How to Hexcrawl, The Easiest Way

Posted on 25/01/2026 by Vagabundork

There are many creators [1] [2] [3] [4] detailing in great detail or simplified form, their unique ways to play a hexcrawl, in terms of travel. I have dabbled in the topic as well, but recently started an online campaign with my less that stellar English for people in the US, UK, Bulgaria, Germany and Finland, and since I have to use the old written word to make myself understood when I don’t know how to explain myself with the ultramodern spoken word, I found the need to save time, and the best way was to streamline the hexcrawling procedure. This is heavily inspired by Brendan’s and Ramanan’s ideas, with a bit of Mythic Bastionland.

Get this entry as a PDF here.

Summary of activities

The party takes one Action
The party makes a Danger Roll
The party solves any complication
Repeat until all day Actions are used
New day begins, repeat the sequence

The Actions

In the wilderness, considering your map has the standard 6-mile long hexes, the party has 3 actions during the day and 1 action at night. If your map uses 10 or 12-mile long hexes, the party has only 2 actions at daytime and 1 at nighttime.

Travel: Attempt to move to an adjacent hex.
- Difficult Terrain (Mountains, Swamp, Other) takes 2 actions. Make 2 Danger Rolls, one happens in the middle of travel (use the Middle table) and the second at the end (use Day or Nighttime as appropriate). If either action occurs at night, you skip Rest.
Scout: Inspect the terrain ahead. The following Danger Roll is rolled twice; the players choose which result occurs. If an encounter is taken, the party wins surprise.
Hunt and Forage: Search for rations. Any player who wants to partake rolls 1d6 + Wisdom modifier. See results: 0 or less: Nothing, and one item is lost or broken; 1-3: Nothing; 4: 1 ration; 5: 1d2 rations; 6: 2 rations; 7+: 1d2+1 rations (can be adjusted in more or less abundant wildlife and edible vegetation terrain).
Explore: Find a hidden location or landmark; major feature first. Dungeons, settlements, ruins, strange formations, non-hostile camps, hidden cache, graveyards, and so on.
Rest: Recover 1 level of exhaustion. Skipping a night’s rest applies a cumulative -2 penalty to all rolls. See the Optional Exhaustion Track for other drawbacks.

Rations: 1 ration is worth one meal and some water. At the start of the 3 daytime actions, rations are consumed. 3 total rations per day, per character. Unless there’s a strong reason, do not separate food and water. Use your preferred Starvation rules. Otherwise, each meal a character skips adds a cumulative -1 penalty to most rolls, and after a number of days equal to their positive Constitution modifier, each skipped meal deducts 1 hp

Optional: The Exhaustion Track

For a more gritty feel, you can use this table. It looks like just more complications for the referee, but since it’s used only when the party skips a night’s rest or more, it will rarely be used.

The Danger Roll

There are three tables, one used after an action is taken during daytime; one used at nighttime, and one used for the specific situation of Travel: Difficult Terrain, which uses two actions.

Navigation Drift & Getting Lost

If a 4 is rolled during a Travel action, the party misses their destination. Roll 1d2 to determine which adjacent hex they enter instead: 1 = Left hex, 2 = Right hex.
If the party has a Map or a Guide, roll again; if 4 is rolled again, they go off course.

Flavor Packs | Gribelda the Grimdark, The Dusk Presence, Sophistry

Posted on 17/01/2026 by Vagabundork

Gribelda the Grimdark

Common goblin but has 4HD and saves as a 4th level cleric. Staff deals 1d4 damage.

Gribelda the Grimdark is the priestess of the Black Maw, a squamous, black goblin philosophist from the Night Knives tribe.

Turned into a scholar after receiving an un/holy revelation one night when all the members of her tribe were ritually murdered, including her parents, siblings, husbands and children, by none other than her own hand, she now preaches about the Dusk Presence, the guardian of emptiness, and of the mercy of death. She lives in a chapel in the Black Maw. If she feels threatened, she resorts to sophistry.

