=6, success

As they near the edge of the industrial area and into Downtown proper, they see a person in what looks like a postal carrier's uniform.

Roll

Roll for reaction, D10, result=4, wary
Roll on Mythic, is this person armed? Very likely, result=90, yes; rilfe with scope

They look a little lost, disheveled, and for a supposed postal carrier, carrying very little. But they are armed with a scoped rifle. Judging by their state, Old Bear decides to be extra cautious. He instructs Clove and Crow to find cover. Then he calls out.

"Hey, everything okay?"

The postal carrier immediately snaps up his weapon, pointing it at the general direction of the group...

Roll

Roll on Mythic, do they shoot? 50/50, result=2, exceptional yes

...and fires a few shots. They are off the mark but it's enough to get Old Bear to go immediately prone. Crow and Clove are a bit too slow for him so he instructs them to get down.

Old Bear curses and decides to engage. He's hoping he can neutralize the target quickly.

Round 1
Old Bear:

• Aim
• Fire

Roll

Roll for ranged, long range modifier, -2, D6, D10, 2 ammo dice, result=6, 8, 2 successes -- critical hit; ammo=4, 2

Old Bear fires a burst (6 shots) from his M4 and connects--the result of army training and luck. The postal carrier goes down hard.

"Did you hit him?" Crow asks. Old Bear says nothing, figuring Crow would figure it out for himself.

Old Bear waits a few beats before deciding what to do. He's worried that the shooting will attract more attention. His instincts tell him to start moving but he wants to check the postal carrier, maybe grab the rifle while he's at it.

Finally, he makes a decision. He tells them to stay while he checks it out, using a row of trees for cover.

Roll

Roll on Mythic, Does the shooting attract anyone? I have no idea, but from the narrative prompts, the postal carrier may have been on the run from marauders of some sort, but I choose 50/50 anyway, result=19, yes
Is it anyone connected to the postal carrier? again, 50/50, result=yes
I roll on the Faction table from T2K4, D100, result=6, Civilian (locals)
I do another roll to see if Clove, the one with highest Recon score sees them before they see our group, D8, D10, result=2, 7, one success

Clove notices another person further back and calls out to Old Bear to warn him.

Note

Here I pause and think about what this new individual will do in the context of my prompts and the situation. I'm going to back track a little...From the narrative prompts for the postal carrier, I got: "cultured villager," "lack of resources," "coup," "factions: criminals and marauder thugs."

My imagination interprets the situation of the postal carrier: The postal carrier was part of another settlement and may have been actually carrying out a postal service for their community (which from the prompts indicated that the faction they belong to were "criminals" which I then interpreted as maybe a "harder" "more brutal" community than The Uni.) But then a "coup" happened, and their settlement was attacked by an even more brutal faction of marauder thugs.

I was hoping Old Bear could talk to the postal carrier, find out what was going on, but since they had a tag of "wary" and they were maybe on the run from marauders, I asked mythic whether they would shoot immediately and got an "exceptional yes"--they are spooked and shoot a few rounds. Old Bear reacts of course (I randomly generated Initiative and Old Bear happened to take the first spot.)

I read that combat in T2K4 is brutal, but was still surprised by the outcome. The burst from his M4 combined with his skill as rifleman and luck of the roll just annihilated the NPC.

Back to the new individual. Since Mythic says that they are connected to the postal carrier, I expected the marauders, but instead I got "Civilian (local)." So, I interpret some more and I figure this is someone connected to the postal carrier and they had escaped the same attack as the postal carrier. Here I decide, seeing their friend shot or at least seeing them on the ground, not moving, and having heard shots, they decide to leave and save themselves.

Old Bear goes prone and scans. He sees another person but only for a brief moment. This new person leaves immediately. Old Bear takes a risk and rushes to the postal carrier's body. He searches the body and finds three magazines for the rifle and an unopened letter. He grabs the rifle and goes back to Crow and Clove. He hands the rifle to Crow.


"Let's get out of here before anyone else shows up," Old Bear says.

Result of Scene

NPCs: 3;

• 1 decently armed guard; no further information, except likelihood that this person is connected to leaflet
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet
• 1 person connected to postal carrier who Old Bear shot in Episode 4

Stress:

• Clove: 1
• Crow: 1
• Old Bear: 0

New threads:

• Baby left at settlement. Who are the parents?
  • Baby needs formula
• Recruited two teenagers, a boy and a girl. Found them drinking and smoking.
• Came across a dangerous postal carrier who Old Bear shot and killed. Someone was nearby and may have witnessed the shooting.

