For a variety of reasons, I've been thinking about 6 Mile Hexes. Not that I run a hexcrawl, but still, it's useful metric to keep in mind when thinking about PCs and NPC carving out kingdoms.
I decided to put together some links that I've found useful concerning them.
In Praise of the 6 Mile Hex
How Much Adventure in One 6 Mile Hex?
So Hex Size in Square Miles (about 32 miles)
The AD&D DMG discusses setting up a stronghold by clearing an area, and discussed 20-40 mile hexes (p. 47) and even 200 yard hexes for small-scale mapping (p. 93).
What other links should I add for discussions of the basic structure of a six-mile hex for domains or exploration?
Six mile hexes are ideal. Thanks for putting a marker down on them for folks to think about.
ReplyDeleteOther than being a five-mile hex fellow myself (easier math in a hex crawl), I'll recommend products since goodness knows I have loads of them:
ReplyDeleteOn Downtime and Desmesnes. Guidelines for amount of stuff in a hex in the appendices, some domain guidance in the main text.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/297829/On-Downtime-and-Demesnes-Basic-DD
ACKS. The system itself is set up to have the domain game, plus Lairs & Encounters has some guidelines for number of monster lairs in a hex early in the book.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/99123/Adventurer-Conqueror-King-System
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/197368/Lairs--Encounters
d30 Sandbox Companion. Among other things, there's more detail for the physical features of a six-mile hex.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/124392/d30-Sandbox-Companion
Ready Ref Sheets. The daddy of them all, it has tables for the physical details of a lair, something nobody puts in tables anymore. Alexander Macris of ACKS told me on Discord once that this is what he used for Lairs & Encounters.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/932/Ready-Ref-Sheets-1978
I was thinking blog posts more than products, but these are helpful. I have ACKS and the Ready Ref Sheets. I found the latter a lot of fun but I haven't actually used any of them.
DeleteDon't forget The Welsh Piper. I've used this, specifically, to good avail in creating hex maps:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-1/
Also, like him or not, Zack had a good set of tables for sussing out general info on dungeons as you place them. Again, I've used it to good effect in hex mapping:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2015/04/zaks-dungeon-roller.html?m=1&zx=e8b1e1722c6e5bfc
I'll post more later when I can get ti my computer and do this right.
I hadn't seen that earlier link.
DeleteZak is tough, because he's very creative but also fairly toxic to deal with. It's not really dungeon placement or dungeon contents that I found interesting about 6-mile hexes or wilderness in general, but rather the ins and outs of navigating and dealing with terrain and travel in that interests me. Dungeons . . . I can do dungeons very easily. That's what I started out gaming with.
What's the logic behind 6 mile hexes over 5 miles? Is it just a traditional convention? The latter always seems preferable from a math calculation standpoint, especially if daily travelling distances were rounded to nearest 10 miles.
ReplyDeleteThis post explains why:
DeleteIn Praise of the Six Mile Hex