This topic over on The Cauldron talking about hexes (originally, in reference to this blog post has me thinking about the purpose and, by extension, size of a hex in dnd¹.

To me, hexes have always been spaces on a game board, essentially. Sure, stuff happens inside of them, but the hexes themselves are for counting movement. They're abstractions. But, to my surprise, to some (see this blog post and the referenced original linked above) they're a measuring stick for adjudicating mile-by-mile (and sometimes even more granular than that!) movement across a representational space.

Something else linked in the Cauldron topic (this blog post) also has me rethinking my universal six-mile hex. Might three-mile be better for abstract hex maps?

These are just questions right now, but I hope I'll be able to form some coherent opinions after some more thought and discussion. More soon!

1: I'm speaking about the folk tradition of dnd and tabletop roleplaying adventure games here, and not corporate D&D. ↩︎