u/milesunderground

I think the Necromancer's Handbook includes a note that a character who has Animal Lore, Herbalism, and Brewing can use those proficiencies together to make Poisons. Separate from whether or not that is a good idea (I'm pretty neutral to it), I thought the idea of having certain NWP's combine to allow PC's to do other stuff was an interesting idea. In particular, I like the idea of combining existing NWP's to do more stuff rather than simply expanding the list of NWP's (since my group sticks pretty close to the base PHB). I also like the idea of letting characters work together with their proficiencies rather than requiring a single character to have them. The idea would be to encourage players to think of creative ways to use their NWP's together to do things they wouldn't be able to do on their own.

The example above with poisons would be Herbalism+Animal Lore+Brewing = Poisoncrafting. Some other possibilities might be:

Carpentry+Engineering+Seamanship = Shipwright

Set Snares+Engineering+Stonecrafting = Giant Rolling Boulder Trap

Artistic Ability+Gem Cutting+Weaponsmithing = A magnificent weapon

Artistic Ability+Blacksmithing+Armorer = a masterwork suit of armor

Heraldry+Ancient/Local History+Forgery = a particularly convincing writ of nobility to allow your peasant squire to compete in tournaments under an assumed identity

Blacksmithing+Astrology+Gem Cutting = Creation of an Grand Orrery

Appraising+Etiquette+History (Local/Ancient) = putting together the perfect outfit for a noble function

Survival+Agriculture+Herbalism = create hybrid plants to improve production or hardiness

Fishing+Cooking+Local History = an authentic down home fish fry.

Weaving+Fishing+Set Snares = basket trap

I can been doodling along a basic Hexcrawl system for an upcoming AD&D game that I will be running using the OD&D module, The Isle of Dread. I'm basing it roughly on the 1e DMG Wilderness rules, with inspiration from some of the things I have found here and reading up on other online creators. This is very much a work in progress, so any feedback will be appreciated.

The Isle of Dread map uses 6 mile Hexes, and time will be split up into 6 Turns of Day and 6 Turns of Night, each of which covers about 2 hours. Each Turn can be spent by the group taking one of the following actions; Movement, Search, Stealth, Hurry, Skill, Rest, or Watch.

Movement: Moving through a hex covers moving into an adjacent hex from the current location. This costs 1 Action at a minimum, however different terrain types add a modifier between +1 and +4. A road or trail gives a -1 modifier to the movement cost. For example, if the party wishes to cross a Grasslands hex that has trail, it will cost them 1 Action (1 to Move, +1 for Plains, -1 for the Trail.) A party wishing to navigate through a hex of deep swamp or mountains would take 5 Actions (1 to Move, +4 for Mtn or Swamp). The presence of a trail or waterway in either hex would reduce the cost to 4.

Search: Searching a hex costs 1 Action. This will give the party a bonus to a roll to discover a Secret (described below). The party may take this action twice in a particular hex.

Stealth: Moving stealthily costs 1 Action. This gives the party a bonus to their Surprise rolls against Random Encounters. Some character types (elves and halflings in non-metal armor, rangers and thieves) can reduce the cost by 1. This action can be taken twice.

Hurry: This action represents a Forced March. This will give a penalty to the random rolls (Secret, Hazard, and Random Encounter), but reduce the Movement cost by -1. This will also add Fatigue. This action can only be taken once per hex.

Skill: This represents time spent performing a skill or nonweapon proficiency. Examples include foraging for food (Survival), medicinal herbs (Herbalism), or crafting or repairing items and gear. This action can be taken multiple times per day.

Rest: This action represents resting. Each action spent resting alleviates 1 point of Fatigue. As a general rule, characters require a minimum 4 Rest Actions per 24-hour day to avoid becoming Fatigued, and Wizards require the same amount of rest to be able to prepare spells. Rest actions can be taken multiple times per day.

Watch: Characters who are on watch neither accrue or recover from Fatigue. If no one is on watch, Surprise if automatic during Random Encounters. Characters who are awake during the day are considered to be on watch, this action is only required when the party is sleeping (generally overnight).

