[Fate] How to make travel matter?

[Takewo]

Hello my Fate friends,

Let's see if you can help me. I'm preparing a setting for Fate and I want travel to matter. That it, other than the hazard of getting lost, I want it to mean something, to be a challenge.

I've looked at the system in The One Ring and it looks pretty interesting.

I've though about adding a special stress track to track travel weariness and the possibility to get consequences or aspects such as "fatigued" and "exhausted" from travelling. I don't particularly fancy the idea of adding another stress track, but I like the idea of weariness aspects being attached to the characters.

I've also though about making it like a challenge and have the players roll something like Athletics/Physique, Notice and Resources. Maybe with the possibility of changing one of them for Lore if they have some stunt/aspect that would allow them to. But I'm not sure I like it either.

Do you guys have any ideas? What I want to achieve is that the travel is a challenge in itself, that it can change how much they take to arrive at a certain point, how worn out they are and so forth.

[Anonymouswizard]

First off, you could just use the two basic stress tracks, physical for exhaustion and mental for... exhaustion (no, really, for me at least mental exhaustion is different to physical). Or just skip the stress tracks and say that everyone has a 'travel' stress track of zero and so when they fail in a travel task they get a consequence.

However, there's something more interesting. It's the succeed at a cost outcome. Essentially, in Fate if you're travelling somewhere you're doing it for a reason, so you should get there in the end. However, nothing says that things shouldn't go wrong, and if you fail while travelling maybe you get there later then intended, with a 'worn and weary' or 'battered' consequence which they can't heal right away because there's no milestone and plot happens.

I'll be watching this, as although one of the worlds I'm writing up (under the name Angel's Wake) has relatively safe travel, I'm also planning a low fantasy world (no name yet) where travelling is difficult and dangerous, and not preparing before you go on the journey can have a major impact on how you do at the destination.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Treating overland travel as a literal Challenge seems like the simplest way to do it. Set up a series of obstacles to be overcome and have players roll against them, racking up situational aspects and consequences when they fail that persist into the next major event (before they get to a Milestone and rest)

[Takewo]

However, there's something more interesting. It's the succeed at a cost outcome. Essentially, in Fate if you're travelling somewhere you're doing it for a reason, so you should get there in the end. However, nothing says that things shouldn't go wrong, and if you fail while travelling maybe you get there later then intended, with a 'worn and weary' or 'battered' consequence which they can't heal right away because there's no milestone and plot happens.

That's right, I like the idea of succeeding at a cost. Or else, they can also get lost, which could lead to interesting developments.


Treating overland travel as a literal Challenge seems like the simplest way to do it. Set up a series of obstacles to be overcome and have players roll against them, racking up situational aspects and consequences when they fail that persist into the next major event (before they get to a Milestone and rest)

I agree with this, and thanks for the input, but I'm not looking for the simplest way. I'm looking for a way to make it meaningful. I appreciate your comment, and treating it as a challenge is something that I'm certainly considering, but I fear that it might be too abstract. Maybe I could fluff it well and do something with the possible outcomes, like a sort of "table" (I don't want to start adding tables, though)

[kyoryu]

A lot of it will depend on how much you want to focus on the travel.

At the lightest end, it's just an Overcome, with an appropriate failure.

In the middle, look at a Contest or Challenge.

At the high end, it could be an entire session or more, with various obstacles that have to be overcome, each of which could be its own scene (and thus Overcome/Challenge/Contest/Conflict).

If travel is to be a major aspect of the game, consider using Conditions from the toolkit, and naming them to reinforce the travel-related things you want to be a thing.

[Takewo]

Alright, I've finally had some time to think about it, and this is what I've come up with:

Travel works as a sort of challenge, but not quite.

First, there are two skill checks that are rolled by one member of the party. I don't know whether to allow for the same player to roll both checks or have two different players roll them, though. These are Notice (to avoid getting lost) and Resources (to make sure that they've got/can find enough food, water and other supplies). Then, there is one Athletics/Physique check rolled by every member of the party.

If somebody has a stunt or an aspect related to geography or the specific area through which they will be travelling, or they have access to a library or some other sort of information source, they can subtitute Notice or Resources for Lore.

The idea is that failing any of the group checks makes the mission fail, but they always have the opportunity to succeed at a cost.

Notice: The idea is to make sure that they know/find the way and don't miss turns, indications or other important things that must be noticed. A failure here can indicate that they take too much time, end up elsewhere or get captured, among others.
Succeed at a minor cost: Would be something like they get there slightly late, but not too late.
Succeed at a major cost: I don't know, any ideas?

Resources: The idea is to make sure that they've got enough supplies, especially food and water. Or else that they can find them. If somebody is a hunter, maybe the skill related to hunting can be rolled instead. A failure probably should indicate that they get stuck in a town where they can't buy enough food or spend too much time hunting/looking for water and get there late.
Succeed at a minor cost: That could again be that they get there slightly late or they get a condition like Hungry.
Succeed at a major cost: Again, I'm not sure what to put here.

However, failing the individual Athletics/Physique check does not make the mission automatically fail, unless the player decides that the character stays behind, they always succeed at a cost.

Athletics/Physique: The idea is to test the resistance of the character.
Succeed at a minor cost: They start the next scene with a situation aspect like "Tired" or "Far Behind" or maybe some sort of light condition.
Succeed at a major cost: They take a consequence, something like "Wearied" or "Twisted Ankle" for instance.

So, what do you guys think?

[Earthwalker]

Please excuse me I am going to let ideas fall out of my brain onto this post.
I like the direction you are heading in, I have recently started a One Ring game as a player and at the moment I aren’t really sure if the rules for overland travel are working (I don’t know the rules so that’s prolly the reason I am confused)
For Fate I am going to throw out some suggestions.

