HEX CRAWL
CREATION GUIDE

What This Guide Does

The Hex Crawl System defines the core loop: movement, resources, encounters, factions. It tells you what a hex crawl is. It gives you six steps and a checklist for sector design.

This guide goes deeper. Every section ends with something you can write down. By the last page, you have a playable sector.

You will build a hex grid, key locations, write factions, design encounters, and draft mission seeds. Each step produces a usable artifact. No theory without output.

The One Rule

A tight six-hex sector with four keyed hexes will play better than a sprawling twenty-hex grid where twelve of them are filler.

Reasons to enter: resources, intel, contacts, shortcuts, mission objectives.

Reasons to leave: danger, resource drain, time pressure, exposure, hostile territory.

If you cannot name both for a hex, that hex does not belong in your sector.

Time Budget

Be honest about how much prep you want to do. Pick your scale before you start drawing hexes.

Start with the one-shot scale. If it works, expand. A six-hex sector that plays well is worth more than a twenty-hex sector that sits in your notebook.

Step 1: Pick Your Pressure

Every territory has a dominant environmental pressure. This shapes every decision: movement costs, resource drain, available cover, what kills you if you stop moving.

Pick one. Write it at the top of your notes. Every hex you build answers this question: how does this pressure show up here?

Your pressure is not decoration. It is the engine of resource drain. If your pressure does not cost the operators something measurable every phase, it is flavor text, not a system.

Step 2: Draw the Grid

Start with 6 hexes. You can always add more. You cannot easily remove hexes players have already seen.

Rules for the Grid

• Mix at least two terrain types. A grid of identical hexes produces identical decisions.
• Include one Denied Zone. This is a hex that costs something serious to enter. It creates the map's gravity. Routes bend around it.
• Include one resupply hex. Operators need somewhere to trade, heal, or restock. Without it, resource tracking becomes a death spiral instead of a pressure system.
• Place the insertion point at one edge. Place the objective 3-5 hexes away. The direct route should pass through at least one faction's territory.

    [A1: Insertion]     [B1: Contested]
  [A2: Denied Zone]     [B2: Faction HQ]
    [A3: Resupply]      [B3: Objective]

This layout forces a choice on the first move. Go direct through contested ground, or swing south toward resupply and approach the objective from a different angle. That choice is the hex crawl.

Step 3: Terrain Types

Every hex gets a terrain type. The terrain type determines movement cost, cover, and environmental checks. Use the types from the core system or create territory-specific variants.

The Five-Line Format

Every keyed hex uses five lines. Write them in this order.

1. Hook. Write this first. Why do operators care about this hex? What draws them in? If you cannot answer in one sentence, the hex does not have a Hook yet.
2. Visible. What operators see from adjacent hexes or on approach. This is what triggers the decision to enter.
3. Situation. What is actually happening here. The conditions on the ground. Who is present, what they are doing, what is about to change.
4. Threat. What can hurt the operators. NPC forces, environmental hazards, time pressure, political consequences.
5. Asset. What operators can get here. Supplies, intel, contacts, position, power.

Five lines. One hex. Everything a GM needs to run it cold.

Keyed vs. Unkeyed

Not every hex needs the full five-line treatment. In a 10-hex sector, key 4-6 hexes. The rest get:

• Terrain type
• One-line description
• Faction territory tag
• Whether it has an encounter table entry

Unkeyed hexes still trigger Exposure rolls and encounter tables. They are not empty. They just do not have a story waiting inside them.

The Under-System

After you write the five lines, write one more thing: the Under-System. This is the hidden mechanism driving the hex. The thing players can discover, exploit, or get crushed by.

Rules for Under-Systems

• It should connect to at least one faction's Want or Fear.
• It should have a failure condition. When the Under-System breaks, the hex changes.
• Players should be able to discover it through play, not just through a check.
• It is one paragraph. If it needs more, you are building a hex crawl inside a hex crawl.

Contacts

Named NPCs with four fields.

