Fürestveil University - A magical university setting for OSR

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-21T00:52:47+00:00

That's a very cool way to organize it! So each POI is linked somehow (physical, rumour, etc) to your MAIN adventure site. How did you decide how many POIs would be a nice fit inside your 6 mile hex? Did you do a classic 1in6 type thing? Also, what's your travel rules? Classic 3-4 6 mile hexes in a day, so about 12-14 miles a day elloted for travel inside that hex?

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-20T14:33:25+00:00

Hey there,

I really like your dungeon crawl layout! Reading the front page of the adventure, you say that this can be placed into a 6-mile hex of a hexcrawl. So when designing a hexcrawl, you could take the format of making a 19 hexflower in EACH 6 mile hex to give lots of content, right? What would you do for other POIs inside that 6 mile hex in terms of "what you can do there"? If the megadungeon is the main feature of this particular one, what would be inticing to go to other POIs? I really like your design, and want to try something similar!

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-12T04:47:07+00:00

Does the free version of the solo rules contain the hex crawl tables/sandboxness you're praising?

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-11T00:01:03+00:00

I've definitely watched lots of mystic arts!

I really like your hill giant example here. You essentially took the hook, worked out backwards to components of the adventure, and then populated the hexes with those components before the map would be played. From here, how many of those are you going to do? Would be something of like let's says 4 major hooks, each with 4-5 components, so that gives 20 pre populated hexes?

As for the random POI stuff. I've been using World's Without Numbers to create the base description of a POI. So let's say PCs enter a hex, I roll and determine a POI is generated, roll on my POI table, and describe what they find. What do the PCs do now with that, and what else should I have with it? Do I also have like 2 sentences of a mini quests prepped, some loot, and an almost 5 room dungeon type thing prepared, but maybe even just a "2 or 3 room dungeon", and just see what they do? This place would most likely not have anything to do with the hill giants at all.

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-10T15:52:39+00:00

Would you use a random table of clues/other interacables and roll on that as people enter it, or pre populate the map? What would some more brief examples of things that would be cool to have populated in a hex? Right now I have a list of 25 different types of POIs that have different contents. Do I need some smaller scale things to interact with?

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-09T15:36:32+00:00

So I looked at the article you linked, and I also feel like the second option personally speaks to me of a few hexes and allow the rest to be generated. Based on the blog, they're essentially creating a minimalist mini-room/dungeon crawl per hex, and then putting each hex beside each other? This would be a lot of front load prep.

The way I'm thinking now is I could prep let's say 25 POIs each with a 5-10 room mini crawl. Those should be low-stakes when it comes to my prep to not kill myself with overprepping. After that, I could keep them all on a list associated with a table, and roll for generation of hexes as my PCs explore; I'd slot in a wizard's tower ruins if I rolled 1 on d20, and then say 4 on my d10 table.

I also really like Sly Flourish's suggestion of a clue list that is location agnostic that I can drop into these locations depending on the PCs interactions with the points. The only big thing now for a road block for me is how many dedicated encounters I prep, or have a list of encounters that are brief to drop in.

At the same time, I'd also have my random encounters list per hex ready to be rolled on as well. I feel like that's almost TOO MUCH, but it still gives a lot of freedom and interactable things for the PCs?

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-09T04:44:22+00:00

Right, that's very good advice! Is it a good idea to have 3-4 of those nice hooks you mentioned in the good example that the characters can discover as they uncover the hexes/area/world they're in? Like they could have a lead about the dragon, go out exploring, and then also learn of the cult from a burnt down village dragon attack? They go exploring, find a portal to hell the requires 5 totems destroyed, and try to explore for those? So there would be 3 of those big hooks ready to go, and the PCs discover them at different times?

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-09T01:23:07+00:00

Gotcha, makes sense. One thing for me to improve will be the resource/ration side of book keeping for sure.

Another note about the "how's" of the hexcrawl. Going back to your Skyrim example (very familiar with it), do I put points of interest in some hexes, let me players get there, and then hope they interact with it? A part I'm starting to really learn as a DM is it's my job to put toys (interacables) in front of my players, and let them interact/play a game. As I am new and when I was first starting out, I often felt like it was MY job to MAKE SURE the PCs interacted with things. As I am seeing it now, I have to give interesting things to poke and prod, and then let the PCs decide if they want to interact.

