Hexmas 2025 - Hearth
Another blogwagon by Prismatic Wasteland has summoned the bloggers. This time, it's about creating a hex, using the rankin/bass Christmas productions as inspiration. You can read more about in Prismatic's post. Let's get into hexes!!
Hexmas Map So Far
In the Prismatic Waystation, I've been keeping track of each person who has joyously contributed to the Hexmas map! Here's the current map with my own contribution, Hearth, included. It will be updated regularly as more entries are added.
Note: The Island of Misfit Toys and King Kringle are not on the Hexmas Map as they were created with no neighbors.
Hearth - 0404
My primary inspiration for this hex is Cricket on the Hearth.
Terrain
Hearth is where the mouth of the Molasses River is. The banks of the river are made of forest with the North side featuring christmas trees, and the South side featuring candy canes. Small villages of crickets are dotted along the river where they live on a hodgepodge of material from their neighbors (toys, wrapping paper, etc.) that's reinforced with molasses as a kind of mortar.
Location
Hearth is a small secluded town of cricket humanoids. The town is built from debris that flows down from Snow Miser's area into the Molasses River. Multiple cricket factions live here together in what appears to be harmony, though, it's quickly learned that this is fracturing.
A small council, compromising of the cricket factions run Hearth.
The Factions are:
- Forest Cricket: Laborers, Business critters, and the largest group in Hearth.
- Water Cricket: The small military arm of Hearth. They skip across the surface of the river, running efficient patrols. They are one a very select few groups that can provide passage to The Island of Misfit Toys.
- Underground Cricket: An elite group, they're the spies of Hearth. Some think they aren't even real.
Neighbors:
- North: The Christmas Tree Forest
- Northwest: Unknown
- Northeast: Snow Miser's Showboat
- South: The Quiet Season: Mooncap Manor
- Southwest: Unknown
- Southeast: The Seven Levels of the Candy Cane Forest
NPCs in Hearth
- Big-C (He/Him) - Forest Cricket. The oldest Cricket out of them all, a kind and senile old critter. Longest sitting councilmember of Hearth. Holds a lot of sway in the community.
- Murky (He/Him) - Leader of the Water Crickets, a friendly drunk that's eager to push out any lingering MegaCorp employees.
- Jay (They/Them) - A Water Cricket that finds Hearth to be antiquated and parties with Snow Miser often.
- Hatch (She/Her) - Rumors of Hatch have circled around Hearth as an Underground cricket. No one knows what she looks like.
- Tack - MegaCorp Subsidary. A greedy outsider that's eager to be rid of Hearth entirely.
- Bertha - A blind woman that's protected by Big-C.
Terrain Affinity
I'm wanting to utilize Terrain Affinity with this hex rather than a traditional encounter table, so if the party passes through here X number of times, certain areas of the hex will be discovered by the party. They're the following:
| Terrain Affinity Count | Discovery |
|---|---|
| 1 | An ex-Megacorp employee lives secluded on the South banks of the river. They will warn of what's hapening in the Seven Levels of the Candy Cane Forest if treated nicely. |
| 2 | A crystallized tree stands 20 feet tall in the middle of the river in a spot that most never see. The wind asks for ornaments to be hung on it when players stand near it. A crow sometimes lands on top and will lead players to a trap placed by Tack. |
| 3 | An abandoned building known as The Poor House has a note pinned on its door, beckoning for donations. Most crickets will not even talk about this place if the party asks. If the house is repaired or material equivalent done in donations, Hatch will appear to the party and give them the Blessing of Hearth. |
| 4 | A shattered monolith is buried in an abandoned Cricket Village. It tells a tale of how an underwater volcano created the Molasses River. A creature is said to live around the hydrothermal vents of the volcano, biding its time. |
| 5 | A small brook leads to an overgrown memorial for an old toymaker. It's for Bertha's father who helped build Hearth when it was first established. Only Big-C knows more about it. |
Note: Another nice thing about Terrain Affinity, the pips for affinity can change every hex, and they don't have to correspond to a dice roll, which I like a lot.
