Worldbuilding Wednesday Hex 1,1.

Starting out at the roots of the hobby for Hex-A-Day 2025

I want to start off this hex map with a technique originally created by E. Gary Gygax for Dungeons & Dragons Here’s the link to Ray Otus on itch.io where it can be downloaded for free. It’s called The Gygax ’75 Challenge. It was a world building challenge originally over 12 months in an era before personal computing/the Internet had caught on. However, the document I have linked is punched up for the modern age.

I’m not using everything from this challenge, but I am taking a suggestion for the first hex or two. Parts of this epic worldbuilding technique have been drilled into me over the years. I think it works pretty well for being as old as it is. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Gygaxian with some modern modifications.

Since I’m using Dragonbane RPG as my base system and this is primarily a solo endeavor to begin with, I have skipped a lot of the first steps because they’re already done. I pitched this campaign to me and I liked the idea a lot. So that brings us around to Gygax’s list of at least one dungeon, one major settlement (aka the starting town,) two smaller nearby settlements, and a mysterious location to explore. We’ll be generating all of that in our first set of hexes.

Dragonbane, as a Swedish invention, uses the Metric System. Mr. Gygax suggested 1 mile hexes. I’m instead using 15 kilometers per hex as was suggested to me on the Free League Forums. (Side note: the Fria Ligan forums are super helpful to everyone. Highly recommended over Reddit.) 15 km per hex is how far characters can walk per shift under ideal conditions. This means that each sub hex is about three km across.

I’m not going to fill in every single sub hex, but it’s nice to have the mapping available if I do for when there are multiple features rolled for the overall hex. My main focus is on the bigger picture. My characters will discover the listed features of any given hex through random rolls. If they miss something, it will still be listed on the map.

The character component.

The group will be arriving from a portal inside the dungeon set in the Misty Vale. I am rolling up new characters because I don’t want my “main” group of Dragonbane characters off exploring another world instead of running the rest of the basic set adventures before moving onto Path of Glory. Oh noes, I have to make more Dragonbane characters. LOL!

This hexcrawl is giving me an excuse to explore some of the lesser used Professions such as the Artisan, Mariner, and Merchant. I’m also shooting for a Scholar in the group. If I had to guess there would also be an Animist Mage and a plucky Thief in the group. Big, clanky fighters will only slow the group down, but there won’t be any armor to put up against bigger threats initially.

How do they get here?

My intention is to have the characters go through half a dungeon before finding the portal room. The occupants are willing to send them through without coercion. The portal will unexpectedly shut down after the last party member walks through. There will then be another five room dungeon or thereabouts to explore before encountering the outside world.

When the group finally finds a village, they will notice a strong similarity between the beings that sent them through the portal and the people of the first village they come to. The dungeon and the village can be close together because no one has used the portal in decades.

The first week will be devoted to setting up the first seven hexes and populating them.

Every new campaign world has to have a baseline established. Every hex is going to have at least three details. How many of those details arise is up to the dice. Maybe they skip dungeons and mysterious shrines altogether. That’s cool.

There are two notebooks going so far. One is for Hex-A-Day 2025 to describe the world one hex at a time. The other is intended to help the players discover more features in the world. Hexes with super important details will be marked and hopefully explored. Right now I’m happy if I enter the hex coordinates, terrain, and significant features.

So far we have arrived through the portal.

Eventually the group will carve their way out of the dungeon to discover the outside world is not what they expected at all. Then comes the Otterkin village to the west and some much needed rest. Then the group will probably journey north following the old overgrown ruined road.

The outer part of the dungeon doesn’t match up with the lower section where the portal deposited the group. They are trapped unless the portal is again opened from the other side. Unfortunately the magic that powers the portal has ceased functioning and the Custodian is struggling to remember how to fix it. Plucky and his crew will check back on the portal in the future to see if they can rescue their rivals. They might be greedy and a touch reckless at times, but Plucky’s crew are relatively honest, kind, and somewhat caring. They wouldn’t just desert another group and possibly consign them to a horrible fate.

“STOP making me talk about my feel-bads!”
Sorry, Plucky. Just being open about how you have at least a little regard for those other guys.

The next diary entry will be from the intrepid adventurers on the other side of the portal. I’m not sure which character is going to lead and who is going to chronicle. There are options for chronicling. It’s a party with a bard, a scholar, and a seasoned Mariner. The rest of the group not as much into writing. More on the crew later.

To be continued…

Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate you. Keep it real, but please strive for positivity, too. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy in your life.