This Chapter will cover the general rules for Exploration and Travel. As with our Socialising & Relationships Chapter these are suggested rules with some parts being covered in the Game Guide's Companion, they are entirely optional, and a GG should feel free to use their own preferred rules for their Tables.
Exploration rules apply for when the Party does not know specifically where their destination is, or they cannot plot a part of their journey. These are covered in the Game Guide's Companion.
Travel rules apply when you know exactly where you are travelling to. Part of the route may not be charted at which point you would apply Exploration rules for that part of the journey, however the main journey would utilise the Travel rules.
Travel begins with the Planning and Preparation Phase. The Party will declare where they want to travel to, the GG shouls be able to present some chartered routes if possible and the time the journey via each route will take, depending on how the Party travels (a location along the coast may for example allow travel by sea via boat, or on land via walking or the use of horse and cart, each of which wuld have seperate travel times). The Paryu can declare which method they travel by and should resolve any pre-travel arragements like paying for the transport, gathering supplies, etc.
Just before beginning their travel the Party should inform the GG of what each member would like to do each Day, time they are travelling by, if and when they plan to make camp, night watch rotas, etc.
From here the Party is in the Travel Phrase, the GG may choose to allow the plans to occur as the Party wished or may choose to throw some obstacles, distractions, or Encounters. The Party can choose to roleplay some of the journey, maybe conversations over dinner or on the road. The Game Guide's Companion offers some guidance for the Travel Phase and what they and the Party can do to make it interesting. The Travel Phase continues until the Party reaches their destination or ends the journey early.
When travelling by foot most people are only able to travel for 8 Hours a Day (or a third of the Hours of the Day in worlds with more unusual length of Hours) before needing to Rest. To travel by foot for longer than this time the Party is considered to be moving at a Marching Pace. For each additional Hour above the above amount the Party travels, you must make an Endurance Test at the end of the Hour. The TG is 10 + the number of Hours past 8 Hours you have been travelling for.
On a failed Test, you suffer one Degree of Exhaustion.
As a rule, nearly all Characters will need food and drink to survive. The GG can choose to assume this is always being looked after and not really factor it into the working of the game. However, if you wish to ensure this is something to keep track of even if it only during periods of Exploration or Travel, here are the general rulles for food and drink.
A Character needs a set amount of food and drink each Day. This game uses abstracted rules combining a Character's daily food and drink requirements. A Character generally needs to consume 40 Units of Food and Drink per Day. All Food and Drink have a listed nummber of Units they provide towards this total in their Item description, this does mean a CHaracter may only drink water or eat rations to meet the Total, that is allowed as part of the abstraction unless the GG wishes to rule otherwise with more granular limits.
A Character can make their resources last longer by subsisting on 20 Units of Food and Drink per Day, known as surviving on half rations. For every Day you only survive on half rations, it counts as a half day without a sufficient meal.
A Character can go a number of Days without any Food and Drink equal to 0 + their Endurance (minimum of 1). At the end of each Day beyond that limit, a Character automatically suffers one Degree of Exhaustion, these Degrees cannot be removed during a Long Rest until the Character has consumed the normally required Units of Food and Drink that Day. A Day of consuming the normally required Units of Food and Drink resets to count of the number of Days without Food and Drink to zero.
It should be noted some Features or effects may require the amount of Units needed to be consumed per Day is increased or decreased by a multiplicative amount. If so, modify the 40 Unit requirement appropriately.
For example, when travelling in High Temperature environments the daily number of Units of Food and Drink required is doubled, which would mean 80 Units are generally needed per Day.
During Exploration or Travel a Character can choose to as an Activity, forage for food and/or drink. This takes an Intuition Test, the TG should be determined by how abundant food and drink is in the specific environment.
