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.

 

[mrpopstar]

As is usual for me, I've only read the first page of comments, so someone else may have already made the point I'm about to.

What if the characters have DIRECTIONS? That is not mentioned in the article, and should have an effect on the DC. And where's the forth part of the rules, camping?

If the characters have directions, I'd give them advantage when rolling against the Navigation DC. For example, if they had directions to a destination that lacks a path but is in a dense forest, I'd give them advantage and set the Navigation DC at 15.

 

[Monayuris]

This is interesting.

It kind of addresses / supports the conclusion I came to regarding a situation I had my last session. Which is related to focus in a role-playing session when dealing with wilderness travel.

In my game, the group was trying to clear out an orc lair to prevent them from raiding nearby settlements. They had a vague idea of where the lair was (30 miles to the North East) but that's about it. I didn't want to hand waive the travel with narrative: "you travel 5 days and are at the dungeon", but the players didn't really want to spend all session going hex to hex until they find the lair.

I want to have a mechanical answer for: "We want to stop the orc raids by clearing the orc lair to the North"... where the exact location of the orc lair is not known.

It depends primarily on the focus of the session and I think both methods are useful. If the players' primary focus on the session is "find the orcs and clear out the lair", then you'd want to abstract the travel (the Navigation check in these rules represents an abstraction of finding orc tracks or finding disruptions in foliage suggesting passage of an orc raiding party, etc). If the primary focus is instead "We want to explore the wilds and look for the orc lair" then you'd want to use the hex crawl method (exploration is the desired focus, let them travel in detail and find what they find).

You could even switch between the two... the UA Into the Wilds abstract rules can get the party to find the Valley of the Ancients, but then a thorough hex crawl can be done when actually exploring it.


I think this UA article can stand to be expanded on, but its a good start. What I would like to see (some already mentioned):

1. Weather - more detail on how weather can effect things.. you can apply disadvantage to the Navigation DC, but I'd like to see something more mechanical (Maybe an abstract weather rating - clear, inclement, severe; combined with heat, cold, rain, snow that can affect movement and rest).

2. Chance to stumble across something along the way... not a wandering monster, but a random feature or thing (ruined structures, natural shelters, magical pools, stone formations that have divination or teleportation magic, etc... there should be a chart of things of this nature for each region). Sometimes, this is just wilderness dressing, other times it may actually be a dungeon or lair or something that may actually sidetrack a group.

3. Wandering monster chance should be decoupled from random feature chance. There should be a chance of coming across a magical pool (rolled for in 2.) that, from which, harpies are drinking.

5. I really want D&D 5E to bring back "% chance in Lair" with lair rules for various monsters (i.e. a randomizer / procedure for number and disposition of orcs in a typical lair).

 

[Monayuris]

The big flaw in "navigation DC" is - so let's assume the characters roll bad on this one. They don't reach their destination. Nothing happens. Passivity. Passivitiy is never good. Much better if a bad roll means "you reach your destination, BUT - " and those BUT's can be really big (you reach the secret cavern, but your antagonist was faster, and now you are there in front of his WHOLE ARMY - how do you plan to get into the cave without him noticing? Something like that... though that was just quickly made up...).

My play-style is such that I like random encounters and random events. I find that if I try to derive everything from my own internal concept of the story, I tend to fall into the same tropes and situations I'm used to and comfortable with. Sometimes the dice present situations I would never think of on my own.

In this case, failing the Navigation DC doesn't result in "Nothing Happens", instead, what happens is they get lost.

This adds an interesting challenge to the situation, in that they may have to deal with the consequences of the results of getting lost (the lost result may put them in the haunted forest or they start running out of food, or they lose time they need to complete some task).

Assuming the Navigation DC is a value that is attainable, the party will eventually reach their destination, the DC just abstracts how difficult it is to do so.

I actually would probably assign some locations DC's that are nearly impossible to reach, but provide many methods or clues that would reduce them. The players can attempt research, quest to consult oracles, gain audience with an ancient Elven lord, hire a guide who knows the area, etc... Role-playing hooks that add to the story... tangible and actionable things the players can do to improve their chances of succeeding.

 

[Charlaquin]

As is usual for me, I've only read the first page of comments, so someone else may have already made the point I'm about to.

What if the characters have DIRECTIONS? That is not mentioned in the article, and should have an effect on the DC. And where's the forth part of the rules, camping?

It's not mentioned in the explanation on the first three pages, but it can be extrapolated from the text under the Navigation header in the Moon Hills example region:

If the characters are seeking a specific location, use the DCs on the table. Characters who become lost must make a check to navigate to a destination, even if they have a map or know the path from having made a prior visit.

So, by contrast, we can determine that characters who are not lost don't need to make a check to navigate to their destination if they have a map or know the path from having made a prior visit.

 

[BookBarbarian]

The big flaw in "navigation DC" is - so let's assume the characters roll bad on this one. They don't reach their destination. Nothing happens.

Hmm. Maybe you read a different UA than I did. I never saw a part where it said they never reach their destination.

It looks to me like they go for a while in the wrong direction, increasing their chance for an encounter and delaying their arrival at their destination which would give the DM the chance to give do something like Advance the antagonists' plans while the PCs are not there to interfere.

None of those things is equal to "nothing happens."

 

[MagicSN]

Hmm. Maybe you read a different UA than I did. I never saw a part where it said they never reach their destination.

