Journey AP

[Koch (D. Koch)]

An example of a 2e journey.

The group had to travel to the dungeon location at a ridge only seen in the alfar’s dreams.

Setup

• No roads
• No map
• Dangerous troll country
• Arduous terrain
• Possibly more than a single test but less than a full adventure

So, that seemed perfect for a journey. In the last session, the party already established their route and general approach to the dungeon. This is a party of four 6th-level adventurers.

Weather: Clear and cool -1 toll

Roles

We had a:

1. Guide
2. Steward
3. Scout

Turn 1

Steward Ob 3
Steward test succeeds to fulfill the normal toll requirements. The steward plans out how they will ration their existing food so that they won’t need to pay the typical food tool at the end of the journey.

Turn 2

Pathfinder Ob 6 (short 2, trailblazing 4)
Going off the map, the Guide tests Pathfinder.

Elf rolls 11D by channeling nature, trait, and help.

• Gets 4 of 6 successes, but he has one six to reroll if he chooses to explode it.
• First, he spends a Fate to apply a wise and rerolls one die. Miraculously, gets another 6.
• Spends a Fate to reroll both sixes.

Success. The party heads toward the destination.

Turn 3

The GM rolls for Journey trouble. A 1 result: Lost.

Since we have a Guide, he attempts to deal with the trouble by making another Pathfinder Ob 3 test.

He succeeds, dodges the additional toll, and leads the party the rest of the journey to arrive at the destination.

Tallying the Toll

The normal toll would have been:

• +2 hills/forest
• +1 Off Map
• 0 armor: no one wore chain or plate

But the Steward’s prior success handles those planned expenditures.

Elf
+1 Toll for being a guide
-1 Toll for weather
0 toll total

Mage
+2 Toll for steward
-1 Toll for weather
1 toll total. He eats one ration and drinks one draught of water to pay his toll.

Thief
+1 Toll for scout
-1 Toll for weather
0 toll.

Shaman
-1 Toll for weather
No role, no tax

Turn 4

The party leaves the journey. Since it has been days of travel, the GM rolls for weather, but it is still Clear and Cool.

The party camps to save the Fresh condition and continue on to the dungeon.

The group lucked out with the weather, and they had some good dice rolls. They were prepared with 2 jugs of wine from town if they had to pay a heavier toll, so they did their due diligence and it payed off nicely.

[luke (Luke Wheel)]

Love this! How did it feel in play? How did the result feel once all was told?

[Koch (D. Koch)]

Great. It went really well. We’ve done several journeys now, and we’ve gotten them down pretty smooth.

The players have had good discussions about the roles and strategies. They had to make some interesting choices as to how much risk to mitigate and balance. As the GM, I appreciate the table chatter of “do we really need a cartographer?” Those moments crack me up.

In the old 1e playtest rules, the players always felt punished by the journey, but it the new 2e rules, they might pick up a couple of conditions and burn through some food, but they get to the dungeon without being hopeless. So, that’s all working well in our experience.

Personally, I appreciate the importance of the Steward. The journey allows them to really shine–which in terms of the slight tonal shifts in 2e has been lovely.