VTT exploratory hexcrawl: how?

[Necrozius]

I am going to be continuing my Mythras campaign soon, this time the character will be shipwrecked onto an island and have to engage in exploration and survival.

Part of this is exploring the map. I'd like to use a fog of war mechanism, which is very doable in vitual table tops (I'm using Foundry, btw).

Gradually exposing terrain as they explore (obviously revealing a bit more of what's to come based on elevation (eg, they can see that there's a mountain in the distance, not clear what lies in between though).

EDIT:

Advice and suggestions that I'm looking for (because people keep asking):

- Have you had any personal experiences running a hexcrawl using virtual tabletop software (eg Roll20, Foundry ETC)
- What worked well? What didn't?
- Did you use fog of war?
- Did you use tools to roll random encounters?
- What layers did you create that were Player-facing, GM-only facing?
- Any Foundry-specific add-ons you recommend?
- Any hexmap creation tools or tips you recommend?

 

[TristramEvans]

The best way is to do a virtual Virtual Tabletop, on a tabletop.

 

[FlagrantOpossum]

I am going to be continuing my Mythras campaign soon, this time the character will be shipwrecked onto an island and have to engage in exploration and survival.

Part of this is exploring the map. I'd like to use a fog of war mechanism, which is very doable in vitual table tops (I'm using Foundry, btw).

Gradually exposing terrain as they explore (obviously revealing a bit more of what's to come based on elevation (eg, they can see that there's a mountain in the distance, not clear what lies in between though).

Any tips? Has anyone done this sort of thing before?

I did this for 5e on Roll20. Your ask is a bit vague, though, what tips are you looking for specifically? Can't help you with Foundry specific, but I can relate what I did for certain things if you have more specific questions.

The reality is that visibility is a hard thing to model well. You have to accept some kind of gamey resolution to make it workable. Once you abandon realism as main goal, you have more options. I went with something like:
Hexes are 2 miles across. Visibility base is 3 hexes.
Plains/desert/open -- no modifier to visibility
Forests/jungle/dense -- if in, visibility is 0. Forests block visibility through.
Hills -- +1 visibility if in. Block visibility through unless in hills.
Mountain -- -2 visibility if in unless peak is achieved, then +3 vis. +3 range to be seen (overcomes forest/hills blocking terrain)
Other terrain types -- pick closest to the above

This required me to be very manual in revealing map as I could not automate these rules in any useful way. My space for this game was approx 30 hexes by 30 hexes. Small and dense worked better for me than large and spread out.

Travel was based on intent --
Travel, careful -- 1 hex/hour travel
Travel, fast -- 2 hex/hour
Travel, improved -- 1/2 time
Explore -- 1 hex / 8 hours
Modifiers:
Plains/open: none
Hills: x2 to x3, depending on roughness
Forest: x2 to x3, depending on density
Mountain: x5
Swamp: x3

Generally, if traveling through a hex, the chance to discover a point of interest was 10% if careful, 5% if fast, 0% if improved, and 50% if explored. A given hex could have d4-1 points of interest. A point of interest could be a monster lair, ruin, magical site, etc. I generally did not set these ahead of time and generated them on the fly as needed to save prep overhead. A hex could be marked 'safe' if explored 3 times (regardless of poi's detected). This is outside any GM fixed locations.

 

[Necrozius]

Your ask is a bit vague, though, what tips are you looking for specifically?

Actually your reply was great. Thanks

 

[Hairless Bear]

I am also not sure what exactly you are asking about. Maybe following screenshot from my Foundry installation will answer the question.

• I used Worldographer to create a simple hexmap.
• Foundry supports grids (hex or square), you just have to configure it so it fits your map.
• I use one Foundry actor/token to represent the party.
• I don't use fog of war, but Foundry allows you to add lighting, which should do the trick.

 

[Necrozius]

The best way is to do a virtual Virtual Tabletop, on a tabletop.

haha

I'm running the game with people far away. We kind of HAVE to use Foundry VTT.

 

[Necrozius]

I am also not sure what exactly you are asking about. Maybe following screenshot from my Foundry installation will answer the question.

• I used Worldographer to create a simple hexmap.
• Foundry supports grids (hex or square), you just have to configure it so it fits your map.
• I use one Foundry actor/token to represent the party.
• I don't use fog of war, but Foundry allows you to add lighting, which should do the trick.

yes, this kind of reply is exactly what I;m looking for.

How much of this is player-facing vs. GM-only facing?

What sort of lighting setup did you use instead of fog of war? Did you trace invisible walls around hexes?

Just curious. Weighing options.

 

[robertsconley]

Advice and suggestions that I'm looking for (because people keep asking):

- Have you had any personal experiences running a hexcrawl using virtual tabletop software (eg Roll20, Foundry ETC)

Use Fantasy Grounds and Roll20

- What worked well? What didn't?

It worked as well as it does with Face to Face

- Did you use fog of war?

