10. Traveller’s Tales

Use these rules to inspire events during the characters’ travels. Don’t treat them as ellipses: each journey can lead the players to an unexpected adventure. And that is the whole point: by not letting travel interfere with what you or the players have in mind, you are depriving yourself of the strange and wonderful developments you wouldn’t have devised otherwise.

10.1. How Long is The Trip?

If you don’t have a precise map yet or wish to create it as you go, use the following values: d4+3 days to reach the nearest city, d4 days to reach the closest town, or one day to reach the next village.

10.2. What Happens During The Journey?

The world is never empty, each journey will lead to an encounter (it doesn’t need to be a violent one!). Simply make two rolls for the whole journey: One to learn the event’s theme and one to determine its subject.

10.2.1. Theme

  • 1 Aggression
  • 2 Exchange
  • 3 Discovery
  • 4 Revelation
  • 5 Pursuit
  • 6 Lost
  • 7 Isolation
  • 8 Death
  • 9 Escape
  • 10 Change

10.2.2. Subject

  • 1. Antagonist
  • 2. Animal
  • 3. Hermit
  • 4. Spirit
  • 5. Potentate
  • 6. Demon
  • 7. Explorer
  • 8. Merchant
  • 9. Caves
  • 10. Messenger
  • 11. Ruins
  • 12. Cult
  • 13. Community
  • 14. Ghost
  • 15. Outlaws
  • 16. Artists
  • 17. Soldiers
  • 18. Sorcerer
  • 19. Vagrant
  • 20. Natural disaster

Examples: As they are crossing the desert towards the Grey Oasis, what kind of event will the heroes face? I roll a 3 (Discovery) and a 15 (Outlaws). As no violence is assumed (yet), I might say that the characters discover the hideout of a band of desert raiders. That was easy, let’s try again: a 1 (aggression) and a 17 (soldiers). The easiest way to interpret this would be to let the PCs fight a bunch of soldiers, but that’s a bit boring (unless the players are itching for a fight). The heroes could witness an attack by deserters on an oasis, unless they’re the ones being attacked? This is a bit better, as it lets the players choose their course of action instead of forcing a fight on them.

10.3. Of Ships And The Sea

As far as these rules are concerned, a ship can be a sky galleon, a deep-sea leviathan, or a transdimensional pyramid. A ship is defined by its number of masts, from one to three. You can replace masts with blood crystals, reactor cores, or whatever fits your setting. And by its crew, represented by a score from 8-13 (you can roll d6+7).

10.3.1. Travel

The captain makes an INT test. If the ship has more than one mast, the test is made with Advantage.

A success means the travel time is unchanged
A critical success means the travel time is divided by two
A failure means the travel time is doubled
A critical failure means the ship faces the perils of the sea

Perils of the sea
1.Storm: Minor damage to the ship, one day to repair
2.Pirates! One ship with two masts and a small crew (5)
3.Overboard: Part of the crew is lost (-1 to the crew rating)
4.Reavers! One ship with three masts and a large crew (6)
5.Tempest: Major damage (a week to repair) and the ship loses its way
6.Shipwreck: The ship sinks, characters awake on an island

Once the peril is resolved, the captain needs to roll again.

10.3.2. Combat

The players roll a d20 for each mast the ship has. Each roll below the Crew’s score is a success. Successes can be spent as follows:
- one success to destroy one enemy mast
- two successes to attempt a boarding action
- three successes to distance an enemy ship

If none or the rolls are a success, the players have to choose one of the following consequences:
- the ship loses one mast
- the crew score decreases by 1
- the ship is boarded

10.3.3. Boarding Action

Whether it’s offensive or defensive, you can resolve a boarding action one of two ways:

• Character centred: each character takes an action that helps boarding or defending. If half the characters succeed, the action is a success. For each character who failed, the crew score is reduced by 1.
• Crew centred: the players make a crew test:a success means the party is successful, but it loses a few men (decrease the crew score by 1).

- a critical success means the enemy ship is swiftly captured with no casualties on your side
- a failure means the boarding party is repelled (or the ship is taken depending on which side the characters are). The crew loses 1 point.
- a critical failure means the same as above but lose 2 crew points instead.

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