Writer: Kyle Carty, Kathryn Carty

Editor: Lauren Parnagian

All interior art taken from Creative Commons resources

Cover Art: Ekaterinya Vladinakova

Graphic Design: Kyle Carty

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 Travel On!
In many campaigns, travel is handled in one
of two ways. The first way involves rolling an
underwhelming, often under-cooked random
encounter or two that parties effortlessly crush.
Unless, for some reason, they roll the one result with
the random red dragon that they probably would have
heard about when they encounter those friendly elves
before. The other method is that travel is completely
glossed over when it’s narratively inconvenient.
Neither of these options seem particularly interesting
from a worldbuilding and table engagement point of
view. A massive, biome shaking threat like a dragon
shouldn’t be relegated to a random chance and the
idea of fighting a handful of low threat enemies
seems trivial when you consider that the party will
regain all of their limited use resources immediately
after the fight.
That’s where the improved travel rules come
in. Travel has the potential to be an incredibly
interesting, engaging, and important part of a
campaign that can be so much more than how the
most popular roleplaying game around has handled
it over the course of its decades long history. This
alternate ruleset will tax player characters in
ways that they are not prepared for. It will place
importance on the act of travel, pathfinding, and
setting up camp without being overly complicated.
Roleplay the Journey
It is vitally important that everyone at the table
remember that these rolls are not just a series of
silent die rolls made to fill a quota. Success and
failure should be met with appropriate, in-game
reactions from both the player characters and
the environment itself. Failures should lead to
interesting, compromising situations where the
unity of a party can be tested and either solidified
or fractured. DM’s should find interesting ways
to describe the world the party travels through:
the difference between various campsites, how a
forgotten backroad has a different atmosphere
and mystique than that of a well-traveled trade
route, the way the harsh storm from the night
prior has given way to the gentle din of a drizzle.
These evocative moments help the world feel
alive and can give players goosebumps in what
would otherwise be an unremarkable roll.
If you’re just rolling dice because you feel like
you have to then perhaps glossing over travel
that is not directly connected to the plot would
better suit your playstyle and that’s okay!
Travel and Time
These rules are left intentionally
vague in terms of distance and length
of time. Some groups might want a
single set of rolls to cover a single
day, while others might be interested
in filling a week or a month with
a single group of results. Some
campaigns might establish that a given
trip will be rolled for daily while
the next, much longer trip the party
undergoes will use weekly rolls. This
is perfectly fine and the flexibility of
these rules is more than capable of
handling such changes, even within a
single campaign.
Travel Rules
Inspired by the excellent travel rules from other
roleplaying games, especially Ryuutama, these
alternate travel rules are broken down into three,
interconnected checks: Travel, Orientation, and
Camping. Travel Checks cover the actual, physical act
of moving from point A to point B, Orientation Checks
are made by a single character to ensure the party is
heading in the right direction and does not get lost,
and the Camping Checks cover setting up the camp
site, securing food, preparing meals, and the sleep
quality each character gets.
Taking cues from Powered by the Apocalypse
games, these rolls have tiered levels of success and
failure instead of the binary results that are common
in d20 games. What this means is that even if
someone rolls under the DC of a check they can still
partially succeed with some complications. Similar to
Savage Worlds, if a character rolls exceptionally well
they don’t just succeed, they do so with benefits. These
thresholds are set at +5 above and -5 below the DC of
the skill check, with a normal success and a normal
failure filling in the middle. Each result is described in
greater detail in the sections detailing the alternative
travel rules.
These rules also modify how long rests work.
Characters no longer recover any Hit Dice or long rest
class features during a long rest. Instead, characters
who succeed at Camping checks have the ability to
recover “resources.” A resource refers to any class
feature that requires a long rest before it can be used
again. In the case of spell slots, the character can
recover all uses of a single spell level as a resource.
Travel Check
The Travel Check is the first check and is made by
all characters. It is a Constitution saving throw
with a DC set by the Terrain DC and the Weather DC
