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Characters can take watch actions to contribute to the expedition’s success or achieve other tasks while traveling. Some watch actions are limited to specific types of watch or travel pace.

Playtest Tip: It’s usually a good idea to get an expedition’s “standing orders” instead of asking everyone to declare their watch action during every single watch. An easy example is that if the ranger has been doing the navigating for the last eight days, he’s probably going to continue navigating for the next four hours and you don’t need to confirm that.

FORAGER

Characters can forage during an active watch or while traveling at a slow pace. Foragers make a Wisdom (Survival) check against the Forage DC of the terrain. On a success, the forager either gains 1 ration of food or finds a source of fresh water (allowing the expedition to drink their daily ration of water and for waterskins to be refilled). An additional ration of food or source of fresh water can be found for every 2 points by which the check result exceeds the DC.

Advanced Rule – Sparse Biome: At the GM’s discretion, a biome may be deemed sparse. In a sparse biome, each source of fresh water discovered only yields one gallon of water.

Advanced Rule – Grazing: Some animals (like horses) can simply graze for sustenance. In an appropriate biome (as determined by the GM), they will be fully fed as long as they are allowed to graze for one watch per day. In a sparse biome, they must graze for two watches per day and it may be necessary to also provide fresh water for them.

FOOD & WATER

Food: Small or Medium creatures require 1 ration of food per day. They can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + their Constitution modifier (minimum 1) before suffering 1 exhaustion level per day thereafter. A normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero.

A creature on half rations counts as going a ½ day without food (and these half days accumulate until they can eat full rations).

Water: Small or Medium creatures require 1 gallon of water per day, or twice that in hot weather. A creature on a half ration of water must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution check at the end of each day or suffer a level of exhaustion. If they drink less water than that, they suffer a level of exhaustion automatically. If the character already has one or more levels of exhaustion, the character takes two levels instead of one level in either case.

Waterskins hold a half-ration of water.

Recovery: Any exhaustion suffered from lack of food or water cannot be removed until after a full day of normal consumption.

Large & Tiny Creatures: Tiny creatures require one-quarter ration of food and water per day. Large creatures (like horses) require four rations  of food and water per day.

NAVIGATOR

The expedition’s navigator is responsible for making navigation checks. A second navigator can assist, granting advantage to the navigation checks.

PACK-PULLER

A pack-puller is responsible for managing an expeditions pack animals. A pack-puller can lead a number of animals equal to their passive Wisdom (Animal Handling) score. (This number includes the pack-puller’s mount, if any.)

RESTING

A character must take the Resting watch action for two rest watches in a row in order to gain the benefits of a Long Rest. (See the rules for Long Rests regarding which types of interruptions are possible without disrupting the Resting action.)

Advanced Rule – Lack of Sleep: If a character does not spend at least one full watch per day resting, they must succeed at a Constitution saving throw (DC 16 – the number of hours they slept, if any) or suffer a level of exhaustion.

SCOUT

A scout can journey out from an expedition in an effort to chart a course or learn the lay of the land. When scouting, they can choose one of two actions:

• Reporting: If the navigator receives a scout’s report, they gain advantage on their navigation checks for the next travel watch.
• Pathfinding: The scout attempts a Wisdom (Survival) score using the area’s Navigation DC. On a success, the expedition can treat trackless terrain as if it had a trail for one watch.

A character can scout during a watch in which an expedition is traveling only if their speed is faster than the expedition’s. Alternatively, scouts can be sent out during watches in which the rest of the expedition are active or resting (but not traveling).

An additional encounter check is made for each scouting group. (They are effectively a separate expedition while engaged in scouting.)

SENTINEL

A member of an expedition acting as a sentinel can make Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect threats or notice anything else out of the ordinary.

Design Note: If you use passive Wisdom (Perception) scores, their use on journeys is also limited to sentinels. I do not.

Advanced Rule – Outrider: During a travel watch, a character can journey out in an effort to protect the expedition from detection or threats. Whenever an encounter is generated for the expedition, each outrider group can attempt a Wisdom (Perception) check (DC 15 or opposed by the encounter’s Stealth check) to detect the encounter before it’s encountered by the expedition.

However, an additional encounter check is also made for each outrider group at one-half the normal chance of an encounter. (It’s possible for outriders to discover locations or encounter creatures which would have otherwise been missed by the main expedition.)

SIGHTING

During an active watch, a character can take a watch action to find an outlook – a good sighting place which will allow the character to significantly extend the distance to which they can see the surrounding wilderness. (See Hexcrawl Tools: Spot Distances.)

