Grod_The_Giant
2021-10-04, 01:17 PM
I'm planning out a wilderness-adventure type campaign, and right now I'm trying to lay out some concrete rules to provide structure. Do the following bits make sense? Are they too harsh? Too lenient? Too complicated? (I want traveling to be relatively reliable when prepared, but hazardous when something goes really wrong).
Exploration
Given that a major part of the game is going to be wandering around the wilderness, it’s worth putting a bit of structure to the activity. A big part of that is the idea of the “hex”—dividing the wilderness up into bit-sized chunks. Each hex is a hexagon ten miles across, and may or may not contain anything more interesting than rocks and trees.
Declaration: At the start of the day, the party decides which way they’re trying to go, and how fast they want to move.
Normally a group can cover two hexes per day.
At a fast pace, you can cover three hexes but have disadvantage on Survival, Perception, and similar checks. You cannot forage.
At a slow pace, you only cover one hex, but have advantage on said checks. You can forage, with each character proficient in Survival gathering one pound of food per point of bonus. You can attempt stealth while traveling slowly.
If you choose to explore, you don't leave the hex at all, but you can gather enough food to feed the entire group and discover otherwise-hidden structures and points of interest. You also have advantage on random encounter rolls--I'll roll twice and use the gentler option.
Navigation: Make a group Wisdom (Survival) check, with a DC based on the terrain. Success lets you move normally; failure leads to your party being lost and veering off-course.
Following an obvious trail, such as a river, lets you automatically succeed on this check, and you have advantage on this check in previously-explored hexes.
When you move into an unexplored hex, the area will be revealed on the world map, and you’ll have the option of arriving at any points of interest therein.
Lost: Your map marker will be hidden, and you’ll wind up moving in a random direction. Hexes you move through while lost are not revealed.
Encounter: At some point during the day, I’ll roll on the random encounter tables to see what you run into as you travel—it could be monsters, it could be storms, and it could be treasure.
Different parts of the island will have different tables; if you’re at the border between two zones, I’ll pick one randomly.
NPCs (including hostiles) can be encountered in one of three ways-- you can run into them head-on (40%), find their trail (40%), or encounter their lair (20%). If you're lost, you're more likely to stumble into a head-on encounter (60%) and less likely to find tracks first (20%).
Passive Perception will be used to determine surprise.
Camping: At the end of the day, you’ll make camp (presumably) . If you’re lost, you can attempt a new Survival check to figure out where you’ve wound up.
Characters need to consume 2 pounds of food and 1 gallon of water per day, otherwise you get a level of exhaustion.
It's difficult to rest in the wilderness. Traditional rests are almost impossible--instead, short rests in the wilderness take eight hours, and long rests are impossible outside a fortified location. you may take a short break, a night's rest, or a deep rest. Long rests are only possible in safe locations such as towns, forts, and palisades.
A Short Break takes one hour, and allows you to spend hit dice to recover hit points and perform use abilities that can are normally "part of a short rest." You may take as many short breaks as you like.
A Night's Rest takes eight hours, and requires appropriate food, water, and shelter. In addition to the benefits of a short break, you regain one hit die and recover from one level of exhaustion, and use abilities that are normally "part of a long rest," such as changing prepared spells.
A Deep Rest is identical to a normal Night's Rest, except that you may also regain all uses of abilities that normally recharge on a short rest. You may only take three Deep Rests before needing a proper Long Rest to complete your recovery.
I'll make one more random encounter roll to see if anything bothers you while you sleep; inapplicable results (such as "quicksand appears") will be treated as uneventful.
(And some will even avoid you altogether). Construction is faster if there's an appropriate structure to start with, such as a ruined tower or cave. If you abandon an intact fortification, there's a chance that someone else will have taken it over by the time you return.
Fortifying:
If you spend three full days working, you can construct a Palisade, a basic fortified camp protected by trenches and crude wooden walls. You can complete a proper Long Rest when taking shelter in a palisade, and the walls will offer a terrain advantage against any hostile nightly visitors still intent on a fight.
Some hostile creatures will avoid palisades entirely.
An abandoned palisade is likely to be taken over by someone else, given time. Destroying one takes several hours, reducing your travel speed for the day by 1 hex.
Exploration Aids
Hirelings bring a variety of special skills to the table, although they might have to be protected. If you ask them to do something particularly dangerous, like delving into a dungeon or hunting a manticore, they're liable to demand a share of the profits. Unless otherwise specified, they use the stats of Commoners.
Experts (3 gp/day) have a +6 bonus to one skill or tool, and a +4 bonus in two related areas.
