Travel and Exploration
Travel is the part of the game where distance, supplies, weather, roads, and danger matter. It does not need to be checked every time characters walk across town. These rules are for journeys, wilderness travel, long roads, hostile territory, and places where being unprepared should matter.
A normal travel day assumes 10 hours of actual walking. This is not 10 hours of sprinting or marching at punishment pace. It includes short rests, adjusting packs, checking the path, drinking water, and dealing with the ordinary slowdowns that happen when people are traveling with weapons and supplies.
Daily Travel
A creature's base daily travel in miles is equal to their base speed in feet.
For example, a Medium creature with 30 ft. base speed can travel 30 miles in a normal 10-hour day on a good road. A Small creature with 20 ft. base speed can travel 20 miles under the same conditions.
Use the slowest creature in the group to determine the group's travel distance. A group can only move as fast as the slowest member who must keep up.
Travel Formula
Use this formula when the distance matters:
Daily Miles: Base Speed in feet × road or terrain modifier × biome modifier
Round the final result to the nearest mile.
If several modifiers could apply, use the one that best describes the main obstacle. Do not stack every possible problem unless the journey is truly miserable.
Roads and Terrain
Roads and terrain determine how much of the day is spent actually moving forward.
| Road or Terrain | Modifier | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent Road | ×1.1 | Imperial roads, maintained stone roads, dry flat highways |
| Good Road | ×1 | Maintained dirt roads, normal roads, clear trade roads |
| Bad Road | ×0.75 | Rutted roads, muddy roads, damaged roads, poorly maintained paths |
| Open Terrain | ×0.8 | Grassland, open plains, dry fields, gentle hills |
| Rough Terrain | ×0.6 | Woodland, rocky hills, broken ground, heavy brush |
| Severe Terrain | ×0.4 | Mountains, swamp, jungle, deep snow, scree, dense forest |
| Nearly Impassable | ×0.25 | Cliffs, flooded marsh, tangled jungle, glaciers, storm-broken land |
Biomes and Weather
Biomes change how much water and food a group needs and how hard it is to keep moving. A road through a desert is still a road, but the heat and lack of water are a separate problem.
| Biome or Weather | Travel Modifier | Food | Water |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperate | ×1 | Normal | Normal |
| Cold | ×0.9 | Normal | Normal |
| Severe Cold | ×0.75 | ×1.5 | ×1.5 |
| Hot | ×0.9 | Normal | ×2 |
| Desert or Severe Heat | ×0.7 | Normal | ×3 |
| Wetland or Swamp | ×0.8 | Normal | Normal, but often unsafe |
| Jungle | ×0.75 | ×1.5 | ×2 |
| Heavy Rain or Snow | ×0.75 | Normal | Normal |
| Severe Storm | ×0.5 | Normal | Normal |
Normal food is one day of rations for a Medium creature. Normal water is 1 gallon of water for a Medium creature.
Small creatures require half as much food and water. Large creatures require four times as much. Huge creatures require sixteen times as much. The Definition Master can adjust this for creatures with unusual bodies.
Food and Water
A Medium creature needs one day of food and 1 gallon of water each day. This assumes ordinary weather and ordinary activity.
If a creature does not get enough food, they can go a number of days equal to 3 + Constitution modifier before suffering penalties. After that, they take a -1 penalty to all rolls each day until they eat enough food. This penalty goes away after a full day of proper food.
If a creature does not get enough water, they take a -1 penalty to all rolls at the end of the day. This penalty increases by 1 each day without enough water. If the penalty reaches -5, the creature becomes unable to continue traveling normally.
Heat, desert travel, severe cold, and jungle travel increase the amount of water or food required as listed above.
Bushcraft can be used to find water, hunt, forage, and prepare food safely. Use the rules in Bushcraft when a character spends time doing those things.
Pacing
There are three common travel paces.
| Pace | Modifier | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Careful | ×0.75 | Better scouting, easier navigation, and fewer obvious mistakes |
| Normal | ×1 | Standard travel |
| Forced | ×1.25 | More distance, but the group risks fatigue |
Forced travel requires a Fortitude save at the end of the day. The DC is 10 + 2 for every hour beyond 10 hours, or DC 15 if the group is simply pushing hard during the normal 10 hours. On a failure, the creature becomes fatigued.
A group cannot use forced travel while overencumbered.
Getting Lost
If the path is obvious, no roll is needed. Good roads, marked trails, coastlines, rivers, and visible landmarks usually do not require navigation checks.
When the path is uncertain, one character should lead navigation. This is usually a Bushcraft or Knowledge check depending on the situation.
| Navigation Situation | DC |
|---|---|
| Known road, mapped trail, or clear landmarks | 10 |
| Ordinary wilderness with some landmarks | 14 |
| Dense forest, hills, fog, snow, or confusing paths | 18 |
| Desert, open sea, deep jungle, mountain passes, or featureless terrain | 24 |
| Supernaturally warped or deliberately misleading terrain | 30+ |
On a failure, the group loses 25% of the day's travel. If the check fails by 5 or more, the group also travels in the wrong direction for part of the day. The Definition Master decides where they end up.
