D&D 5E [Let's Read] Vault 5e: Uncharted Journeys

[Libertad]

Generally speaking, there's nothing in the rules that specify that you must begin in a safe area. Some of the Preparation Phase abilities imply starting off in an area of civilization, but most of them are location-neutral. The Journey's End is definitely the odd way out in that the Arrival roll determines the relative safety of the area the party visits, but again I feel that can also be location neutral. Arriving at a "safe" dungeon may mean that they found a fortified or concealed position that wards them from nearby monsters (at least momentarily).

I don't think that these Journey rules are to be used every time the group is traveling at all or ever time they exit and leave a place like a dungeon, but rather when said journey is meant to be significant in some way.

 

[overgeeked]

Generally speaking, there's nothing in the rules that specify that you must begin in a safe area. Some of the Preparation Phase abilities imply starting off in an area of civilization, but most of them are location-neutral. The Journey's End is definitely the odd way out in that the Arrival roll determines the relative safety of the area the party visits, but again I feel that can also be location neutral. Arriving at a "safe" dungeon may mean that they found a fortified or concealed position that wards them from nearby monsters (at least momentarily).

I don't think that these Journey rules are to be used every time the group is traveling at all or ever time they exit and leave a place like a dungeon, but rather when said journey is meant to be significant in some way.

Thank you. It seems like it would work if you kept the “gritty realism” going, i.e. can’t long rest in the wilds…but if the PCs can long rest outdoors all that mechanical heft and added drama from using these rules simply vanishes.

 

[humble minion]

I bought this with the intention of using it in a Dragonlance campaign.

It's good for what it does, but i think narratively inflexible. The assumption is that the PCs prepare to depart in an orderly manner, spend X days on their scheduled journey, and then arrive at (as @overgeeked points out) at a relatively safe destination.

There's lot of wrinkles to D&D travel that don't fit that model. As far as I can tell, there's no mechanism to allow the group to take a break from travel for a day or two to rest up, or to deal with the case when people start their journey by fleeing unexpectedly (of course in that case you can just simply rule they don't benefit from a Preparation phase, but how viable is that?), or how to spend time consciously looking for shelter. If there's mechanics for getting lost, then I haven't found them (this is a book about wilderness travel, not on-road travel primarily - navigation seems like a strange thing to gloss over). If you decide to change destination en route, or pursue a sidequest, you can Abandon the journey, but that's a risky option and seems intended for use when things are going badly, rather than simply when priorities change. It doesn't look TOO grueling, given the low number of encounters even for long journeys and the high percentage of relatively harmless Encounters, but that's purely an eyeball check. And (while it won't affect my intended campaign too much) I'm not sure how it'd work a very low levels either, where PCs only have one or two hit dice to work with. But perfectly regular D&D is unforgiving for low-level PCs too. Hmmm.

Not sure about this one. Some good ideas, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone's tried it in play.