In Defense of Empty Hexes

In this post, I argue that hexcrawls don't need to have a key for every hex, and might even be better if they don't.1 My perspective on this is influenced by my experience running Antarctica jam.2 Per discussions on Discord and what people have written, there's a common (but not universal) perception that hexcrawls should be dense, with, say, at least 50% of the hexes filled.3 I won't pretend I'm not tilting at windmills here, but I do think there's a common perception that a hexcrawl is incomplete unless it's wall-to-wall with hexes. In the context of AAJ I try not to push my ideas on others -- the ethos of the jam is about presenting people with an impossible task and enjoying the diversity of approaches that ensue. But on my personal weblog, I won't shy away from expressing my annoying, contrarian opinions. The hexcrawls are too damn dense! Some of the first hexes I crawled were in Hot Springs Island. It's a rich, complex scenario, but in most sessions we would move exactly one hex…