Advice - PC's Skipping Hexploration

[Curghann]

My group recently finished VV before we took a little break due to one of our players moving away. They basically went to VH, then met the centaurs and immediately went for V's tomb. They did a good job of it, had some rough encounters but came away ahead due to solid planning and teamwork.

Since finishing VV, the player that moved was one of the ones most interested in the kingdom building aspect of the game. They have their kingdom pretty much on autopilot at this point and only can fail any roll on a 1.

The decision was made to go to the kingdom in the background model starting with B4B. We just ran the defense of TFord and the group did OK defending the town int he partial mass combat and then made a complete mockery of the trolls that attacked the village. I had forgotten how strong the party was and in general how hard to hit all of them are. I'll remember to throw the advanced template on almost everything going forward.

My real concern is that with such an obvious threat to their kingdom and a clear and precise plea from Kisandra the group is simply going to run over to Drelev, beat the bag out of the place and then do the same to Armag while completely ignoring the surrounding areas/encounters/etc.

Should I really be concerned about that? Hexploration was fun and cool when they were mapping out uncharted lands as lowly 1st/2nd level characters, but at this point I think they've lost the drive to stop and smell the roses.

Another B4B question in general, how well known have people made the Pitaxian backing of Armag and Drelev? I've read a few posts mentioning groups that would never go along with the intro to book 5 if the party knows Pitax has it out for them. I think it would be a tough sell for my group as well, so curious how others have played that out.

[Spatula]

Hex exploration was basically over for my group around book 3. I made them explore to find V's tomb but that was it. They already knew the general area, it just took them a little time to find the exact location.

Most of the hex encounters in book 4 take place in the swamp, which the players have no reason to explore, aside from the inside-cover quests. It's worthless territory. Presumably they'll have to look around for Armag's tomb, but by that point they can probably use divination spells to point the way.

Book 5 has almost nothing in the way of exploration encounters.

Re: Pitax's role in Drelev's attack on the PC kingdom, I had Irovetti introduce himself to the PCs, explain the situation away, and generally butter them up. It seems to have mostly worked. The players kinda know he's an antagonist as he's on the cover of the adventure, and they've noticed the pattern of who gets put on the covers, but they're going along with it for now.

[Gargs454]

With regard to Hexploration, absolutely follow the lead of your players on this. Its really no surprise if they get tired of it at some point. Heck, I believe Ultimate Campaign opened up the idea of exploration edicts which can be used to allow for the exploration/claiming of new hexes. It also, quite frankly, simply makes sense. At a certain point, from a practical view, the kingdom is going to get too big for the King or Queen to just go off exploring all the time. Especially with the need to spend a week per month in the capital.

It doesn't even sound as though you need to worry too much about the XP at this point (personally I did away with XP and just levelled the party when I felt like it -- i.e. at appropriate times) since your party is handling everything so well anyway. To the extent you are concerned though, you can always spring "random" encounters on the party as they travel to the noted locations, either move the hex encounters to the hexes being explored or just drop in new encounters to make up the needed XP.

Finally as for Pitax and B4B, I have not gotten that far (my group just finished RRR) but I made Drelev out to be a bit of a jerk early on and the group already has had a rocky relationship with him (got a spy captured early on). At the same time I presented Irovetti as a danger to the far edge of the Stolen Lands by revealing that he took out the Iron Wolves, but have otherwise ignored him since. The group occasionally mentions him but that's all. So for B4B I will probably try to keep his involvement pretty quiet. I'm actually thinking of possibly making Drelev out to be kind of a "victim" of his wife and her brother and just kind of hope that the party doesn't probe too deeply. Ultimately though, if they do probe deep enough, you should reveal it -- possibly even revealing the connection to Gregori.

As for how to get the party to go along with the initial invite to the festival? Easy, what better way to check out a potential enemy than by hopping on over for a visit under the guise of friendship? Frankly, by that point I anticipate that my group will be suspicious of him, especially since they are all very veteran gamers and from an OOC perspective can understand that he likely wasn't introduced just to be forgotten, but they will also see the invitation as an opportunity. If they decide to prepare the army while they are away just in case, then all the better! Reward them for good planning.

[Warped Savant]

In book 4 my players started sending out minions to do the exploring for them.
There's rules for "Exploration Edicts" in Ultimate Campaign and I highly suggest using them. Because, really, it's kind of weird that the rules of a kingdom are going out to explore the area rather than getting rangers to do it for them.
And if there's any particular thing you want the PCs to deal with you can have the exploration minions either not come back (because they're dead so the PCs have to solve what happened) or report back about something they saw but that they had to retreat or they'd all be dead.

[pennywit]

By book 3, your players ought to be able to send explorers out to do the work for them. There are some built in plotlines involving the boggards and naga if you want them. You could use that.

Beyond that, I suggest an "active bad guys" model. In Book 3, you have several potentially active groups: The Tiger Lord Barbarians, the boggards, the hill giant barbarians, the fey pranksters, and the forces of Fort Drelev (whatever they might comprise). You also have a couple powerful single creatures in Old Speartooth, Ngara, and the hydra. Finally (if I recall correctly), the wandering monster table includes a small black dragon, which is potentially a descendant of Ithuliak.

If hexploration is no longer a thing, then nothing stops these creatures from paying a visit to the kingdom's western frontier. Additionally, the hill giants, the fey pranksters, and the boggards are all potential enemies, allies, or third-party ambushers as your players get drawn into a conflict with Drelev, Armag, and the Tiger Lord barbarians.

Suddenly, hexploration is no longer hexploration, but exploration with a purpose. They aren't mapping the swamp. They're tracking the hydra that wrecked a farm on their frontier. They're not trudging through hex after hex with no purpose. They're looking for the Boggard King to conclude a treaty. They're not randomly fighting monsters south of Lake Hooktongue. They've heard rumors that a black dragon is calling himself "Lord of the Slough," and they're going to put him down before he becomes a problem.

You get the picture.