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Wilderness Rules: The Wilderness Turn

My wilderness rules saw their first use in play tonight. I was pretty happy with the results, they moved fast and made the travel just tense enough. They also gave the players plenty of choices on how to spend their two main resources, time and food. I am going to continue to revise these rules through play, and I have only completed the arctic environment tables (all I need right now). These are not especially original, but they do make wilderness exploration fun. I am heavily influenced by the Wilderness Survival Guide, but I have no interest in its unwieldy nature. My goal was to develop a streamlined wilderness system that still has enough depth to present the players with interesting choices. I am aiming for something like the fun of Oregon Trail.

I am pretty happy with my turn structure. This is my Wilderness Turn (1 day):

  1. Food Phase
  2. Travel Phase
  3. Travel Phase
  4. Camp Phase
  5. Food Phase
  6. Rest Phase
Food phase: Characters must eat 2 meals a day. If they only eat 1 meal they suffer a -1 to all rolls. If they do not eat at all they are subject to starving. All of the Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging table results are expressed in meals.

Travel Phase: During each Travel Phase the characters can move half a day's movement. The can also substitute other actions for a Travel Phase:
  • Extra Rest Phase: This can help make up for not getting a good or complete night's sleep
  • Forage for food and water
  • Hunt
  • Fish
  • Explore: Get more detail about the hex they are in
Camp Phase: The characters roll on the camp table to determine if they find a place where they can get a good night's sleep.

Rest Phase: This is when characters sleep, and memorize spells.

Random Encounters: Random Encounters are usually rolled for twice each day. Once during the Travel Phases and once during the Rest Phase. They can take several forms:
  • Monster encounter
  • Traveler encounter
  • Environmental Challenge
  • Weird Encounter
I will be discussing my rules and the tables that go along with them in more depth.

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