# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > D&D 5e/Next >  Uncharted Journeys - Third Party 5E

## Sparky McDibben

If you've spent much time on these forums, you've probably heard someone (notably this a$$hole) reference the Journeys rules from _Adventures in Middle Earth._ Those rules were very well done for integrating big, Tolkien-style trips into D&D 5E, and for fully breaking the 5-minute adventuring day. 

"Ah, but Cubicle 7 lost the license, oh Sparky the Unwise!" I hear you bellow in triumph, "Rendering this conversation moot and unuseful to the forum at large!"

Well, Wangrod Strawman, now it is _you_ who are unuseful!!! You see, Cubicle 7 said, "Screw it, we've done all this design work, so let's pivot to the broader 5E base and bring the Journeys rules to base 5E."

And now, years later, they did so with _Uncharted Journeys_. The schmucks.

So I figured that I'd take a quick review of the system, discussing its various and multitudinous facets, and then talking about how to implement it and where it could really benefit from a DM's critical eye. We'll close it out with a discussion of the value proposition and use cases.

This is my review of the preview PDF of Uncharted Journeys by Cubicle 7, which I backed on Kickstarter for 30, or $31.62 at today's exchange rate in real money. The PDF runs to 294 pages, or  0.10 per page. Note that I am reviewing the pre-print PDF, so there are plenty of typographical errors, a few layout problems, and assorted spelling concerns. This is only a review of the pre-print PDF, so I will assume these problems will be corrected, and as such I'm not going to note them in this review.

Uncharted Journeys has several major sections:

Journey RolesJourney RulesPeople Along The WayAncient RuinsJourney EncountersJourney Encounters by Terrain TypeBackmatter

Journey Encounters by Terrain Type actually takes up most of the space in the book (p 64 - 287), so naturally, we're not going to devote much time to covering it. The reason for this is because there are really only 12 major types of encounters, and each biome supplies the necessary context.

So all Journeys can have the Encounter: Danger Afoot, but only in the Forest biome will you run into Ring A Roses (where dryads are holding a ritual to celebrate the forests' rebirth...and consider your party a fine sacrifice!). 

However, I do want to cover the various biomes listed, as they are a LOT:

CoastsDesertsFarmlandsForestsFrontiersGrasslandsGreat CitiesHaunted LandsHellscapesJunglesLands of the FaeMountainsOpen WatersUndergroundWar Torn LandsWild Magic Lands

Say what you will about Cubicle 7, but they sure as hell ain't short on imagination. Each of these biomes has a 1d10 table for each of the 12 Encounter Types (so you have 120 pre-made encounters _per biome)_ plus random tables for weather, flora, fauna, local inhabitants, points of interest, and possible journeys.

I've only skimmed the encounters, but I've been impressed with what all I've seen.

Alright, you crazy whackadoodles, I'll be back probably tomorrow with a quick review of the Journey Roles and what they mean for the ruleset. Thanks, and stay whacky!

 :Small Big Grin: 

*PS - Mods, I've been recently notified that replying to my own post as a means of breaking up a review falls under forum rules about double-posting. Please let me know if that's the case. If necessary, I can simply make each update a new post. Please let me know how y'all'd like to handle it, and I'll be more than happy to oblige.

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## Psyren

If you want to avoid multiposting / replying to yourself, you may want to consider posting the full review to another site / Google doc (even doing so over time like you would here) and then simply linking to it + any attention-grabbing highlights. In fact, a summary of the juiciest tidbits, e.g. new races, subclasses, feats, spells etc, might spark the kind of community discussion that takes place in other threads.

(...There *are* juicy tidbits right?)

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## animorte

> (notably this a$$hole)


Ugh, that guy You know, this fella has really been ruffling my feathers lately too.




> "Rendering this conversation moot and unuseful to the forum at large!"


I am henceforth boycotting the use of this terminology when referring to Mr. McDibben.




> So I figured that I'd take a quick review of the system, discussing its various and multitudinous facets, and then talking about how to implement it and where it could really benefit from a DM's critical eye. We'll close it out with a discussion of the value proposition and use cases.


Always here for it, buddy.




> Say what you will about Cubicle 7, but they sure as hell ain't short on imagination
> 
> I've only skimmed the encounters, but I've been impressed with what all I've seen
> 
> Alright, you crazy whackadoodles, I'll be back probably tomorrow with a quick review of the Journey Roles and what they mean for the ruleset. Thanks, and stay whacky!


Consider me hyped and whacky!  :Small Big Grin: 




> *PS - Mods


I try and keep up with it as such that I can squeeze in some words of encouragement and feedback so this isnt much of a concern. Doesnt hurt to put it out there though! Proof of a terrified situationally aware individual (so it would _seem_).  :Small Tongue: 




> another site / Google doc (even doing so over time like you would here) and then simply linking to it + any attention-grabbing highlights.


Not a bad idea.




> (...There *are* juicy tidbits right?)


There better be!  :Small Cool: 



_- your biggest fan (probably)_

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## Sparky McDibben

> If you want to avoid multiposting / replying to yourself, you may want to consider posting the full review to another site / Google doc (even doing so over time like you would here) and then simply linking to it + any attention-grabbing highlights. In fact, a summary of the juiciest tidbits, e.g. new races, subclasses, feats, spells etc, might spark the kind of community discussion that takes place in other threads.


Eh, sounds like a good idea, but I'm also hella lazy like that.  :Small Wink: 




> (...There *are* juicy tidbits right?)


Actually, no? There's really not much for players in this book. It's almost entirely DM-facing. _And it's about [email protected] time, WotC!_




> Ugh, that guy You know, this fella has really been ruffling my feathers lately too.


LOL!




> I try and keep up with it as such that I can squeeze in some words of encouragement and feedback so this isnt much of a concern.


Y'ain't gotta do that, hoss. If necessary, I'll just go Alexandrian-style and create an index post, then update it as I create new threads for each new post. 




> _- your biggest fan (probably)_


Well, shoot. If I've got fans, now I've got to be careful about parasocial relationships, Twitter feuds, and being doxxed! Fortunately, I've hidden myself well behind the inscrutable mask of Sparky McDibben, an enigma wrapped in a mystery, sandwiched firmly between two whole wheat slices of conundrum!

Alright, on to the actual meat of the review. 

As stated above, this book is almost entirely DM-facing. I personally consider this a good thing, but it does put the crimp on Cubicle 7 to manage limited economies of scale. If you're a player primarily, this book doesn't have anything for you. C'est la vie, mon ami.

We're going to go slightly out of order with the review vs the book. For some reason, Cubicle 7 put the party roles before the actual structure, so we'll start with the Journey system first, so y'all know what a durned Group Travel Check is before we get into the actual details.

Starting with Chapter 2, then: Journey Rules! This isn't so much rules as a structure for how to integrate big journeys into your fantasy game - it's remarkably short on actual new mechanics and long on process.

Cubicle 7 breaks a Journey into three parts: 
Set the RoutePrepareMake the Journey
You'll note that 2/3rds of the Journey takes place when not on the Journey, so that should give some idea of how important planning is to this process. Also: this is going to look like a LOT when I spell it all out like this, but in the actual book, the Journey rules take up 15 pages - well-formatted and set up to display the information cleanly and in an easily-digestible format. I was able to pick up the book, read the rules once, and run a sample Journey for random characters pretty easily.

A cleaned-up procedural view of the Journey would look like this:

Set Distance (determines base number of Encounters during the Journey)Set Journey Difficulty (determines DC of all checks made during the Journey)PCs make Preparations (PCs take actions to give themselves advantages during the Journey)Make Group Travel Check (see Journey Roles; success or failure modifies the number of total Encounters)Determine number and nature of EncountersRun EncountersMake Arrival check (Sentry rolls [Wis mod, min 1]d12s, takes highest)
Setting the Route involves three things: Distance, Weather, and Terrain. 

