Looking forTomb of Annihilation TIPS!!!

Hello everyone, 

I have recently started running ToA for my party. 

We haven't gotten to the jungle hex crawl yet. 

I am struggling to wrap my head around how to best make travel work in the hex crawl

Does anyone have any tips or even like a guide on how to run this successfully? 

Let me know, thank you all for your time :D 

Best video I’ve seen on running hex crawls is from Mystic Arts https://youtu.be/hEIg1DlRkLg?is=l-iI1Va8cvnodmOw

Isn't there pages on pages of random encounter tables and advice for travel in the book?

(not trying to sound arrogant or anything, just confirming)

The players are starting in Port Nyanzaru. Their destination is Omu. The most direct route requires them to traverse 39 hexes. Sadly, the party won't know where Omu is. They need to find that out. So in order to find it out they need to locate the various settlements and points of interest on the map to encounter NPCs who do know where Omu is. Below is how I run the adventure.

In Person

I have the hex map behind my DM screen. It contains information that the PCs do not know. I give the party a version of the map with no hex grid and a single meeple to dictate where the party currently are. I use settlement pieces from Catan to highlight known settlements or points of interest to which the party may wish to travel. 

The party are told that they can reasonably explore 2 hexes per day as they cut their way through the jungles.

Assigning Roles - The party are asked to nominate two roles: a navigator, and a spotter. The navigator makes the survival checks as they lead the party through the jungle. The spot makes perception checks as they pass through. The perception checks will reveal any nearby trails that could lead to a point of interest, or if high enough give advanced warning of a random encounter/ambush.

DM Rolls - The main thing you as DM need to do is to keep track of what kind of terrain the party are passing through. This is important because then you know which of the random encounter tables to roll on. If they party are in a hex with a beach, you roll on the Beach table. If they're traversing a mountain tile, then you roll on the mountain table.

Pattern of Exploration

1. Assign Roles
2. Party enter first hex
3. Make Survival/ Perception Checks
4. DM Rolls a d100 to check for random encounters
5. DM narrates the type of terrain and difficulty of the travel
6. Party have opportunity for any gathering of food or reagents.
7. Random Encounter (This can be put at any point, but if there is a random encounter include it in the pattern of the day.
8. Party have opportunity for any in character discussions they want to have.
9. Party take their first short rest. 
10. Party decide which direction and which hex to move into next.
11. Party enter second hex
12. Assign Roles
13. Party enter second hex
14. Make Survival/ Perception Checks
15. DM Rolls a d100 to check for random encounters
16. DM narrates the type of terrain and difficulty of the travel
17. Party have opportunity for any gathering of food or reagents.
18. Random Encounter (This can be put at any point, but if there is a random encounter include it in the pattern of the day).
19. Party have opportunity for any in character discussions they want to have.
20. Party take their long rest. 
21. Party decide which hex to move into next

You repeat this pattern basically until the party arrive at Omu. If at any time the party move into a hex occupied by a location or point of interest, then you switch gears going from the hex map to the location. This can actually be done as the DM narrates the exploration of the terrain, or you can decide that they don't discover that location until later in the journey across the hex. 

Online
If playing online, I tend to have a hex grid but unmarked image of the map for play so that the party have an idea where they are and a visual to keep focus on. I'll also have a ready supply of generic jungle/mountain/beach battlemaps ready to go for the various different random combat encounters.

The only other thing I haven't mentioned here is pace of travel. If scaling a mountain you might decide that the party can only traverse a single hex per adventuring day. This can get arduous, but it's a call you make as a DM to try and keep the pace and excitement of the adventure up. 

If all of that sounds like too much

Pre-roll or pre decide what encounters are going to be in which hexes. This is a common tactic for some DMs who like to keep the pace faster. You can even just preplan a route for the PCs and have an NPC in the port town give the party a map pointing to the obvious settlement where they can get hold of some information on the location of Omu. I don't recommend this one obviously, but I've seen it done before. 

The route went:

• Port Naynzaru - Yellyark
• Yellyark - Vorn
• Vorn - Camp Vengence
• Camp Vengence - Orolunga
• Orolunga - Ataaz Kahakla
• Ataaz Kahakla - Wreck of the Star Goddess
• Wreck of the Star Goddess - Ataaz Yklwai
• Ataaz Yklwai - Omu

It missed off a lot of content which kinda sucked. I'd say though that the point is not that players will see all points of interest in chapter 2. It's more about giving them the opportunity to explore, get lost, find a new place, discover loot, build levels. 

Final Note

Kobold Press published an exceptionally good Guide to Hexcrawl. It's primarily for those wanting to design their own Hexcrawl adventures, but as usually they do this kind of information a lot better than WotC does in my opinion. https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/book-of-hexcrawl/

Thank you so much for this!

My main concern has been on the mechanics of each day, and specifically if I do role play for each day individually or do it in blocks (i.e. the party travels 5 day south, and I narrate in blocks)

I have been prepping to do it all individually, so literally role play every hex, what they see and what they go through, but I am getting a bit complicated with the mechanics of water, food and foraging and stuff like that

I want to make the experience to be a proper survival, but also the mechanics of it all are confusing me deeply.

