Guide for Dungeon Masters
How to Build a Hexcrawl Map
From blank canvas to adventure-ready wilderness. A practical guide to creating hexcrawl maps for D&D, covering terrain, encounters, notes, and running the game.
Try painting terrain — pick a type and drag across hexes.
Step 1 — Choose Your Scale
Before painting a single hex, decide what each hex represents. The D&D standard is 6 miles per hex — a party on foot covers 3-4 hexes per day. This scale gives enough room for wilderness encounters without making travel feel like a chore.
For a campaign-length hexcrawl, start with a 20×15 grid. That's roughly 120×90 miles — enough for a full adventure region with forests, mountains, settlements, and coastline. You can always expand later.
In Hexer, create a new map and set your dimensions. Free tier supports up to 20×15; Pro goes to 200×200 for continent-scale maps.
Step 2 — Lay Down Geography
Start with the big shapes. Place a mountain range to split the map, a river flowing from highlands to coast, a forest that blankets the northwest. This gives your wilderness a believable skeleton before you fill in details.
Two approaches work well:
Generate, then edit
Use Hexer's procedural generator to create a realistic base, then hand-paint adjustments. Best when you want natural-looking terrain fast.
Paint from scratch
Drag terrain by hand using the brush tool. 53 free hex types (35 terrain + 18 features) give you everything from enchanted forests to dungeons. Pro unlocks 55+ more. Best when you have a specific vision for your world.
Step 3 — Key Your Hexes
This is where your hexcrawl comes alive. "Keying" a hex means attaching content — an encounter, landmark, secret, or event that triggers when the party enters or explores that hex.
A good density is one keyed hex for every three. On a 20×15 map (300 hexes), that's about 100 keyed hexes. Sounds like a lot, but most entries are just a sentence or two:
- Encounter: "Goblin war camp. 2d6 goblins + 1 hobgoblin captain."
- Landmark: "Ruined watchtower. Climbable — grants vision to adjacent hexes."
- Secret: "Hidden cave entrance behind waterfall. Leads to Underdark."
- Settlement: "Thornwick village. Blacksmith, inn, rumor board."
In Hexer, use DM notes to attach rich-text content to any hex. Categorize each note (Encounter, Secret, Landmark, etc.) and mark secrets as DM-only so players never see them in the shared view.
Step 4 — Add Paths & Regions
Roads, trails, and rivers make travel meaningful. In a hexcrawl, staying on a road means faster movement and fewer random encounters. Going off-trail is slower and riskier — but that's where the treasure is.
Draw paths to connect your settlements and define overland routes. Use regions to mark territories — the Elven Forest, the Blighted Wastes, the Iron Marches. Regions give players a sense of place and let you vary encounter tables by area.
Hexer's travel route tool lets you plan multi-hex journeys with terrain-aware pace calculations, so you can tell your players exactly how long it takes to travel from Thornwick to the Dragon's Teeth mountains.
Step 5 — Run the Hexcrawl
Your map is ready. Here's the session flow:
- Share a live link — players open it in their browser. No app install needed.
- Start with fog on — the map is hidden. Only revealed hexes are visible to players. (Pro feature)
- Each "day" in-game, players choose a direction. Move the party marker, reveal the hex, read your key.
- Check for encounters — roll on your random table, or trigger the keyed content for that hex.
- Track resources — food, water, torches. Hexcrawls shine when the wilderness feels dangerous.
After the session, export your map as a Hex Key document for a printable reference, or as a Universal VTT file to bring it into Foundry.
Start Building Your Hexcrawl
Hexer gives you everything you need — terrain, generation, notes, paths, sharing, and export. Free to start, no account required.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a hexcrawl?
A hexcrawl is a style of tabletop RPG play where the party explores a hex-gridded wilderness map. Each hex contains terrain, encounters, or points of interest that the DM reveals as players travel. It emphasizes exploration, resource management, and player-driven adventure over a linear narrative.
How big should a hexcrawl map be?
A 20x15 hex map is a solid starting size — large enough for several sessions of exploration, small enough to prep in an evening. Each hex typically represents 6 miles (the D&D standard), so a 20x15 map covers roughly 120x90 miles of wilderness.
How many hexes should have content?
A good rule of thumb: key every third hex with something notable — an encounter, landmark, or secret. The rest can be travel terrain. This gives density without overwhelming your prep. Hexer's note system lets you key hexes with categories like Encounter, Secret, and Landmark.
Can I run a hexcrawl with Hexer's free tier?
Yes. The free tier gives you all 35 terrain types, 18 hex features (settlements, dungeons, sacred sites), procedural generation, all export formats, paths, regions, DM notes, and live sharing. You get one saved map up to 20×15 hexes. Upgrade to Pro for 55+ premium features, Underdark terrain, fog of war, Underdark layers, maps up to 200×200, and unlimited maps.
Does Hexer support hex keys for old-school play?
Yes. Export your map as a Hex Key document — a structured Markdown file listing every hex with its terrain type and any notes attached. Perfect for printing and running sessions without a screen.