Help! My Travel score is 0!

[Afterimagedan]

Hmm, very good points here. I forgot about preliminary lore roles. That would help a lot. I suppose burning hope gets sort of old on travel rolls.

[Scrollreader]

A great deal depends on how quickly your LM ramps up the difficulty of travel. One of the many reasons The Marsh Bell works so well as a first adventure is that it has a short distance to travel (and provides boats, usually).
Escorting Baldor across Mirkwood (Tales from Wilderland) is a bit rougher (4 or 5 travel checks, at a target of 16), but also provides ponies, meaning somewhere around 5 fatigue, even if you have no dots in travel. This is still pretty harsh, but with Lore dice or traits, it isn't awful with only 1 dot in travel.

On the other hand, if your first adventuring phase is, say, walking from Beorn's house to Laketown, in autumn (and you can't persuade the Elvenking to let you crash at his pad) you could be looking at 18 fatigue (or more) and being perma-wearied if you're geared up for war. It is highly recommended that inexperienced players should be somewhat gradually introduced to travel in a similar manner to the adventures above, unless they're aware of, and spend starting XP to buy up travel.

EDIT: I should also add that being wearied, while bad, is not quite as bad as people may fear. On average, it drops the result of a d6 from 3.5 to 2.5. While unfortunate for inexperienced heroes, the inherent 'swinginess' of low dice pools, and full starting hope allotment mean it is less terrifying than many new players assume.

[Ghorin]

Hi Ghorin, yes I think you have perhaps misread that. Each member of the party needs to make a Fatigue test, which means they need to roll against their Travel skill.

Thank you Scrollreader, now i can correct my mistake

[Stormcrow]

You probably shouldn't be traveling hundreds of miles for every adventure, no matter how prominent the journey rules are. If the Loremaster is intentionally putting the adventure that far away from you every time just to make you travel more, that's bogus. Does nothing interesting ever happen near the player characters?

[Scrollreader]

You probably shouldn't be traveling hundreds of miles for every adventure, no matter how prominent the journey rules are. If the Loremaster is intentionally putting the adventure that far away from you every time just to make you travel more, that's bogus. Does nothing interesting ever happen near the player characters?

Well, canonically the example I gave is that of Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo. And then there are the Nine Walkers, headed from Rivendell to Gondor/Mordor (later changed to a fellowship phase in Lothlorien).

There are certainly adventuring phases that are closer to home (and travel in the background, like going home for a fellowship phase, or the There And Back Again undertaking), but to say a long journey across Mirkwood is unusual is a bit much, given the adventures we have to sample, and the source material.

That being said, if you know you have a long trip ahead of you, and you either expect terrible conditions (Winter in Dark lands) or your travel score isn't very good, take a cue from characters in the books and travel light. Legolas is carrying: A bow, and perhaps some variety of Leather Armor. He makes do with his Dagger skill when forced into melee. Aragon and Boromir are avoiding heavy armor, and backup ranged weapons. The Hobbit characters carry even less. Only Gimli is decently armored, and even then he doesn't carry a shield until Helm's Deep.

[Stormcrow]

Well, canonically the example I gave is that of Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo. And then there are the Nine Walkers, headed from Rivendell to Gondor/Mordor (later changed to a fellowship phase in Lothlorien).

"... for every adventure."

[Robin Smallburrow]

The answer to "why is Travel so important" can be found in the Rulebook in the Introduction to Journeys ( I forget which page). Think of Travel as the default Adventuring skill!

Robin S

[Ghorin]

Yes now i understand : Use the compétence Travel for Tests of Fatigue, and use the specifc rôle competence of the hazard that may happen.

[SirGamingScotsman]

Don't know if this will be any help but could be useful to some. In my game we use a couple of house rules for travel. When a character needs to make a Fatigue test they can use either Travel or Athletics (with the use of any applicable trait for auto-success or gaining Advancement Points), we decided that Athletics was appropriate as the character was able to use their superior fitness to aid them in travelling as another would get tired. Travel indicates a more knowledgeable person knowing the easier paths to take or when to slow down and drink etc, so they won't get as tired but can cover the same distance as someone using Athletics.

We also use the different Fatigue test system, in which the first Fatigue test is made by everyone, and if they fail their own Travel Fatigue will increase. Any subsequent Fatigue test is then made in Company order; Guide; Scout; Hunter; and Lookoutman, however if they fail then the entire party's Travel Fatigue goes up. In this way you could put someone with low or no Travel in one of the lower order positions, if it will be a short journey as they would only need to make one test.

Also the bonus dice for Lore tests before travelling, and also the reduction in TN and Free Fatigue Test that can be given to a character for successes in Lore Tests to determine the route that will be taken, as stated in the rules.

[Scrollreader]

That's an interesting house rule. You're likely to end up with a bunch less hazards (and less AP) of course. Might I ask what inspired it? Just a dislike of the Travel skill, or not wanting so many rolls?