So I am experimenting with chases and similar sub-systems. The session before last one of the PCs objectives was to get to the top of a sea stack and retrieve the feather of a monster that lived there. The stack was comprised of chase obstacles with different number of chase points needed, different difficulties, and some had linked hazards. For example the PCs could try and climb the sheer backside of the stack (a single obstacle with a very high DC and a large number of chase points needed) or go up the rugged front face (multiple obstacles, some linked to hazards like handholds crumbling away beneath the characters, powerful updrafts attempting to knock them off the cliffs, or angry seabirds defending their nesting grounds) but had a sub-level to rest on. There was also a hidden 'brave trail' (from horizon: zero dawn) leading up that the PCs could (and did) find. The PCs roped themselves together (using my Roped Together hazard) and started up: taking the crumbling cliffs, the brave trail, and the seabird nests. They got very lucky and made it to the top without triggering a hazard. There they found the monster's empty nest (except for some eggs) and began looting it for the feather. The monster noticed and began attacking. And here is where the encounter fell apart: the PCs cut the ropes, the wizard grabbed the feather, and then feather fell to safety (he had to cast it twice). Meanwhile, the other characters were attempting to slowly climb down the cliff in encounter mode – essentially using their actions every turn to do nothing but athletics checks – while being attacked by a flying monster. And to make matters worse they began to trigger the hazards that they bypassed. So not only was a monster attacking, but also a flock of angry seabirds. The wizard meanwhile ran into a bunch of locals who were coming to see why the monster was upset. It was almost a total party kill as the bird knocked the characters off the sea stack one after another (I had it take it easy on them until they could get a little ways down because a full fall would be instant death) while the seabirds inflicted heavy damage. Fortunately, the locals agreed to a contest of skill versus the wizard's champion for the feather. The locals then signaled the monster to tell it what was going on (and so it stopped attacking) and everyone survived. In hindsight, I would have either made the seastack shorter or immediately moved to ‘a getting down the cliff safely’ chase using variations on the obstacles that they bypassed.
Overall, I was not happy with my design/execution of this portion of the session (there was also an underwater adventure that went pretty good).
Then, this last Saturday, the character were back in the city and I ran my city exploration system again, and it worked pretty good; though once again I came up with something that I should have done differently: I am giving out too focused news (conservation of detail) and I should really be giving out two pieces of news per watch: one specific to the PCs and one not of immediate importance (worldbuilding).
I also used the chase subsystem in this adventure: I was going to have this one as multi-path race across town (based on Cross Town Race) but in the end I went for something much simpler: just six chase cards with two encounters interspersed (rabid dogs causing a panicked crowd hazard in a market and a soon to be burning warehouse) and one at the end using a raid system variant with short turns and a ticking clock. We only got to play through the first part of the chase as we ran out of time, though it was a lot of fun. Hopefully, the momentum of the scene won't be lost in the gap between sessions.
Finally, I am working on an expedition overland travel system (partially inspired by Teddy Roosevelts' River of Doubt expedition). It is going to be using the leadership subsystem (and I'm making cards with each of the characters followers on them: to give the NPCs faces so losing them has more of a sting. The cards will also list their special abilities for more cynical players) and I know I want to have obstacles, hazards, opportunities, encounters, set pieces, and interpersonal events. What I have worked out so far is:
Each day:
- Is there a set piece based on the days travel? If so do that for the day.
- Roll 5d6. The first dice corresponds to obstacles, the second hazard, the third encounters, the fourth opportunities, and the fifth interpersonal events. If a dice comes up a six then that event happens (I might just limit it to one in which case lower number dice will take priority).
- For each event triggered, roll on a random table to determine what it is.
- Reroll any encounters (as per the Fortune Teller's special ability) and take the best one for the party.
- Depending on what happened, calculate their movement rate and update there position on my map
- Update the location on the players' map (as per the Navigator's special ability)
- Make a camping roll to check for sleeping sickness/malaria (using system in age of ashes?) and subtract supplies.
But I will probably tweak it a bit between now and when I run it (session after next) because I want to emphasis decision making, choice, and consequence a lot more.
), I managed to run the mini-hex “dungeon” from my previous post. It went okay but it could have gone better. I implemented a variant of the scout action in which each person scouting got to see the hazards of one of the adjacent hexes and that worked pretty well. What didn’t work was the environment- it was a very boring fungus covered island. I added some terrain and scenery and hazards to improve it, but couldn’t really get it to gel (it didn’t really help that I was exhausted when running it and my voice was almost gone from doing NPCs). I think the base idea is sound, and my players had fun, but next time I try this I am going to use a more dynamic environment- I think a village raid or a riot or something similar would work a little better than a dead, silent island. 
