Hex Crawls for DURF

Overview

Procedural hexcrawl framework designed for DURF that integrates movement speed, event-pacing, and resource consumption into a unified turn loop. The system uses event-die rolling to pace encounters and emphasizes travel choices that create risk/reward tension.

Movement and Event Dice

Travel Actions and Pacing

The system establishes a baseline movement chart that ties travel speed to hexes per watch and event-die modifiers:

Slow/Careful travel: 1 hex per watch, event dice +0
Quick/Noisy travel: 2 hexes per watch, event dice +1
Fast/Loud travel: 3 hexes per watch, event dice +2

Referee pattern: When designing hexcrawl movement rates, adjust hexes traveled and event dice pool together. Example variant: 5 dice per 3 hexes instead of baseline.

Conversion note: This scaling works with any terrain-and-mount system — mounted travel, road usage, and difficult terrain can all modify base rates (+1 hex, -1 hex, or adjusted dice pool).

Watch Structure and Resource Pressure

Travel uses watch-based time units: - After 4 watches of travel action, PCs must spend 2 watches resting (or take cumulative stress per watch past the 4th). - Without rations, PCs accrue stress per watch until they eat. - Wilderness camping (without verified safe rest) recovers only 1 stress per night instead of full stress recovery.

Referee utility: This creates daily pacing pressure that forces settlement interactions, supply management, and rest-vs-progress decisions.

Wilderness Actions

Gather Resources

On a character's chosen action to gather resources: - Roll relevant ability check (determine check type by what items sought). - Success: gain one supply or one item slot worth of items. - Failure: no resources gained; watch time spent with nothing to show.

Integration pattern: This creates foraging loops in multi-day expeditions; useful for supplementing supply caches or feeding hazard pressure.

Explore

Obvious keyed hex features are automatically discovered when passing through. For non-obvious features: - Make check to locate (GM adjudicates DC). - Failure: feature remains hidden unless revisited with different approach.

Referee utility: Allows procedural hex features to exist on map without forcing discovery, creating exploration surprise.

Rest and Recovery

Non-safe wilderness camps recover only 1 stress; this creates distinction between safe camps (verified safe locations, full recovery) and exposed camps (risk remains).

Science-fantasy applicability: In hostile ecology settings, this risk-of-rest mechanic creates campaign pressure even during downtime.

Hex Feature Generation

The system references d6 tables for landscape types and landmark features:

Landscape	Examples
Water	Ocean, abyss, flooded, river
Shoreline	Beach, fjords, edge, swamp
Settlement	Metropolis, concrete, urban
Fields	Farmland, plains, desert, barren
Forest	Jungle, park, oasis
Heights	Mountains, hills, cliffs, towers

Landmark	Feature Type
Danger	Trap, weapon, hazard
Safety	Isolated, protected space
Hideout	Cave, ruins, shelter

Design principle: Two-layer system (landscape + landmark) creates 36 quick-draw combinations for improvisation without requiring pre-rolled hexmaps.

Campaign Integration

Wilderness Turn Loop

Party declares movement/action intent.
Roll event dice (modified by movement speed chosen).
If event triggered: consult wilderness encounter table or feature discovery.
If no event: advance watch counter, consume resources, check for fatigue/stress accrual.
After 4 watches: mandatory rest phase (2 watches minimum).
Return to step 1.

Referee Pacing Control

Event-die modification creates three play speeds: - Slow/careful (event dice +0): safer travel, exploration-focused, lower encounter pressure. - Quick/noisy (+1 event die): balanced pacing, standard adventuring rhythm. - Fast/loud (+2 event dice): high encounter frequency, chase/pursuit mode, dangerous travel.

General use: This framework scales to any hexcrawl system by adjusting the event-die pool instead of changing mechanics.