Daniel (@dungeondive) wraps up the hex crawl coverage by examining the encounters system — the part he considers the expansion’s greatest strength. The encounters book contains 100 jobs-board entries, terrain encounters for every overland tile type, and wilderness encounters that replace standard travel hazards.
Terrain encounters are keyed to specific landscape types — desert, forest, mine, mountains, plains, railroad, river, road, swamp, town, and town ruins — ensuring thematic consistency as heroes traverse the map. Wilderness encounters trigger at the start of each day on a d8 roll of 1, and many include meaningful choices. Daniel walks through “Give My Love to Rose,” where a dying man’s fortune can be delivered honestly (earning free lodging and a potential NPC connection) or pocketed (risking corruption hits).
The episode also spotlights the Ultimate Travel Hazard Old West Companion Book, a fan-compiled tome by Nuno de Sá containing over 500 travel hazards drawn from hex crawl, other fan expansions, and original content. Rolled on 3d8, it dramatically expands the encounter variety — though Daniel notes the writing quality across fan works can be rougher than Flying Frog’s official prose.
Daniel reiterates his conviction that hex crawl transforms Shadows of Brimstone into a full solo RPG through persistent towns, the mine tracker, NPC creation, and the connective tissue these encounters provide between adventures.