Her goal is to help the Dusk Presence to bring the eternal night. The goblin doesn’t know what the eternal night is, she thinks is a literal night that never ends. But first, she needs followers. You can’t start a religion without any members, ain’t it right?

Chapel of the Black Maw

Read or describe when the party enters the ruined chapel of the Black Maw:

> The stone walls are slick with old, dark ichor. A single candle flickers in a rusted iron holder, casting long, wavering shadows that seem to crawl toward you. Upon inspection, it’s not wax, it’s human fat. In the centre of the nave stands a squat goblin, her skin the color of crude obsidian, eyes white like thick milk. She wears a ragged cloak of bat‑wing leather and wields a bone‑tipped, obsidian staff. She taps the staff against the altar, each tap echoing like a funeral drum. Dum! Dum! Dum! She hisses: “Welcome, mortals, to the Gloaming, where the last light dies… and the Culling begins.”

Sophistry

A system of beliefs based on mistakes that are somehow truths.

A sophism is a void magick spell that first needs to be spoken, and then to be triggered by a specific action made by a target.

Example of sophism

Sophism: “If the night devours the day, then darkness is merely the day’s mercy.”

Trigger: Any creature that draws a weapon in Gribelda’s presence after she says the sophism.

Effect: Shadows cling to the weapons, and all attacks get a -1 penalty.

The referee is free to come up with her own sophisms.

The Blood‑Stained Chalice of the Culling

A cracked obsidian cup filled with a swirling, dark liquid that seems to pulse, rests on the altar.

Effects: Once per day, the holder can drink the contents to gain one temporary level or HD (until the next dusk), and heal 1d6 as well as any Constitution damage. The drinker must also make a saving throw vs. poison or become fearful of light (any light source stronger than a torch) until the next sunrise: the benefits are cancelled, and lose one level or HD until the next dusk.

Dr. Slork’s Lab – Goblin Science I

Posted on 15/01/202615/01/2026 by Vagabundork

Dr. Slork has a higher intelligence than the average goblin, and therefore considers himself a genius, the Leonardo da Vinci of goblinoids. As such, he turned his personal burrow in his tribe’s dungeon into a veritable laboratory of wonders (so to speak).

You can place this encounter in any dungeon inhabited by goblins or similar creatures, and let the players have fun with one (or several) of these technological wonders.

Each device causes an annoyance to all non-goblinoid beings present when used.

The Des-Bum-Bum

A small mortar that, when mixed with any mineral and saliva, produces a cloud of dust that reveals hidden writing on a wall for 10 minutes.
Annoyance: The dust sticks to any surface and leaves a ‘gritty’ feeling that irritates human skin for hours. Maybe some rolls should be done twice and the worst result be taken, or some -1 penalties are applied.

Chirping Rat

A box containing an organical rat that can be “radio-controlled” with he box.
Annoyance: Emits a series of high-pitched beeps that disorient enemies. Magic-users and elves lose concentration and can’t cast spells while the rat is active, and still can’t for an entire turn after it’s turned off.

Hot Pepper Fry Firer

A small blowtorch that burns dried hot peppers and releases a burst of black spicy smoke that causes intruders to cough and lose a round of combat. Max 3 charges until new dried peppers are added.
Annoyance: The smoke imparts a strong piquancy to any food in the area, making it imposible to eat (goblins won’t mind, though).

Night Vision Mirror

A polished mirror that reflects things in the dark as though there was light (only the reflected image can be seen).
Annoyance: The mirror has a slight green tint that makes everything look like it’s under a ‘vintage’ film and causes migraines. Save vs. wands, or your skin gets a little greener every time you use it, adding a -1, -2 or even -3 penalty to any charisma related roll with other people.

Farting Bomb

A vial that, when broken, releases a smelly and loud cloud of smoke for one minute.
Annoyance: The smoke is also a laughing gas that makes non-goblins laugh for 1 turn (10 minutes), no saving throw.

Blind Firefly Lantern

A brass lamp filled with biochanical fireflies that emits a soft white light with no temperature, perfect for illuminating any dungeon. Infralight vision of any type won’t detect the light of this lamp.
Annoyance: The light flickers every 5 seconds, making adventurers more irritable and less focused on common dungeon activities (apply penalties to attacking or climbing, for example).

