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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7162752" data-attributes="member: 6778044">OK. Then I have one for you.I just picked up the 5e Adventures in Middle Earth Player's and Loremaster's Guides. They have a very interesting mechanic on Journeys that I think is right you your alley. It's an official 5e book (by a publisher other than WotC), and an official Middle Earth book.They actually have three different "phases" - the "Journey Phase," which has rules similar to what you want - no long rests on a journey, and they work in fatigue and character skills that have an impact on the beginning, middle and end of the journey, which than has an impact at the start of the "Adventuring Phase" which is regular D&D mode.Typically one adventure occurs per year, and ends with a "Fellowship Phase" which is essentially an expanded concept of downtime (but much more involved). The Journey Phase also shows how complex changing the rules can be. It's 12 pages long in the Player's Guide, with another 9 pages (primarily for creating your own Journey tables) in the Loremaster's Guide. It seems clear to me that they are using concepts from other game systems as well, although I couldn't tell you which ones. The basic approach is that before the Embarkation step, you assign each character to one of four tasks. If more than one character is assigned to a specific task, the main character gets advantage on their checks. So if there is more than one scout, or hunter, it can help.Then a peril rating is assigned to the journey by the GM, based primarily on the terrain (5 difficulty categories) on the map, and then a d12 is rolled, modified by the Guides's survival proficiency bonus and half their wisdom bonus, minus the peril rating (yes, there are a number of these sort of convoluted mechanics). Then you consult a table to see what happens. This sets a tone or mood for the journey, and usually includes a modifier for the next roll.During the journey, you have a random number of events, with more events for longer journeys. Through the journey, any skill checks are made with a DC = 12 + the peril rating.So you roll a d12 and consult a table of events. A long daunting journey can have up to 9 events. Modifiers from the embarkation roll, and prior events on this and other journeys modify these rolls. The events are very vague ("A Chance Encounter" is a group of travelers for example, or "An Obstacle" or "Agents of the Enemy" are others). Agents of the Enemy is a decent example, because the look-out(s) might spot the enemy before they are aware of the party, creating a different sort of encounter than if they don't. There are also usually two random numbers, in this case "all rolls outside of combat are made with disadvantage/advantage if the embarkation roll was 3 or 10."Remember there are no long rests, although non-magical healing is more powerful as well. In addition, a number of the encounters are adding levels of exhaustion (and things that happen in events/encounters can do that too).After all this, there are modifiers carried over to the Arrival step, which eventually results in something like "Grimly Determined. The many leagues that the company has travelled have filled them with a sense of clear purpose regarding their goals, dark though the path ahead might be. As a result, the Guide will receive a +1 bonus to their next Embarkation roll," or "Arrival in Poor Spirits. They are beset by foul moods and short tempers that they must work hard to throw off. Each has disadvantage on all ability checks pertaining to social interaction, until such time as they succeed on one of those rolls. This penalty will apply if they seek an Audience (another new mechanic) at the destination. If there is a single upside to this dark mood, it is that they are so spoiling for a fight that each member of the company receives advantage to their Initiative rolls until they take a short rest."There are a lot of really interesting ideas, and while I'm not sure I'll ever run the game itself, I'll certainly be using a lot of their ideas. The GM will need to be good at making up these tables, because with only 12 options things will get fairly repetitive. It is a very interesting way to design a game, and builds in a guaranteed differentiation between a journey and exploring a specific locale or dungeon (or interaction with the world with the Audience rules). The Fellowship Phase provides options for gaining some things without gaining a level too. It is definitely much more prescriptive than D&D, in that a very specific feel and style of play is being promoted by the rules, and it does remind me of some of the Story Now games in that regard, although it's still very much a D&D base. Some of the mechanics feel a bit forced to me, but I can certainly see the appeal for many. I definitely recommend checking it out, overall I think it's really, really well done and will use a lot of ideas from it myself.</blockquote>

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