Notes on Exploration for PCs and DMs

The Stolen Lands encompass an area that covers approximately 35,000 square miles - a territory
about the size of the state of Maine. It is comprised of four regions, the Greenbelt, the Nomen Heights,
the Slough, and the Glenebon Highlands. The expanse of the Stolen Lands has not, in Brevoy’s recent
memory, been accurately mapped, and part of the task set before the PCs is to rectify this gap. As they
explore the region, they and their companions are expected to keep track of what they find in order to
keep Brevoy informed of strong and weak points of defense and to determine possible sites for roads,
towns, and other fortifications.

Each hex on the map of the Stolen Lands is 12 miles across (between opposite corners) and
covers just under 150 square miles of area. These hexes are provided not only as a way to help define
the land (and eventually aid in defining the territory of the kingdom the PCs are destined to rule), but
also as an aid in tracking travel through the Stolen Lands. Until otherwise mentioned, created, or
discovered all hexes are considered to be trackless. In some hexes, more than one terrain is present in a
hex. In such cases, calculate that hex’s effect on travel as if it were a hex of the dominant terrain type, or
consult the master list for any special rules.

Exploration Rates and Associated Benefits/Penalties

Traveling (Time to cross 1 Hex) Exploring (Time to fully explore 1 Hex)

Party Speed Roads Plains All Other Party Speed Plains Forest Mountain
Terrains or Hill or Swamp
Slow Pace 4 hours 8 hours 12 hours Slow Pace 2 days 3 days 4 days
Normal Pace 3 hours 5 hours 8 hours Normal Pace 1 days 2 days 3 days
Fast Pace 2 hours 4 hours 6 hours Fast Pace 1 day 1 days 2 days

Special Traveling Pace: See page 243 of the DMG when computing speed to cross and explore
hexes when using mounts, magically faster base speeds (ex: wind walk), etc.

At a Slow Pace, the party is moving carefully and quietly. They gain Advantage to all checks to
perceive danger and all hostile creatures suffer Disadvantage to detect the party, thus allowing the party
to surprise enemies. In addition, the party can forage for food normally if they maintain a slow pace for
the entire day. Finally, navigation checks enjoy Advantage when moving at a Slow pace. The party’s
speed, however, is reduced by a third (30ft movement to 20ft movement). So every three days of travel
count as only two days of travel.

At a Medium pace, the party travels normally. They may forage for food with Disadvantage. You
may not travel at medium pace if a member of the party is heavily encumbered.

At a Fast pace, the party travels more quickly. Their speed is increased by a third (30ft
movement to 40ft movement). So every three days of travel count as four days. While traveling at a Fast
Pace, the party cannot forage for food at all. They suffer Disadvantage on all checks to perceive dangers
and on navigation checks. Hostile creatures enjoy Advantage on checks to detect or track the party. You
may not travel at a fast pace if a member of the party is encumbered or heavily encumbered.

*Unfortunately for PCs, the Outlander background and Ranger ability Natural Explorer are nerfed. Instead of providing
automatic successes for various outdoor tasks, they instead provide bonuses to navigation checks, allow the character to
forage enough food/water for two people, or etc. Check with your DM for more details.
DM Notes about Travel
There are five major factors when the party moves about in the wilderness.

1. Time – how long to get point A to point B. Faster routes are more dangerous, but slower routes
use more resources. The party can usually choose their travel rate – fast, normal, or slow, each
with their own benefits and drawbacks. Dynamic adjustment of pace for PCs is a good thing –
gives them control of the encounter.

2. Danger – civilized areas are typically safer, with more roll-play encounters than monsters.
Dangers can also be terrain based issues. Barren and treacherous regions have less monsters
due to food issues, but more terrain based problems (heat stroke, dehydration, extreme
temperatures, rough altitude, etc). PCs can control the danger of the route, if they know about
the danger. They should know about many of the dangers. The locals can tell the party all about
how Goblin Wood is filled with goblins and their spider pets and how no one who goes in comes
out alive except that one guy who came out with a mess of spider eggs in his belly and he keeled
over in his soup one night and spiders came spilling out of his mouth and I mean it because my
second cousin swears she saw it happen. The haunted hills filled with ancient barbarian tombs
are probably pretty lousy with undead.

