What is a Hexcrawl?
If I am looking to make West Marches Hexcrawls appealing, I probably should have written this earlier.
There are different types of role-playing games. A murder mystery is so loosey-goosey that it has been turned into a dinner and a show event at classy establishments. Fiasco, a board game role-playing game, is about making a movie about a crime going horribly wrong. Eventually, when you settle on which role-playing Lifestyle Game to damn you to nerddom, there will be a discussion on themes and expectations. There’s a bunch of lingo that might get tossed around in the discussion.
Three Genres We Aspire To
For example, if someone wants to run a “Monster of the Week” style of game, the Director is making a particular reference to television series. The players and characters will remain the same but the challenges will be totally different for each ‘episode’. The ‘episode’ might take a few sessions to complete but then the party moves on to the next challenge, like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which popularized the notion for Millennials. They’re the gaming equivalent of sitting down to watch a Sitcom.
In games of Vampire the Masquerade, there might be calls for taking the game seriously and not cracking jokes between scenes. The feel might be trying to go for Game of Thrones in level of politial intrigue but knowing or unknowingly, the production does not have the budget for the grandiose feel. I would say that the average role-playing game takes this approach, it attempts to be serious but tone is excruciatingly difficult to maintain. That’s how you wind up with True Blood.
As much as it makes my stomach turn, a Hexcrawl is like a J.J. Abrams “Mystery Box”. Lost is an incomprehensible mess if you jump in and out of it, but diehard fans insist that it makes sense. The purpose of running a West Marches game is that people are busy and it gets hard to get together to chuck dice. West Marches faciliates players getting together and the easiest payout to that is a Hexcrawl.
The Game Exists to make the Game
Hexcrawls are mostly about roaming around, getting lost and having emergent storytelling be the focus. Instead of having an investigation phase due to a plot hook dangled in front of your players, a Hexcrawl is reactive. They choose a direction and move, the crawl part of a Hexcrawl. The map is made of hexes and you need to stock your game with interesting features, like some of Ghostfire Gaming’s Twisted Taverns. You put mysteries in boxes and see where your players drunkenly stumble, setting them off.
Instead of handwaving a trip to a location, you have the players go through each day to see if they get lost or have Random Encounters. You’re playing to play, not because “it’s what we always do” or some other friend making hostage technique. The players decide which direction to travel and then the both of you see what happens. The procedure is that the Director rolls to see if a new Hex Feature has been discovered and the players roll to see if they stumble into a Random Encounter. Sometimes, the players will roll multiple times and it results in a funny result which is the heart of a game. The focus is on playing to play, not be subjected a lore infodump because the Director secretly wishes to be a writer. This is another reason why I say you should shamelessly beg, borrow, steal, duck, dive and dodge your way to everything in your game like I recommend in my Ode to the One Page Dungeon Contest.
Topple The Tower, Burst the Bastion
An alternative to a Hexcrawl is what is called a Pointcrawl which modern video games have already indoctrinated you in without you realizing it. I find that it makes much more sense in underground travel, whether it is Dungeons and Dragons’ Underdark or a generic pulp Hollow Earth. The Director makes custom points of interest for the players. They might not know what those paths are leading towards. I also like to have challenges along certain paths such as low oxygen or sharp inclines that test your player’s characters mettle. The players do know that there is a destination; there has to be, after all, it’s a Pointcrawl that has Points of Interest. Not a Pointlesscrawl.
The advantage of a Pointcrawl is that it is far more cinematic. The party gets to the location after going through some hurdles, just like every movie ever. They do serve games that use plot much better. It’s not like Atreyu of The NeverEnding Story isn’t going to go to the Swamps of Sadness, the Southern Oracle and then the Princess’ after defeating the big boss. Cool story bro but it isn’t a focus on play.
What makes play amazing as a kid was how you could run around, do nothing but bond with your mates. An adventure when you’re a kid could be as simple as finding a praying mantis or kicking a ball around, the freedom is what made it play. As you grow older, your tastes do become more refined and that is why I run Hexcrawls - they most often reflect the freeform play where it is your silly characters going on much grander adventures.
