Runewild and Rosethrone

While discussing the Nod36 review, I mentioned a few favorite hexcrawls, and Evardsmalltentacle asked how I combined The Runewild and products from Rosethrone.

The simplest way to explain is that I use the Runewild pretty much as written (although I run it via Beyond the Wall rather than 5E) and then pop in pieces of various Rosethrone adventures into appropriate hexes.

So, for example, as I started the Runewild campaign, the orders given to the player was to head to the settlement of Widderspire, but to check on the old watchtowers along the southwestern border. The Runewild book has only one existing tower in the hexes, but one of the Rosethrone products had an additional abandoned tower, and a wandering giant hunting gnolls, and a woodkeeper trying to break a curse. I dropped those elements into some empty hexes along the Runewild border. They worked beautifully.

I will probably continue to combine elements of Rosethrone with Runewild as I wish, because they actually blend quite well.

I'm not entirely sure the way I'm running this is the way many people run hexcrawls. I have only one primary player, and she's much less interested in looting and fighting than she is in exploring and interacting and solving problems. That actually works quite well for the Runewild, since the default is that characters are Runewardens, bringing law and order to the farflung settlements and roads. With one player, and this kind of setup, this hexcrawl is a little more of the "building an epic story" situation than it is a "whatever happens, happens" situation. EXCEPT that now that the player is IN the Runewild and the campaign has begun, she chooses which way she's going to go, which threads she follows, which mysteries she solves, etc.

I'm not really tracking experience. I'm just raising her level every now and then. We're having fun and are in no hurry to turn the character into a superpowered killer.
 

bryce0lynch

i fucking hate writing ...
Staff member
Have I looked at Runewild? I don't think so?

I'm really enjoying Rosethrone. The Storms Impending Rage is more of a regional setting, for setting adventures in, but is packed with encounter locations. Review should pop in about a week. Mike's Wilderness, also, might be a good setting for popping adventure locales in to .. as well as ... fuck, what's the name? The Broken Lands? The Shattered Lands? There were a fuck ton of products that came out for it (withini the last year?) of varying quality, but the good ones were quite nice, as was the setting backstory.
 
Have I looked at Runewild? I don't think so?

I'm really enjoying Rosethrone. The Storms Impending Rage is more of a regional setting, for setting adventures in, but is packed with encounter locations. Review should pop in about a week. Mike's Wilderness, also, might be a good setting for popping adventure locales in to .. as well as ... fuck, what's the name? The Broken Lands? The Shattered Lands? There were a fuck ton of products that came out for it (withini the last year?) of varying quality, but the good ones were quite nice, as was the setting backstory.
You haven’t. You reviewed one adventure which made me look at Runewild and I loved it- dense at times but very runnable (for me), interactive, playable. A hexcrawl with broader themes and more active participants. Rosethrone is better in one aspect in that it’s better at brevity which makes it easier to run.
 
While discussing the Nod36 review, I mentioned a few favorite hexcrawls, and Evardsmalltentacle asked how I combined The Runewild and products from Rosethrone.

The simplest way to explain is that I use the Runewild pretty much as written (although I run it via Beyond the Wall rather than 5E) and then pop in pieces of various Rosethrone adventures into appropriate hexes.

So, for example, as I started the Runewild campaign, the orders given to the player was to head to the settlement of Widderspire, but to check on the old watchtowers along the southwestern border. The Runewild book has only one existing tower in the hexes, but one of the Rosethrone products had an additional abandoned tower, and a wandering giant hunting gnolls, and a woodkeeper trying to break a curse. I dropped those elements into some empty hexes along the Runewild border. They worked beautifully.

I will probably continue to combine elements of Rosethrone with Runewild as I wish, because they actually blend quite well.

