Hexploration

[Reynard203]

I was wondering if anyone has developed a good system for running hexploration games -- where the adventurers move across a hex map and uncover one hex at a time. To be more specific:

Is there a way to easily uncover (remove the fog of war) one hex at a time? An extension to do so maybe?
Is there a toolset (not necessarily a FG thing) to create a good hex map that imports easily? Or, barring that, is there a good token set for hex maps? Would that even work?
Speaking of tokens, things like a party token (a little group of adventurers) would be cool, as would tokens for discovered cities, dungeons, lairs and so on. Can you pin a token to the map so it won't move?

And just generally: if you run hexploration games using Fantasy grounds, how do you do it? What works and what doesn't? What resources do you rely on?

Thanks!

[Valyar]

Forbidden Lands by Fria Ligan is exactly what you are looking for. Big part of the game is exploring the world after a cataclysmic event. There is community extension for this in FG: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?51242-Forbidden-Lands-(Extension-Theme-PC-and-NPC-sheets-for-MoreCore)

[LordEntrails]

I think there are some hex tiles available in FGU. Mapping that way might fit exactly what you are looking for.

There is no easy way I know of to remove hex shapes from an image in FGC.

[Reynard203]

Forbidden Lands by Fria Ligan is exactly what you are looking for. Big part of the game is exploring the world after a cataclysmic event. There is community extension for this in FG: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?51242-Forbidden-Lands-(Extension-Theme-PC-and-NPC-sheets-for-MoreCore)

Thanks, but just for clarity I am looking for ways to do hexploration in FG either with some form of D&D or with the core ruleset, primarily focused on how to build and then reveal the map. Sorry if I was unclear.

[Valyar]

Thanks, but just for clarity I am looking for ways to do hexploration in FG either with some form of D&D or with the core ruleset, primarily focused on how to build and then reveal the map. Sorry if I was unclear.
OK, this is simple - you pick an image for your world/area map and put hex-based grid on it. Then enable the mask and unveil manually using the reveal tools. Using a token that represents the party and various landmarks and other groups on the world map will improve the experience further.
The user manual is quite extensive and I recommend to check the section about Grid and Masking: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/FantasyGroundsUserManual.pdf

[Reynard203]

OK, this is simple - you pick an image for your world/area map and put hex-based grid on it. Then enable the mask and unveil manually using the reveal tools. Using a token that represents the party and various landmarks and other groups on the world map will improve the experience further.
The user manual is quite extensive and I recommend to check the section about Grid and Masking: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/filelibrary/FantasyGroundsUserManual.pdf

Thanks. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there is an easy way to unmask one hex at a time other than to freehand it.

[Valyar]

Correct, the freehand is the way to do it today. And it is actually not bad, because you hint what might be beyond the hex's border :) One more reason to venture forward and potentially fall prey to some random or not-so-random encounter :)

[crossbow57]

+1 to this party. A way to reveal a hex-shape or a free form polygon would be welcome.

[Granamere]

Could you build a tileset that was just the different size black hex tiles? Then lay those down over the map or even hex shaped tokens then delete them one by one as needed? Man setup would be a pain if you had like 100 tiles do to.

Also in the Fantasy ground\campaigns\maskedimages directory is where the masks are kept. Could you edit the file there directly then refresh some way?

[LordEntrails]

In FGU you could do hex tiles. Yes you can edit the mask outside of FG. Just be cautious though and experiment first to get your process down without corrupting anything.

[GavinRuneblade]

Is there a toolset (not necessarily a FG thing) to create a good hex map that imports easily? Or, barring that, is there a good token set for hex maps? Would that even work?

https://worldographer.com/
As far as I know, this is the top tier hex mapping software. If anyone knows a more powerful tool (CC3+ level maybe) I'd love to know. Perhaps my favorite capability is child maps. So you can do a world level map, then grab and area and do a zoomed in version, and the software will convert each map on the bigger scale to however many you want in the zoomed in scale. For example, do your world map at 36 miles per hex, then zoom in to 6 miles per hex and it will automate that smaller map, you just clean it up and add the fine details. Then zoom in again to half-mile hexes for the area of a single province. Awesome.

Works great in FG too as you can use pins to show where you have more detailed maps to share with your players.

You can create custom hex icons as well. I really need to learn how to do this.

[Three of Swords]

Could you build a tileset that was just the different size black hex tiles? Then lay those down over the map or even hex shaped tokens then delete them one by one as needed? Man setup would be a pain if you had like 100 tiles do to.

Or the opposite of this. Create a 'blank' map image with the known regions. Make the rest of the map unknown. Then use terrain tiles to fill in the rest as they explore, placing one tile at a time as they explore.