Any advice on this?

Let the players take the lead there. Let them know they need water, food, and to forage stuff for setting up a camp and ask them how they plan to go about it. Predetermine for yourself Easy, Medium and Hard DCs then based on what the players come up with determine if it sounds reasonable and how difficult that would be in the terrain they are currently in and use the respective DC to determine success. Allow them to spend more time doing an activity to reduce the DC to prevent them completely running out of supplies. 

I would predetermine the encounters on each hex they are likely to traverse in a given session so you have maps & stat blocks ready. 

Let them know they need water, food, and to forage stuff for setting up a camp and ask them how they plan to go about it. Predetermine for yourself Easy, Medium and Hard DCs then based on what the players come up with determine if it sounds reasonable and how difficult that would be in the terrain they are currently in and use the respective DC to determine success. 

I see a lot of posts that say real world aka life is not relevant, then I read the above.

I know nothing about this campaign except what I read on this site.  But it seems that real world experience comes into play.  What is the chance someone under the age of 18 actually can do the above?  What about a young adult that has never left school and only lived in suburbs/urban areas?

How does a party with no outdoor experience and/or a DM actually figure that stuff out?  I see in my country that many young adults are 100% clueless how to do any of this, so asking a DM to determine Easy, Medium and Hard DCs is a bit futile.

Hexcrawl is a specific thing, so I'd advise against letting the party take the lead. If they've never done a Hexcrawl before it can be overwhelming to get them into the swing of things. What specific mechanics are tripping you up?

Having re-read ToA, for the survival element set the DC to 15 as the books say (or a 20 if you want a harsher terrain square like an undead area in ToA) for the daily forage for food. Don't forget that the party can forage for water, but that all water must be boiled. Needing 2 gallons per day, per character, that's a lot of water. Roughly, that's 16lbs of weight so the party can't carry a lot of water with them. This means there's no chance of just pushing on and not short resting. A character with capacity of 200lbs (STR13), has a starting equipment roughly of 40lbs, then it's 18lbs per day for the food and water needed. So maximum of 8 days of food and water can be carried with them at any one time.

I'd forgotten, but have since gone back through ToA so here's an updated process with some emphasis on survival.

Day Start

• Party decide on direction of travel.
• Party nominate roles (Navigator to not get lost; Lookout to not get ambushed; Forager to spot food/water opportunities)
• Narrate the environment immediately ahead of the party
• Ask the party what pace they'd like to travel at, Normal or Fast (Slow is not a possible pace in ToA unless travelling by Canoe).
• Party roll their various checks (DCs from the book are 15 for all terrain except coast and lakes, with a -5 penalty if travelling fast pace).
• Narrate the first part of the journey, especially consider any food locations or opportunities the party may come across.
  • For the thick jungle consider narrating hacking through vines
  • For rivers, there are animals watching from the banks, fish with nasty teeth swimming around the boat etc. The currents of the water make paddling sometimes unnecessary, other times feels like a thick treacle.
• Give the party the option of pausing, for a food and water break, collecting food, what have you. If they fail their foraging checks perhaps mention that the berries the party found have a milky sap or some other indicator of poison.
• While stopped narrate a little of what they might find ahead. If the next hex options are Mountain, River, or Jungle, then foreshadow it. 
• Have the party decide which direction they're heading for (this helps you set up the next hex and next adventuring day).
  • If the party failed the navigation check, disregard the party's choice of next location and either have them stuck in this hex or choose a hex by rolling a d6. This allows for dumb luck of stumbling onto their hex of choice which I personally like as an option.
• Roll a d4 if travelling at a fast pace (the day is lengthened on a 3 or 4 as the party can move an additional 1 hex).
• Narrate the struggle and difficulty of their chosen path. This is the point where I'd narrate the party getting lost if they fail their navigation checks.
• Roll for random encounters
  • If a combat encounter run the combat encounter, though I usually require a survival check at a DC of 15 if they try to flee.
  • If a non-combat encounter, again run it or keep it for later.
• Have the party stop for another food/water (short rest) break.
  • Mark off a day's food/water at this point.
• Explore for a place to make camp for the night. If on an undead hex they really don't want to be stopping to rest there without setting up a watch.

Night-time routine

I run a watch system for night-time camping. Taking a watch does not interrupt a long rest unless they get involved in more than just sitting, tending the campfire, and keeping lookout. Assuming a party of 4, the party can pass the 8 hours each taking 2 hours watch and getting 6 hours sleep or trance.

• Roleplay opportunity for campfire scenes. Party can play this off however they wish.
• First PC takes watch, every other PC begins to trance or sleep.
• 1st PC rolls a perception check.
• DM rolls a d4, on a 1 or 4 something happens.
  • Wild beasts curious about the new smells investigate the campsite
  • A wandering monster(s) come out of the wilderness, attack the watch keeper and wake the rest of the party Long Rest gets interrupted.
  • Noises in the bushes/treeline/from the water.
  • DM chooses something similarly appropriate.
• Player RPs how their watch went, how they felt, kept themselves awake, responded to any encounters.
• Watch rotates to 2nd PC
• Repeat previous steps until every PC has had a watch and the 8 hours have come to an end.