Watches and Camp
A travel day usually leaves enough time to make camp, eat, tend gear, and set watches.
If the group is in dangerous territory, decide who is on watch during the night. A standard night can be split into three or four watches. Characters who do not get enough sleep may fail to recover resources or may become fatigued, depending on how bad the night was.
Bushcraft can be used to establish a safer camp. A good camp does not make the group impossible to find, but it can keep weather, animals, and obvious exposure from becoming a problem.
Random Encounters
Random encounters represent danger finding the party during travel. They do not need to be combat. A random encounter can be monsters, patrols, weather, strange ruins, travelers, tracks, omens, hazards, or anything else that makes the journey matter.
The Definition Master sets the danger tier of the area.
To check for an encounter, roll d100. If the result is equal to or lower than the listed chance, an encounter happens.
| Danger Tier | Daily Chance | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Safe | 0% | Secure city roads, guarded estates, peaceful farmland |
| Patrolled | 5% - 15% | Guarded roads, settled borders, watched trade routes |
| Normal | 15% - 25% | Common wilderness, ordinary roads away from towns, rural travel |
| Unsettled | 25% - 40% | Bandit country, monster signs, abandoned roads, borderlands |
| Dangerous | 40% - 55% | Known monster territory, active war zones, cursed forests |
| Hostile | 55% - 70% | Enemy-held land, haunted regions, active hunting grounds |
| Deadly | 70% - 80% | Dragon territory, deep wastelands, places people do not return from |
Roll once per travel day. If the group travels carefully, uses good scouting, or hides their trail, reduce the chance by 5%. If the group is loud, visibly wealthy, injured, dragging cargo, traveling with obvious magic, or moving through enemy territory, increase the chance by 5% to 15%.
If the group camps in the same dangerous area overnight, the Definition Master can roll again for the night.
Encounter Distance
When an encounter happens, decide how it is noticed.
If both sides are obvious, the encounter begins at whatever distance makes sense for the terrain. If either side is hidden, use Spot, Listen, Conceal, Move Silently, or Bushcraft as appropriate.
Open roads and plains can reveal encounters hundreds of feet away. Dense forest, caves, fog, streets, and hills can make encounters start much closer.
Carts and Wagons
Carts and wagons are for moving supplies, treasure, wounded people, and bulky goods. They make heavy travel possible but make subtle travel much harder.
A cart is usually pulled by one draft animal and works best on roads or open terrain. A wagon is heavier, carries more, and usually needs two or more draft animals.
Carts and wagons:
- Use the speed of the pulling animals.
- Cannot use severe terrain unless the Definition Master decides there is a usable path.
- Reduce travel by one terrain step on bad roads, mud, snow, loose stone, or steep hills.
- Increase random encounter chance by 5% if the area has bandits, hungry monsters, or hostile patrols.
- Require Animal Harness and suitable animals.
If a wheel breaks, an animal is injured, or the road becomes unusable, the group may need Craft (Outfitting), Craft (Tinker), Bushcraft, or raw labor to keep moving.
Mounts
Mounts are useful because they can carry riders, gear, and speed over a long distance when the terrain allows it.
Mounted travel uses the mount's base speed, but only if the mount is suited to the terrain and is not overencumbered. A horse is useful on roads and open ground. It is much less useful in dense forest, mountains, swamp, or broken ruins.
Mounts need food, water, rest, and handling. A typical Large riding or draft animal needs one day of Animal Feed each day unless suitable grazing is available. In dry, frozen, urban, or barren areas, purchased feed matters.
Use Ride when the mount is under stress, traveling through difficult terrain, moving at a dangerous pace, or threatened.
Boats
Boats travel by water and should use the waterway more than the walking rules.
For small boats, use the strength and endurance of the rowers, the current, and the weather. For sailing boats, wind matters more than the speed of the people aboard.
As a simple default:
- Rowed boat on calm water: 15 to 25 miles per day.
- River boat moving with a steady current: 25 to 40 miles per day.
- River boat moving against a current: 5 to 15 miles per day.
- Sailing boat with fair wind: 40 to 80 miles per day.
- Bad wind, storms, rapids, ice, reefs, or hidden shallows can reduce travel or stop it entirely.
Boats can carry far more than a person, mount, cart, or wagon, but they are limited to water routes and landing points. They also make the group vulnerable to weather, river hazards, pirates, monsters, and anything waiting at the shore.
Splitting the Party During Travel
Scouts, hunters, and foragers may move away from the main group. This can be useful, but it creates risk.
If a character moves far enough away that the group cannot quickly help them, the Definition Master can treat them as a separate group for random encounters, getting lost, and hazards.
When to Ignore These Rules
If the group is traveling somewhere safe, familiar, and close, do not turn it into bookkeeping. Just move them there.
Use these rules when the journey itself has stakes. If the players can run out of food, get lost, be hunted, find something strange, or arrive too late, then travel deserves attention.