Our Hexcrawl, super mega simple easy mode

 So before reading up on the official "how to do a hex crawl" I drew up a "hex crawl" and got the kid to help populate the two random tables. We'll be sticking to our easy basic hex crawl mostly, but in the previous post I found those nice free (or PWYW) PDFs that will be very nice to give further ideas as needed. 

Goals:

1. Easy
2. Easy, really.
3. Flexible. We'll learn as we go. 
4. Playing 5e, level 3 characters, so we want a good few encounters. I want it to be maybe 15% chance of a TPK from start to finish. 

So I made the map look like, top to bottom (so kinda backwards), something like this:

• Final Area (circle/hex) and  the kid fills in the blank
• 3rd areas that lead to final are any of the 3
• Cross a river - big river, bayou, or small creek... maybe a ferry, swim, rope, log... whatever you like. 
• forest trail
• rocky hills
• 2nd areas
• swampy
• pine forest trail
• cave
• 1st area outside a village is only one
• Mixed forest trail
• Starting area, only one
• a Village

So we are playing fast and loose. To get from one area to another, it might be 4 hours (and 4 random encounter checks) or it might be more or less. We don't know, going to wing it. 

Rules we made up/borrowed:

• 1d10, on a 1 you have an encounter. Do that once per hour. Assuming it takes an hour to move through an area. If you are in the labeled "swampy area" for instance, maybe that's 4 or 8 hours of swamp. 
• Worth clarification... one circle on our "hexmap" is not one single encounter... it'll take 4 to 8 hours to get through there, so 4 to 8 encounters. We think that many, going to find out... we want a good few encounters. And I think the kid has a couple of "automatic encounter areas" with more complex stuff. He's good with a fancy cool set up.  
• The river is probably the exception... doubt it'll be that many encounters, but it's trickier so, yeah. 
• The cave is probably at ground level, and the exit of the cave is deeper into rocky hills... maybe it cuts through a hill. 
• 1d20 (maybe 1d24, borrowing DCC dice) to see what the encounter is. See below. Wanted one to be a dragon, AKA super impossibly hard, and then a mix. 
• Distance of encounter, 1d6; 1 = close, 6 = 500 feet. 
• 2d6 reaction/morale check at start of encounter. Using the B/X rules for that... I thought it was Something like the following, but each edition is different it seems: 
• 2 = attack (immediate)
• 3-5 = likely aggression (hostile, possible attack)
• 7-9 = neutral (uncertain, monster confused)
• 9-11 = curious (no attack, monster leaves or considers offers)
• 12 = friendly (Enthusiastic friendship)
• Tenkar's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_wY-dP17e8
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• This blog fellow has one that is good, and 5e here also good:

• 2d6       Reaction

  2-3        Hostile

  4-5        Unfriendly

  6-8        Neutral

  9-10      Friendly

  11-12    Helpful

• This guy has info on the 1983 Mentzer more complex one: https://yumdm.com/reaction-rolls/
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• And this one, I kinda like it for "monsters" specifically, came from https://illusoryscript.com/2d6-reaction-roll/

I Made two random 1d20 (or 1d24) tables, I'll list the ones I have, but the kid has 8 or so secret ones. 

FOREST OR HILLS 1d20 TABLE:

1. Green dragon
2. 1d6+1 bandits
3. 1d2 owlbear
4. 1d4+1 hobgoblins
5. 1d6+1 guardsmen from village
6. animal trail, leads to a hidden loot stash (wooden doors into the ground, weird and cool)
7. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
8. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
9. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
10. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
11. 1d6 gnolls + 1 hyena
12. 1d6 lost travellers
13. 1 orc shaman + 1d4 orcs
14. 1 goblin adept + 1d4 goblins
15. Bear
16. 1d6 snakes (has to be extremely close, can't be 100+ feet away)
17. 1d6 brownies
18. 1d4 helpful fairies
19. ancient ruins
20. Roc

Swampy 1d20

1. Black dragon
2. 1d6 Lizardmen
3. 1 giant alligator (or croc)
4. 1d4+1 gnolls
5. pixies
6. rope ladder tree, leading to a box (maybe roll 1d6 to see what's in the box)
7. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
8. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
9. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
10. ? kid's secret since he is the DM for this
11. 1d4+1 troglodytes
12. 1d6 lost travellers
13. 1d4+1 cultists
14. 1 kobold sorcerer and 1d4 kobolds
15. Blackscale lizardmen (see 3.5e or 5e stats, the big lizards)
16. 1d12 stirge (big variation here, how easy or hard will this be?)
17. 1d4+1 militia
18. Giant crawfish
19. Ancient Ruins
20. 1d6 zombies