The Nodecrawl Post

 This is the nodecrawl post.  A nodecrawl is the way that I tend to think about information that isn't organized in a more specific way.  As this post will later define, there are many ways to think about information at different levels of abstraction and one or another can be the best for you.  The nodecrawl is the most universal, and therefore most abstracted, way to think about pacing and travel through a sequence of imagined spaces or units of time.

Thesis: All crawls are the same thing, a way of presenting and pacing travel through an imagined space or time.  They can be generalized as nodecrawls, where you move from node to node through linkages.  A linkage is how you travel from one node to another node.  A node is not a point of interest, though it might contain points of interest.  Rather, a node is whatever location or nexus you can travel within without needing to engage your systemic travel mechanics.  Use of a linkage moves you from one node to another but engages the systemic travel mechanics.

Here's some examples of existing things expressed as nodecrawls and the mechanics they use:

Classic dungeon crawls:  A room is a node.  Moving from one room to another takes up 1 turn of game time.  Events such as random encounters may trigger when moving or as time passes, torches burn down, etc.

Hexcrawls:  A hex is a node.  Moving from one hex to another requires your game's overland travel mechanics.  Exploring within a hex uses different mechanics, details varying by exact game.

Citycrawls:  A district or neighborhood is a node.  Moving from one district to another utilizes your travel mechanics, while travel within the district (from one shop to another) does not.

Wavecrawls:  An island is a node.  Moving from one island to another utilizes your game's travel mechanics.

Skycrawl:  A Land is a node.  Moving from one Land to another uses the travel mechanics.

If you're famliar with all of these, you might notice an additional thing; points of interest can occur during a linkage as well as at a node.  If you're trying to draw this on an actual hexmap, this can be annoying, because you need to place it exactly within a hex and figure out which hex it's in, since you're in the process of moving from one to another.  With a nodecrawl map, it's easy; you just put it on the linkage that goes from A to B, and when the party travels from A to B along that linkage, you know that they have the option for that PoI along the way.

A node and its linkage can be defined at whatever level of 'zoom' or abstraction that you want to define it at.  It's also worth nothing that this helps free up easy ways to diagram things that are not limited by in-game terrain; a shortcut or teleportation portal, for example, is annoying to include on a traditional hexmap.  But on a nodecrawl map, it's just another linkage.  A has a linkage to B, and also a linkage to F.  Of course, you don't have to explicitly diagram out every possible linkage either, if you're doing something like a hexmap or a dungeon map.  On a standard hexmap, every face of a hex is a linkage to the other hex that it touches, unless you need to define otherwise (perhaps a range of high mountains can be accessed only through one face of its hex, and none of the other faces are linkages, which you could diagram on the map by putting a / though every inaccessible face).

Here is a very simple example nodecrawl about climbing a mountain.  On the map, nodes are labeled as N# and linkages as L#.#.  The two numbers for a linkage are the two nodes they connect.  (It's easier to understand when looking at the map than the list.)  Details of linkages are defined only if they're interesting; otherwise, they are mentioned but not defined, and assumed to follow standard travel rules for the area and system.  One-way linkages are notated with a crudely drawn triangle on the map; they are also only mentioned on the node that you can take them from.

(Map note:  Note that the actual arrangement of the nodes doesn't matter, just the linkages between them.  I'm sure there's a better way to draw this.  I made it in Paint in 5 minutes and I can't draw the broad side of a barn.)

N1: Base of the Mountain

Linkages: L1.2

The base of the mountain.  Contains base camp as a point of interest.

N2: Ascent

Linkages: L2.3, L1.2

The ascent is crowded with other climbers.  This may involve social encounters, combat encounters, or environmental challenges including rescuing climbers who have fallen from higher up.

N3: Chimney

Linkages: L3.4, L2.3, L3.1

A narrow vertical climbing section, requires challenging skill checks to progress.  At the top of the chimney is a flat ledge that can be used to rest.

Linkage L3.1:  If characters fail badly enough climbing the chimney, they fall off the side of the mountain and are returned to base camp with a large amount of falling damage.