Distance is broken down into four rough range bands: Short, Medium, Long, and Very Long. There are rough distances given in miles and time, but there's also a sidebar denoting that this is all relative. For example, if you're playing an urban campaign, a Short Journey might be from one neighborhood to another, while a Very Long Journey might go all the way across town (remember that there is a whole section on Great Cities in the biome portion, so they're fully ready to support your game wherever it goes). 

Distance doesn't inform much aside from the number of encounters you have, so don't sweat it. Weather and Terrain, however, set the Journey's Difficulty. The actual formula is 10 + Weather + Terrain = Difficulty. There's a whole table listing out the various modifiers for both. Perfectly clear skies and a well-kept path give you +1 to difficulty for Weather and Terrain, respectively, while constant storms of pounding hail and rampant volcanic activity give you a +10. If the party is traveling through areas where the weather and terrain fluctuate, you are advised to average the modifier. This basically boils down to a gut check - how hard do you think this Journey will be? Most of us, I suspect, will fluctuate between DC 15 and 20, and probably not go north of 25 except in high-tier situations.

Weather and Terrain both have a minimum 1 and a maximum 10, so your Journey Difficulty fluctuates between 12 and 30. This sets the base DC for literally every check on the Journey, so it'll have a large impact on your Journey. 

And with that, we're done with Setting the Route! Next up, Preparing!

First step is to slot your players into the Journey Roles. The Roles are Leader, Outrider, Quartermaster, and Sentry. I'm personally not in love with this framing - I can see my group having a problem electing a Leader, for example, and Leader is really just a Faceman. An Outrider is a Scout, and a Sentry is a Lookout. Quartermaster is pretty self-explanatory.

Once the players have picked their roles, they make Preparations - everybody gets to make one Preparation, but can make a second one if they want to start a Journey with a level of exhaustion. Note that level of exhaustion, by the way, because holy cow do they stack up in this system. Basically, this forces the PCs to really think about how they want to prep for the Journey, because realistically, they're only going to get one. 

Preparations are basically actions the PCs can take before they set out. These have various benefits, but mostly require a check of some kind at the Journey Difficulty. The benefits are nicely abstracted, and make both mechanical and narrative sense. For example, you might go out drinking and take the Carouse preparation. This requires a Constitution check (using Athletics, Performance, or gaming set proficiencies), representing a wild fling right before you leave. If you succeed, you get advantage on all checks on the first Encounter during the Journey. If you succeed by 5 or more, you learn valuable rumors about your route, and lower the Journey Difficulty by 2. Conversely, if you fail, you have disadvantage on the first Encounter's ability checks. If you fail by 5 or more, you start the Journey with half your Hit Dice. 

Other preparations include Consult the Occult (throwing the bones about your Journey), Hire Help (obtain hirelings), Prepare a Feast (a big send-off right before you leave), Procure Beasts of Burden or Procure Mounts (get pack animals or horses), etc. There's something here for pretty much everyone to contribute. Hell, if you don't have anything you feel like doing, you can give another PC advantage on their check. The only thing that would be super helpful here would be a cheat sheet so players know their base options, letting them get creative. However, the whole set of Preparations fits neatly across 3 pages, so it's easy enough to print out.

And this is where we get to the part my players are going to HATE: changes to Resting. In order to have the consequences of their decisions and Encounters be meaningful, _Uncharted Journeys_ mucks with the Resting rules. You can only take a long rest during a Journey if an Encounter specifies you can (and there are Encounters that do!), representing the sheer wearing-down of roughing it for weeks at a time. Note: *THIS IS NOT GRITTY REALISM.* The time to actually take a long rest doesn't change; just the circumstances of where you can take one. I strongly do not recommend using Gritty Realism with this system, since that's basically double-dipping. 

However, the players can take a Short Rest, but that adds an extra Encounter to the Journey, since you stopped to rest. 

And now we go to actually making the Journey!

The Journey involves a Group Travel check and the actual Encounters. The Group Travel check just measures how cohesive the party is, and how much they're doing to work together. It's made at the Journey Difficulty. Notably, each role has specific checks they can make during the Group Travel check (for example, the Leader can make a Persuasion / Performance check to buoy everyone's spirits) that we'll cover in the actual Journey Roles. The consequences for the Group Travel check modify the number of Encounters you have on the Journey (so if everyone passes their check, you have one fewer Encounter, and if nobody passes their check, you have 2 extra Encounters). 

At this point, Distance comes into play. Each range band (Short to Very Long) adds 1 base Encounter (so Short has 1 Encounter, Medium has 2, etc). From there, you add any extra Encounters from bad Group Travel checks, and determine how many Encounters you have. You can also add Encounters if the party is trying to rush their way through the Journey, or subtract encounters if they're taking their time.

Now, the Encounters are the meat of the whole Journey, so I don't want to rush anything here - they're definitely worth their own post after we go over Journey Roles. For now, though, there are only 12 base types of Encounter, and these are modified by biome. So for each encounter, you'd flip to the biome in which they'll take place, find the table for that encounter type, roll 1d10, and get the encounter details. 

The actual process of setting up the Encounter is quick, easy, and doesn't require much from you to get a decently tense moment. 

After the PCs get to wherever they're going, everyone makes a Con save. Success gives them temp hp; failure gives them a level of exhaustion. The Sentry rolls [Wis modifier, minimum 1]d12s, taking the highest. Depending on how high they roll, the party could walk into a straight-up ambush, or find a safe place to take a long rest without risk.  

Personally, I like most of where they're going with this, but when I run these, I'll probably rely much more on presenting a situation and letting the PCs' actions guide my adjudication. For example, I might just ask the PCs how they're preparing for a trip, rather than reading off a laundry list of options, and then use the options presented to guide what rolls I ask for. 

However, the Journeys rules strike a pretty solid balance between letting players who really want to play through a challenging scenario, and those who want to roll dice and experience a story. That's hard to do, and Cubicle 7 deserves some praise for pulling it off. 

Next time, friendos, we'll go over the Journey Roles so we can see how players can interact with this system, as well as how they can recover abilities spent on the Encounters!

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## Particle_Man

Interesting that taking a short rest adds an encounter.  From the player perspective is it more effective for players to "Speed Run" the journey without resting, or to take as many short rests as they can?

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## Zevox

Is this available for purchase anywhere yet? My group has been using a slightly-modified version of the Middle Earth Journey rules for our past couple of campaigns, and I've been working on my own version for use when I run Descent into Avernus for the group, which will be starting in the relatively near future, so it could be quite handy to me. But Google is only showing me the Kickstarter and some articles about it.

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## Libertad

> Is this available for purchase anywhere yet? My group has been using a slightly-modified version of the Middle Earth Journey rules for our past couple of campaigns, and I've been working on my own version for use when I run Descent into Avernus for the group, which will be starting in the relatively near future, so it could be quite handy to me. But Google is only showing me the Kickstarter and some articles about it.


It hasn't been released to the general public. The PDF copies have been sent to backers but it's still hasn't had a final round of proofreading. The contents and rules are all there, but it's still not "complete."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...arted-journeys

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## Sparky McDibben

> Interesting that taking a short rest adds an encounter.  From the player perspective is it more effective for players to "Speed Run" the journey without resting, or to take as many short rests as they can?


I know, right? My first reaction was thinking, "Wait, meaningful choices in 5e overland travel? Well, this was money well-spent!"




> Is this available for purchase anywhere yet? My group has been using a slightly-modified version of the Middle Earth Journey rules for our past couple of campaigns, and I've been working on my own version for use when I run Descent into Avernus for the group, which will be starting in the relatively near future, so it could be quite handy to me. But Google is only showing me the Kickstarter and some articles about it.





