Journey Rules

A Band will often roam across the countryside and beyond during their jobs. But traveling is not simply a means of getting to a destination, nor something to be undertaken lightly. A great part of the life of a knave is spent on the road. Often, what distinguishes a knave from a common villager is the skills they possess to help them survive while on a journey.

Knaves make various ability checks along the way, to deal with the various perils that may occur, as well as to determine how the rigors of travel may have affected them when they face their next challenge.

Once a Band decides to undertake a significant journey from one place to another, the journey rules outlined here will be used. It may decide that a journey is either short enough, or familiar enough, that the journey rules need not be used, and they can happily be ignored to serve the pace of the game.

The journey rules break down a journey into three distinct stages, each one influencing the one that follows it in some way. The first stage represents the Band embarking on the journey: plans are made, supplies gathered, maps studied and routes agreed upon. The Band decides between them who will undertake which roles on the road. But there is more to this stage than simply preparations. It also represents the Band's ability to stay to the course, to keep their spirits high, and may take into account the fickle nature of weather. In broad strokes, it gives a feeling of the overall tone of the journey from its outset.

The second stage represents events arising, and the tasks carried out by members of the Band during the main part of the journey. Depending on the length of the journey, the Band will make one or more rolls that represent the challenges or opportunities that they find placed in their way. These rolls will determine both the nature and the magnitude of the encounters they will face and may require several of the Band to work together to overcome any challenges.

The third stage of the journey is representative of the Band's arrival at its destination. The result of this final roll will determine whether the Band arrives in high spirits, full of tales of bold deeds, beautiful sunsets, and delicious meals cooked over open fires, or if they trudge the final miles, footsore and dispirited, backs bent under the weight of packs, silently brooding upon empty bellies, wrong turns, and poor choices.

Step One: Embarkation

When the Knaves have decided on a destination, they need to choose the best route to get there. Using the map of Brancalonia, they indicate the general route that they intend to follow. This determines the Peril Rating of the journey.

The difficulty and danger of the journey are based on its length, the area and terrain traversed, and the season in which the journey is taking place (journeys in the cold months of the year are more strenuous than those in the warm ones). Brancalonia can be a perilous place, so the shortest route may not always be the safest. The Band must choose wisely what paths to follow.

Players assign their Knaves a role for the journey, roughly summarising what they will be doing for the length of the trip.

An experienced band differs from a novice group of knaves in the capability of its members to collaborate effectively. When traveling, the knaves usually divide up some of the duties according to ability.

Roles of the Band

The roles divided between the Band are as follows:

Guide - In charge of all decisions concerning route, rest, and supplies. Guides rely on Wisdom and Survival proficiency.

Explorer - In charge of setting up camp and opening new trails. Explorers rely on Stealth and Investigation.

Provider - In charge of finding food in the wild. Providers rely on success with Survival checks.

Look-out - In charge of keeping watch. Look-outs rely on their abilities in Perception.

Except for the Band's Guide, more than one Knave may be assigned the same role (in other words, there may be more than one Knave acting as Look-outs), but normally no Knave may assume more than one role at the same time (posing as the Band's Provider AND Explorer, for example). If there’s more than one Knave assigned to a task then nominate a lead Explorer, Provider, or Look-out. That Knave is the one who makes the test and gains advantage from the assistance of the other Knaves performing the Help action on that task.

If a role goes unfilled, any relevant tests for that task that come up are taken at a disadvantage.

Determining the Peril Rating of a Journey

Whichever type of terrain forms the majority of hexes through which the proposed route passes through determines the overall terrain type:

Easy Terrain: 1

Mild/familiar terrain, extensively mapped with well-traveled roads and/or frequent settlements.

Moderate Terrain: 2

Areas that the Band may have some knowledge of or that they may have traveled through once or twice. Broken terrain, scattered paths, and trails.

Hard terrain: 3

Unfamiliar areas, deep forest, trackless wilderness.

Severe Terrain: 4

High mountains and treacherous swamps.

Daunting Terrain: 5

Areas tainted by Evil. The Mistide.

Increase the level of terrain by one when traveling in winter conditions to a maximum of 5.

The Peril Rating of the journey will not be revealed to the players and the outcome of the Embarkation roll will be a secret, instead paraphrased to them to give some hints of what may lie ahead of them on their Journey.

Once the route is decided upon, and the Peril Rating of the journey has been determined, an Embarkation roll is made using a single d12. This roll is modified as follows: the Guide’s Survival proficiency bonus plus half their Wisdom bonus, minus the Peril Rating of the journey. The result of the roll is used on the Embarkation table.

Step 2: Journey Events

During the journey, members of the Band may be called upon to use their wit and talents to ensure that the journey does not fall to ruin.

There are times when a single member of the Band may have to overcome a challenge alone whereas at other times several Knaves may need to work together to be successful.

On a short journey, the Band will typically be faced with 1-2 events, on a medium journey, 2-3 and on a long journey 3-5. The number of events is influenced by the Peril Rating of the journey, with more dangerous journeys leading to a higher number of challenges.

Determining the Number of Challenges

The number of challenges to be faced is determined as follows:

Short Journey (1-10 hexes on the Brancalonia Map): 1d2 number of challenges.

Medium Journey (11-30 hexes on the Brancalonia Map): 1d2+1 number of challenges.

Long Journey (31+ hexes on the Brancalonia Map): 1d3+2 number of challenges.

Journeys through predominantly Easy terrain result in a -1 modifier to this roll, to a minimum of 1.

Journeys through predominantly Hard or Severe terrain result in a +1 modifier to this roll.

Journeys through predominantly Daunting Terrain result in a +2 modifier to this roll.

This roll is made in secret so the players will not know the number of challenges they will face.

The Journey Events table gives a range of possible events. The lower numbers represent minor events whilst the higher numbers indicate some important or momentous occurrence.

In all cases, the DC of checks made during a journey is determined by adding the Peril Rating of the journey to a base of 12.

Therefore, on a journey with a Peril Rating of 3 (unfamiliar areas, deep forest, and so on) the DC of all checks would be (12+3) 15.

To determine what happens in each event of the journey, a single d12 is rolled. The result may be modified by the Embarkation roll, or previous events on this or prior journeys. The result of a roll is used on the Journey Events table.

Step Three: The Arrival

As the Band completes its journey they make a roll to determine their overall mood and demeanour. Dependent upon the exhortations of the Guide, the difficulty of the terrain they have traveled, and the company’s successes or failures upon the road, they may be in high spirits or despondent; full of vigor or footsore and weary. They may have fine tales to tell, or they may be gritting their teeth and silently scowling at any folk with whom they must interact.

This roll is additionally modified depending on the difficulty of the majority of the terrain that the company crossed, as follows:

• Easy Terrain: +1 to the Arrival roll
• Moderate Terrain: No modifier to the Arrival roll
• Hard or Severe Terrain: -1 to the Arrival roll
• Daunting Terrain: -2 to the Arrival roll

To determine the outcome, a single d8 is rolled. Apply any modifiers from the Embarkation roll and the terrain of the journey, and then compare the result with the Arrival table.