Well, if they don't make the Navigation DC. Yeah, sure you can do "rince&repeat". But that is boring. And it means despite failing they just can try like before without any decision needed. A failure should always have some consequences (asides from being 2d6 miles off-track), lead to a hard move from the gm or lead to a situation where the gm presents a new situation which requires a hard choice (being 5 miles away from where you were before is not actually a new situation - it is the old situation repeated, slightly off-track).

My play-style is such that I like random encounters and random events. I find that if I try to derive everything from my own internal concept of the story, I tend to fall into the same tropes and situations I'm used to and comfortable with. Sometimes the dice present situations I would never think of on my own.

What's the advantage of random encounter over you just DEFINE what the situation is? Who they encounter. What happens. No need to roll for it.

 

[the_redbeard]

Resources Expended When You're Lost

1. Time:
Did the monsters eat the kidnapped villagers? The wizard experiment on the child? I usually have a % chance each day.
Did the villain reach the temple before you? How many more days of you getting lost will allow the villain to perform their evil ritual?
Did another NPC party reach the macguffin before you?
Did the portal to Sigil close again? Has the Vanishing Tower vanished?

2. Food and Water:
How much did you carry? Will it be enough to get you to your destination and back to safety? Or will you start accumulating exhaution?
If you have to end up foraging, that's one more character whose passive perception won't be counted during the ambush.
As your supplies run low, do your NPCs stick with the party? Do they question the party's leadership? Will morale checks be needed?

3. More Hazards of the Terrain
Not just monster encounters, but terrain specific hazards are included, and more days of travel are more chances of potentially failing to overcome hazards, which could mean the party encounters danger - or their destination - at a weakened state.

4. Random Encounters
5e is perversely geared to experience for combat and so random encounters are almost a reward (so very strange to me, but I know this is what everyone else expects.) But random encounters do take up precious play time, so in that manner they are a tremendous set back to the party's success.

I see DnD as a role playing GAME, which you can win or fail at (partially by whether you just have fun, but also whether you succeed at the task you as player-characters set for yourselves). Story does happen, emergent in the actions of the player-characters and in the consequences of those actions.

So yeah: getting lost in the wilderness and then struggling to your destination is a story alright. Conquistadors (real life historical examples of murderhobos) getting lost looking for El Dorado or the Fountain of Youth and then succumbing to the hazards of the new, strange unknown world is a helluva story. For movies, the classic "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" or the new "Lost City of Z" are examples to draw inspiration from. Can the player-characters succeed where those explorers failed? These rules are a start for DMs to present those challenges in an interesting, more inspiring and fun way.

 

[the_redbeard]

What's the advantage of random encounter over you just DEFINE what the situation is? Who they encounter. What happens. No need to roll for it.

We're very different DMs. A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post on how random encounters changed the trajectory of my campaign. Just like the players, as a DM I enjoy the suspense of finding out what happens and the challenge of reacting to an unexpected obstacle.

Here: Random Encounters Shaping Campaign Choices: Emergent Story

 

[the_redbeard]

Things I really liked and thought were helpful:
The terrain chances for an encounter map - featureless encounters are boring, give us stuff to interact with.
Journeys are an important part of adventure stories, but there is very little support on making them interesting. Material like this is very helpful. Too often travel is on a blank gray slate no matter the world location.

Things I Thought Were Missing
Challenge Rating of the Terrain: There should be guidance on setting land areas to challenge different levels of parties. Yes, eventually the party will Air Walk or Teleport everywhere. But there's still a wide range of levels before that happens. Whether you are designing for a specific party or making a sandbox world with differing levels of difficulty (like a dungeon with multiple levels the party can use to calculate their risk), guidance for making terrain to challenge specific levels would be helpful.

Interaction between the flora, fauna and geography. Not just the random encounter tables advice in the books, but how to tailor encounters for specific features. What likes to live in the quick sand, and how do they take advantage of it. (The example does do some of this but there isn't any motivation to do so in the rules content.)

Example + and -
Terrain: the example could have used more interactivity. Can the boulders be pushed over onto enemies? Rolled down those steep hills? Will the bandits try to use them, so they PCs would need to make different choices in combat?

Other possibilities: it isn't directly said (that I saw) is that the Moon Hills are pretty dry, since vegetation is sparse and you've got old connections to the Plane of Earth. So the gullies may be typically dry, but is there a 1% chance of a flash flood in a gulley during a long rest? THAT would add excitement to an evening encounter (if not just be a hazard onto itself.)

I really enjoyed the Planar Confluence.

Other than the Planar Confluence, there was little in the example to provide guidance on hazards.

In general, the connection between the narrative descriptions and the mechanics (natural and supernatural) was strong. Nice.

 

[Monayuris]

What's the advantage of random encounter over you just DEFINE what the situation is? Who they encounter. What happens. No need to roll for it.

The advantage is exactly what I stated in the quote. Randomized encounters often result in situations that I normally wouldn't think of. They get me out of my comfort zone and keep me from falling back on my own personal tendencies and my own personal motivations.

Its kind of like improv actors using external stimulus (audience suggestions) to push their narrative.

Also for me, as a DM, it is a ton of fun to be just as surprised by a situation as the players. It feels like you are right there, experiencing the story with them as opposed to being an omniscient orchestrator.