No but the map I showed them was heavily edited compared to the map I use for reference. They could see the terrain and known settlements but that was it.

- Did you use tools to roll random encounters?

Yes but since 2020 I used my own take on AiME's journey system. You can still get it but it is now called Uncharted Journeys.

Uncharted Journeys The Roleplaying Game | Cubicle 7 Games

Undertake perilous journeys as your intrepid party blazes new trails across strange and uncharted lands - Uncharted Journeys The Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7.

cubicle7games.com

My own take has a set of tables for Journeys (over land), Voyages (over sea), and Trips (across cities). I also include a "Roll on Encounter table" result and use a traditional random encounter table when that comes up.

- What layers did you create that were Player-facing, GM-only facing?

They could see the terrain and known settlements. Given how line of sight and the distance to the horizon works, I felt it was pointless to do hidden terrain. Showing them the terrain is a better abstraction of the situational awareness of explorers than fog of wars. Because you still now showing them any details WITHIN the hexes.


There are exceptions of course. Like if you were going to go for the exploration of the new world style campaign.
For example Amacui from Points of Light 2


What the players would see at the start

- Any hexmap creation tools or tips you recommend?

Yes learn to use Inkscape. Vector drawing applications (Illustrator, CorelDRAW) are better for this stuff than Raster-based stuff like GIMP or Photoshop.
I have a toolkit of symbol and map templates for Inkscape.

http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/map/Hex_Crawl_Map_Kit.zip

 

[Hairless Bear]

yes, this kind of reply is exactly what I;m looking for.

How much of this is player-facing vs. GM-only facing?

What sort of lighting setup did you use instead of fog of war? Did you trace invisible walls around hexes?

Just curious. Weighing options.

I haven't used anything instead of for of war, as the PCs did have the map of the whole island and it was therefore known information (in the game). I know that there is a World Explorer Foundry module that could help you do what you want to do. Because without it (as you mentioned), you need to AFAIK manually draw invisible walls around each hex to achieve the fog of war effect. I have no experience with the World Explorer module though.

You can do it both player-facing and GM-facing in Foundry. If you make players owners of the token on the map, they will be able to move it themselves. If you only make them observers of the token, you will need to move it for them. I used the former approach. Btw. if you make them neither owners nor observers, they won't be able to see your map at all .

Did you use tools to roll random encounters?

I personally don't use any tools as am I lazy to rewrite stuff from my notes. But you can create random tables pretty easily in Foundry. I think I should start using them...

 

[Tommy Brownell]

I am going to be continuing my Mythras campaign soon, this time the character will be shipwrecked onto an island and have to engage in exploration and survival.

Part of this is exploring the map. I'd like to use a fog of war mechanism, which is very doable in vitual table tops (I'm using Foundry, btw).

Gradually exposing terrain as they explore (obviously revealing a bit more of what's to come based on elevation (eg, they can see that there's a mountain in the distance, not clear what lies in between though).

EDIT:

Advice and suggestions that I'm looking for (because people keep asking):

- Have you had any personal experiences running a hexcrawl using virtual tabletop software (eg Roll20, Foundry ETC)
- What worked well? What didn't?
- Did you use fog of war?
- Did you use tools to roll random encounters?
- What layers did you create that were Player-facing, GM-only facing?
- Any Foundry-specific add-ons you recommend?
- Any hexmap creation tools or tips you recommend?

- I used Roll20.
- The game system (5e) was the big problem. Fine for their adventure paths, but makes exploration trivial.
- I did not. They saw the layout of the land, but had very little knowledge of the details.
- Yep! That’s half the fun.
- I kept the GM map off Roll20.
- Used Roll20, so no.
- I used Hexroll.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

I am going to be continuing my Mythras campaign soon, this time the character will be shipwrecked onto an island and have to engage in exploration and survival.

Part of this is exploring the map. I'd like to use a fog of war mechanism, which is very doable in vitual table tops (I'm using Foundry, btw).

Gradually exposing terrain as they explore (obviously revealing a bit more of what's to come based on elevation (eg, they can see that there's a mountain in the distance, not clear what lies in between though).

EDIT:

Advice and suggestions that I'm looking for (because people keep asking):

- Have you had any personal experiences running a hexcrawl using virtual tabletop software (eg Roll20, Foundry ETC)
- What worked well? What didn't?
- Did you use fog of war?
- Did you use tools to roll random encounters?
- What layers did you create that were Player-facing, GM-only facing?
- Any Foundry-specific add-ons you recommend?
- Any hexmap creation tools or tips you recommend?

If it still works (f*ckng Foundry) there was a module that put an overlay over the scene.

I used a GM detailed map and overlayed with a player friendly one. You could unveil hex by hex as the party icon was moved.

 

[Sosthenes]

If it still works (f*ckng Foundry) there was a module that put an overlay over the scene.

SimpleFog, still reasonably well maintained.