I think I have gone off the deep end - Mapping the Hex pt 0.
- Parnell Dubson
- Jun 21, 2023
- 8 min read
Contents:
After a weekend away in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of the breathtaking Tioga County, my partner, under a sea of stars, suggested we play D&D solo together. I assume this was either to shush me or they were, in fact, enthralled by the tales I have been telling them of the journey's of Sav the Changling or siblings Dwynn & Helen Heathlair, elves of the city of Lapoach. I like to think the latter because I am 101% sure it is the reason.
I explained that I wanted to try this old school method of wilderness exploration called Hexcrawls. It seemed perfect for us since neither of us are too fond of hanging around cities or towns while playing D&D. I already had some time under my belt using systems like Mythic Game Master Emulator and The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox 1+2 as well as elements from the more D&D focused Solo Adventurer's Guide. I promise I am not shilling for any of these folks nor am I getting anything for promoting them, I just feel with all of those or just or two (honestly TSAT1+2 work wonderfully on their own but supplementing the Oracle bits with the Guide or Mythic adds that *chef's kiss* amount of randomness that my chaotic goblin heart THRIVES on.
Anywayyyyy, when I got home from what was possibly the best 3 days of the year (I literally fell asleep laying in grass, in my partner's tent in the middle of the day, and next to a fire), I did research on hexcrawling, ultimately settling on this & this to be my guide (sue me, I don't feel like typing it out, its 12:36am, I'm on vacation and in a good mood). I spent the better part of a few hours covering what seemed to be tedious & repetitive work. For the record, I love worldbuilding. In fact, I think I like worldbuilding more than playing. I wanted to bang my head against my wall, there had to be an easier way! And lo, there was. Since the aforementioned hexcrawl guides were focused on random generation and nothing premade, I decided to throw caution to the wind, roll a new character and explore the map that way! It would be awhile before my partner and I could sit down and play so I figured I will, at least, either get the map started or learn the system so we can have fun playing when we can.
So far, this is what I have (thanks to Hextml):
As you can see, I have a lot to cover yet.
As a key:
-Blue: Water
-Tan: Unexplored
-White: Uncharted
Not all of this is random. I have a few settlements and roads established from my introductory campaign (which I really should get back to). Let us get into it and ROLL FOR CHARACTER
So Sayeth the Dice!
Now, the flavor of my playstyle is chaotic and random. If there is a table then I am rolling on it. It isn't because I am lazy, I like to have a foundation to build on. I roll Quest>>Retrieve Quest>>Family Heirloom? Cool, Trogdor the Dwarf lost his mother's favorite wall sconce while adventuring in some cabins spotting kobolds, let me run off and fetch that. I like to know the end product and build up from there, in cases like this (you'll see as this adventure plays out). And character creation is no exception. For this, however, I credit being terribly indecisive and not knowing what I want to play. Thanks to the terrible and wonderful internet, we have help.
Race
Let us start off with figuring out which race to play. I booted up my Chartopia chart and download a PDF of their chart to roll on.
d100=2, Dragonborn! Cool! But I have to roll on a separate table
d100=8, Red Dragonborn!
Let me just go over and add the necessary racial traits and such (I won't go into each of those here, but you can look to D&D Beyond and the Player's Handbook (PHB) for more detailed notes on it.
So we have a fire breathing, fire resistant red Dragonborn. I think I will name him Thankash of clan Lancastrixican, where he will introduce himself in the typical Dragonborn fashion: Lancatrixican Thankash.
Class
Before rolling for stats, I want to know what I will be doing. Sword slinging? Arrow Slinging? Spell slinging? What am I slinging!? Back to our good friend's at Chartopia with all of our class needs. Though it says d13....let's just roll a d20 and reroll anything past 13.
Moment of truth, kind of nervous, I swear if it is a ranger again (I have rolled at least 6 when making characters for fun)...
d20=5, druid! Sweeeet, I love druids. At 2nd level, I can pick a circle, but I won't worry about that now. Time to roll stats (there is more to fill in for class, but I need to roll these first)(PHB pg. 65 or DNDBeyond)
Stats
There are many ways to roll stats, but I am old school and like rolling for it. We will roll 4d6s and drop the lowest one!
Roll 1: 10
Roll 2: 6
Roll 3: 14
Roll 4: 13
Roll 5: 11
Roll 6: 17
Ah, drat. Welp, chaos is my jam and randomness is the game soooo let's see what we do. Druids are a Wis based class with Con as a back up. I'll put 17 in Wis with 14 in Con. Then we will throw 13 at Int, 11 into Str, 10 to Dex, and, sadly, 6 Cha (which I have a +1 in already)>
This all Leaves us with:
Str: 13 (+1)
Dex: 10 (+0)
Con: 14(+2
Int: 13 (+1)
Wis: 17 (+3)
Cha: 7 (-2)
I will fill out the skills, saving throws AND pick out the skills (animal handling & insight chosen randomly). He will be squishy and ugly, just like my gecko (that is a lie, my gecko is friggin' adorable). Don't worry, there will be a link for this character sheet at the end in case you wanted to play him.