Hexmas Key and Stocking Stuffers
I want to do something that celebrates all the other creators on the Hexmas Map, so I'm giving each creator their own Stocking Stuffer. This is a brief comment on what I love about each hex created so far.
| Number | Hex Number | Hex Name | Stocking Stuffer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0303 | Three Calves | This is a hilarious interpretation, and I love how it becomes old hat very quickly before they kill the *nomad* again, haha. I enjoy how it's told more like a story than a standard hex sheet. |
| 2 | 0402 | The Transient Snowfields | I'm obsessed with the concept of a Gingerbread mecha, and I wonder if this writer is a fan of Legos? Animated snow gives such etch-a-sketch vibes too. |
| 3 | 0403 | The Christmas Tree Forest | I appreciate that there are stats for the encounters on this one, but my favorite part is the Advent Henge, taking a well known landmark and turning it into a fighting arena. |
| 4 | 0405 | The Quiet Season: Mooncap Manor | The art on this hex alone is perfect. I wish had these skills, haha, but I also love the gameable odd jobs list that gives a lot of incentive for players to travel/stay. |
| 5 | 0503 | The Silver Steppe | The multi-part quest for repairing the Tiny Bronco is a delight. Some of this post reminds me of FFXIV. Am I wrong or right here? Nice to see grasslands as a terrain hex too. At the end, re-entering the hex has some triggers which I love. Obviously. |
| 6 | 0504 | Snow Miser's Houseboat | This hex sounds like a good time to party it up. I love the usage of penguins and often enjoy a X-in-6 chance of something happening. A houseboat is a great break from more common Christmas themes too. Party with the Penguins when? |
| 7 | 0505 | The Seven Levels of the Candy Cane Forest | So much sweet (pun intended) gameable content in here. As a kid, I loved all the weird flavored candy canes, so this one is dear to my heart. I like the socio-economic considerations with it as well. |
| 8 | 0506 | Babbling Baboon | There's a dungeon map! Another mecha, this time a baboon, and I'm into it. It feels absurd and demonic to me in a good way. Another socio-economic commentary. This one seems all about the cost of toys and supporting the local arts! |
| 9 | 0602 | Sadtown | My favorite part of this hex are the list of NPCs that are in Miser's court, and all of them hail from other hexes on the map. I love the collaboration! Also lots of great details on locations in this. |
| 10 | 0603 | The Orcish Factory | The firsty entry to the bandwagon, I believe, and part of what set our orientation of the hexmap! Caves of Co-Op is a great name and my favorite area of this hex. This is where I'd be, haha. |
| 11 | 0604 | The Chapel of the Green | My favorite piece here is the Cephalophore Class. What a great cleric variant that hits the vibes of this Hexmas perfectly. |
| 12 | 0605 | Swirly Twirly Sea | Tacked on at the creation of the 7 Levels of the Candy Cane Forest, this one is still unwritten about it. Mayhap you, fine reader, will take up the pen and tell us about this place? |
| 13 | 0703 | The Sleeping Slopes | Love the volcano in this one, and it gives me vibes for a fun volcano dungeon crawl. As someone who also included a volcano, this is my favorite part of this hex! |
| 14 | 0704 | The Vorpal Vale | The alliteration in this name feels so good to say out loud. The curse and its mechanics are a super fun way to dump all kinds of lore and references of which my favorite entry is Ruprecht Belznickle, the redcap. |
| 15 | 0705 | The Rime Ridge | I enjoy how much the weather impacts travel here, especially the fog rolling into he vale given what's going on. Yay weather! |
| 16 | 0803 | The Powder Plains | I appreciate the name January Junction and like the small town that it is. I'm also a big sucker for cults so haha. |
| 17 | 0804 | The Autumn Valley | This hex has trains and an autumn council that I love. Long live public transportation! The flavor in this hex is fabulous. |
| 18 | N/A | The Island of Misfit Toys | This is another one that gives heavy dungeon vibes, and I like how King Moonracer as a character. Misfit constructs gives a perfect blend of tabletop and Christmas. |
| 19 | N/A | King Kringle | An entire adventure rather than a blog-filled hex! I appreciate that it's freely available and find the art to be super inviting. The doomstack mechanic is neat and interesting. I'm keen to try it! |
Final Notes
I appreciate that with each hex entry we get, there's more collaborative overlap in the encounters and what kind of people players might find. This has been one of my favorite blog bandwagons, and I think the one I've put the most work into so far, haha.
In doing the stocking stuffers, it seems Snow Miser is our most referenced character/production of the Rankin/Bass productions.
If I'm missing your entry, please reach out, and please feel free to use the Hexmaps map as well. Ping me @Bakenshake on BlueSky or Discord if you do.
Enjoy!