Hexed Press

A blog about roleplaying games, mostly but not entirely fantasy, hex crawls, sandboxes, game theory, and those games by TSR and Wizards of the Coast.

Hexcrawling for Fun and Profit, Part 2

Hexcrawling for Fun and Profit, Part 2

Published on, 10 min read

TLDR How to stop worrying and embrace the hexcrawl (Part 2).

Hexcrawling for Fun and Profit, Part 1

Published on, 5 min read

TLDR How to stop worrying and embrace the hexcrawl (Part 1).

Hireling Generator

Published on, 2 min read

TLDR Unhappy to one degree or another with existing hireling generators, I decided to create my own.

Poisoned

Published on, 1 min read

I wasn't happy with the way the OSR tends to treat poisons, so I created a variant rule to spice it up a bit.

What Makes a Game OSR?

Published on, 7 min read

At some point, we're going to move into a post-OSR game world but, for now, what does it mean for a game to be OSR?

Clerical Nature

Published on, 3 min read

TLDR The White Box Cleric makes a great template for custom OSR character classes.

Grappling with OSR

Published on, 5 min read

TLDR An old article by Gary Gygax highlights how to adjudicate grappling in OSR combat.

A Simple Case of Semantics

Published on, 3 min read

TLDR Maybe using the term "game master" or "dungeon master" isn't such a great idea.

X Marks the Spot

Published on, 3 min read

TLDR When using "x in 6" style checks, decrease the difficulty by decreasing the die size and increase the difficulty by increasing the die size.

An Emotional Rollercoaster

Published on, 5 min read

TLDR Instead of defaulting to a single personality for every NPC, use a couple of quickie tables to create more unique seeming individuals.

Class Colors

Published on, 6 min read

TLDR Warlocks, Clerics, and classic Paladins imply requirements, either obeissance to an entity, or piety towards a diety, or some other connection. What would it look like if every class had such a requirement?

Oh Captain, My Captain

Published on, 1 min read

The Captain is a fighter sub-class that introduces an archetype for the charismatic fighting (wo)man who leads the charge and inspires their allies.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Published on, 9 min read

Fifth Edition of **Dungeons & Dragons** has optional rules for insanity (*DMG* pages 258-260) and, since the release of the *Curse of Strahd* campaign book, I've seen a lot of gamemasters consider applying those optional rules or houseruling their own. I find the insanity rules given, and many of the ones suggested by the community, a bit problematic and so decided to offer an alternative.

For Hire

Published on, 6 min read

I stumbled upon a reference to a Gary Gygax short story very much worth reading for the application of hirelings. Hirelings, as class of NPC, have long been in the wane but I want to bring them back.

Tests of Skill

Published on, 7 min read

Nothing can slow down or halt a Dungeons & Dragons game completely like a misfiring skill or knowledge check. We can do better.

Rethinking the Original Attributes

Published on, 3 min read

Let's face it-- roleplaying characters with above or below average intelligence or wisdom vacillates between extremes of idiocy and supernatural brilliance. How do you pretend to be smarter or wiser than you actually are? Maybe there are some better character values we can measure and relegate intelligence and wisdom into the realm of pure RP.

Return of the Mook

Published on, 4 min read

One thing I liked from the fourth edition of Wizards of the Coast's RPG was the minion. I thought the concept was great though I didn't necessarily agree exactly with the way they chose to implement it.

Motivating Your NPCs

Published on, 6 min read

I sometimes find my NPCs can become one-note if I'm not paying attention so I started thinking of some quick tools I could use to inject some variability into my NPCs. This is one of those tools.