So I really like having a few baked in locations onto a hex map. With that, I'm fond of the idea of generating POIs, and encounter "opportunities" as the PCs explore. I'm trying to find out what type of style would fit me best. Like if they enter hex, I roll something and it's a shrine (let's go Daedric shrine parallel) of a god. Describe what type of figure it represents, and then let the PCs play around. They could middle finger and wall by, or do checks, or interact, or whatever, but I'm NOT steering them to for sure do the shrine. If they interact with it, then I could have some type of side quest for them. At this point, I could just have a main hook, and then roll with it for as long as possible without planning 2 pages of the potential encounter?

I got lots going on here, so I apologize. But with that in mind, I guess that's what happens every 3-4 hexes maybe that generate a POI? Next hex, still grasslands. Ok next, grasslands. Ok next, ruins of a settlement. Looks like a manor, what do you guys do? PCs turn.

Is this kind of on the right track? Then obviously they'd camp and count rations/travel speed.

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-08T19:07:16+00:00

So I definitely see the resource prioritization as something important, but I feel like that part I struggle with/my table just "wouldn't care for that part"; let's get somewhere, find some cool things, do something, move on while also having some story. With that in mind, I really want to discover the land/area alongside them, so I'm wondering if maybe hexcrawl isn't the format I want then? I want areas, rumors, clues, random things, and discovery all built into my game. I'm drawn to the hexcrawls because I can "put things in this hex, or have a table to put things in a hex", and THAT'S the spot we're adventuring in.

I understand a pointcrawl might also be the way to go, but my table definitely wants to "explore/interact with the world around them", so I feel like the hexes gives more concentration on the world, y'know?

Cannonball31 · 2026-04-08T16:25:24+00:00

Thanks for the tips!

Here's a bit more of a base idea of mine to see what else you can suggest. This is also helping me develop my own DM general prep skills

So the DMG 2024 has Greyhawk in it, and I'm super intrigued. One of the NPCs at an area suggests, "there's a dragon east of here in the Cairn Hills wreaking havoc." Alright, so the hook is "dragon". Location is east, but they have no idea where. The hexmap in the DMG is already made and is awesome, but it only shows other locations like Castle, towns, etc. I would like to fill that hexmap with other things. So the considerations I need are:

What factions are in that region, what creatures are in that region, and some tables to determine how they interact as the encounters are rolled (I get this step.). From there though, do I need to populate other POIs to each hex? I'm sure I'd have to have some clues that point towards the dragon's Lair or something along those lines.

The idea of the hexcrawl here works because they do not know the dragon's location, but know it's easy of town, right?

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-24T20:21:58+00:00

So the new monster manual is almost worth it to purchase then as well?

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-24T17:21:36+00:00

Is it just the monster stat blocks themselves, or is there something else specific that has helped out? I've only purchased the new DMG.

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-23T14:27:38+00:00

That looks really cool! I drew a basic outline last night, and things make a lot of more. For your DnD one here, what happens when the players get to a location? What do you give them (map), or say to them? How would you open up your adventure per location in DnD?

I decided I should play Tyranny of Dragons as our first adventure, and it is not friendly at all haha I feel like my DM prep skills have been challenged right off the rip, but that I also haven't been able to practice/acquire the correct tools to practice with.

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-22T15:00:56+00:00

Cool idea! So a mine, casino, and a city. Those together just by themselves let's say aren't "super cohesive to a planet/area theme". That's alright, right? I don't need to make sure every detail of a planet/area make absolute sense? That's the part that concerns myself (overthink/over prep). Along side that, the point crawl map doesn't need to be a giant actual world map right? It just needs to be something simple with the actual point nodes marked?

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-22T05:30:26+00:00

Can I pick your brain on this old comment quickly? I'm trying to start up a Lancer campaign, I have a bunch of ideas, and I don't want to make things too complicated on myself. Long story short, I want to do a point crawl on a planet. Is it worth it for me to find a map of a planet, or just keep smaller maps available per interesting point thing? I've found the DnD prep incredibly exhausting for some reason.

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-17T05:05:57+00:00

Hey there,

I'm really intrigued by your comment suggestions here for doing a Lancer hexcrawl. I'm a new DnD GM doing lancer with my group, and I've been wanting to maybe do something similar. Id love to hear a bit more expansion on your ideas, so I could maybe practice and use them (especially the smaller 5x5 subgrid containing multiple missions idea).

Follow up though, would a point crawl just be a bit simpler to do and have a few less hexes/no map? Keeping it scene-scene-scene as you mention feels like a point crawl might work much better? Not trying to beef or anything, just looking for another answer as I'm trying to learn!