3. Navigation – Without magical means, navigating is actually a lot harder than people realize.
Suppose, for example, you set out traveling north on foot. You have a really good sense of
direction and you’re pretty close to true north. So, let’s say after traveling 10 feet to what you
think is true north, you’re actually just 1 itty bitty little foot off. After one day, assuming you
travel 24 miles, you’ll be 3 miles left of your destination. Three days on foot and you’re 8 miles
off your target. And if that target isn’t big and visible, 8 miles is a lot of distance to be off by.
Once you can’t see where you’re going, any distance off is lost. So what does getting lost mean?
What happens? Well, in general, getting lost means the party has been traveling in the wrong
direction for some period of time. And, depending on the nature of their directions, they might
not be able to hit their goal. Again, if they are going for a river, that’s hard to miss as long as
they start moving in the right direction again. But a particular tower in a hilly badland or a small
lake in rolling hills? The party could end up wandering for ages. But getting lost also means the
party can’t find their way back. Simply put, they have to guess at the way back. They have to try
to retrace their steps. A good survivalist can follow the party’s trail behind them for a little while
and that might be all it takes to get back on track, but it is at that point that even an inaccurate
map can help. If there’s a road south of the forest you’re lost in, well, all you have to do is head
south and you’ll hit that road. Somewhere along it. And since roads lead somewhere, you’ll find
civilization eventually.

4. Resources - In wilderness terrain, resources generally represent food and water, the staples for
survival. Lush wilderness, including meadows, forests, flatlands, and hills provide a bounty for
travelers. Everything from berries, nuts, fruit, and roots to small game like rabbits and game
birds. Realistically speaking, in such terrain, it’s conceivable that a party can forage enough
water to keep their skins and bellies full and enough food to survive on a day to day basis. But it
is by no means assured. Barren wilderness can be a bit crueler. Rough hills, badlands, and tundra
can make foraging much harder. And, obviously, deserts and wastelands yield almost nothing.
But there are other factors to consider as well. Resources are a bit more complicated. First of all,
while civilized lands tend to actually yield less game as animals tend to avoid populated areas
 and the mere act of building roads can disrupt and divert game trails, most traveled roads
provide other resources for travelers. Roadside inns and farming homesteads can provide food,
water, and shelter in return for some coin. Or a few hours of chores. Obviously, all of this is
supplemental to what the players can carry themselves.
a. The D&D 5E DMG indicates that a person needs about one pound of food and one
gallon of water every day. Given that a waterskin weighs 5 lbs. when its full, it probably
holds about half a gallon (a gallon of water weighs almost 9 lbs.) The smart traveler
carries two full skins (10 lbs) and refills them whenever they can in the wild. So, they are
always carrying 10 lbs. of water. That means for every day of travel, a PC has to carry a
pound of food. This is something encumbrance rules SHOULD use to create a tradeoff
between carrying extra food or relying on the bounty of the land.

5. Discoveries - This is the pull-you-off-the-road-by-your-own-curiosity factor of being able to spot

interesting things that you want to check out. See, the world fantasy world of D&D is an old
world and many empires have risen and fallen on its sprawling surface. And that means that
there’s always some random little half-collapsed tower or old gate house or ancient foundation
or henge or mausoleum or something waiting just over the next rise. And it is also a world of
magic, which means there’s always some stand of enchanted trees with purple leaves or magical
waterfall coming out of a portal in thin air or something to be found as well. The party should
spot something weird in the distance and debate checking it out. I’m not talking about
discovering entire goddamned dungeons, but that’s certainly possible too. I’m talking about
spotting the ruined foundation of some old castle that has a small treasure in it. Or a nasty
monster. Or both. Or a plaque with a weird point of interest about the world. Or a shrine whose
offering bowl is still intact and has a couple dozen ancient coins in it. There should be curiosities
to pull the party off the road. There should be something enticing the players to ignore all the
other factors and waste extra time in the wilderness.
The Map
The wilderness is already drawn out. See the freakin’ map and hex guide. Each Hex that is travelled
through should have the five considerations applied to it. The Danger, Navigation, and Resources rating
is labeled in the master document. Discoveries will usually be listed in the hex’s box text. Time will be
clarified by doing some math against the travel speed chart.