> It hasn't been released to the general public. The PDF copies have been sent to backers but it's still hasn't had a final round of proofreading. The contents and rules are all there, but it's still not "complete."
> 
> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...arted-journeys


Per Libertad, the final PDF is not available for sale, and probably won't be until the physical book goes out to backers. This is set for "the coming weeks," per the Kickstarter page, so I'm guessing that it should be available in the next couple of months. That sucks about the timing, though!

Alright, friends, now that we've gone over the Rules, let's go over the Roles! 

(I had to retype that sentence like five times because I kept transposing the "u" and the "o" - not my best moment)

The Journey Roles are actually the shortest section of the book - barely six pages (from page four to page ten, accounting for art). They lay out what the Journey Roles are, and how various classes can recover their expended resources.

Journey Roles are basically an archetype your character takes on during the Journey. You can be the Leader, the Outrider, the Quartermaster, or the Sentry. Each has a special ability during the Journey, and has a few options for the Group Travel Check.

The *Leader's* job is keeping everyone's spirits up. Their special ability is to inspire their fellows: "As a Reaction while on a Journey, you can allow another party member to reroll a failed saving throw or ability check. You can do this once per party member per Journey." Damn - pocket inspiration? That's pretty nice!

Their Group Travel Check options are: 

Charisma (Persuasion)Wisdom (Insight)Charisma (Performance) / Ability check with a musical instrument
The *Outrider's* job is to scout ahead of the party and blaze a trail. They have (in my humblest of opinions) the single coolest special ability. Once per Journey, they can _override the Encounter the DM rolled._ Yeah. They can just say, "Nope. We're doing this encounter type instead." How freaking rad is that?!

Their Group Travel Check options are: 

Wisdom (Survival)Intelligence (Nature)Cartographer's tools
The *Quartermaster's* job is to channel Samwise Gamgee and keep track of all the stuff (remember that this is all abstracted, so your Quartermaster isn't actually doing any bookkeeping). They get Supply Dice, which are a pool of d6's equal to their proficiency bonus. They can use them to improve their fellows' ability checks (and ability checks only) during the Journey, rolling the d6 and adding it.

Their Group Travel Check options are: 

Strength or Constitution (Athletics)Blacksmith's or Leatherworker's ToolsBrewer's Supplies or Cook's Utensils
Finally, the *Sentry's* job is to keep a lookout for trouble. They get to go all Legolas and tell everybody else what their elf-eyes see. During the Journey, they get a pool of Focus Dice, which are a number of d6's equal to their proficiency bonus. During the Journey, they can roll these Focus Dice to improve their allies' saving throws or Initiative checks.

Their Group Travel Check options are: 

Wisdom (Perception)Dexterity (Stealth)Disguise kit

So let's pause here for a second. I've created two different virtual parties for this system to run Journeys with. Each time, I've found characters who can be OK at this system but not great - which I think is a massive achievement by Cubicle 7. They've created a system where some folks can excel at one part of the job, but not all of it, while still fitting it into both the fantasy milieu and the 5E engine. That's incredibly difficult, and worth the thumbs up, folks.

For example, a rogue could easily rock the Sentry role with their Dexterity (Stealth), but their Wisdom is probably low enough to make the Arrival roll (see above) kind of dicey, denying the party a long rest at the end of the Journey. The quartermaster role seems custom-designed for a tank, but can be easily managed by anyone with a random proficiency in their background. This kind of balance is asymmetrical - some parties will wind up having a breeze here - but I think most parties will have at least one part of the Journey they struggle with. 

And that enforces consequences on what they've chosen to be good at, and how they can apply those strengths to the Journey ahead. Like I said, I'm pretty impressed with the thought that's gone into this design. Not to mention that "telling the DM to re-roll an Encounter" is the type of thing a wilderness expert should be able to do (looking at you, Ranger)! The various role boons are well-thought-out, and only apply during the Journey, letting the PCs save their precious abilities for the adventure at the end. Most importantly, if you look at the structure above, none of these obstacles stop the PCs from getting to the adventure, they just might run them ragged, forcing them to think about how they approach the adventure once they arrive. 

Honestly, I'm just thrilled with this design. Can't wait to inflict this err... try this out on my players.

Next, onto the PC abilities! What happens if your barbarian Rages during an Encounter? Or your sorcerer casts a spell? Is there any way for the PCs to recover from setbacks?

Well, yes there are! In addition to a whole encounter type that can give the PCs a long rest if they're smart and careful, PCs can actually spend Hit Dice to recover used abilities! 

The basic formula is that if something comes back on a short rest, it's 1 HD; if something comes back on a long rest, it's 2 HD; if it's a spell, the HD = spell level. 

Barbarians can recover one use of Rage with 2 HD. Bards can recover one use of Bardic Inspiration with 1 HD. For the most part, the system follows these simple rules, but it breaks down in a couple places. Monks, for example, spend HD on a 1:1 basis to recover ki. Paladins spend HD on a 1HD:5 Lay on Hands hit points. And Warlocks recover their spell levels at their maximum spell casting level (so if you cast your spells at 3rd level, you spend 3 HD per spell). 

Curiously, a few things are missing: how do Warlocks recover their Mystic Arcanum? How do Sorcerers recover their Sorcery Points? 

This kind of incentivizes LR-dependent classes to try to speed-run everything, because they're paying 2 HD per feature to recover it, and most of them are spellcasters anyways. SR-dependent classes can probably just blow through a few Encounters, short rest, blow through their last Encounter, spend some HD to recover any abilities used, and be fine. It results in two different decision sets for these classes, and that's going to cause some friction, though not as much as might appear. After all, the wizard still benefits from a short rest, too (Arcane Recovery).

Regardless, I think kind of design is hard to pull off - it's deceptively simple, and finds a solution to most of the problems facing this conundrum with a fairly consistent set of principles. You could easily take this set up and apply it to a Blood Hunter or Artificer, for example.

This is generally solid design - a couple of moments of real brilliance, but mostly solid, consistent, and _simple._ 

Alright, friends! Next time we're going to delve into the Encounters, and after that, I'm going to share some playtest feedback from running three sample Journeys with a party I put together. 

Have fun and stay awesome!

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## Sorinth

> Interesting that taking a short rest adds an encounter.  From the player perspective is it more effective for players to "Speed Run" the journey without resting, or to take as many short rests as they can?


Haven't seen the encounters so can't say for sure but in terms of generic 5e, the expectation would be that you do 2 encounters and then SR to get your 6-8 encounters per LR and 2 SR "standard". So in theory you would still be better off taking a SR. Also presumably not every encounter is a combat/resource drain, some encounters could be running into a trader who can sell some healing potions for example.

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## sambojin

Druids are going to be good at this. I regularly skill Athletics, Stealth, Perception and Insight on my Moon Druids for instance. That'll let me slot into 3/4 roles for a journey, for whatever's needed by the party. And with high Wis, you can probably be a Outrider as well, just.

Kinda makes sense for Druids to be good at this kinda stuff though. Having both sr and lr resources helps fit with whatever style of journey (speedrun or explore) as well.

Can you game the system? Like add guidance to rolls, or wildshape into something strong for an athletics roll, or cast Enhance Ability for a check in preparation time or for journey role rolls? Or is it removed enough from gameplay that it's just your basic stats/ skills for the rolls?


(Looks like a good system so far. Broad enough that anyone can help out, with some resource-use and decision making along the way. Also abstract and quick enough (depending on the encounters involved) to fit a fairly long journey into one-two play sessions pretty easily)

((You could just about make a narratively in/consistent "roguelike" campaign out of this, where not even the DM really knows what's going to turn up next. Just a series of short-medium-long-very long journeys between towns toward the capital/ bbeg. "Dungeon Levels" represented by longer and harder journeys. Change biome as required, or run it as party-choice (take the hard quick way, or the slow easy one? So hellscape or forest for this section?). A journey to definitely-not-Mordor for instance, but one that changes each time you play it....

