The Tarot Crawl

What is this?

A guide to preparing a region for player exploration

A way to represent exploration during a running that replaces random encounters and provides a physical way to map your players' exploration on the table.

 

You will need:

20mi and 6mi hex map of the region to be explored

At least one Tarot deck

Optional: 2mi hex map as generated by Alexis Smolensk' new hex generator

 

F. Y. I.

The region is the area of your game world of particular interest.

As 20 miles is the distance walking travelers and wagons can cover in a full day's travel on a road, the region is best mapped in 20mi hexes.

Each 20mi hex can fragment into seven 6mi hexes. The 6mi hex is the appropriate scale for off-road exploration. Depending on fitness level and terrain/vegetation, a group of fully-laden adventurers can expect to travel 6mi in 3 hours.

Alexis' hex generator provides more granularity, creating 2mi hexes within each 6mi hex and assigning particular features (settlements, religious communities, forested areas, etc.) that will inform your reading.

The Tarot deck has 78 cards. The Major Arcana are the cards numbered 0 to 21. The Minor Arcana cards come in four suits: wands, cups, pentacles, and swords. Within each suit, there 10 numbered cards and 4 face cards. The 4 face cards form the Court of that suit: the Court of Wands, the Court of Swords, and so on. Collectively, the face cards are called the court cards.