Wilderness Travel
Written by Jan van der Laan
on
Overview
At the start of travel the players decide on the following:
- The players decide where they want to go and which route they intend to follow.
- They determine a marching order and activities for each of the characters during travel. Possible activities are: looking out for dangers, navigating/tracking, foraging.
- They determine a speed at which they want to travel: normal, fast or slow.
In principle these choices hold until they reach, their destination, the end of the day, or until they have an encounter. Then
- The DM checks if the characters get lost during the day.
- For every 4 hours travelled the DM rolls for encounters.
- The DM describes travel and, if necessary, encounters.
- In general the party will want to rest after 12 hours of travel. They have to find a suitable place to rest. The next day they continue their travel.
Time
During wilderness travel time is tracked in four hour blocks. The time blocks are shown in the table below including light conditions during those periods.
| Period | From | To | Winter | Spring/autumn | Summer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 04:00 | 08:00 | Dark | Dusk | Light |
| Morning | 08:00 | 12:00 | Light | Light | Light |
| Afternoon | 12:00 | 16:00 | Light | Light | Light |
| Evening | 16:00 | 20:00 | Dusk | Light | Light |
| Late evening | 20:00 | 24:00 | Dark | Dark | Dusk |
| Night | 24:00 | 04:00 | Dark | Dark | Dark |
In the tropics there is only the spring/autumn season and in the subtropics there are only spring/autumn and summer.
How to handle the light conditions is up to the DM and will also depend on what the characters are doing and where they are exactly. For example, the effect of darkness differs between a jungle, where visibility will probably be zero, and a desert, where travel might still be possible when there is a moon. Possible effects are summarised in the table below.
| Light | Effects |
|---|---|
| Light | Monsters have advantage on spotting the characters during rest. |
| Dusk | Higher chance (+1) of random encounters during travel. |
| Dark | Disadvantage on Perception, Survival, etc. |
| Higher chance (+2) of random encounters during travel. | |
| Monsters have disadvantage on spotting the characters during rest. |
Travel speed
Travel time/distance is measured in days. Generally a group of characters will travel for twelve hours per day at normal speed. This means that in each four hour time block, the party can travel one unit of distance, where a unit of distance is ⅓ day of travel.
When traveling at normal speed:
- the characters can travel for one unit of distance per four hours.
- they can forage with disadvantage when traveling for a full day.
When traveling at a fast pace:
- they travel at 1⅓ of the speed, i.e. they can travel 4 units of distance when traveling for a full day (12 hours).
- they have disadvantage on perception and navigation checks.
- foraging is not possible.
- hostile parties have advantage on noticing and following the party.
When traveling at a slow pace:
- they travel at ⅔ of the speed, i.e. they travel 2 units of distance when traveling for a full day (12 hours).
- they have advantage on perception and navigation checks.
- they can forage when traveling for a full day (12 hours).
- hostile parties have disadvantage on noticing and following the party.
Encounters/noticing threats
Each area has a random encounter score that runs from 1 to 5. For every four hours travelled the DM rolls a d6. When rolling lower or equal to the random encounter score the characters have random encounter.
In case of an encounter:
- Each side rolls a stealth check against the passive perception of the other side.
- Character can only roll when in the right position in the marching order and when not otherwise occupied (e.g. with foraging).
- Sides that notice the other side do that at a distance of 4d6×60 metres (yards).
- When both sides are surprised they notice each other at 1d4×10 metres (yards).
Navigating/tracking
Each area has a navigation difficulty, which can run from 5 (open terrain with recognisable features) to 25 (empty desert). At the start of the day the DM rolls a navigation roll (using the bonuses of the navigator of the party) against the difficulty of the area. When they fail this check, they are lost and they travel most of the day in the wrong direction. At the end of the day the navigator can make a navigation roll to check if they notice that they are lost. They can then try to get back on track.
Foraging
Every area has a difficulty for foraging, which can run from 5 (plenty of resources) to 25 (desert). At the end of the day everybody that was foraging makes a check against the difficulty of the terrain. When they succeed they find 1d4 + proficiency bonus if skilled in survival units of food and water. At the end of the day the characters all remove one unit of food and water from their inventory.
Resting
The characters can travel for 12 hours per day. When traveling for four hours extra they have to make a DC 10 constitution saving throw. Characters that fail the saving throw gain a level of exhaustion when they decide to push on. At the end of 4 hours travel they have make another saving throw at a DC of 14 or gain a level of exhaustion; for every additional 4 hours of travel the DC increases by 4.
A long rest takes a minimum eight hours. In order to be able to have a long rest in the wilderness the characters need to find a good and safe place to rest which takes a successful survival check. If they fail their survival check, they have spent 4 hours and not found good place to rest.
Comments
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