Hexploration
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Hexploration within a roleplaying campaign can be done in many ways. This page explains the homebrew rules for exploring, mostly taken from the Alexandrian 5e Hexcrawl and mixed with Pathfinder 2 Exploration and Hexploration. Some DCs are maybe up for revision as they are based on 5e.
Player choices
These are the player-focused part of the rules. Players don't have to act as a group, but if the area is dangeros, there's a clear advantage.
The Hexploration Mode is divided up into "Watches" of which the day has 6 of, each 4 hours. Every watch the characters decide which type of Watch they want to use, and one Activity (occasionally more) to conduct during that Watch.
An Active Watch means the grop is more or less stationary and conduct some activity locally.
A Rest Watch is what it sonds like, simply resting (often sleeping).
A Travel Watch means the group is traversing terrain, navigating themselves in the world.
Encounters happen randomly or specifically; both associated with the local area, and pauses the current Watch until it has concluded. During Encounters, either Exploration Mode or straightforward Combat is used.
Watch Types
Activities can vary slightly depending on the type of Watch (4-hour chunk of the day) it is performed on:
- Active - Group is stationary, repairing equipment, foraging, exploring a local surroundings carefully, etc.
- Rest - Group is at a camp or staing in a house, resting. Some minor activities are sometimes done.
- Travel - Active travel in a direction or towards a goal. A speed is also chosen:
- Normal (100%) - Normal travel gains normal speed but no stealth checks.
- Slow (66%) - Careful travel gains +4 or Advantage to Navigation, ablity to make stealth checks, lowers encounter chance by 50%.
- Exploration (50%) - Trying out side trails; gain +4 or Advantage to Navigation, +100% chance of encounters but no stealth checks.
- Fast (150%)- Quickly move gains faster speed but no stealth checks, -4 or disadvantage on Perception and Navigation.
- A navigation check is made once per Watch if at least one expedition member is conducting the activity Navigating to determine veer.
Player Activities
Each character can perform one activity per watch (unless it says they can be combined):
- Navigating (Active Watch or Travel Watch) - Make navigation checks. A second character can navigate to add its proficiency to the check.
- If no character does navigating, the direction is determined randomly.
- A Navigation check done during an Active Watch can be used to replace a Navigation check made by the same character in a subsequent Travel Watch.
- Foraging (Active Watch or Slow Travel Watch) - Survival vs Forage DC of the terrain.
- Crit success = 4 rations and a source of water
- Success = 1 ration or a source of water.
- Fail = Neither found
- Crit fail = You attract trouble, eat something you shouldn't, or otherwise worsen your situation. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to checks to Subsist for 1 week.
- Grazing (Active Watch) - Pack animal activity - If an appropriate biom (determined by the GM), animals (like horses) can graze and be fully fed by grazing for 1 watch
- Pack-pulling (Travel Watch) - Lead a number of animals equal to twice their Nature modifier. (This number includes the pack-puller’s mount, if any.)
- Resting (2+ Rest Watches) - Needs to be taken consecutively to gain the benefits of a rest (see limits). More watches may be needed.
- Following rest, it's the normal time to do Daily Preparations.
- If a character does not spend at least one full watch per day resting; succeed at a Fortitude check (DC 16 - the number of hours they slept, if any) or suffer a level of Fatigue.
- Write down hours of sleep missing from 8 (if slept 3h, then 5) and accumulate these and add them to next day's Fort check until the character gets 8 hours full rest.
- Scouting (Active Watch or Travel Watch) - Choose Reporting or Pathfinding
- Reporting - If the navigator gets a scout report they can roll their Navigation check twice and choose which die to use.
- Pathfinding - Survival check on area's Navigation DC.
- Crit success = Treat trackless terrain as if it had a trail for two watches and may provide a scout report to the navigator.
- Success = Treat trackless terrain as if it had a trail for one watch.
- Fail = No effect.
- Crit fail = You attract trouble, eat something you shouldn't, or otherwise worsen your situation. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to checks to scout for 1 week.