Danger is measured from 1 to 5. 1 is a relatively safe, civilized region or a barren, desolate region. 2 is a
dangerous frontier. 3 is enemy territory. 4 is regularly patrolled, extremely hostile territory. And 5 is
reserved for the sort of terrain which is filled with monsters that are actively trying to destroy all
intruders and can detect the intruders with supernatural means. For example, Hell or The Land of the
Dead. Seriously, 4 and 5 are pretty ridiculously dangerous.

Navigation and Resources are both measured in terms of a DC. But either can be moot. For example,
following a road or river makes Navigation moot. And traveling through civilized, friendly farmland
makes Resources moot. Otherwise, you want to set a DC of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc. Verdant forests and
lush meadows have a Resource DC of 5. Deserts have a Resource DC of 25. Gently rolling flatlands have a
Navigation DC of 5. A Desert has a Navigation DC of 25. If you want to add a Fantasy Factor like
confounding fey curses or the blessings of the Land Spirits, you can adjust the DCs by 5 either way.

Discoveries are labeled on each hex as landmark, hidden, or secret. See exploration rules for this
information on finding them. Alternative random information can be added as needed. Discoveries are
mainly a way to drive choices and decisions along a route.
The Travel Day
Once the party sets out, it’s time to resolve each day of travel. At the beginning of the day, the party
decides their pace to set – slow, medium, or fast. See page 1 for explanations of the benefits and
penalties for each of these speeds.

Once the party sets the pace for the day, they can change the pace depending on what happens to them
during the day.

Now, pick up six 6-sided dice. Each one represents a time-period of the day. Morning, Afternoon,
Evening, Dusk, Midnight, Predawn. Roll them all. For each one that shows the Danger number or less, an
encounter MIGHT happen. We’ll talk about random encounters. For example, if the Danger is 3, and
your six dice show 5, 2, 3, 4, 1, 6; the party will have three encounters that day. One in the evening, one
at dusk, and one at predawn. Notice that the danger number is actually the number of encounters you
will expect to happen in one day.

Finally, roll one more d6. If that shows the Discovery number or less, you need to tantalize the party
with something interesting off the road for them to check out. A ruined tower, a sign of magic, an old
tomb, an ancient henge, a shrine, or whatever. The key is that it has to be far enough off the path that
the party has to choose whether to waste a few hours investigating it or to ignore it.

Now, you play out the daytime encounters as they happen. After each encounter, the party might spend
some time resting, recovering, or whatever. Don’t worry about that. They might also decide to change
their pace. That’s fine too. When playing out the encounters, its important to remember that surprise is
a definite possibility. If the party is moving slowly and quietly and the enemy doesn’t detect them, they
should be able to plan an ambush or bypass the encounter. If the party is rushing, they might very well
be surprised and ambushed themselves. In fact, it is entirely possible that neither party detects the
other and the encounter never happens. That’s totally fine. Sometimes, that’s just how it goes. That’s
why we roll dice.

If no encounters or discoveries happen, the day passes uneventfully and the PCs find a place to make
camp for the night. In the Stolen Lands, most hexes have some sort of boxed text with something silly,
an encounter, or interesting info about the surrounding area.
Making Camp
It’s time for some bookkeeping at this point. First of all, you have to find out if the party is lost. To do
this, have the best navigator make a navigation roll against the Navigation DC of the terrain. If the party
traveled at a Fast pace at any point during the day, apply Disadvantage. If the party has been through
this area multiple times, created their own maps, or have other reasons to be more successful at this
check, lower the DC or apply advantage to the roll. Make this roll in secret. If they fail, the party has
gotten lost at some point during the day. They just don’t know it yet.

