Let’s Take A Journey…
In previous articles, we’ve looked at things like exploration challenges, boons, and monster signs, and supplies and safe havens. But how does this all fit together?
The Journey Rules
Journeys are the heart of exploration. They’re not the only thing in the exploration pillar, but they are an important part of it.
A journey is divided into regions. A region might be Country Roads, Feywood, or Unrelenting Marsh. Each region has certain properties. The hobbits in Lord of the Rings initially travelled through Country Roads until they reached Bree, and then Winding Prairie (grasslands, hills) on their way to Rivendell. Other regions include Baned Badlands, Northern Tundra, Mountains of Doom, and more.
When you embark on a journey, you choose your travel pace. If you have wagons, your pace is slow (and certain regions may be impassable to you). If you are mounted, it is fast. Other factors apply, of course, such as forced marches, vehicles, galloping your horses, and so on. Your travel pace determines how far you move each day, but moving faster might make you less able to spot encounters or move stealthily.
Journey Activities
While traveling, characters can undertake journey activities. These are: befriend animal, busk, chronicle, gather components, gossip, harvest, hunt, forage, pray, rob, and scout. Each activity has a different DC depending on the region (it’s hard to forage in the desert; it’s easy to busk in the city), and a successful check provides the party with certain benefits. For example, scouting reveals information about the next region, and uncovers boons and discoveries, and hunting enables you to gain Supply,
Journey Encounters
Ultimately it’s up to the Narrator how many journey encounters the PCs have. However, we advise one per region. The Narrator can increase or decrease this as they wish.
An encounter can be a monster encounter (which is where the monster signs come in!), an exploration challenge, or a social encounter. We’ve discussed two of those things before. The third, social encounters, involve a simple (though extensive) table of social encounters, such as a knight looking for her lost love, or a squad of guards who think you’re a rival evil adventuring party. There are tools - name and heritage tables - to help the Narrator flesh out that encounter, but social encounters are designed as ‘hooks’ for them to run away with.
Each terrain type has its own encounter tables divided by tier — Tier 2 Arctic Encounters is a different table to Tier 4 Desert Encounters, and each has a selection of monster, exploration, and social challenges.
Supply & Fatigue
We’ve covered both of these in more detail in previous articles, but here’s a quick reminder:
Supply is the party ‘journey hit points’. It’s an abstract measure of food, water, and other consumables. When you run out of Supply, you gain fatigue when you rest. This is bad.
Fatigue is one half of our new name for Exhaustion (the other half is Strife — think Frodo with the ring, morale, resolve, fear, panic). You can only recover these at a haven.
A haven is a place where you can rest, get a meal, and a full night’s sleep, without fear of attack or harm from the elements. To carry on the LotR examples, Weathertop was not a safe haven; Rivendell and Bree were.
So what does a journey look like?
When you take a journey, you’ll be tracking a simple, abstract resource called Supply, and trying to avoid gaining fatigue or strife.
You’ll travel through one or more regions, mainly heading from one haven to the next, or roughing it if that’s not possible. In each region you’ll have one (or more) encounter, which might be a monster, exploration, or social challenge. You might lose hit points or spells or Supply during these challenges, or discover boons. You will also undertake journey activities which affect your journey.
You might be affected by a tornado, or encounter a broken bridge. You might see signs of a nearby monster — maybe a stone animal hinting at a nearby basilisk! — and the Narrator has plenty of tools to make sure those monster encounters are interesting. Or you might meet a merchant trying to sell you dodgy potions or a boastful young squire keen to join the party.