D&D HexCrawls! How To Do Exploration RIGHT! 

Check out my random table video!

Are there any collections of random encounter tables

@@capl6609 I plan on making a massive master random encounter table in the near future and posting it for download on itch.io

One of the best compliments I got from a player recently (semi-hexcrawl sandbox campaign) was when I said that their rolls for encounters are genuinely random selections, and they responded with "DM, that's amazing! The world feels so lived-in, it's like, we're only level 5 the world doesn't revolve around us. These other factions have their own things going on, and we aren't even the biggest part of that." Context: Neverland - one of the beach hexes around the island. The party had some weeks ago rescued one of their members who was captured by the pirates - and without much in the way of combat either. The party rolls for an encounter and it turns out they have come across a large pirate group on the beach, along with Captain Hook. At this point I have to determine "Why are the Pirates there?" - so I decide they're having a meeting with the mermaids to talk about recent attacks from Elphame/Fairy Land. They see the PCs before the meeting and decide that they would rather not have the PCs to deal with as enemies too. They demand a parley, and the Face of the group goes to talk to Captain Hook. They agree on a truce, and go their separate ways.

@@capl6609 hot springs island has some of the best tables for a sandbox hexcrawl. It's quality design and as a product.

Indeed, but I suppose that's just for places with more traffic

I just learnt a fun fact about my country. In medieval times there used to be a law that dictated that there must be an inn (or something similar) every 25km (roughly) by the main roads.

Yes, I have just such a place in my campaign. It is run by the pirates to lure in travelers which are then drugged, Shanghai'ed and pressed into service either on a ship as a crew member or if they prove deficit at that, as a slave in their iron mine.

@@digitalspecter This kind of thing has something to do with why we in Sweden (confusingly) call 10km a "mil", that was the mandated distance for waystones (milestones, if you will), and then every 2nd or 3rd I think was the "inn distance"? EDIT: the inn distance was "1.5 to 2 mil"

Depends on how heavily traveled it is. You need a good 7-12 humanoid travelers a week to support even a small inn. Any less than that and there’ll probably be only a campsite built by previous travelers but left empty most of the time, and with highwaymen likely watching it for likely targets.

Good point! To build on that, if you have a lull in a campaign, you can always just plant the equivalent experience in that area. The characters are after that flamethrower sword of lore? GREAT NEWS! A devil has actually been using that exact sword to clear out a nearby castle! Gets the players a nugget of accomplishment, and allows you to have a filler episode if a campaign quest is getting stale.

Well it depends.. when you have already said that this sword would/could/should be in a specific area and If they would get the Chance to remember this Fact, so Low this Chance might be, they could blame you for rushing or ruining the fun to hunt this sword. I've experienced it more than once in several Situations and i felt Bad for 2 months straight, that i didn't get the thought of it.

Definitely a top tier idea that one.

It's good to break through any GM block.

@@commandercaptain4664 Some of my most creative moments have come from smashing together two things that don't normally go together. It really gets the mental juices flowing when you need to make those two elements make sense together.

The first rule about hex crawls is that Dungeon Masters should never tell their players they're actually playing in a hexcrawl

Mainly for immersion?

@@jmass4207 The moment they learn about the system that they are living inside of, they will attempt to exploit the system. Bracketing a hex-based map is basically as uninteresting as just doing adventure of the week in sequential order

@@DungeonMasterpiece has that happened before? Did the group just go through row by row?

I need to look it up! Thanks!

I would love to learn more about this. I've always wanted to run an intrigue or kingdom-sized campaign but I don't feel like I am good enough of a designer to tackle what that would involve.

@@harrison3207 intrigue style games don't do well with 5e dnd. You need to have a very different ruleset that doesn't make your players out to be super heros. Check out god bound and worlds without numbers. Both have lots of tools for the kind of game you might like, as well as a fresh perspective on game mastering to assist in that kind of game

Gotta get rid of as much mental load as possible so you can focus on the things that matter to you most in your world building. Also, ankhegs are terribly underated.

DCC rules

@@carpma11 it really does!

My favorites are Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Land of Nod and Hot Springs Island :) Are all your (except isle of dread) for DCC?

@@Infyra Yes but that's because it's what I've got the most of. But they are fantastic

I'm going to be running the 5e version of Isle of Dread soon. I never thought to use the Wilderness Survival Guide as a resource!

@@scottplumer3668 I use a number of my old books because the information is useful still in play and we never got updated version of it. I hope you have a great campaign with the 5e version of Isle of Dread Cheers

A warning to all who see this in the future. Tomb of Annihilation has some major issues that need to be fixed to get to the juicy stuff. DON’T start with a time crunch/main quest. It squashes exploration. Let the death curse be discovered organically after a little while or do away with it altogether. (Your players will need to find some other reason for being in Chult.) Rework the random encounters. Another bunch of velociraptors just attacking becomes very unfun after a while. Make sure that the marked points of interest on the map have something interesting. It’s crushing to fight your way through a jungle to get to the ruins of a coastal town and find….nothing. It’s got some cool stuff, but it’s broken out of the box.

New DM, checking out these resources now. Thanks for posting and helping the growing community.

Thanks for sharing 😊

I need to rewatch and rehearse the lindybeige video for sure

Twilight 2000 is awesome.

Glad you found it useful!

Glad you appreciate it!

You are quite welcome

You are quite welcome!

Awesome, thank you!

IMV the suit detracts from the entire video because it's ironic to wear when talking about games. It reeks of taking yourself too seriously, which is ironically an expression of anti-fun. Luckily the content is good and he is enthusiastic enough to show everyone he's still fun despite it ;) Nothing wrong with wearing what you like, ofc. It just seems odd when talking about games we play to relax :P

You can still use/give players a non hex map. Just drop a hex grid over your already existing map!

Glad the video inspired you! Hope you have fun with it!

I don't like wasting people's time.

Look at the kingmaker campaign for Pathfinder. You might enjoy that

I realy like this idea. I though about something similair. They portal 1000 in to the future the portal is still active. Somehow the portal managed to steal the mana from its seroundings over the course of 50 years and it exploded. Mutating everything on the planet. They find old ruins that lead back to the history of 1000 years ago. Are they in time to stop to deactivate portal or is the cataclism unaviodable. Strange dungeon portal spawn to the south. To the west random green creatures have been spotten. To the north the river is running out of water. To the east fishing boots are gone misssing.

Glad you enjoyed it!

You're very welcome!

Glad it was helpful!

I like that you point out those two things. Obviously, we both have good taste. 😃

Glad it was helpful! I don't like wasting people's time.

Thanks wiz!

This video alone has caused me to shoot up 100 subs in 12 hours, so I suspect you might be correct! Thank you!

I'm glad for that!!

Glad you are enjoying it!

You're so welcome!

You are welcome!

You have just inspired an episode. "How to actually get started as a dm, and get good fast"

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!