Provisions and Hunting while on a Journey: A House Rule

[beckett]

Sorry for the long post. Please excuse typos.

This is a House Rule my group came up with for provisions and hunting while on long journeys. We never had a problem with the rules as written. In summary as we understand them: You can only carry enough food for one week and after that your Huntsman must gather food and can do so using the two actions per day while on a journey rule. This worked well until we found ourselves on an epic journey lasting several months. We're going off map for the first time, traveling from Wilderland to the Bay of Forochel and once our food ran out the two rolls per day became unmanageable, not to mention the recording keeping involved. But mainly, we were concerned by the amount of hunting rolls consuming the session. So we hashed this out and would love to know what people think. We will be testing this out at our next session as we travel the Great East Road to my character's home in the Shire where we will have a Fellowship phase before heading out to the frozen bay of Forochel!

It should be noted that in our game we consider the Eye result on the Feat Die to be an automatic Failure (sometimes triggering worse outcomes like Hazards) regardless of the numerical value of the die roll. The Gandalf result on the Feat Die is an automatic success.

Provisions and Hunting

It is well known that travelling is a dangerous business, and those who venture far afield must be well-prepared, or have sufficient skills in order to survive in the wild and untamed corners of the world, far from civilization. While the rules as written explain that a hero can only carry a week's worth of provisions, and that a Company must rely on their hunting skills once their provisions run out, the rules do not have very much detail about the mechanics for foraging for provisions, or the consequences of running out of provisions. Making two hunting rolls per day per character seemed an overly cumbersome way of handling gathering provisions, especially on very long journeys that might see a month or more of travel. And as food often holds such an important place in Tolkien's stories it seemed important not to gloss over it in the game, and to establish some guidelines for handling it in the game, and especially what the consequences of running out of food might be.

Those travelling on foot can carry enough provisions to sustain themselves for one week. Travelling by pony or horse, or using a pack-horse or mule, means that two weeks worth of provisions can be carried. However, once provisions run out food must be caught or foraged from the surrounding wilderness. The designated hunter of the group can make a Hunting roll once a week on a journey to try and find provisions for the group. "Provisions" here refers to enough food (of whatever kind) and water for each member of the Company for seven days. The roll represents how well the hunter does in getting provisions from multiple hunting and foraging attempts over the course of the week. Other companions with the Hunting skill can provide assistance, with every additional success adding an additional 2 points to the hunter’s total score, and every failed roll subtracting 2 from the total score.

The Target Number is derived from the Region Table (p.34 LMG). If the Hunter succeeds the Company has enough food to sustain themselves for the week’s journey. A Great Success means the company has managed to gather more than enough food for the week. The TN for the next Travel Check is decreased by 2 points. An Extraordinary Success means the same as a Great Success, plus the next week's Hunt is considered to be a normal Success. If a Gandalf is rolled on the feat die the Company gains 1 Fellowship Point due to especially good food on the journey and an improvement in morale that results.

Failure on the Hunting test means that food proves to be so scarce on the journey to sufficiently feed all companions. Consequently, the Target Number for all Travel Checks are increased by 2 and the Company can only recover 2 Endurance per nights rest (except for those with an untreated Wound, who only recover the normal 1 Endurance per nights rest). If an Eye is rolled on the feat die the Company loses 1 Fellowship Point from their pool due to lack of food and a consequent loss of morale among the Company.

If the Company goes without sufficient provisions for long periods of time they may be vulnerable to malnutrition and starvation. Therefore penalties for going without provisions are cumulative. Lack of sufficient provisions for two consecutive weeks means the travel TN is increased by 4, the third week by 6, and so on. During a second consecutive week of insufficient provisions Heroes are no longer able to recover any Endurance from a nights rest. During a third consecutive week of insufficient provisions heroes lose 4 Endurance per day. This loss increases in increments of 4 per week.

Hunting on a Journey Results Table:

Failure = The Company have not found sufficient provisions for the week. Penalty of +2 to Travel TN and the Company can only recover 2 Endurance per nights rest (except for those with an untreated Wound, who only recover the normal 1 Endurance per nights rest).*

Success = The Company have sufficient provisions for the week.**

Great Success = The Company have sufficient provisions for the week. Bonus of +2 to the next Travel TN.**

Extraordinary Success = The Company have found more than enough provisions for the week, perhaps a large deer or an abundant grove of fruit trees. Same as Great Success with this addition: next week's Hunt is considered to be a normal Success. In other words, the Huntsman need not make a roll that week to find provisions.**

** Success with a Gandalf = 1 Fellowship Point added to the pool in addition to the Quality of the Success as above.

* Failure with an Eye = 1 Fellowship Point removed from the pool in addition to the Failure as above.

[Mim]

I've been wondering about this issue myself Beckett, & at first read, your solution concerning TNs is inspired! You seemingly (having not yet played this rule myself) cover this succinctly & with game balance in mind.

BTW, you may smile to learn that I wrote up a whole page of complex rules on this subject concerning Fatigue, Endurance, etc., but the more I wrote, the more of a train wreck it became, & I finally deleted it

On another - but related note - I'll bet I'm not the only one intrigued by your taking your players to Forochel. If you ever decide to post anything (however basic) about what you put them through up there, I'd love to read it.

[beckett]

I've been wondering about this issue myself Beckett, & at first read, your solution concerning TNs is inspired! You seemingly (having not yet played this rule myself) cover this succinctly & with game balance in mind.