Depending on the rolled amount while you may not forage what you want , you may find other things. For example, you may have failed the roll to find a clean fresh spring of water for the Party and horses to drink from, but the GG may determine that you found a dirtier source of water that may be drinkable if someone has alchemical or magic means of purifying the water. A low result may also run the risk of finding poisonous plants or Diseases, high rolls could also reveal hidden locations, new discoveries, or forage accidentally something useful for spells or crafting, and any result could lead to a roleplay Scene or a combat Encounter.
In your travels you may seek to gather material that may be crafted into Items or to sell. To gather any material, you will need the required Tools and knowledge to find and recover them. Harvesting materials from an entity using Harvester's Tools are not covered in this Chapter, but are instead found in the Bestiary.
To gather specific kinds of material, each requires a specific kind of Gatherer's Tool. As a reminder, if you are Trained in the use of a Gatherer's Tool, you gain its Item Bonus for Trait Tests made using it. The Tools required for different kinds of Gathering are:
| Material Type | Gatherer's Tool | Recommended Trait & Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Plant Based Material | Botanist's Tool | Agility (Nature) |
| Fish & Potentially Other Oceanic Material | Fisher's Gear | Agility (Animal Handling) |
| Ore, Minerals, Other Earth Based Material | Miner's Tool | Physique (Focus) |
The first step to being able to gather material is to locate the source in the first place. This requires an Intuition Test, with the TTV required for each Degree of Success' result shown in the table below, the entity's roll will be modified by how abundant the sought-out material is in the specific environment as shown in the Abundance TTV Modifier Table below. This Test is made with Advantage with appropriate research into where known deposits are located, especially with richer sources.
If you are not looking for a particular material and are curious in what kinds of material are located around you. This is not covered by the ruleset, we advise speaking to the GG before you wish to do this, to agree on a system for allowing this kind of exploration.
On a Critical Failure, the TTV is treated as 0. On an Inspired Event the Degrees of Success is increased by 2, if this is scored with a TTV of 25 or more, the Quality of the gathered material is increased to Pure Quality.
Some results may call for a complication or a boon, this is optional advise for the GG for when something like a roleplay Scene or combat Encounter could occur, maybe they find some additional thing that they were not looking for, but which may aid or impede their efforts and adventures.
| Abundance | TTV Modifier |
|---|---|
| Nonexistant/Extinct | No Test Required |
| Near Nonexistant | -10 |
| Incredibly Rare | -5 |
| Rare | -3 |
| Uncommon | -1 |
| Common | +0 |
| Plentiful | +1 |
| Abundant | +3 |
| Bountiful | +5 |
Results of the Abundance TTV Modifier Table may never alter the result of the Critical Failure setting the TTV to 0.
| TTV | Result |
|---|---|
| 0 | Unsuccessful Search. You find nothing. A complication may occur. |
| 5 | Impure Exploited Source. You find a source of Impure material, that will produce a quarter of the normal Units of material (minimum of 1 Unit). A complication may occur. |
| 7 | Impure Source. You find a source of Impure material. |
| 10 | Poor Quality Source. You find a source of Poor material. |
| 13 | A Small Source. You find a source of Standard Quality material, that will produce half the normal Units of material (minimum of 1 Unit). |
| 15 | A Moderate Source. You find a source of Standard Quality material. |
| 18 | A Small Rich Source. You find a source of Rich material, that will produce half the normal Units of material (minimum of 1 Unit). |
| 20 | A Rich Source. You find a source of Rich material. A boon may occur. |
| 25 | A Small Exceptional Source. You find a source of Exceptional material, that will produce half the normal Units of material (minimum of 1 Unit). A boon may occur. |
| 30 | An Exceptional Source. You find a source of Exceptional material. A boon may occur. |
Once you have surveyed to discover a source of material, you are able to begin gathering. Look at the table above for which Tool is required to perform this activity and its recommended Trait Test. Whilst each Tool has its reccomended Trait and Skill to use for the Trait Test, some Features may provide alternative choices, or you may have alternate suggestion based on the specific situation of this instance of gathering, though the GG has the final say on if this alternate suggestion makes sense for the situation and can be used.