Now, you have to figure out how many days of travel the party logged during the day. If the party isn’t
lost, this is determined by their pace. If the party stopped to investigate a discovery, subtract 1/3 rd from
their progress unless they spent the whole day on the discovery. In which case, they make no progress.
Use your best judgment. Likewise, use your best judgment if the party does something weird like
stopping halfway through the day.

Finally, you have to figure out how much food and water the party has consumed. If the party moved at
a slow pace all day, allow each of them to make a check against the Forage DC. If the party didn’t move
slowly all day but never moved at a fast pace at all, have each make a Forage check with Disadvantage. If
anyone fails, that means the party didn’t find enough food to feed themselves. Each failure requires
someone to consume one pound of food from their supply (one day worth of rations). You can generally
assume that, as long as anyone succeeds at foraging, the party turned up enough water to refill their
waterskins and drink their fill. But if they are traveling through a desert, you can modify that. If everyone
fails to forage, however, they drain their waterskins and are now out of water. If their waterskins were
already drained and they don’t have a backup supply, they are now dehydrating.

That whole process should be pretty quick. You roll for Navigation and determine if they are lost and
then mark off the progress if they aren’t. Then, everyone rolls a forage checks and marks off food. Done
and done. Now, it’s time for the night.

Some groups get absolutely bogged down in details about who is taking what watch shift and when. This
is completely ludicrous. It really doesn’t matter. There are enough hours in the night that a party of any
size can all get a good night sleep and still have a watch rotation with each character taking a shift. If the
party really wants to fight about it or someone refuses to take watch or someone takes extra shifts
because they are an elf and require less sleep, fine. So be it. But otherwise, just assume that everyone
takes a watch sometime.

Now, you play out the nighttime encounters. Remember the possibilities for detection and ambush. Roll
randomly to determine who is awake on watch for each encounter. Play them out. If no encounters
happen, the night passes uneventfully. Hooray.
Being Lost
So, what happens when the party is lost? Well, you can handle it a few ways. The easy way is to assume
that each day of travel doesn’t count as any progress. When the party makes camp, log zero progress.
However, you should still have the navigator roll a check. Well, you should roll secretly. If this check
succeeds, the navigator will recognize that the party has become lost the next morning as the party is
starting to set out. Otherwise, the party will just continue to make no progress every day.

However, you can handle it a few other ways. First of all, if the party travels in one direction long
enough, they are going to discover an unexpected feature. They will hit a river, a new type of terrain, a
lake, a road. If you drew a map, determine randomly what they will hit and where they will hit it or just
pick something. Assume they travel in a straight line in a random direction from the middle of whatever
terrain or route they were in. Again, use your best judgment.

Likewise, if the party knows the trip should have taken three to five days, and they hit day seven, they
are going to realize they are lost.

Alternatively, each day that they travel while lost, roll a d6 when logging their progress. On a 1, they
managed to travel in the right direction and log progress normally. On a 5 or 6, they are losing ground
and subtract however much progress they would have made based on their route. For anything else,
add no progress.

Once the party realizes they are lost, either because they hit a feature they shouldn’t have or because
they realized they have been traveling too long or because the navigator figured out they got lost
somewhere, they need to figure out a new plan. They might pick a direction they know will lead them to
something (“we’ll head north until we find the river” or “we’ll keep traveling in this direction until we
find the edge of the forest”), they might try to find a landmark to make toward (“we know that
mountain peak is to the southeast, if we keep toward it, we should be able to find our way back to the
road” or “can I climb a tree and see if I can spot the lake from here”), or they might try to backtrack
(“can we follow our own trail back home?”). You can resolve each of those simply by assuming the party
starts a new route and figuring it out accordingly. At this point, the party is no longer lost on the new
route. The important thing is that the party can’t just get unlost. They need to have an alternative plan
once they are lost. Otherwise, they will just keep wandering.
Random Encounters
When designing random encounters, it’s important to note a few things.