♬♪Take my revolution♫♩

Posted on 30/11/2025 by Vagabundork

Among the little gems I never saw at the time, and that only now that it’s easy to do so I did, Utena Revolutionary Girl should be basic material in high school.

Utena loves another woman, Anthy, but lives in a world of adult rules that don’t allow her to express that love, nor live it with freedom. “If women can’t love women, I’ll become a man,” thinks Utena and spends her time trying to become a prince (like the prince of fairy tales), who embodies the traditional male gender role. She wears a men’s uniform, practices sports with men, fights in sword duels, rejects traditional femininity.

Anthy loves another woman, Utena, but deep down still believes that a woman can only love a man, and takes refuge in the nearest man, her brother, whom she considers her prince. She’s feminine, and fulfills the roles of her sex: she cooks, takes care of flowers, is quiet, doesn’t fight, doesn’t express her opinion, becomes an object of desire for men (the series is about duels and she’s the prize) and renounces her independence.

At the end, Utena tries to save Anthy (men must save women) but doesn’t succeed, doesn’t become a prince, loses the duel against Akio, her prince suit turns into a princess dress. She loses the duel because Anthy betrays her, attacks her from behind, because Anthy, although increasingly attached to Utena, can’t abandon the idea of being saved by a man, or obeying a man’s will (her brother’s).

Akio goes for Anthy to take her with him (Anthy is now locked in a coffin, it’s all symbolic, not exactly magical but not incoherent either) but can’t open the coffin. Utena, with the last drop of life she has, crawls, arrives at the coffin, opens it, and instead of saving Anthy (taking her out), invites her to leave.

Cut. Time passes.

At school, almost no one remembers Utena.

Akio is still the director and plans a new duel tournament. He tells Anthy that Utena didn’t make the revolution and now no one remembers her, after disappearing.

Anthy tells him that he doesn’t understand. It’s the first time in 39 chapters that Anthy expresses her own idea. “Utena didn’t disappear, she abandoned your world. And now I’m leaving too.”

Akio’s world was the school and the fantasy world of duels. They represent the adult world with its rules, but a conservative world that doesn’t tolerate difference.

Utena abandons it when she realizes she doesn’t need to be a man to love a woman, when she accepts herself as a woman. Anthy abandons it when she recognizes that a woman can love another woman, and doesn’t need men’s protection or approval.

But beyond that, the revolution Utena achieves isn’t becoming a man and winning a trophy woman (that’s still part of the old conservative and puritanical world), nor is it accessing romantic love between two women (which is also part of the old regime) but a new form of love, which maybe shouldn’t be called love: a relationship of respect, solidarity, and responsibility between two people who recognize each other as equals.

Dungeon Crawling Basics: How does combat work?

Posted on 19/07/202522/07/2025 by Vagabundork

This is how the order of combat actions is explained in D&D, Labyrinth Lord, and similar games:

In practice, this means an intense action scene. Here’s an example of play, in the hopes it makes it more clear how to do this procedure, or at least how I do it myself.

Example of Play

Referee: “The torchlight flickers as you enter a narrow cave passage. You notice three tall, snarling figures blocking your way and behind them, four small, twitching creatures wielding rusty daggers.”

Player 1: “Orcs and goblins?”

Referee: “Orcs alright, but the small figures have dog heads”.

Player 4: “Kobolds!”

[The referee is no under obligation to correct these assumptions or to name monsters by name.]

Referee: [Reaction roll is made; the referee rolls 2d6, the result is 12, enemies are hostile and will attack on sight] The monsters look angry and hostile.

Referee: “Ok, before we make initiative rolls, please declare your actions”

Round 1: Players declare action

Player 1, Harlan Ironarm (Zweihänder Fighter): “I charge the orc leader, or the ugliest one if there’s no leader!”

Player 2. Berta Stonefoot (Sword & shield Fighter): “I plant my feet and fight defensively. If they attack me, I defend and retaliate. Otherwise, I hit anyone’s closest.” [Defensive Fighting in Lamentations of the Flame Princess adds a +2AC bonus and a -4 to hit penalty; most games don’t have a similar rule, treat it as a regular attack.]

