Part 6: Adventuring ☰
When traveling on foot, unless the group encounters difficult terrain and does not get lost, they can travel at a slow, moderate, or fast pace for usually 10 hours, with 4 hours for making/breaking camp, 2 hours for breaks, and 6-8 hours for a night’s rest that the party takes to recuperate via mostly sleeping, eating, and tending to their equipment. The advantages and disadvantages for traveling at each speed are detailed below.
While traveling, the party can make the following checks as they feel necessary: Navigate checks to keep from getting lost and find their way (mandatory), Perceive checks to spot hostile creatures and avoid being surprised, Stealth checks to cover their tracks to avoid being followed, and Survival checks to follow their quarry, if they have one. However, their traveling speed will alter how they make these checks, as shown in the table below. Regarding Navigate checks, refer to “Navigating” below.
| Pace | Speed | Skill Checks |
|---|---|---|
| Slow | 3kmph | Advantage |
| Moderate | 6kmph | Normal |
| Fast | 12kmph | Disadvantage |
It should be noted that making/breaking camp, breaks, and night’s rests can be skipped in favor of traveling further, but every character that chooses to do so has their maximum Health reduced by 25% for every night’s rest that they skip until it reaches 1 or they rest again, e.g. a character that travels for 2 days without resting has their maximum Health reduced by 50% until they rest again. For every night’s rest a character takes, their maximum Health is replenished by 25%, and a day’s rest will restore their maximum Health to full.
When characters travel for several kilometers – and likely days – they have a multitude of options at their disposal to do so more quickly and usually more safely than on foot. Generally, mounts and vehicles are much safer and faster than on-foot travel, and allow one to carry many more goods and supplies, including weapons to fend off any unexpected threats or supplies to circumvent obstacles that may arise. The speed and carrying capacity of various mounts and vehicles are given here.
When travelling, it may be a good idea for the GM to roll for the weather the party will have to deal with for the day, unless the GM already has a specifically weather pattern in mind for the day. The effects of each type of weather, including which skill checks are affected and how, are described here. At the start of each travelling day, the GM should roll on the following table; if the result does not make logical sense given the biome the party is in - such as getting Snow in an arid desert, for example - then roll again and use the new result.
| d20 | Weather |
|---|---|
| 1-11 | Clear |
| 12 | Overcast |
| 13 | Lightning |
| 14 | Rain |
| 15 | Snow |
| 16 | Hail [Implement] |
| 17 | Fog [Implement] |
| 18 | Wind |
| 19 | Storm |
| 20 | Aether Storm - Roll 1d6: 1-Dark, 2-Light, 3-Magic, 4-Soul, 5-Space, 6-Time |
Given here is a list of sample traveling complications that the party can encounter as they travel. Should your party come upon a combat or exploration encounter, those are detailed in the here. Otherwise, the complication will be below. The GM should roll on the following list once every traveling day, though they can roll more or less frequently at their discretion or simply pick and choose what the party encounters as they please.
| d20 | Complication |
|---|---|
| 1-10 | Nothing |
| 11 | A combat encounter of a Tier appropriate to the party. |
| 12-15 | A combat encounter of a Tier inappropriate to the party. |
| 16 | An exploration encounter. |
| 17 | A social encounter. |
| 18 | The party may become lost; see “Navigating” below. |
| 19 | The party encounters difficult terrain that hampers them for 1d10 miles; see the Difficult Terrains table and pick one that is appropriate to the party's current environment. |
| 20 | The party encounters an obstacle; see the Obstacles table. |
| d12 | Terrain |
|---|---|
| 1 | Thick, sludgy mud. |
| 2 | Snow 2d10 decimeters deep. |
| 3 | Slippery or thin ice. |
| 4 | Rocky, rough, and broken ground. |
| 5 | Dense and thickly packed forest. |
| 6 | An area flooded with a meter of water. |
| 7 | A wide area with pockets of quicksand. |
| 8 | Steep ground. |
| 9 | A small bog. |
| 10 | The scarred land of a battlefield. |
| d10 | Obstacle |
|---|---|
| 1 | A deep valley, gorge, or gulch dozens of meters deep and very, very wide. |
| 2 | A roaring river too turbulent to cross. |
| 3 | A roving band of hostile creatures too large or powerful to fight. |
| 4 | A very tall and sheer cliff. |
| 5 | A hostile creature encampment, tribe, or nest. |
| 6 | An unmapped massive pile of stone that is the result of an avalanche or rock/mudslide. |
| 7 | A lake several kilometers wide. |
| 8 | A thick and dense fog of unknown size. |
| 9 | A river of lava. |
| 10 | A frozen river or lake. |
At the start of every travelling day, one member of the travelling party must perform a DR 18 Navigation check to properly find their way forward; they must also perform this check whenever they circumvent or overcome a complication, including possibly becoming lost. The DR for this check increases by 6 if the party is making it in difficult terrain, and may be increased further by the current weather. If this check fails, the party becomes lost, and travels in a random direction of the GM’s choosing (roll 1d8: 1 for North, 2 for Northeast, etc.) for 1d6 hours; at the end of this time, they can make another Navigation check to realize their mistake and right their course, otherwise they remain lost.
If the navigating party member has a map that covers the area they are in, they can add the Navigation bonus of the map, which is equal to half the result of the mapmaker’s Cartography Tools check that they made when they created the map. Additionally, if the navigator has a compass on them – which is included with a set of navigation tools – then they have advantage on the check. If the navigator has a full set of navigation tools, they still have advantage and can add half the result of a check with those tools to their Navigation check.
Creatures need to eat food and drink water to survive; however, how much they need to eat and drink varies based on the size of the creature. In the wilds, characters can make Survival checks to hunt and gather for their and their allies’ food and water. Refer to the following table to determine how much a given creature needs to eat and drink on a daily basis to survive. If a character does not get the necessary amount of food and water each day, they suffer the same effects as having not rested for that day (with the difference that they will die if their maximum Health reaches 0%).
| Size | Food/day | Water/day |
|---|---|---|
| Tiny | ¼ lb. | ¼ gal. |
| Small | ¾ lb. | ¾ gal. |
| Medium | 1 lb. | 1 gal. |
| Big | 1¼ lbs. | 1¼ gal. |
| Large | 10 lbs. | 10 gals. |
| Huge | 25 lbs. | 25 gals. |
| Massive | 50 lbs. | 50 gals. |
| Colossal | 100 lbs. | 100 gals. |
During rests, a character must make 2 Survival checks (one for food and one for water) to determine the amount of food and water, in pounds and gallons respectively, that they find: during a night’s rest, the amount of each found is equal to ¼ the result of each check; during a day’s rest, the amount of each found is equal to the whole result of the check.