Saturday 3 September 2016

Dolmenwood Travel Events

I've been talking a lot about random encounters in Dolmenwood lately. The various creatures and people that one might meet when on the road or wandering in the woods is only half of the story, however. Another very important and interesting aspect of travel is the places and hazards one may come across.

In my thought on the subject, so far, I've classified the following types of happenings while travelling in the wilderness:
  • The weather changes. Roll on the weather table for the season. This result lasts, more or less, until another "weather changes" result occurs. (Allotting a fixed chance of a change in the weather each day seems like a nice simplification, in place of making an additional roll on a weather table each day.)
  • A mishap or accident occurs.
  • A hazard or natural obstacle is encountered.
  • The spoor of a monster is discovered.
  • An encounter happens.
  • An interesting location is discovered.
(Note that getting lost is not included in the list of possible happenings, at the moment. I might try to integrate it as well, in a future iteration.)
So I'm conceiving a 1d12 roll four times per day. The results of the roll depend on the activity of the party and the terrain they are exploring. Something like this...


On the Road

  1. Uneventful
  2. Uneventful
  3. Weather change
  4. Weather change
  5. Mishap / Hazard
  6. Spoor
  7. Spoor
  8. Encounter
  9. Encounter
  10. Encounter
  11. Encounter
  12. Location
Off-Road (Normal Terrain)
  1. Uneventful
  2. Uneventful
  3. Weather change
  4. Weather change
  5. Mishap / Hazard
  6. Spoor
  7. Encounter
  8. Encounter
  9. Encounter
  10. Location
  11. Location
  12. Location
Off-Road (Difficult Terrain)
  1. Uneventful
  2. Uneventful
  3. Weather change
  4. Weather change
  5. Mishap / Hazard
  6. Mishap / Hazard
  7. Mishap / Hazard
  8. Spoor
  9. Encounter
  10. Encounter
  11. Location
  12. Location
Camping
  1. Uneventful
  2. Uneventful
  3. Uneventful
  4. Uneventful
  5. Uneventful
  6. Uneventful
  7. Weather change
  8. Weather change
  9. Spoor
  10. Spoor
  11. Encounter
  12. Encounter

3 comments:

  1. Using this in my current game. The one change I'm making is putting 'weather change' at 11 and 12, so it has a more consistent presence. I'm curious what sort of things you would include under mishap/hazard though.

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    Replies
    1. Cool! I have partial lists written up for mishaps, which I'll post at some point. Basically things like: lose an item, fall in a bog and get soaked, attacked by midges. For hazards, I had in mind mini"encounters" with dangerous natural forces: a treacherous river crossing, trees block the path, falling rocks, etc.

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