Uller
Adventurer
I've come up with some rules for wilderness travel that I think will be fun and allow us to play the trip from Sloobludop to Gracklstugh the way it was intended without it being monotonous. I'm not going to share all the specifics with you. The basic idea is to break the trip up into manageable "legs" and intersperse them with meaningful encounters and hazards (some random, some not) along the way that present opportunities for danger, interaction and exploration. The world and your interaction with it will behave as you would expect on a journey of many days through a dangerous and alien wilderness. Your various resources (spells, hp, HD, food and water) will be tapped and you will be faced with choices to avoid exhaustion and even death. We're going for more Call of the Wild than Fellowship of the Ring (we'll see how it works).
But to do so we have to make some changes to the rules to make this work.
Difficulty: Without going into too much detail I will assign a base difficulty to the areas you are traveling through. This will determine the DC for most checks as well as the range of difficulty of encounters and hazards. Darklake is fairly challenging for low level characters, so you will have to take some care. Some encounters can present significant challenges and retreat or avoidance should be strongly considered...although some monsters are also food and some might guard significant treasure or information...again...the goal here is choices that matter.
Resting: The biggest rule change is resting. When wilderness travel IS the adventure, then resting becomes a limited resource. So from now on, the standard rest rules apply for site based adventure or when travel is trivially easy. For extended travel through a very dangerous wilderness different rules will apply. Darklake for 4th level PCs and a gaggle of weak NPCs is a case where travel is the challenge.
Long Rests in the Wilderness: Long rests require either 24 hours of not traveling and remaining in a somewhat well sheltered place or 8 hours in a very comfortable and safe place (which you must navigate to...think inns or oases or old forts or whatever...places that may be several days apart as you navigate a wilderness environment). The only benefit to curling up on the ground and not moving for 8-12 hours is you don't become exhausted. So while traveling you have to navigate from one safe resting area to another and those are the places where you get the benefit of a long rest.
To add to the challenge, long rests replenish half your HD (round up) and your class features (spells, channel divinity, etc). But they do not replenish hit points. At the end of your long rest you can spend your regained HD (and any HD you still had) to convert them to HP if you like.
Short Rests: Short rest benefits are the same but the number of short rests you can take between long rests is determined by your average travel pace. A slow pace allows for 3 short rests between long rests. Normal pace gives 2 and a fast pace allows for none. The party doesn't "take a short rest" as some sort of action. The benefit is gained over a period of many hours and is just built into your travel pace (at a slow pace, you are taking frequent breaks, walking slower, travelling for fewer over all hours in a day, etc). Each individual character can just say "I take a short rest" at any point while traveling and gain those benefits. If you vary your pace between long rests I'll have to decide how that effects resting and distance traveled...generally "pace" refers to your average pace over the entire time between long rests.
If you have remaining any remaining short rests when you start a long rest, you may take the short rest benefits at the start of your long rest. For example, if you are low on hp but have some HD left, you can spend HD to regain some hp, then at the end of your long rest you can spend the HD you got back to gain more hp. Example: Surana is at 3 hp out of 48 but has 3 HD and hasn't used all of her short rests at the start of a long rest. She spends her 3 HD, gains 35 hp (so now she has 35 hp and 0 HD). She gets back 2 HD at the end of the long rest and can spend one or both of those before setting out again.
Certain spells can grant additional rests. Leomund's Tiny Hut, for instance might grant an extra short rest. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion might grant a long rest (but still requires expenditure of time). Generally, you can only take one short rest per day but that may vary depending on circumstances.
Supplies: We're not going to track supplies in detail. Instead, you will be in "good supply", "poor supply" or "out of supply" (food and water are tracked separately). You can use spells and foraging to extend your supply or help avoid the consequences of running low. Good Berry, Purify Food and Drink, etc will still be helpful, but they are now a precious spell resource that will not fully solve supply problems.
Good supply means you are consuming normal rations but they are being diminished as you travel. You can consume half rations (or use spells) if you like to extend your supply. Poor supply means you must be at half rations for the entire "leg" and being at half rations means risk of gaining levels of exhaustion (constitution saves will apply and get progressively harder). Out of supply means you are on such meager rations that your risk of gaining levels of exhaustion or even dying goes up substantially.
