Solo FRPThe hexcrawl is one of the oldest forms of open adventure in roleplaying, and a solo hexcrawl is that adventure played by one person: a map cut into hexes, most of it unknown, and a hero who sets out to learn what lies in each. There is no plot to follow, only a road, a horizon and whatever the dice put between them. This guide walks through a whole solo hex crawl, from the fog on the map to the fire at camp, with advice that works on paper and in an app alike.
What a solo hexcrawl is, and why it suits a single player
In a hex crawl the map is the adventure. Each hex is a stretch of country your hero crosses, and each crossing asks the same small questions: how long does it take, does anything happen, and what is here? The answers, rolled or decided, become the story.
That makes the hexcrawl a natural form for a solo RPG. A group has to agree on where to go; alone, you simply choose. The procedure supplies the surprises a Game Master would, so your own map can still surprise you, and a single day of travel fits a short evening.
How do you run a hexcrawl solo?
Published solo hexcrawl rules differ in their tables, but nearly all of them run the same loop. Here is the solo hexcrawl procedure, once for each hex you enter:
- Choose a direction and a destination, even a vague one.
- Pay the time the terrain costs, and move the clock.
- Check for an encounter, weighted by how dangerous the country is.
- Reveal the hex: its terrain, and whether it holds a site.
- Decide what your hero does, and ask the oracle what you cannot decide.
- Write down what changed: on the map, in a note, in the journal.
Then go again, and make camp when night falls or the hero is spent.
The map you have not seen yet: fog of war
If you can see the whole map, you are planning a route, not exploring. In a hexcrawl, fog of war keeps the unknown honest: the hexes your hero has never seen stay blank until they enter them or see them from nearby.
How does fog of war work in a solo game?
The trouble with solo play is that you are also the one who made the map. There are three ways around it:
- Generate as you go. Roll each hex’s terrain when your hero first sees it, favouring the terrain next door, so forests spread and hills run in ranges.
- Use a map someone else made, and keep it covered, revealing one hex at a time.
- Know the shape, not the contents. Sketch the lake, the range and the road, and leave what is in each hex to the dice.
However you do it, let your hero glimpse the hexes beside the one they stand in, as a traveller sees the next hill. Keep rumours as marks you do not trust yet: a rumour of barrow-lights to the north is a reason to walk north, not a fact.
In Solo FRP, the atlas is a hex map under fog of war. The fog lifts where you walk, and the rest of the vale stays dark until your hero goes to see it.
Moving hex by hex: terrain, distance and the hours it costs
How much ground does a hex represent?
Most hexcrawls use a 6-mile hex, and not by chance: on flat ground a standing person sees about three miles to the horizon, so from the middle of a 6-mile hex you can see to its edges. Smaller hexes suit a single valley explored closely; larger ones suit a kingdom crossed in weeks. Choose the size your journeys need, and keep it.
The sample adventure’s map, the Valdrath Vale, uses the classic hex: six miles across, about two hours to cross on open ground.
Can you hexcrawl with fifth-edition rules?
Yes, and the rules give you the numbers. Under SRD 5.2.1, a Normal travel pace covers 3 miles an hour and 24 miles a day: four 6-mile hexes of open ground. A Fast pace covers 30 miles a day but imposes Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception or Survival) and Dexterity (Stealth) checks; a Slow pace covers 18 and grants Advantage on Perception and Survival. Terrain caps the pace (mountains and swamps hold you to Slow, while a good road raises the limit one step), and a hero who travels more than eight hours in a day makes a Constitution saving throw at the end of each extra hour, DC 10 plus 1 for each hour past eight, or gains a level of Exhaustion.
For a 5e hexcrawl, count hours rather than days: a forest hex that costs three hours and a fen that costs four add up, and dusk finds you where you are, not where you hoped to be.
Solo FRP keeps that clock for you. Every hex you walk turns it, and the play screen shows the time of day and the weather.
Random encounters that change the journey
How often should random encounters happen?
A good baseline is one check per hex entered, or one per four-hour watch if your hexes are small: roll a d6, and an encounter comes on a 1. Raise the odds in dangerous country (a 1 or 2 in deep forest, 1 to 3 among the barrows) and at night; lower them on a patrolled road. If every check ends in a fight, the odds are too high or the table is too narrow.