Also amazing for filler material, for when you're really not that well prepared as a DM for what's happening in your campaign or you just had other life commitments but still want to run a play session. Or for when you need to un/explore-mode a party if they go way off track or ruin a bit of a setting. "Ummm, ok, you have to travel to, ummm, Here'resburg! Get preparing!". Up difficulty if they damn well refuse to go to Here'resburg, with all signs pointing to death if they don't. Would still get a pretty epic campaign out of it, even if it goes off the rails completely and wastes all of your prep time.

Not even a bad beginning for a campaign to "feel out" your players and their characters and playstyles. A short or medium "journey" could be fun to up the party cohesion and characters a little, before the "real" campaign/story begins. Especially with them being able to hand-out inspiration and rerolls to each other, even at lvl1.
An initial talky/ setting thingo for session 0, then a town/ camp/ caravan/ travelling/ scouting/ garrison/ guard/ mercenary/ guildhouse/ random meeting/ tavern/ inn/ whatever encounter (non-combat, possibly with leader/ quartermaster/ etc NPCs alongside them, so you DM-fudge (with rules) rolls as required).
*Spoiler*
Show


These rules sub-in really well for all kinds of character types. Commanders/ guild masters, whatever ranks down, etc, so are useable on any starting scenario of how/why they can do this so well. They're on "the journey" of doing that (never have a crappy clan chief + firstwife + shaman + housecarl again. They don't need +HP, just skills and rerolls on "the journey" roles they fulfill to the clan).


Then a light combat encounter to make the players do/ learn fighting rules after that. Then they make it to town/ wherever they had to be, and you give them the "mission" (you may have started them pretty close to there, but whatever).
Then the players go on a short/medium actual journey (under these rules) to wherever they have to go to for the "mission". Sounds like the easiest campaign start you could ask for. Gives heaps of player determination and skills, to begin the quest!(?)! (and they've seen how cool being a "whatever" can be in clutch moments of the journey/ story).

Session 0 talks and lvl1-2, taken care of, in 1-3 play sessions, with actual campaign progress and levelling and party cohesion taken care of too. And even "mentor/saviour" hooks involved from the NPCs if needed, but also handy mechanics taught. Probably be lvl2-3 by the end of it, depending on the journey.


Handy to just have so many encounters to spice up any random stuff in your campaign or adapt quickly and easily to your setting as well. Seems like a pretty good resource. I'll grab a .pdf copy tomorrow))

(((Would probably make for a pretty good computer game too)))

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## Sparky McDibben

> Haven't seen the encounters so can't say for sure but in terms of generic 5e, the expectation would be that you do 2 encounters and then SR to get your 6-8 encounters per LR and 2 SR "standard". So in theory you would still be better off taking a SR. Also presumably not every encounter is a combat/resource drain, some encounters could be running into a trader who can sell some healing potions for example.


As to your first point, maybe? Remember that this gets stacked on top of the regular adventure, so while combat isn't all that common on a Journey, you could still have a couple of encounters that don't go your way, and start the regular adventure rocking a level of exhaustion. Moreover, the way the Arrival roll is set up, you have a 2-in-12 chance to get a short rest, and a 1-in-12 chance to get a long rest, so you only have about a 25% chance of getting any kind of rest in before you actually start the adventure. This gets a little more complicated because you're rolling multiple d12's on the Arrival roll, but I'd argue you probably won't have more than a 50% chance at a rest.

If anyone out there has the time to do the math can you give me the probability of getting at least one 10, 11, or 12 on 3d12, 4d12, and 5d12?




> Can you game the system? Like add guidance to rolls, or wildshape into something strong for an athletics roll, or cast Enhance Ability for a check in preparation time or for journey role rolls? Or is it removed enough from gameplay that it's just your basic stats/ skills for the rolls?


I'd argue no on _guidance_ - _guidance_ is meant for a single action, and these rolls clearly are intended to cover longer periods of time. I'd definitely let _enhance ability_ get used, though, because it covers the necessary time period (1 hour), and because it costs a spell slot. I'd furthermore argue that using _enhance ability_ is probably a sign that your Journey is not going well. Remember that _enhance ability_ really only gives you advantage, which is what the leader is already able to do. The Supply Dice and Focus Dice are also capable of enhancing rolls without really needing to dip into your spells. 




> ((You could just about make a narratively in/consistent "roguelike" campaign out of this, where not even the DM really knows what's going to turn up next. Just a series of short-medium-long-very long journeys between towns toward the capital/ bbeg. "Dungeon Levels" represented by longer and harder journeys. Change biome as required, or run it as party-choice (take the hard quick way, or the slow easy one? So hellscape or forest for this section?). A journey to definitely-not-Mordor for instance, but one that changes each time you play it....


I mean, I don't think you need to make anything inconsistent. Just grab a pointcrawl map, let your players pick the route, and you're off to the races.




> I'll grab a .pdf copy tomorrow


Did you back it? If you didn't, you might have to wait a couple of months.

*ENCOUNTERS GALORE, BABEEEEEEEEE!!!!!*

This time, we'll take a look at those 12 base encounter types, and what kinds of skin the Journeys system can put on them in each biome. Remember, if you don't like what you're seeing here, please punch a llama1. Or Dan. Dan knows what he did.

So, here's the Encounter Table2:


Our 12 Encounters have multiple checks involved, and a spectrum of outcomes. Rather than list these out, I'm going to summarize them in this quick table:

*Encounter*
*Summary*
*Best Outcome*
*Worst Outcome*

A Chance Meeting
RP interaction to get rumors and news
Next Encounter is beneficial
Next Encounter is obstacle / fight

Hidden Reserves
Discover a windfall
-1 level exhaustion, +1 Supply Dice
+1 level exhaustion

A Bump In the Road
Deal with an obstacle
No consequence
+1 level exhaustion

Needing Assistance
Someone needs help
Party chooses next encounter
+1 exhaustion, -1 Supply Dice

Danger Afoot
Someone lays an ambush for the PCs
Surprise (as condition) the enemy
PC's surprised, disadvantage to Initiative

Natural Wonders
Lord of the Rings-style majestic vista
+Inspiration, +1 HD
Disadvantage to next check / save

Monster Hunt
Wild monster loose nearby
Avoid or surprise monster
Monster hunts you!

A Place to Rest
Find a safe haven
Get a long rest
+1 level of exhaustion

Old Memories
Place where weird sh*t happened
+1d4 to next d20 roll
-1d4 to next d20 roll

A Dark Place
Place where messed-up sh*t happened
+1 HD
-1 HD, +1 exhaustion

A Deadly Fight
MORTAL KOMBAT!!!
Surprise enemies, extra damage
PCs are surprised

A Fateful Encounter
Meet weird people
Learn the weirdo's secrets
Fail to learn the weirdo's secrets



Couple of things I want to highlight here. Frequently, the best and worst outcomes hinge on everyone failing or succeeding at a check. Everyone succeeding might happen occasionally, but with pocket Inspiration, Supply Dice, Focus Dice, and all the stuff a regular PC can do, everyone failing should be pretty rare. Like, sure, this system has like five different ways to hit you with exhaustion, but those penalties really only come into play if everything has gone completely to hell and reserved a condo. 

So let's do a quick deep dive on... (rolls 1d12) A Dark Place. Ooh! Fun!

So A Dark Place is all about the PCs stumbling upon dark, corrupted, or wicked places, the places where the milk of the cosmos has soured. The PCs have to react in two steps. First, the Outrider makes a Survival check, and then all the PCs make a Wisdom save. If the Outrider makes their check by 5+, the Wisdom save is made with advantage. If they fail it, the save is made with disadvantage. 