- Scouting can only happen if character has a faster speed than the rest of the expedition (or expedition is stationary).
- An additional encounter check is made for each scouting group
- Sentinel (Active Watch or Travel Watch) - Actively makes Perception checks to detect threats or notice anything else out of the ordinary.
- Outrider - Sentinel may ride ot to detect/prevent threats.
- If an encounter is generated for the expedition, Sentinel can do Perception check vs DC 15 (or stealth) to detect it before the expedition encounters it.
- An additional encounter check is made for each scouting group, but has one-half the chance of an encounter.
- Outrider - Sentinel may ride ot to detect/prevent threats.
- Sighting (Active Watch) - Find an outlook to see further into the wilderness for threats.
| TRACK DCs | |
|---|---|
| SURFACE | DC |
| Very soft ground (snow, wet mud) | 5 |
| Soft ground (sand) | 10 |
| Firm ground (fields, woods, thick rugs, dusty floors) | 15 |
| Hard ground (bare rock, indoor floor, streambeds) | 20 |
| CONDITION | MODIFIER |
| Multiple people | -2 |
| Large group | -4 |
| Very large group | -8 |
| Creature is bleeding | -4 |
| Every day since the trail was made | +1 per day |
| Every hour of rain since the trail was made | +1 per hour |
| Fresh snow cover since the trail was made | +10 |
- Tracking (Active Watch or Travel Watch*) - Choose Finding Tracks (Active Watch) or Following Tracks (Travel Watch)
- Finding Tracks: Searching a significant wilderness area for tracks. The tracker makes a Perception check against the appropriate Track DC.
- Following Tracks: Once tracks have been found, a tracker can follow the trail during a travel watch by making a Survival check against the appropriate Track DC. A new check must be made each time the trail enter a new hex.
- If a trail is lost, it may be possible to reacquire it using the Finding Tracks action.
- Cover tracks (Slow Travel Watch) - Attempt to cover the expedition's tracks. Stealth or Survival check creates the Track DC for any pursuer attempting to find or follow their tracks.
- +5 on hard ground and -5 on soft
- Trailblazing (Travel Watch) - Slows the chosen speed by an additional 50%. Allows the expedition to lay down a visible or hidden trail. See rles here and here
- Pazio Hexploration Rules - These are modified slightly to work with Alexandrian's Hexploration rules.
- Reconnaissance (Travel Watch) - Map your surroundings. Takes as many Watches as it would to traverse the area, times two. Count travel time as if the area is trackless.
- Once the hex has been Reconned, you can Map the Area to reduce your chance of getting lost in that hex (see below).
- You automatically find any special feature that doesn’t require a check to find, and you attempt the appropriate checks to find hidden special features.
- For instance, if you were looking for an obvious rock formation among some hills, you would spend 2 hexploration activities to Reconnoiter the hex, and you’d find the rock formation. But if you were looking for a hidden tengu monastery somewhere in some deep forests, after spending 2 activities to Reconnoiter the forest hex, you would have to succeed at a Perception check as part of your Reconnoiter activity to find the monastery.
- Map the Area (Active Watch) - After Reconnoitering the area, create an accurate map of it with a successful Survival check (typically at a trained or expert DC). When you have an accurate map, the DC of any check to navigate that area is reduced by 2.
- Fortify Camp (Active Watch) - Crafting check (typically at a trained or expert DC). Anyone keeping watch or defending the camp gains a +2 circumstance bonus to initiative rolls and Perception checks to Seek creatures attempting to sneak up on the camp.
- .
- Downtime Activities - These activities normally take at least 4 consecutive Active Watches to perform ("a day or more") and may not be applicable.
Campfire watches
Actually keeping watch dring resting.
| Party Size | Total Time | Duration of Each Watch |
| 2 | 16 hours | 8 hours |
| 3 | 12 hours | 4 hours |
| 4 | 10 hours, 40 minutes | 2 hours, 40 minutes |
| 5 | 10 hours | 2 hours |
| 6 | 9 hours, 36 minutes | 1 hour, 36 minutes |
Resting
Homebrew: Same as RAW, except:
- Marching or other streneous activity in excess of 1h between rest periods will reset the time counted as rest. Taking turns on guard duty generally does not affect rest.