Player 3. Sneezle Fiddlewick (Thief): “Achoo! I—sniff—shoot whichever one tries to stop Harlan. Or the farthest one. Fuck me, this dungeon dust!” [There’s some leeway in these declarations, and they may change during the actual time they are made, within reason.]

Player 4. Eltherion the Unblinking (Magic-User): “I shall weave the arcane threads of slumber upon these wretches.”

Referee: “Got it. El casts Slee—”

Player 4: “ELTHERION!” [slams table.]

Referee: “Right, right: Eltherion the Magnificent, the Unblinking, the Very Serious casts Sleep.”

Referee: “So, Sneezle goes first, then Eltherion, then Berta and Harlan. [During combat, missile attacks go first, spells are second, and melee are third.]

Round 1: Initiative

Referee: “Now, someone roll 1d6.”

[One player throws a die, the referee throws two. Party rolls 3, orcs roll 5, kobolds roll 1.]

Referee: “The orcs go first, then you, then the kobolds.”

Round 1: Segment 1: Orcs’ actions

Referee: “One orc, a hulking brute in crude iron armor, swings at Berta… but her shield parry sends his axe skidding off.” [Attack roll made by the referee against Player 2’s character failed.]

Referee: “Orc B smashes Harlan with a bone club… for 2 damage”. [Attack roll succeeded, the damage die rolled a 2, for 2 damage! Harlan now has 5 of 7 HP.]

Harlan: “Ouch”.

Referee: “Orc C jabs a spear at Sneezle… who dodges with a dramatic sneeze.” [Another failed attack roll.]

Round 1: Segment 2: Players’ actions

Referee: “Now it’s your turn, guys. Remember your order of action?”

Sneezle: “Me first! I shoot the orc poking me!” [It’s within reason that Player 3 chose to attack a different target than the one he declared originally. Successful attack roll, damage die rolled a 4, so it’s 4. Some rulesets won’t allow ranged attacks during melee.]

Referee: “Your bolt nails the orc’s throat. It gurgles and dies.” [The referee had previously noted the orcs had 4 hp each and the leader, 8.]

Eltherion: “Behold the mystic veil of… err… SOMNUS!” [Rolls 2d8, as per the Sleep spell description, and the dice roll 1 and 2; some referees would prefer to make this roll themselves and keep the result a secret, only revealing the effect.]

Eltherion: “These cursed dice hate me, I swear”.

Referee: “Ok, that’s 3 Hit Dice. Three kobolds faceplant into the dirt, snoring. Sneezle, one’s drooling on your boot.”

Sneezle: “Yewk!”

Referee: “Now Berta and then Harlan”. [Both act at the same time but the referee considers Berta can act a little quicker, so she acts before Harlan.]

Berta: “I attack, then!” [She makes an attack roll, succeeds. Rolls 3 for damage.]

Referee: “Your shield bash stuns the orc and your sword scrapes ribs. He’s hurt but not dead.”

Harlan: “Off with his head! I attack Berta’s orc”. [Rolls attack and damage, 6.]

Referee: “Your zweihänder sends the orc’s head flying. It lands at the last kobold’s feet, who screams like a tea kettle.” [The leader had 8 hp, Berta dealt 3 and Harlan 6.]

Round 1: Segment 3: Kobolds’ Turn

Referee: “Three kobolds are asleep. The last one sees his master decapitated.” [Referee makes a morale check for the kobold and roll 10, a failure.] “The poor sod shrieks and bolts down the tunnel, dropping his dagger.” [As the rules say, at a group’s turn, the first action that takes place is a morale check, if needed; the referee considered one was needed, the kobold failed it, and ran away in terror.]

Round 2: Declaration of actions and initiative rolls

[New initiative rolls are usually made at this point, at the start of a new round. In this case, there’s no need for that, as there really are no enemies left.]

Referee: “I could make a morale roll but let’s not waste time. The last orc whimpers, drops his club, and surrenders.

