Hexcrawl '25 Mid-Year Status

As we pass the mid-point of the year, taking a look at how this Hexcrawl25 challenge is coming along. On a pure stats, it is not bad - 57% of total hex-count for the year achieved with 50% of the time gone. The campaign I have been running as a test-bed and motivator just hit summer hiatus after 17 sessions, 13 within the campaign, 4 open-table stand-alones. So far, so good.

The Hexmap

I started off from a cookie-cut chunk out of my existing Azgaars Fantasy Map Generator world map.

Initial progress followed a bit of a corkscrew workflow -
* I cookie cut the game region from the existing gameworld
* I built a spreadsheet to list off all the sub hexes and then filled in the biome, culture, religion and political data
* I stared at the first hex
* Rolled up some locations with the d30 Sandbox Companion - incl some settlements, lairs, ruins and cults
* Built a little worksheet, accidentally printed off more than I needed, actually useful mistake
* Read the sites in Knock #1, decided where they went
* Stared at the first hex-region some more, wondered why this had felt easier for Southern Reaches
* Looked for my southern reaches notes, took a while to find them
* Looked for the blogpost about what the hell I did back then
* Saw I had worked up the regions with Deck of Worlds, realised I did not feel like hauling that off the shelf
* Poked through my new copy of Tome of Adventure Design, got a few ideas from that, put it back
* Got a post it, listed out a few ideas to then stick wherever I found a home
* Cracked open the southern reaches spreadsheet - stole the NPC trait generator, list of gods, list of regions (same world), bayou encounter table and ancestry table
* Reworked the random ancestry table to make it closer to D&D baseline
* Looked back over my list of locations and assigned inhabitants to the settlements by order of commonality
* I cracked the Deck of Worlds, even threw in the bridging deck for Lore Masters Deck and roughed out the 19 regional super-hexes
* Realised I had gotten my scale wrong, and drilled down into a sub-hexes in a panic the night before running the first session
* Plundered bits of my Southern Reaches campaign that did not get used to populate the 'starting zone'

All that to get me ~ 19 sub-hexes of the starting hex and thematic ideas for the surrounding super-hexes. I eventually settled on 40 mile super-hexes, 10 mile hexes and 2.5 mile sub-hexes.

As of end of June the hexmap stood like this:

Shiny TTRPG links #235

Continuing the deep-time trawls while I am travelling. For more, see the previous list found here or on the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

Last Gasp gave us Welcome to Scenic Whereverthefuck, if you lived here, you’d be caught up in drama by now.

Jeffs Gameblog shared The FLAILSNAILS Conventions

Occultronics wrote Stocking Hexes with the B/X Dungeon-Stocking Procedure

Unsound Methods gave us Twenty OSR Systems Reviewed

I Cast Light! shared INVESTIGATING SARAH CONNOR: My Ideal CoC Game & The Terminator

Revenant's Quill gave us How I prep for games

Rise Up Comus wrote In Search of Better Travel Rules

Gorgon Bones gave us Magical Corruption

Review: Hello // Goodbye

tl:dr; an arty zine with a range of articles, likely something inspirational for any gamer.

The founder of the local DM Supergroup, also founder of Swan and Raven Studio, a pal, set this up as a fund-raiser for legal aid in Virginia. Folk getting snatched off the streets and disappeared is some bullshit. I have been detained by unaccountable national security forces on a fair few occasions so I am perfectly happy to support someone who shines a light and fishes for people who get vanished in the hope that noone cares enough to see due process done.

The zine itself - Hello/Goodbye is 'An Ekphrastic Collage Tabletop Roleplaying Anthology Zine' - and to answer the immediate question I have gotten by folk I have shown it to - "Ekphrasis is a Greek term meaning "description", and ekphrastic writing is a vivid, creative, written description and response to a work of visual art" to quote the introduction.

This zine is an interesting beast because it has a different 'recruiting angle' that what I typically see out there - the closest I guess would be an itch.io charity jam aligned to disaster relief or the like where you get a grab bag of absolutely all sorts. Typically when things get bound within covers there is a tighter systems restriction - all old school D&D or Mork Borg or Troika! or what have you. The common thread here are the art pieces provided by the organiser and that personal connection - which gives a much broader range of contributions within than you might otherwise typically find.

descriptor, artist

First impression - hot pink and yellow makes it stand out on your shelf! The art within is mostly collage work by the author and as per the concept of the zine, the various articles are responses to or inspired by those pieces.

So what is all this stuff you get in this zine?

