Why Do So Many Hex Maps Have No Numbering or Index?

[Kane]

Other than for GURPS battle maps, the primary reason I use hex maps is for hex crawls and/or taking spreadsheet notes on a vast number of map objects. A lot of hex maps I find in games or online will have a hex map with all kinds of details, but no numbering or even column-row indicators.

It just seems to me that for anything you would use a hex map for, having little numbers indicating ever hex cell's position would also be useful. Now days it's almost impossible to even find hex paper (especially with numbering).

You can put it in Worldographer or Roll20 and try to line it up and impose a grid, but it seems like most mapping software allows the original creator to add them simply by hitting a check box, so why not? What do people even use un-numbered hex maps for? I mean, obviously it can just be a map, and could be used as a map even if the formatting was all wrong for rpgs (say an atlas map of Earth, which has all sorts of non RPG information), and a hex-grid map is usually designed for RPGs in any case. And I suppose like any grid it makes it easier to count by units instead of getting out a ruler. But why not put them on, even if you never use them?

[Tazer_The_Yoot]

I assume the intention of the unnumbered ones is more of a free-form sandbox hex crawl using the random encounter tables instead of pre-designed set pieces. Of course, you could always combine the two, which is my preference.

[Kane]

I assume the intention of the unnumbered ones is more of a free-form sandbox hex crawl using the random encounter tables instead of pre-designed set pieces. Of course, you could always combine the two, which is my preference.

Even if I use tables to generate everything as they enter the hex, I'm going to want a record of what was there and what happened. I suppose some people are happy with 'the fields south of Solomania' as a note, I like to have specifics.