Sunday, September 6, 2020

Travel Rules


Pathway - Eric J Fitch

Speed
Parties can travel two hexes per day, modified by the options below. Some options also change the results of the Exploration table.

Forage DC starts at 15 each morning. If you didn't roll it yesterday, or it feels right, roll once on Weather (see below).

Options:
+1 if you Rush, +5 Forage DC, changing 6. Feature into Hazard/Resource Drain and losing Surprise
+1 if you Soldier On, incurring Resource Drain
-1 if you Scout, -5 Forage DC, changing 5. Hazard into Hazard+Feature and gaining Surprise
-1 if you Hunt, -10 Forage DC

Modifiers (max of +1 per hex, additional bonus removes exploration die):
+1 if everyone is mounted
+1 if there is a Road
+1 if the terrain is Very Familiar
-1 in Terrible Conditions (mountainous, stormy, swampy)
-1 if anyone is Encumbered, Crippled or Lame and not mounted

Foraging
Each traveller rolls for Foraging at the end of the day. If they succeed, they found 1 ration along the way. If everyone fails, nobody found clean water.
No food within X hexes of town (X = 0, increases with development), no water in deserts. On a crit, find an extra 1d4 rations, or a Strange Herb.
Carrying water is difficult, it takes 1 slot of clean water per day to barely stay above dehydration.

Lost - Travis Couch

Exploration
Twice per day (or once per hex), roll 1d6:
  1. Encounter
  2. Traces
  3. Weather
  4. Resource Drain
  5. Hazard
  6. Feature
If the party is Rushing then #6 becomes either Hazard (if the hex is new) or Resource Drain (if the hex is familiar).
If the party is Scouting then #5 becomes Hazard + Feature.

Encounter
Ideally, each type of hex would have it's own random encounter table. This is the easy method:
  1. Recurring Characters (anyone you've met and then left again, heard about or are looking for. Villains and allies and everything in between should go on this list)
  2. Faction A (something you'd expect to see here)
  3. Faction A+ (as above, but worse. More numerous, tactically minded or with strange powers)
  4. Faction B (something unexpected, likely wanderers from a different hex)
  5. Solo (an individual, strange and obscure. Orthogonally powerful)
  6. Boss (something individually very dangerous. Might have a retinue)

Traces
If you keep doing whatever it is you are doing, then roll 1d6 on the table below. If you do anything else, don't. If you are travelling in a straight line, it is simple to veer of course and avoid whatever it might've been rustling in the bushes. If you are being chased finding a new course while in full flight is challenging. If you are camping and roll Traces, then packing up and moving on is enough to avoid the roll.
  1. Encounter surprises the party
  2. Party surprises an Encounter
  3. Hazard
  4. Hazard + Feature
  5. Encounter + Treasure
  6. Treasure


Weather
If you have a Ranger with you, then this is also Traces.
Roll 1d20 if it is currently sunny, 1d12 if it is raining:
7+ = Sunny
6- = Rain
If you are in a desert, replace rain with a dust-storm or even sunnier.

Resource Drain
Effects either the Leader (hard save negates), the Loser (no save), or Everyone (moderate save negates).
The Leader is whichever character is out in front, the Loser is whichever character is suffering the most at the moment. Either the Leader or Loser must volunteer to suffer the effect, otherwise it effects everyone. 
On any fail, roll 1d8 and 1d4:

1 2 3 4
1 +1 Fatigue
2 +1d4/2 Fatigue
3 +1d4 Mud
4 Choose between 1d4 Mud, 1d4 Hunger or 1d4 Thirst
5 +1 Hunger +1 Thirst +1 Exposure +1 Homesickness
6 Lose random item -1d6 HP -1 Morale Lose your bearings (-1 hex/day till you find landmark)
7 +1 Stress Minor leg injury Minor arm injury Random disease threatens
8 Fail next save Ill omen Minor curse threatens Lose all rations or weapons

Fatigue, Hunger, Mud, Thirst, Exposure and Homesickness each fill inventory slots. Not taking an opportunity to remove them can cause +1 Stress.

Fatigue is cleared by resting and relaxing, one removed per night of comfortable camping, all removed overnight in a proper settlement.
Mud is cleared by bathing and washing/changing clothes and boots. Pack clean socks!
Hunger and Thirst are each cleared by eating and drinking.
Exposure is cleared by having decent shelter and resting. Includes being too wet, too hot, too cold, too windy, too sunny or too dry.
Homesickness is cleared by travelling back to town or a settlement, or enjoying companionship (and probably booze) out in the wild.

Hazard
Roll on the following spark table. It may end up being a stationary encounter. Unless an alternate route is found, this will always be in the way travelling between these specific hexes.

d20 A B
1 Slippery Roots
2 Poisonous Vines
3 Sticky Gasses
4 Sharp Hole
5 Heavy Cliff
6 Diseased Water
7 Fungal Artefact
8 Hidden Sludge
9 Fragile Slime
10 Soft Path
11 Cramped Insects
12 Exposed Stragglers
13 Lost Boulder
14 Shifting Flowers
15 Cursed Seeds
16 Mysterious Scavengers
17 Flammable Miasma
18 Omen Dead end
19 Ancient False path
20 Bizarre Predator


Feature
You've found it! Whatever "it" is. After locating a Feature, you can travel to it any time you are in the same hex. Features include dungeons, settlements, resource sites and oddities.

Swamp Outpost - Magnus Schramm

Forest Giant - Eytan Zana

Mushroom Forest - Wojtek Fus

Waterfall -  Dmitriy Kuzin

Gate - J Line

Misha Oplev

Hidden Island - J Line

Town of Kalevala - Tuomas Korpi

Abandoned City - Quentin Mabille

Eroding Temple - Eytan Zana

Forgotten Crypt - Andreas Rocha


1 comment:

  1. I always like seeing travel and d6 hazard/encounter rules. Alas for the Sisyphean task of putting together the perfect combination ("perfect is the enemy of..."). Regardless, I am definitely bookmarking your set for reference.

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