Hexcrawls in Cairn

The standard method for wilderness exploration in Cairn is the pointcrawl, typically converting from whatever module or setting you’re currently playing. The following is an adaptation of those procedures for use with Hexcrawls.

Wilderness Travel

Travel is measured in watches. A day is divided into three watches: morning, afternoon, and night. However, as most parties elect to spend the third watch of the day resting, one can use “days” as a shorthand for travel time.

Weather

Each day, the Warden should roll on the weather table for the appropriate season. If the “Extreme” weather result is rolled twice in a row, the weather turns to “Catastrophic”. A squall becomes a hurricane, a storm floods the valley, etc.

Weather Type


d6	Spring	Summer	Fall	Winter
1	Nice	Nice	Fair	Fair
2	Fair	Nice	Fair	Unpleasant
3	Fair	Fair	Unpleasant	Inclement
4	Unpleasant	Unpleasant	Inclement	Inclement
5	Inclement	Inclement	Inclement	Extreme
6	Extreme	Extreme	Extreme	Extreme

Travel Duration

To determine the expected length of travel between a set of connected hexes, consider each individual hex between the beginning and end of the journey.

When entering a hex, determine both its path and terrain Difficulty. Use the higher of the two Difficulties rather than adding them together. Then apply any weather, nighttime, or situational modifiers.

For travel via waterways, refer to the surrounding terrain Difficulty. For routes crossing multiple terrain types, use the dominant terrain or apply the most significant obstacle along the route.

The weather, terrain, darkness, injured party members, and other obstacles can impact travel or even make it impossible. In some cases, the party may need to add Fatigue or expend resources in order to sustain their pace. Mounts, guides, and maps can increase the party’s travel speed or even negate certain penalties.

Especially vast or hostile hexes may require an additional watch.

Difficulty

Difficulty	Examples	Travel Time	Odds of Getting Lost	Factors
Easy	Roads, plains, plateaus, valleys	1 Watch	None	Safe areas for rest, fellow travelers, good visibility
Tough	Trails, forests, deserts, hills	2 Watches	2-in-6	Wild animals, flooding, broken equipment, falling rocks, unsafe shelters, hunter’s traps
Perilous	Wilderness, mountains, jungles, swamps	3 Watches	3-in-6	Quicksand, sucking mud, choking vines, unclean water, poisonous plants and animals, poor navigation

When a rule increases travel Difficulty by one step:
Easy → Tough → Perilous

Weather Difficulty

Weather	Effect
Nice	No penalty
Fair	No penalty
Unpleasant	Add 1 Fatigue or +1 Watch
Inclement	Add 1 Fatigue or +1 Watch. Increase travel Difficulty by one step
Extreme	Add 1 Fatigue and +1 Watch. Increase travel Difficulty by one step
Catastrophic	Travel is usually impossible

Wilderness Elements

Night

The party can choose to travel during the night and rest during the day, but night travel is far slower and more treacherous!
Traveling at night is always more dangerous. The Warden should roll twice on the Wilderness Events table.
Some terrain and weather may be easier to traverse at night (desert, for example). The Warden should balance these challenges along with any other.

Sleep

The last watch of the day is typically reserved for the Make Camp action.
Characters typically need to sleep each day. Anything beyond a minor interruption can negate or cancel the benefits of sleep.
If the party skips the Make Camp action, they each add a Fatigue to their inventory and are deprived. Additionally, traveling while sleep-deprived increases travel Difficulty by one step.

Light

Torches and other radial sources of light illuminate 40ft ahead of the party, but beyond that only provide a dim outline of objects.
Characters without a light source may suffer from panic until their situation is remedied.
Environmental conditions (sudden gusts of wind, dust, water, etc.) can easily blow out a torch.

Light Sources

A torch can be lit 3 times before degrading.
A lantern can be relit indefinitely but requires a separate oil can (6 uses).

