(A) Travel Procedure – the parts
This is archival material from previous blog
To start thinking about Semi-Universal Travel Procedure let’s identify elements it’s made out of and theory standing behind it.
Hexcrawl allows for somewhat realistic measure of certain elements of travel – if you fail you end up in wrong hex next to proper one and it could lead to losing few hours/a day of travel. Tick off box of rations and get back on track or get lost more and tick more boxes. But unless something really engaging happens during “lost phase” it’s just boring resource drain at the table. In pointcrawl rolling for navigation should be meanigful – no longer “You almost wandered into Blood Devourer territory. You see bloody markings on the trees before you” but rather “After you took wrong turn you find yourself in the middle of enemy territory. The path is marked with blood-stained skulls”. It follows the same design principle as Overloaded Encounter Dice. Less rolls with more meaning. So yeah, Navigation and trappings of getting lost are first big thing What a surprise
Just travelling on the road is leading to unforseen encounters. And these may or may not be hostile or dangerous. By simple realistic probability – the more you travel the more chances of something or someone bumping onto you. This is factor which should serve fleshing out the environment. Travelling through desolate lands? Meet scavengers. Through the middle of a county? Travelling merchants, jesters or tax collector. Through the jungle? Meet pumas, venomous spiders and poisonous toads. The chance of encountering things is not only determined by length of journey but also by how populated is the area, how likely animals or people travel there, how do the roads look like… Tons of stuff. Fleshing out the region should be biggest factor of Random Encounters.
The third element I defined in my head are Discoveries. Characteristic trails or landmarks over treeline prompting discoveries and exploration during travel. These should never be too detrimental – even if they have to be some kinds of traps (like fairy circle rendering characters useless for a day) or elaborate puzzles if they’d be too harmful towards PCs it would discourage exploration. Which could be a goal in some instances for example in fairy realms (“Nothing will be able to harm you as long as you follow the path”). Discoveries should be something really enticing for PCs. Random dungeon won’t do unless PCs are determined dungeoncrawlers. But if they were prompt before about special flowers or had fun encounter in small shrine they will be more inclined to visit them on their way than random other stuff.
This shows us there are basically two main roles PCs can have during travel. One is Navigation – making sure group won’t get lost. But since some random encounters are hostile there should be Scout role to check if something is coming. And if the Navigation has to be done not with map in hand but by checking trail ahead these two roles could be summed as Guide. And as we are talking about hostile encounters we need to be aware – walking around in armor and other warfare equipment is tiring. So only the Guard would be fully prepared for battle – rest probably carries slings and daggers. As for the rest participants there are also two additional optional roles to set. One is Provisioner – someone who actively searches for surplus of food and water along the way. It is a tactic which ancient Roman armies deployed – during long marches some soldiers had to search for additional food so the army would use less rations. Another role to perform is Coachhand – someone who would take care of wagon and animals if such transport element is utilised. The other people are assumed to be resting without other duties, saving energy.
And as I’m progressing through what seems like a clear cut there are some things to consider. Two roles seem to be essential – Navigator and Scout. If you’re not particularly heavily armed in general being Guard doesn’t make much sense. Provisioner is needed when rations are scarce or something happened and there may be not enough. Coachhand is optional too. We need to adress this in terms of resources. I will say this – anyone participating in any role during travel procedure starts X-tick clock “Wear and Tear”. It makes distinction between those who do something and those who rest; it should prevent role creep in which everyone does anything they can and you end up with Guide and 4 Guards-Provisioners, so at the end of travel you have more food than before.
So if by any chance you choose to perform two roles during one stretch of travel they gain 2 tick of weariness. If someone fills it up they lock some of their stamina/health/grot – still may use it but won’t regain it with just a nights rest – and have to get through week of rest to unlock it. Now this is something which gives us a choices to make. Also it has the meaning for path creation for GM – do players have to Navigate and Scout or can just put a Guide before the party? Can it be changed by the information they can get at starting location? Maybe Guide can be hired so the group could focus on Guarding/Providing? What if the fortune roll is failed – maybe the guide got lost and PCs have to make up for them?
