@TerribleSorcery (and everyone else)...how's about this tract:
What does the hex-crawl add to your game that would otherwise be missing from a map without the hex-grid?
Hexes allow for mapping, planning out and stocking a region effectively, measuring travel times & distances, and assessing the PCs' locations with ease. A hex is a
manageable unit of space.
Actual factual, I started running this campaign
without hexes in the early days. I just used a map and tried to keep track of where the players and all the adventure sites were. It broke down completely as soon as they left the river. It was
more randomized, because it was impossible to keep track of locations and travel distances accurately. When I learned about hexcrawls it solved all my problems. That was 10 years ago!
First of all, I want to make it clear that I'm not attacking your campaign. I'm honestly trying to figure out hexcrawls, I'm ignorant on that style of gameplay, and basing my opinion on your hexcrawl example above which was very helpful in providing a picture of what transpires. Actually quite thankful for your example.
I'm actually curious where do you add the rumors, hooks, etc.? Do you have the majority of them in the starting town--rumors about some of the places that are in the hex map (I'm assuming so)--but if that's the case, wouldn't the party be actively searching for those things that caught their interest? I guess when you said there was something in every hex, would the party necessarily know anything about these discoveries that they happened to stumble upon? Or is it something that's "random" (random as in not actively seeking it out but something you had thought about and placed there). For example, the silver tower on Day 6 of your example. They bailed quick...but were there rumors or hooks about that place or did they just stumble upon it? That is the basis of my opinion--because it seems to me they bailed because they weren't invested in it (i.e. they hadn't heard anything about it).
No offense felt man, don't worry.
The campaign is based on exploring the unknown wilderness. The first rumour was in town (literally "the forbidden wilderness is over there") and all the other information has been learned out in the wilderness itself. I told the players we were doing a wilderness game, and they said it sounded fun. They created characters who had some degree of backstory (1-2 sentences) which was enough to give them reasons to go exploring.
Since then, the game has more or less run itself. They go out into the wilderness looking for something: sometimes they find it, sometimes they get lost and get into trouble. The players like to fight monsters & get treasure, but they also love to forge relationships with local NPCs and factions, so sometimes it feels like Star Trek, which is cool too. They get to focus on the things they're interested in - which I assumed was kind of the normal way to play, if the DM has developed a world with enough stuff to do. They often run into things they haven't heard of and weren't looking for, usually on the way to something else.
This is a feature.
My brother has said he finds the game almost overwhelming, because there are so many things he wants to do and see that sound cool (a huge list of rumours, hooks and clues). I dunno about you but I consider this high praise.
But I'm not sure any of that relates to hexes particularly.