Now you make the decided upon Trait Test, adding modifiers from other Features and compared the resulting TTV to the Table below. The Units gathered may be altered by the results of your Survey Test. Each gathering Trait Test is considered to represent an Hour of work gathering the material.
| TTV | Result |
|---|---|
| 0 | Damaged Material. You damaged the material, you gain no useful Units of the material. |
| 5 | Corrupted Bounty. You gather one Unit of the material, but its Quality is altered to Corrupted. |
| 7 | Stalled Bounty. You gather one Unit of the material. The time taken to gather the material is doubled to 2 Hours. |
| 10 | Minor Bounty. You gather one Unit of the material. |
| 13 | Standard Bounty. You gather a number of Units of the material equal to your SB. |
| 15 | Significant Bounty. You gather a number of Units of the material equal to 1d4 + your SB. |
| 18 | Quickened Bounty. You gather a number of Units of the material equal to 1d4 + your SB. The time taken to gather the material is halved to 30 Minutes. |
| 20 | Masterful Bounty. You gather a number of Units of the material equal to 1d6 + your SB. The time taken to gather the material is halved to 30 Minutes. |
| 25 | Perceptive Bounty. You gather a number of Units of the material equal to 1d8 + your SB. Half the Units of material gathered increases their Quality Level by 1. The time taken to gather the material is halved to 30 Minutes. |
| 30 | Fateful Discovery. Same as Perceptive Bounty, but you also find one Unit of a rare material or another Unique Discovery Boon. |
A Unique Discover Boon follows the same principal as a boon for the Survey Test, though often being a unique material, an Item of Rare rarity or higher, or potentially something of suitable narrative significance as if someone had used the Surprise Discovery Exploration Inspired Action.
This section covers some general rules for some environmental hazards that CHaracters may come across on their adventures.
There are lots of times you may be adventuring in the dark, maybe exploring a cave system, travelling at night, or delving into a dungeon, and there may be also other times where elements of the weather obscure the forest you are passing through. These rules will apply to most adventurers and other entities in the game, however, there are supernatural ways to allow things such as darkness and obscuring weather to be ignored, either partially or entirely.
A given area might be Lightly Obscured or Heavily Obscured by factors such as the weather with fog, by lighting conditions, or objects being in the way.
As an example with dense fog in a forest the GG may say that an area around 3m of the Party can be seen clearly, with the area between 3-10m of the Party being Lightly Obscured, and everything beyond that range being Heavily Obscured to the Party.
The presence or abscence of light in an environment create three categories of illuminated areas: Well-Lit, Dimly Lit, and Darkness.
Well-Lit areas are areas where their is sufficient illumination for entities to see normally, this can be daylight or a room with multiple light sources spread about it. Some sources of light will only emit enough light for a small area around it to be considered Well-Lit.
Dimly Lit areas will usually be encountered as shadows or the area between Darkness and Well-Lit areas of a Torch, where things can be vaguely be seen but details may be hard to notice. Areas lit by the light of soft light of twilight or dawn, or an especially birght full moon can be considered Dimly Lit areas. These areas are considered Lightly Obscured, meaning entities have Disadvantage on Trait Tests that rely sight to see into the area and its contents.
Areas of Darkness are considered Heavily Obscured, and all Trait Tests you make trying to see the area or its contents automatically fail. Areas may be considered in Darkness such as when outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungoen, or in an area of Magical Darkness.
Some entities, especially those adapted to living underground or being nocturnal, may have Nightvision. Within a specified Range, if a Character has Nightvision, they can see in Nonmagical Darkness as if the area of Darkness within Range was only Dimly Lit. This means these areas of Darkness can be seen into and Trait Tests that rely on sight looking inot the area or its contents are made with Disadvantage rather than automatically failing. However, these Characters can only see these areas of Darkness and their contents as greyscale images.
These are other kinds of supernatural sight and senses that Characters may come across in their adventures:
Blindsight. If a Character has Blindsight they can percieve their surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius. Entities without eyes, such as Oozes, and entities with echolocation, or heightened senses, such as bats and dragons, have this sense.