Each Hex the party explores will have three rolls that the GM will make to represent a Secret, a Hazard, and a Random Encounter. Secrets are boons, Hazards are bad, and Random Encounters can go either way. Each roll is on a separate d6, with a Secret being found on a 1, and a Hazard or an Encounter on a 1-3. Taking a Search action will add 1 to the chance of finding a Secret and reduce the chance of a Hazard by 1. The chance of the Random Encounter is always 1-3, however Stealth will increase the chance the party can avoid that encounter.

Secrets: Each hex may have a randomly determined benefit that careful or lucky adventurers may discover. This would include things like a Food Cache or Water Source, Natural Shelter, a Trail or Waterway, or Tracks or Spoor that can give a clue to Random Encounters in the area.

Hazards: Each hex likewise as a hidden danger that may be stumbled across by unlucky or unwary adventurers. Examples of this would be Bad Food or Foul Water, Natural Dangers like quicksand or rockslides, Mechanical Injury or Disease. Hazards can also add Fatigue, damage, or other penalties.

Random Encounters: This includes but is not limited to Wandering Monsters. These are not automatically hostile or necessarily even combat encounters, though some may be. Generally speaking, these can be good or bad for the party depending on how they approach them. Engaging in Combat adds 1 level of Fatigue. (Multiple combats do not add extra fatigue.)

Weather and Shelter: Weather is rolled randomly and adds a modifier to the Movement Cost of a hex. Weather can be Favorable (-2)/Good (-1)/Fair (0)/Poor (+1)/Bad (+2)/Extreme (+4). Likewise, Weather penalties must be offset by shelter during Rest actions, and bonuses can alleviate extra Fatigue levels. Shelter has a rating of 1-4 that will counteract Weather of up to that level. Basic supplies like a bedroll or a blanket count count as a +1 Shelter, Tents +2, and Natural Shelters can be up to +4. Characters with the appropriate abilities or proficiencies can improve a Shelter rating by one or two levels. Certain spells (like Leomund's Secure Shelter) confer a shelter bonus equal to their level.

Fatigue: Fatigue is accrued at a rate of 1 point per Action taken, so if a party takes all 6 actions in a day, they will have 6 points of Fatigue. At night, if the party rests for 5 Actions and a Watch action overnight, they will recover 5 Fatigue Points. Generally speaking, if the party takes 1 Action to Rest during the day and 5 Rest actions overnight, they will not become Fatigued. Hazards, Combat, and adverse Weather can all add more Fatigue on top of that, so this may require taking days to Rest if they've had an unlucky streak. Characters also can get rid of a level of Fatigue equal to their Hit Point bonus from their Constitution, so a character with a Con 16 (+2) can disregard two levels of Fatigue per day. Con penalties work the same way, and must be overcome with extra Rest actions. A character treated with the Healing Nonweapon Proficiency also recovers an extra level of Fatigue per night of rest. Likewise, any magical healing will alleviate 1 additional point of Fatigue per day (but no more).

The Effects of Fatigue: After every full day of adventuring (6 Turns of Day and 6 Turns of Night), each character will have a level of Fatigue equal to the number accrued minus the number alleviated via Rest. The penalties of each level of Fatigue are cumulative with the previous levels.

0: Not Fatigued.

1-2: Lightly Fatigued. No mechanical effects, however the character is aware of discomfort, muscle soreness, and the like.

3-4: Fatigued. -1 penalty to Attacks and Saves.

5-6: Heavily Fatigued. Movement and Encumbrance reduced to 75% of total.

7-8: Exhausted. -2 to all Stats.

9-10: Debilitated. Movement and Encumbrance reduced to 50%, characters can either Move or Attack each round.

11+: Character is unable to act or move, and must recover. Characters who do not have someone to care for them or who do not have ready access to food and water will not recover and will eventually expire.

My goal is to whittle this down to a usable format, something like a one-sheet the players can reference. They will allocate their actions, I'll do the random rolls and run the encounters, and then keep tally of their Fatigue which will influence their actions for the next day.

I am in the early stages of planning to run X1: The Isle of Dread for my 2e group. I want to stay true to the spirit of the module and will be leaning heavily into the exploration. I am looking for a good hexcrawl subsystem I can import into my game.