Level Up (A5E) Exploration Questions

[This Effin’ GM]

Trying to understand exploration mechanics in Trials and Treasure. Does terrain not effect time travelled unless if there is an encounter? I’m reading this on a bad pdf viewer to bouncing around and the book doesn’t appear to have an index.

Next question: is getting lost off the table? I see a few references to critical failures and people getting lost but rather than adding time or needing another check, they just suffer like a level of fatigue or something

Third question: is there a guideline for how many encounters to roll during a Journey, other than at least one per region? Or is it just DM fiat

 

[Morrus]

Things which physically affect your journey are generally exploration challenges.

We don't generally advise having PCs get lost because it's not actually all that much fun. But the suggested outcomes of any EC are only suggestions -- as the Narrator, if you want a critical failure to mean they get lost, you can do that.

I generally prefer 1 per region (maybe 2 or 3 for really big regions) but we figure the Narrator can best read their group and know what's appropriate.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Agreed on the not fun part! I assumed that was a design intent but I wanted to make sure, thank you

 

[This Effin’ GM]

ok so follow up question: the ranger gets familiar terrain as an ability. First portion says difficult terrain doesn’t effect groups travel movement, second states that the they cannot get lost except by magical means

Using the journey rules as presented, what’s the expectation from a design perspective to have the ranger feel this choice was meaningful? Like, when should we see this come into play?

 

[Morrus]

Many exploration challenges include difficult terrain which slows the party down.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

And thanks @Morrus for taking the time to answer these questions, I really appreciate that