At the GM’s discretion, a skill check may be required to identify or reach the outlook. (For example, a Strength (Athletics) check to reach the top of an appropriately positioned tree.)

TRACKER

Finding Tracks: Searching a significant wilderness area for tracks is an active watch action. The tracker makes a Wisdom (Perception) check against the appropriate Track DC.

Following Tracks: Once tracks have been found, a tracker can follow the trail during a travel watch by making a Wisdom (Survival) check against the appropriate Track DC. A new check must be made each time the trail enter a new hex.

If a trail is lost, it may be possible to reacquire it using the Finding Tracks action.

Design Note: Generally speaking, it’s appropriate to use let it ride techniques when tracking a quarry. In this case, however, navigation (and possibly getting lost) is a significant component of the hexcrawl structure and these additional checks are meaningful.

However, you could easily decide to go the other direction: A single successful Wisdom (Survival) check could follow the trail all the way to its end. Alternatively, you might only call for new checks when the terrain (the tracks enter the desert) or conditions (it starts raining) change, creating points of uncertainty.

TRACK DCs

Advanced Rule – Cover Your Tracks: As a watch action, a character can attempt to cover the expedition’s tracks. This is a stealth action, requiring the expedition to be moving at a slow pace. The character makes a Wisdom (Stealth) or Wisdom (Survival) check to set the Track DC for any pursuer attempting to find or follow their tracks. The check suffers disadvantage in very soft ground, but gains advantage on hard ground. Condition modifiers apply normally to the pursuer’s tracking check.

TRAILBLAZER

When an expedition is trailblazing (see Advanced Rule: Trailblazing), one member of the expedition must use their watch action to blaze the trail. If hidden signs are being employed, an additional character can assist the trailblazer on their Wisdom (Stealth) check.

Go to Part 4: Navigation

Go to Part 1

The rules for wilderness exploration can be broken down into four modules:

• Wilderness Travel, with rules for timekeeping and determining the distance traveled.
• Watch Actions, which allow characters traveling through the wilderness to do activities other than simply moving.
• Navigation, providing a structure for determining where the characters actually go.
• Encounter System, for determining what characters experience during their travels.

To some extent, each of these modules can be used independently of the others, either by simply ignoring a particular module or, in some cases, by assuming a basic default for the module.

For example, instead of using the rules for wilderness travel, you could simply assume that an expedition always moves 24 miles or 2 hexes per day, while still using the rules for navigation to determine where the PCs end up with that distance traveled. Conversely, you could use all the rules for wilderness travel to greatly vary and customize the distance traveled each day, but simultaneously ignore all the rules for navigation and simply checking off the distance traveled towards whatever destination was selected.

But, of course, the four modules are also designed to be used together, with the results produced by one module enhancing and informing the others.

WATCHES

A watch is the basic unit for tracking time. A watch is equal to 4 hours.

Determining Time Within a Watch: To randomly generate a particular time within a watch, use 1d8 to determine the half hour and 1d30 to determine the exact minute (if necessary).

WATCH TYPES

There are six watches per day and three types of watch:

• Active
• Rest
• Travel

While traveling, it is generally assumed that an expedition is spending two watches per day traveling, two watches per day resting, and two watches per day engaged in other activities.

Forced March: If a character spends more than two watches traveling in one day, they must make a Constitution check (DC 10 + 1 per hour of additional travel). On a failure, they suffer one level of exhaustion.

TRAVEL PACE

During each travel watch, the expedition determines their travel pace.

Normal: An expedition traveling at normal pace cannot use Stealth checks to avoid detection.

Slow: While moving at a slow pace, the expedition is purposely being careful. An expedition traveling at slow pace:

• Gains advantage on navigation checks.
• Can make Stealth checks to avoid detection.
• The chance for a non-exploratory encounter is halved. (If a non-exploratory encounter is generated, there is a 50% chance it doesn’t actually happen.)

Exploration: While exploring, an expedition is assumed to be trying out side trails, examining objects of interest, and so forth. While exploring, an expedition:

• Cannot use Stealth checks to avoid detection.
• Gains advantage on navigation checks.
• The chance for encounters is doubled.

Fast: While moving quickly through the wilderness, expeditions traveling at fast pace:

• Cannot use Stealth checks to avoid detection.
• Suffer disadvantage to Wisdom (Perception) checks.
• Suffer a -5 penalty to navigation checks.

BASIC TRAVEL DISTANCE

Note: Per Day on this table is based on traveling for two watches (8 hours); i.e., a full day of travel without a forced march.

