Hail Grognards!

I'm a recently registered long-time lurker looking to have my hexmap ideas maimed, clawed, and ripped into tiny pieces so any inherent weaknesses can be exposed and fixed. I've read a hell of a lot of blogs on hexmaps (Trollsmyth, BatintheAttic, The Alexandrian, etc.) and decided to (perhaps foolishly) chase the idea of creating system to run them that will fit on one page. Thing is though, in condensing and grinding things down, I'm not sure if I've ended up straying too far from the path, and I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Background:
With the help of three friends, I'm working on creating a system-neutral, sandbox setting that's based around a hexmap and focuses heavily on exploration and discovery. We call it The Swordfish Islands.

Fully realizing that every GM worth their salt comes up with their own setting, instead of being some grandiose planet or continent sized hexmap, the Swordfish Islands are a chain of 9 islands that ideally can be plugged directly into any world with a tropical ocean and a trade focused port town. We're also trying to ensure that each of the 9 islands is as robust and modular as possible so the content can be gutted and frankensteined into almost any world with minimal effort.

Each of our hexes contains three unique Points of Interest that describe a specific, "permanent", thing. Additionally, we're working on a system to randomly populate the hexes with consumable Points of Interest like natural resource nodes, shipwrecks, and corpses to facilitate exploration focused replayability and help minimize meta-gaming (i.e., just because that stand of ancient mahogany trees was in Hex 25 last game doesn't mean it'll be there this game).

None of the Points of Interest have a fixed, or actual, location in their hex. If Hex 37 contains "The Gold Tree", "The Red Ruin" and "The Hissing Chasm", they don't have a real, or even relative position within the hex or in relation to one another. "The Gold Tree" isn't at the northern tip of the hex, and "The Hissing Chasm" isn't in the center of the hex. Each point is just "somewhere" inside the hex, and the party has either discovered it, or they haven't.

Also, instead of taking movement rates into consideration, everything is based around time using the idea of 4 hour long Watches (borrowed with love). Each move the party makes, be it exploring the hex they're currently in, traveling between known points of interest in two neighboring hexes, or traveling into an unexplored hex, costs the party a Watch. Certain things could modify this, but they will ideally always do so in whole-hour increments. The idea is that this will make time a powerful enemy, but make it easier to track, calculate and make judgment calls on because distance is fixed/non-existent.

A Rough Map and Key:
Here's a rough map for one of our islands and here's the key that goes along with it. To define terms: "The Chant" is to be read aloud to the players, and "The Dark" is additional information for the DM if the party chooses to investigate the point further.

The System:

ARRIVING IN AN UNEXPLORED HEX

•    Players arrive in an UNEXPLORED HEX
•    Players DISCOVER the DEFAULT POINT OF INTEREST associated with that hex
•     The default is listed first under each hex and marked with arrows (e.g., >>>DEFAULT<<<)
•    Game Master should then READ aloud THE CHANT for the Point of Interest
•    Game Master should then trigger an ENCOUNTER:
•     RANDOM
•    PREPARED
•    NONE
•    Once the encounter has been resolved the players are free to:
•    INVESTIGATE the Point of Interest further
•    EXPLORE the hex they are currently in
•    TRAVEL to a neighboring UNEXPLORED HEX
•    TRAVEL to a KNOWN neighboring POINT OF INTEREST

INVESTIGATE
The investigation of Points of Interest should be handled and resolved using the regular play mechanics of the game system being used. Information contained within THE DARK under each Point of Interest may assist with this process.

EXPLORE

•    Exploring a hex costs a single WATCH
•    At the end of the WATCH players have an ENCOUNTER:
•     RANDOM
•    PREPARED
•     RESOURCE
•    POINT OF INTEREST (UNDISCOVERED)
•    OTHER

WATCH

•    The WATCH is the standard unit of currency for travel and exploration
•    One WATCH is FOUR HOURS long
•    One DAY is SIX WATCHES

TRAVEL - UNEXPLORED HEX

•    Travel from one hex to a neighboring hex costs a single WATCH
•    Players choose direction of travel and set out
•    Do they become LOST?
•     Becoming lost should be determined by the rule system currently being used to conduct the game and should always result in:
•                                             YES they are LOST
•                                            NO they are NOT LOST
•    If the party is NOT LOST they arrive at their intended hex and ENCOUNTER its DEFAULT POINT OF INTEREST
•     If the party is LOST they VEER
•                                             VEERING
•    The Game Master ROLLS 1D6 to determine where the party arrives at the end of the WATCH spent traveling
•     1 - Party arrives at their POINT OF DEPARTURE
•    2-3 - Party VEERS LEFT
•     4-5 - Party VEERS RIGHT
•   6 - Party arrives at their INTENDED DESTINATION

TRAVEL - KNOWN POINT OF INTEREST

•    Parties will NOT become LOST if they are traveling between KNOWN POINTS OF INTEREST
•    Travel between neighboring POINTS OF INTEREST costs a single WATCH
•    Points of interest are considered to be KNOWN if any member of the party has DISCOVERED them (this includes NPC Guides, Prisoners, Reliable Maps etc)
•    At the end of the WATCH the Game Master can read THE CHANT associated with the Point of Interest and/or trigger an ENCOUNTER

TL;DR
If you remove distance from a hex map and make travel based exclusively on time, do you still have a "Hexmap"?

