Based on some good, past experiences with hexploration in Karameikos' 8-mile hex map, I started wondering if maybe Kingmaker's 12-mile hexes were a little too big.
And because 6 divides into 12 easier, I Photoshopped a 6-mile hex overlay onto the Stolen Lands to create a more granular hexploration experience. Ultimately, this would make for more decision making, slightly more than one encounter per day to keep tension up, and more opportunities for PCs to get lost in the trackless wilderness.
The basic math was easy. It now takes half the time to cross a hex, and 1/4 the time to explore one. The party now gets 25xp per fully explored hex, and so on.
But now my mental exercise is to the "What else will it screw up?" part. Kingdom building hinges on the 12-mile hex. I could just say "it's 6 instead of 12" and let everything run as charted, only with smaller kingdoms (or slower growth).
Or I could prorate things proportionately. It'd take 2 weeks to prep a forest hex rather than 2 months. PCs could then prep two of them per month-long kingdom turn. Or four hills hexes per turn. But then would farm hexes only decrease consumption by 1/2 a BP?
Or maybe I just return to the 12-mile hex for kingdom building, so that the 6-mile map only comes into play when exploring and clearing.
As mental exercises go, what are y'all's thoughts?
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It'll lengthen exploration time at the table by a lot more, and increase the xp curve (I don't use Xp anymore but for some that's a concern).
But multiple encounters per hex would help alleviate some of the issues people found in Stolen Lands.
I would probably just leave the 12 mile hexes when kingdom building, so as not to slow down kingdom building (as having a certain amount of hexes tends to trigger the events in later books).