Spiritsight. If a Character has Spiritsight they can see into the Ethereal Realm, within a specific radius, allowing them to converse with spirits not normally viewable by those living within the Realms.
If they are in the Ethereal Realm, they can use this sight to see into the Material Realm out to the specified radius. Though they will be unable to communicate with beings in the Material Realm, unless they too have Spiritsight.
Tremorsense. If a Character has Tremorsense they can percieve their surroundings through vibrations made by entities in contact with the same sold or liquid substance the Character is touching, bar Incorporeal entities, within a specific radius. Entities that tend to burrow to create tunnels such as badgers and moles have this sense.
Truesight. If a Character has Truesight they can, within a specific radius:
For Nightvision and other Senses presented in this section, should two or more Features provide the same Sense the following occurs:
Compare the Ranges of the multiple sources, whichever is the greater Range is the one used. For each additional source that provides that Sense increase the Range of that Sense by 3m.
When a Character tries to hide, they most often will rely on their Agility to remain unnoticed with the Stealth Skill. A Character can attempt a Stealth Skill Roll to sneak around, moving quietly, and using Cover and Heavily Obscured areas to avoid detection.
A Character that successfully is Hidden bestows the Unaware condition to entities they are Hidden from. This condition always ends if the afflicted entity can see the Hidden Character.
There are two ways a Character can Hide. If an entity can’t possibly see them, they need only to avoid making noise to avoid detection.
If an entity might see them, then they need to keep behind Cover or stay in Heavily Obscured areas to remain Hidden.
When a Character tries to Hide from one or more entities, their Stealth Skill Rolls are Contested by the Perception Skill Roll of any entity who might notice them or the Investigation Skill Roll of an entity that is actively searching for signs of their presence.
The Character makes one Stealth Skill Roll for this Contest. Use that Test result for all such Contests they engage in until they are discovered, they stop hiding, or the GG requests another Test due to a drastic change in circumstances.
In order to know when a Character can Hide and how to continue to avoid detection, they need some way to remain out of sight, either something to Hide behind or an area of poor visibility to locate themself in. They are found if any of these conditions are not in effect and an entity can detect your presence:
The GG can make a final determination based on the situation's circumstances to determine if an entity can Hide.
If a Character moves to a location such that that can Hide as above, any entity that saw them move to that location still is aware of where they last saw the Character. This could be represented by placing a token where they entities saw the Character last and that they may search around that area to look for the Character.
However, this assumes the are the Character Hides in has multpile places to go once the entity loses track of them, if the Character Hides behind a solitary crate or bush in an open area, the entities that saw them run behind it would know where the Character is, and so would not be affected by any attempts to Hide, though if the Character was able to move from that location without being seen, they could Hide and the entities would treat that previous location as where they had last seen the Character.
There are many kinds of terrain a Character may have difficulty passing through with the ease you would walk down a path, such as wading through a waist high river, running through the undergrowth of a forest, or trying to pass through an area covered in magical appendages. When an area is described as Difficult Terrain, movement across that area costs twice the normal amount of your Movement speed, or counts as travelling half the distance in the same amount of time for Travelling.
In some cases, these are some special kinds of Difficult Terrain with additional rules, some common kinds a Character may come across in their adventures are:
When a Character attempts to move across ice for the first time on a Turn, they must succeed on a TG 10 Agility Test or fall Prone.
If the ice is incredibly thin, on a failed Test, instead of falling Prone, the ice breaks and they fall through.
Lava pools generally follow the rules for travelling through water with a few exceptions. It is considered DIfficult Terrain to move through even with a Swimming speed. If the Character comes within 2, of the lava for the first time on a Turn, or start their Turn within 2m of the lava, they take 2d10 Fire damage.
If a Character enters or touches the lava for the first time on a Turn, or starts their Turn there, they take 9d10 Fire damage or 18d10 if they are fully submerged.