ADVANCED RULE: MOUNTS & VEHICLES

Gallop: If riding a mount, you can gallop for 1 hour during a watch in which you are traveling at normal or fast pace. During that hour you travel at twice your fast pace speed. (This results in a total watch distance of 18 miles at normal pace or 22.5 miles at fast pace.)

If fresh mounts are available every 8 or 10 miles, characters can cover larger distances at this pace, but this is very rare except in densely populated areas.

Note: If you are using the advanced rules for party speed below, do not use the rule for galloping.

Land Vehicles: Choose pace normally.

Waterborne Vehicles: Distance is limited to the speed of the vessel. On some ships, characters may be able to take rest and active watches even while the ship is moving. This may also allow the ship to travel up to 24 hours a day if the crew can operate in multiple shifts.

Unsuitable Terrain: Most land vehicles are designed to be used on roads, although many will fair well in open terrain (like a prairie). At the GM’s discretion, in unsuitable terrain a vehicle may be limited to a slow pace and ability checks may be required each watch to make any progress at all.

ADVANCED RULE: EXPEDITION SPEED

An expedition’s speed is based on the speed of its slowest member.

• In 1 hour at normal pace, the expedition can travel a number of miles equal to its speed divided by 10.
• At a fast pace, the expedition can travel 150% of its normal speed.
• At a slow pace, the expedition can travel two-thirds of its normal speed.
• At an exploration pace, the expedition can travel one-half of its normal speed.
• Calculate distance per watch based on the expedition’s hourly speed.

On the tables below, distances have been rounded to the nearest half mile.

EXPEDITION SPEED – PER HOUR

EXPEDITION SPEED – PER WATCH

Note: You might also choose to generally use the basic travel distance for expeditions, but use the advanced rules for expedition speed for unusual means of conveyance (via magic, mechanism, or fantastical mount, for example).

ADVANCED RULE: TERRAIN

The type of terrain modifies the speed at which an expedition can travel.

• Highway: A highway is a straight, major, paved road.
• Road: A road is a dirt track or similar causeway.
• Trail: An irregular byway. Probably unsuitable for most vehicles and may only allow for single-file travel. Most off-road travel follows local trails. A known trail does not usually require navigation checks, although a known trail in poor repair requires a DC 10 navigation check to follow.
• Trackless: Trackless terrain is a wild area with no paths. +2 to navigation DCs.

ADVANCED RULE: CONDITIONS

Certain climate conditions and activities modify the speed at which an expedition can travel.

Leading Pack Animal: Under normal circumstances, a pack-puller can lead a file with a number of animals equal to their passive Wisdom (Animal Handling) skill.

Poor Visibility: This condition also gives disadvantage to navigation and forage checks.

River Crossing: This penalty applies to any watch during which a river must be crossed. This does not apply if the characters are following a road which has a bridge on it, but does apply if they’re traveling cross-country and must seek out a bridge.

ADVANCED RULE: ACTUAL DISTANCE TRAVELED

The distance cited on the travel tables is the average distance traveled. The actual distance traveled in a watch is 50% to 150% (2d6+3 x 10%) of that distance.

Characters can ascertain the actual distance traveled with a successful Wisdom (Survival) check made at the navigation DC of the terrain. On a failure, they assume the average value of the distance traveled.

Design Note: The purpose of this rule is to make accurate mapping more difficult. (You could hypothetically adapt a similar rule to dungeon exploration in order to make accurate mapping of the dungeon environment more difficult, too, although the resolution time involved would probably be prohibitive.)

ADVANCED RULE: TRAILBLAZING

Trailblazing is a special travel pace which can be taken in conjunction with other travel paces. It reduces the expedition’s speed by one-half, but also marks an efficient trail through the wilderness with some form of signs – paint, simple carvings, cloth flags, etc.

Once blazed, this is considered a known trail to the expedition.

Hidden Signs: The signs of a trail can be followed by any creature. When blazing a trail, however, the character making the signs can make a Wisdom (Stealth) check to disguise them so that they can only be noticed or found with a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check.

You don’t need to make a Wisdom (Perception) check to follow your own hidden signs (or the hidden signs of a known trail you’ve followed before). Those who are aware of the trail’s existence but who have not followed it before gain advantage on their Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to find the trail sign.

Note: Trail signs – including hidden trail signs – may be encountered as an exploration encounter in a hex the trail passes through.

Optional Rule – Old Trails: Most trail signs are impermanent and likely to decay over time. There is a 1 in 6 chance per season that a trail will decay from good repair to weather worn; from weather worn to poor repair; or from poor repair to no longer existing.

