Heading out into The Frontier is a dangerous endeavor. The following page will explain and define some of the mechanics as well as the process for traveling, exploring, and surviving beyond the safe light of civilization on the continent of Berastus.
The first step, of course, is making the decision to set out on a journey! Make sure that you spend some time in the safety of town gathering your supplies, equipment, and companions. There are three factors to highlight that might influence the choices you make in preparation:
Berastus is very dangerous place, in the wilds of The Frontier even a safe day might bring you across a variety of stressful situations and during the night you may need to move your camp several times to stay out of nocturnal trouble.
To that note, while you are out on your journey, unless you have discovered a place of fortified refugee or; have obtained or otherwise can guarantee a way of securing your camp; you are unable to take a long rest. You still need to sleep 8 or so hours out of every 24 in order to avoid gaining levels of exhaustion but, the wilderness leaves no room for true rest in this heightened state of caution; perhaps with time and exploration you might attempt to overcome this limitation and find better ways to rest.
For characters that have a Spellcasting class feature where they would normally only be allowed to change their list of prepared spells after completing a long rest, this rule is removed and instead you may prepare your list of spells following a night's rest (8 hours of sleep).
Just as important as your arms and armour, your character needs food to eat and water to drink in order to live. To that note, for each day of travel your character needs to consume 1 pound of food (the amount found in one traveler's ration) and 1 gallon of water.
A character can go a number of days without food equal to: 3 + their Constitution modifier (to a minimum 1). Beyond that, that character will suffer a level of exhaustion at the end of each day where they do not eat, if they already have one or more levels of exhaustion, they take two levels instead.
Going without water is even more dire, A character who drinks only half the required amount of water on a particular day must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion. A character with access to even less water automatically suffers one level of exhaustion at the end of the day. Once more, if the character already has one or more levels of exhaustion, the character takes two levels instead.
Finally, you can only carry a certain amount of equipment with you into the wilds. The amount you can carry depends on your Strength score and you must also have reasonable methods or equipment to carry those items on your person (bags ect.).
You may carry an amount of equipment and gear, in pounds, up to 5 times your Strength score. Beyond this and you become encumbered. While encumbered your speed drops by 10 feet. If you are instead carrying weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score you are heavily encumbered. This means that your speed drops by 20 feet, instead of 10, and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution scores.
The absolute maximum amount of weight that you are able to carry is equal to 15 times your Strength score (1)
Keep all of these factors in mind while gathering your friends and equipment and planning for your expedition.
Once you have set your hearts and minds to the wilderness; your journey will take place day-by-day, with each day broken down into a number of phases or steps as follows:
What is the weather like today?
Select your travel role for the day.
Choose your travel pace.
Choose what hex(s) you would like to move into and explore.
Random encounters and points of interest.
Make camp for the night.
At the beginning of a day's travel the DM will make a roll indicating the status of the day's weather. They will inform you of any-and-all effects that this weather might have on the day's activities.
Next you and your party must decide what rolls that each or you will fulfill during the day the rolls are: The Guide, The Forager, The Scout, and The Lookout. Each roll is responsible for a series of tasks during the day that will be expanded on below:
The Guide: As the guide you are responsible for leading the party and making sure that everyone is heading in the right direction. At the beginning of the day make an Survival skill check using your intelligence. The DC of this check will depend on the terrain being traversed, the weather, and potentially many other factors. On a success you are on track, on a failure... well who knows where you might have ended up.
The Forager: The forager's job is to find food an water for the group while you are one the move. When you set camp for the night make a Survival skill check using your Wisdom. The DC of this check will depend on the terrain being traversed, the weather, and potentially many other factors. On a success you are able to acquire 2d4 days worth of food and/or water, you may choose the split between the two.
The Scout: The scout ranges ahead during the day's travel and keeps an eye out for dangers. If the scout fails, you may be ambushed by enemies and other hazards. If you're the scout, you're responsible for making any perception checks during the day to spot incoming risks and dangers—the GM will notify you of anything worth rolling for. A spyglass will help you scout better. Success: You noticed the threat and were able to warn the party in time. You have a chance to avoid the threat entirely, or encounter it at your own pace. Failure: You failed to spot the danger in time and the party is surprised.
The Lookout: The lookout protects the camp at night. If the lookout fails, you risk being attacked while you sleep. If you're the lookout, you're responsible for making perception checks during the night to spot incoming threats—the GM will notify you of anything worth rolling for. The lookout can't join in any camp activities beyond eating and sleeping, so make sure that whoever takes the lookout shift won't be needed for anything else. You can set traps and alarms around the camp—dry twigs, tripwires, the Alarm ritual—to help you detect intruders a little better. Success: You were able to rouse the party in time to prevent being ambushed. Failure: You failed to spot the danger in time and the party are surprised.
You may choose to double up on any of the roles described above. In that situation both characters will make the relevant roles and the higher result of the two will be considered for whatever task might be at hand.
Next you, and your party, must choose how fast you are going to travel during the day. You have three choices: Slow, Normal, or Fast.
Slow: Wwile traveling at a slow pace your party moved and explores one hex and is able to move Stealthily. However, at the end of the day your guide must roll a d6, on a 4-5 you are fine and have traveled the distance you expected. However, on a 1-2 you are slowed by this pace and must spend one hex's worth of movement during your next travel day before you can move into a new hex.
Normal: while moving at a normal pace you are able to move into and explore one hex per days worth of travel.
Fast: while traveling at a fast pace you are able to move into, and explore, two hexes per-one-day's worth of travel. However, this swift pace means you are less able to surveil your surroundings. As a consequence of this you have disadvantage on any perception checks made during the travel day, including during the lookout's watch at night.
In addition to the effects described for each speed, the pace that you set has an effect on the checks made during the pursuit of your traveling roles. These adjustment are summarized in the table below:
| Travel Pace | Guide | Forage | Scout | Hiding Your Tracks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slow | Advantage | Normal | Advantage | Advantage |
| Normal | Normal | Disadvantage | Normal | Normal |
| Fast | Disadvantage | None | Disadvantage | Disadvantage |
Next, choose the hex that you will move into, the DM will move your party token and begin to narrate your day's journey
During the day, you might stubble upon ruins or strange locations, tangle with beasts and/or other enemies, as well as have any number of other encounters. The DM might potentially call for a variety of different rolls throughout the day. Remember, it is the Scout(s) job to make any perception rolls for the party during travel.
This step as well as the Route step will be repeated if you are traveling at a fast pace.
Once the day's travel has come to an end it is time to camp. Remember that it is the lookouts job to secure the camp and to watch for any dangers. Therefore they are not able to do any additional activities beyond keep watch, eat, drink, and get some rest in the evening and morning.
The rest of the party has some time before and after sleep to themselves you are free to undertake any activities that make sense on the road during this time.