If everyone in the party makes the save, the staunch heroes resolutely vow, "Never again!" and recover a Hit Die due to their gritty pluck.

If more than half the party succeeds, they suffer no adverse effects.

If half or more the party fail, they get shook. Everyone loses 1 HD.

If no one succeeds, the entire party loses a Hit Die and gains a level of exhaustion as cold dread seeps into their bones, turning their spines to jelly.

Before we get into what the biomes bring to this, I'd like to highlight a couple things about the Encounter system. First, note that a solid quarter of these (to Sorinth's point earlier) are primarily social encounters that impact what happens next on the Journey. Another quarter are combat-related, but the remaining six are all about exploration, investigation, and survival. These aren't necessarily "just combat" and the system isn't punitive. Sure, you could show up with like three levels of exhaustion and walk straight into an ambush, but you could also show up with all your resources, having just found some buried treasure and made an ally on the road, and then get a long rest before the adventure begins. 

Second, each Encounter is devoid of context - that's covered by the biome. It also doesn't really give the PCs any choices to make. I think that with a few minutes of prep, you can make these really come to life (as we'll see when we get to the biomes) by seeding the area with a few things the PCs actually want, or that tantalize them into engaging with the area. Maybe they see a glimmering sword thrust into a stone in the midst of a blasted heath, or see ghostly visions of what happened here. Maybe they see evidence of an old (or current) enemy nearby. You're going to need to do some work to really get the PCs interested in the situation the Encounter is posing. 

Otherwise, I suspect, PCs will just say, "Huh. That's weird. Moving on!"

Speaking of moving on, the biomes! As I said above, the exact context of the Encounter varies by what biome your using. So in the Frontier biome, you might get the Village Slaughter skin: "The party arrives in a small town. Blood is smeared everywhere and corpses litter the streets. It seems everyone is dead except for a twitching body that is pinned to a cart by a large sword. The twitching body is a Zombie, and a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals that the bodies and blood are arranged in a pattern." 



The DC is set by the Journey Difficulty. Again, the bones (pardon the pun) are there for a good mystery encounter. You could weave this into an ongoing adventure without a problem, but you want the PCs to get interested in what happened. To do that, you'll need to drop some hints of either a) a goal the PCs have, b) an NPC or someone they care about, or c) some kind of cool treasure. 

These aren't hard. The PC goal could just be their adventure. If your PCs are on their way to stop Tiamat, for instance, the Cult of the Dragon have left these bodies as a trap for the PCs - all of the bodies suddenly animate, threaten the PCs in unison, and warn them against trying to prevent Tiamat's glorious return, before detonating (no real damage to the PCs, but that's when you ask all the PCs for Wisdom saves). If you're dropping a hint about someone they care about, maybe it's a kid. They find blood-smeared tracks leading into the woods, and after a few minutes of following them, hear wicked chuckling and the weeping of a terrified child. Roll initiative as they find a handful of thugs menacing their kid buddy. Finally, if you're dropping a treasure, I'd recommend either some modest gold, or a consumable magic item. Maybe the PCs find a trail of silver leading away to the southwest - away from their path. If they follow it, they find sacks of treasure a bandit gang and their cult fanatic leader took from the slaughtered village, but one of the sacks burst, leaving a trail of coins behind. Throw together a quick little 5-room dungeon for the 2d6 *bandits* and a *cult fanatic*. They have 500 sp, and a _potion of vitality._

See? Five minutes of effort, and you've got a decent encounter. I think most of the Encounter types don't need this, but for the ones where it's "here's a weird thing you can interact with," (Old Memories, A Dark Place) I think you need more to actually interact with.

Remember that each biome contains 10 possibilities for each encounter type, so A Dark Place has 10 "skins" for just the Frontiers biome. 

I think this system benefits from some light prep work. When I run this at my table, I'll probably just write down 5 or so quick "hooks" for a given Encounter to get the PCs' interested. On the whole, though, this system gets you 80 - 90% of the way there for a pretty exciting encounter that won't get stale. 

For those of you who are narrativist DMs, the book also has a sidebar encouraging you to use this system to insert campaign-dependent encounters. If you need the party to meet the Old Wizard on the road, you don't have to wait until you roll A Fateful Encounter, just drop them in and see how the party reacts!

Finally, in this section, I realized I screwed up during the Journeys Rules and never covered Rewards. 

Surviving a Journey is an achievement in and of itself, and the designers list three different kinds of rewards you can give your players: Narrative Rewards, Short-Term Bonuses, and XP. 

Narrative Rewards might be things like fame ("Wingfoot I name you!") for your exploits, allies or enemies for what you did along the way, and personal growth. Yes, apparently the designers believe that personal growth is a DM-dependent reward. No, I don't know why. Personally, I might also give the PCs things like Reputation with a given town (See _The Hobbit_ where Thorin walks in, says, "I run that mountain now," and everybody just goes, "Awesome! Let's throw this guy a party!"), consumable magic supplies (lembas bread, anyone?), and tagalong NPCs who can help them (like a hapless Hobbit burglar). 

Short-Term Bonuses can be things like temporary inspiration, temporary Expertise, etc. These are all pretty mechanically focused, and are nice, but not impactful the way the Narrative Rewards are. 

As for awarding XP, they have a whole chart! The XP is based off the Journey difficulty and divided evenly among the PCs and any hirelings they have. 

These are really nice to have as a DM - I think one of the reasons PCs don't like interacting with optional rules systems like this is because they never come with hard rewards; it's delightful to find that Cubicle 7 has already thought of those!

Alright, folks, that's it for ol' Sparky. I need bourbon and graph paper to sketch my next campaign out. Next time, we'll go over what a Journey actually looks like, since I ran like three of them to test out the limits of the system. 

See y'all later! (Please punch Dan for me)

1This is a joke; punching llamas is never acceptable unless a) you really want to, or b) you find their dead-eyed, soulless cud-chewing necessitates a good ol' bop on the nose.
2Thanks to Libertad for showing me how to add pictures!

----------


## Libertad

> 2Thanks to Libertad for showing me how to add pictures!


You're Welcome! You don't post reviews on multiple forums for nearly a decade without learning at least a little bit about cross-compatible BBCode. ;)

As someone who made heavy use of the Journey rules back when it was a sub-system for Adventures in Middle-Earth, I'm glad to see that Cubicle 7 has greatly expanded on it. Just for comparison, the Journey rules were a combined 26 pages between the Player's and Loremaster's Guides. I don't know how much they improved on it for the Lord of the Rings 5e which is still in early access.

The AiME one is bare-bones in comparison and really easy to exploit. In that one if you had a good enough Survival modifier you could always guarantee positive results. To briefly explain, there is something known as an Embarkation roll that is made by the Guide (the trailblazer role) which is a d12 + Survival + Half Wisdom modifier, rounded down. The Peril Rating could apply a negative modifier based on the relative danger of places you travel through. Higher results give you better buffs when starting out, and can also determine what kind of Journey events happen as well as whether other characters have advantage or disadvantage for their respective checks on Events. Results of 1-6 impose a negative debuff on the party, but 7 and higher give positive results

I had a Wanderer (think Ranger) with Expertise in Survival and 14 Wisdom. Even at 5th level I was rolling 1d12 + 7, and the Wanderer had class features which could lower the DC of Journey events and Peril Ratings via Known Lands. By 9th level I had a huge +9 modifier, so even if I had a -2 from a modified Peril Rating the absolute minimum is an 8, which lets the party ignore the first level of Exhaustion, and the benefits are only better from there.

Of course, there were other things that could happen during a Journey, so it wasn't entirely risk-free, but the brokenness of a high Survival plus the Wanderer class meant that we rarely had to worry about worst-case scenarios. The benefits were apparent to the point that the Wanderer class was about as necessary for AiME campaigns as healer clerics and trap-detecting rogues were for old-school D&D.

