Thanks for your analysis of this specific travel.
So far we are playing it since 2 sessions (5 hours total) and the heroes are at the end of the 6th day since Dale.
This is the first travel that i play with management of fatigue and hasards. But i'm not really using the rules (raw or house) and i have prefered to have already defined hazards and i'm doing a specific focus on food management and on fatigue. I want the players to feel that travelling in salvage and shadow lands is not holidays. For that the way i manage this travel is :
- Tasks test every day :
. failure for the guide and for the rowers will mean a small hazard (like their boat goes aground) with consequence on fatigue
. Failure for the hunters mean impact on food stock
- fatigue test (every day) only in the dark land (as the heroes got fatigue in the easy legs by having failure on their tasks tests, i did'nt need to add more)
- corruption test every day in the dark land
When they launch their dices, i use the standard TR 14 but i give extra bonus and malus that they are not fully aware. For example, in the last days they failed hunting and their dinner was going to be unpleasant (old bread and meat). But their new friend (a Beornide met earlier that day) was luckier in hunting and is also good in cooking and has honey cakes. Then he prepared a restorative meal that had positive impact on the health and morale and thus on the corruption and fatigue tests TR.
As you see, i'm not following the rules (raw or house) and i have prefered so far to use my own feeling and deep preparation (define the legs, set the hasards...) before the session.
It does not mean i'm doing the right way and this way is probably less balanced (but i can easily add a new hazard or happy event if i see that something is unbalanced).
Now i do this way also because this travel is very short, i would not detailed every single day in a longuest travel and i would stick more to some rule like yours.
Anyway so far this first travel expérience is very positive : the players are having fun, they feel the danger of dark Land travelling and they feel stressed for their characters while they have not yet met the main danger. 2 players are fond of Tolkien like me and they told me that they feel like they are in a Tolkien like travel. All what i wanted
Edit : One point that i don't like much with travel rules is that luck / bad luck is too important. Exemple :
- having hazard in raw depends of Mordor eye on dices (the first travel tested with raw a few weeks ago was lucky for players (no Mordor 's eye) but the travel was boring as no hazard.
- in your house rule, there is far less luck factor but still there are more than i'd like (disposition and arrival D12 tests are modified by previous Gandalf / Mordor signs, but still you can do a arrival D12=1 after a travel that was very nicely managed by the heroes, or a arrival D12=Gandalf after a bad travel with many shadow and fatigue points.
I prefer when results depends more on heroes actions than on dice Luck. But well this is my own way of play, i understand that others have different way of getting fun.
