Hex Crawl, Campaign & World Generation Tools

Start with a gridded Hex Map and generate your campaign’s place of travel with these simple rules. This is meant to be genre agnostic, and non-campaign specific for you to fill in the gaps. The examples could be NPC, foe, treasure or mission driven in design. I have included how the PCs are linked to this world, so that they remain the focus of your worldbuilding as a GM. The world is built for adventures to be built into travelling through the map, however an overarching quest is included to tie information and quests into. The ‘hexes’ will have various sizes, depending on the scope of the campaign. I could me a modern campaign in a city, with streets as each hex; a great star map could be different systems in s sci-fi game; a wild fantasy map could have many terrains; a dry desert could be small due to scope of nothingness out there in a post-apocalyptic game.

Steps

1.        Roll a d4, d6, d8, d10, d10, d12, d20 and consult the charts below, these are the campaign and world building guidelines for the map to be built around.

2.        Pick a starting point hex, fill in its value.

3.        Roll a D8 consult the direction and draw a card for that hex to fill in its information.

Campaign/World Generation Tools

D4 - Genre

1.        High Fantasy – Magic, combat, legends.

2.        Science Fiction – Technology, travel, discovery.

3.        Modern – Equipment, fellowship, empathy.

4.        Post-Apocalypse – History, survival, conflict.

D6 – How PCs know each other

1.        A part of an (adventuring) company or group

2.        Met in an exciting/disastrous incident

3.        From the same starting region

4.        All on the same major quest/calling

5.        A Quest Giver brought them together

6.        They don’t know each other, but will trust each other

D8 – Starting Region

1.        A small, confined space with limited other folks

2.        A large, busy settlement

3.        An ancient place with great history

4.        A minor settlement with a few other key NPCs

5.        A temporary place brought together with purpose

6.        A wild, unkept place of varying NPCs and secrets

7.        A simple meeting place, with varying rooms to discover

8.        A unique moving structure

D10 – Local Conflicts

1.        Minor factions have conflicting ideals

2.        Local foes are attacking

3.        Resources are in limited supply

4.        Local defenceless NPCs have gone missing

5.        Rival adventurers are taking all the work

6.        The leader of a fellow faction has a challenging rival

7.        The starting region leader is mistreating the locals of a certain type

8.        Local commerce is at risk with the outbreak of a struggle

9.        Local corruption starts a conspiracy

10.  Something seems off about the local company being formed

D10 – Regional Conflicts

1.        War is brewing from opposing factions

2.        A major evil is growing on the other side of the map

3.        Environmental effects are ravaging the area

4.        An unknown evil is changing the minds of the people like a virus

5.        A discovery artefact is causing many factions to rush and clash over it

6.        A prophecy that has been known for ages past, has a new omen

7.        Alternate realities begin to take form in ours, to catastrophic consequences

8.        A divisive protest has begun of the various peoples of this world

9.        The conspiracy at the local level has spread to the regional level

10.  An unknown shrine has emerged in the regional area

D12 – Main Quest/Mission

1.        Gain resources or riches

2.        Protect the starting region

3.        Destroy the big evil

4.        Stop the rise of ________ before _______

5.        Collect the pieces of ________ while _____

6.        Explore the region

7.        Find the missing item

8.        Seek the wisdom of a hero

9.        Hunt the beasts of _____

10.  Get back home

11.  Gather the factions/peoples/groups

12.  Rescue someone you know

D20 – Interesting Feature

1.        The world has an encroaching curse that affects game play and NPCs

2.        The PCs are searching for legendary artefacts that take on aspects of the world

3.        The villains are tied into terrain of the hexes

4.        The landscape shifts and changes in various ways when retraveled through

5.        There is a divisive religion that provides the PCs a unique choice and power

6.        A secret dark lord pulls strings from the shadows of the campaign

7.        An obscure faction provides hope in an unintended way

8.        There is a reason there is so many sites with treasure to plunder

9.        The various cults and festivals that have arisen are tied to a larger menacing plot

10.  There are mystical plants that are a core part of the campaign experience

11.  Alternative peoples provide a difficult moral choice for PCs

12.  Music is a main forming component of the land and its mechanics

13.  Monsters hide everywhere in this world where least expected.

14.  There is a mystery that hides in all the artefacts that have been collected

15.  Mysteries can be found in history repeating itself, through a malevolent purpose

16.  A gateway has formed in the land which pours through different energies

17.  Travel through the hexes can be modified in various ways

18.  The starting region will take a significant shift in some point in the campaign

19.  Lines of power, questions and riches go all the way to the top

20.  Careless leaders have caused environmental disaster that causes conflicts

After creation, fill in the blanks below:

The campaign genre is ____________________.  The PCs know each other because ____________________. ____________________ is where this all starts. Its local conflicts are ____________________. Its regional conflicts are ____________________. The PCs main quest is ____________________. The main interesting feature of the world/campaign is ____________________. My world for the PCs to inhabit is called ____________________.

Map Making Tools

Directional D8

1.        North

2.        South

3.        East

4.        West

5.        North East

6.        Noth West

7.        South East

8.        South West

Card – Hex Feature

A - An exploration site; ruin, dungeon, corridor

K - A mysterious monument; unnatural landmark, statue, religious marker

Q - A technological or magical curse, death and decay lies in this region

J – A wellspring of modernity, resources, and fruition

10 – A major settlement and civilisation

9 – A minor settlement and civilisation

8 – Secrets, information and clues is available here

7 – This area has a dark past or history that affects it in some way

6 – A den, lair or dangerous area

5 – A natural landmark in the terrain; cliff, heigh ceiling, valley, spring, machinery etc

4 – An empty hex – roll random encounter when PCs enter

3 – An empty hex – roll random encounter when PCs enter

2 – An empty hex – roll random encounter when PCs enter

Suit – Terrain type

Hearts – An exotic terrain type

Diamonds – The secondary terrain type

Clubs – An adjacent terrain type (your choice)

Spades – The common default terrain type