N4: Cliff

Linkages: L4.5a, L4.5b, L3.4

Linkage L4.5b: While the other path up is a standard vertical climb, a side path around the edge of the cliff offers an easier climb.  If located, this path offers a new linkage with easier climbing checks.

N5: Summit

Linkages:  L4.5a, L4.5b, L5.2

Linkage L5.2: A steep, winding slide offers a fast way down for characters willing to daredevil their way off the mountain.  Some sort of vehicle, like a sled, would make this path vastly safer than trying to slide down on foot.

In this particular example, the thing to note is that not every linkage is two-way.  The straight path up and down the mountain is two-way, but the chimney and the summit both have one-way linkages that go down the mountain to another node.  The cliff also has a secret linkage, not immediately obvious to characters, that provides an easier way up if located.

As a practical matter, what does this do for you, other than letting you use more sci-fi type words when describing your pointcrawl?  First, there are a few differences from the standard pointcrawl.  Most notably, there's the explicit definition that a node requires using your game's travel mechanics to leave.  A pointcrawl doesn't separate as cleanly and can include both traditional points of interest and major areas.  You can run a pointcrawl off a hexmap where every hex is a point, and every PoI is also a point, but there's not a lot of point to it.  With a nodecrawl, you can take a hexmap and make every hex into a node, then every path from hex to adjacent hex becomes a linkage, which helps define your travel in the imagined space while also providing a clear place for points of interest to occur along the linkage.  (In this case, every hex face would be a linkage, and you might have other linkages as well for shortcuts, underground passages, teleportation circles, and so on.)  Is that a lot of nodes?  Yes it is.  If you prefer, you can define a group of hexes as a node.  Your nodes don't need to be equal size to each other.  As long as you can travel around inside a node without invoking travel mechanics, and use travel mechanics to move from one node to another, the exact details of what a node is don't need to be consistent.

Second, it defines the paths as places of their own.  A path isn't just something that you scroll over in the background; it's a place that takes you from point A to point B.  It can have points of interest along it, and you know where those PoIs are and how to get back to them.

Third, we should all admit that as a practical matter, no, there isn't that much difference between the different kinds of crawls.  We're all describing the same kind of thing and the main diference is just whether or not the mapping used also maps cleanly onto your brain.  Use whatever presentation you like, whether it's a traditional hexmap, a pointcrawl map, a nodecrawl, the index cards from Skycrawl, or whatever else works for you.  Mix and match methods, and mix and match GM advice for different kinds.  If there's one thing to take away from this that's valuable, that bit is what I'd say is the most important; if you're running a hexcrawl, and you see someone giving advice for a citycrawl, you can probably still use that advice if it sounds cool to you.  All crawls are one and all advice is convertible between them.

The key to making a nodecrawl setup worth the effort is to use interesting linkages.  If every linkage you define is just a door between rooms, or a six mile border of clear terrain with no interesting parts, what's the point?  You put in a bunch of extra effort and got nothing out of it.  If a linkage between hexes is the only passage through the high mountains, suddenly this is an interesting fact about the world that might become relevant in other ways.  You have it defined, you know how it works to traverse it, and you know that it's the only passage between these two hexes (or is it?  is there a secret linkage, an ancient dwarven dungeon under the mountains?)  A teleportation portal might be a linkage between hexes that only works on a full moon (but takes you to the Abyss if you use it in a blood moon).

Also a fun fact to note; this method of organizing things doesn't have to actually refer to physical places in the game world.  You can use the nodecrawl structure for scenes in an adventure, progression through a magical ritual, decrypting a code book, or anything else that involves travel or progression (literal or metaphorical) from one thing to another along defined paths.  A nodecrawl can describe progression through time as well as through space.  (Space and time are, after all, related.)  You progress from one node to another in a skill challenge as easily as you do in a dungeon crawl.  (This also fixes the biggest problem with skill challenge type designs, their failure to evolve to the situation; with a nodecrawl, you have clearly defined what causes the situation to change and what the new situation is once it does.)