Modifiers listed below. A Dungeon Master should
make sure to highlight the nature of a given area and
the weather’s challenges and natural splendor.
Travel Checks are a fantastic time to describe the
setting, allow for some light chit-chat between party
members (such as briefly touching on an ongoing
point of drama), or to let characters reflect on
previous events.
Travel Check Results
Depending on how someone rolls, they will each
experience a different outcome.
Succeed by 5 or Greater: The character is invigorated
and recovers one Hit Dice.
Succeed: The character is challenged but overcomes.
They suffer no change.
Fail: The character is tested and loses one-fourth of
their maximum Hit Dice (rounded down, minimum 1).
Fail by 5 or Greater: The character is exhausted and
loses half of their maximum Hit Dice (rounded down,
minimum 1).
Orientation Check
Once all characters have rolled a Travel Check, it’s
time for an Orientation Check. Such rolls usually
occur during downtime where characters are taking
a small break. One character is chosen to make
the Orientation check, which is an Intelligence
(Cartographer’s Tools) check with a DC set by the
Terrain DC and the Weather DC Modifiers listed
below. A second character that is proficient with
cartographer’s tools can assist the primary character,
giving them advantage on their roll.
Orientation Checks might have a character cresting
a hill, climbing a tree, consulting the stars, and double
checking their map and compass. If a character is
assisting, it is also a great time for a small moment
between the two.
Orientation Check Results
Depending on how the navigator rolls, they will
experience a different outcome.
Succeed by 5 or Greater: The character find a faster
route. The party either increases their travel speed by
one-fourth during the next leg of their journey, or all
characters have advantage on their next Travel Check.
This bonus is chosen by the character, not the DM.
Succeed: The character plots an average route. There
is no change.
Fail: The character plots a poor path. The party
reduces their travel speed by one-fourth during the
next leg of their journey.
Fail by 5 or Greater: The character plots an abysmal
path. The party reduces their travel speed by one-
fourth during the next leg of their journey and they
have disadvantage on their next Camping Roll.
Camping Check
At the end of a leg of travel, characters set up camp.
This is typically the responsibility of one character,
while the others stand guard, perform other duties,
or help in negligible ways. The primary character
makes a Wisdom (Survival) check with a DC set
by the Terrain DC and Weather DC Modifiers listed
below. A second character that is proficient with
Survival can assist the primary character, giving them
advantage on their roll. Alternatively, a character
proficient with Cook’s Utensils can assist instead by
preparing the food.
Camping Checkss represent several hours of
downtime. Gathering firewood, food, fresh water,
taking shifts on watch, setting up tents and bedding,
struggling to light wet wood, and sharing a drink
around the campfire are all great, little ways to create
ways to show of the party’s dynamics. Perhaps a
fighter struggling to light wood feels overshadowed
by a wizard who ignites the timber with the snap of
their fingers, a previous argument or confession of
love permeates the campsite, or a ranger who just
wants some alone time while gathering wood cannot
shake the character assisting them on their roll.
Camping Check Results
Depending on how the character setting up camp
rolls, they will experience a different outcome.
Succeed by 5 or Greater: The camp is set up expertly
and the food is delicious. All characters recover
half their maximum Hit Dice (minimum 1), one
resource, and gain the benefits of one Beneficial
Travel Condition, presented below, for an appropriate
amount of time as determined by the DM.
Succeed: The camp is comfortable and the food
is tasty. All characters recover one-fourth their
maximum Hit Dice (minimum 1) and one resource.
Fail: Something goes wrong. The tents collapses, the
food isn’t good, or another minor inconvenience. All
characters lose one Hit Dice and gain one Negative
Travel Condition, presented below, for an appropriate
amount of time as determined by the DM.
Fail by 5 or Greater: Things go catastrophically
wrong. All characters lose one-fourth of their
maximum Hit Dice (rounded down, minimum 1) and
gain one Negative Travel Condition, presented below,
for an appropriate amount of time as determined by
the DM.
 Losing HD You Don’t Have
If a character suffers a Hit Dice penalty
that would bring them to less than zero,
the character has zero Hit Dice and gains
one level of Exhaustion, regardless of how
many Hit Dice the failure would have taken
from the character. Each time the character
would lose Hit Dice in this way imposes
an additional level of Exhaustion. This