Chaos factor: 6+1=7

Dawn, Session 3: Smells Like Teen Spirit

 

EPISODE 3 - March 19, 2024

Month: March
Weather: Cloudy
Shift: ?
Setting: The Uni
NPCs: 2

• 1 decently armed guard (see Episode 2)
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet (see Episode 1)

Settlement stats:

Settlers: 19, all healthy
Food: D12
Water: D10
Ammo: D10
Medicine: D12
Security: D4

Threads:

• Murder of prisoners looks like a ritual killing; seems like it's connected to the leaflet that Clove found.
• Old Bear finds an address for one of the killed prisoners. May be worth checking out.

Chaos Factor: 6

Roll

Roll on Dawn's mission generator, D100, result=59, Baby left at settlement
Roll, d12, result=10, baby is 10 months old

Someone left an infant at the Uni's "doorstep"--a healthy baby girl. She was heard crying by at least a half-dozen settlers and was taken straightaway to one of the shelters and looked over by someone with medical knowledge. A few settlers went out to see if they could find the mother, but who knows how long that baby had been sitting out there and where the parent(s) could have gone, but folks thought to try anyway. Dawn hopes that they come back one day, whoever they are.

A few of the settlers are already falling in love with her and are privately thinking of names. But first, the settlement needs to find her formula.

Roll

Roll for # of sites, distance, and direction; result=3 sites so rolling 3 times for distance and direction;
1st possible site=nearby (6 hexes away), south
2nd possible site=nearby (6 hexes away), south east
3rd possible site=Really far (10 hexes away), south west

Back at Dawn's "office," Dawn consults with Old Bear about where they can find formula. The office is fairly large, probably the former office of one of the University's Deans. There's a map of Portland and a map of Oregon hung up on one of the walls with pins, notes, and other markings. They decide that there are three possible areas where they would most likely find what they need.

They pull out another map (one of those you used to get from gas stations) and mark the three sites with a red marker. Two are fairly close together and they decide to go to the area just outside of Downtown Portland, the Pearl District. If that's a bust, they'll go east across the bridge and check the second site. The third one is a bit too far, too risky.

The Old Bear will go. And since Old Bear is going, Crow will go. Clove who hears about the baby and suspects a scavenging trip will soon be underway, hovers outside the building where Dawn's office is. She volunteers to go. Old Bear decides that she handled herself well enough last time that he agrees.

Roll

Roll for shift, D4, result=2, Day

There's still plenty of daylight left so they decide to leave immediately, hopefully they can make it back before dark. They have to cross the Willamette and decide to use the railroad bridge, having to walk their bikes across which slow them down a bit. But other than that, no trouble.

They head south and Old Bear decides to go across the old industrial area instead of the main road. Hopefully they can avoid any trouble by going this way.

Roll

Roll for stress for going to unexplored hexes:
Old Bear, D8, result=8, pass
Crow, D8, result=6, pass
Clove, D8, result=7, pass

Roll

Encounter table, d100, result=44, two teenagers
Reaction table, d10, result=3, indifferent
Clove, roll for Recon, D8, result=7, success
Roll on various NPC creation and narrative tables

As they enter the industrial area, Clove spots two teenagers, a boy and a girl. They look about seventeen or eighteen. Both are sitting against one of the walls of an office building and are taking drags off a cigarette and drinking from a bottle filled with brown liquid.

They're both wearing what looks like cloaks, but on closer examination are either blankets or raingear or a cobbling of both. Underneath that, they seem to be wearing brown work uniforms, most likely looted from one of the surrounding industrial buildings. Their shoes look new, the kind you go running in.

The group confers and decide to approach them carefully. Old Bear decides to hang back a bit, to cover them if necessary, and to give the young people someone closer their age to talk to.

Crow decides that Clove should try first, since they look like her age. They slowly approach (leaving their bikes behind) and the two teenagers don't notice them until they are about 15 or so feet. The two teens hardly react though and look almost like two deer in headlights, but not exactly afraid, just unsure of what to do.

"Hi, I'm Clove," she says.

"Hi, do you want a drink?" The boy says after a few moments, waving the bottle at her.

"No, thank you. Are you two alright?"

They take a moment to think about the question, a question they haven't asked themselves in a while.

"We're okay, I guess."

The girl chimes up, "We're hungry. Do you have any food?"

Clove produces a bag of nuts and the settlement's version of deer jerky from her backpack, gets a little closer, and tosses it at them.

"There's more back where we live," Clove says. "We have a community where we take care of each other, watch out for each other."

Roll

Roll, empathy, D10, result=8, success.
Roll on Mythic, Do they decide to join? Using the successful empathy roll, I judge it as very likely; result=31, yes.

The girl takes a final drag of her cigarette before putting it out.

"Where?" she asks.

Clove explains to them where. They nod, pretending to know where she's indicating.

"Can we go there now?" the girl asks.

The group confers and decides that it's best if they bring the two back to The Uni now rather than wait until they sober up or bring them along in their mission.

