2.12.0 Wilderness Exploration and Expeditions
These rules assume the PCs are exploring or venturing through a hex mapped wilderness area, one without safe waystations or reliable maps.
2.12.1 Exploring a Hex
To lightly explore a standard six-mile hex for points of interest takes a full day of scouting. If the terrain is especially rugged or concealing, such as a range of mountains or trackless swamp, this time is doubled or tripled.
This much time is sufficient to find most major points of interest that the GM may have placed in the hex. It won’t necessarily catch small features or provide a detailed survey of the terrain.
2.12.2 Supplies for an Expedition
When venturing into the untamed wilderness, a group is going to need certain supplies. Fire, water, shelter, and food are the four most critical. In some places, some of these supplies may be easily acquired along the way, such as fresh water from a river the PCs are following, or shelter when the climate is warm and pleasant around the clock, but usually some kind of provision will need to be made for getting them.
Food is measured in days of food per person. Each day’s needed food counts as one item of encumbrance, though they can be packed snugly together as weekly rations that count as four items instead. Some magical items or Mages might be able to create food; a party who relies entirely on such things had best hope nothing happens to their literal meal ticket.
Water is also measured in days of water per person, each unit counting as one item of encumbrance. Exceptionally hot or dry climates may require multiples of this to avoid dehydration or over heating.
Shelter means adequate clothing for the climate and some kind of tent or lean-to to protect from the elements while resting. Characters with Survival-0 can put together a minimal lean-to of boughs and branches in wooded areas, but in places of torrential rain, fierce snows, or other extreme conditions it may prove more difficult. Lack of shelter can make it impossible to rest comfortably and regain Effort, HP, or spells. Severe privation can even threaten a PC’s life.
Fire means fuel sufficient to cook food, dry wet clothes, and warm PCs after they’ve stopped moving for the day. In most places it’s easy enough for even the least wood-wise PC to scavenge enough dry wood or twigs to get a minimally sufficient fire going, but voyages into a land devoid of woody vegetation can mean trouble. A load of dung cakes, charcoal, or other fuel sufficient to keep a group warm for an ordinary night counts as four items of encumbrance.
Supply Encumbrances
| Type | Enc |
|---|---|
| One day of food or water | 1 |
| One week of carefully-packed food | 4 |
| One night’s load of fire fuel | 4 |
| One day’s fodder for a horse or large beast | 4 |
| One day’s fodder for a mule or small beast | 2 |
| Daily water for a large beast | 8 |
| Daily water for a small beast | 4 |
2.12.3 Pack Animals and Porters
Pack beasts can carry a certain amount of items of encumbrance, assuming they’re packed carefully. Professional porters are also common hires for adventurers, though they generally refuse to enter dangerous ruins. Most beasts can survive on nightly browse and brief water stops for the duration of an expedition. In barren lands, food and water must be packed in for the beasts as well as the humans. During combat, porters will hide or fight as normal humans to defend their lives. Pack beasts might panic if not calmed by a handler’s successful Cha/Ride skill check made as a Move action, usually against a difficulty of 8 or more. Carters, nomad riders, and other professional stock handlers always succeed at these calming checks barring the most unusual circumstances. At need, a healthy horse can be butchered into 30 days of rations, and a mule or similar-sized beast into 15 days. Preserving this meat takes time and fire, as explained in the Foraging section.
Pack Animal And Porter Loads
| Type | Enc |
|---|---|
| Riding horse or warhorse, with laden rider | 5 |
| Riding horse or warhorse, pack only | 20 |
| Heavy pack horse | 30 |
| Mule or donkey | 15 |
| Professional porter | 12 |
| Two porters carrying a shared litter | 30 |
2.12.4 Starving, Thirsting, and Freezing
If the PCs don’t have enough food, water, warmth, or shelter, bad things will start to happen. Each day without these necessities will apply the following penalties.
System Strain is gained. If this would put the PC over their maximum, they must make a Physical save or die by dawn if not aided. On a success, they’re helpless until death or rescue.
They can’t recover System Strain, gain nightly hit point healing, refresh daily Committed Effort, or restore expended spells until they’ve had a day of proper food, water, and warm sleep.
Situations That Cause Privation
| Circumstance | Sys. Str. |
|---|---|
| First day without enough food* | +0 |
| Consecutive day without food | +1 |
| First day without enough water | +2 |
| Consecutive day without water | +3 |
| Night without adequate shelter or fire* | +0 |
| Harsh night without shelter or fire | +1 |
* No System Strain is yet gained, but the PC still suffers privation and cannot recover lost resources.
2.12.5 Foraging
PCs who find themselves low on supplies or lacking a particular re source can take time to forage the surrounding terrain. It’s assumed the group sticks together during this process, sacrificing efficiency for security. They can split up if desired, but each group then risks encounters.
Some supplies can be gathered as normal parts of travel. If passing through ordinary, non-arid, non-barren terrain it’s assumed the PCs can refill their waterskins and scrounge firewood whenever they wish.
Foraging requires either a half-day or a full day of effort. The group’s most apt member makes a Wis/Survive check against the difficulty listed on the table, and on a success earns 1d6 units of forage plus the sum of the group’s Survive skill levels, to a maximum of 10. Those without the skill at all subtract 1 from the total, to a minimum of one unit found by the group.
Each forage unit is worth either a day of food for a person, a day of water for a person, or a night’s firewood for the party, and the group can decide how much of each was found after the roll is made. PCs who are barbarians or other natives of the wilds normally never find less than two units of forage barring extreme circumstances.
Foraged food is unpreserved and will spoil in three days. Smoking or drying it requires use of a day’s worth of firewood and a half day’s labor. Any reasonable amount of forage can be preserved with a single half-day’s work.
Foraging
| Type of Foraged Terrain | Diff |
|---|---|
| Woodlands or areas of heavy vegetation | 8 |
| Mountains, scrublands, savannas | 9 |
| Deserts, badlands, or normal barrens | 12 |
| Grim wastes or barely human-survivable lands | 14 |
| A full day foraging rather than a half-day | -2 |
| Each successive day foraging the same hex | +1 |
On success, 1d6 units of forage are found, plus the total Survive skills of the foragers. Those without even level-0 skill in it subtract 1 from the total found.
2.12.6 Wandering Encounters
PCs risk encountering trouble in their expeditions. Every so often, a Wandering Encounter check die should be rolled by the GM, with example probabilities on the table below. If the GM rolls a 1, something comes up. A GM should roll an encounter check…
- Once per day of travel and once per night of camping outdoors. Such encounters will commence at the terrain’s usual maximum sight range, with a Wis/Notice opposed check to see who first spotted who.
- Once per foraging attempt. Whether a half-day or a full day, one check is made per attempt, per foraging group. If the group forages all day instead of traveling, the daily travel check above is omitted.
The precise nature of a Wandering Encounter will depend on the terrain and the GM’s preparations. These encounters fit the logic of the situation, not the levels of the PCs, so a swift retreat may be in order.
Not all Wandering Encounters are hostile or involve combat, however. A pompous noble might be clearing rabble off the road in front of him, or a woodsman might be found with a broken leg, or the bandit crew might be carousing and willing to have visitors join in. In general, they’re simply situations, creatures, or events that the PCs will need to react to.
Wandering Encounter Checks
| Type of Terrain | Chance |
|---|---|
| Dangerous wilderness area | 1 in 6 |
| Area of civil unrest or heavy banditry | 1 in 6 |
| Ordinary trade road | 1 in 8 |
| Well-policed trade road | 1 in 10 |
| Borderlands or rural back country | 1 in 8 |
| Ordinary wilderness | 1 in 8 |