Pointcrawl and hexcrawl exploration

title: "Pointcrawl and Hexcrawl Exploration" category: reference sources: - raw/bf073cd63b1c9c21.gz - raw/aeeaec37d75f2655.gz - raw/e73866c34b5c5589.gz - raw/5756c3df527c4ce3.gz - raw/24a67480f36d5a78.gz - raw/c9a8cda0b38fbfad.gz - raw/0e931bde67f5aa46.gz - raw/6ea11e97cf6bf81d.gz - raw/f4400d283eb561c3.gz - raw/92794bfb904f3645.gz created: 2026-04-12 updated: 2026-04-16 tags: [pointcrawl, hexcrawl, wilderness, sub-hex, osr, mapping, vertical, city-crawl] aliases: ["Pointcrawl Consolidation", "Hexcrawl and Pointcrawl Topic"] confidence: high ingestion_confidence: high summary: "Consolidated guide to wilderness exploration structures: when to use hexcrawls, pointcrawls, and hybrids. Includes mapping conventions, watch-based procedure, sub-hex and city-scale application, vertical connector notation, and procedure stack."

Overview

Hexcrawls and pointcrawls are complementary structures chosen by play objective, not competing doctrines. Use the format that foregrounds the decisions you want players making.

Choosing a Structure

Decision heuristic: Use a hex map when the act of mapping is the experience. Use a pointcrawl when route choices and destinations drive play.

Mapping Conventions

Pointcrawl Map Elements

• Nodes: named locations — settlements, ruins, shrines, landmarks
• Connectors: paths between nodes — roads, tracks, hidden paths, rivers; each connector carries a travel-time cost (often encoded as dots)
• Dot notation: each dot on a connector = one travel-time increment (one watch, one day, etc.)
• Color coding: differentiate node types by color (e.g., settlement = blue, dungeon = red, resource = green)
• Route quality: annotate connectors with path quality (road → trail → trackless → difficult)

Keep the strategic hex map intact as the campaign layer. Run individual sessions on the point-to-point map at the region or sub-region scale.

Hybrid: Hex Macro + Point Micro

Players navigate by hexes at regional scale. When a hex is "entered" and explored, it gets a local pointcrawl overlay.

• Connector dots represent sub-hex travel times within the explored hex
• Local pointcrawl stays compatible with the wider connector conventions (same time units)
• Hex exits are explicit connectors to the regional layer

Watch-Based Hexcrawl Procedure

A full daily loop for hexcrawl play (from Yet Another Hexcrawl Procedure):

Daily Setup: - Roll weather at session start - Each day = 3 watches (morning, afternoon, evening) - One major action per watch: Travel, Explore, Supply, Camp, or Interact

Watch Actions: - Travel: move along a connector; roll event die modified by terrain type - Explore: investigate current node or hex thoroughly - Supply: forage, hunt, or resupply at a settlement - Camp: rest and reset fatigue; required to avoid accumulating fatigue penalties - Interact: engage an NPC faction, settlement, or significant encounter site

Time Pressure: - Fatigue accumulates each watch without a Camp action - Elevation affects information gain: at height, PCs can see farther — more hexes revealed on exploration - Terrain modifiers shift the event roll up or down (e.g., forest = harder, road = easier)

Sub-Hex and City-Scale Pointcrawl

Pointcrawl works at the intermediate scale between dungeon and region: ruined cities, graveyards, fort surroundings, megastructure complexes.

Node model: - Nodes = known locations (a plaza, a collapsed vault entrance, a guard post) - Paths = constrained travel channels (streets, corridors, sewage tunnels, fences)

Extensions: - Flux spaces: open areas between fixed nodes where random encounter and discovery procedures apply; occupies the "wilderness" function at city scale - City-as-pointcrawl: treat a city's distinct neighborhoods as nodes connected by transit routes; navigate at the neighborhood level, not the street level - Dice-drop generation: roll dice on a blank map; each die position becomes a node, die face determines node type

Design principle: The pointcrawl handles the topology; the node content handles the encounter. Keep them separate in prep.

Vertical Pointcrawl Notation

For stacked spaces — dungeons, undercities, cliff complexes, space station decks:

Connector types encode the form of movement:

Dot notation applies vertically: dots on a vertical connector indicate long or difficult traversal (e.g., a deep shaft with three dots = three time increments to descend).

Color coding: - Use one color family for cave-scale (natural formations) - Use another for construction-scale (built passages, engineered vaults)

This lets vertical maps be read quickly: a reader can distinguish natural cave from built megastructure at a glance.

Procedure Stack

At the table, these procedures layer cleanly:

1. Macro travel cadence: watch-based hexcrawl loop (3 watches/day, one action/watch)
2. Route model: hex exits for regional play; point connectors inside explored hexes or high-density zones
3. Site mode: switch to sub-hex pointcrawl for ruined cities, large fortifications, megastructure interiors
4. Vertical mode: apply connector types and dot notation for stacked spaces

Common Failure Modes

• Over-linear pointcrawl: too few connectors creates forced-path play; add redundant routes
• Over-empty hexcrawl: too many low-information hexes dilutes decisions; either densify or switch to pointcrawl
• Hidden scale shifts: not signaling clearly when play moves from macro to micro mapping
• Procedure mismatch: running point maps with hexcrawl assumptions (or vice versa); decide which layer is active at any time

See Also

• Wilderness Adventuring (OSE SRD)
• Waterborne Adventuring (OSE SRD)
• Tekumel Style Underworld Structure