Hex Stocking Example
Occasionally, I am asked how I go about stocking Hexes for Wilderness Adventuring. Here’s a little demonstration I put together that attempts to cover the process.
Let’s stock a Hex!
Disclaimer: I’ve been told my Hexes are a bit on the densely stocked side compared to most. They are generally not sized by Distance but by Time (to interface with Resource Consumption/Procedural Checks, and discourage straight-line Travel “as the Gryphon Flies” when Roads and such aren’t present). You may find yourself settling on a different scale (six-miles seems to be a popular choice), but my Mantra is that woefully Empty Hexes should be avoided at all costs. Even the most Barren Places should contain Something if you look, and create Choices (because this, coupled with Wonder and a Sense of Discovery is what makes Travel interesting).
Name Your Regions
The first thing I do is make sure a given Hex is part of a Named Region. This name can appear in Rumors, on Maps, and is referred to by Locals, etc. We’ll place this Hex in the Howling Hills. It’s a series of crowded low foothills (only a few are taller than a Barn, and it can get eerily uniform in places) covered in scraggly grass with the occasional Tree/Bush. Perhaps it was the site of a duel between Enormous Elementals, long long ago.
Naming these Regions becomes pretty useful to place them in the larger context of the World, allowing interactions to refer to these places by their Regional Name. Sometimes certain Regions can start earning a bit of a Reputation on their own (“We’re never going back to the Scabrous Swamps again!”) As Players Explore the world, they’re building up Knowledge about the Dangers and Qualities of these different places, that helps them make informed decisions when it comes to Travel as well as for later Tiers like Domain Play.
Populate Encounter Tables
My next step is to work on the Encounter Tables. I like doing this step early in the process because as you’ll see, it gives me so much fodder for the later stages. I can roll on this table to help me determine Stocking for Lairs, Tracks/Traces, Factions, Seed Rumor Tables, and so forth. Since they feed so much when it comes to Stocking and developing the Character of a Place, I like to do them up-front (see the table to the right).
This is largely just a few Encounters I selected from the Wilderness Encounter Tables for this type of Terrain. Sometimes I’ll just roll on them to see what comes up if I don’t have a clear idea of what might inhabit a given Region. I like to add a bit of flavor to them when I can, to make them distinctive (particularly when it comes to standard Fauna). I find the day/night axis a little helpful for different types of Wandering Monster Checks (it lets me put the more Nocturnal Things in the right context!), but you could also tie it to Watches or other Procedures. I also try to find an excuse to roll those lovely d12s whenever I can!
I try to also include some Encounters from adjacent/nearby Regions as well. Perhaps they’re just passing through, or leveraging a Resource found within these Hexes in some way. If these are Factions the Players have interacted with before, even better! Creating things that link your Hexes together is a great way to ground them in the context of a larger Setting.
Generating Features
Once this Encounter Table is complete: On to Stocking! My preference is generally for 3-6 Obvious Features in my Hexes, and 1-2 Hidden Things that aren’t located along direct Paths/Routes or found easily. You can season these numbers to taste of course! Starting out smaller never hurt anyone, and sometimes if a Place isn’t going to be immediately important it doesn’t deserve as much attention right now.
I roll 1d4+2 and get a 1 (3 Obvious Features), and a quick d6 for another 1 (odds = 1, evens = 2: 1 Hidden Thing). Pretty sparse Hex if I do say so myself! I think I’ll lean into this a bit with my portrayal and descriptions as it becomes a bit more Steppe-like in my mind’s eye. But the important thing is that it’s not “Empty.” There are Things to Interact with here that can introduce Choices and make Travel more interesting.
To figure out what these Features are, I sometimes roll on the standard “Dungeon Stocking” table for Inspiration. Translating those familiar results a bit to work for Overland purposes:
An “Empty Room” becomes a Landmark/Discovery, “Monster” is now a Lair, “Special” will usually be something Site-based or one of my Wilderness Hexes (more can be found under the [hexes] label), A “Trap” becomes something Hazardous (some ideas for this in my table here: Wilderness Woes & Hinterland Hazards.) For the adjunct “Treasure” roll I try to turn this into some kind of Resource, either with intrinsic and immediate value/usefulness or something that can be exploited by the Players at a later point in time.
Update: I put together a Wilderness Stocking - Expanded Resource that dives a little deeper into this table with links to other Random Tables/Resources as well as small prompts for inspiration.
Of course, one shouldn’t feel compelled to fetter themselves to the results here, if you want to dig a Dungeon, then dig one! If you have a neat or compelling idea for a Hazard or Discovery…then place it!
Sometimes that Sea of Plaintive and Empty Polygons can be a bit intimidating though. The Map is ready to go, and might do a great job at conveying the Terrain, but by itself it may do little else to invite Adventure or Exploration. So using this table can sometimes jumpstart my creativity to get a few things placed, and I’m often surprised how quickly things go after I’ve hopped over that initial hurdle!
Feature Examples
Using that Trusty Dungeon Stocking Table, I roll on this for the Obvious Features:
I: Empty, Treasure = Landmark + Resource
II: Monster, Treasure = Lair + Resource
III: Monster = Lair
And the lonely Hidden Thing:
IV: Special
So, for these Features, I consult some of my Tables and come up with more tangible ideas to Key the Hex with:
I: A Landmark from my Discovery Table. 54: Gnarled Trunk of a Wolfperch resembles its namesake: a Slavering Canine (nifty, I do love it when a random die roll decides to play nice with a Theme!). I’ll make this a distinctive and huge Tree Stump (there aren’t many Trees out here so conceivably this would be important for orienteering), but what’s the Resource? Hmm. Perhaps it’s Petrified, a small chip of stone from it, if swallowed, can prevent Lycanthropy for up to 1d6 days.
