Hexcrawling

The Wilderlands of Absalom

Hexcrawling

I'll be using this post from the Autarch forum to determine how many lairs are within each hex. For a hex to be "cleared" all of the lairs need to be dealt with, either be killing the residents, convincing them to move on or making peace with them. Each hex will also have a number of "features", areas of interest ranging from the dead body of a solitary trapper, an abandoned gold mine, a dungeon, hardwood forest, etc. I'm not saying you have to, but proficiencies such as Naturalism, Knowledge and Craft will be more useful here then in other campaigns, specifically to help recognize features of value.

Hexes can, of course, be traveled through, but they can also be explored. Exploration of a hex isn't based so much on movement rate, since it assumes that such travel is relatively slow and cautious, so as to avoid missing anything. It will take anywhere from four to eight days to fully explore a single 6-mile hex. Unless otherwise stated, I will assume that travel through a hex takes the shortest possible distance.

Further comments: To clarify: clearing a hex requires that all the lairs in a hex be dealt with. In order to keep a hex cleared, however, the hex must be garrisoned. A keep needs to be built and manned by troops to prevent monsters from returning. At this point the Prince's men are busy rebuilding the bridge across the River Bel; it is estimated construction will be completed six months from the start of the campaign. They make it clear to Mr. Hand that while increasing and securing territory is of concern to them, the Prince (not his domain, but the Prince himself) only has the resources and manpower to build and maintain one garrison per year (so, they could have two hexes garrisoned at the end of the second year). Of the hexes immediately west of Junction, it is the one the road goes through that is of paramount concern. The Prince is willing to pay 500 gold to the party that is able to clear this hex, with the understanding that his men will be responsible for garrisoning it.

That being said, you guys could certainly clear and garrison hexes on your own. However, the Prince will not be sanguine about this activity so close to his border without accepting a vassalage from the party (or party member). In other words, if you try and build a domain this close to his territory it will be difficult to do that independently. If you want to be independent you'll have to strike out further from civilization.

Additional comments: This assumes a 6-mile hex divided into 25 1.5-mile hexes. Rates are as follows:

• Plains/Grassland/Desert: 6 subhexes per day (four days to explore an entire 6-mile hex)
• Hills/Broken/Forest: 4 subhexes per day (six days to explore an entire 6-mile hex)
• Jungle/Mountain/Swamp: 3 subhexes per day (eight days to explore an entire 6-mile hex)

I will be making wandering monster checks. A post over on Autarch by Alex suggests that lairs are discovered based upon random monster checks, but I'm going to say screw that, as that could conceivably take weeks or even months to clear something like a mountain hex with 2d6+1 lairs. Therefore, we're going to do the following:

• I'm going to make one random encounter check per day and one at night, as normal for wilderness exploration.
• Unless otherwise stated in the lair/feature description you will automatically encounter whatever it is upon entering a subhex. There may be hidden lairs or features that simply aren't discovered; it should be evident that, in these instances, there are still lairs when wandering monsters keep popping up and trying to eat settlers. Likewise, there may be features that are below ground, invisible or whatever*.

(*There's a pdf over on the Autarch site that goes into mining rules, which we'll use should you become so inclined. Essentially, it presumes that each hex has a certain number of veins of ore that can be discovered through a careful survey -- which takes longer than the time to clear a hex. It seems to me that this is activity best reserved for a cleared and garrisoned hex.)

Flying Carpets and Hex Clearing

Using a flying carpet -- or other method of long term flight -- greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to explore most hexes. For grasslands, farmland, mostly water hexes, etc. reduce the time required to explore a hex by half, to two days for the entire hex. Note, of course, that this does not reduce the amount of time needed to deal with potential threats but rather the overall time required to map and explore the hex. In addition, assuming the flying observers on the carpet stick relatively close to the main party the group is only surprised on a roll of 1 on 1d6 or, if there is an Explorer present, on a roll of 1 on 1d8.

For other terrain -- hills, mountains, light to medium forest, etc. -- it moves the category up by one degree. Therefore, you could explore a hilly hex (which typically takes six days) in the same amount of time it takes to explore a grasslands hex. For hexes that are mostly obscured by the air (such as woodlands) the party does not gain the benefit of reduced chance of surprise.

Jungles, swamps or heavily forested hexes do not gain the benefits of having an "eye in the sky".

Hex Management

• Clearing the hex. Before you guys are able to import any workers or peasant families you're going to have to clear the hex. This will involve a thorough exploration as per the house rules posted on the wiki and slaying, driving out or making peace with any monsters dwelling within the hex (for instance, if there was a family of pixies they could most likely stay put provided a truce is arranged). I will tell you that the trolls were by far the toughest monsters laired within the hex, so from a logistical standpoint it would be possible to leave a garrison of henches and mercenaries to do the clearing while the PCs attend to other stuff. One downside to this is that if the henches are adventuring by themselves they'll gain a full share of XP and may level faster than you would like. Clearing the hex will reveal any features or resources within, as well as give you an idea of the land revenue of this hex (as per p. 125).

• Keeping the hex clear. Even though the Keep is large enough to cover two hexes it will only be able to garrison one hex until fully repaired. The rules on p. 130 for garrisoning a hex assumes the cost is based off the number of families currently in the hex. Since there are -- as far as you know -- no families in the hex we're going to say it will take a minimum of five mounted mercenaries plus a commander to keep the hex clear. Since this is a wilderness hex there will have to be either a PC or a henchman in charge of any mercenary force (i.e. being the commander). This will change as the hex gradually changes to Borderlands and then Civilized, assuming you end up staying here. In addition, you will need to spend another 4 gp on mercenaries for every ten workers you import. This is in addition to the base five needed to keep the kex cleared.

• Repairing the Keep. Before any workers can be imported the hex must be cleared of all lairs and garrisoned. Only then will workers feel safe enough to travel here. I'd like to use the expanded rules for construction in Domains at War, which clarify costs, and we've got two choices for doing the repairs: we can abstract the total cost and assume you bring in enough masons and carpenters to do the required work or we can break it down into various trades and get super specific. While the workers are here they will have to be sheltered, fed and transported. Again, we can just assume a base cost or break that down as well. You will also have to get the workers from somewhere. These can come from either the Principality or from one or more of the settlements scattered about. If you swear fealty to the Prince I will likely apply some modifier to the number of workers available.

• Populating the lands. At this point the hex is unsettled and you've got two choices if you want to settle it. As posted at the beginning you can swear fealty to the Scarlet Prince and receive official leave to import families from the Principality. In this case I will apply some modifier to the number of families that are attracted per month. Or you can seek out human settlements (such as Hob and the rumors of villages you have heard to both east and west) and try and entice families to move.

• Profiting. Only once the repairs are complete will you be able to begin taxing the families in the hex (and spending to maintain them) as per the rules on p.127.