When a Character enters an area of quicksand, they immediately sink half a metre into the quicksand. At the start of each of their following Turns within the quicksand, they submerge a further half metre, once they have submerged at least a third of their body height, they become Restrained. If the Character is not Restrained, then they can treat moving through the quicksand as Difficult Terrain.
If they aren't completely submerged, they can attempt to escape by succeeding on a TG 10 Physique Test, with the TG ncreasing by the number of metres they have currently sunk into the quicksand. If they are completely submerged in quicksand then the Character cannot breathe (see Water/Underwater section for the Suffocation rules).
Someone can attempt to pull the trapped Character out so long as there is something they can grab onto. If it is possible the entity providing aid can make a TG 13 Physique Test, on a success they pull the Character out by a metre.
Adventures may take Characters to environments where the temperature is extremely hot or cold. To be clear we are not going to define what is considered extreme cold or heat as a specific temperature. This is to help allow GGs and Tables to define it themselves for what would best suit their Campaigns and the unique natures of their Worlds and Character's backgrounds.
An example set of temperatures for a Campaign set in an environment analagous to northern Europe, would be Extreme Cold being at Temperatures -10°C or below, and Extreme Heat being Temperatures at 28°C or above.
For each Hour a Character spends in these conditions, they must make a TG10 Endurance (Stamina) Test.
On a failed Test, they gain one Degree of Exhaustion.
If they failed the Test by 5 or more, they gain an additional Degree of Exhaustion.
An entity with Resistance or Immunity to Cold damage is Immune to these conditions.
An entity with Reduction X to Cold damage is Immune to these conditions for X Hours.
While in environments at this temperature, you require double the number of Units of Food & Drink each Day, per the Food & Drink section above.
For each Hour a Character spends in these conditions, they must make a TG10 Endurance (Stamina) Test.
On a failed Test, they gain one Degree of Exhaustion.
If they failed the Test by 5 or more, they gain an additional Degree of Exhaustion.
An entity with Resistance or Immunity to Fire damage is Immune to these conditions.
An entity with Reduction X to Fire damage is Immune to these conditions for X Hours.
A Character may for one reason or another may have a Climbing speed, if this is the case then climbing a surface is easy and they can climb at the rate determined by their Climbing speed. However, if they do not have a Climbing speed and wish to climb, for every 1m of the surface they climb, it will cost them an additional 1m of their Movement speed (meaning 3m if it is judged Difficult Terrain).
If they are climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with a few handholds the GG may require a Physique Test.
If you fall from a great height, consider running this as an Active Time Encounter to allow the Character falling a chance to save themself. At the end of each of a falling Character's Turn, they will fall 210m.
If they can Fly and are knocked Prone, Incapacitated, or have their speed reduced to 0 such as from the Restrained condition, they will also start Falling, as above.
If they were Falling because of the Prone condition, they will only Fall for the Turn(s) where the condition is applied.
If they are Falling because their Flying speed has been reduced to 0, they can maintain their altitude without needing to move such as being able to Hover, then they can maintain their height.
If they have a Flying speed and are Falling, then they can reduce the rate of Falling by going into a Glide and Falling at half the normal rate. While Gliding, they can move up to 2m horizontally for every 1m they descend.
When a Character collides with the ground, they will immediately take Xd10 Bludgeoning damage and land Prone, where X is equal to the number of metres, they fell that Turn divided by 3 (rounding down). If they Glided or managed to take no damage, then they land on their feet.
Should the surface they collide with be a liquid, the Character can attempt to steer their body to break the water's surface and reduce the damage, to do this they must use a reaaction (1RP), to make a TG15 Physique (Athltics) or Agiliy (Acrobatics) Test.
On a failed Test, they take damage from falling as normal.
On a successful Test, they take half as much damage.
Travelling at altitudes of 2,500m or higher above sea level a Character may struggle to operate as they would on lower climbs, this is due to a lack of oxygen in the environment. If they travel at these higher altitudes without specific equipment or adaptations, for each Hour they spend travelling at this height it will count as 2 Hours for the purpose of determining how long they have been travelling. Some folk may become adapted to this environment after spending sufficient time at this height.