I'm not entirely sure the way I'm running this is the way many people run hexcrawls. I have only one primary player, and she's much less interested in looting and fighting than she is in exploring and interacting and solving problems. That actually works quite well for the Runewild, since the default is that characters are Runewardens, bringing law and order to the farflung settlements and roads. With one player, and this kind of setup, this hexcrawl is a little more of the "building an epic story" situation than it is a "whatever happens, happens" situation. EXCEPT that now that the player is IN the Runewild and the campaign has begun, she chooses which way she's going to go, which threads she follows, which mysteries she solves, etc.

I'm not really tracking experience. I'm just raising her level every now and then. We're having fun and are in no hurry to turn the character into a superpowered killer.
Thanks much! I have a bit of time with this, so I will drop some notes on how I am going to integrate the Rosethrone stuff into Runewild. I think a lot of the rosethrone elements are very droppable into hexes, just don't want to overwhelm with too much.
 
Have I looked at Runewild? I don't think so?

I'm really enjoying Rosethrone. The Storms Impending Rage is more of a regional setting, for setting adventures in, but is packed with encounter locations. Review should pop in about a week. Mike's Wilderness, also, might be a good setting for popping adventure locales in to .. as well as ... fuck, what's the name? The Broken Lands? The Shattered Lands? There were a fuck ton of products that came out for it (withini the last year?) of varying quality, but the good ones were quite nice, as was the setting backstory.
Yeah, you focused me in on Rosethrone and I've been snapping up all the Rosethrone products ever since. All kinds of great details. I like the same kind of dark fairytale forest vibe you seem to, and these are right up that valley.

You dipped into Runewild via All Through the Long Dark Night, which is one of the adventures set in and around the vicinity of the forest.

I don't know that I'm familiar with Mike's Wilderness -- I'll have to look into it.

Someone wrote about Nod36 -- too lazy to see who -- that they thought it would make a great hexcrawl but would probably take a huge ton of work to make it runnable. It does. I put in a ton of work for Stater's Winter Woods setting from his line of Hexcrawl Classics once I bought it, to make it work at my game table, and it is pretty much like the hexcrawls he does for Nod. Fabulous, inspiring material, but not laid out in a way that makes it easy to use and cross-reference. Runewild and Rosethrone are much better about getting it into the GM's hands in a cross-indexed, useable way.
 
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Thanks much! I have a bit of time with this, so I will drop some notes on how I am going to integrate the Rosethrone stuff into Runewild. I think a lot of the rosethrone elements are very droppable into hexes, just don't want to overwhelm with too much.
I don't have a master plan with it. I just drop stuff in where it seems like it's needed, once the player is close to that area. The older I get, the lazier my DMing is.
 
Have I looked at Runewild? I don't think so?

I'm really enjoying Rosethrone. The Storms Impending Rage is more of a regional setting, for setting adventures in, but is packed with encounter locations. Review should pop in about a week. Mike's Wilderness, also, might be a good setting for popping adventure locales in to .. as well as ... fuck, what's the name? The Broken Lands? The Shattered Lands? There were a fuck ton of products that came out for it (withini the last year?) of varying quality, but the good ones were quite nice, as was the setting backstory.
I found Mike's World, which looks like a pretty nifty hexcrawl expansion of B2, but I haven't turned up the broken or shattered land that sounds like what you're talking about, Bryce. Would love to hear more!
 

bryce0lynch

i fucking hate writing ...
Staff member
It took me 30 minutes, but ...

Aegis Studios, Osysseys & Overlords

They FLOODED the market, and then went away. The quality was ALL over the place
 
Poked around looking at Aegis games this morning. Discovered that Temple of the Harpies was written by Morten Greis of Greis Games, who has written some tasty adventures Bryce has dropped into the No Regerts catgory. Looks like he put Temple of the Harpies in the same place.

When I get a chance later I'll see if there are any other familiar writers in the Aegis mix.
 

Jeff V

A FreshHell to Contend With
I had a look at the Runewild map on Drivethru, and it's a bit unusual to see a real world Welsh town - Kidwelly - on the road from Ill Hollow to Widderspire. (With apologies to anyone who actually lives in a real world place called "Ill Hollow".) I hope it has a castle; I spent a number of happy childhood days clambering around Kidwelly Castle.
 
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