Someone traveling along a weather worn trail can restore it to good repair as long as they are not traveling at fast pace. Trails in poor repair require someone to travel along them at the trailblazing travel pace to restore to good repair.

Note: Erecting more permanent trail signs – like cairns, stone carvings, etc. – is a significant and time-consuming activity, but may be worthwhile on well-traveled trails.

HEXES

1 Hex = 12 miles (center to center / side to side) = 7 mile sides = 124 square miles

Movement on the wilderness hex grid is abstracted. In order to determine if an expedition has left a hex, you must keep track of their progress within the hex.

Starting in a Hex: If an expedition starts movement within a hex, it requires 6 miles of progress to exit any face of the hex.

Optional Rule: You can choose to bias a starting position. For example, you might see that a river flows near the western edge of a hex. If the PCs start traveling from that river, you might decide it only takes 2 miles to exit through the hex’s western face and 10 miles to exit through its eastern face.

Crossing Hex to a Far Side: It requires 12 miles of progress to exit a hex through one of the three faces on the opposite side.

Crossing Hex to a Near Side: It requires 6 miles of progress to exit a hex through one of the two nearest faces.

Changing Direction: Changing direction more than once within a hex will result in the loss of 2 miles of progress each time direction is changed.

Back the Way We Came: If characters deliberately double back along their own trail, simply reduce their progress until they exit the hex. If they leave back through the face through which they entered the hex for any other reason (by getting lost, for example) it requires an additional 1d6-1 miles of progress to exit the hex (unless circumstances suggest some other figure).

Go to Part 3: Watch Actions

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is designed as a sandbox. And not just in name only. It’s the real deal: A campaign where the players are empowered to either choose or define what their next scenario is going to be.

In the latest Advanced Gamemastery video, I simulate the opening sessions of a campaign in Icewind Dale, walking you through how a master GM brings the Forgotten Realms to life.

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In “The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces,” an adventure by Michael Polkinhorn in Candlekeep Mysteries, the PCs discover a portal to an extradimensional space, go through it, and become trapped on the other side.

This is a classic trope, and for good reason. Perhaps the most memorable and well-known version are the arches of mysterious mists and the green devil faces of The Tomb of Horrors, but I’ve run some variation of this gag countless times.

Often, of course, PCs will also encounter mystic portals and strange gateways of coruscating energy that aren’t one-way affairs. But they won’t necessarily know that. And even if they don’t suspect a trap, the unknown threshold beyond which they cannot see is quite likely to inspire endless amounts of paranoia.

So, either way, the day will likely come when you hear some variation of: “Okay, let’s send Kittisoth through first to check things out.” Or: “I stick my ten-foot-pole into the portal and pull it back out.”

First: Know your metaphysic.

What does happen when you stick something halfway into a magical portal and then pull it out?

A few variations:

• No problem. It’s just like a doorway in space, even if the field of energy blocks your line of sight. (Perhaps you might even be able to still hear what’s on the other side.)
• You can’t pull it out. Once an object has gone partially through the portal, the only movement allowed is forward through the portal. If you pull back, it will feel as if the object is “stuck.”
• That’s incredibly dangerous. You can pull back, but you’ll only pull back the portion that’s still on THIS side of the portal. (Make sure you walk through these portals with confidence.)
• That’s not possible because as soon as any discrete object or creature touches the surface of the portal, it instantly vanishes and reappears on the other side. It’s more of a “touch here to activate” effect than it is a literal gateway. (This one can get tricky: If I prod it with a pole, do I vanish? Can I tie a rope to something hundreds of feet away, toss one end of the rope in, and have the whole thing go through the portal? What if the object is bolted to the floor? Or is a huge tree and the room on the other side is only 10’ x 10’? But, conversely, if I touch it with my hand do I disappear while leaving my clothes behind? One way to simplify this is to create a “threshold” before the portal – a misty arch, a field of energy, a penumbral aura, the entire room that the portal is in – and only objects within that threshold vanish when the portal is touched. Your choice whether to have something straddling that threshold get severed at the threshold or if the whole object remains even when touching the portal. But I digress.)

You want to have a clear understanding of this, because the players will want to experiment with the portal to figure out how it works / whether or not it’s safe. They’re going to come up with all kinds of crazy testing schemes, and you’re going to want a clear conceptual framework for consistently ruling what the outcomes of those tests will be.

I’m of the opinion that this metaphysic should feel consistent with the portal’s behavior on the other side: If it’s a one-way portal, for example, then you shouldn’t be able to stick things through the portal and then pull them back. (In other words, you want to play fair and reward players who take the effort to engage deeply with the scenario.)