What parts of this don't make sense or sound like horse shit?

<3 you guys


-pandesmos

I'm guessing the Thundercats reference fell flat, so I'll probably just edit the title of this thread if I can, and start periodically posting freebies, testing packets and design thoughts about the Swordfish Islands.

Here's a small Dire Boar lair/den that can be found in one of the points of interest on an island. We're going for system-neutral for now so no stats are included, but ideally the content should be easy to pick up and plop down in any standard fantasy type game.

I got the Thundercats reference.

The vaguely wargamey procedure you describe is a bit more strcutured than I like my gaming to be, but at a first glance it looks good. Have you playtested it?

Three points of interest per wilderness hex might be a bit much, though (depending on how detailed are these points). I think most classic hex maps use one, but I  could be wrong here.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "remove distance (...) and make travel based exclusively on time." Care to elaborate?

Quote from: The Butcher;600962I got the Thundercats reference.

The vaguely wargamey procedure you describe is a bit more strcutured than I like my gaming to be, but at a first glance it looks good. Have you playtested it?

Three points of interest per wilderness hex might be a bit much, though (depending on how detailed are these points). I think most classic hex maps use one, but I  could be wrong here.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "remove distance (...) and make travel based exclusively on time." Care to elaborate?

We haven't playtested it with people outside the four of us working directly on it, so posting here was mainly an effort to get some fresh eyes on it before we really threw it out in play test land. Wanted to make sure we weren't blind to any glaring issues 'cause we're too close to it. I'm sure a hell of a lot will crop up during actual play but I'm glad there wasn't an immediate red flag at first glance.

I'm hoping that the structure will end up being a middle ground between super detailed overland movement systems and hand-waiving but the play testing should tell us for certain if we achieved it. Three points per hex is indeed two over the normal number, and the descriptions are a 2 paragraphs long, one for the players and one for the DM (with a few exceptions).

Regarding removing distance: The idea is that we just throw out movement rates "completely" and base everything on the time it takes to get from one location to another. While this may be slightly unrealistic for some situations (moving between two points in the same hex perhaps) in the long run, my goal is to set time up as an enemy, so by keeping the "time cost" of all actions fixed it will make it easier to track the passage of time, and make decisions more meaningful.

By focusing on, and tracking only time, we can set up time based triggers for the DM that are easy to keep track of like "In 3 days, lost adventurer #3 dies". Or have a hurricane blow through and give the DM a timeline of weather and destruction events in 4 hour increments so that each time the players make a move the DM can announce a new shift without also needing to calculate distance actually traveled. We can also set up rituals requiring a certain amount of time to complete and involving sacrifices on set days and times.

Ultimately, by throwing out distance, and making movement based on units of time, player choice can become more meaningful because its easier to know upfront how far you can go, with the time allotted to you. Or, that's the theory.

The flowchart sounds a bit too mechanistic. Reminds me of hex-chit military board games and their solitaire play flowcharts. I will say your 1d6 rules for Veering is a good idea and will be readily stolen *yoink*.

That and the strength of Random Tables was that they happened as you traveled regardless. Even if there was a prepped encounter you might have a random encounter atop that due to the riskiness of the terrain. Having every hex entered trigger a shopping list of read-off text and decisions... sorta kills the mood. Sometimes another hex of jungle is still just more jungle.

Speaking of terrain, it doesn't seem to have any effect here. If you are to retain 1 watch = 4 hours = 1 hex as a fixed system, then you're going to have to vary the size of hexes dependent upon terrain difficulty. Otherwise you ignore terrain totally, and then it feels rather gamey. But taking terrain into account and varying hex size suddenly explodes amount of hexes that needs descriptions. And it also complicates things when you have different terrain movement for other creatures and vehicles.

In a way, I'd just stick with the basic hex map, add a few points of interest, and keep it closer to the original stuff. It sounds like you have two different competing ideas: finding the "Molarity" Avogadro's number of Hex=Time v. fleshing out a new setting. Ambitious, but their internal conflict raises more questions in the middle of your work.

Stick to the easier task first and flesh out your setting and hexes first. That'll be more marketable and digestible in the end.

Quote from: pandesmos;601140I'm hoping that the structure will end up being a middle ground between super detailed overland movement systems and hand-waiving but the play testing should tell us for certain if we achieved it. Three points per hex is indeed two over the normal number, and the descriptions are a 2 paragraphs long, one for the players and one for the DM (with a few exceptions).

That's interesting, but have "super detailed overland movement systems" been a problem at your game table in the past? The TSR-era D&D system I'm most familiar with (BECMI/RC) certainly doesn't strike me as particularly complicated, but it could be familiarity talking.

Also, I may be having a particularly slow day but I think most of what you want to achieve can be done with traditional overland movement systems (as long as they're not, of course, "super detailed" i.e. terribly complicated).