Expected Outcomes: Wilderness Travel Distances

Roll a 2d6 for an expected outcome check. On an expected outcome result, you travel the amount given in the chart at the end of the post on Overland Movement.

On a worse than expected outcome, you're delayed by a mishap and lose time.

On a better than expected outcome, you hit a good stride, or find a game trail or something that makes your travel easier, and you make your day's travel distance early, letting you make a few extra miles, or give you extra time for study and finding a good campsite.

Worse outcomes:

1. Poison ivy, etc. - lose 10%
2. Lost - lose 25% of day
3. Lost - lose 50% of day
4. Horse throws shoe, depends on group's skills, or push on without it (slight chance of horse getting lamed - maybe 5%)
5. Horse lame / Sprained ankle - lose horse
6. Horse spooked - if pack animal, lose 10% of day tracking it down
7. Thrown - someone thrown and hurt
8. Kicked - someone kicked by horse and hurt

Better outcomes:

1. Good momentum or favourable game trail - 20% extra or 20% early (more time to look for a campsite)

DM Tool: Random Man-Made Terrain Features

To be used in conjunction with the Random Terrain Features tables.

Plains (7+)

1. Manor
2. Manor
3. Manor
4. Mill
5. Cottage
6. Abbey
7. Tower
8. Castle
9. Ruins (roll again, this table)
10. Standing Stones 

Moor (10)

1. Ruins (Manor House)
2. Ruins (Manor House)
3. Ruins (Hermitage)
4. Ruins (Tower)
5. Ruins (Abbey)
6. Cottage
7. Hermitage
8. Tower
9. Remains
10. Standing Stones

Forest (8+)

1. Manor House
2. Logging Camp
3. Lumber Mill
4. Cottage
5. Hermitage
6. Tower
7. Ruins
8. Ruins
9. Remains
10. Standing Stones

Hills (8+)

1. Manor
2. Shepherd's Hut
3. Shepherd's Hut
4. Mine
5. Hermitage
6. Tower
7. Castle
8. Ruins
9. Barrow
10. Standing Stones

Mountain (10)

1. Mine
2. Mine
3. Abbey
4. Cottage
5. Hermitage
6. Tower
7. Tower
8. Castle
9. Ruins
10. Ruins

Desert (10)

1. Hamlet
2. Hamlet
3. Herder's Hut
4. Hermitage
5. Temple
6. Temple
7. Tower
8. Castle
9. Burial Grounds
10. Pyramid

Jungle (10)

1. Logging Camp
2. Temple
3. Tower
4. Pyramid
5. Ruin
6. Ruin
7. Ruin
8. Ruin
9. Ruin
10. Standing Stones

DM Tool: Random Terrain Features

In working on some hex-crawling stuff, I realized I needed some tables for minor features on travels through hexes. These would also work well for a West Marches-style hexless wilderness crawl (perhaps especially for that!).

The idea is that with a good network of landmarks, the players can travel in a more believable manner than, "Let's head North into that Forest hex". This way, the players can say, "Let's head past that rocky outcropping and into the forest, then make for that copse of evergreens we found." I think that's got a bit better feel!

How to Use

Roll d10 three times a day (or to taste) and compare the result to the number in parentheses next to the terrain type.

Roll another d10 to see what kind of feature you find.


Explanations of Some Terms

• Swamp: wetland characterized by trees.
• Marsh: wetland characterized by grasses.
• Moor: Covered in peat bog, rolling hills, wet, foggy (e.g. central Wales, Dartmoor). Peat harvesting can be lucrative. Organic matter in the peat suffers only minimal decomposition.
• Quaking Bog: A layer of peat, sometimes a metre or two thick, floating on top of water. Possible to fall through a weak spot, which would likely be deadly. Can be detected by feeling the ground "quake" a little.
• Wadi: depression in the ground, possibly a dry streambed or lake. Can be dangerous during rain, as flash floods are possible.

Plains (6+)

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Copse
3. Copse
4. Stream 
5. Spring
6. Hill
7. Hill
8. Wetland
9. Wildflower Meadow
10. Wildflower Meadow

Moor (8+)

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Rocky Outcropping
3. Copse
4. Copse
5. Stream 
6. Spring
7. Dominant Hill
8. Quaking Bog
9. Pond, or Small Tarn/Loch/Lake
10. Grandfather Tree

Forest (6+)

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Copse (Different Tree Type)
3. Thicket
4. Thicket
5. Stream
6. Spring
7. Grandfather Tree
8. Clearing
9. Clearing
10. Wetland

Hills (6+)

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Rocky Outcropping
3. Copse
4. Copse
5. Thicket
6. Stream
7. Spring
8. Grandfather Tree
9. Cliff
10. Cave

Mountain (8+)

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Rocky Outcropping
3. Broken Ground (poor footing, treacherous)
4. Broken Ground
5. Permanent Snow Deposit (mini-glacier in a crevice)
6. Stream
7. Waterfall
8. Cliff
9. Cave
10. Crevasse

Desert (8+) 

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Rocky Outcropping
3. Rocky Outcropping
4. Salt Pan 
5. Oasis
6. Hill
7. Hill
8. Wadi
9. Wadi
10. Wadi

Jungle (8+)

1. Rocky Outcropping
2. Hill
3. Swamp
4. Swamp
5. Marsh 
6. Marsh
7. Stream
8. Spring 
9. Grandfather Tree
10. Clearing

Edited, 2012-10-07: I've edited this chart a little to clean it up and conform it to another chart I'm working on in this series, one on man-made landmarks.

Roadside Encounter Generator: Groups Interacting

I whipped this up to generate some random roadside encounters that feature two groups interacting. Roll on the first table, the second table, and the first table again to get a result like, "Villagers killing knights".

Like any random generator, I think it's good to interpret the results pretty broadly. I might read a result of, "Brigands enslaving villagers" to mean that the party comes upon a town where every few weeks some thugs come to collect protection money and crack a few heads to keep people scared. Or I might just interpret it more literally - a group of slavers rounding up local folk to take to auction.

Table 1 (1d8):

1. Villagers
2. Lord & Retinue
3. Knights
4. Brigands
5. Lepers
6. Madmen
7. Wizard(s)
8. Savages (wilderness)

Table 2 (1d8):

1. Betraying
2. Worshiping
3. Enslaving
4. Traveling to see
5. Fleeing
6. Negotiating with
7. Killing
8. Being killed by 

Obviously, adjust Table 1 to include groups appropriate to the region and your campaign. You could also repeat some results on either table to make the results more likely. Maybe a war-torn region would have only villagers, knights, and lords on Table 1, and only killing, being killed by and fleeing on Table 2.

Some of the more interesting results I rolled up:

• Brigands fleeing madmen
• I quite like this... Maybe the madness is contagious? Maybe the brigands thought they'd be easy pickings, but it turns out the madmen have some kind of wild magic? Lots of possibilities.
• Savages betraying knights
• Another interesting one... Perhaps a local guide is leading the knights into an ambush? Or maybe there's a battle going on - a group of savages were fighting on the side of some knights, but are now running away, leaving the knights to certain death?
•  Villagers being killed by villagers
• Witch hunt? Inter-village rivalry? Barroom brawl gone wrong?
• Wizard(s) negotiating with lepers
• Hmmm... I like this. Why would wizards be negotiating with lepers? Maybe the wizard needs leper blood for a ritual or spell, or maybe the lepers want to settle near the wizard's tower? Maybe the lepers are actually some kind of powerful beings in disguise, or even rival wizards who've gotten sick and need help?