Are there any non-house rules for long distance travel? I suppose if you wanted to roleplay the travel you could use a progess tracker with points along the way. That suits travel very well, but I haven't seen any specific rules.

This part might belong in house rules, but the purpose of my post was to ask the question:

Maybe each player could think of something to accomplish while traveling and make a skills check. Certainly Nature Lore would be useful in most circumstances. The GM could add misfortune dice and challenge dice depending on how difficult the traveling is, and also relative to what is being attempted as a skill check by the player. The GM could also only add fortune dice if the party is, for example, all Wood Elves and they are traveling through Athel Loren.

There has been some discussion of using The One Ring's travel ideas. Have each PC take a role: leader, scout, support, whatever, and each gets to make a relevant skill check.

Failures will indicate that wounds, conditions or fatigue are applied throughout the journey. ROleplaying ideas can come from this. Same for success: there could be benefits with 3+successes, etc.

Travel's never all that exciting to begin with, so anything where each character gets a chance to shine is nice.

I've taken and had success rolls relevant to ambushes, food shortages, getting lost, injuries, and poor morale. Once I get my copy of T.o.R. I intend to add more to my WFRP game.

you can find more about this duscussion by Valvorik or me ..and there's some recent discussion in teh House Rules.

I think if you've got them on a Merchant's Wagon, some of the Tradecraft characters could be makign stuff.

jh

Emirikol said:

This is just my opinion, but if you simply make rolls based on actions the players aren't dictating, aside from traveling itself, the outcomes will seem arbitrary and fatalistic. If you're going to assign wounds based on a roll that is ultimately out of the player's decision-making control and solely dependent on a skill or characteristic, it's not going to feel right for the player.

A negative event should allow players to make a solution and roll based on the solution to the event. You can play out an ambush or make an attempt to forage food in a character-specific roll. The dice pool should include a chance for the characters to act, basically.

That's a cool idea about the Merchant's Wagon. That was along the lines of what I was thinking in terms of goals, along the journey.

RPing should be a benefif for sure beyond just rolling

jh

I simply have the PCs roll for a "successful trip" every 12 hours of travel. We call it a Path-finding Check.

It's accomplished via the following:

Observation(Int)

Specializations: Tracking/Navigation

Vs

Terrain Difficulty Level

The PCs side of the check can be modified by assistance from someone else in the party scouting ahead (an additional Observation check by the scouting PC +1 Fatigue, for the extra effort of increasing their pace...if they're on a horse, they lose extra wind..etc). It can also me modified by having a map, or a guide, etc.

The difficulty level is based on a scale of "target numbers" for common challenges that I whipped up and slapped on my GM's screen.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42615914/GM%20Screen_Difficulty%20Levels_01.docx

But really it's just common sense situational modifiers. 0D check for flat, well traveled roads, 2D for overgrown trails and woodland, 4D for mountaineering/spelunking etc. Misfortune are added for inclement weather, and nightfall/darkness automatically adds + 2 Challenge dice.

If the group doesn't reach civilization (towns, cities, coaching inns) by nightfall, they must make camp (a separate check) on the roadside or in the wilderness...which ain't safe in the Old World.

This type of open check allows my players to openly discuss where they're going to go, how to get there, what they'll bring, who'll do what, etc. without having to pick predefined "roles". So far, it's worked quite well and can become a mini game in and of itself.

Here's some of the other common checks that are used when we play, while the group is traveling.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42615914/GM%20Screen_Skill%20Checks_01.pdf

Fortune dice are of course awarded when the players take the time to role-play their checks.

I have been hoing and humming about this for over a year now and if you take my entire RPG history into account I've been hoping for a toolbox of ideas for travel and its perils since I started roleplaying around 89-90. I have been slowly, painfully so, working on a project titled Travel and its Perils which details travel and its perils throughout the Old World as well as providing the tools needed to create vivid travel experiences within your games. My biggest problem with it right now is not having others who are dedicated enough to the idea to help with the R&D portion of the project. I've got great illustrators and playtesters interested and I am willing to do the lion share of the writing, but I require dedicated R&D types to help filter all the myriad ideas that are filling up my head.

Any interested party's are encouraged to contact me either through Reckless Dice Podcast, or at my email [email protected].

I'd love the system to be playable sometime this year, its an ambitious project but one I'm convinced will be invaluable.

I'm down. Emailing you now!

GoblynKing said:

I like this idea a lot. It makes the most sense within the existing rules. It's arguably a check that should be performed because travel isn't a sure thing. It can be reduced to one check, though.

Emirikol's idea could work if people are more interested in fleshing out the different aspects of travel with precision but for simplicity's sake, I think I'm going to use GoblynKing's. I will keep my eyes open for things like the Merchant's Cart and options available to players, though.