Hexcrawling Youtube

Maybe a month ago, I began compiling hexcrawl resources on an irregularly-edited post.  Missing from it are YouTube videos.  This post addresses that.

A rather simplistic hexmap, source unknown.

I have given in to YouTube; typically, I am not a fan of YouTube gaming things, because I cannot watch them in meetings that are really just conversations between two people with mandatory attendance for the rest of the staff.  Despite this, there are several DnD-related channels and videos.

In today's edition, we look at various hexcrawl videos.  Not addressed are various videos on Sandboxes, a related term.

Bandit's Keep shares Building a Hexcrawl.

Dungeoncraft offers How to Design a Hex Crawl.

Matt Finch  RPG Studio interviews Bill Webb in the episode How to Run a Hexcrawl.

WebDM runs a two-part hexcrawl-related series: part 1 and part 2.

Bardic College provides Advanced Hexcrawling Kung Fu: Techniques and Tools.

Hexed Press has a variety of videos, including How to Play through a Hexcrawl, Designing a Random Encounter System for your Hexcrawl, Prepping Your Hexmap for a Hexcrawl Campaign, and a Dungeon Master's Intro to Running a Hexcrawl.

It appears that Hexed Press is a prolific hexcrawl video maker; Hexcrawl Tools: d30 Sandbox Companion part 1 and part 2.

GFC's DnD posted How to Hexcrawl.

For now, here is the search I ran on youtube.  Most of the above are there, plus a few more, if 105 minus the above is a few.

Is there overlap across these videos? Assuredly.  Is it still worth watching them all? Also yes, if only to learn or better understand hexcrawls, or at least discover new resources for your own games.

Latest edit: 11/7/21

MtG Monday: The Forgotten Realms Set

It's been some time since my last MtG Monday post.  It has been almost as long since my last game of Magic, in person or on Arena.

Inevitability exists in many circumstances, to include my buying a bundle of the Forgotten Realms set of Magic cards.  While the cards intrigued me, it was the promise of the d20 that sealed the deal, as it were.

Isn't it pretty?  Below it towers over some of my other d20s, but not the d30.

Opening the packs, I know I didn't break even, monetarily, but I'm not all that concerned about doing so, because I got some neat cards, to include a few I want to eventually jam into a Commander Deck or two.  That is the allure of packs, though, the rush from opening one, the sound of the foil tearing, the smell of the ink, and the crush of disappointment as you realize the Rare or Mythic is shitty draft chaff or worse.  Sometimes, though, you win the lottery and open a card that has actual value of $5 or more.  For me, that was one card out of the ten in the bundle.

Mordenkainen.

I know - Mordenkainen is a staple of the Greyhawk universe (as his biography attests).  Yet WotC brought him to a new generation of gamers (but not his Disjunction, that needs to be houseruled back into games - and it should be), first in the adventure Curse of Strahd in 2016, and then with the hardback Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes in 2018.  

So it was inevitable that he end up in the Forgotten Realms.  Maybe next set will take us back to Greyhawk, with Mordenkainen leading the way.  I doubt it, but a man can dream.

A card that had to be included in this set, given its title.

Modal spells (cards that provide options, like above) are a big deal in Magic the Gathering, especially when you are trying to keep your deck to the minimum allowed amount of cards due to math.  There are several modal spells in this set, of which I ended up with five: You Come to the Gnoll Camp, You See a Guard Approach, You Find the Villain's Lair, You Find a Cursed Idol, and You Happen on a Glade.  These card titles suggest demand some means to turn them into a random events table, kind of like random encounters, but instead of dicing for them, you shuffle up and draw one.  The biggest hurdle is how few there are -11, if my math is right.

I would need to buy the others, which is easily done, but they are so cheap that I would inevitably buy other cards from the set, if only to get a reasonable order of $20 or so. It will be simple, as WotC did a fine job in choosing which DnDisms to place in the set.  

Chiefly, though, I would buy Froghemoth, because Froghemoth.  Plus, I am a firm believer in keeping opposing graveyards empty, and Froghemoth lends itself to this belief.  

Inevitably, I will play MtG again, but I really can't say when, or if I will be bothered to actually use any of these cards in the decks.

 

DoMT: Introduction and Flames

I've written before about how the Deck of Many Things creates stories for sandbox games.  Now I would like to explore this theory more in-depth, by providing a homebrew history of the Deck of Many Things, then detailing a card or two with each post, and how it fits in to my game world as a whole.

To prepare this series, I spent some time comparing the DoMT between rulesets: 3.5e and 5e.  Both hew close to the original from AD&D, but wow, does the 5e version break down specifically how each card works.  

I'll be using the 5e rules for this series, but will likely mix and match rulings to better fit my game.  (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Basically, the DoMT was crafted by Loki to embody the lyrics of Tom Waits, who said, 'the large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.'  Along the way, the DoMT spreads Chaos throughout the planes, as it forces those bound to it to act in rather specific ways.