Guards (3 gp/day), well, guard. They use the stats of Bandits, but with their Strength increased to 14 and (typically) studded leather armor, a shield, a spear, and a light crossbow. In addition to fighting on your side in combat, they can protect mounts, palisades, fellow hirelings, and so on while you're away. To do their job, you need a number of Guards equal to the area's overall level-- four will be enough for most regions--otherwise there's a chance of their being overwhelmed.
Healers (5 gp/day) can stabilize dying creatures as an action, and carry Healing Kits with them. If they expend a use, everyone in the group to regains 1d6 hit points over the course of a Night's Rest.
Hunters (2 gp/day)take care of foraging for you, regardless of the expedition's pace. At a Normal or Slow pace, each hunter brings in enough food for five people; at a Fast pace, only three.
Laborers (1 gp/day) don't offer anything special beyond a Strength score of 13, but they also only cost 1gp/day.
Mages (10 gp/day) are available in limited numbers; if a mage dies, no more will sign on with any of their employers for a month. Each knows two cantrips, one first level spell, and three first level ritual spells, and has one first level spell slot which they regain after a short rest. Clerics have Wisdom scores of 14 and a +4 bonus to Religion; Druids have Wisdom scores of 14 and a +4 bonus to Nature; Wizards have Intelligence scores of 14 and a +4 bonus to Arcana.
Partners are a special type of Hireling. There are a handful of NPC adventurers in Cape Hope who have actual class levels-- they'll be listed in full elsewhere. They demand a full, equal share of all treasure and bounties, but in doing so they gain experience and class levels just like you. They will join you in battle, and a single Partner is enough to protect a palisade in any region whose overall level is lower than their own. (If you also have Guards, add your Partner's level to the number of Guards to determine if you have enough protection or not). If they die, that's it; they're gone unless you get them resurrected.
Mounts (50gp) allow you to travel one additional hex per day, though they prevent stealthy travel.
Pack Animals (10 gp) and Wagons (35gp) let you carry much more in the way of supplies (and treasure), but reduce your pace by one hex per day, to a minimum of 1, and prevent stealthy travel.
Settling the Island
Your characters are explorers, not civic leaders--for the most part, colonization will happen on its own. After you report your discoveries and collect your bounties, the governor may choose to send soldiers and settlers to take advantage of a newly-discovered natural resource of freshly-cleared fortification. Once founded, you can take advantage of them.
Roads: Building a road takes one week per hex. Once completed, you can traverse the hex at double speed, and the random encounter table will be modified: you won’t hit any terrain hazards and are less likely to run into dangerous animals and the like, but are more likely to encounter civilized creatures.
Forts: Having soldiers around makes an area safer. Dangerous random encounters do not occur in the hex where the fort is built, and have a fifty percent chance of not occurring in adjacent hexes. Most importantly, you can benefit from a full Long Rest in a garrisoned Fort.
Towns: Are the ultimate end-goal, and typically aren't established without a Fort in the same hex. Once settled, basic merchants and craftsmen will be available, patrols will make adjacent hexes safe from dangerous random encounters, and you'll be able to sell your loot and earn experience points. Whenever a new Town is founded, all characters gain a hundred experience points.
One a hex has been explored, and any major dangers eliminated, you can pay to have it developed. The times and costs assume that you’re hiring guards and laborers from Cape Hope—attempting to do the construction yourselves costs half as much but takes twice as long.
Roads (100gp/hex): Building a road takes one week. Once completed, you can traverse the hex at double speed, and the random encounter table will be modified: you won’t hit any terrain hazards and are less likely to run into dangerous animals and the like, but are more likely to encounter civilized creatures.
Fort (250 gp): Building a fort takes two weeks. Once completed, it provides a safe place to rest—you do not risk random encounters, and gain the full benefits of a long rest when you sleep there. If abandoned for too long, there’s a risk that someone else moves in—but conversely, if you chase hostile creatures out of one of their strongholds, you can take it over for no cost.
Garrison (500 gp, +10gp/hex away from the nearest town): If you hire mercenaries to occupy a fort (either one you built or one you cleared), it becomes even safer. Dangerous random encounters do not occur in the hex where the fort is built, and have a fifty percent chance of not occurring in adjacent hexes. It also can’t be taken over by nasties.
Town (10gp/hex away from Cape Hope): Once a fort has been garrisoned and connected by road to at least one existing town, you can sponsor the construction of a full-on village. Settlers will travel from Cape Hope at a rate of two days per hex, at which point basic merchants and craftsmen will be available and adjacent hexes will also be safe from dangerous random encounters. You’ll be able to earn experience points there. Finally, when a town is settled, all players involved in funding it gain experience points equal to twice their contribution.