You could have a Pathfinding skill. This could be used to for situations involving travel and allow it to be used to give some narrative control over the journey. It can be used at the start of a section of the trip to create an advantage. It could also be used to overcome some obstacles.

A failed roll would trigger a scene that would need other skills to overcome or to deal with.
Personally I would steer clear of a number of rolls each day to make up a journey. I would think it would be more interesting to have a situation that happens and those situations drive dice rolls based on how the players wish to overcome the obstacle.
It might be worth having an extra that represents supplies for the trip. This can work like a stress track and as things go wrong your supplies get lower and lower until it starts impacting on the trip. (If it was a stress track perhaps pathfinding skill adds on boxes like will and to the mental stress track)

Depending on how much you want to tax the group you may have to perform some overcome test at the end of the day or take stress / consequences on the supplies stress track.

Any way random ideas. Hope there is something there you can use.

[kyoryu]

I'd be more likely to use 'a failed roll generates a scene where you deal with the problems that the failure generated', personally.

[Anonymouswizard]

You could have a Pathfinding skill. This could be used to for situations involving travel and allow it to be used to give some narrative control over the journey. It can be used at the start of a section of the trip to create an advantage. It could also be used to overcome some obstacles.

Would this skill pretty much only be used when travelling? If so, what's the purpose of it being a skill? I'd personally fold it into Lore, Notice, or a new Nature skill.


A failed roll would trigger a scene that would need other skills to overcome or to deal with.
Personally I would steer clear of a number of rolls each day to make up a journey. I would think it would be more interesting to have a situation that happens and those situations drive dice rolls based on how the players wish to overcome the obstacle.
It might be worth having an extra that represents supplies for the trip. This can work like a stress track and as things go wrong your supplies get lower and lower until it starts impacting on the trip. (If it was a stress track perhaps pathfinding skill adds on boxes like will and to the mental stress track)

Okay, I'm currently developing a world where travelling is dangerous, but even there I'm worried with any sort of bookkeeping. I'd suggest linking any sort of supplies to whatever resources system is being used, my campaign only uses the skill and running out of resources can be a situation Aspect if the group decides to take a cost, but if you use Resource Stress I'd suggest just taking hits on it to represent lower supplies, it's simple, it'll impact you later, and it'll force you to make important decisions (do I take the resources stress and make it harder to absorb the cost of acquiring stuff, or do I take a consequence of being hungry in exchange for more resources?).


Depending on how much you want to tax the group you may have to perform some overcome test at the end of the day or take stress / consequences on the supplies stress track.

If using these ideas this is a decent way to do it, although I'd suggest doing the rolls in 'legs' instead, how they decide to approach each leg (do you go over the mountains or around them, for example) would determine what skill needs to be rolled and the difficulty.

[Sith_Happens]

I can't help but feel like you're thinking about this a bit backwards. The way Fate works, if getting from Place A to Place B is hard enough to require a roll there should be specific reasons for that, and what those reasons are will guide how it should be handled mechanically.

[kyoryu]

That's a very good point, though sometimes "it's hard, see if you get a complication" is reasonable.

But usually the way to make something interesting in Fate is to make it *narratively* interesting, not *mechanically* interesting.

[Takewo]

A failed roll would trigger a scene that would need other skills to overcome or to deal with.

I like this idea, it sounds like something completely reasonable.


Personally I would steer clear of a number of rolls each day to make up a journey. I would think it would be more interesting to have a situation that happens and those situations drive dice rolls based on how the players wish to overcome the obstacle.

Indeed, I want to avoid book-keeping as much as possible.


Okay, I'm currently developing a world where travelling is dangerous, but even there I'm worried with any sort of bookkeeping. I'd suggest linking any sort of supplies to whatever resources system is being used, my campaign only uses the skill and running out of resources can be a situation Aspect if the group decides to take a cost, but if you use Resource Stress I'd suggest just taking hits on it to represent lower supplies, it's simple, it'll impact you later, and it'll force you to make important decisions (do I take the resources stress and make it harder to absorb the cost of acquiring stuff, or do I take a consequence of being hungry in exchange for more resources?).

I would rather avoid adding any more stress tracks. I think that Resources as it is can handle supplies quite alright. I like the idea of the situation aspect if they are low on resources.


I can't help but feel like you're thinking about this a bit backwards. The way Fate works, if getting from Place A to Place B is hard enough to require a roll there should be specific reasons for that, and what those reasons are will guide how it should be handled mechanically.

That's a very good point actually. It makes me think that I might be over-thinking things. However, travelling is important in the setting that I am preparing. I don't want it to come down to "Alright, you guys go there, roll this and we'll think what happens." I want some sort of mechanic that, while not being a stone-written rule, allows travel to impact the story, whether it be the party getting lost and ending up with a complete different story, or some of the members being tired and slightly behind when facing the next challenge.

[Philistine]

That's a very good point, though sometimes "it's hard, see if you get a complication" is reasonable.

But usually the way to make something interesting in Fate is to make it *narratively* interesting, not *mechanically* interesting.

This.

If travel is to be meaningful and consequential, then it should also involve some decision-making on the part of the players. Like, "push for speed and risk exhaustion, or maintain a measured pace and risk being late to arrive." Or "stick to the well-known roads, or gamble on a possible cross-country shortcut (which might lead to an additional challenge of some sort)." Or "forage for food as you go, or hope you can pack enough with you to last through the trip." Or whatever other kind of misadventures you can dream up; but travel needs to be engaging if it's going to be important. And that's not really a question of mechanics.