Drafting a hexcrawl module. Case study.

Miris Dor, a Polish blogger shared his methodology of preparing a hexcrawl module (however it’s not that hexcrawley as you may hoped for as he reveals his philosophy in the second episode). It’s in Polish so if you’re not lucky enough to understand it you can run it through an automatic translation, it works quite fine.

What staggered me a bit is that it seems like a heckin lot of work. I believe I’ve been there at some point in my hexcrawl experiences but now I allow myself a lot of freedom and improvising. And I don’t think it’s a matter of being a good or bad  DM but of grasping the concept that you actually don’t need a lot of prep to run a game which will be fun for all participants and you don’t need any particular set of skills acquired during a very long career to try it. It’s perfectly fine to stop the game for a minute or two to render another part of the setting. RPG adventures (please pay attention – not every RPG falls into that category) are all about participation and agency so it does not suck the fun from your game if you make up things on the fly. At least – that’s my philosophy and I’ll try to show you how it works on an example of a campaign which I prepared few days ago. It's not intended to be a guide but merely a collection of musings. 

The Magic Sword, an OD&D Campaign. Actual Play, Episodes 23-27.

If you’re confused reading this, here’s a short introduction.

So, I’m running an OD&D campaign. It’s houserule-heavy, so in fact there is not much left of the original game apart from the general framework (but then again – what does constitute OD&D?). However, it’s still closer to the original concept than let’s say D&D5e.

It’s more or less a sandbox, meaning there is no plot which needs to be revealed. Retrospectively – there is a plot, but it’s weaved along the way in the vein of play to find out method.

An introduction for English-speaking readers

So, a bit of basic context for first-time visitors.

You are reading a blog covering my retrogaming experiences.  It’s run mostly in Polish, since that’s my native language. Few years ago I had an attempt to write a bit in English as well but there was not so much of a response, so I abandoned the idea.