Troika Travel

OR an Entirely Mundane and Fundamental Attempt at Systematising Map Travel so I Don't Have to Think About It

http://www.swordpeddler.com/the-future-of-hex-kit/

We’ll measure in leagues, to reduce maths and shake off the temptation to think too hard about actual distances. A hex is 2 leagues across

You can travel 6 leagues per day over even ground; this includes rests, basic scouting about, general awareness etc. Conscientious rambling.

To enter a hex costs you two leagues (or movement points). This can be modified by the table below. To enter a hex you must be able to pay the full cost of entry. Leftover points are wasted. Minimum cost of 1

Terrain	Movement cost	Encounter chance	Foraging chance	Restfulness
Grassland	+0	+0	+0	+0
Woodland	+0	+1	+0	+1
Wetland	+2	+0	+1	-2
Highland	+1	+1	-1	+0
Forest	+1	+2	+1	+2
Desert	+1	+0	-6	-1
Mountainous	+4	+1	-2	-1
Road	-1	+1	-2	+0
Modifiers
Speed - Rambling	+0	+0	+0	+0
Speed - Cautious	+2	-1	+1	+1
Speed - Reckless	-2	+1	-4	-2
Fully Mounted	-1	+1	-1	-1

Unclear what the terrain should count as? Go down the list and pick the first one that fits.

1. Road
2. Swamp
3. Forest
4. Grassland
5. Desert
6. Highlands
7. Mountains

EXAMPLE:

The party wants to enter a grassland hex, along a road, on horseback. This will cost them 1 league worth of movement, rolls of 4 or more result in some sort of encounter, and have a -3 penalty to foraging rolls.

They then want to go off road, dismount, and enter a marsh hex. This will cost them 5 leagues worth of movement, thus using their 6 allotted for the day, and have a 1 in 6 chance of an encounter, and a +1 to foraging rolls.

Dressing for Weather

Weather can be hot or cold. Cold weather is expressed as a number from 1 to 6, with 1 being cold enough to warrant gloves and a scarf and 6 being arctic temperatures. For each point of coldness a character must fill an inventory space with cold weather clothes. This represents layers of thick clothing rather than many individual pairs of trousers. For each point not filled they must lose 1 Stamina per movement point used.

EXAMPLE: Bob is climbing across a mountain (6 movement) which is a bit cold (2). If he was wearing his usual clothes, taking up no inventory space, he would lose 12 Stamina (6x2) doing so. Fortunately he was wearing his bear skins, taking up 2 slots, thus allowing him to ignore the cold.

Hot weather is the opposite and ranges from 1 to 6 hotness, with 1 being a particularly warm British summer and 6 being the Sahara desert. Lose Stamina equal to movement points used + armour X hotness. So, if you’re stomping across a swamp (4) in plate (armour 3) at the height of summer (hot 1) you will lose 7 Stamina from being utterly pooped.

NOTE: If you are able to sit down and have a meal or somehow else heal yourself above 0, you won’t die from the Stamina loss. It’s assumed to be gradual over the course of the day.

Foraging

Using an appropriate skill the party can gather food. This can be tracking, hunting, foraging, or any other specifically applicable skill.

Anyone can declare they are foraging, however foraging members of the party might be at a disadvantage in an encounter, since they are assumed to be roving ahead or behind the party somewhat. If everyone is foraging then they are dispersed, pick someone at random to be the encountered party.

If you successfully forage you gain d3 provisions worth of food and water. On a critical success you roll d3+2, on a critical failure you get nothing and also trigger an encounter against your isolated self.

Camping

Camping out has its own encounter table and is modified by the following (cumulative) modifiers:

• Using a fire +1
• Eating +1

On a 6+ there is an encounter. Randomly determine who was awake at the time, assuming they’re taking watches.

Restfulness

Sleeping isn’t always easy. The stamina regained from sleeping is modified by the terrain’s restfulness bonus, +1 if there is a campfire.

It’s assumed the party rests for 8 hours (the amount needed to heal). For each hour of watching they do, reduce the healing by -1. So if Bob does a 2 hour watch in the desert (-1) he heals 2d6-3 that night. If he stays up all night he gets nothing, not 2d6-9.

Encounters

When do you roll for encounters?

On entering a hex and while resting. Roll a d6. On a 6+ there is an encounter. Roll on the encounter table for that hex type.

Things to consider when making encounter tables:

• Losing a shoe
• Weevils in your sandwich bag
• Flash flood
• Wildlife
• Sudden weather shift (move the weather table)
• Monsters
• Monster lairs
• Monster tracks
• Bandits
• Travellers
• Wild fires
• Landslides
• Old hunter traps (pitfalls, snares)
• Out of season hunter’s lodges
• Dolems
• Half buried cultural artefacts
• False alarms
• Something you think you heard that has the potential to get you lost
• Getting lost
• Lost traveller
• Suspicious children

Encounters are pretty common in this system. Make sure they aren’t always a fight.

Rivers

A river, for the purposes of abbreviated cross country travel,  is anything you can’t easily wade across. If you want to exit a hex at a hex side blocked by a river then you must cross it. Everyone in the party must make a number of successful swimming tests equal to the size and intensity of the river. Rivers can range from 1 to 6, with 1 being a quick dip in a slow river and 6 being a cold, wide river with undercurrents and steep banks.