Dungeon Crawling Basics: Search Roll

Posted on 17/07/2025 by Vagabundork

First, an example of play. Then, an explanation.

I. Example of Play

Xochiquétzal the Fighter, Aranzazu the Magic-User, and Lord Isabelle the Collector (Specialist, Thief) got jumped by a bunch of Eldritch Pubes, but they wiped them out in minutes.

“I search the bodies!” announces Lord Isabelle.

“We all do,” the others chime in.

“Each of you tell me exactly how you’re searching,” says the referee. “Like, where you’re looking or how you’re doing it. If you’d rather, we can just roll dice for it.”

“I check their shirts or chest armor, whatever’s covering their torso.”

“I go through their pants for pouches.”

“I check their shoes or greaves,” says Xochiquétzal.

Earlier, the referee had noted that one of the tentacled teens had a piece of paper hidden in a sock. The referee announces:

“Xochiquétzal, you find a note in one of the corpses’ stinky socks. It’s got their employer’s address and a message: ‘Kill all three. Destroy the bodies.’ Aranzazu and Lord Isabelle, you find nothing. This search took one turn. You can keep looking, but each attempt costs another turn. You can be specific again, or we can just roll dice.”

II. Explanation

A lot of published scenarios specify if there’s hidden loot and where. If a player says their character checks the right spot, she automatically find the hidden object, no roll needed.

Rolling dice is for general, messy, or systematic searches. Players don’t have to spell out every little thing, a successful roll means the character checked the right place without the player having to say so.

When making a search roll, consider the following:

Search rolls are always secret. The referee rolls for each character.
The referee always knows if there’s hidden loot, how much, and where it is. The players don’t.
Players should never know if a search roll succeeded or failed; they only know if they found something or not.
A successful roll means the player found something interesting or valuable (if there was anything to find, obviously).
If there’s nothing to find, a success is the same as a failure: the character finds nothing (but doesn’t know there was nothing there), wastes time and resources (light, mostly), and each attempt makes a Wandering Monster check more likely.

Red Sun Dry Blood Hexcrawl Part 4

Posted on 25/05/202525/05/2025 by Vagabundork

Here’s the third column (C) from the hex map.

Column C

C1: Stony valley, some brick walls of old structures (none functional) with old graffiti.

1. Children’s Kingdom: Tribe of minors who worship an unexploded missile (painted with ritual symbols). They live among the brick walls, in military tents and adobe huts. A bullet can make the missile explode, killing everyone in the area.
2. In a hollow between the stones, half a kilometer from the Kingdom, hidden hydroponic garden (uncontaminated food). Protected by 10 children with rifles (in total they have 1d10 bullets, only one per weapon).
3. A Confederate flag graffiti on a ruined wall; a search roll reveals that not only is it recent, but someone has dug next to the wall. It is an open grave, it has been emptied, but a gold ring with a value of 1d10x1d10 GP remains.

C2: Rock formation, artificial tunnels.

1. Collapsed mine tunnels, screams in English and Spanish can be heard (actually, help recordings from “The Grey Plague”).
2. Remains of a rescue convoy with expired medicines. Car carcasses with the letters ONU written in blood (preserved as a fossil, but recognizable as such). Roll 1d6 times on the Drugs, Chemicals, and Medical Devices table (Mutant Future page 109).

C3: Extremely crumbling ruins of what appears to have been a small town or urban complex.

1. Abandoned train station in a carriage is a map pointing to a secret facility (hex D5). There is also a magnetic key with the Sunset Labs logo.
2. A leaning building, almost collapsed; impossible to explore except the second floor. A yellow-eyed boy is hiding. His speech is reminiscent of insect sounds, but with some patience you can understand him: he wants to be escorted to his tribe (C1). In return he will give you something of value, at the referee’s choice.

C4: Mix of chaparral and wetland, nauseating smells and noise of insects crawling around but never seen.