What belongs on an encounter table
Random encounters in a solo RPG work better when they are not only monsters. Mix in signs (tracks, a cold fire, birds gone quiet), travellers (a patrol, someone fleeing, a rider with a furled banner), the land itself (a flood, a rockslide, a fog at noon) and lairs: the thing that left the tracks, at home.
Tie the entries to the region’s factions and threats, so each encounter tells you something about the world, and ask the oracle how it unfolds. A good encounter changes the journey: it costs time, closes a road, offers a lead or sends you somewhere you had not meant to go.
A worked example in the Valdrath Vale
The hex: hill country on the path north-east of the abbey, toward the barrows. Two more hours, and the light is going.
The encounter die: a 1. Wolf-sign on the hill path: fresh, and heading the same way you are.
You ask the oracle: Is the pack hunting me? You judge it unlikely. The answer: No, and… The tracks are long-strided and spaced wide. The wolves are running, and whatever they run from lies ahead.
You write: I mark the tracks on my map, leave the path for higher ground and make camp where I can watch the barrows.
On Solo FRP’s atlas the party travels hex by hex, and the road brings random encounters. When one finds you, the Loremaster takes up the scene: you say what your hero does, and it narrates what follows. For more on asking the dice good questions, see the oracle guide.
Sites, discoveries and the pull of the next hex
Not every hex should hold something; if every hex has a ruin, ruins mean nothing. Seed perhaps one hex in three or four with a site, and leave the rest to the road.
When a hex does hold a site, give it something to see, something to want and something that could go wrong. A mill with its wheel stopped. A witch’s cottage that is always exactly as far as you want to walk. A crypt door barred from the inside. Ask the oracle two or three questions to fill it in, then decide what your hero does there.
The pull of the next hex keeps a hexcrawl moving. Give your hero reasons to go further: a landmark seen from afar, a rumour, a quest’s next step, a deadline. End each day of travel with a question the next day could answer.
In Solo FRP, sites wait under the fog to be discovered, and when the party comes upon one, the Loremaster narrates what is there.
Making camp: rests, Hit Dice and the turning day
Camp is where the day turns, and in a solo game it is also a natural place to end a session. Under SRD 5.2.1:
- A Short Rest takes an hour, and the hero can spend Hit Point Dice to regain hit points.
- A Long Rest takes eight hours. The hero regains all lost hit points and all spent Hit Point Dice, and loses one level of Exhaustion.
- After a Long Rest, at least 16 hours must pass before another can begin, and a hero needs at least 1 hit point to rest at all.
On the road, a camp is a scene: pick the ground, set a watch, check once for a night encounter and note the weather. Spent Hit Point Dice are a clock of their own. When they run low, the wilderness is telling you to turn back.
In Solo FRP you can make camp for a long rest or take a short rest and spend Hit Dice, and each rest takes its hours on the clock.
Waypoints and your own notes on the map
A hexcrawl map is also your memory, so write on it: not a full account, but a line per hex that tells you, a month from now, what matters there.
- Wolf tracks, running east. Something in the barrows?
- Ford here; the bridge is out.
- Bandits watch this track. They let me pass, once.
Mark open questions as well as answers, because a question on the map is a reason to return. And mark where you are going: a waypoint keeps a long journey pointed while the encounters try to turn it.
Solo FRP lets you set a waypoint and write your own notes on the hexes, so the map becomes yours as much as the world’s, and a minimap on the play screen keeps your bearings while you play. For the people, debts and deadlines those notes point to, see the campaign journal guide.
Keeping the bookkeeping light
How do you keep a solo hexcrawl from becoming endless dice rolling?
Solo hexcrawls die of bookkeeping: a roll for terrain, for weather, for encounters and for getting lost, in every hex, until the story drowns. A few habits keep it alive:
- One roll per hex. Read one die for several things: an encounter on a 1, a turn in the weather on a 6.
- Roll only when it matters. A familiar road through safe country can be crossed in a sentence.
- Keep tables short. Six or eight entries for a region, tied to what lives there, beat a hundred generic ones.
- Ask the oracle, not a sub-table. One yes-or-no question is quicker, and it leans on what you already know.
Or hand the bookkeeping over. Solo FRP keeps the journey’s books for you: the fog, the trail, the hours, the encounters and the sites. What is left is the part that was always yours, choosing where to go and what to do when you get there, and a turn you did not mean can be taken back with undo.
If you have never played alone before, start with your first solo session; how Solo FRP works shows the atlas among the other tools at the table.