Equipment
In life, as well as in D&D, unless its a grocery store, I hate shopping. I just grab whatever the PHB says is good starting equipment for druids. In my case, A scimitar, a staff for back up, leather armor, a druidic focus (a scale from his mentor), & an explorer's pack (PHB pg. 151). We can now fill in AC (for leather armor; 11+Dex) and attack for the weapons!
Spells
Druids get spells and at 1st level, they can know 2 cantrips and have 2 spell slots. Due to my Wis mod (+3) and level (1), I can prepare 4 spells a day.
From complete random choice (i.e. die rolls) I have learned Poison Spray & Mending for my cantrips. And for my first days journey, I have prepared Detect Magic, Jump, Fog Cloud, & Cure Wounds. I don't foresee old boy lasting day one, but we will see. He is an intrepid little guy doing his best. Though, he is 6'2", I use the term little guy loosely.
Background
Good ol' Chartopia, where would I be without you. Bed probably. It is now 2:00am (I got distracted).
d100=54, Smuggler! Ohhhh I already have ideas!
Okay, cool, this is interesting. Hmm...I wonder what my alignment will be? (also, its now 3:16pm the next day, I got tired, fell asleep, and did adult things before coming back to this).
Alighnment
Alignment is something, traditionally, I don't pay much attention to. Like in video games, I feel bad if I do something mean. But, for the sake of the random, I will include it. I decided to take up extra time that I didn't want to spend and draw this from a hat (or, in my case, a clean sock I hadn't put away yet).
Lawful Evil............okayyyyy. Hmm...This should be interesting.
I just did some quick research and this should be doable. LEs think they are the good guys. Darth Vader, Delores Umbridge & Boromir (there, I covered 3 fandoms) would be considered Lawful Evil. They live by rule and order and they feel they are doing good for their immediate community, when in reality they crave power and subservience.
Meeting Denckash
I can work with this!
Denckash is part of a semi nomadic Dragonborn clan called Lancatrixican. Recently, they were making their spring equinox migration to the lands of Scheck but, due to a recent change in government, his clan was ejected. They settled in the wooded hills on the western point of the Kingdom of Lapoach. Quite unhappy about this, and feeling it was oppressive of Scheck to cast out those they felt undesirable, he took up smuggling again to help bring coin to himself an his clan. Once before, Scheck accused him of smuggling goods when he was simply importing healing herbs and the like into the city that banned citizens from producing their own. In retaliation, the Harbormaster of Scheck clandestinely ordered Denckash's ship to be burned and sunk, leaving the Dragonborn feeling vengeful and sworn to replace the ship and take his clan to a place where they can have a permanent home, by whatever way he can. During their move up to the hills, he became close with an elderly druid that was serving as a guide, a fellow Dragonborn. The druid took him under his wing and taught him what he could, explaining that while his wisdom and knowledge was still vast, some things Denckash would have to learn on his own, in the wild. He left him with a scale that he shed and attuned it to the younger Dragonborn, telling him this was his druidic focus. The focus would allow Denckash to channel the natural magic of the world and bring it forth. Additionally, he gifted him a transcribed spellbook, detailing spells he could cast presently and had the potential to cast.
"You have the potential to do great things and aid nature, Denckash....but you must let go of your hate." he warned his student. However, while on the surface Denckash would nod in agreement, he held the crime against himself and his people by the hands of Scheck. He would reclaim what is rightfully his and see that those responsible would face justice.
It was in his own personal code that no innocents would be harmed, only those who had anything to do with the sinking of his ship and the eviction of his people. He knew what he had to do, he would need to explore the lands in the province of Susshannah and beyond, he would need to learn the latest buzz of the world and raise coin to procure a vessel, one worthy of rivers and sea. Yes, a longship would do, and that would cost him about 10,000 gold. He wasn't very charismatic, so he wouldn't be able to con his way into the coin. No, he would have to be cunning and work for it. As a druid, he could be hired out for information on the lay of the land as well as menial tasks the otherwise...domesticated...citizen was not prepared for.
To begin his journey, he would start by leaving the safehouse he was in in Lapoach and begin heading east, hugging the coast to start but eventually moving inland once he reached the border.
I hope you come back for Part 1 of this series, where we explore a few more map spaces!
Disclaimer: While I strive for randomness, chaos, and general creativity, I will not be embarking on this journey solely armed with my own brain. I will be utilizing The Mythic GME, The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox 1&2, as well as the Solo Wilderness Crawler to flesh out the world. The links for all of the aforementioned tools above. No, I will not be posting links to download the PDFs, the authors of these works worked super hard, and continue to do so, to bring us solo content so please support them.
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