Benefits From Extraordinary/Great Success On Travel Rolls?

[Throrsgold]

My players brought up a topic during our last session. I told them I'd post it to the forums and find out what the Wise had to say on the matter.

I quote the e-mail post I was sent (as their reminder to me to post the question)...

If we make an extraordinary success with a travel roll, could there be a benefit of some kind -- like cutting [the] trip down or meeting someone who [might be] helpful, etc.? The items in brackets are MY additions to have the sentence make sense.

My search of the forums resulted in nothing that mentioned this topic. Rich H's Additional Rules Supplement had extra dice being cultivated by rolls made at the start of a Journey, which we used (for the first time) in this last session...my players liked this. I'm thinking that might have been the genesis for their their question...bonus dice were VERY popular!!! BTW, we used the Hobbit Tales cards for the first time, too...and, WE LOVED THEM!!! Several inspirational bits, that we would have never before conceived, were introduced by these cards. For example, the first card we pulled, OLD SWORD, was implemented as an old sword that poked up out the soil, identifying the site of an old battle...the Beorning failed his roll and gained 1 Shadow when reminded his clan suffered great losses at that battle. Anyway, the cards' inspirational value probably "inspired" their question, too.

Ideas? Opinions?

[Etarnon]

i use it as a bonus to help other's fatigue. you are doing so well, you can carry the packs of others. not rules as written but the players like bonus dice.

[Woodclaw]

i use it as a bonus to help other's fatigue. you are doing so well, you can carry the packs of others. not rules as written but the players like bonus dice.

Some of my players asked if this was possible. I told them that there was nothing in the rules, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.

[fbnaulin]

Well, rules as written, the acting player describe how the result surpassed the expectations. My players use this to talk about what they found in the road and to create details about the landscape, weather or terrain.

[SirKicley]

There's nothing in the rules that provide what you propose. the LORE skill check during the planning stage can provide the means for a shorter trip.

The Travel checks is not about making the trip faster - but more manageable - or otherwise - "not slower". The rules do encourage you to provide enhanced benefit for having such a roll.

"Not only have you traversed the rigors of XXXXX with great progress and little effort, but you have managed it so well that XXXXX."

However you wish to explain the abstract nature of the exceptional success is entirely up to you, and possibilities are endless.

Personally, I allow a person to provide a d6 bonus dice to another in the fellowship to assist them. My players have been steered to the importance of helping their Fellowship Focus first due to in-game special friendship/bond with them, but also from a meta-game that the better off their Focus is, the less likely they are to gain a debilitating condition and removing their bonus Hope Point at the end of the game.

The bonus d6 is the easiest way to do this - it takes a lot of burden from the LM to have to colorize the reason for an exceptional success if you can't otherwise provide it. I expect when a player lends their bonus d6 to another hero, they explain how it is that they've assisted, which is always good for a bit of roleplaying flavor.

Other options could include:

A healed Fatigue Point
2 healed Endurance Points
A couple extra days of rations found
They get a free Attribute bonus on a test they make in that segment.
They get a free Attribute bonus on the next Fatigue test
They lose a point of Shadow as their spirits are lifted by their great progress and how they feel.
If someone also triggered a hazard at that moment, the exceptional success hero will have some bonus to overcoming it.

It's also important to try to explain the benefit from an in-game perspective. You're not just "allowing a free Attribute Bonus", but try to abstract from that and explain WHY they get a free attribute bonus - and the reason why is NOT because they rolled two 6s.....but what those 6's meant...... (to which my smart-alek daughter would say - well the two 6's mean that i get an exceptional success!" )

Regardless, they also gain an Advancement Point in that skill - or even their 2nd in that category if it was indeed an exceptional success.


Robert

[doctheweasel]

We have allowed extraordinary results on Travel to allow someone else who failed their test to succeed instead. Basically, they are getting help from the character who rolled well.

[SirKicley]

We have allowed extraordinary results on Travel to allow someone else who failed their test to succeed instead. Basically, they are getting help from the character who rolled well.

Yeah that's the same vein we use - but instead of auto-success for another, we allow for a bonus d6. There's still some anxiety associated with that, and someone with no or 1 skill rank in Travel still has a good chance of failing even with the D6 assistance.

FWIW, we use this same principle in many skill uses. Climbing for instance or swimming, or any other area where one could explain assisting another succeed.

Sometimes I'll provide an extra bonus to the player who rolled it, sometimes I'll indicate that they can assist another depending on the situation and whether or not I can feasibly grant additional benefit to the player who rolled the G/E Success.

Robert

[Stormcrow]

Remember, it's a fatigue test, not a"travel check."

[SirKicley]

Remember, it's a fatigue test, not a"travel check."

I think they're essentially the same thing. IIRC, you use the Travel skill to resolve a Fatigue test?


Robert

[trystero]

Remember, it's a fatigue test, not a"travel check."

I think they're essentially the same thing. IIRC, you use the Travel skill to resolve a Fatigue test?

I believe Stormcrow's point is that tests (rolls made to avoid a negative outcome) don't generally provide any benefits for great or extraordinary success. Those benefits usually apply only to tasks (rolls made to achieve a positive outcome).