- Not automaticall Fatigued after 16 hours; after 20 hours instead (5 Watches).
- If a character does not spend at least one full watch per day resting; succeed at a Fortitude check (DC 16 - the number of hours they slept, if any) or suffer a level of Fatigue.
- Write down hours of sleep missing from 8 (if slept 3h, then 5) and accumulate these and add them to next day's Fort check until the character gets 8 hours full rest.
Forced March
Using a mix of rules from DnD 3.5, PF1, PF2 and DnD 5e.
- After travelling a "full daily amount", start making Fortitude checks every
After 8 hours of normal travel
Food and water
Water: You need 1 or 2 waterskins (0.5 or 1 gallon) of water per day depending on activity level to be unaffected by thirst.
Food: You need one ration of food per day to be unaffected by hunger.
See Starvation for details on if you run out of either.
Recover Ammnition
Ammnition that did not hit a target has a 50% chance of being recoverable. In dire straits it's possible to reover also arrowheads from the other 50% that are otherise "lost" as well as those that have hit a target (or something hard). Arrows can be repaired (5hp) or crafted from scratch. An arrowhead hitting a hard object has the Broken and Shoddy traits until repaired and endows any arrows made from them with these traits.
Craft and Repair
There is a slight lack for this in PF2.
Improvised Repair Kit means it's a Shoddy one[1], with a -2 circmstance penalty. Most of the time, some level of repair is possible from things like knives, hatchets, stones and boulders but in some cases repairs are impossible, like if there is a lack of ANY relevant tools.
Craft uses the standard rules with the folloing exceptions:
- Crafting overtly mundane items can be done at 5% the time of normal crafting as well as dring Exploration Mode (4h) or Hexploration (1 Watch).
- E.g.: Clubs, ammunition (arrowheads already made), arrowheads of common wood or bone.
- Cutting tools, rope and fire are reqired.
- Wooden weapon made for quality like a Bo-staff or spear require a full Craft check (4 days Downtime), otherwise it's Shoddy
- 10 arrows are created per check (standard)
Materials
- Bone: -2 damage and Fragile
- Wood: -3 damage & additional -1 for medium armor or -3 for heavy armor and Fragile
- Weapons normally made by wood, like staves and clubs, do not apply these penalties
Army movements
Large scale movement is hindered by several factors, well summarised here.
Rule of thumb 8-12 miles per day rather than 24 odd. Can probabl be refined with eqation + dice.
Full rules
Watches
A watch is the basic unit for tracking time. A watch is equal to 4 hours.
Determine Time Within a Watch: To randomly generate a particular time within a watch, use 1d8 to determine the half hour and 1d30 to determine the exact minute (if necessary).
There are six watches per day and three types of watch:
- Active
- Rest
- Travel
While traveling, it is generally assumed that an expedition is spending two watches per day traveling, two watches per day resting, and two watches per day engaged in other activities.
Forced March: If a character spends more than two watches traveling in one day, they must make a Constitution check (DC 10 + 1 per hour of additional travel). On a failure, they suffer one level of exhaustion/fatigue.
Travel Pace
During each watch, the expedition determines their travel pace.
Normal: (x1) An expedition traveling at normal pace cannot use Stealth checks to avoid detection.
Slow: (x2/3) While moving at a slow pace, the expedition is purposely being careful. An expedition traveling at slow pace:
- Gains advantage on navigation checks.
- Can make Stealth checks to avoid detection.
- The chance for a non-exploratory encounter is halved. (If a non-exploratory encounter is generated, there is a 50% chance it doesn’t actually happen.)
Exploration: (x1/2) While exploring, an expedition is assumed to be trying out side trails, examining objects of interest, and so forth. While exploring, an expedition:
- Cannot use Stealth checks to avoid detection.
- Gains advantage (PF2 = +5 circumstance bonus) on navigation checks.
