Unearthed Arcana Into the Wild: New Unearthed Arcana Covers Wilderness Exploration

Ohh the Nentir Vale - Moon Hills example that Mearls had showed a screenshot of before. Nice.

 

[pukunui]

February's Unearthed Arcana from WotC is here, and covers wilderness exploration. The new optional rules involve breaking travel into four phases: choosing a destination, choosing activities, resolving the activities and travel, and camping; plus a sample wilderness region from Nentir Vale: the Moon Hills region.

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"This month, Unearthed Arcana wanders into the wilderness, with new ways to approach outdoor exploration.

"The rules for wilderness travel in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide and chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook allow a DM to track a party’s progress for each hour of travel. Those rules work similarly to the rules for dungeon navigation, in that the players pick a direction and strike off in search of adventure, adjusting their path as they go .... The following approach to wilderness exploration and travel provides a new overlay for the existing rules from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Player’s Handbook. They’re built around the idea that the players have a specific destination in mind as the party sets out for the day. They also require that you take a new approach to designing the wilderness regions of your campaign as a DM."

 

[Guest 6801328]

I guess Mike Mearls has been avidly studying Cubicle 7's work.

 

[Parmandur]

I guess Mike Mearls has been avidly studying Cubicle 7's work.

Which example makes me think a system like this could be great for establishing setting: travel activities in Eberron and Dark Sun would be as different from the Forgotten Realms as Middle Earth is.

 

[Remathilis]

The examples Mearls posted before had some evasion rules for avoiding encounters. I'm disappointed they weren't included here...

 

[Immoralkickass]

Boring. Give us more feats already.

 

[Parmandur]

Boring. Give us more feats already.

More feats seem... unlikely...any time soon, based on the survey reaction to the last batch.

 

[pukunui]

Boring. Give us more feats already.

More feats sound boring to me. These alternate/experimental rules systems are exactly the sort of thing I want to see more of in UA.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I like the idea of having features for an area, in many ways it makes "Exploration" seem like more of an interesting thing.

 

[Mouseferatu]

More feats sound boring to me. These alternate/experimental rules systems are exactly the sort of thing I want to see more of in UA.

This. While I'm fine with UA being used to playtest possible new examples of "standard" material--subclasses, feats, spells--I'd really love to see them get more out there. These are free downloads and pure playtest stuff. Go hog wild. See how far you can push the envelope in a dozen different directions.