At a recent convention, a friend told me about how they were currently running their players through a hexcrawl except that it was through the memories of an ice giant. I didn't get much detail past that but it was very inspiring to think about. So often we think of exploration in terms of physical exploration. I would put forth that you can use the same exploration procedures to explore non-geographical landscapes. Today I will outline two possible ways that you can use hexcrawls for something entirely different.

Memory

Using my friends home game as a jumping point, you could explore a creature's memory. This could be fun romp not to unlike a number of '70s X-Men comics where our heroes have to fight magneto inside of professor Xavier's brain in order to heal his broken mind. But this could also be a way to incept an idea into the king's mind, or away to steal a closely guarded secret. You could find out the true location of where the MacGuffin was hidden, or this could be a very unique way to interrogate the prisoner who won't talk and so you have to pull a heist in his mind. Or you could reimagine and expand the scope of Hideo’s World in your Mothership game.

Dream logic should apply to an extent. I've already done two adventures where you have to go inside someone's mind, so maybe I should hold off on doing a third for a while. But they were actually point crawls! So perhaps a different exploration procedures and a different theme would be different enough to not simply be retreading old ground. Anyway, using dream logic allows the PCs to quickly transition from one important location to the next. The boring bits in between can be hand waved away as something lost and not truly dreamed of. If the PCs want to change the nature of the dream then they can use whatever mechanic that system has to impose their will upon it. However, the dreamer's mind is the basis of the dream and has its own will. The more the PCs try to change the dream the more it pushes back.

As for the actual hex crawl. You could start anywhere in the dreamer's life, though for the sake of this will imagine that it's the dreamers home and that this will be some kind of modern setting. You can leave their home and go to the places that are of importance to them or that they often frequent: their job, their church, their kid's school, their favorite bar or hang out. Each location could have a version that is a regular dream and a version that is a nightmare. These would be different versions of the same hex that is connected to the dreamers home. There may well be hexes that are only accessible if you travel to them from a dream or from a nightmare. Further connected hexes could rely upon nightmare tropes or very personal memories of the dreamer. They could be real adult fears like losing their job or their spouse, or hopeful dreams like going on a fancy vacation. There could also be fantastic hexes where the dreamer is a secret agent until that dream quickly transitions into something else. Hexes that are on the outskirts might be connected to old or repressed memories. PCS must travel to stranger and more dangerous dream hexes in order to find their goal.

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Time Travel/ Universe Hopping

Hexcrawl procedures could be used for a time travel adventure too! This could be a shenanigans filled adventure where a time traveler appears at a dinner party, informing the PCs that they are about to make a horrible mistake before he suddenly is killed. Or maybe the PCs go back in time to kill Hitler but make everything worse. Or maybe you're playing a Terminator game and the timeline does and/or doesn't matter (who can truly say at this point) and they're going back into the past to make changes that will affect the future. Or perhaps the multiverse collapsing and they need to escape to the one golden timeline that will still remain.

Time travel logic and rules vary depending on the type of story that you're trying to tell and the method of time travel. This can very well be something that is highly reliant on player input and so the hexes might be created as you play it. If the PCs go back in time and squash a bug then maybe the next timeline is one where the world is ruled by bug people who sought revenge. Thus, a new adjacent hex is created. The PCs want to get out of there so they steal an artifact from the bug people timeline take it back in time and change history again thereby creating another adjacent hex. Of course, the GM could also create their own variety of timeline and alternate universes that the PCs have to travel through in order to get back home or to a new home. I suggest stealing your favorite ones from the countless multiverse based media that is so popular these days: the post-apocalypse timeline, the pod people, the Star Trek mirror universe, cowboy universe, fascism universe, etc.

Mechanically, the adjacent hexes could be represented by possible ways that the PCs can interact their immediate environment. For example, if trapped in a time traveling building then different rooms could each have a short list of suggested interactions with items or NPCs that represent different hex connections. Travel and significant choices could possibly be represented by describing how a PCs vision goes blurry except for the "interactable thing" that causes them to move that a new timeline hex.

Conclusion

Hexcrawls are the primary example of non-geographical exploration using procedures typically meant for geographical exploration. But a point crawl could be used just as well. Or a Brindlewood Bay style "creating the solution the the mystery" in order to craft a new timeline or find the solution to exploring memories. A Blades in the Dark flashbacks and clocks style of "remember when I grab the laser gun from that other timeline or memory" could also work great! So ponder this and create something new. And please tell me about your psychedelic adventures!

What unusual realms have you explored?

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