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In the Heart of the Unknown - Procedural Hex Crawling EngineClick to magnify
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In the Heart of the Unknown - Procedural Hex Crawling Engine

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Suggested Price $3.00

In the Heart of the Unknown – contains procedural Encounter, Terrain and Weather Engines for Wilderness Hex Crawling.

It is in a similar vein as ‘In the Heart of the Sea’, which is a procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’.

Basically, in In the Heart of the Unknown there are three 'game engines' in the form of Hex Flowers. One engine drives navigation and encounters. The other two are related to terrain and weather conditions.

Each time you enter a new HEX, you procedurally determine what is in the new HEX starting from the last HEX result. So, Hex Flowers are sort of like a random table but with a memory

Hex Flower Procedural Products you might be interested in
:: In the Heart of Oz - procedural sandbox in the Land of Oz
:: In the Heart of the Sea - procedural High Seas exploration
:: In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous  - procedural 'dungeon' exploration
:: Carapace - adventure exploring a giant insect colony

More on Hex Flower Theory
You can read more about Hex Flower Game Engines in my Hex Flower Cookbook

and on my Blog: https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/2d6-hex-power-flower

- - -

I'm very happy for you to pay nothing for this product; and anything given to me will only be frittered away on RPG-related wares anyway. That said, even a nominal sum like 50 cents seems to bump this thing up the DriveThru charts and encourages me to make more things like this!

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Reviews (1)
Discussions (5)
Customer avatar
Evandro N March 20, 2023 5:07 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi, I am having fun with these hex-flowers!

I have a question about Terrain. What is the difference between the Cactus+Horse and "Cactus only" hexes? Are they meant to represent different terrains (e.g. steppe vs desert) or do they only differ in how they affect encounters (deserts with different "populations")?
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Customer avatar
Goblins H March 20, 2023 9:03 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Marco - thanks for the comment.

The big picture here is that these dual icons within the HEX represent a transition from PLAINS to ARID (hence the dashed 50% line within the HEX).
How you want to implement this is up to you.

Mechanically, one way to go is simply to say that the land is halfway ARID and halfway PLAINS (savanna?), and so mechanically you could average the encounter modifiers so (-4+2)/2 = -1 modifier for the encounters.

Another way to go is to say 50% of the time the HEX is more ARID than PLAINS (so use ARID (-4) to determine encounters) and the other 50% of the time the HEX is more PLAINS than ARID (so use the PLAINS modifier (+2) to determine encounters etc.). So roll for it each time evens = ARID vs odds = PLAINS.

On balance, I prefer the second option (less maths).

Hope that makes sense!
:O)
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Customer avatar
Evandro N March 21, 2023 8:31 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you, this does clarify things!
Customer avatar
Joey D June 03, 2022 9:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi- I think the latest update (vers 1.2 with the disadvantage mechanic) is missing the weather engine!
Customer avatar
Drew Z January 11, 2022 5:08 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Poorly explained and confusing. There's some promise here, but it feels like more work than necessary with very little gains.
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Customer avatar
Craig W March 14, 2022 3:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The hexflowers are really quite good and totally worth using.
The only thing that I find unclear is "on the next double the river: 12 = ends/impassible; 22to 52 = bridge/ford; and 66 = divides in two"
Obviously, it's describing what happens to the river: it end, reaches a bridge, or splits. What I don't understand is what we are supposed to "double" and what the number notations signify.
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Customer avatar
Goblins H March 14, 2022 4:09 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Craig. When rolling on the terrain HF (*after* discovering and following a river) if you roll a double so 1+1, or 2+2 or 3+3 etc. then 'something' happens to the river. In my notation when I write in effect "1 squared" that means a 'double 1' i.e. 1+1 on the 2D6 roll.

The thing that might happen to the river is that it: ends on a 1+1 (perhaps goes underground), on a 2+2 to 5+5 the river is crossable in some way e.g. perhaps a tree falls making an improvised bridge and on 6+6 the river splits (or perhaps better it meets a tributary).
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Customer avatar
Evandro N March 20, 2023 4:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I am currently using this little product and I love it!

The exponential notation for doubles is probably confusing, also because there is a typo : 6^6 instead of 6^2 when the river "divides in two". Also, "impassible" should be "impassable".
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Customer avatar
Goblins H March 20, 2023 9:06 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks, Marco.
Yes, you are 100% correct.
I need to update this, and will probably replace the superscript 2 with a superscript D to indicate a double.
:O)
Customer avatar
Valdus C November 09, 2021 2:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How does the random encounter table work?

D6+D10; if the result is UNDER the terrain modifier the encounter triggers?
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Customer avatar
Goblins H November 09, 2021 5:07 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Valdus C - thanks for asking the question.

The idea is that when you get an encounter (e.g. you land on the ‘dinosaur icon’ or 'lair icon') you roll D6+D10 and add the terrain modifier to determine a (terrain applicable) monster.

So, if you rolled 7 on the D6+D10 and you were on an 'Arid Hex' you get an Ankheg (i.e. 7-4=3), but if the terrain hex was a 'Forest Hex', you'd get a Bear (i.e. 7+6=13).

Essentially, the terrain modifier in effect shifts the centre of the bell curve based on the terrain type.

Hope that helps!
:O)
Customer avatar
Roland E May 28, 2020 8:38 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello,

First of all thanks for those little flowers smelling the parfume of adventure.

Should I consider each HF to be independent, both in terms of temporality and dice roll?
i.e. I roll for each HF separately and one HF could see multiple rolls while the other one roll each.

This leads to the issue, I face actually, how am I supposed to use the rivers and roads. Should I consider that the PCs stay on the road/river as long as they please and for each weather roll, I roll to see if I have a double?

I know, reading your blog and your "overview and thought" document, that I should/could/must take some liberty with what you present in your documents, but I want to, first, understand your rules' concept.

Regards,

Roland.
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Customer avatar
Goblins H May 28, 2020 9:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Roland

Thanks for your comment and I’m glad you like these Hex Flowers.

The way I intended this to work (but as you note people can use these as they see fit) is that each “turn” the user rolls on each of the three HFs.

So 2D6 for encounters, a second set of 2D6 for weather, and a third set of 2D6 for terrain each "turn".

Now, if you think weather is too changeable under this set up, then you could roll once say every three “turns”. Same could apply to terrain, where you could roll say every other "turn". Personally, I think it’s fun to roll on each of the three HFs every time. A “turn” being a unit of travel worthy of a change in circumstances i.e. which warrants a new roll.

Roads and rivers are interesting. As you can imagine, the tension I faced when making this Game Engine was trying to get the whole concept on just one page, but also having enough info for people to figure out how to use it. Rivers...See more
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Customer avatar
Roland E June 01, 2020 3:20 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for all those precisions.

If I may suggest something. Maybe you should move the Encounter list to a second page, that way you have more space for rules and that also leave more space for the GM to add notes and information for each encounter in the list. I think it is a win-win situation, more space for the rules, more space for encounter descriptions.

Roland.
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Customer avatar
Goblins H June 01, 2020 4:15 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for this.

Maybe at least I could make a 1-page and a 2-page version of this to suit different preferences.

I'm also thinking of bringing out a booklet on 'In the Heart of the X', i.e. bringing together these various different Hex Flowers I’ve made.

This could be the time to make this kind of edit – the HFs on one page, and the text on the facing page?
:O)
Reply
Customer avatar
Roland E June 06, 2020 9:03 am UTC
PURCHASER
That's an interesting news.
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This title was added to our catalog on October 25, 2019.