Blogwagon Announcement: Merry Hexmas

A new blog bandwagon where everyone writes a hex for a winter wonderland hexcrawl and posts it on their blog, linking to blogs that have adjacent hexes.

Note: Originally posted on my blog, but reposting here for wider awareness.

It is blog bandwagon time once again, but this time with a bit of a twist. We (that includes you, yes you) are each going to write the contents of a single hex. Simple enough! But then in your post, you list any hexes other bloggers have written that are connected to your hex, including which direction and a link to their post. When someone links to your post, it would be nice to update it with the connection they suggested going in the opposite direction. Also, if this is your first time of hearing about a “blog bandwagon”, it is a call-to-arms for bloggers to all write a post loosely on the same theme and post them roughly at the same time.

For example, Rudy writes a hex containing a bunch of skeletons who are disguised as snowmen. Vixen then writes a hex containing a cave full of carnivorous reindeer where the half-eaten remains of Mrs. Claus can be found, and notes in her hex that it is just south of Rudy’s snowman hex. Rudy sees it (maybe Vixen even messages him somewhere, if she is feeling polite) and updates his post to show that Vixen’s reindeer cave lies due north of his hex. Volia. And future bloggers may riff off their ideas further, e.g., perhaps Donner writes about Archibald the Elf, a disgruntled employee of Santa Claus and (now former) lover of Mrs. Claus, and how he offers adventurers a reward (mastercrafted toy sword that does +1 damage to bearded men) if they can find his beloved Mrs. Claus.

As you, astute reader, may have inferred from the above and even from the “Merry Hexmas” title, the concept of this bandwagon is that the hexes will be united by a theme. The theme is that this area exists (very very loosely) within the Rankin/Bass Christmas cinematic universe. For those unaware, Rankin/Bass (the production house behind the Last Unicorn and The Hobbit cartoon animations) produced a metric frost-ton of stop-motion claymation holiday schlock for children. If you haven’t seen them, I will include my recommendations for which to watch to get a sense of the cinematic universe. Content warning: they are very hokey. Note that you don’t need to have seen any of them and go purely off the vibes you think they have if you feel or based on the Christmas slop you’ve absorbed by osmosis.

In terms of system, feel free to use whatever system you are most comfortable, if one needs to be used. OSE and Cairn seem to be good linquae francae, but we are all used to converting things to our preferred system anyway. Also, one other piece of guidance: don’t feel like you can’t use an iconic Christmas character like Santa, Frosty, or Sweet Baby Jesus Christ out of fear that they might appear in someone else’s hex. If Santa is in multiple hexes, maybe that just means he is a recurring character (as Strahd is to Ravenloft, Santa is to the North Pole). Or maybe one is real, and the others are all fakes like you’d find in shopping malls back when those weren’t blighted slop warehouses dotting the husk of suburbia. Also, feel free to write multiple hexes, in one blog post or one hex per post, whatever floats your toy boat.

Let’s build a winter wonderland together! I will be on the search (but feel free to DM me on discord, tag me on Bluesky, or whatever) for any posts for this bandwagon between right NOW (or, if you are a bit more traditional, after Thanksgiving) and the end of December 25. Then I will try to do a roundup of all of the posts shortly thereafter. The more posts, the larger our collective north pole will become. And don’t wait to the end to post yours—the earlier you post, the more likely others are able to connect their hexes to yours!

Appendix R/B:

Here is the order in which I would recommend you watch the Rankin/Bass Christmas cinematic universe. I’m also going to break them into tiers (all of this involves my own editorializing, of course). Helpfully, there turned out to be 20 in this list, so if you want to watch at random, take out your trusty d20!

The Essentials

1. Rudolph the Red

2. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town

3. The Year Without a Santa Claus (this is the best one, with the best music and characters fyi)

4. Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (not about Christmas but essential for the LORE)

Still Quite Important

5. Frosty the Snowman

6. Jack Frost

Wait, Jesus Exists in This?!

7. The Little Drummer Boy

8. Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

I Haven’t Even Seen These and Don’t Plan to

9. Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (after googling it, maybe I should watch this one)

10. The Cricket on the Hearth

11. The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow

12. Frosty’s Winter Wonderland

13. The Little Drummer Boy: Book II

14. Pinocchio’s Christmas

15. The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold

16. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

What the Hell? These Aren’t Even About Christmas!

17. Here Comes Peter Cottontail

18. The First Easter Rabbit

19. The Hobbit

20. The Easter Bunny is Comin’ to Town

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