Revealing parts of a map

[Jimlock]

Hello,

I am about running the Tomb of Annihilation.
What is the best way to reveal the map hex by hex to the players ?

[Trenloe]

Use the Global LOS Mask?

https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassia...+GM#Global-LOS

[Zacchaeus]

Another way to do this is to give the party token (see the book page 'Using this module in Fantasy Grounds) a light source and turn on lighting on the map. Make the light source just big enough to light the hex the players are in (or think they are in) and the immediately surrounding hexes.

[Jimlock]

Thanks a lot!

[Jimlock]

Something else about this map: if the party get lost, what hex may I show to the players?
Neither the one where they really are (because they will see it is not in the expected direction), neither the hex that they think to be in (because it would reveal undue information).

How may I manage this?

[Zacchaeus]

Something else about this map: if the party get lost, what hex may I show to the players?
Neither the one where they really are (because they will see it is not in the expected direction), neither the hex that they think to be in (because it would reveal undue information).

How may I manage this?

This didn't come up a lot in my game. The players always had a guide, and would follow rivers or head towards landmarks etc so I don't think they ever actually got lost. I did, however, use the pins and when they moved I revealed the hex they entered plus any surrounding hexes that hadn't been revealed; so they had to work out if they were lost or not based on the description I gave them compared to what they were seeing.

To be honest after a session or two it became boring rolling checks for direction, weather and random encounters etc so I ended up not bothering and hand waved the journeys. The only thing I did was ensure they had rations etc but with a cleric creating food and water that was also not really an issue.

[claedawg]

You can try these WIP hexcrawl rules I'm creating for Shadowdark. I would also suggest using almost any other system than D&D and PF as the powers of the PCs pretty much negate any fun that can be had with hexcrawl style games, IMO.

https://www.dropbox.com/t/80ZfiTDmGJK6b0os

Instead of getting lost, I use effects that increase the travel time, which means higher possibilities for encounters, increased use of rations and torches (firewood, Shadowdark requires 3 torches to create a camp), loss of items carried and injuries that cause HP or ability score damage.

You'll also need to get the players to get out of our modern concept of travel, in a world without modern technology travel is dangerous even on the most well marked roads and those are very rare, especially in a place like an uncharted jungle. Even today, with GPS and all the other technological bells and whistles available, travel in the wilderness is deadly.

If you decide to use these rules, let me know how it goes, I'm still in the process of playtesting with my group.

EDIT: If you do use these rules in D&D or PF I suggest increasing the DCs by at least 2.

[Griogre]

Something else about this map: if the party get lost, what hex may I show to the players?
Neither the one where they really are (because they will see it is not in the expected direction), neither the hex that they think to be in (because it would reveal undue information).

How may I manage this?

The best way to deal with this, IMO, is if the party gets lost, is don't move them on the hex map at all, ie lost party's can't leave the hex. Assume they got turned around or ended up on an impassable path where they had to turn back and go another way - so on the scale of the hex map - the lost party is just spending time moving around inside the last hex trying to get "un-lost". Have them lose travel time, half a day or a day depending on the size of the map hex.

IE for a six mile hexes in jungle (difficult terrain) a party at normal pace will move two hexes per day (3 mph x 8 hours) / 2 for difficult terrain. In jungle, I would have them make a survival check every time they attempt to leave a hex (every 4 hours). If they fail a survival check to not get lost, I'd make them move one less hex and give them and extra random encounter check. Note: I have not read that module's travel rules, but that is the basic 5E travel rules.

I was just running outdoor movement were the party was returning with 20 poorly equipped captives they had freed. It starting snowing and they had a good camp with with plenty of firewood. They choose to just stay there a day, since they ranger divined it would stop snowing after one day. It was fairly common both realistically and in fantasy for explorers to make little or no progress toward their destinations over the course of a day.

[Tempered7]

Not for published hex-crawl maps but this might also help: Darkening Parts of a map. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...l=1#post723669

Also if the map has not grids, My demo hex-crawl notes has info on;

# Gameplay Demo (Earlier Version)
1- The Toolbox has Wilderness Generator: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/entry.php?457-Solo-Hex-crawl-in-FGU-Demo-Playtest-Notes

Though it is for empty map with grids on to add hex pieces individually.
You just adjust the numbers to your map.

[anstett]

Something else about this map: if the party get lost, what hex may I show to the players?
Neither the one where they really are (because they will see it is not in the expected direction), neither the hex that they think to be in (because it would reveal undue information).

How may I manage this?

How I manage the "you are lost" portion of maps is to have a couple of different versions of the same map.

Place tokens on "Hillside Forest after leaving the cottage"
They interact, encounters,
Move tokens to new map of "Hillside Forest after leaving the encounter"
They interact, encounter,
Move tokens to new map of "Hillside Forest 1"
Move tokens to new map of "Hillside Forest 2"

At this point the players know they have moved around the forest quite a bit, there are no fog of war reveals for them to see where they used to be, they can make checks to be able to return to the previous area of the forest, etc.

AND it is all one image used 4 or 5 times just with different names. The only thing I need to worry about as the GM is remember/notes how many iterations to use when moving from significant location to another.