Hexmas 2025 - Hexmas Train Depot
Final Hexmas Map
This entire project wouldn't have been possible without Prismatic Wasteland's Blogwagon Call. Another shoutout to Among Cats and Books for keeping a spreadsheet of all the entries. It made it incredibly easy to mark off entries as I added them. Creating this map has been a delight. As entries filtered in, I learned more about design and layout, changing the design to fit the needs of the map and representation of all the entries. While I'd love to have hand drawn icons to keep it consistent throughout, I'll settle for this.
The Hexmas map has evolved into a complete, beautiful 60-hex map, and bloggers took to requesting a space and incorporating their neighbors into each other in a fantastic way. Thanks everyone for indulging me! I'm squeezing one more hex in at the last minute to celebrate some of my favorite hexes/hexes that make sense to have a train station. I have also fell in love with Amtrak over the last couple years and desperately wish the US would fund public transportation. Yes, I give you the Hexmas Train (HT).
Hexmas Train - 0108
HT is fueled by the Christmas Spirit of Earth. Every time a significant portion of children stop believing in the joy of Christmas, the train breaks down. HT has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking down due to the ever constant decline of Christmas Spirit. The depot for HT is a myriad of disused cars, a junkyard, and other odds and ends.
Terrain
The terrain of the depot used to be rolling plains but has since become an industrious junkyard with a variety of buildings scattered throughout. Those unfamiliar with the space have a 2-in-6 chance of getting lost.
Locations
- Junkyard: A rust bucket of disused cars and a pile of railway track from before the train could fly.
- Workshop: A sad, small workshop where workers do repairs and maintenance on a variety of cars. They're currently trying to unionize.
- Conductor Lounge: A quiet and cozy room for the conductors to relax in-between shifts.
- Warehouse: This houses everything the train delivers.
- Underground Loading Station ("The Tubes"): A variety of hexes send goods through underground tubes that deliver them to this loading station. A group once tried to take the tubes instead of using the train. They are forever lost down there, and take deliveries to sustain themselves.
Neighbors
- North: Postal Coastal Town
- Northeast: Pando's Noble Pines
Operations
A flying train must maintain streamlined operations. This one does not.
How to Use the Train
- Determine train's destination by following the route.
- Execute train travel (opportunity for RP).
- Roll for detaching a car.
- If detaching, roll for train deliveries.
Route, Travel, and Weather
The train starts with 12 cars, 6 passenger and 6 cargo. Every stop, there's a 2-in-6 chance the Hexmas Train detaches a car. Odds it's a passenger car, even it's a cargo car, regardless if it's their stop. Riding the train is free contingent upon signing a waiver to board. If the car detached is a cargo one, roll on the Train Deliveries table to see what's left behind. The train travels across a hex in 2 hours.
- Depot (0108) -> Island of Misfit Toys (0407)
- Island of Misfit Toys (0407) -> Jaw-Break Shore (0706)
- Jaw-Break Shore (0706) -> Sadtown (0602)
- Sadtown (0602) -> Castle Claus (0302)
- Castle Claus (0302) -> Coal Mountain (0101)
- Coal Mountain (0101) -> Gingerbread Village (0204)
- Gingerbread Village (0204) -> Hexmas Train (0108)
While this is the most common route for the Hexmas Train, it's subject to change given ongoing events and festivals.
Inclement weather can impact the train.
- Fog: Upon entering a foggy space, stops at a random (roll 1d6) neighboring hex.
- Wind: Takes twice as long to arrive, 2-in-6 chance of arriving at a location 2 hexes away.
- Snow: Flies twice as fast, 1-in-6 chance of arriving at a neighboring hex instead.
Train Driver
Who runs the Hexmas Train? No one knows. It's a mystery, and access to the driver's car is forbidden. All who enter have never been seen again.
Train Deliveries
The Hexmas Train has a robust delivery system of chaos. It's understaffed, underfunded, and underloved. The Conductors don't ask too many questions about what's going on or what they're taking. They are trustworthy to a fault. They also oftentimes mix up orders. Possible orders include the following and can arrive anywhere else in Hexmas:
Key: Item, Original Location
- Lumber, Pando's Noble Pines (0207)
- Mail Packages, Postal Coastal Town (0107)
- Sugar, Jaw-Break Shore (0706)
- Peppermint Trees, The Peppermint Wood (0701)
- Coal, Coal Mountain (0101)
- Train Pathogen, ???
Train Pathogens
Unfortuantely, the train is sometimes asked to carry horrific pathogens, and it sometimes infects the passengers and/or the hex it's delivered to. They are the following:
- Raw Milk: Causes necrotic damage to gingerbread folk.
- Sugar Mist: Powdered sugar that makes consumers go into a frenzy and seek out sugar by any means necessary.
- Pastry Puff: Pastry Puff that's been filled with an unnameable fungi. Explodes after 1d4 turns and infects all in a 39 1/2 ft. radius. The fungi is degenerative. Melts snow creatures/snow people at 2x the rate of others.
- Toymites: Eats toys and constructs at an alarming rate. Like termites but smaller and harder to get rid of.
Wrap-Up
I wasn't able to pour as much time into this one as I'd like, but I loved the idea of a dynamic piece of the Hexmas that traveled everywhere. I also wanted to include a minigame of sorts with train cars detaching and never knowing what you'll get when the train arrives. Again, this was a joyous endeavor, and I'm so proud of all of us who participated!! If you share the map, please give me a ping on BlueSky (@Bakenshake). I'll be turning the map into an itch.io project with PDF links, connecting everyone who participated shortly after sharing this post (will update with link here too)!
Happy New Year's Eve!