Exploration
Given that a major part of the game is going to be wandering around the wilderness, it’s worth putting a bit of structure to the activity. A big part of that is the idea of the “hex”—dividing the wilderness up into bit-sized chunks. Each hex is a hexagon ten miles across, and may or may not contain anything more interesting than rocks and trees.
Declaration: At the start of the day, the party decides which way they’re trying to go, and how fast they want to move.
Normally a group can cover two hexes per day.
At a fast pace, you can cover three hexes but have disadvantage on Survival, Perception, and similar checks. You cannot forage.
At a slow pace, you only cover one hex, but have advantage on said checks. You can forage, with each character proficient in Survival gathering one pound of food per point of bonus. You can attempt stealth while traveling slowly.
If you choose to explore, you don't leave the hex at all, but you can gather enough food to feed the entire group and discover otherwise-hidden structures and points of interest. You also have advantage on random encounter rolls--I'll roll twice and use the gentler option.
Navigation: Make a group Wisdom (Survival) check, with a DC based on the terrain. Success lets you move normally; failure leads to your party being lost and veering off-course.
Following an obvious trail, such as a river, lets you automatically succeed on this check, and you have advantage on this check in previously-explored hexes.
When you move into an unexplored hex, the area will be revealed on the world map, and you’ll have the option of arriving at any points of interest therein.
Lost: Your map marker will be hidden, and you’ll wind up moving in a random direction. Hexes you move through while lost are not revealed.
Encounter: At some point during the day, I’ll roll on the random encounter tables to see what you run into as you travel—it could be monsters, it could be storms, and it could be treasure.
Different parts of the island will have different tables; if you’re at the border between two zones, I’ll pick one randomly.
NPCs (including hostiles) can be encountered in one of three ways-- you can run into them head-on (40%), find their trail (40%), or encounter their lair (20%). If you're lost, you're more likely to stumble into a head-on encounter (60%) and less likely to find tracks first (20%).
Passive Perception will be used to determine surprise.
Camping: At the end of the day, you’ll make camp (presumably) . If you’re lost, you can attempt a new Survival check to figure out where you’ve wound up.
Characters need to consume 2 pounds of food and 1 gallon of water per day, otherwise you get a level of exhaustion.
It's difficult to rest in the wilderness. Traditional rests are almost impossible--instead, short rests in the wilderness take eight hours, and long rests are impossible outside a fortified location. you may take a short break, a night's rest, or a deep rest. Long rests are only possible in safe locations such as towns, forts, and palisades.
A Short Break takes one hour, and allows you to spend hit dice to recover hit points and perform use abilities that can are normally "part of a short rest." You may take as many short breaks as you like.
A Night's Rest takes eight hours, and requires appropriate food, water, and shelter. In addition to the benefits of a short break, you regain one hit die and recover from one level of exhaustion, and use abilities that are normally "part of a long rest," such as changing prepared spells.
A Deep Rest is identical to a normal Night's Rest, except that you may also regain all uses of abilities that normally recharge on a short rest. You may only take three Deep Rests before needing a proper Long Rest to complete your recovery.
I'll make one more random encounter roll to see if anything bothers you while you sleep; inapplicable results (such as "quicksand appears") will be treated as uneventful.
(And some will even avoid you altogether). Construction is faster if there's an appropriate structure to start with, such as a ruined tower or cave. If you abandon an intact fortification, there's a chance that someone else will have taken it over by the time you return.
Fortifying:
If you spend three full days working, you can construct a Palisade, a basic fortified camp protected by trenches and crude wooden walls. You can complete a proper Long Rest when taking shelter in a palisade, and the walls will offer a terrain advantage against any hostile nightly visitors still intent on a fight.
Some hostile creatures will avoid palisades entirely.
An abandoned palisade is likely to be taken over by someone else, given time. Destroying one takes several hours, reducing your travel speed for the day by 1 hex.
Exploration Aids
Hirelings bring a variety of special skills to the table, although they might have to be protected. If you ask them to do something particularly dangerous, like delving into a dungeon or hunting a manticore, they're liable to demand a share of the profits. Unless otherwise specified, they use the stats of Commoners.
Experts (3 gp/day) have a +6 bonus to one skill or tool, and a +4 bonus in two related areas.
