The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermTabletop term

Hexcrawl

A wilderness adventure played on a map divided into hexagons, each holding terrain and perhaps a lair, ruin, village or dungeon. Players choose where to travel and the referee reveals what they find, making exploration itself the adventure.

A wilderness adventure played on a map divided into hexagons, each holding terrain and perhaps a lair, ruin, village or dungeon. Players choose where to travel and the referee reveals what they find, making exploration itself the adventure.

Origin

Original D&D's wilderness rules (1974) suggested Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival board for overland travel; the term hexcrawl is a later coinage popular in the Old-School Renaissance.

Quick answers

What does "Hexcrawl" mean?
A wilderness adventure played on a map divided into hexagons, each holding terrain and perhaps a lair, ruin, village or dungeon. Players choose where to travel and the referee reveals what they find, making exploration itself the adventure.
Where does the term "Hexcrawl" come from?
Original D&D's wilderness rules (1974) suggested Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival board for overland travel; the term hexcrawl is a later coinage popular in the Old-School Renaissance.

Nearby in the archive

Sandbox

General term

A game world the player explores freely, choosing goals rather than following a set plot. In tabletop play it describes a campaign where the referee prepares places and factions rather than a storyline; in video games it describes open worlds such as The Elder Scrolls or Minecraft.

Dungeon crawl

Tabletop term

An adventure in which characters explore a confined labyrinth of rooms and corridors, fighting monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles and hauling out treasure. It is the oldest scenario in roleplaying and the template for countless board and video games, from Dungeon! to Diablo.

West Marches

Tabletop term

A campaign format with a large, rotating pool of players who schedule their own sessions and head out from a safe town into a dangerous, persistent wilderness. With no set plot, players choose what to explore and share discoveries with one another.

Old-School Renaissance (OSR)

Tabletop genre2006

A movement to play roleplaying games the way they were played in the 1970s — deadly dungeons, clever players, rulings not rules — built on legal clones of early D&D and grown into a vibrant DIY scene.

Miniatures & Board Wargames

Tabletop genre1812

Painted soldiers on sand tables, cardboard counters on hex maps: the game of generals that trained Prussian officers, amused H. G. Wells and, in a Minnesota basement, gave birth to the roleplaying game.

Mentioned in 2 other exhibits