What is the Populated Hex thing, anyway?

A Guide to the Populated Hexes Series

 

I’ve put out a fair number of hexes up until now, and it can be somewhat overwhelming for folks new to the series, or for people looking for specific locations to use. When I started writing these the intention was to produce a series of hexes that can be used either as stand-alone locations for an existing hexcrawl – need a forest encounter? Grab this hex! – or as small “clusters” that can be used as mini-hexcrawls (a “cluster” is a central hex and the six hexes surrounding it).

The Populated Hexes series has since evolved, and there are two main product lines: Hex Clusters and Populated Hexes Monthly.

Populated Hexes Monthly

 

The PHM series began after some feedback that people were interested in shorter, less dense hexes, and I realized it was a good way for me to focus on putting out consistent, monthly material. The PHM hexes are made available first to Patreon backers at a cost of 2.00 per hex, then released on Drivethru at a cost between 2.95 and 3.95 per hex. As of yet, there is no plan to do physical PHM hexes, due to the short length, but I am likely to be doing a yearly compilation of the 12 hexes.

These hexes are aimed at containing 10 pages of new content per issue and will be released as stand-alone hexes, not part of a larger cluster. Additionally, they will be exploring different parts of Absalom outside of the current Hex Cluster series. The current releases are focused on the stretch of land west of the Basilisk Hills (see below).

Current PHM Releases

 

Ø  Hex 48.67 – The Shrine of Daothog. Seaside desert hex. Dragonne lair, small dungeon with ancient, forgotten godling. Rules on specialist magic-users.

Ø  Hex 55.68 – The Entrance to the Valley of Kings (pt. 1). Seaside desert hex. Introduces the Valley of Kings, a canyon containing the tombs of many Crocodile King nobility, plus others. Includes rules for the creation of undead creatures.

Ø  Hex 55.68 – The Entrance to the Valley of Kings (pt. 2). A medium-sized dungeon at the entrance to the Valley of Kings, occupied by a necromancer and a small army of undead. Includes new necromantic spells.

PHM Plains of Zelaia

Hex Clusters

 

As of now there are three hex clusters, two of which have been completed (Basilisk Hills, Deadwoods), and the third is nearing completion. Once a hex cluster is complete my goal is to compile them into a single book, produce supplemental material, and release those as separate offerings (like with the Basilisk Hills Kickstarter). As of now, however, I will be releasing each hex in a cluster as a Quickstarter, a short one or two week Kickstarter to try and raise funds for commissioned art.

There are four hexes, stretch goals for the Filling in the Blanks Kickstarter, that will become the focus of future clusters.

The next planned compilation is for the Deadwoods cluster, and I hope to have that ready for Kickstarter by the end of December 2021.

Basilisk Hills Cluster

Ø  Hex 14.22 – Lair of the Troglodytes. Barren hill hex, troglodyte lair, short mine haunted by a ghost. Two race-as-class troglodyte classes, some new spells.

Ø  Hex 13.22 – The Plateau of Sighs. Barren hill, with a mini-plateau. Triceratops wanders the lower hills. Plateau under a slow-acting petrifying curse, mini-dungeon in old druidic temple with portal to the elemental planes. Includes rules for ley lines and building ley engines to power magical effects.

Ø  Hex 14.23 – The Basilisk Knights. Barren hill country, featuring a small village protected by the eponymous Basilisk Knights. Introduces alternate knight class and the grove guardian, a half-dryad race as class. Information on dryads in Absalom and their connection to Faery. Also includes fighting styles and rules for advancing animal companions.

Ø  Hex 15.22 – The Toppled King and Hex 16.22 -Autrak’s Range. Wooded hills. Lair of a young dragon, giant ant hill, basilisk, bulette, robber flies, and more. Includes rules for expanding dragon options.

Ø  Hex 15.21 – The River’s Source and Hex 16.21 – Forest’s Blessing. Wooded hills. Unicorns, an elemental creature called a guileu, and a cave system containing a morlock lair. Includes information on unicorns in Absalom and three morlock race-as-class options.

Ø  Hex 14.21 – The Gateway to the Pallid Fields. Mostly barren hills. Lake with giant crocodile, crazy hermit living in a cave, wyverns, lost automaton. Ring of standing circles that leads to Faery (and the Pallid Fields mini-hexcrawl).