Guards (3 gp/day), well, guard. They use the stats of Bandits, but with their Strength increased to 14 and (typically) studded leather armor, a shield, a spear, and a light crossbow. In addition to fighting on your side in combat, they can protect mounts, palisades, fellow hirelings, and so on while you're away. To do their job, you need a number of Guards equal to the area's overall level-- four will be enough for most regions--otherwise there's a chance of their being overwhelmed.
Healers (5 gp/day) can stabilize dying creatures as an action, and carry Healing Kits with them. If they expend a use, everyone in the group to regains 1d6 hit points over the course of a Night's Rest.
Hunters (2 gp/day)take care of foraging for you, regardless of the expedition's pace. At a Normal or Slow pace, each hunter brings in enough food for five people; at a Fast pace, only three.
Laborers (1 gp/day) don't offer anything special beyond a Strength score of 13, but they also only cost 1gp/day.
Mages (10 gp/day) are available in limited numbers; if a mage dies, no more will sign on with any of their employers for a month. Each knows two cantrips, one first level spell, and three first level ritual spells, and has one first level spell slot which they regain after a short rest. Clerics have Wisdom scores of 14 and a +4 bonus to Religion; Druids have Wisdom scores of 14 and a +4 bonus to Nature; Wizards have Intelligence scores of 14 and a +4 bonus to Arcana.
Partners are a special type of Hireling. There are a handful of NPC adventurers in Cape Hope who have actual class levels-- they'll be listed in full elsewhere. They demand a full, equal share of all treasure and bounties, but in doing so they gain experience and class levels just like you. They will join you in battle, and a single Partner is enough to protect a palisade in any region whose overall level is lower than their own. (If you also have Guards, add your Partner's level to the number of Guards to determine if you have enough protection or not). If they die, that's it; they're gone unless you get them resurrected.
Mounts (50gp) allow you to travel one additional hex per day, though they prevent stealthy travel.
Pack Animals (10 gp) and Wagons (35gp) let you carry much more in the way of supplies (and treasure), but reduce your pace by one hex per day, to a minimum of 1, and prevent stealthy travel.
Settling the Island
Your characters are explorers, not civic leaders--for the most part, colonization will happen on its own. After you report your discoveries and collect your bounties, the governor may choose to send soldiers and settlers to take advantage of a newly-discovered natural resource of freshly-cleared fortification. Once founded, you can take advantage of them.
Roads: Building a road takes one week per hex. Once completed, you can traverse the hex at double speed, and the random encounter table will be modified: you won’t hit any terrain hazards and are less likely to run into dangerous animals and the like, but are more likely to encounter civilized creatures.
Forts: Having soldiers around makes an area safer. Dangerous random encounters do not occur in the hex where the fort is built, and have a fifty percent chance of not occurring in adjacent hexes. Most importantly, you can benefit from a full Long Rest in a garrisoned Fort.
Towns: Are the ultimate end-goal, and typically aren't established without a Fort in the same hex. Once settled, basic merchants and craftsmen will be available, patrols will make adjacent hexes safe from dangerous random encounters, and you'll be able to sell your loot and earn experience points. Whenever a new Town is founded, all characters gain a hundred experience points.
One a hex has been explored, and any major dangers eliminated, you can pay to have it developed. The times and costs assume that you’re hiring guards and laborers from Cape Hope—attempting to do the construction yourselves costs half as much but takes twice as long.
Roads (100gp/hex): Building a road takes one week. Once completed, you can traverse the hex at double speed, and the random encounter table will be modified: you won’t hit any terrain hazards and are less likely to run into dangerous animals and the like, but are more likely to encounter civilized creatures.
Fort (250 gp): Building a fort takes two weeks. Once completed, it provides a safe place to rest—you do not risk random encounters, and gain the full benefits of a long rest when you sleep there. If abandoned for too long, there’s a risk that someone else moves in—but conversely, if you chase hostile creatures out of one of their strongholds, you can take it over for no cost.
Garrison (500 gp, +10gp/hex away from the nearest town): If you hire mercenaries to occupy a fort (either one you built or one you cleared), it becomes even safer. Dangerous random encounters do not occur in the hex where the fort is built, and have a fifty percent chance of not occurring in adjacent hexes. It also can’t be taken over by nasties.
Town (10gp/hex away from Cape Hope): Once a fort has been garrisoned and connected by road to at least one existing town, you can sponsor the construction of a full-on village. Settlers will travel from Cape Hope at a rate of two days per hex, at which point basic merchants and craftsmen will be available and adjacent hexes will also be safe from dangerous random encounters. You’ll be able to earn experience points there. Finally, when a town is settled, all players involved in funding it gain experience points equal to twice their contribution.