Travel

Distant lands await

Much of the time, player characters will be troubled with the effort to go from one place to another, typically over distances that take many days. Travel creates problems that must be solved: gear must be taken along enabling sleep, prepared food and survival; mounts expedite travel but asks for skill in managing and feeding the animals; vehicles enable the transport of much material as well as opportunities for trade, but these too need care and maintenance. Water is sometimes an obstacle, so that ship travel must sometimes be tried. Weather is a constant hazard. This page makes some attempt to address many issues involved with journeying from place to place, but there are so many particulars to be discussed that for a time, the content below will need occasional updating — much of it during an actual campaign, when an unforseen issue requires an on-the-spot judgment.

Until such incarnations take place, then, this page should be treated as an outline, enabling details to be added in a constructive, organized manner.

Daybreak

Before a day's journey can start, the party will have to prepare themselves, their gear and their means of transportation. This might mean starting from a camp; or from an inn or other public house; or even from their own home. Certain tasks will apply to all three, while the conditions for the party at daybreak will also have peculiar characteristics worthy of detail.

Making & Breaking Camp

Main Article: Making & Breaking Camp

All preparation for awaking and getting started in the outdoors begins with making camp the night before. The first concern is cooking. This must be done over a fire, which takes time to build. Wood needs to be gathered before it can be burnt. Failing to build a fire or eat hot food could mean illness from cold weather as well as parasites that are found in uncooked food.

Water needs to be gathered and animals tended. The characters will be busy with airing out their sweaty clothes, banging the dents out of their armour, sharpening their weapons, attending to repairs in equipment that wear and tear demands. Someone will need to take a walk around the camp to ensure the safety of the sight, to ensure the party hasn't settled near some large beastie's nest. Spellcasters will need time to study. Additionally, since my sage abilities are presumed to increase when a level is gained due to practice and meditation, this is also a part of settling down for the night.

Additionally, the characters will be tired. They are not machines. They will want to rest and enjoy themselves, tell stories, discuss events of the day and make plans for the morrow.

Come the next morning, these things have to be reversed. Gear must be gathered up, the fire kicked out, the tent taken down, the animals readied for travel and hitched to any vehicles the party may be using. The players must wash themselves, put on their dirty clothes, arrange their packs and insundries and stretch themselves for the journey ahead. There's a lot to do before starting off towards the next place.

Waking in a Public House

Main Article: Lodging

Most inns or roadhouses will offer some food in the morning, usually porridge, stewed greens and hot tea or coffee. This has a charge of course. The characters will be awakened by a knock on the door that will come half-an-hour after daybreak; this is automatic and it does not matter if the characters are leaving that day or staying over. Characters who don't want breakfast may roll over and return to sleep, but they won't be allowed to make their own hot food on the premises, so if they miss this first meal they will need to seek food somewhere outside the lodging (food won't be served again until evening).

After eating, the characters will return to their room to pack up. One or more persons must visit the stable to collect the party's animals, at a maximum of two animals per person. The stablemaster will sometimes point out any maladies in the animals that might have been noticed.