Summing it up here are guidelines what to prepare and what to answer to yourself in regards to travelling procedure:
Navigation – what type of navigation does it need? Checking out stars? Searching for landmarks? Following trail? Also how hard it is to navigate? If there is unbroken road skip this part. Think of external elements. What if there is rain and no stars are visible? Or seasons changed and landmarks look different? What about new trails crossing the old right one?
Effects of navigation success: the PCs may make a map and next time be more sure how to get through it, they could find shortcut and save some rations, they may stumble upon discovery without the need to waste time to follow it.
Consequences of navigation failure: what are the traps and enemy territories they could wander into? Marshes? Swamps? Cannibals? Just hard to breach river or valley? Provide choice – make them work to get through it or waste resources to get around.
Difficulty of Navigation – what is the heaviest loaded person in the group? The lighter the easier to find proper trail through the wilds. It becomes significantly harder if group takes an animal or whole wagon – since these need better roads than bunch of adventurers with backpacks.
Encounters – what type of other travelers PCs could find? Are those mostly merchants, peasants and bandits? Or animals, beasts and monsters? Are these things hostile or not? What makes encounters special in a way PCs have to engage with them?
Effects of scouting success: enemy camp was found before they found PCs, or maybe some secret about merchants cursed items were revealed or group got just in time to help friendly peasants with their travel trouble – enemies or elements.
Consequences of scouting failure: PCs are ambushed by enemies, friendly peasants just got robbed or lost their cargo due to hungry animal or it fell into the river, merchant looks valid but just sold most of it’s things and only this ring of sword summoning is what’s left (if it’s really cursed or the stake would have been more magical items is up to GMs discretion).
Difficulty of Scouting – main influence should be speed of travel – if PCs choose to go faster they will have harder time spotting encounters on time but they’d save time and rations. Also the terrain has huge effect – it’s easier spotting something in a field than dense forest. Speed should also affect largely foraging attempts.
Discoveries – get wild here. Mysterious tower which should not be here? Ruined keep which seems to change to prime condition over night? Glowing rocks? Flower meadow with herbs needed by NPC in the city or herbalist PC? Tracks of legendary Red Moose, culprit of recent crop failures? Small shrine of forgotten local god, giant snake awaiting the last guest to become the Chosen? Lost caravan or expedition, skeletons on wagons full of a little expired goods but with important letters of affection and hidden treasure?
You don’t make a roll here. Just prepare good prompt to say during travel descriptions. Tower is visible above treeline. Red hair and moose tracks are left around broken tree. Trails of colourful flowers and animals lead deeper into forest. There is an arc with moss covered road leading up the hill. Make it standing out enough so PCs would follow or remember to go back there. And since this is for pointcrawl – maybe at some point make similar prompt on other path PCs go so they’d know they are linked somehow – additional prize for exploration.
What players have to choose in this situation? Each chooses if or which role they would perform for certain stretch. They can be Navigator, Scout, Guard, Provisioner or Coachhand. Taking any role makes you tick Wear clock. Using the rules from Zweihander – maybe Short Stretch needs 1 tick, Medium adds 2 and Long Stretches take 3 ticks? So that you’d be discouraged from taking everything and think – do we want best ranger to be guiding in longest or hardest stretch? Rolling is necessary for Navigator, Scout and Provisioner – Guard means you have weapons constantly ready in case of hostile encounter and Coachhand is needed if you have animals and wagon to help you carry. Also if there is a wagon maybe one PC can perform downtime duty during travel by travelling on it? Or rest and heal while the rest does their stuff?
I think I will need to follow up on this. Take it all together, sprinkle it with some mechanics of hunger – first lose Grit, then Flesh, then roll for Brawn/Fortitude or you died or something like this. Plus maybe overview of GM preparation and Player procedure.