Exhaustion is reduced by one level each time
the character recovers Hit Dice, regardless
of the amount of Hit Dice recovered.
Alternatively, 48 hours rest with food and
water inside of a settlement recovers all of
a character’s Hit Dice and removes all levels
of Exhaustion.
Biome Difficulty
The DC of the above rolls are set by the terrain’s
natural difficulty and the current weather. Choose
the terrain’s DC and modify it with the severity of the
current weather, as shown below.
Terrain DC
Walking through a rolling field is a very different
affair than scaling a craggy mountain or wading
through a swamp. How difficult the terrain a party
is traveling through determines the DC of all three
checks. Rather than listing every possible type of
terrain, a DM will instead determine the difficulty on
their own and place terrain into any of the following
loose categories. This benefits groups that have
normal campaign settings while still allows groups
with bizarre or irregular environments, such as
aquatic campaigns, to determine the Travel Roll DC
just as easily as anyone else.
Gentle Biome (DC 10): A gentle biome can
be anything from even grasslands, temperate
wastelands, or lightly forested areas. Gentle Biomes
almost never count as difficult terrain.
Moderate Biome (DC 13): A moderate biome covers
the vast majority of terrain. Forests, bogs, rocky
areas, and even small mountains are all potentially
moderate biomes. Moderate Biomes sometimes
count as difficult terrain.
Harsh Biome (DC 15): A harsh biome is one where
life is difficult and threats abound in all forms. Mighty
mountains, deep swamps, damp jungles, sweltering
deserts, and more are all examples of Harsh Biomes.
Harsh Biomes almost always count as difficult
terrain.
Weather DC Modifiers
The difficulty established by the Terrain DC is always
modified by the prevalent weather. After all, hiking
through a forest is one thing, hiking through the same
forest during a torrential downpour is another. It is
important to note that Harsh Biomes, such as deserts,
would not receive a modifier for typical weather, such
as high heat. A snowy mountain during a blizzard
or active snowfall, however, would still be modified
appropriately.
Neutral Weather (+0 DC): Clear and cloudy skies
have no impact on travel difficulty.
Inclement Weather (+1 DC): Gentle rain, moderate
wind, light fog, or unreasonable temperature are all
examples of Inclement Weather.
Harsh Weather (+3 DC): Powerful rain, strong wind,
snowfall, deep fog, and drought are all examples of
Harsh Weather.
Severe Weather (+5 DC): Exceptionally rare, Severe
Weather covers things like hurricanes, wildfires, and
blizzards.
Travel Conditions
Some results, specifically those tied to Camping
Checks, grant the party a group wide condition.
Some DM’s might prefer to assign individual Travel
Conditions based on a certain character’s actions or
personality. This is encouraged but the default issues,
such as hunger, often affect a group as a whole rather
than on an individual level.
These conditions are temporary and usually last for
at least one full encounter or leg of travel.
Positive Travel Conditions
The following are beneficial conditions a character
might benefit from.
Lucky
The creature finds something interesting or of minor
value.
Well Fed
The creature rolls a d4 any time it makes a saving
throw and adds the roll to the result of its save.
Well Prepared
The creature’s overland travel speed increases by one-
fourth.
Well Rested
The creature rolls a d4 any time it makes an ability
check and adds the roll to the result of its check.
Negative Travel Conditions
The following are detrimental conditions a character
might suffer from.
Forgetful
The creature accidentally loses an important piece
of equipment. They suffer disadvantage on their next
Travel, Orientation, or Camping check as chosen by
the DM.
Frazzled
The creature only recovers half of the spell slots they
normally would when recovering a resource.
Hungry
The creature rolls a d4 any time it makes a saving
throw and subtracts the roll to the result of its save.
Paranoid
The creature sees danger around ever bend. They
reduce their overland travel speed by one-fourth.
Tired
The creature rolls a d4 any time it makes an
ability check and subtracts the roll to the result of
its check.
Worn Out
The creature loses one of its current Hit Dice.
Using a Hex Map
For campaigns using hex map adventuring,
adopting these alternate travel rules is a quick and
simple affair. First, determine how many hexes a
party travels in a given day. This is something that
you’ve more than likely determined already. Some
groups might travel only a single hex while others
could go as many as four or five in a single long
rest.
Next, determine how often you want to roleplay
travel scenes and how difficult you want to make
things for your players. The more often they have
to roll to potentially lose Hit Dice and suffer Travel
Conditions the more difficulty they will have.