Wilderness Hex Traversal Environment v1.0

Updated 2/27/2026

This home brew is based on Patchwork Paladin's Daggerheart Hexcrawl Rules v1.0 with only a few changes. You can read Patchwork Paladin's blog post introducing his rules here.

These rules define the Wilderness Hex Traversal Environment that we will use when travelling in the wilderness and gaming use a hex map.

• This environment is instantiated whenever the players depart for wilderness travel from a safe haven, such as an ally's encampment, guarded territory, a city, or a defensible area or structure that the player's create.
• The environment is suspended or ends (stops having an effect on the PCs) whenever the PCs return to a safe haven.

The intent and purpose of these rules is to use the wilderness as an adversary to attack the PC's resources. It does this by making ordinary short and long rests difficult to come by.

What is an environment in Daggerheart?

The Daggerheart Core Rule Book (CRB) introduces environments on pp. 240, which says "Environments represent everything in a scene beyond the PCs and adversaries, such as the physical space, background NPCs, and natural forces." The Wilderness Hex Crawl environment will function as a meta-environment, spanning multiple scenes. The Core Rule Book describes more than a dozen different environments. Environments appear regularly in my Daggerheart games and have I have used them for social encounters, exploration under water, wagon chases, and combat in unusual settings.

Overview

The Wilderness Hex Traversal Environment uses two different Group Actions and Group Action Rolls (see pp. 97 of the Daggerheart Core Rule book) in separate phases to resolves its affects on the PC's

• Phase 1: Travelling (Using the Travel Action)

  • This phase starts whenever the PCs leave a safe haven or a wilderness camp and embark are wilderness travel, or if they stopped a previous Travel Action's count down.
  • A safe haven is safe place to stay in or outside of the wilderness, e.g. A city, an ally's fortified encampment or guarded territory, a magically protected area, a fortified or otherwise defensible area, enclosure or structure created by the PCs.
  • At the start of this phase, the players plot a route to their next destination on the map. The number of hexes in the route sets the trigger value of the Travel Action Progress Countdown. The maximum number of wilderness hexes that the PCs may traverse in one day is 4 (20-24 miles).
  • The terrain and weather help the GM set the DC for the Travel Action using Table 1: Terrain and Difficulty Class.
  • To traverse hexes on the map, the players take the Travel Action (an INSTINCT Group Action Roll), using all applicable modifiers, and use its result in Table 2: Travel Progress Countdown to determine how many hexes they may move in this action. As the PCs move though the wilderness, the GM will describe their travel and uses encounter rolls and the PC's actions to resolve interruptions.
  • Encounters and Interruption of Travel:
    • As the PCs traverse a wilderness hex, the GM will roll an encounter die (d6); on a roll of 1-2, the GM will roll another encounter die (varies, according to features/encounters available) to introduce a landscape feature or encounter with NPCs or Adversaries.
    • Some encounters interrupt travel and others simply tempt to the players to interrupt their travel and engage with them. If the encounter interrupted travel or if the players chose to engage with it, they must make another Travel Action to resume traveling if they haven't already travelled four hexes that day.
    • Example: the players want to go to the High Tower which is six hexes away. They roll a critical success and may move through four of the hexes, which is the maximum travel distance per day. But they see a ruined temple in the first hex they pass through and decide to abandon the journey temporarily to investigate the temple. The countdown only ticks down one, and they must take a new travel action).

• Phase 2: Camping (Using the Make Camp Action)

  • If the PCs are in a safe haven they can forgo this action, rest as they would normally, and then start at Phase 1 when they resume wilderness travel.
  • When in wilderness, the PC's can stop travelling at any time and make this action, which is intended to abstract the task of creating a makeshift camp in the wilderness.
  • If the PCs have already travelled four hexes in a single day, they must either use the Make Camp Action or march on exhausted.
    • If the PC's choose to march on without making camp, they all mark a stress and are vulnerable until the next time they make camp.
  • When the PCs take the Make Camp Action, they make a KNOWLEDGE group action roll using all applicable modifiers, and look up its result in Table 3: The Make Camp Results Table to determine if rest is optional or required and, if resting, the number of PC downtime actions allowed.
  • Every time the players make camp or traverse four hexes, a night passes in the game.

The Modifiers: Encumbrance and Provision Dice and Player and GM Actions

Wilderness travel requires gear, food, water, and other provisions. We use dice as modifiers to this environment's action rolls to abstract the detriments of Encumbrance and the benefits of Provisions.

The Travel Action and Make Camp Action rolls are affected by two modifying dice, which can be increased or decreased in size by environmental, mechanical effects (traveling with or without a vehicle or pack animal) or magical assistance or hindrance.

• Encumbrance Die - rolled by the GM. If the party is encumbered they will have an Encumbrance Die (d4 minimum), which is subtracted from the Travel roll's result.

  • Repack (action) - PCs can use two down time actions (two from one PC or one from two PCs) to reduce the encumbrance die by one size.
  • Weary (action): GM spends two Fear to increase the party's encumbrance die by one step, or to add and encumbrance die at d4 if the party doesn't have one.

• Provisions Die - rolled by the PCs. If the party has provisions they will have a Provisions Die (d4 minimum), which is added to the Travel Roll's result.

  • Forage (action) - PCs can use two down time actions (two from one PC or one from two PCs) to increase the provision die by one size.
  • Hungry (action): GM spends two Fear to reduce the party’s provisions die by one step, or to remove the die if it is a d4.
  • Purchasing Provisions (action) At any suitable place, the PCs may purchase or be gifted provisions which can create or increase the size of their Provisions Die. Cost of provisions (for the group, prices subject to change):
    • D4: 1 bag of gold
    • D6: 1 chest of gold
    • D8: 5 chests of gold
    • D10: 10 chests of gold
    • D12: 25 chests of gold

Table 1: Terrain and Difficulty Class

The GM sets the DC for the Travel Action, using this table as a guide. The GM may spend one or more fear to introduce weather or other conditions to increase the DC by +1 for each fear spent.

Table 2: The Travel Progress Countdown

The Travel Countdown is equal to the number of hexes in the player's plotted course between their current location and desired destination, allowing for up to the maximum daily travel distance. This countdown increments or decrements based on the result of the Travel action roll's results:

* On a success or failure with Fear, the GM may make a GM move. See pp. 149 of the Core Rule Book.

Table 3: The Make Camp Results Table

* On a success or failure with Fear, the GM may make a GM move. See pp. 149 of the Core Rule Book.

What makes this campsite particularly suitable or unsuitable? What do you think about as you try to drift off? What stories will you share around the campfire?