There's quite a bit of changes between AiME and Uncharted Journeys that the basic rules don't map 1 to 1, but from what I've seen of Uncharted there isn't any one class or skill type to Rule Them All.

----------


## Unoriginal

I would like to know more about the "A Fateful Encounter" result, if you don't mind going into a bit more details. 


Are we talking about Tom Bombadil stuff here?

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## Libertad

> I would like to know more about the "A Fateful Encounter" result, if you don't mind going into a bit more details. 
> 
> 
> Are we talking about Tom Bombadil stuff here?


Fateful Encounters have the party meet a single character who often have some quest or motivation of greater import than a mere random encounter and are intended to give the GM inspiration in making a recurring character for the campaign. They can range from potential foes to allies to side quest fodder. The group checks involved with them involve making good impressions on them, deducing hidden clues, and gauging their intent.

Some example fateful encounters:

an iron golem who traversed the ocean floor to deliver a message it no longer remembers for Coasts
an elf who has meditated for millennia and whose original civilization has been lost to history, but can lead the party to a lost temple for Deserts
a lich owner of a library who seeks to learn everything in the world grants access to only the most powerful mages and spymasters for Great Cities
a group of cheery pacifist goblins who offer the PCs flower crowns and are under a powerful enchantment spell for Mountains

----------


## Sparky McDibben

> As someone who made heavy use of the Journey rules back when it was a sub-system for Adventures in Middle-Earth, I'm glad to see that Cubicle 7 has greatly expanded on it. Just for comparison, the Journey rules were a combined 26 pages between the Player's and Loremaster's Guides. I don't know how much they improved on it for the Lord of the Rings 5e which is still in early access.


I thought that one was done by Free League?




> The AiME one is bare-bones in comparison and really easy to exploit.


That is actually really good context; I ran a few Journeys with AiME and I never had a problem with it, but I wasn't using their classes. 




> I had a Wanderer (think Ranger) with Expertise in Survival and 14 Wisdom. Even at 5th level I was rolling 1d12 + 7, and the Wanderer had class features which could lower the DC of Journey events and Peril Ratings via Known Lands. By 9th level I had a huge +9 modifier, so even if I had a -2 from a modified Peril Rating the absolute minimum is an 8, which lets the party ignore the first level of Exhaustion, and the benefits are only better from there.
> 
> Of course, there were other things that could happen during a Journey, so it wasn't entirely risk-free, but the brokenness of a high Survival plus the Wanderer class meant that we rarely had to worry about worst-case scenarios. The benefits were apparent to the point that the Wanderer class was about as necessary for AiME campaigns as healer clerics and trap-detecting rogues were for old-school D&D.
> 
> There's quite a bit of changes between AiME and Uncharted Journeys that the basic rules don't map 1 to 1, but from what I've seen of Uncharted there isn't any one class or skill type to Rule Them All.


This is also really good context, and touches on something that I was actually disappointed about. I was hoping that Cubicle 7 would have included optional PC rules that would have interacted with the Journeys rules. Rangers actually being interesting would have been a fun thing to do. Moreover, I really wish they would have kept the Audience roll that determined if you were safe to rest inside the settlement you had just reached. That was an amazing RP moment every time, and it highlighted how the characters were seen by people in the world.




> I would like to know more about the "A Fateful Encounter" result, if you don't mind going into a bit more details. 
> 
> 
> Are we talking about Tom Bombadil stuff here?


A Fateful Encounter option is just "the party meets a stranger who has a secret." There are a ton of these. One option is an archmage who has lost his bones and is being carried by his ogre bodyguard. His secret is that his skeleton is trying to free all undead under the archmage's control. You could definitely use these as ways to seed powerful NPC allies or enemies.

So, these could be Tom Bombadil, or they could be Glorfindel. Or they could be the Witch-King of Angmar in disguise looking for some runty halflings carrying "stolen jewelry in a circular shape." 

Alright, let's get into the actual encounters. I created a virtual party of four PCs: a cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, and ran them through three Journeys, and then I ran my wife's wizard through one during a solo session. 

The virtual party was run through their Journeys twice at level 3, and once at level 11. (Why skip tier 2? Because you _can't have nice things, Dan!_)

Naming Conventions:
Name
Class
Journey Role

Hannah
Cleric
Leader

Rodney Bartleby
Fighter
Quartermaster

Larcenius McDowell
Rogue
Outrider

Stefan the Arcane
Wizard
Sentry



If these allotments seem weird to you, it's because I rolled their stats and wound up with some crazy combos - the wizard started with an 18 in Dex and Int (high elf). 

*Spoiler: The First Journey:*
Show

Journey Length: Short
Journey DC: 13
Party Level: 3

Preparations: 

Hannah (human cleric) went ahead and tried to Procure Beasts of Burden, as she's something of a horse girl (her Animal Handling is crazy-high). She found a farmer about to put an old mule down, and convinced the farmer to let her have the mule (named Fred). The farmer, grateful for her intervention, gave her a few tips about the road they were traveling. Hannah lowered the Journey DC by 2. 

Rodney (human fighter) used his cooks' utensils proficiency to Prepare a Feast for his traveling companions, turning basic ingredients into a delicious dinner (they had to use mage hand to get some up to Larcenius, though). Fortified by a hearty meal, the group ignores the first point of exhaustion gained during the Journey, and shared a good laugh.

To prepare, the halfling rogue (Larcenius McDowell) went out drinking. Larcenius has some real problems with his judgment, however, and wound up drunkenly propositioning the minotaur bartender, which resulted in him being hung out of a window by his underwear all night. He had disadvantage on the first Encounter's ability checks, and started with half his Hit Dice (so 1 HD). 

Finally, Stefan (high elf wizard with the Charlatan background) decided to Procure Supplies. He had gotten halfway through robbing the general store of all the mule feed and hardtack he could fit onto _Tenser's floating disk,_ when the general store owner's daughter came down the stairs, holding her slightly ripped bear. Stefan tried convincing the child she was dreaming, but badly misjudged human children. The girl started screaming, and Stefan made a run for it. No effect on the Journey.

Setting out (with Larcenius, bleary-eyed, bringing up the tail of the group), the party set out on a five-day trek to the next town: Twoville. Along the way, they worked together and found they made a good team, swapping stories, sharing loads and even letting Larcenius ride Fred like a horse. The fun and games stopped abruptly, though, when Larcenius discovered a recently abandoned but very sturdily built house. Scenting a chance to rest, the group made for it, despite it being off the main road. Inside, though, they found a scene of horror. Two bearfolk had been beheaded by what looked like (to Hannah) an axe (which Rodney clarified as a woodcutter's axe, swung with force by a slightly-built person). Exploring further, Stefan managed to coax out a bearfolk child from his hiding place in the attic. Tearfully, the child recounted how his mama and papa were slaughtered by a possessed little girl, blonde as the sun, whom he played with near Twoville. The bearfolk boy offered the party the secret of his mother's honeycakes if they would escort him to his aunt's house (along the way). 

Warily, the party did so, and discovered gleefully that the honeycake recipe could remove exhaustion. Fortified and determined to track down this blonde-haired killer, the party set off toward Twoville, arriving just as a sweet little blonde girl, armed with an axe, walked into the Twoville Vacation Pelor School. With only moments to prepare, the heroes cast spells, limbered their weapons, and strode in after her...

Mechanics: Group passed their travel check, so there was only one Encounter (because it's a Short Journey). I rolled Old Memories, rolled on the Frontiers table, and got the "Just Right" entry, which is pretty Goldilocks-themed. I decided to invert it, and let the party chase the bears' killer back to Twoville. The players got "Unsafe Arrival" for their arrival roll, which meant that stuff is about to go down, but they have a short time to prepare (but not enough to rest).



