NeoGrognard

Lately my mind has been preoccupied with the ideas of simple and modular game aids for RPGs: Tools that GMs and groups can pick up quickly, use for their game, with a number of add-ons that take into account exceptions that pop up during the game. My first big investigation of this idea has been in the creation of the prototypes for Hexploration—a game the provides a different and interactive way that the GM can provide exploration of a game world that provides the players with a more active role in that exploration rather than the typical narrative or skill challenge structure provided in fantasy RPGs.   

But before I get to some of the add-ons let’s look at the ground rules, at least is a fast as simple way.   

The basic rules of Hexploration involve the uncovering of three events by moving across a wilderness though the flipping of tiles. What are these events? Well, anything the GM wants them to be.   

A photo of my original glacier playtest set in actual play. At this point the group had spent quite a few days braving the arctic weather while searching for events. They had found two before they decided to explore a strange ice spire they found on the glacier, hoping to rest and find a bit of warmth. They found both and a good dose of extraplanar danger.

For instance, the first time I used Hexploration, the party was plopped in the middle of a northern glacier by way of a malfunctioning portal. They had no idea where they were and had no idea where to find anything approaching a permanent settlement. That was their goal—to find that settlement before the elements chewed them up. Each goal uncovered clues to find the settlement. The first was an encounter with some bad guys who were also searching for the settlement. The bad guys were also looking for the shelter. They wanted to raid it. Through some clues and roleplaying the party discovered that the settlement was in a hidden spot somewhere within the general area and they got an idea of the type of inhabitants they would be dealing with and received important information about the politics of the region. More importantly, they knew they were on the right track. The next event was the dead body of a messenger from a southern kingdom who was not able to find the settlement and parished on icy wasteland. Among the messenger’s remains was a description of how to find the hidden settlement and a cryptic warning about its defenses. The last event was that of the settlement itself and the encounter they would have to face to win access to the settlement.   

How did they uncover these events? Events have their own tiles randomly dispersed within the tile supply. Events were represented by an icon on some of the tiles. Because my original tile set was quite large, there were a number of event tiles in the tile supply—more than the three the party needed. But there were a number of other special tiles in the set. There were encounters, vantage tiles, and boon tiles. To be honest my original set had a number of different special tiles—there were a couple of different types of encounters, foraging tiles, shelter tiles, vantage tiles, and some special tiles. Many of these were simplified in the second iteration of the tiles because I just tried to do too much. That was one of the chief take-aways from the original playtest.   

Events could be just about anything the GM wants. If the goal is to escape the wilderness, they could be milestones toward reaching that goal. The characters could be searching for fugitives or poor innocents lost in the wilderness, and events could represent encounters necessary to find them. Events could be treasure troves, ancient ruins, or part of a puzzle. They could be all three. By keeping events abstract, it allows the GM to shape them for his or her own campaign’s purposes.   

Of course there is more to Hexploration than just uncovering a number of events. Both the terrain and the weather are importatn parts of the game. Each day the characters have a number of hours to explore. Each hour usually gives them a single or a small number of exploration actions. Now these aren’t hours in the sense that you and I know them in the modern world. They are longer periods of time, more akin to the monastic hours of the medieval world. Basically they are lumps of time in which the characters can do things within the scope of the mini-game. I went with the larger amount of time to speed up the game, and give enough of a time range so you can have an encounters or even a number of combat encounters within a course of the game’s hours or during the course of the day. Some of these hours are daylight hours, some are night-time hours, and the characters will have to decide which two hours to use for their extended rest. Typically they will pick the nighttime hours and there are some fairly obvious game incentives to do that. Over the course of their exploration the party will have to conserve their resources. If they don’t, they gain fatigue, which not only slows them down but also affects their combat and skill abilities. Scouting becomes important as well, as it’s usually better to enter a territory that you’ve scouted than one you’re entering blindly. The weather affects your ability to move freely, scout, and forage and may affect your level of fatigue.   

The basic games assumptions are relatively simple, but they are by no means complete. They assume the party is walking overland. They don’t take into account magic items and other rules items that may affect overland travel. They assume that you are using the tiles as a random terrain generator. And the basic game doesn’t cover other endgames that you could possibly have using this game aid. What those assumptions do is teach the basic rules of the game and give a fun and exciting way to use the tiles within a couple of pages. More advanced rules are presented as add-ons—rules and story exceptions that can be added as the GM wants or needs based on his or her game and the resources that the players have. The goal was to create those exceptions in a modular format so that while they talk to one another in a clear and dynamic way, they are not necessary to use the game at first.