Flames - Enmity between you and an Outsider. 

The specific contract between Loki and Etrigan is unknown to mortals, but it stings the devil enough that when Flames is drawn from the Deck of Many Things, Etrigan takes special delight in ruining the mortal drawing the card, if only because Etrigan cannot affect Loki even if it wanted to - and he dearly wants to.

So with Loki unavailable, the poor fool drawing Flames is a suitable replacement.

Initially, Etrigan sends cultists and agents to learn about the card-drawer and regular companions - with the goal being to ruin his life, not end it.  Ending the life and ruining the soul comes later.  

With time, Etrigan sends potent devils and sublieutenants to ruin the card-drawer.  These agents are under strict orders to speak before and during combat.  Specifically, they tell all within earshot that they are doing what they are doing because of the card drawer.  

The final fight between Etrigan and the card drawer has so far resulted in the death and dissolution of several world-class heroes through the ages.  The truth is, though, that most often the card drawer dies to a minion of Etrigan.

At the table, this means that that - like it or not - there are attacks aimed at the card drawer every other session, with evidence of other mischief designed to ruin the reputation and life of the card drawer during the in-between sessions.  All told, drawing Flames results in Etrigan's ire being seen and growing as the card drawer foils attempts on his life and reputation until the final battle.

Note that whether or not the DM embraces Etrigan's namesake and only speaks in rhyme is very much table dependent.  That said, I will do my best to speak in such a manner.

Wizards!

I may have mentioned before that I want to revamp my Random Encounter table for the Ironguard Campaign (despite it being on indefinite hiatus), modeled on what is going on here at Papers and Pencils.

2d6	Encounter
2	Dragon!
3	Weird
4	Weird
5	Weird Place
6	Build Place
7	Recurring Characters
8	Build Place
9	Weird Place
10	Weird
11	Weird
12	Wizard!

I'm a fan of Weird encounters, be they from books I've read, other blogs, or my own fevered imagination.  Anything that gives a player pause is good.  

To make the above work, I'll be making using of nested subtables, because I like nested subtables. I failed the search check for my notes on these four wizards, so was forced to build them from scratch.  Here are four, their modes of travel, and their majordomos. 

1d4	Wizard!
1	traveling in a carriage (with apprentice and choice retainers) made from the animated skeleton of a Mastadon trudging along; retinue consists of various undead.  Majordomo is a well-mannered ghoul in decaying finery.  They'd love to invite you to dinner!
2	traveling on roc-back (with apprentice and choice retainers), with retinue of flying monkeys (use gargoyles for stats).  Majordomo is larger flying monkey in a red velvet vest and matching Fez.  The Fez grants the ability to speak and understand all languages heard.
3	traveling in a large floating bubble (with apprentice and choice retainers in their own, smaller bubbles) seemingly drifting on the wind.  Dozens of smaller bubbles float among the larger ones.  Majordomo is a bubble golem, coalescing out of many bubbles joining together into a rough humanoid shape.
4	traveling in a palanquin carried by 8 large, headless, humanoids.   Majordomo is a large floating head sporting a monocle.

When it comes to naming wizards, I dip into history.  So far, no one has noticed, or if they have, they don't mention it.

Yes, all the Wizards! are traveling to and from somewhere, on one inscrutable purpose or another.  

d8	Purpose
1	Returning home from another mission; d6 1-3 celebratory mood of success, 4-6 dour mood of defeat.  PCs either get an invitation to party or are attacked out of frustration.
2	To investigate rumors or following a map; may trade information with PCs.
3	To make war upon a neighbor; mercenaries are welcome.
4	On a pilgrimage to a holy site; faithful are welcome to join, unbelievers are coldly turned away, heretics are destroyed utterly.
5	To fulfill a vow, oath, or other promise to provide aid of some sort; unhappy to be doing so, but promises must be kept.  Will gladly let the PCs serve in its stead.
6	Off to the city, on a supply run and some well-deserved r&r; whether or not they will be welcomed is another question.
7	Gathering ingredients/specimens for research; PCs may provide needed item through trade or mere existence.
8	Exploring for its own sake.  Will gladly trade information and tales and a feast with PCs.  In the morning, when PCs awake, it will be as if nothing happened.

Once the hexmap is finalized, home and destination hex numbers can be assigned, but until then, these Wizards! are adrift in time and space (which probably doesn't bother them all that much).

Bonus Wizard!: traveling on the back of a gigantic millipede, with apprentice and retinue also on board.  If necessary, different sections of millipede break away into six-legged mounts, each with its own rider.  Major domo rides at the rear and breaks off to come address PCs; he is just a normal-looking human, with vibrant purple skin and a pair of antennae.