Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Aldath Jul 11, 2014 15:26:38	I'm starting to develop my first sandbox campaign ever, I'll be using 5e to run it and I'll start the game in October, so I'm taking these two months to prep everything. I'm using Hexographer as my go-to software, however I have several issues on how to develop my Hexcrawl world: A Little about my Setting I took two source materials to inspire my world: Nier and Fragile Dreams. Both are post apocalyptic worlds where magic exists, and enemies are mostly incorporeal beings or creatures that represent the "past" of mankind. I took Nier's magic usage, fantasy and varied settings (deserts, plains, coast, mountains) to think of the base world, and then Fragile Dreams for the dungeons (as I plan for my dungeons to be abandoned hotels, malls, hospitals, amusement parks, etc, that now are hosted by goblins, ghosts, drakes, etc). The only races I'm gonna let my players run are Warforged, Dragonborn, Dwarf and Human. The world has only a few inhabitants left and traveling is something only a very few brave (or foolish enough) do. My players are just villagers who are stronger than the rest, who will travel to unravel the mystery behind a sickness that makes people disappear, which s related to the past of their world. Villages are few and far between, there are no big cities, people are mostly very friendly or very paranoid, and they live in structures similar to ours but with more of a "medieval" society build. There are still modern sewer systems, and some minor modern technologies such as basic medical care exist, but communications, traveling and such is "old school". My Problems I can't decide the size of the world. It's supposed to take my players from Heroic to Lower Epic Tier. Being a hostile world, I don't know how many encounters I should throw in per day. Since there are only about 5 to 6 human settlements that count as "hubs" in that world, the rest being only small housing areas with about 3-4 inhabitants, I don't know how to fill the rest of the hexes. Besides the dungeon, what else could interest my players and bring them enough action and roleplaying in such a desolate environment?
#2 bawylie Jul 11, 2014 16:36:09	Identify resources, needs, hazards, etc.    Don't worry about the size of the world. Worry about a small region first. If travel is that hard and that perilous, they won't go far. At first.    So take like Boston, depopulate it, and set up in there. Better to have one great territory than 50 mediocre ones.
#3 bawylie Jul 11, 2014 16:42:17	Running post-Apoc requires playing up scarcity and showing the effects of lacking basic needs.    What else are they doing? Finding water. Getting lumber. Hunting. Trying to trade without getting screwed.    Oh, and everything they want, everyone else does too.    To say nothing of supernatural horrors menacing everything.    They shouldnt really feel like they're winning - most of the time - they should feel like they're struggling to survive.
#4 iserith Jul 11, 2014 18:03:33	Some resources to read regarding Hexcrawls:   The Hex Crawl   Hexcrawl
#5 arjomanes Jul 12, 2014 9:38:30	Foraging for survival basics will be very important, as bawylie pointed out. If you ever played Dark Sun, you'll be familiar with that idea.   Are there areas that are completely inhospitable to humans that need to be avoided (choking gases, hostile swarms of particles, scorching heat, violent storms, rampant disease, etc?)   Most apocalyptic settings have wandering monsters that the surviving humans need to avoid or fight. So you'll want to create some wandering monster tables. These could be part of larger factions with specific dungeons as their base (so they'd be more common in certain hexes), or just random monsters that roam the wasteland scavenging.   Create interesting landmarks and locations that aren't necessarily big dungeons. Depending on how you want your setting, they could be things like: a statue of an angel in an old cemetery (would it bless or curse the PCs?); a broken down bus half submerged in a swamp; an old country church with two walls missing, choked by weeds, but a huge beautiful stained glass window still intact; remnants of a plane crash in a desert; a spotlight shining in the distance; an old bullet-ridden, charred wall with a line of china dolls sitting against it, staring into space; a highway cloverleaf still intact high above the ground with a few people or monsters living there; a half-buried tv that still works even though it isn't plugged in, but right now only plays static; a single flower growing in the desert; a family of smart, hostile raccoons living in a dumpster; an old grain silo painted with a giant face; a line of insects that stretches miles to the horizon; etc.  