Ø  Hex 13.21 – The Gangrenous Orcs. Barren hills. Village of large orc tribe (dungeon), stirge lair. Includes orc shaman race-as-class

Deadwoods Cluster

Ø  Hex 17.23 – the Lake of Abominations. Free hex. Wooded hex with large lake in middle. Island in middle of lake with ruins of wizard’s tower, inhabited by a snake contaminated with magic energy. Contains a basic skill system for use with OSR systems, and rules on poisons and harvesting animal parts for magic item creation.

Ø  Hex 16.24 – Forests of Plenty and Hex 15.23 – The Statue Garden. Wooded hex and hilly hex. Contains sprite lair with entrance to the Pallid Fields in Faery, a wolf pack, wood drake, lair of medusa cultists. Includes general rules for adding spellcaster levels to monsters quickly as well as labor costs for various NPCs and cost of living rules.

Ø  Hex 17.24 – The Village of the Owl-folk. Wooded hex. Village of strigi, or owl-folk, and spider lairs. Rules on drugs, and two race-as-class owl-folk playable races.

Ø  Hex 18.24 – The Deadwoods. Wooded hex. The northern tip of the Darkwoods, features an undead treant, spectre lair, and goblin tribe living on the outskirts of the haunted woods. Includes three race-as-class goblin classes (goblin, shaman, and mage).

Ø  Hex 18.23 – The Trails of Cabulech. Wooded hex. Gnoll village, giant snail. Rules on magic item creation and two gnoll race as class options (warrior and sorcerer).

Ø  Hex 17.22 – The Valley of the Sunken Sun. Wooded hex, large lake. Goblin village on shore of lake. Includes rules on crafting minor magical items (charms and fetishes) plus combat maneuvers for fighters.

Ø  Hex 16.23 – The Doom of Cthedrak. Wooded hex. Small orc lair, mini-dungeon of crashed dimensional shift inhabited by naga and her charmed slaves. Includes two orc race-as-class (reaver and warlock).

Rawhide Gang

Ø  Hex 15.42 – Keep of the Rawhide Gang. Barren hill hex. Large redoubt inhabited by brigands. New brigand class, plus rules for adding brigandry to the thief options from A Guide to Thieves’ Guilds.

Ø  Hex 14.43 – Shrine of the Eaglefolk. Mountain hex. Contains a deep lake with a portal to the elemental planes and a monastery of eaglefolk monks. Includes rules for giving normal creatures elemental traits and two eaglefolk race-as-class options.

Ø  Hex 15.43 – Crypt of the Aimascurs. Hill/mountain hex. Contains an oracular medusa, a crypt complex inhabited by mummies and other undead, and a mesa inhabited by hill giants. Includes rules for making mummies more interesting.

Ø  Hex 16.43 – the Caves of the Elder Gargoyles. Hilly hex. Contains a slow, old hydra and a cave system inhabited by intelligent gargoyles. Also includes rules for creating constructs.

Ø  Hex 16.42 – the Devil Swine’s cookpot. Hilly hex. Family of wereboars and their devil swine  matriarch. Lair of kobolds in abandoned mine and three race-as-class kobold variants (kobold, warrenguard, beguiler).

Stretch Goal Hexes

Ø  Hex 07.36 – Slow Waters. Hilly hex with marsh, inhabited by froglings. Includes frogling village and small dungeon containing an alchemical distillery left over from ancient days. Also includes two frogling race-as-class options (warrior and shaman).

Ø  Hex 24.26 – The Temple of Bathrymrala. Marsh hex. Flooded temple complex to gods of Chaos. Includes several mini-dungeons filled with all manner of undead and blasphemous creatures as well as rules on incorporating summoning circles.

Ø  Hex 26.35 – The Camp of the Horsefolk. Plains. Camp of horsefolk outside a destroyed village. Features a number of barrows to explore, plus two race-as-class horsefolk options.

Ø  Hex 13.39 – the Domain of Deepwater. An entire cluster of hexes in a single book, contains the village of Deepwater and the six surrounding hexes, part of a nascent domain. 

Hex Cluster Map