Comment on “Wildered Wildlings Wilding the Wildness”

It seems to me a major theme of this post is that the wilderness should be legible. (Maybe legibility not the best word but I will run with it.) Players, especially with a druid or ranger in the party, should be able to observe and intelligently traverse the landscape, follow the routes made by animals, notice or discover the presence of “builder” type creatures, and so on.

When should the wilderness be *less* legible? NOT confusing - don’t want to completely stymie and discourage the players - but with answers less readily at hand. A related question might be: how much should ability to successfully traverse wilderness be mediated by sage abilities, versus be available to all characters/parties?

My first level party of 2 PCs, a ranger and a fighter, are about to explore an area consisting of about five 2-mile hexes, all of which are wilderness per your text group generator, and which consist of hilly forested terrain. Yet the Ranger does not have any orientation/scouting/pathfinding skills - shouldn’t I treat him like any other character, despite your callouts above about a ranger being able to notice paths, and a good ranger being able to understand the ranges of predators?