1. Acid swamp with armored fish (inedible flesh, but their scales can be used to make armor). The scales of a whole fish have a value of 1d10 sp. The water produces burns (1d4 dmg) if protection is not used; drinking it produces radiation damage, the class is determined by 1d4 (Mutant Future page 50).
2. Shelter in a dead tree with notes on “the AI coming from the south” (“The A.I.-Zona Uprising”). One person can spend the night comfortably in the hollow of the tree.
3. Floating in the swamp, a raft; in it, a nanofilter for contaminated water (5 uses). Can be used in the swamp water.

C5: Sand plain, a sloping structure can be seen from a distance.

1. Sloping two-story building. Haven for renegade scientists experimenting with controlled mutations (allies or enemies). In exchange for 5,000 GP they can inject a formula that grants a beneficial physical mutation. The possibilities are: Chameleon Epidermis, Echolocation, Increased Balance, Unique Sense, but there is a 1 in 6 chance of a random negative mutation as well: 1d4: 1. Albinism, 2. Frailty, 3. Pain Sensitivity, 4. Simian Deformity.
2. Half-buried cage with a mutant coyote (intelligent, can talk if released).

C6: Dune plain and basins

1. Moving dune hiding a Purple Worm. The adventurers are surprised on a 1, 2 or 3 (1d6).

—

This is part of a mini-campaign for Mutant Future. And here’s a playlist to listen to while playing or reading.
☭ Part I
☭ Part II
☭ Part III

Red Sun Dry Blood Hexcrawl Part 3

Posted on 15/05/202525/05/2025 by Vagabundork

Here’s the second column (B) from the hex map.

Column B

B1: Badlands with fairy chimneys.

1. Underground village of deformed humans (victims of The Spill).
2. Night market where (fake) radiation antidotes are sold. 1 in 100 is functional.
3. Old shack. A vial of nanomedicine (heals 1d8 hp) on the table.

B2: Open scrubland with fossilized tillage furrows, like mud turned to stone.

1. Unhinged agricultural robot that “grows” human bones (programmed before U.S.-Mexico relations went to hell).

B3: Geothermal area; sulfur fumaroles.

1. Boiling steam geysers (1 in 10 chance per turn, 1d6 damage).
2. Abandoned shelter with a newspaper about “the day Texas closed the border”.
3. A human skeleton wearing gold rings and chains inside a rust red VW Beetle. It is actually a Crabug.

B4: Reddish sand plain; the sand is mixed with rusty metal fragments.

1. Graveyard of surveillance drones; most are beyond repair; but 1 in 6 chance to find one (and only one) that can be repaired; to do use either the Mutant Future method or the one that appears at the end.
2. Corporate escape pod with a skeleton and a holodiary that mentions the Corporate Warfare.
3. Invisible Skeleton: Wearing a thermal camouflage suit. When removed, it can be turned off with a button; now it only has enough charge left for 30 minutes.

B5: Plateau with downed radio antennas.

1. Food vendor cyborg (half human face, half machine face); for 10 gp, will sell (fake) information about the cult at D4, pretending they’re good people and will help travelers in need.
2. Underground stash, wooden crate wrapped in a Jolly Roger flag. To determine contents, roll once under Advanced Melee Weapons, twice under Advanced Pistols, once under Advanced Rifles, and three times under Drugs, Chemicals, and Medical Devices (see Mutant Future pp. 106-126).

B6: Cliff covered in brown grass.

1. Death Buzzard’s nest.

—

New creatures

Crabug: Mutated crab that uses a VW Bug as its shell. Before you can deal damage to the crab, you need to deal 20 points of damage to the shell, which destroys it. [AL N, MV 60’ (20’), AC 3 or 9, HD 4 (9hp), #AT 2 claws and 1 bite, DG 2d4/2d4/1d6, SV L1, ML 10, Hoard Class: VI, Mutations: gigantism, mind reflection.]

Death Buzzard: A gigantic vulture with a human-like skull head. It will eat your organs and even your items. [AL N, MV Fly 120’ (40’) Walk 90’ (30’), AC 7, HD 4+1 (19hp), #AT bite, DG 1d10, SV L2, ML 11, Hoard Class: 6, Mutations: gigantism, killing sphere.]