A Character may for one reason or another may have a Swimming speed, if this is the case then swimming in water they can swim at the rate determined by their Swimming speed. However, if they do not have a Swimming speed and wish to swim, for every 1m of the water they swim, it will cost them an additional 1m of their Movement speed (meaning 3m if it is judged Difficult Terrain).
If they are Swimming through rough or turbulent waters, then the GG may require a Physique Test.
The rules for Underwater Combat are covered in the Active Time Chapter.
If you do not have a Swimming speed and attempt to swim for more than an Hour at a time, for each additional Hour of Swimming beyond the first, you must take an Endurance Test at the end of the Hour. The TG equals 10 + the number of Hours past the first Hour you have been Swimming for.
On a failed Test, you suffer one Degree of Exhaustion.
In perfectly clear water, vision is limited to 80m, to sense entities beyond that Range will require non-visual senses like Blindsight or Tremorsense.
Water often however may be murky and hard to see through. When this occurs, treat the visibility like with fog when considering how to describe the level of Obscurement and how far Characters can see around them for different levels of particulates.
As Characters dive deeper it gets harder for light to reach the depths at which point consider reffering to the Darkness, Hiding & Sight section of this Chapter for which lighting effects to apply. Natural light does not pass 1000m in depth in our own oceans.
Travelling at depths of 60m or lower below the water's surface, CHaracters may struggle to operate as they would at higher depths, this is due to the crushing pressure applied to the body and cold temperatures.
If they travel at these depths without specific equipment or adaptations, for each Hour a Character spends travelling at these depths it will count as two Hours of Swimming for determining how long they have been Swimming. They also suffer the penalties for Swimming in Extremely Cold Water.
This penalty increases to 4 Hours Swimming for every Hour Swimming if they descend below 250m depth. The penalty for Swimming in Extremely Cold Water also increases to bestow an additional Degree of Exhaustion for each failed Trait Test against its effect.
Characters cannot descend below 500m without suitable equipment or adaptations, if they attempt to do so the gain the Doom 1 condition, increasing it by 1 for each Turn spent at 500m or below. The penalties for Swimming in Extremely Cold Water, is modified such that failing a Trait Test against its effect bestows an additional two Degrees of the Exhaustion condition, and entities can only be Immune to this effect, if they are not adapted for Swimming at deeper depths, if they are Immune to Cold damage. Degrees of the Exhaustion condition and the Doom condition bestowed by Swimming at this depth, cannot be removed until you have risen to a depth above 500m.
Falling into water under an ice sheet, or Swimming in more arctic conditions or lower depths may be too cold for a Character to be used to. This works slightly differently from being in Extreme Cold normally. Instead, you can swim in Extremeley Cold Water without issue for a number of Minutes equal to your Endurance Trait.
After this time has elapsed for every Minute the Character swims in these cold waters, they must make a TG 10 Endurance (Stamina) Test.
On a failed Test, they gain one Degree of Exhaustion.
If they failed the Test by 5 or more, they gain an additional Degree of Exhaustion.
An entity with Resistance or Immunity to Cold damage is Immune to this effect.
An entity with Reduction X to Cold damage is Immune to these conditions for X Minutes.
Being able to breathe underwater is not a common trait for most Characters. There will also be other times such as in pits of quicksand, the depths of space, or while being smothered by certain entities, that Characters may have difficulty breathing. A Character can hold their breath for a number of Minutes equal to 1 + their Endurance (minimum of 30 Seconds).
When a Character runs out of breath or is choking, they can survive a number of Rounds equal to their Endurance (minimum of 1 Round). At the start of their next Turn, they will drop to 0HP and are Dying. They won't be able to recover HP or be Stabilised until they can breathe again.
A Character that reaches 0HP or Dies will begin to float to the surface or sink depending on the weight of the gear they are carrying and wearing.