Wilderness Actions

Travel

The party journeys toward another hex. Obvious landmarks, terrain, and nearby features are revealed according to their distance and visibility. This action is typically taken by the entire party as one.
When traveling through Tough or Perilous terrain, the party rolls 1d6 to determine if they become lost. This risk can increase or decrease depending on the current travel Difficulty, maps, party skills, and guides.
If lost, the party may need to spend a Wilderness Action to recover their way. Otherwise, the party reaches the next hex along their route.

Getting Lost

When the party travels by trail or through wilderness, roll according to the current travel Difficulty. If the party becomes lost, they may enter the wrong hex, be forced to backtrack, find themselves where they do not wish to be, etc.

If the party becomes lost while moving through a hex, the Warden rolls 1d6 to determine which neighboring hex the party enters:

d6	Direction
1	N
2	NE
3	SE
4	S
5	SW
6	NW

These directions assume a pointy-top hex design.

Explore

One or more party members search a large area, scouting ahead, searching for hidden features, or treading carefully.
A Location (shelter, village, cave, etc.) or Feature (geyser, underground river, beached ship, etc.) is discovered.
The Travel action is still required to leave the current area, even if it has been completely explored.

Supply

One or more party members may hunt, fish, or forage for food, collecting 1d4 Rations (3 uses each). The chance of a greater bounty increases with each additional participant (e.g. 1d4 becomes 1d6, up to a maximum of 1d12).
Relevant experience or equipment may also increase the bounty collected.
The party may encounter homes and small villages, spending gold and a full watch to resupply.

Make Camp

The party stops to set up camp in the wilds. Each party member (and their mounts) consumes a Ration.
A lookout rotation is set so that the party can sleep unmolested. A smaller party may need to risk sleeping unguarded or switch off sleeping over multiple days.
Party members that were able to rest remove all Fatigue from their inventory.

Wilderness Events

At the end of each travel watch, roll on the Wilderness Events table.

Wilderness Exploration Cycle

The Warden describes the current hex or region on the map and how the path, weather, terrain, or party status might affect travel speed. The party plots or adjusts a course toward their destination.
Each party member chooses a single Wilderness Action. The Warden narrates the results and then rolls on the Wilderness Events table. The party responds to the results.
The players and the Warden record any loss of resources and new conditions (i.e. torch use, deprivation, etc.), and the cycle repeats.

Wilderness Events

d6	Result	Effect
1	Encounter	Roll on an encounter table for that terrain type or location. Don’t forget to roll for NPC reactions if applicable.
2	Sign	The party discovers a clue, spoor, or indication of a nearby encounter, locality, hidden feature, or information about a nearby area.
3	Environment	A shift in weather or terrain.
4	Loss	The party is faced with a choice that costs them a resource (rations, tools, etc.), time, or effort.
5	Exhaustion	The party encounters a barrier, forcing effort, care, or delays. This might mean spending extra time (and an additional Wilderness Action) or adding Fatigue to the PCs’ inventory to represent their difficulties.
6	Discovery	The party finds food, treasure, or other useful resources. The Warden can instead choose to reveal the primary feature of the area.

Travel Examples

Through the Swampland

The party follows an overgrown trail into the marshlands of Black Fen. The swamp and its denizens impact the journey in a dramatic fashion, as swarms of insects choke the air, footing is uncertain, and visibility is poor. The weather in the morning is fair, but that will soon change.

The highest Difficulty is Perilous, so the hex takes 3 Watches to cross.
Their first Wilderness Event is a change in Environment, as the the weather becomes Unpleasant. The party chooses to add Fatigue to avoid adding another watch to their journey.
The second Wilderness Event is a Discovery, as the PCs find an ancient corpse inside a reed bed. The body wears rusted armor, but the gold rings on one hand are still in good condition.
For the final watch the party makes camp and consume a Ration. For their third Wilderness Event the Warden rolls a Sign. Strange lights appear on the horizon, and they appear to be getting closer. Fortunately the lights are back the way the party came.
The following morning the weather is Fair again, and the party make their way out of the swamp and into the adjacent farmlands. For their final Wilderness Event the result is a Loss, as the swamp’s thick air has corroded the Kettlewright’s tongs and a pair of pitons the Greenwise brought along.