Rules for Contacts

• Every keyed hex gets 2-3 contacts.
• At least one contact should be connected to a faction. At least one should be independent.
• WANTS and FEARS should point at things operators can affect. If a contact wants something players can never deliver, that contact is scenery, not a tool.
• CURRENT PRESSURE is the timer. It is what will change about this contact if players do not interact with them soon.

Day/Night Cycle

Write separate conditions for day and night. Different economy, different risk, different faction presence.

If day and night play identically, you do not need the split. Save the effort for hexes where the cycle matters.

Encounter Tables Per Hex

For keyed hexes with heavy traffic: write a D6 encounter table for Day and a D6 for Night. These are micro-situations, not combat encounters. At least half should present a decision that does not involve weapons.

Rumors

D6 table. Tag each entry TRUE, FALSE, or PARTIAL. Mix the tags. Players should never trust the table's output without verification.

FALSE rumors should be plausible enough to act on. TRUE rumors should be uncomfortable enough that players wish they were not true.

The Five-Line Faction Format

Every faction uses five lines.

1. Controls. What hexes, routes, or resources they hold.
2. Want. What they are trying to get this week. Specific. Actionable.
3. Fear. What they are trying to prevent. This is their vulnerability.
4. Move. What they are doing right now. This advances whether players engage or not.
5. Posture. How they treat operators. Hostile, transactional, cautious, cooperative.

Building Faction Pressure

The factions create the hex crawl's pressure. Without them, it is just a map with terrain penalties.

Rules

• Two factions minimum. Their Wants should conflict directly.
• Every faction's Move should intersect at least one hex the players need to cross.
• Write each faction's Move for the next 3 sessions. After that, the faction's situation has changed based on player action or inaction.
• If you remove one faction, something should break. If removing a faction changes nothing, that faction is not doing enough work.

The Faction Clock

Before each session, advance every faction's Move by one step. This is non-negotiable. The world moves. If players spend two sessions in the north zone, the south zone's politics have shifted by the time they arrive.

What They Offer / What They Demand

Extend each faction with two more lines:

• What They Offer. Equipment, access, intel, safe passage, introductions.
• What They Demand. Tasks, silence, loyalty, information, violence.

These are the transaction layer. Players do not work for factions because the GM told them to. They work for factions because factions have things they need.

If Damaged

Write one paragraph per faction: what happens to the hex crawl if this faction is weakened or removed. This tells you how much structural weight each faction carries.

If nothing changes, the faction is decoration.

The D10 Territory Table

One table per terrain type in your sector. Ten entries. Each entry is a situation, not a stat block.

Rules

• Lead with what operators see, hear, or detect. Senses first.
• Include at least three entries where the correct response is not combat.
• Include at least one entry that connects to a faction's current Move.
• Include one entry that is environmental. The territory's pressure expressing itself.
• Entry 10 should be the weird one. The thing that does not fit the pattern.

Template: D10 Territory Encounter Table

Encounter Design Principles

The Three-Part Seed

Every mission seed has three components.

1. Objective. What operators are hired to do. One sentence.
2. Clock. How long they have. Specific. Measured in hours or sessions.
3. Complication. Why it is not simple. Another faction, a hidden cost, bad information, or a second objective that conflicts with the first.

Mission Design Rules

• The objective should be 3-5 hexes from insertion.
• The complication should involve at least one faction.
• The clock should be tight enough to prevent full reconnaissance. Operators have to move before they know everything.
• Write 4-6 seeds per sector. Players will choose 1-2. The rest become background events that advance the faction clocks.

What Players Need Before Hex One

Write a one-page briefing sheet. Include the territory, the objective, and just enough intel to make the first decision. One piece of intel is accurate. One piece is not. Do not tell them which is which.

What the GM Needs Before Session One

The expanded sector checklist. Every item produces a usable artifact. If you cannot check a box, the sector is not ready.

Territory Pressure (D8)

Roll or pick. Your pressure shapes every hex in the sector.

Hex Hook Generator (D10)

Faction Want Generator (D8)

Complication Generator (D10)