Equal Footing Monsters

This is driven by a discussion around who is in "a group to be wantonly slain, guilt-free" (as per Prismatic Wasteland) for the typical game of D&D telling you something about that game. Whether that foe is zombies, cultists, etc. differentiates games from one another.

Something stuck in my mind about this and I figure it is that someone seem missing off the 'taxonomy of monsters' - what about peers? Pure rivals for resources, that you kill because they would do likewise to you. Not a knifes blade of difference between you beyond the banners you fly.

As a group they could be "The Rivals" - those guys down the valley? Or the next valley over? Pretty much the same folk, but fuck those guys, we've had a grudge against them since forever, only good one is a dead one.

Cartoon by Tom Gauld

Infidels are the closest proxy from Prismatic Wastelands list - but there is not necessarily such a religious or even cultural difference. The driver of difference is tied to territory or maybe just a different flag. Guards could be a model but without the implication that they are law and you are chaos - you are the same, but fighting nonetheless.

Shiny TTRPG links #234

First of the deep-time trawls while I am travelling. For more, see the previous list found here or on the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

The Tao of D&D gave us 8 Tips That Will Let Any Idiot Improve Their D&D Game

ARCHIVE: The black citadel wrote [OLD] Scrying the Orb, part 1: Retooling Magic for OSR Games

Mindstorms shared Biblically Inaccurate Religions

@prokopetz gave us Writing About Houseguests

Eldritch Fields wrote The best adventures from Footprints --- seven free old-school modules!

Space & Subaquatics - Setting for Summer Legojam #2

An entry for the the second Summer LEGO RPG Jam created by DIY & Dragons. If you want to have a go - here are the curated helpful links we were given.

Inspired by the planetary hexmap by Riles we have here an aqua planet with space-factions, deep-sea mines and aquatic residents. This is the 'get it out the door' ashcan, as baked as I can get it with time constraints of travel. List of things I would have improved in the land of infinite time at the bottom.

The Planet
Humans have come to Planet 44E chasing rich metal nodules on the floor of the planet-spanning ocean. The colonists arrived and have been busy, regularly buying in shipments of gear paid in hard galactic currency but only a trickle of export product is leaving - the miners are close-lipped about their route.

White Corp is losing its mind as their investments hemorrhage cash and point the finger at the Black Coalition presence - they must be smuggling! Avoiding export taxes! Blue Navy has been called in but are failing to find any such regular smuggling run despite significant armed and stealthed Black Coalition transport capability. Things appear stale-mated, with a lot of fuel burnt and sensor sweeps. Ripe terrain for some enterprising mercenaries.

The Hex Key

Big guns for big monsters (GLÅUGUST 2025 #1)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #1 is from a list by Halfalcon - "He Wields A Gun."

Here we talk about the three main schools of magical firearms extant in menagerie world:
- blunderbus-types
- masterworks
- enchantment-powered

All of these are generally in competition with 'cheap' bows and crossbows or 'easy' magic.

While all looking somewhat similar there are three different things happening
- first are the blunderbus or cannon types which are strongly built vessels for whatever magical explosives and shot you can get your hands on. The oomph comes from what you can stuff inside, not the vessel itself, though it may have some enchantments to keep it from exploding in your hands. This is the punt-gun stuffed full of dragonbone powder, casting a fistful of freshly enchanted magic stones at a foe.
- the second are weapons which are designed to be deadly even without magics - wonders of mastercraft, deploying such exotic metals and cunning techniques that to many they may as well be magical and then enhanced still further by precisely applied enchantments. One of these would be a long-rifle with optics of true-sight and carefully measured cartridges enchanted by obsesssive artificer mages. We include here things like railguns, bio-weapons like deathspitters or non-chemically propelled slug-throwers.
- lastly are things that produce similar effects of ruining your day at a distance when the thing is activated whether casting a shot at speed but do this through some fundamentally magical force such as a portal from a storm on the plane of air or through throwing balefire, encapsulated oozes or other such gruesomeness.

Examples of each to be found in the field:

#1 - Dwarven troll-gun (also known as a tunnel-gun); sturdy, typically octagonal stylings around the outside. Cunning grips make it intuitive to aim, adding +1 to hit out to 60'. This example is found in the hands of a minotaur who is using an extra-smoky black-powder that obscures a 30' cone for 3 rounds after firing and bone-chips and teeth from previous victims, which cause wounds that require a constitution save before healing.

