The Solo Wilderness Crawler Instructions by Paul Bimler

THE SOLO WILDERNESS CRAWLER by Paul Bimler
INSTRUCTIONS
This two-page wilderness / hex crawling tool is intended for solo players, and just like its companion product The Solo Dungeon
Crawler, is designed with one factor in mind - compactness. Using just this A4, printed and laminated, you can generate endless
overland hexcrawl adventures for yourself and your characters. The idea is that you can take this double-sided A4 anywhere and
use it to generate adventures using only d6s. For the ultimate experience, pick up The Solo Dungeon Crawler as well, so that you
can explore those ruins and caves that lead you into dark, twisting tunnels!
The Solo Wilderness Crawler is system-agnostic, and will work with any fantasy RPG. As with all my products, I encourage you to
take what you want from the system and leave out what you don’t want, substituting other tables or resources as you see fit.
I suggest you print this product out, double-sided, and get it laminated so you can use it over and over with dry-erase markers. Or,
you may prefer to print many copies and keep every hexcrawl you generate.
The front side is designed as a random hexcrawl generator, with a small-scale hex for you to map out your overland adventure as
you move through it. Hence, this side is where all the terrain generation tables are located.
The flip side contains some other tables, as well as a battlemap for running close-quarters combat. The battle map grid is a bit less
than an inch. I decided to reduce the size a little so that more squares could fit on the page. However, a miniature with a 1-inch
base will still sit comfortably on these squares, with a little overlap. Three versions of the product are given: one with a grass
battlemap, one with an ice battlemap, and the other with plain white background.
The flipside also contains Terrain Tables, a Basic Oracle Table (the same as the one in The Solo Dungeon Crawler), a Wilderness
Features Table, Structure Table, Weather Table, Settlement Table, optional Monster AI Table (for randomising monster
actions) and a Wilderness Monster Encounter Ideas Table.
PRINTING RECOMMENDATION
It is highly recommended that you use a laser printer for producing printed copies of this product. Other types of printers, such as
inkjet printers, may cause colours to bleed and text to blur slightly. Print in colour, at the highest resolution available.
You will notice the file sizes are quite large compared to other products of a similar size. This is necessary to ensure printing
clarity.
THE TABLES
Enter New Hex Table

The clue is in the name. Whenever your party enters a new hex, roll on this table. There is a high chance of encountering the same
terrain, but also you may be directed to roll for Minor Terrain and features. Just like in real life, you don’t often have endless
expanses of the same terrain without break. Within that major terrain, you will find things like small forests, structures,
settlements, ponds, lakes, rivers… you get the idea. The Minor Terrain and Feature Tables will add these things, these smaller
details, to your overland adventure. A roll of 12 will produce a new terrain type. If you are journeying in arctic terrain, interpret
forests, hills etc as all being within that arctic environment, even when the major terrain type changes..
Minor Terrain Type Table

This is triggered by the Enter New Hex Table and adds some smaller, minor terrain types within your hexcrawl.
Area Description Table

Just like with The Solo Dungeon Crawler, whenever you enter a new hex, after calculating the results from the Enter New Hex
Table, roll a d6 for each line on this table. Choose your column based on whether you think the hex is Standard or Special. For
example, a plain area of grassland might be standard, but a hex where a large castle has been generated might be special, especially if
your story points towards this. .
Each line (Monster, Features, NPC, Treasure, Weather, Random Event) lists a trigger value. If you roll equal or above the given
trigger value with a d6, that thing is present. When present, follow the instructions given below per each triggered element.
Monster: Use the Wilderness Encounter Ideas Table (p.2) to give a general direction for an encounter, or your own encounter
generator. Please be aware these are suggestions only. Employ your own balanced encounter tools to get the specifics right, so that
your characters don’t die unnecessarily!
Features: If triggered, roll the specified number of times on the Wilderness Features Table.
NPC: If triggered, use an NPC tool to generate a random NPC. The Solo Dungeon Crawler has NPC Race and NPC Profession
tables.
Treasure: Use a treasure generator specific to your system, taking into account encounter difficulty and character level. Treasure is
(usually) only present when monsters have been triggered. As always, let the story be the guide.
Weather: If triggered, roll for a new weather type on the Weather Table (p.2).
Random Event: If triggered, use a random encounter tool of your choice to generate a random event. The Solo Dungeon Crawler
has the Oracle Focus Table which provides broad suggestions for non-combat encounters.
Wilderness Features
When a feature is triggered from the Area Description Table, roll 2d6, one for each axis, to determine what features are present.
Structure Table
When a structure is triggered from either the Minor Terrain Type or Wilderness Features Table, roll 2d6 on this table to
determine what kind of structure is present.
New Major Terrain Table

A 12 on the Enter New Hex Table triggers a new major terrain type. Roll here to see what that new type is. Sometimes, as with
Arctic and Desert terrain, you may still retrigger the same terrain type as you try to find a way out of the seemingly endless
expanse.
Settlement Table
Roll 2d6 on this table to give a basic idea of settlement size and flavour. Each line provides a choice of possible options, eg:
Prosperous / Industrious / Innovative / Mercantile. Taking that line as an example, you could just use the word “Mercantile” to
describe a settlement with a strong artisanal or merchant base. Or, you could use “Innovative” and create a settlement of artificers.
Or you could combine two or more of these words. Again, these are broad suggestions to provide flavour.
Weather Table
When a weather roll is triggered by a roll of 6 on the weather line of the Area Description Table, this is where you roll to find out
how the weather has changed. Reroll if you get the current weather as a result. Also, be aware of what season it is in your world.
I’m presuming your world has something close to the four seasons. Interpret as necessary.
2d6 Oracle
This table also appears in The Solo Dungeon Crawler, but is reproduced here to make this system stand-alone. An oracle is
necessary for a solo system. Get used to the idea of framing questions so that they can be answered in a yes or no manner.
Wilderness Monster Encounter Ideas Table

These generic monster types are not meant to prescribe specific encounters, but merely to suggest flavour (undead, cultists,
dragons, orc army etc). Tweak numbers, exact monsters (you could use the type suggested but change the monster, for example
from a wraith to a zombie, or from a golem to some other form of construct like a shield guardian, or from orcs to dragonkin) or
just ignore this table entirely and use your own encounter generation tool when monsters are triggered (using the Area
Description Table). They are suggestions. Translate and interpret across systems as you see fit. There is a dungeon version of this
table in The Solo Dungeon Crawler. This table is more focused towards wilderness encounters.
Monster AI
This is a very basic Monster AI designed with the aim of randomising monster actions. Some of the results will not be relevant to
certain monsters. For example, on the first line, we have Heal / Help Ally / Hold.
If a monster does not have any self-healing ability, then the last suggestion, “Heal”, is moot. Likewise allies. In this case, it will
move, even if that triggers opportunity attacks. If it is at low hp, this may lead to it fleeing entirely. Perhaps pose an oracle
question to that effect in that situation. If all of these courses of action are pointless, then it will simply hold, not acting this
round.
The table is strictly optional, and is included here for those players who might find it useful.
And that’s it! Enjoy your quests!

Cover image by Eric Pommer for Mindplaces.

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THE SOLO WILDERNESS CRAWLER by Paul Bimler

Enter New Hex Table

Minor Terrain Type Table

Area Description Table

New Major Terrain Table

Wilderness Monster Encounter Ideas Table

And that’s it! Enjoy your quests!

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