Going from point A to point B. Hexcrawl.
For the procedure each watch runs, see Hexcrawl Flow.pdfHexcrawl Flow. For roll thresholds, resource costs, and travel speeds, see the Hexcrawl Reference.pdfHexcrawl Reference. For encumbrance rules, see the supplementary sources folder.

Map

• Hex map with keyed locations.
• Terrain types: Clear, Moderate and Hard.
• Features: Overt, Hidden and Secret.
• Encounter tables.

Hex map and keyed locations

The wilderness is divided into hexagonal tiles. Each hex is 6 miles across (~10 km). Every hex has a coordinate, so a journey has a measurable distance — "three hexes north" means about 18 miles.

The GM keys hexes by writing 2–4 sentences describing what's there: what's visible, what's hidden, what's dangerous. Most hexes in the starting region are keyed; unkeyed hexes are just terrain until the party enters them.

Keyed hexes fall into two tiers:

• Major location — a destination players hear about through rumors and plan expeditions to reach (a ruined tower, a dwarven tomb, an ogre's lair).
• Minor feature — a smaller discovery players may stumble on while traveling (an abandoned camp, a stone circle, a viewpoint).

Terrain types

Terrain determines travel speed, navigation difficulty, and what encounters happen. There are three categories:

• Clear — plains, grassland, open ground. Easy going. No navigation rolls.
• Moderate — forests, hills, deserts. Slows travel. Navigation roll required (lost on 1).
• Hard — swamps, jungles, mountains. Punishing. Navigation roll required (lost on 1–2). Some mounts cannot enter.

Roads are a feature overlaid on any terrain, marked in the hex key. A hex with a road is traversable as if it were Clear along the road's line — and roads are the only terrain that supports fast travel (see below).

Travel speed across each terrain type is on the speed reference card.

Features: Overt, Hidden, Secret

Discoveries inside a hex sit on a visibility ladder:

• Overt — visible from far away or immediately obvious on entering the hex. A column of smoke, a stone tower on a ridge, a dark cave mouth. From high ground, players can usually spot overt features 2–3 hexes away. These pull the party toward them without the GM steering.
• Hidden — requires the party to actively search. A buried entrance, a concealed path behind brambles, a campsite tucked off the trail. Players have to say "we search the area" to find these. This is why the Explore action exists.
• Secret — known only through a clue, a vision, a password, or a triggered event. The treasure chamber that only opens when the moon hits a carved sigil. The hidden door whose location is in a journal three hexes away. The path the old hunter only reveals if you bring him wine. Secret features reward connecting clues across the map.

Encounter tables

The map is divided into regions. A region is a cluster of 19 hexes — one central hex surrounded by two rings of neighbours. Each region has its own random encounter table.

Each region has a six-entry random encounter table, rolled on each watch. The base chance is 1-in-6, raised to 2-in-6 in dangerous regions. The night watch always adds +1 to the encounter chance.

Time-tracking

Each day is divided into four watches, each roughly six hours long:

The first three are travel watches — the party can Move or Stay. The night watch is mandatory Camp: the party rests, rotates a guard, consumes rations and wood. The exploration turn runs once per watch — see the flow reference card.

Time matters: rations and wood are spent at night camp, torches burn down during exploration, weather shifts, and factions move while the party is away.

Player roles

Hexcrawl runs better when each player has a job during travel. Four roles cover what the party needs to do every watch. Assign them at Session Zero and rotate between expeditions if people want a change — but keep them stable inside a single session to avoid confusion.

• Caller — declares the party's direction and decisions each watch. The Caller is the party's voice when it talks to the GM. They don't decide alone; they speak the group's intent.
• Mapper — draws the party's map as they explore, hex by hex. Records terrain, landmarks, dangers, and which hexes the party has fully crossed (needed for fast travel). The map they build over weeks becomes the campaign's most treasured artefact.
• Quartermaster — tracks rations, torches, wood, and any other consumables. Reports supply levels when the GM asks. Decides each Move watch whether to forage for wood or rations.
• Chronicler — writes a short expedition report after each session, and maintains the rumor log (which rumors are pending, confirmed, false, or stale). Keeps the group's memory in writing so nothing important slips between sessions.

The watch procedure

Each watch begins with the Caller declaring what the party does. There are three top-level choices: Move, Stay, or Fast travel. The night watch is always Camp.

Move

The Caller declares direction and pace. The party advances toward the destination.

1. Determine watches needed. Clear terrain = 1 watch/hex. Moderate = 2. Hard = 3. Roads downgrade the terrain to Clear along the road's line.
2. Navigation roll — only if the terrain is Moderate or Hard and the party has no guide. Lost on 1 (Moderate) or 1–2 (Hard).
3. Encounter roll — 1d6 against the region's threshold (1-in-6, or 2-in-6 in dangerous regions).
4. Forage roll — the Quartermaster picks one:
   • Wood: 3-in-6 chance, yields 1 wood.
   • Rations: 1-in-6 chance, yields 1 ration.
5. GM describes the watch: what's seen, what happens, hex progress.

A hex isn't crossed until all its required watches are spent on it. If the party turns around mid-hex, they back out at the same cost they came in.

Stay

The party doesn't change hexes this watch. The Caller picks one Stay action.

Common to all Stay actions: no navigation roll. The encounter roll still happens at the region's normal threshold.

The action determines what else happens:

• Camp — pure downtime. No resource cost, no forage, no other roll. Counts toward the day's heal eligibility (see Rest & recover).

• Hunt — actively pursue game. Roll n-in-6 where n is the number of PCs in the party, +1 if a PC has a relevant class proficiency, +1 for favourable terrain (players can propose; GM decides), capped at 5-in-6. On a hit, gain 1d6 rations. Hunt yields food only — no wood. Does not count toward heal.

• Explore — search the current hex. Choose a focus:

  • Find hidden feature — look for something not yet known. The GM may roll or reveal based on what's actually here.
  • Go to known feature — head to a feature already discovered (or one a clue points to). The GM describes what's reached. Continues into 3. Exploration.

  Does not count toward heal.

Fast travel

Skip the watch-by-watch procedure when moving through familiar ground. Roads only, and only on hexes the party has fully crossed before.

The Caller declares the destination and the road route. Then:

1. Count hexes. 1 hex = 1 watch, 3 watches = 1 day. Round up to whole days.
2. Encounter rolls. Once per day: 2-in-6 normally, 3-in-6 if any part of the day passes through a dangerous region. Use that region's encounter table.
3. Resource costs. Apply night camp costs per night spent on the road (see below). No forage, no hunt, no heal progress.
4. GM describes the journey in a paragraph. The party arrives.

If an encounter triggers, pick the watch where it lands and run it normally. Once it resolves, fast travel resumes and the party continues to their destination.

Night camp (mandatory)

The night watch is always Camp. One keeper at a time stays on watch while the others sleep, rotating through the night.

• −1 ration per PC, plus −1 per hireling and per mount that needs feeding.
• −3 wood/torches for the campfire.
• Encounter roll at the region's threshold +1 (so 2-in-6 normal regions, 3-in-6 dangerous).
• Counts as the day's third Camp watch for heal eligibility.

Rest & recover

If the party Camps for all three travel watches plus the mandatory night camp, and no combat occurs during any of them, each character recovers 1d3 HP at the end of the day. This is the only reliable way to heal in the wild — a day of pure rest is sometimes the right call.

A single fight breaks heal eligibility for that day.

What about encounters and combat?

Combat happens when an encounter goes hostile and the party doesn't avoid or parley out of it. Encounters and combat are resolved per 4. Encounter and 5. Combat.