Hexploration
The basis of any system of overland travel is a map, with a hex grid overlay for quickly calculating distances. The system splits these into two categories of scale: World Maps and Regional Maps.
In ideal conditions, a character or party can move up to 3 miles in an hour, or 24 miles over an 8-hour day. This simple fact, coupled with our two map scales, forms the basis of this system.
World Map
On the World Map, one hex is twenty-four miles across. This measurement is useful for tracking distances while moving between settlements.
- A character can move one hex in a day’s march along a road.
- A character on horseback moves twice as fast when entering a road, plains, or hills hex.
- When entering a trackless wilderness hex, travel time is doubled.
- When entering a mountain or forest hex, travel time is doubled.
The World Map scale is typically used to quickly solve the math of travel time over longer distances. If you want something more granular, take a look at the Regional Map.
Regional Map
On a Regional Map, one hex is three miles across. Consider picking a term to use for this unit of distance, such as a “league,” as it will come up quite a lot! This more granular approach allows you to break down travel and exploration into finer chunks. All movement on this scale is measured in hexes, not miles or hours. There’s no such thing as traveling half a hex.
For ideal results, a majority of hexes on your wilderness map should contain a feature of some kind. It doesn’t have to be a dungeon, but consider adding landmarks or other points of interest. This can be a useful tool for navigation and orientation when a party inevitably gets lost, or perhaps a clue to the location of a dungeon.
When the party enters a hex, consult the chart below. A hex’s type determines how much time it takes to travel into that hex.
Note: A character on horseback moves twice as fast when entering a road, plains, or hills hex.
Entering a Hex
When entering a forest, swamp, or mountain hex, the player leading the exploration must make a Navigation Check to determine if they get lost. You should set the DC depending on the difficulty of the navigation by a number between 10 and 20. If there are landmarks, or other obvious clues, the DC should be on the lower end. If the party is travelling from identical hex to another, it should be higher.
This is most commonly a Survival (Wisdom) check, but feel free to allow other skills if you feel they are appropriate. Getting lost means the party instead travels to a different adjacent hex that’s reasonable for them to end up in.
If the party is travelling along a river, coastline, or tree line, they should succeed on Navigation Checks automatically.
Once inside a hex, the DM might describe some notable feature the characters see. They might ask for a check to discover some hidden secrets that might not be immediately obvious to arriving characters, or simply ask which hex they are entering next.
Similarly, Navigation Checks to follow tracks into an adjacent hex have advantage.
Trailblaze
Once a character has entered a hex by making a successful Navigation Check, they automatically succeed on Navigation Checks made to enter that hex in the future.
Exploring a Hex
A party can spend some time to thoroughly explore the hex they’re in. Doing so takes the same amount of time as entering that hex would have, though being on horseback confers no benefits here, and reveals any hidden locations that might be in a hex.
| Hex Type | Time |
|---|---|
| Road | 1 hour |
| Plains or Hills | 2 hours |
| Forest or Swamps | 4 hours |
| Mountains | 8 hours |
Wilderness Day
At the start of every day, every character must consume one ration or an equivalent amount of food. After that, the DM rolls for weather to determine any applicable modifiers to the day’s Navigation Checks.
A full day of exploration is 8 hours long, and any time spent exploring beyond that risks driving one or more members of the party to exhaustion. Whenever a party finishes entering or exploring a hex, if they have spent more than 8 hours exploring that day, tally up the additional hours spent and ask each character to make a Constitution Saving Throw. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past 8. Each character that fails suffers one level of exhaustion.
Downtime Hours
Each day is split into 8 hours of exploration, and 8 hours of rest. That means there are 4 hours unaccounted for (2 in the morning for preparation, and 2 in the evening for camp/dinner). A character can use these 4 hours as they wish, provided they didn’t march beyond 8 hours. Here are some examples of downtime activities they could spend their time on:
- Forage for Food: Roll a Survival check. A result of 10 provides enough food to forgo one ration; each increment of 5 above that allows you to replace an additional ration.
- Craft Mundane Items: Reduce the time remaining to craft an item by half a day.
- Craft Magic Items: Reduce the time remaining to craft a magic item by half a day.
- Scout Ahead: Explore the surrounding area in the hopes of stumbling onto something. The DM might ask for a Survival or Perception check to determine if you find something.
- Other Activities: Engage in any other downtime activity appropriate for the setting.