They could hear a faint siren far in the distance. If they have radios they could pick up snippets of music, or the rants of an end-times preacher. They could catch whiffs of strange smells, here and there: rotting, mildew, cooking meat, blood, the scent of flowers or perfume in a desolate place, etc.   This PDF may be useful for you as well: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?v74zuecrddkclm7   Anything you can do to build a sense of dread or foreboding will be good: heavy footsteps in another room; a low growl in the darkness beneath the porch of the old house; shattered skulls and bones on the steps leading down into the subway; they could hear a persistent scraping sound now and then, like something is following them, but never find it when they investigate; they could hear howls and barks at night.   Build up the suspense by having them encounter mundane stuff like animals, artifacts, and regular humans at first. Stay away from familiar monsters. If you use a monster from a book, change how it looks so the PCs don't know anything about it. Try to make your monsters unique if possible so they don't get used to seeing them: familiarity breeds complacency. At first, just give them hints of a monster, like a trail of ooze or a giant clawed footprint in the dirt. Then let them see just snippets of the monster in the darkness -- glowing eyes, or a large form in the shadows. Don't describe it well at first: you smell an overwhelming scent almost like pine and tar, and from the darkness a huge form lunging out, red fangs, a dozen eyes, matted blue-ish fur, and sharp claws. Don't even bother naming it. If they succeed on a lore check, maybe they can learn about it, or that the local people call it the monster from the pines, but not much beyond that.   These are just a few suggestions, and some may not be relevant to how you want to run your game. My advice on a setting like this is to show things familiar and mundane, and then mix in something really strange or horrific that will surprise your PCs, to let them know that they're in a world where all their assumptions are wrong.
(Reply to #5) Aldath	arjomanes wrote:
#7 bawylie Jul 14, 2014 13:14:17	Don't overdo it.   Put 1 interesting thing per hex. Try not to do any more.    Sometimes, landmarks are just landmarks. And other people can move in and out of otherwise unoccupied hexes. Some hexes may be hunter territory or claimed territories.    But it's hard for people to remember 4-5 details per hex AND have 600 hexes to consider. 1 feature is plenty. Especially because you can change it, as needed.
(Reply to #7) Aldath	bawylie wrote:
#9 bawylie Jul 15, 2014 9:38:54	Looking forward to it.    Im currently writing a campaign for Apocalypse World that I'm setting in post-Apoc Tokyo. Id started the same way you did with research, etc. So I'm curious what you've got.    Mine's gonna be a lot of Vampires & Thralls, though.
#10 bjmorga Jul 15, 2014 14:18:00	iserith wrote:
(Reply to #9) Aldath	bawylie wrote:
#12 bawylie Jul 16, 2014 11:18:34	Good stuff. I think it's plenty. There's quite a bit there to sink the teeth into.    Also, one advantage of leaving blank hexes is that they can later be filled with anything. Like when your players start speculating and come up with awesome ideas you hadn't considered - then you just drop it in.    What you need now (IMO) is a deep list of adventure hooks. Check @dailyplothook on twitter and adapt that stuff to your map, concretely.
#13 Blackdog2k Jul 16, 2014 16:38:17	Just some very general words of wisdom I can pass on to you from my world and campaign building in the past:   #1 - I've found that one of the keys to creating a fun campaign involves NOT planning too too far ahead. It's infinitely better to plan for the next couple of sessions rather than, say, the next DOZEN sessions.   #2 - As far as the story, you should plan END-MIDDLE-BEGINNING, in that order, and in very broad terms. (see #3)   #3 - Try to inject your PC's personality traits, desires, playing styles, backgrounds and back-stories into EVERYTHING you do. The result is a much more cohesive and compelling game for your players. Let your PC's dictate the pace and depth of the story. If you don't, you may wind up with alot of material that you'll likely never use. (see #1)   #4 - Find some monsters that you really like and use their ecology/lore for inspiration. This can help drive plots and sub-plots, can provide some surprising adventure hooks, and can also serve as "backup" ideas in case your PC's get a little off-track from what you've planned for them.