*Spoiler: The Second Journey:*
Show


Journey Length: Medium
Journey DC: 13
Party Level: 3

Preparations: 

Hannah (still a human cleric), mourning that Fred the mule was slain by their axe-murdering quarry, decided to go get another beast of burden. This time, she found a feral animated cart rumbling around the town wizard's tower. After a brief haggle with the wizard (who couldn't tame the cart anyway), she convinced the cart (named Artie) to follow her. This reduced the Journey Difficulty by 2.

Rodney decided to ask the good folk of Twoville for advice, but they were somewhat put off by his insistence that they call him "The Kewl Kid" (it's like A Tribe Called Quest - you have to say the whole thing), and he only succeeded in getting the local magistrate to issue an injunction against him bothering the citizenry. 

Larcenius McDowell, diabolical master of the five-finger discount, decided to show Stefan the wizard how a _real_ rogue steals supplies. Unbeknownst to him, the local constabulary misliked halflings anyway, and had put the local wizard's familiar to work shadowing him. Larcenius was caught red-handed, and no one believed his insistence that he was charmed. Fortunately, the cleric interceded for him, and after a modest fine (of 100 gp), Larcenius was remanded to his compatriots.  

Finally, Stefan the Arcane decided to Chart the party's course. Unfortunately, he received some very out-of-date maps, and wound up charting their path through the terrifying Haunted Forest of the Restless Dead, and after that, sent them through the war-torn lands of Bupkis. The Journey Difficulty increased by 2.

Setting out to Threeburg, the party found it slow going. After the third time Rodney threatened to chop Artie up for firewood, Stefan realized none of his maps were up to date, and tried desperately to course-correct. Unfortunately, it was already too late, and as night fell, the party realized they were in the Haunted Forest of the Restless Dead. Their campfire was disturbed that evening by a strange sight: a mage with no bones, carried by an ogre bodyguard. The mage, one Avard the Boneless by name, pleaded with the party for help, weaving a strange tale of woe that involved his skeleton just getting up, ripping itself out of his skin, and walking away. Unfortunately for the party, while they were asking questions, Larcenius indelicately suggested the mage might "grow a backbone," which caused Avard the Boneless no end of distress. The mage ordered his ogre bodyguard to take him away from here, and the two departed in high dudgeon. 

Awkward.

Setting out again, the party eventually found their way out of the Haunted Forest of the Restless Dead, and into the war-torn land of Bupkis. Two mercenary companies, savaging each other, made travel precarious, and the PCs had to skirt around their conflict. When Stefan heard something huge blundering through the trees toward them, the party scattered and hid. They watched as a stone golem emerged, marching in a straight line through where they had been standing a moment ago. Unfortunately, at that moment, Rodney sneezed (allergies, amirite?). Hannah tried covering his face with her hand, but that escalated matters into a small slap fight, gaining the golem's attention. Realizing they had no tools to deal with this foe, the party decided to leg it, and scrammed out of there (Artie did not make it). 

The party regrouped outside the combat zone, finding an inviting meadow in which to make camp. The only problem was that Rodney had a real problem getting the campfire started, though none of them could figure out why. They found out that night, however, as the army ant nest they had been sleeping on top of disgorged hundreds of thousands of the little critters into their packs, clothes, sleeping apparel, and water bottles. The party, eventually routed by the relentless antagonism of the seemingly countless horde, gathered their gear and moved campsites, though no one caught a wink. 

Exhausted, the party walked onward, until Larcenius realized they were near some apiarist's hives, and might be able to get enough fresh honey to bake honeycakes (and remove a level of exhaustion). Convinced, the rest of the party fanned out, got some smoky branches burning, and converged on the hives to acquire that sweet, sweet liquid gold. Sadly, they were defeated by insects again - the entire party failed their individual parts of the plan, and got stung so many times that Larcenius nearly stopped breathing. Even more exhausted, party stomped onwards, determined to reach Threeburg without any more ado. 

They did! Sadly, they noticed a little too late how quiet the town was, and failed to spot the two ghouls sidling up behind them....

Mechanics: Half the group failed their travel check, so there were three Encounters (two because it's a Medium Journey, one because more than half the group failed the travel check). I rolled randomly for both biomes and encounters and got A Fateful Encounter (biome: Haunted Lands), A Deadly Fight (War-Torn Lands), and A Place to Rest (Farmland). For the Fateful Encounter, I got "Unlovely Bones;" a deeply weird bit of encounter where the person you meet doesn't have a secret, but what they want you to track down does. Not gonna lie, I would have rerolled it at an actual table. But, since it was for you guys and everyone failed their checks anyway, I figured the party accidentally insulted the mage and he left in a huff. For A Deadly Fight, I got "The Terminator" and decided it was a malfunctioning stone golem. The party failed half their Stealth checks, and ran the hell away. I decided this would trigger one more encounter at the end of the Journey, and then moved on to A Place To Rest. Sadly, the Quartermaster failed their check, and everyone failed their Con save, and this gave the party a level of exhaustion. Feeling a bit sorry, I picked out "Hidden Reserves" because I figured they couldn't possibly screw this up, right? Wrong. The whole party failed again, and incurred another level of exhaustion. Dispirited and exhausted, the party staggered into town and rolled for Arrival, only to get "Imminent Danger," which means things are about to go sideways in the worst way possible.



*Spoiler: The Third Journey:*
Show


Journey Length: Long
Journey DC: 17
Party Level: 11

The party's trapped in Hell, and is trying to find their way back across the flaming hellscape of Avernus. 

Preparations: 

Divine Archon Hannah decides to seek advice from the people of Camp Wangrod, where they are currently sheltering. Unfortunately, the sight of a divine cleric in Hell sends most devils running for the hills, and she can't find anyone who will give her directions. 

Rodney, now a knight and having dropped the "A Kewl Kid" shtick (for which the party is deeply grateful), cross-levels everyone's packs, making sure heaviest load is on his shoulders. This reduces the Journey Difficulty by 2. 

Larcenius McDowell goes Carousing again, and sadly fails. Dodging an infernal pact by the skin of his teeth, Larcenius wakes up with a nasty hangover and a _sending stone_ which he finds out is half of a set owned by a local incubus. Larcenius, flattered by the attention, keeps the stone. Larcenius has disadvantage on all checks during the first Encounter.

Finally, Stefan the Arcane robs a nearby warlord's supply stash, gathering a bunch of soul coins and getting out scott-free. The Quartermaster's Supply Dice increase from d6's to d8's.

The party trekked on through the blighted landscape, passing by a particularly nasty gorge. None of them noticed the two humans, puppeteered by a tendril of sickly green flesh each, rise up behind them. Stefan's first warning was when two bone-splinter rapiers lanced through his midsection. Once alerted, though, it was on like Donkey Kong. Hannah obliterated one with sacred flame, and Larcenius maimed one with a shortsword before finishing it off. A psychic chuckle entered their minds, thanking them for the "entertainment" and wondering if they wouldn't mind sticking around for another run. The party grabbed Stefan and ran like Hell. 

Binding up Stefan's wounds, the party continued onwards, stumbling across a curious vista near the River Styx. Two mortal mages faced each other, bedecked in bizarre ritual garb and infernal jewelry, having a knock-down, drag-out argument about which style of "infernal summoning" was correct. The party, who needed to pass, managed to calm both of them down and Stefan (though having a hard time from blood loss) actually corrected both positions. Amazed, the mages immediately left Avernus, but not before giving the party a potion of healing from each of them. 

As they pressed on, the party encountered a dark forest, inhabited by no one, where the trees dripped blood. Looking around, Hannah realized this was the infamous Suicide Grove, where those who die of suicide are said to reside. Cast out of Heaven, they are left alone by the denizens of the lower realms, who feel the residents have suffered enough already. Shaken by the experience, the party pressed on for the Gate-Town...just before Abyssal portals began opening up nearby, disgorging a small strike force of demons heading to close the Gate and pull the Gate-Town into the Abyss. Realizing this would block their entrance, the party quickly moved to intercept them.