For this journey, you have enough food on your keelboats to be in good supply for the entire journey and enough water to be in good supply for the entire first leg of the journey. Riding in a keelboat is not much more relaxing than walking long distances. Each passenger is going to be helping to push row or pole through difficult terrain and as often as not you will be getting out and pushing it or dragging it through very shallow water.
Tasks you can perform:
Navigation: Shuushar gives you infallible navigation through Darklake. He relates to you the planned course. If something happens to him, someone else will have to navigate. Should you at some point become lost the result will be a slower pace without gaining rest or risking exhaustion to get back on track. This shouldn't be a problem as long as Shuushar is alive and not insane or incapacitated.
Foraging: Successful foraging extends your supplies. Very poor foraging can risk disease and poison. Spells like Goodberry and Purify Food and Drink can help extend your supplies.
Lookout (forward and rear): Lookouts help you avoid ambushes and spot hazards.
Confusing your tracks: Not much use in doing that in the darklake. There will be some places you have to get out and push your keelboats over shallow waters. This may leave tracks, so this task could be done there but it will be difficult. If pursuers are falling you, they will have to know or have guessed your destination.
Piloting: The keelboat pilot makes dex or str checks when called for by hazards. Proficiency in boating (which shuushar has) applies.
Stealth: Stealth can only be done at a slow pace. A character proficient in stealth can aid other characters to help the entire party move with some stealth.
Mapping: Not necessary. Shuushar is able to help you make a basic map that is at least good enough to allow you to make navigation checks normally. This maps would actually be very valuable and can be sold later (the kuo-toa keep the best routes a secret).
Some of the above tasks are at disadvantage at a fast pace and advantage at a slow pace.
Risks: There are lots of risks and dangers you may face. Losing a keelboat will mean a loss of a substantial portion of your supplies. Losing a second keelboat will mean overcrowding your one remaining boat or some characters having to swim or building a raft which will be more dangerous to travel on. Your food is dried rations. Should it become wet some of your food may be ruined or dangerous to consume. Obviously Darklake is the home of many dangerous monsters. Kuo-toa and Duergar and other races cross it frequently. There are many terrain hazards that might result in damaging or destroying a boat or injuring you. Insufficient rest can cause exhaustion.
Anyway...that's longer than I planned but you get the idea. Comments are welcome. If at least two of you feel really strongly that you just want to get to Gracklstugh with a narration, we can just do that...but in that case to simulate the difficulty of the trip, I will make some sanity checks and constitution checks to see if any characters gain levels of madness or exhaustion by the time you arrive at your destination (and then will narrate reasons for that happening).
In the mean time...see the IC thread for the start...(which will apply regardless of method we use to play this out).
But to do so we have to make some changes to the rules to make this work.
Difficulty: Without going into too much detail I will assign a base difficulty to the areas you are traveling through. This will determine the DC for most checks as well as the range of difficulty of encounters and hazards. Darklake is fairly challenging for low level characters, so you will have to take some care. Some encounters can present significant challenges and retreat or avoidance should be strongly considered...although some monsters are also food and some might guard significant treasure or information...again...the goal here is choices that matter.
Resting: The biggest rule change is resting. When wilderness travel IS the adventure, then resting becomes a limited resource. So from now on, the standard rest rules apply for site based adventure or when travel is trivially easy. For extended travel through a very dangerous wilderness different rules will apply. Darklake for 4th level PCs and a gaggle of weak NPCs is a case where travel is the challenge.
Long Rests in the Wilderness: Long rests require either 24 hours of not traveling and remaining in a somewhat well sheltered place or 8 hours in a very comfortable and safe place (which you must navigate to...think inns or oases or old forts or whatever...places that may be several days apart as you navigate a wilderness environment). The only benefit to curling up on the ground and not moving for 8-12 hours is you don't become exhausted. So while traveling you have to navigate from one safe resting area to another and those are the places where you get the benefit of a long rest.
To add to the challenge, long rests replenish half your HD (round up) and your class features (spells, channel divinity, etc). But they do not replenish hit points. At the end of your long rest you can spend your regained HD (and any HD you still had) to convert them to HP if you like.
Short Rests: Short rest benefits are the same but the number of short rests you can take between long rests is determined by your average travel pace. A slow pace allows for 3 short rests between long rests. Normal pace gives 2 and a fast pace allows for none. The party doesn't "take a short rest" as some sort of action. The benefit is gained over a period of many hours and is just built into your travel pace (at a slow pace, you are taking frequent breaks, walking slower, travelling for fewer over all hours in a day, etc). Each individual character can just say "I take a short rest" at any point while traveling and gain those benefits. If you vary your pace between long rests I'll have to decide how that effects resting and distance traveled...generally "pace" refers to your average pace over the entire time between long rests.
