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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AttentionHorse" data-source="post: 9556957" data-attributes="member: 7049279">So now let's move on to The Trail![ATTACH=full]393104[/ATTACH]This is the part of the game that focuses on picking a destination and traveling there while tracking a monster. This is how it works:1. Signs - party picks a "Sign", which is a rumor, quest, task, a danger, to pursue. The GM may for example create 3-4 Signs that something's wrong in a specific region and players pick one quest.2. Regions and Areas - Party enters a Region in which there is a Sign to pursue. Regions are made of 10 Areas that are connected to each other. Every Region and every Area has different descriptions, different monsters to encounter, different weather and ingredients to gather. There are 4 Main Regions, so there's 40 Areas Total - a lot of locations to explore[ATTACH=full]393107[/ATTACH]3. Tracking - this is the part where you track the monsters that's causing trouble or IS in trouble (Wilders also help monsters). This is pretty simple, GM secretly moves the monster around the map and leaves tracks behind it for the players to track it.4. Travel Rounds - this is where it gets... kinda weird. During travel you can do 4 things:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Navigate - free play, explore the area, talk to people, just a normal session without specific rules. "Navigate" is specifically for gathering knowledge about local ingredients and safe ways to travel in this Area.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Forage - gather Ingredients if you know how.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Camp - restore hp, remove conditions, cook food</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Move on - travel to other connected Area if you know how.</li> </ul>Sounds simple right? Well, a lot of people (including me) have some problems with the Travel Rounds. Even the creators made literally 3 different systems for travel before book was printed. Travel is weirdly focused on gathering information about local ingredients and ways to forage and gathering knowledge about safe ways to move in the area. It's a weird focus. There are examples, but they don't help much:[ATTACH=full]393108[/ATTACH]You don't have to forage, but you probably should because your food will be a lot more powerful. To Forage a plant you have to find out how to do it in some way. Each Area has unique ingredients granting different boons, so you have to gather information in every Area to know a specific style required to forage it. As a GM, this sounds like a nightmare - improvising or preparing a way for the players to get new info about 3-5 ingredients in EVERY AREA sounds like a ton of work. And then also making it interesting every single time? Not happening.Then there's the "find out how to travel safely in this Area" thing, which again - is weird. You don't have to do it, but you probably should because if you fail the "Move On" roll then there are big penalties. And again - how many times is it possible for the GM to make the same thing interesting? This is such a specific action to include in the travelling procedure that I'm struggling to imagine how to even do it during the session and make it fun.Unfortunately, the book doesn't help in this regard. There's no random plot tables, random location tables, random ideas for ingredient/area info. The only thing that you have is the short description and a table:[ATTACH=full]393109[/ATTACH]It seems to me that this game is unfortunately prep heavy if you want to make The Trail interesting. You can of course just make a travel montage, do some rolls and skip the "Navigate" part. I think this is how I'll do it, and I'll focus more on the monster fights and Den management. It's just easier to accept that this game isn't about exploration and random adventures or encounters, it's strictly about monster fighting. Speaking of monster fighting... The Hunt is next!</blockquote>

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