- The chance for encounters is doubled.
Fast: (x1.5) While moving quickly through the wilderness, expeditions traveling at fast pace:
- Cannot use Stealth checks to avoid detection.
- Suffer disadvantage to Wisdom (Perception) checks.
- Suffer a -5 penalty to navigation checks.
The most common speed is 30ft, 3mph, 12 miles per watch, 24 miles per day.
| Speed | Feet per Minute | Miles per Hour | Miles per Day |
| 10 | 100 | 1 | 8 |
| 15 | 150 | 1-1/2 | 12 |
| 20 | 200 | 2 | 16 |
| 25 | 250 | 2-1/2 | 20 |
| 30 | 300 | 3 | 24 |
| 35 | 350 | 3-1/2 | 28 |
| 40 | 400 | 4 | 32 |
| 50 | 500 | 5 | 40 |
| 60 | 600 | 6 | 48 |
Terrain
The type of terrain modifies the speed at which an expedition can travel.
- Highway: A highway is a straight, major, paved road.
- Road: A road is a dirt track or similar causeway.
- Trail: An irregular byway. Probably unsuitable for most vehicles and may only allow for single-file travel. Most off-road travel follows local trails. A known trail does not require navigation checks, although a known trail in poor repair requires a DC 10 navigation check to follow.
- Trackless: Trackless terrain is a wild area with no paths. +2 to navigation DCs.
| TERRAIN | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desert | |||||
| Forest (sparse) | |||||
| Forest (medium) | |||||
| Forest (dense) | |||||
| Hills | |||||
| Jungle | |||||
| Moor | |||||
| Mountains | |||||
| Plains | |||||
| Swamp | |||||
| Tundra, frozen |
Note! These DCs are for e and ma have to be revised for PF2
Conditions
| CONDITIONS | |
|---|---|
| Cold or hot climate | |
| Giant terrain | |
| Hurricane | |
| Leading mount | |
| Poor visibility (fog, darkness) | |
| River crossing | |
| Snow cover | |
| Snow cover, heavy | |
| Storm | |
| Storm, powerful |
Leading Pack Animal: Under normal circumstances, a pack-puller can lead a file with a number of animals equal to their passive Wisdom (Animal Handling) skill.
Poor Visibility: This condition also gives disadvantage to navigation and forage checks.
River Crossing: This penalty applies to any watch during which a river must be crossed. This does not apply if the characters are following a road which has a bridge on it, but does apply if they’re traveling cross-country and must seek out a bridge.
Hexes
- 1 Hex = 12 miles (center to center / side to side) = 7 mile sides = 124 square miles
Movement on the wilderness hex grid is abstracted. In order to determine if an expedition has left a hex, you must keep track of their progress within the hex.
Starting in a Hex: If an expedition starts movement within a hex, it requires 6 miles of progress to exit any face of the hex.
- Optional Rule: You can choose to bias a starting position. For example, you might see that a river flows near the western edge of a hex. If the PCs start traveling from that river, you might decide it only takes 2 miles to exit through the hex’s western face and 10 miles to exit through its eastern face.
Crossing Hex to a Far Side: It requires 12 miles of progress to exit a hex through one of the three faces on the opposite side.
Crossing Hex to a Near Side: It requires 6 miles of progress to exit a hex through one of the two nearest faces.
Changing Direction: Changing direction more than once within a hex will result in the loss of 2 miles of progress each time direction is changed.
Back the Way We Came: If characters deliberately double back along their own trail, simply reduce their progress until they exit the hex. If they leave back through the face through which they entered the hex for any other reason (by getting lost, for example) it requires an additional 1d6-1 miles of progress to exit the hex (unless circumstances suggest some other figure).
Watch Actions
Encounters
References
- https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/46101/roleplaying-games/5e-hexcrawl-part-2-wilderness-travel
- PF2 hexploration https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1265
- ...
- https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/9m7xax/recommend_me_a_hexcrawl_random_generator/
- https://iceandruin.blogspot.com/2018/03/help-make-hex-describe-best-thing-ever.html