First of all, random encounters represent all of the potential dangers and hazards an area might present
to travelers. It is not just a list of combat encounters. In fact, even when it is a list of encounters, it is a
list of potential encounters. Remember, the party might evade an encounter. Or the encounter might
evade the party. And you don’t even have to assume every encounter is hostile although I advise against
using random encounters for friendly encounters. Bandits might be willing to let the party go for a price,
especially if the party looks powerful and they aren’t sure of the odds. Some monsters might ignore the
party if the party throws some food at them before retreating. Orcs might trade threats and insults with
the party in social interACTION!, with each side trying to get the other to back down and go away. Some
animals might merely threaten the party and try to frighten them away from their nest or other
territory. Random encounters can also represent hazards. Quicksand in swamps, flash floods in hills and
badlands, booby traps in kobold territory. They can also be obstacles like rockfalls across a road or a
washed out bridge.

In general, the party should deal to one to two of them a day unless they start wandering through very
dangerous territory. And that means that three days of travel is roughly equivalent to a short dungeon
adventure. Keep that in mind as you plan. Your encounters should be interesting, but not complicated.
Focus on single creatures or small groups of identical creatures. And, honestly, instead of a list of
encounters, you can just have a small bestiary of creatures you can mix and match easily to get the
results you want. In goblin territory, you can get a lot of mileage by mixing and matching goblin
skirmishers, goblin archers, and giant spider pets in different combinations.

The one thing to keep in mind though is that the party will have the opportunity to rest and recover
more frequently in the wild and will probably encounter fewer encounters than a typical dungeon day.
To compensate, it’s important to skew your combat encounters toward the hard end of the difficulty
curve. Hard should always be the baseline difficulty for wilderness encounters to keep them meaningful.
Discoveries
It can be tough to come up with discoveries on the fly. But, the party should only encounter one or two
during an entire trip unless they are wandering through an ancient kingdom lousy with ruins. Discoveries
are basically just encounters that somehow bait the party into checking them out. But most of them
should offer some kind of reward. Either something interesting or something valuable or both. An old
ruined tower with an intact cellar, for example, might have a strongbox in the basement with some
money and other trinkets, but it might be protected by a booby trap. Or something living in the cellar.
An ancient shrine might reward an offering with a minor blessing or boon and might punish anyone
taking from the offering bowl. These discoveries are your chance to give the players something to
interact with if they are willing to waste time. Remember, if the rat survives the trap, he ends up with
some free cheese for his trouble. You’ll need one or two discoveries for every three days of travel, more
than likely. But it’s always good to have a pile of them in case you ever need one on the fly.
A Few Tweaks for 5E
As a final note, I need to point out that D&D 5E does a few things that absolutely ruin up any chance of
having good, engaging wilderness travel fun. First of all, the basic encumbrance rules that assume you
can carry 15 times your Strength without breaking a sweat completely removes any difficulty in carrying
food and supplies. I suggest you use the variant rules for encumbrance on PHB 176.

Second of all, drop all that activity while traveling stuff.

Likewise, D&D 5E is VERY generous with foraging. Ignore that too. And, while we’re on the subject, some
classes and backgrounds have features that also completely ruin any engagement to be gotten from
travel. The Outlander background in particular offers the Wanderer feature that amounts to never
getting lost and always foraging for an entire party. Replace that with a mechanical bonus to Navigation
and Foraging. Like, the Ranger class feature Natural Explorer trivializes absolutely every aspect of
wilderness travel, virtually guaranteeing that it becomes a Final Fantasy game of just plodding through
random encounters and not sweating anything else. And much of it is tied to the specific, boring rules of
overland travel baked into 5E. Instead, change it to having Advantage on Navigation (so that if the party
moves at a fast pace, that cancels the Disadvantage), having Advantage on Perception while traveling (so
that if the party moves at a fast pace, yaddah yaddah yaddah), and foraging yielding enough food for a
second person (basically covering one other party member’s failure).