Result of Scene

NPCs: 2;

• 1 decently armed guard; no further information, except likelihood that this person is connected to leaflet
• 1 person or group who created pamphlet

Stress:

• Clove: 0
• Crow: 0
• Old Bear: 0

New threads:

• Baby left at settlement. Who are the parents?
  • Baby needs formula
• Recruited two teenagers, a boy and a girl. Found them drinking and smoking.

Chaos factor: 6

Tools used

Taking a pause here to share what tools I'm using:

Campaign and world tracking:

Obsidian

Obsidian is a powerful note taking software which has been adopted by some folks to track their RPG settings and campaigns. The power comes in its flexibility in the form of user-made plugins. And instead of me trying to explain what this is and how useful it is, I'm going to refer you to this YouTube Playlist on how you can employ Obsidian for TTRPG gaming. 

Roll20

I use this just to track movement on the campaign map. Although Obsidian has an interactive map feature (via a plugin), it's not sufficient for want I want to do. However, the map feature in Obsidian is good enough for me to run battles in.

GM Emulators and narrative drivers:

I'm new to this so I went with the one that most people talk about: Mythic Game Master Emulator. I use it to answer Yes/No questions. It can also be used as a random event generator. Then to provide narrative direction, I roll on a bunch of different tables pulled from the solo rules section of Twilight 2000, 4th edition, Ironsworn, Book of Modern Tables, and whatever else I have open.

NPCs and PCs

If appropriate, I'm using BOLD, Universal PC Stories and Deeds Generator to help generate backstories for NPCs and new PCs. And when necessary, I'm using UNE, The Universal NPC Emulator to help flesh out an NPC's appearance, motivations, and moods. I'm also using Junkyard Zine issue 1 to help with "vibe" and fashion of NPCs and PCs. 

Custom Tables

I've also created a bunch of custom tables to help with:

• PC character properties: (gender, look, pronouns, ethnicity, etc.)
• Random encounters
• Loot
• Scouting/rumors
• Quality/amount of loot

Combat behavior

Just learned about this subsystem to determine NPC combat behavior from The Lone Adventurer podcast. I'm going to paste it below for easier referencing. If somehow the author reads this and wants credit or for it to be removed, please just let me know!

NPC opponents have an Aggression rating of 1 to 6, with most starting on 4.

To find an opponent's tactic for the round, roll 2D6 of the same colour and one of a different colour. If the single die comes up a 1, 2 or 3, continue the same tactic from the previous round. On a 4 or 5, total the two same-coloured dice and add Aggression, then pick from the Tactic table. If it shows a 6, roll it again and pick an action from the Twist table.

As they take or inflict wounds, gain or lose the advantage in a fight, NPC opponents' Aggression will raise or lower. Experienced fighters will change only a small amount, while green, frightened or vengeful opponents will change more. Each time someone in the fight (either PC or NPC) suffers a setback, there should be a chance for Aggression to change. If the NPCs are nervous or demoralised, Aggression will drop when they suffer a setback and rise when a PC does. If they are angry or undisciplined, Aggression will rise when they suffer a setback and drop when a PC does.

If you don't want to bother with Aggression, roll 3D6 for a tactic. If you want a more straightforward fight, without unexpected moves, drop the Twist die.

NPC Tactic table

1. Panic - flee without caution, open self up to opportunistic attack
2. Surrender - throw down weapons and submit to opponent
3. Disengage - attempt to divert opponent's attention away from self
4. Retreat - move towards cover or out of range
5. Guard - defend only, no attack
6. Probe - attack cautiously, testing opponent's defenses
7. Wear down - draw the fight out and try to tire the opponent
8. Stand-off - wait for opponent to make the next move
9. Balance - attack and defend evenly, no particular strategy
10. Feint - try to trick opponent into defending against the wrong move
11. Reverse - rapidly switch from aggressive to defensive fighting to off-balance opponent
12. Taunt - try to anger or dismay opponent into making a mistake
13. Press - keep opponent on the defensive and hope their skill is inferior
14. Strike - try to penetrate opponent's defence with a fast attack
15. Charge - attack with ferocity, risking injury to wound opponent
16. Frenzy - attack wildly, risking death to wound opponent

Twist Table

1. Re-enforce - Call for help from allies/bystanders
2. Change - weapon/objective/ground
3. Disadvantage opponent - throw a burning candelabra, maneuver into uneven terrain, cut a curtain so that it falls over their head
4. Advantage self - take the higher ground, move so that they are not facing the sun, draw/pick up a second weapon
5. Bargain - try to persuade opponent to surrender/back out of combat/change sides
6. Trick - try to convince opponent they are about to suffer a setback or gain a false advantage

I did modify some of the tactics to be more in line with a modern setting. 

What tools do you find helpful?