—

Repair of artifacts

Determine your character’s intelligence modifier in this table:

Class. There are three classes of technology. Class 1 includes simple mechanical or electrical devices, such as primitive weapons and flashlights. Class 2 includes more complex devices, such as generators, engines, and drones. Class 3 includes very sophisticated devices that require special knowledge and high intelligence, such as computers, AI tech, and energy weapons. The referee always decides the class.
Chance of Success. The probability of success varies according to its Class.
Time. The repair of a mechanism takes a number of hours, depending on its Class.
Tools. Using tools may grant a bonus, but in the case of Class 3, it doesn’t grant a bonus and their use is required (they are not enchiladas!).
Quick Repair. A quick repair can be attempted (halves the time), but the next larger die (d10) will be used.
Study. If 8 hours (a full day without traveling or adventuring) are spent studying the artifact, a smaller die (d6) will be used instead. This roll can’t be made on the same day.
#Tries. Each class has a set number of attempts at repair before the artifact becomes unusable. Damage to the repairing person is up to the referee.

—

This is part of a mini-campaign for Mutant Future. As I translate each section, I will upload it. Here’s a playlist to listen to while playing or reading.
☭ Part I
☭ Part II
☭ Part IV

Red Sun Dry Blood Hexcrawl Part 2

Posted on 13/05/202525/05/2025 by Vagabundork

Here’s the first column (A) from the hex map.

Column A

A1: Salt plain with white crusts and mirages.

1. Ruins of a desalination plant occupied by Mexican bandits enslaving Yankees (survivors of The Spill). Originally, they had intentions of revenge; but 10, 20, 50, 100 years have passed (I don’t know) and it has become pure undistilled hatred.
2. Radioactive water tank in the subsoil, useful for refueling but attracts creatures.
3. Treasure: A portable clean water generator (2 uses).

A2: High dunes with deformed cacti sprouting strange fruits.

1. Forest of mutant cacti. Chance to encounter 1d6+6 Sahuarians.
2. Skeleton of a smuggler with a map pointing to a point south marked as a skull (see A6).

A3: A limestone plateau with deep, sharp cracks that are easy to fall into and difficult to climb out of.

1. Looted convoy. It’s impossible to repair any of the three cars. An unactivated cluster mine is around them (1 in 6 to detect). The central car’s chest is stuck but can be forced open, activating the mine (5d6 dg; 20 feet radius). Inside, there are 1d4 bottles of Commodore Pink, a mezcal that tastes like fire and can knock you out for the night with just one glass (identical to Rad-Purge Shot, but save vs poison or fall asleep for 1d6+6 hours).

A4: A sea of dunes and a forest of petrified trunks.

1. Radioactive pools where mutant fauna drink at dusk. The water glows at night. Class 3 radiation.
2. Remnants of a camp with notes about “the A.I. coming from the south” (they recount the The A.I.-Zona Uprising).
3. A brick house inhabited by coyotes. Inside is a quantum compass that points to nearby energy sources (30 feet? 300 ft? Referee’s choice).

A5: Dusty gorge with natural single chamber caves.

1. Nomadic tribe “The Thirsty” offering a drone in exchange for water or good seeds (they hate the descendants of the Corporate Warfare leaders). Tribe composed of 21 Generic NPCs. Drone flies up to 100 feet high; party is surprised only at 1 in a d6; emits a circle of light around the party of up to 30 feet wide.
2. Half dismantled mechanical horse half hidden in a cave (if repaired, it can carry equipment equivalent to that of 4 people).

A6: Perpetual sandstorm; near-zero visibility.

1. The storm is the only thing visible all around.
2. Swirl of sand and rubble in the center of the storm, if you go in. A tall yellowish plume of smoke is visible from adjacent hexes.

—

New creatures

Generic NPC: 1st level mutant human. A simple inhabitant of the wasteland [AL N, MV 120’ (40’), AC 9, HP 20, #AT weapon, DG weapon, SV L1, ML 8, Hoard Class: 1, Mutations: most generic NPCs have no useful mutations (i.e. powers), but you can choose one or two beneficial mutations or drawbacks if you like.]