#2 - First-ones dragon-rifle; big, large bore, breach-breaking, recoil-suppressed gun with a bipod - designed so a sturdy orc can fire it from (standing) wolf-back or a half dozen goblins can move it as a field team. Said orc wanting to show off will have bandoliers of hand-etched shells across their chest, roll-up carry-cases of charges, tools and optics slung from their saddle. Goblins operating this will likely have two to carry the weapon and another each for the shells, charges, tools and optics. Quick to reload in case the dragon fails to obligingly die with the first shot. Armour penetrating, stuns on impact. Each one a priceless masterwork, each cartridge the price of a good mount.

#3 Forge-clan lightning-thrower; looks like a crossbow with a hexagonal arrangement of rods pointing forward and a reel. Throws lightning from bottles of the stuff screwed onto the top. At short-range, against metallic things, just pull the trigger. For longer ranges or multiple targets, there is a small onboard harpoon that tows a cable to the target. Typically 6 flasks of lightning can be clipped in, choose how many to use with each shot using the insulated knob. Wear the insulated gloves while using. Do not let sweat drip onto it. Blinding to all present when it fires. Ignites flammables. Lightning bottles thrown into water will discharge affecting anyone touching the water. Do not bend the prongs. Do not tangle the reel. Recharging lightning bottles can be done by flying a kite in a storm.

Shiny TTRPG links #233

Links from a random walk of the interwebs. For more, see the previous list found here or on the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

The Nothic's Eye launches a new blogging challenge: G L Å U G U S T 2 0 2 5

Win Conditions gives us Unskippable Images

Dyson's Dodecahedron shared House Rules

GROGNARDIA writes From the Brontës to Braunstein

Directsun Games share Magic item identification, the fun way

In Places Deep gives us Cringe Ye Be Lest Cringe Ye Become: A Nightwick Miscelany

Mediums and Messages collects Goblin Digest - June 2025

Roll to Doubt gives us Adventuring Companies and Patrons

d4 Caltrops shares d100 – Wilderness Woes & Hinterland Hazards

Prismatic Wasteland writes The Languages of D&D Imply a Specific Setting

Improv To Warm Up A Table (RPG Blog Carnival)

Chaotican Writer gives us this months prompt Improv, Roleplay, and Warmups by Chaotican Writer for the RPG Blog Carnival. Below some thoughts on a rapid-fire recap or introduction activity.

This type of stuff is way off my normal patch so I tapped the wisdom of a pal - Tygerkrash - who does theater and most of the following is a mildly sanded and varnished version of their ideas.

Actual Play - Yaksha's Hexfill Method (Part 1)

I got the chance to table test a Brian Yaksha's Hexfill method on a 'fill as you go' basis on a previously un-explored part of the map, trying this out at table it worked pretty well with a little squeak because of unusual circumstances. Written up to follow Jenx first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

Setup - where the adventure came from

The party was trying to evacuate a large column of freed prisoners through a swamp. The below is very much the 'DM-screen view' version of a session report.

I printed the sites, encounters and flavour elements I had worked up previously on a single page, double column, minimal borders, switching around the order of the tables so they broke cleanly at the bottom of the page. This gave me everything at a single glance.

I used an overloaded encounter die so there were both 'encounter, positive' and 'encounter, negative' possibilities plus 'locality' and 'percept' options. Fatigue and expiry results did not require anything from these tables.
1. Setback
2. Fatigue/delay
3. Expiration
4. Locality
5. Percept
6. Advantage

Session Report: Yaksha's Hexfill Method for the Marsh That Remembers

Shiny TTRPG links #232

More shiny links from about the internet. For more, see the previous list found here or on the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links.

Chaotican Writer launches July 2025’s RPG Blog Carnival: Improv, Roleplay, and Warmups

Advantage on Arcana rounds-up June 2025 RPG Carnival: Magic Shops and Their Alternatives

Bat in the Attic gives us The Old School Renaissance

u/UsedUpAnimePillow shares Modern Player's Guide to Oldskool Hexcrawling and part two of my guide to oldskool hexcrawling: Getting Lost

Traverse Fantasy gives us Published CINCO!

Whose Measure God Could Not Take shares Scaffolds for Disaster

Zzarchov Kowolski writes Breaking your setting design habits

From the Sorcerer's Skull gives us The Case for Planetary Romance

@goblinwitchhut shares 5e Monster Making 101

Many Sided Newsletter gives us The Seven-Part Pact: The Joys of Being Overwhelmed

A Knight at the Opera goes all in with a series on Seven-Part Pact

Distinguishing mirror worlds with house-rules (Holes Bandwagon)

Thinking about how to do mirror-dimensions and the like for the 'Holes' bandwagon called by Prismatic Wasteland.

