Fantasy Trip Mega Hexes

[rlbeaver]

Trying to figure out how to handle mega hexes in Roll20 which won't have a mega hex overlay on them. I don't use pre-gridded maps so I have to rely on hex counting or distance to figure out range. I don't want to change VTT at this point either, although if that changes, I'll try and find one that has support for mega hexes.

My solution is to just count basic combat hexes, and given that there is no penalty for same mega hex and 2 mega hex distant, I calculate range from the center of the Basic Combat hex with Dexterity adjustments being 0 for hexes 1-8 distant, -1 for 9 - 14 distant, and -2 for 15-20 distant.

Am I missing anything with that solution, and/or are there any other things I'll need to account for lack of mega hexes on the battlemap for?

Thanks!
Bob

[hcobb]

Each megahex is actually 2.5 hexes so your closest approximation for missile weapon adjustment is to divide range by five hexes and round down.

[rlbeaver]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Each megahex is actually 2.5 hexes so your closest approximation for missile weapon adjustment is to divide range by five hexes and round down.

Yeah, I realized I was not lining up the megahexes correctly and that my idea was flawed. If I'm just counting hexes and dividing by 5, it seems to shorten the range a bit somewhat considerably in some directions. But removing the abstraction of mega hexes when calculating range penalties doesn't leave many good options.

[hcobb]

A standard starting character with adjDX 14 on the light crossbow still needs to be 38 hexes away to have less than an even chance to hit.

[larsdangly]

That seems fair; the cook at my college geology field camp was an old Swiss woman who shot crossbows as a hobby; she said she could hit something the size of a dinner plate at 100 meters most of the time.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by rlbeaver

My solution is to just count basic combat hexes, and given that there is no penalty for same mega hex and 2 mega hex distant, I calculate range from the center of the Basic Combat hex with Dexterity adjustments being 0 for hexes 1-8 distant, -1 for 9 - 14 distant, and -2 for 15-20 distant.

This works fine, even though it isn't necessarily exactly as it would be on a board. Using the actual megahexes on a board can lead to some frustration, since it is possible to be at the edge of a MH, facing to the immediately adjacent one, and be able to cast creation spells further behind you than in front. They make for quick calculations, but counting individual hexes is just as good. A range ruler makes it even faster.

[rlbeaver]

Originally Posted by Shostak

This works fine, even though it isn't necessarily exactly as it would be on a board. Using the actual megahexes on a board can lead to some frustration, since it is possible to be at the edge of a MH, facing to the immediately adjacent one, and be able to cast creation spells further behind you than in front. They make for quick calculations, but counting individual hexes is just as good. A range ruler makes it even faster.

After fighting with different scenarios, image editors, I'm thinking of just going with 1 hex = 1 hex thus the range ruler counts hexes. Then I'll use hcobb's suggestion of dividing by 5 rounding down to resolve range and hoping that whatever spells use MH will translate in such a way I'm not having to jump through hurdles (or maybe I'll make a template sort of like Savage Worlds if it's something that comes up often.)

Onward to building the bestiary and compendium out.

[Steve Plambeck]

Yes, that "uncertain" position of the shooter/caster in their own megahex makes the problem ugly. Are they on the front "edge" of their megahex, or the back "edge"? It makes 2 hexes difference.

Since we only had "plain" hexpaper back in the day without any megahexes on it (TSR sold it on big sheets) my group decided to do without megahexes completely. To preserve the intent of the rules we:

Counted the number of hexes. Divided by 3 and used that as the decimal distance in megahexes. And then applied the rules to that number.

8 hexes / 3 = 2.67. As 2.67 megahexes is less than 3 megahexes, no DX penalty and you're within creation spell range. At 9 hexes the megahex "count" becomes 3, so you're beyond creation spell range and missiles are at -1 DX. At 14 hexes you're still at -1 DX (4.67 megahexes) but at 15 hexes away it's now 5.0 megahexes (15/3), so -2 DX begins.

On paper with megahexes, if besides you own megahex the target is over 4 actual megahexes away, that's when DX -2 kicks in as well.

[Oops, I misquoted Creation spell range. It's not 2 megahexes away from the megahex of origin, only 1.]

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

That seems fair; the cook at my college geology field camp was an old Swiss woman who shot crossbows as a hobby; she said she could hit something the size of a dinner plate at 100 meters most of the time.

In a post by George Takei on Facebook tonight, he shared this historical anecdote:

During WWI, the Kaiser supposedly asked Switzerland what they would do if they had only 250k soldiers, but Germany invade them with 500k soldiers.

The Swiss replied "We would shoot twice and go home."

[Helborn]

It's not just Missile range adjustments - MH also affects Creation spells. There can be an important tactical distinction between being able to create an illusion or Summon 5 hexes away vs only 3 hexes away.
The same for all of the multi-hex spells that are defined as covering a MH (MH Sleep, Pentagram, MH Freeze)


My solution has been to create clear overlays with MH outlines for when I can't use pre-prepared maps or MH tiles.


Shadekeeps mapping program works well for that.