Second: Use a portal countdown.

When the PCs send a scout through the portal, don’t immediately describe what the scout sees. Instead, stay with the PCs that remained behind: Describe the scout going through the portal, disappearing, and then… what do you do?

Keep track of the number of rounds it takes for each of the other characters to go through. Then, once they’ve all done so, you can flip to the other side of the portal and accurately play out events on the other side.

So, for example, Kittisoth walks into the portal. The other PCs wait a couple of rounds and then Edana sticks her ten-foot-pole through. Unable to pull it out, she sighs and steps through on the next round. Everyone else then nervously follows on the fifth round.

Now cut to the other side of the portal: Kittisoth emerges into a goblin ambush! Roll initiative! On the third round of combat, Edana’s pole sticks out of the portal. On the fourth round, Edana walks out. On the fifth round, the other PCs join the fray!

Even if there are no immediately “interesting” consequences from using the portal countdown (e.g., the portal emerges into an empty room and Kittisoth just patiently waits for everyone to join her), the experience is still immersive and tantalizing in its paranoia: What is happening on the other side of the portal?

When there IS something interesting happening on the other side of the portal, the experience of seeing the other side of the timeline (e.g., Edana’s pole sticking out of the portal) is a ton of fun.

What if all the PCs don’t come through? That’s fine. Run a couple rounds of the portal countdown in “combat time,” but when it becomes clear that some or all of the remaining PCs aren’t going to follow Kittisoth blindly through the portal (“She was supposed to come back!”) simply ask them how long they’d wait, note that on the countdown, and then cut to the other side of the portal.

Should I have players leave the room? If you’d like. I’ve not generally found it to be necessary and, as I mentioned, I’ve found the audience stance of seeing the other side of the timeline to be fun. But I’ve also been given to understand that the experience of going into another room and waiting while your fellow players join you one by one can also be mysterious and fun. Play it by ear and get a feel for what works.

(If you’re splitting the players up anyway, you may also want to just go back and forth between the two rooms each round instead of using a portal countdown.)

What if it’s not a one-way portal? This technique works best with one-way portals because the events on one side of the portal are generally firewalled from the other side of the portal, but since the players don’t always know if the portal is one-way or not, it can also be effective to use the technique regardless. (If nothing else, it means you’re not tipping your hand when they do encounter a one-way portal.)

But what if, for example, Kittisoth simply walks back through the portal?

If that outcome is quite likely, of course, then you don’t want to use the portal countdown technique in the first place. Or use it in a modified form. For example, if Kittisoth’s intention is to walk through the portal and then immediately turn around and walk back and there’s nothing on the other side that would prevent that from happening, you can just run it normally. Or you might take Kittisoth into another room, describe what she sees, and get a sense of her intentions: If it looks like she’s going to explore a bit – or get cut off from the portal by the goblin ambush – then you can go back and run the portal countdown.

But if you are using a portal countdown and Kittisoth comes back “early” (i.e., before all of the declared actions on the countdown have played out), that’s just fine. You can simply retcon the rest of the countdown; those actions belong to an alternative version of reality, I guess.

(The portal countdown is basically an extended form of declaring an intention. It’s similar to combat systems in which everyone declares their actions at the beginning of the round before resolving them in initiative order: If someone declares that they’re going to run down an open passageway, but then the passageway gets blocked with a wall of stone before they can take their turn, they’re not going to just mindlessly grind their face into the wall like a computer game NPC with bad pathing. They just won’t take the action.)

What about other continuity issues? Keep in mind that premature portal returns aren’t the only contradiction of continuity you can run into. For example, those on the far side of the portal might use a telepathic ability to contact their comrades. Or Kittisoth might grab the end of Edana’s pole and yank her through the portal.

Again, that’s fine. Just end the countdown and begin resolving actions normally from that point. (Which might even include starting a new portal countdown depending on what’s happening.)

Similarly, you generally pause the countdown and begin resolving actions on the far side of the portal when everyone has either gone through or definitively decided NOT to go through. But actions on the near side of the portal can also trigger this decision earlier: For example, if it’s Edana who chooses to use a telepathic ability to contact Kittisoth (assuming that she can do so), you’ll need to pause the countdown and resolve Kittisoth’s side of the portal.

Check out this long-awaited interview I did with the Wouldbuild With Us crew. We talk about stuff like the modules that inspired me the most and Scarface-inspired werewolves.

Episode #81: An Interview With Justin Alexander