II: Lair (1d12 on the Encounter Table and I get: Horned Wolf Pack) I imagine this would take the form of Dens. Gouged in the hillsides are the Breeding Dens of the Horned Wolf Pack (maybe they use those Horns also see use for shoveling the soil to build these!). We’ll place the majority of our Wolves here (in the form of the “Lair” Number Appearing). For the Resource, I’m thinking a nearby Water Source might be nice for the Wolves and their Prey (those Horses/Antelopes), but also handy for the Players who may need to stock up. Perhaps a Pond is within sight of the Dens. I’ll roll up one of my Magic Pools for giggles: 20 Exposed to Moonlight, Drinker becomes Invisible to Magic Users for a week. That’s fun!
III Lair (1d12 on table = Blink Dog Pack) More Hillside habitats here, but these are probably a little less obvious or harder to find entrances for (they can just blink inside them after all) so we’ll place some confusing tracks that suddenly start and stop around here. I like the idea of making these more uniform in size and arrangement to fit the Lawful nature of these Canines, maybe with some kind of Hierarchy. The Lair Number Appearing will be present here, and their Treasure Type C will also be found in one of the Dens, but due to their Alignment this could be a helpful Faction for aid/special knowledge about the Hex and its dangers. I’ll flesh out their Leader “Three Legs” and probably make them a Cleric or something. There will be some Silver Weapons in the Treasure from unlucky Werewolf Hunters.
And Last, but certainly not least: the Special/Hidden Thing.
IV Let’s have a Dungeon. Sometimes these are more Obvious because there will sometimes be trails/paths from the Denizens going to-and-fro, but in this case it’s pretty hard to find. I’ll have it also serve as a base of operations for those Werewolves that I’d like to flesh out as a Faction here. Since they might only leave to Hunt (in Wolf Form) the Tracks and Traces they leave will be a lot less obvious considering the other Denizens of the Hex. I’ll add it to my to-do list for a 20-minute Dungeon or something (maybe I’ll end up doing a separate demo of that process eventually!). I’ll sometimes just use the Hex-Describe [dungeon] rules I’ve worked on in the past to get one I like, and then just do a little tweaking as necessary if I’m even more pressed for time:
Where Is Everything?
Now for the “Where Is Everything Step” that helps me determine how these features “relate” to each other (for the purpose of Travel along those Paths/Trails/Routes, as well as Factional Conflicts and such). I usually end up using one of my Tessellations:
I threw four quick d12s (one for each of the Features) and this is what I ended up with: 10, 1, 5, 4. These are only relative locations really, Travel through the Hex is still based on Direction, but occurs on paths/routes/trails. The Obvious Things are likely to be Encountered based on this Direction of Travel because they will have these kinds of Trails and Routes of Travel associated with them.
Rumors/Hooks
Finally, I'll use the Hex Contents/Encounter Tables I've generated in prior steps to whip up a Rumor Table in order to concretely tie this place to Potential Adventure. I tend to do these using a more "in-world voice" most of the time, and sometimes I’ll only do d10/d6 and fold them into larger tables for a given Named Region. All have a Grain of Truth, but some might be a bit off or not entirely accurate. I like to use these to sprinkle in a bit of Mystery, and to pique the Players’ curiosity in addition to Telegraphing some Dangers. See if you can spot where these Rumors “came from” in the previous steps!
I sometimes re-skin these on the fly to reflect that indispensable Information Currency from fellow Travelers/Denizens of Adjacent Hexes and so forth, but they're usually obtainable in the nearest Settlements/Havens as well.
Finishing Up
All that’s left to do at this point is pretty Optional. I’ll maybe generate a few Encounter Activities from my tables for some of the Wandering Monsters to have at hand to keep them interesting (sometimes this takes place in prior Steps if I’m stymied). I might consult my Wilderness Vignette Tables for some more inspiration on sights/sounds to convey to the Players during their Exploration through this area (or roll these on the fly). I may decide I want to generate some intriguing Plant or Tree Names for local Flora (I find these sometimes work really well for conveying changes in Terrain when moving from Hex to Hex), and maybe a few Fish for that Pond as well. I’ll need some Treasure/Names for the Blink Dog Lair, and to whip up that Dungeon or grab a one-pager, but for the most part, I consider this Hex “keyed” for my purposes 😊.
If it seems like the Players might want to spend more time in this Hex, naturally I can always generate a few more Hidden Features down the road, but no Hex should be static or Set in Stone…the choices and activities the Players undertake within can easily alter it, and in fact: They should! The impact their Adventures have on an area is always a very powerful source of inspiration for creating New Things for me, and can help a Place seem more Dynamic and Alive. As a bonus, Players get to see how their Engagement with the Contents of a given Hex makes a tangible impact.
All told, I only think it took about 10 minutes or so to Stock this one (it took longer finding suitable images for this Example!), but if it was something I was relatively certain my Players would be spending more time in, I might devote a little more time and effort to it. I’m a firm believer in trying to focus a lot of my Preparation on things that will be immediately usable in Play when I can, but the Temptation of a lovingly fully-stocked Hex Map, ready and waiting for Countless Adventures is always a very strong one!
Hope this Example helps illustrate my Process a little more, and provides some ideas/inspiration for sprinkling more Features in your own Hex Maps!
Happy Hex-Crawling!