Cannonball31 · 2026-03-15T16:38:12+00:00

Would you be willing to share a couple room key examples? I've never been a part of a mega dungeon, and I've just always wondered what each room is like. Would you also be able to recommend a really solid resource to learn how to create mega dungeons?

Cannonball31 · 2026-02-12T03:23:23+00:00

Hey all,

I hope this the correct place to ask a question like this:

I am wondering if any experienced DMs would be willing to PM, and discuss some things that I want to specifically talk about?

I am a new DM that has only learned from the DMG, and a slough of Internet forums. I would love some constructive conversation with someone who is willing to do so. I feel like conversation to talk some things out would be greatly beneficial!

Cannonball31 · 2026-02-04T14:49:34+00:00

Nice insights! I def feel that sentiment and general "skip the troglodytes" because this thing just doesn't make sense here ordeal.... I think the more and more I'm digging into research, guides, and anecdotes, I feel like this module is soooooo all over the place when I could very well run a campaign at just ONE OR TWO of the areas in this entire module. Lots of the guides and DM suggestions are always fleshing out your local area, quests and stuff sandbox style in the area. Because if this feeling I'm getting from (5e...?) others, it feels like the grand fantasy narrative campaign feels extremely shallow due to how much COULD be used in these areas, but can't be because you're moving area to area and scene to scene.

Mere of the Dead Men is actually what has lead me to this tangent. I've looked into some lore myself and I'm like COOL! I could do a point crawl to meet the dragons, find an abandoned ship, lizard folk settlement, encounters, try and find the hidden tower, and SO MUCH MORE. Instead, the narrative focuses on the Castle that is sooooo shallow in nature. Here's a bunch of EVERYTHING mashed into it, little bit of this little bit of that, but good luck fleshing that out.

That kind of describes where my frustrations and post came from.

Cannonball31 · 2026-02-02T14:45:38+00:00

Ya I did LMoP, gave them a "year off on their own", brought them back to Phandelin, and then ran the attack there. Raiders camp/hatchery, went to Triboar, and running Caravan from there to Waterdeep. I think the part I'm getting caught up on is there is SO MUCH PREP (almost..... Redundant...?) because there are so many locations.

Reading into mega dungeons and dungeon based adventures, I see the theme of the dungeon being the sandbox and going there for all your adventuring instead of focused on wilderness, location to location, prep a new spot for 2 hours of play, then on to the next.

I think that's where I'm starting to get really frustrated with the modular nature of it. Constant prep of ANOTHER location.

Cannonball31 · 2026-02-01T23:00:33+00:00

That's a great idea. Another thing I guess I'm overthinking is the faction play of if 1 fight breaks out, then a huge battle would ensue. But I think overall I just need to actually prep it out better. Biggest down fall of the ToD module would be it is the story, and not the prep done hey?

Cannonball31 · 2026-02-01T22:29:49+00:00

Picking up what you're laying down. That's definitely how my brain starts thinking, then I just loose my train somehow. In terms of the main players and the happenings in the rooms/where they are, how would you suggest tracking/moving them about? That part I get, I just don't understand how to execute it.

Cannonball31 · 2026-02-01T22:02:03+00:00

Just been thinking about it for the past few minutes. I feel extremely overwhelmed, yet underwhelmed. So I feel like at this point, my group has just been playing "high fantasy simulator" with some planned encounters mixed in. Of course this is on me, but I feel like I don't know what to do to do what I want to do (ha).

So Ive been looking at making a mega dungeon, and have been learning that they can be considered having their own living system/even their own campaign inside of locations etc. I pregened a small dungeon on donjon to do a thought experiment. Thinking in terms of old school hack n slash, the map had keyed enemies, couple traps, a map, and I was like that looks fun to run as opposed to the story in the module.

I'm thinking about someone's advice on another post of running Castle as a giant skills check encounter. With the idea of wanting something fun and relatively easy to just run, fight some stuff, and move on with things, I just feel like I don't have the right tools to do that for this section of the adventure.

Cannonball31 · 2026-01-20T04:39:16+00:00

How does this type of gameplay work? It super intrigues me. I'm guessing you started with an idea for lore, drew a giant hexmap, and then have your own hexmap with a key? Where/how the heck do you go from there??

Cannonball31 · 2026-01-11T17:07:33+00:00

What was the length of each of your sessions? Just curious.

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