If you have remaining any remaining short rests when you start a long rest, you may take the short rest benefits at the start of your long rest. For example, if you are low on hp but have some HD left, you can spend HD to regain some hp, then at the end of your long rest you can spend the HD you got back to gain more hp. Example: Surana is at 3 hp out of 48 but has 3 HD and hasn't used all of her short rests at the start of a long rest. She spends her 3 HD, gains 35 hp (so now she has 35 hp and 0 HD). She gets back 2 HD at the end of the long rest and can spend one or both of those before setting out again.
Certain spells can grant additional rests. Leomund's Tiny Hut, for instance might grant an extra short rest. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion might grant a long rest (but still requires expenditure of time). Generally, you can only take one short rest per day but that may vary depending on circumstances.
Supplies: We're not going to track supplies in detail. Instead, you will be in "good supply", "poor supply" or "out of supply" (food and water are tracked separately). You can use spells and foraging to extend your supply or help avoid the consequences of running low. Good Berry, Purify Food and Drink, etc will still be helpful, but they are now a precious spell resource that will not fully solve supply problems.
Good supply means you are consuming normal rations but they are being diminished as you travel. You can consume half rations (or use spells) if you like to extend your supply. Poor supply means you must be at half rations for the entire "leg" and being at half rations means risk of gaining levels of exhaustion (constitution saves will apply and get progressively harder). Out of supply means you are on such meager rations that your risk of gaining levels of exhaustion or even dying goes up substantially.
For this journey, you have enough food on your keelboats to be in good supply for the entire journey and enough water to be in good supply for the entire first leg of the journey. Riding in a keelboat is not much more relaxing than walking long distances. Each passenger is going to be helping to push row or pole through difficult terrain and as often as not you will be getting out and pushing it or dragging it through very shallow water.
Tasks you can perform:
Navigation: Shuushar gives you infallible navigation through Darklake. He relates to you the planned course. If something happens to him, someone else will have to navigate. Should you at some point become lost the result will be a slower pace without gaining rest or risking exhaustion to get back on track. This shouldn't be a problem as long as Shuushar is alive and not insane or incapacitated.
Foraging: Successful foraging extends your supplies. Very poor foraging can risk disease and poison. Spells like Goodberry and Purify Food and Drink can help extend your supplies.
Lookout (forward and rear): Lookouts help you avoid ambushes and spot hazards.
Confusing your tracks: Not much use in doing that in the darklake. There will be some places you have to get out and push your keelboats over shallow waters. This may leave tracks, so this task could be done there but it will be difficult. If pursuers are falling you, they will have to know or have guessed your destination.
Piloting: The keelboat pilot makes dex or str checks when called for by hazards. Proficiency in boating (which shuushar has) applies.
Stealth: Stealth can only be done at a slow pace. A character proficient in stealth can aid other characters to help the entire party move with some stealth.
Mapping: Not necessary. Shuushar is able to help you make a basic map that is at least good enough to allow you to make navigation checks normally. This maps would actually be very valuable and can be sold later (the kuo-toa keep the best routes a secret).
Some of the above tasks are at disadvantage at a fast pace and advantage at a slow pace.
Risks: There are lots of risks and dangers you may face. Losing a keelboat will mean a loss of a substantial portion of your supplies. Losing a second keelboat will mean overcrowding your one remaining boat or some characters having to swim or building a raft which will be more dangerous to travel on. Your food is dried rations. Should it become wet some of your food may be ruined or dangerous to consume. Obviously Darklake is the home of many dangerous monsters. Kuo-toa and Duergar and other races cross it frequently. There are many terrain hazards that might result in damaging or destroying a boat or injuring you. Insufficient rest can cause exhaustion.
Anyway...that's longer than I planned but you get the idea. Comments are welcome. If at least two of you feel really strongly that you just want to get to Gracklstugh with a narration, we can just do that...but in that case to simulate the difficulty of the trip, I will make some sanity checks and constitution checks to see if any characters gain levels of madness or exhaustion by the time you arrive at your destination (and then will narrate reasons for that happening).
In the mean time...see the IC thread for the start...(which will apply regardless of method we use to play this out).
