Journey Rules

Those rules were greatly inspired by 'The One Ring rpg' rules. Tell me what do you think of them:

New Skills:

. Bushcraft: The capacity to track creatures and enemies, besides finding sustain in the wild through fishing, hunting etc. That's the same skill, but now it also includes Tracking.

. Explore: The ability to search the wild and design traversal paths.

. Travel: The ability to make great journeys,  follow maps and endure long periods of march through the wild.

The Rules:

. Before traveling, all players should decide the journey roles for each one of them. One must be the Guide (only one can be the guide). The others can choose to be the Hunter, Explorer and Watcher. More than 1 player can choose the same function, but if the same player is on more than one role, he receives -1 on his skills test.

. The characters should state their itinerary, which path they want to take. Then, the GM would calculate the adjusted distance. To do that, he must first calculate the overall distance in miles that they will cross. Then, he must multiply the distance with the modifier from the terrain:
    Plains and open fields = x1
    Cliffs, rough terrain, woods = x2
    Dense forests, jungle, swamps, deserts, ice fields = x3
    Passes through the Mountains = x5
    Mountains without paths = x10

    So, traversing 50 miles through the jungle would be an adjusted distance of 150 miles

. Then, pick the 'per day miles' walked value of the character with the most encumbrance. That will be the miles/day of the group. (per order of encumbrance: 24/18/12/6/0). Calculate the number of days needed of travel. If there is any place where a road passes through, multiply by two the per day millage walked.

. With the total of days needed calculated, determine the number of travel rolls for this Journey. The season will determine it: Winter = 1test each 3 days; Autumn = 1 test each 4 days; Spring = 1 test each 5 days; Summer = 1 test each 6 days. Each travel roll will be one step of the journey.

. On a success of a travel roll, the characters are fine. On a failure, a hazard happens. Also, at each step of the journey, besides the Travel roll, the gm should roll a d12 to random determine a task for one of the journey roles. 1,2,3= Guide (roll Travel), 4,5,6 = Explorer (roll explore); 7,8,9 = Hunter (roll Bushcraft), 10,11, 12 = Watcher (roll surprise). If he fails on the supplementary roll, a hazard happens.

. Hazards: They can be anything – A storm that afflicts the players; They get lost; Random disease; Monsters; Strange noises; Strange lights on the horizon. Anything that can unsettle, hurt or confuse them is a Hazard. If the group gets 2 hazards on a travel step, the GM can either call 2 different hazards or make a very tough one.
    Examples:
    . Hunger: The group was not able to find provisions and are starving. Use the rules on the core book.

    . Lost: Like in the playbook

    . Hard terrain: They find some kind of hard terrain to traverse (a large cliff, a valley, a river with no boat) and must find another way.

    . Annoying bugs: Best used in summer or spring (or when in swamps). Bugs (or maybe birds or other small creatures like slimes or leeches) make the travel harder. Everyone counts as +1 Encumbrance until they take 1 full day to recover.

    . Random Monsters: Just throw a monster at them (this includes bandits, rabbies crazed beggar, mercenaries and random black magic warlocks searching for new victims). This hazard is best used when the Watcher fails his surprise roll.

    . Disease: The group is affected by a disease and must save against poison, just like in the core rules.

    . Weather: Extreme heat, snow or rain, the players must find a way to circumvent it.

    . Weird: Voices of the dead wake up the characters. One of the players wake up by one of the other characters singing in strange dead languages. A talking bird follows the characters telling them the future until it foresees the death of one of the players, and now they must make it changes what it has said. You know, anything weird.

. Exploring new places: When you are making a journey through a place where you never went nor don't have a map, you can't make a Travel skill check. Your explore rate is half the value for travel. To explore, follow the same procedure with travel: determine the adjusted distance, determine the total of days and apply your 'miles/day' rate. Then, roll Explore for each step of the journey and roll the 1d12 for the supplementary rolls at each step and determine the hazards. After each step of exploring, the GM should give you an 'idea' of the overall area you explored, No details, just the overall dimensions and terrain.

    What do you guys think of it?

Last edited by Gaigaia (2013-03-18 23:51:16)