BTW, you may smile to learn that I wrote up a whole page of complex rules on this subject concerning Fatigue, Endurance, etc., but the more I wrote, the more of a train wreck it became, & I finally deleted it

On another - but related note - I'll bet I'm not the only one intrigued by your taking your players to Forochel. If you ever decide to post anything (however basic) about what you put them through up there, I'd love to read it.

Thank you, Mim! I cannot take all the credit alone. We wrote this house rule as a team effort, going back and forth over email until we found it satisfactory. My fellow players James and Dave get a shout-out.

In terms of the quest, we rotate LM duties between me and James. I LM'd the group through the Tales from Wilderland. It is now the year 2950 of the Third Age. Loremaster duties have switched to James. His character has retired to the Woodland Realm and I created a Hobbit. Long story short, James has repurposed an old MERP adventure for The One Ring adding much of his own story elements to the plot. We go to Forochel in search of one of the lost seeing stones.

[beckett]

Internal discussions among the group continue... we are considering a change:

Hunting on a Journey Results Table:

Failure = The Company have not found sufficient provisions for the week. Penalty of +2 to Travel TN and the Company can only recover 2 Endurance per nights rest (except for those with an untreated Wound, who only recover the normal 1 Endurance per nights rest).*

Success = The Company have sufficient provisions for the week.**

Great Success = The Company have found more than enough provisions for the week, perhaps a large deer or an abundant grove of fruit trees. Uninjured heroes heal using their favored Heart rating per night, rather than just their basic heart score.**

Extraordinary Success = The Company have more than enough food for the week. Uninjured heroes heal using their favored Heart rating per night rather than just their basic Heart score. The next week's Hunt is considered to be a normal Success. In other words, the Huntsman need not make a roll that week to find provisions.**

** Success with a Gandalf = +1 Fellowship in addition to the Quality of the Success as above.

* Failure with an Eye = -1 Fellowship in addition to the Quality of the Failure as above.

This might be cleaner than fiddling too much with Travel TN bonuses. Also, as our LM pointed out: In terms of Endurance loss and gain due to lack of food: "Endurance represents a heroes resistance to injury, physical, psychological stress, even torture. Whenever a character is subjected to some form of harm or toil, his Endurance score is reduced accordingly." (AB p.104). So considering that Endurance is not just about combat injury, its about all forms of 'damage' to a character, it seems a nice fit. And its directly related to Weariness.

[Glorelendil]

I'm still thinking about the house rule, but I'm distracted thinking how cool a Bay of Forochel expansion book would be.

On a related note, I wish the old I.C.E. MERP sourcebooks were available on PDF. Mine are long, long gone and I'm not willing to pay the prices I see for used ones.

[beckett]

I'm still thinking about the house rule, but I'm distracted thinking how cool a Bay of Forochel expansion book would be.

On a related note, I wish the old I.C.E. MERP sourcebooks were available on PDF. Mine are long, long gone and I'm not willing to pay the prices I see for used ones.

As you can see, so are we!

Looks like we're going to test out the original house rule and set aside the version with Endurance recovery for now.

I will PM you concerning your wish.

[Valarian]

For the sake of ease, I tend to use a failed Hunting roll as the company eating short, dried, rations. Successful Hunting rolls indicate that the hunt was a success (to the varying degree indicated by the roll). An Eye means that the company is weary until they can eat a decent meal. Either delaying the journey by a full day to hunt (successful Hunting roll required), or a successful hunt on the next Hunter turn. I use the rotating rolls / revised journey rules.

[Beleg]

This rule sounds brilliant to me. I definitely feel like long journeys involve too much rolling (that old chestnut etc) and I think your idea looks like a great way to keep the role of food important without it taking centre stage

[Rich H]

For the sake of ease, I tend to use a failed Hunting roll as the company eating short, dried, rations. Successful Hunting rolls indicate that the hunt was a success (to the varying degree indicated by the roll). An Eye means that the company is weary until they can eat a decent meal. Either delaying the journey by a full day to hunt (successful Hunting roll required), or a successful hunt on the next Hunter turn. I use the rotating rolls / revised journey rules.

I'm with Valarian on this. I admire the detail that Beckett has put into his house rules but there's too much bookkeeping for me so I'd go with something like the above. Maybe give some slight mechanical penalties to failing and bonuses to succeeding but nothing that carries over into other rolls.

[beckett]

For the sake of ease, I tend to use a failed Hunting roll as the company eating short, dried, rations. Successful Hunting rolls indicate that the hunt was a success (to the varying degree indicated by the roll). An Eye means that the company is weary until they can eat a decent meal. Either delaying the journey by a full day to hunt (successful Hunting roll required), or a successful hunt on the next Hunter turn. I use the rotating rolls / revised journey rules.

I'm with Valarian on this. I admire the detail that Beckett has put into his house rules but there's too much bookkeeping for me so I'd go with something like the above. Maybe give some slight mechanical penalties to failing and bonuses to succeeding but nothing that carries over into other rolls.

Right but you can only carry a week's worth of provisions, after that you have to hunt and forage for food and two hunting rolls per day on a months-long journey is too much rolling/bookkeeping as it is. So we thought, one Hunting Roll a week to cover a week's worth of hunting and foraging attempts. And we thought about failed hunting rolls = Weary until the Company can eat a decent meal but the majority in our group felt a Company with no food, or an insufficient amount of food, counting on a successful hunting roll while Weary was too punishing. So we hashed out modifying the Travel TNs, but now we're thinking about the second version I posted which is less about penalties/bonuses carrying over into other rolls and more about how going hungry affects Endurance recovery.

What sort of slight penalty do you have in mind, Rich? We admire the many additions you've made and posted.