I want this because my players have encountered time-space traversing insectfolk whose hives branch across the boundaries of dimensions. Noone told them they couldn't, so they did.

Partially inspired by recent readings of a recent sci-fi series where the big trope is that the ancient fore-runner type aliens actually broke the rules of physics trying to paint the galaxy red to make it go faster. Physics itself before and after they turned on their machines was different - I love the idea of *actually different fundamental rules* to distinguish different worlds and dimensions.

All this to say that I would like something to make the different worlds my players by tumble into to feel different through some mechanical quirk. Partly inspired by thoughts I had prior to 5.5e dropping where the new DMG could present menus of optional rules but suggest certain combinations to achieve certain flavours - grimdark, sword and sorcery, high fantasy, etc.

Environmental Examples are how most examples of this work but for mirror universes, why not make a tweak that is the application of a house rule that is not usually in play? I used something like this to capture the 'mythic, realm of heroes' atmosphere for the Plateau of Jor where the giants live in my home campaign - rules like Spellburn, luck points and the big d30 coming into play only on the plateau.

Taking on the three mirror world examples from my previous thoughts on where the Vaults of the Insectfolk could lead:
18. Alternate - mirror world, bleak - the same type of room you just left but with evidence of resource shortage
19. Alternate - mirror world, wasteland - the same type of room you just left but with evidence of harsh-environment adaptation
20. Alternate - mirror world, dark - the same type of room you just left but evidence of heightened danger and cruelty

One could suggest that on rolling up one of the above you pick or roll a rule from the sub-table below and that remains in effect until people work their way home.

Bleak world - resources are scarce, things break and you must do without
1. Hit points are not restored by rest, only consumption of rations (d6 per meal)
2. Shields splintered / mail rent / helms sundered - sacrifice the gear to persist.
3. You don’t kill NPCs/monsters, you defeat them as per Spiceomancy.
4. Critical failures - things break on Naturals ones; tools weapons

Wasteland - environment is harsh, grit is crucial
1. Morale checks for hirelings - before combat, before traps, under any hardship.
2. "unquenchable spirit" - modified Stun, take d3 ability damage to shake off a stun effect
3. Big d30 - once per session swap a d20 you roll for a d30
4. Modify overload encounter die - no fatigue or exhaustion effects anymore - replaced with straight HP damage. Everyone and everything keeps going until they drop.

Dark world - general supernatural hazard
1. Cascading Damage Dice - dice explodes on a maximum roll
2. Critical hits by monsters - max damage plus an extra dice
3. Mutations from spellcasting - such as these d500 by Coins and Scrolls
4. Retention check for spells - magic is reliable anymore, roll over the spell level every time you cast or the spell goes way. You can learn it again as new.

If you continued to wander deeper you could end up two realities out into the wasteland and one into a bleaker direction with Big d30, hireling morale checks and critical failure rules all in operation.

For a truly fun 'Sliders' style twist you could just have proper mirror universes with almost everything being similar such that the players could re-emerge from the vaule and pick up all their quests, NPCs and holdings exactly as they left them... except only the fact that the 'cascading damage rule' remains in effect indicates that they are not in fact at home but the universe next door.

GM achievement award if you can gloss that one over until the players come to that realisation on their own.

Other house rule collections one could tap to build 'flavour sets' are: Methods & Madness, The Gibbering Blog, Eldritch Fields, Hobgoblinry.

Actual Play - Hexcrawl25 + Home Reforged

I tested simply dropping a location into my hexcrawl sandbox as a one-shot, with the intention that the journey through the hex-map would be most of the session and the location fairly simple at the end. Written up to follow Jenx first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

Setup - where the adventure came from

This was an open-table on an off-week to my hexcrawl campaign; using the same map and prep. This session was the first open table which was not a formal adventure, this was just a location

Our heroes were
lthmar - Elf Rogue (woodland ranger)
Hilas - Halfling Fighter (local hero discus thrower)
Thorgrimm Embershield - Dwarf Barbarian (WHFRP trollslayer)
Erin - Elf Paladin (oath of ancients ex-soldier)
Martha - Human Barbarian (buff old lady)
Happy - Tiefling Rogue (sneaky)

An interesting bit cropped up at the start - one person was very mechanics focused - wanted specific classes, etc from everyone - another - the tiefling player, told me stuff about tieflings in my campaign world (closer to old archetype of shunned stranger vs fairly well mixed in for menagerie world).

Session was run under an adventurers league style ruleset so everyone would get a level up if they survived and treasure and gold rewards were capped as this was a Tier One (level 1-4) adventure.