Journey rules from Rich and Falenthal

[Yepesnopes]

Hi guys,

I am about to resume in two weeks my loresmaster duties with a new group of players (I am very excited). For this, I would like to start straight away with some Journey house rules. I have to say that both Falenthal and Rich have done a great job with their house rules. I cannot quite decide which one to try with my new group or if I shall take one of the two and add a bit of my taste to it.

Mainly what I wanted to discuss with you is the increase of fatigue with your journey rules. With the RAW, the increase of fatigue is very random, crossing the Mirkwood in summer can lead to an increase of fatigue as much as 18 or as little as 0. From reading your documents, I have the impression that Rich's rules yield very little fatigue increases even for long journeys in winter. Could you guys give me some impressions and average numbers (I know it is difficult).

[Falenthal]

Glad to hear your going to LM again!

Right now I'm a relaxed player with my gaming group (a Pulp Cthulhu! campaign it is), but I know that after the campaign, it will be my turn to GM something. TOR is my first option, of course .

Regarding my house-rules, I've made some tests with them and used them in several one-shots, but I still lack a large number of "real" tests.

As you say, with the RAW, the Fatigue increases are, IMHO, too wide, even to the point of being 0 for daunting travels.

My intention regarding this was double:
1) Make all Travels worth some Fatigue. Only by doing a Short Journey, in Summer or Spring, with poneis, and rolling an extraordinary success, can a Journey be worth 0 Fatigue points.

2) Make the ranges of possible Fatigue gain narrower. In my experience, being able to gain 20 points of Fatigue, for example, doesn't make sense and makes no difference mechanically to gaining just enough to reach the character's Maximum Endurance.

One of the virtual tests I made was to simulate the examples for Journeys from the Core book, and compare the ranges in Fatigue gained with the RAW, and with my rules.
I'll translate a Medium and a Long example for you here:

RAW:
Each player has to roll 1 Travel test at TN14 + 3 to 5 (depending on season) at TN16 + 1 at TN12.
Average total: 6 rolls for the Journey per player (plus the Preliminary rolls)
Ranges of potential Fatigue gain: Spring-Summer 0 to 15 / Autumn 0 to 24 / Winter 0 to 28

House Rule:
Considered a Medium Journey (19 hexes total, but 7 of them are a road and, therefore, halved. Total hexes considered for the lenght of the Journey is 17), so each player rolls 2 Travel tests at TN12 (terrain with most hexes during the whole travel), plus Preliminary rolls.
Ranges of potential Fatigue gain: Spring-Summer 2 to 8 / Autumn-Winter 6 to 12
At least 2 Hazards will be encountered.

For a long journey (Erebor to Beorn's House), the difference in numbers is still greater:

Rolls with RAW: from 6 to 11 (at different TNs)
Range of Fatigue: Spring-Summer 0 to18 / Autumn-Winter 0 to 44

Rolls with House Rule: 3 at TN16
Range of Fatigue: Spring-Summer 3 to 12 / Autumn-Winter 9 to 18
At least 3 Hazards will be encountered

And, as you see, the number of rolls is vastly decreased.

Maybe you could also tell your players that you'd like to test both house-rules, and solve the first travels from the group with both mechanics. Then you can all discuss which one you liked best, and use that one from there on.

I'd only like to remark that my house rule tends to rely on the Hazards to give interest to the Journeys. Therefore I try to create interesting Hazards beforehand that relate to the terrains, places, situations,... of the journeys I know the fellowship will make during an adventure. Also, I use a sort of "enhanced" basic mechanic to solve Hazards, that you can find in the thread with the rest of the rules.
If you also own Bree, you'll see that some of the Hazards presented there don't simply ask the Hunter to roll Hunt, or the Look-out to roll Awareness. Many of them present the affected role with a minimal decission and a problem that not always is overcome with the usual skill. That's something I try to do too, and that I strongly recommend.

[Yepesnopes]

Thanks Falenthal!

Let me tell you that I as well want to put the interest of journeys on the hazards rather on how much fatigue you gain.

Your numbers look good to me, may be a touch high, but I will need to play test that feeling

One question for you and Rich. When you sort the journey length according to the number of hexes (1-12, 13-24 and 24+) is this using the multiplier from the core rule book depending on the terrain difficulty? or have you get rid of this completely?

[Falenthal]

You're very welcome, Yepesnopes!

Related to the numbers, that's the part I'd also like to test a bit more. But it is very easy to tweak them.
Right now, the Fatigue that can be gained is this:

Each Fatigue test increases the Travel Fatigue points by 4 during Spring-Summer, and 6 during Autumn-Winter.

It is from those numbers that each level of success and ponies/boats reduce the amount of Fatigue gained. If you feel the numbers are too, high, just reduce the base Fatigue to 3/5, or 2/4, or whatever you feel right.

Regarding the number of hexes: just count the hexes, not considering the terrain type. Only roads and rivers (when not going against the current) have the effect of making one hex count as half.
My intention was to be able to calculate and resolve a Journey without having to look at any table or book reference.