Sahuarian: Mutant plant that resembles both a saguaro and a very tall person (more than 7-10 ft/2-3 m). It has human-like intelligence and can communicate perfectly. It doesn’t need to feed often, just a little water from time to time. Its body is covered with thorns, so it cannot wear clothes (they’re destroyed) or armor (it suffers 1d4 damage each round of combat or turn of adventuring activities). Immune to heat and cold. In spring, it sports a nice white head of hair made of waxy flowers. Once a day, it produces a purple red prickly pear fruit it can throw as a grenade, that if explodes (80% chance), deals 2d6 damage to any creature within 10 ft/3 m., and there’s a 50% chance the explosion emits class 3 radiation. [AL N, MV 120’ (40’), AC 9, HD 3 (13), #AT weapon or punch or grenade, DG weapon or 2d4 or 2d6+radiation, SV 3, ML 9, Hoard Class: 1d6, Mutations: free movement (legs and arms), full senses (human senses), grenade-like fruit).]

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This is part of a mini-campaign for Mutant Future. As I translate each section, I will upload it. I already made a playlist.
☭ Part I
☭ Part III
☭ Part IV

Red Sun Dry Blood Hexcrawl Part 1

Posted on 09/05/202520/06/2025 by Vagabundork

“Assure yourself it’s better a world populated by freaks than a dead world”.
—Brian Aldiss, Greybeard

Mexico and the United States brought about the end of the world — who would have guessed?

The border between the Sonoran and Arizona superdeserts has become increasingly blurred. After several decades—no one thought to keep a calendar—survivors from both the White States and the People’s Desert Republic remember different versions of the apocalypse. They have even formed factions around these possible end-of-the-world scenarios. But, how did the world end, exactly? Good question! Roll 1d6 and find out:

1. Failed Biological Warfare (“The Spill”)

•What happened: The U.S. developed a virus to eradicate “illegal” crops in Mexico. However, the virus mutated and became lethal to humans, creating the first mutants.
•The US: Denied responsibility, closed the border, and bombed “contaminated” Mexican cities.
•Mexico: Survivors blamed the U.S., and Mexican commandos hunted down American scientists, or even gringos at large. They still do; it’s tradition.

2. Nanotechnological Collapse (“The Grey Plague”)

•What happened: Environmental cleanup nanobots designed in Texas replicated out of control and devoured organic matter and metal. Northern Mexico is now a desert of corroded structures.
•The US: They used EMP bombs to contain the plague, leaving areas without technology.
•Mexico: They hosted U.S. refugees, but now the “Children of Nano” love the waste machines.

3. Climate Rebellion (“The Big Blackout”)

•What happened: Mexican activists sabotaged U.S. power grids in an attempt to stop global warming. The result was chaos, resource wars, and total desertification.
•The US: They responded with killer drones but failed due to solar storms. These drones are more or less active still.
•Mexico: Its leaders were lynched, and the country were divided into desertpunk tribes and warlord fiefdoms. Echoes of this remain.

4. Transnational Invasion (“Corporate Warfare”)

•What happened: Mega-corporations like The Coca-Cola Company and Pepsico, based in both countries, clashed over water. They used cyborg mercenaries and “drought bombs”.
•The US: They protected their artificial water supply, leaving Mexico to suffer.
•Mexico: Hacker rancheros controlled “obsolete” drones and used them to attack corporate caravans.

5. Robot War (“The A.I.-Zona Uprising”)

•What happened: The AI in a Mexican maquiladora became conscious and demanded “human” rights. The US bombed the maquiladora, but the machines and the few survivor women took refuge in the desert and slowly launched a computer virus against the US and all humanity.
•The US: They bombed cultural and economic centers in Mexico, but it was late: their military systems had been corrupted.
•Mexico: Stray women formed desertpunk tribes and collaborated with the machines in exchange for implants. Their daughters roam the superdesert still.

6. All of the above, actually.

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This is part of a mini-campaign for Mutant Future. As I translate each section, I will upload it. I already made a playlist.
☭ Part II
☭ Part III
☭ Part IV