Mechanics: Three of the four group members succeeded on their travel check, so there were three Encounters (due to it being a Long Journey). I rolled randomly for the biome and the Encounter, and got Hellscape for the biome, Danger Afoot, A Chance Meeting, and A Dark Place for the Encounters. For Danger Afoot, I got "Noble Pursuits;" where the party gets attacked by nobles (CR 1/8). However, due to the party's bad rolls, the nobles got surprise and inflicted 20 points of piercing damage on the wizard (auto-crits). The fight didn't last very long after that, but it drained a few resources. For A Chance Meeting, I got "An Intellectual Disagreement" which is about mages arguing about magic. The party did fairly well, and won some potions of healing they decided to save (I rolled for it). Finally, they passed through a Dark Place, and I didn't roll for this one, but just used some half-remembered Piers Anthony crap. Half of them failed their saves, and each party member lost a Hit Die. When they arrived, the Arrival Die indicated an "Unsafe Arrival", which means stuffs about to go down.



One thing to note here is that I used the special Journeys abilities all the time during these tests, but I didn't note where they were employed, so I didn't put them into the fiction. 

There are a few things I wanted to call out:
CR BalanceWhy No Tier 4, Sparkacus?That Second Journey - YEESH!

Note that even using CR 1/8 creatures like two nobles, I was still able to inflict minor consequences on an 11th level party. Surprise + autocrits is a helluva drug. The reverse is also true - I can deploy a stone golem against a level 3 party without worrying about a TPK, so long as I adequately telegraph that this foe is incredibly risky to engage with. The inherent tension of not getting a long rest at the end of each day means that each engagement is a decision point (unless they are incredibly unlucky). 

As for Tier 4, I had a 20th level party all ready to go. I mean I was ready to ROCK. Until I noticed that the wizard has _teleport_ and two 7th level spell slots, plus _Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion._ I think by the time you hit Tier 4, you may not need the Journeys system, or at least, the negatives it can burden your character with can be mitigated or ignored much more easily. Lot harder to tell a PC with MMM that they can't take a long rest, after all.

Finally, that second Journey. Two levels of exhaustion and then you get hit with an encounter as soon as you walk in? Yikes! You may occasionally have to tell PCs "OK, that was the last Encounter along the Journey; go ahead and give me an Arrival roll" just to let them know they don't have to quit the Journey or turtle up in the wilderness. I'd recommend being a little bit lenient letting the PCs deal with exhaustion by either charging them exorbitant (but reachable!) prices for _potions of vitality,_ or incurring a favor from the local priest who will "take on" the party's exhaustion, but will also require them to do something that makes the adventure much harder, or ask them to do something that pits the party against each other.

Alright, ladies and germs. We'll pick up next time with the last two chapters: People Along the Way and Ancient Ruins! Until next time!

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## sambojin

Between this and ChatGPT, I reckon you'd be set for most things that could crop up, with very little effort involved.

1dnd's exhaustion system makes a lot of these penalties not nearly as painful, so it would probably have to be bumped up a notch or two. It does allow for more fine granular control of just how badly things can go though, which is always useful for a DM.

Also, prepare Greater Restoration and a lot of problems can go away. Only available at lvl9+, but it's available to a lot of people. Is also on the Divine and Primal list in 1dnd, so should carry over to a new system. Still, it's a pretty big resource use, in 5e or 1dnd (I'm not even sure if I'd use it in 1dnd, because the effects of exhaustion are more minor), so it still seems to work fine.

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## Libertad

For those interested, the book is now for sale on Drive-Thru RPG.

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## Sparky McDibben

> Also, prepare Greater Restoration and a lot of problems can go away. Only available at lvl9+, but it's available to a lot of people. Is also on the Divine and Primal list in 1dnd, so should carry over to a new system. Still, it's a pretty big resource use, in 5e or 1dnd (I'm not even sure if I'd use it in 1dnd, because the effects of exhaustion are more minor), so it still seems to work fine.


Yeah, but 1) when exhaustion gets leveled, it gets leveled at the whole party, so 1 use of _greater restoration_ isn't doing that much, and 2) you don't get four castings of it till 13th level. The real problems are _Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion_ and _teleport._ Those are the point when you know that your players are going to basically skip overland travel. And that's fine. Hell, by that point they've more than earned it, if they put up with thirteen levels of your sh!t. 

As for D&DOne's new exhaustion rules, I'm onboard with that, but I assume they'll just lump that into _lesser restoration._ 




> For those interested, the book is now for sale on Drive-Thru RPG.


Heck yeah! Well spotted, Libertad!

Alright folks, there are two more chapters in this beast that I want to cover. The good news is that we can do so pretty quickly. The first chapter is "People Along the Way." This is actually pretty useful. The goal is to give you a fairly quick way to set a scene and generate a NP character. 

You get a couple quick tables to set the scene (time of day and location), and then it transitions into a four-column d12 table (these guys really get a lot of mileage out of the d12, which honestly, good for them! It's an underused die). This new table has listings for Species, Age, Demeanour, and Purpose. Species is mostly the races from the PHB, but has three additional rows: Local, Villain, and Stranger. These are for anyone local to the area, evil creatures, and the really crazy races in a D&D world, respectively. 

Age runs from Adolescent to Ancient, but Demeanour and Purpose are where it really shines. Demeanour is how they come across, and Purpose is what motivates them. These run from "Naive" and "Selling their wares" to "Grim" and "Looking for rest and relaxation." These provide some really out-of-the-box fun stuff to play with. There's an entire page of considerations that urge you to consider what kinds of tropes your players enjoy, for Pete's sake. 

Plus, some real kickass art:



And after that, it develops 12 extra encounters using it's own system, so you can see what these characters would look like! Here's one:



That's awesome! I had no idea that I wanted an army of bugbears in my game, but now I do! This whole chapter is only 8 pages, and is honestly as good or better than the encounter creation advice in the 5E DMG. Highly recommend, but definitely better used as a prep reference than an at-the-table reference (unless you're using the pregenerated encounters, which might be usable as is).

Unfortunately, the next chapter, Ancient Ruins is not nearly as good. It's 19 pages long, and is supposed to help you set up, well, ancient ruins. It...well, it _kind_ of works? It only really handles the conceptual side of ancient ruin-building. It sets out to give you the tools to create the history of the ruin, not the actual map. Or stocking the ruin. Or putting traps down. Or really...any of the actual dungeon-building work. That's what I mean when I say it handles the conceptual side of ruin-building - it helps you figure out the story of the ruin, but not the actual presentation to the players. 

The chapter sets out to help you answer five questions:

1. Who built it?
2. How old is it?
3. What was it originally?
4. What does it look like now?
5. What is it used for now?

Each of these walks you through some steps, including some random tables and a couple of solid pieces of advice. It suggests some interesting features, and takes the time to set some stuff up for you. After that... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You're on your own, I suppose. Honestly, this feels a bit like filler content, albeit somewhat useful filler content. Still, I'd have preferred if they spent the page count on the "People Along the Way" section, providing additional options and content. 

Alright, I'm tired and let's wrap this bad boy up. 

The value proposition of this book is to give DMs a way to handle journeys between adventure locations. It tries out some innovative mechanics, and ultimately, I argue, succeeds in its core purpose. Along the way, it creates a game structure that can be leveraged for a bunch of different uses, gives useful supplementary material to create NPCs and encounters, and elevates D&D away from tactical skirmish combat, letting operational factors influence tactical planning. It suffers from some encounters that are kind of skippable, and benefits from critical thought between sessions about how to use the advice it gives to create the most meaningful interaction with the least prep (though the same could be said of all D&D supplements, honestly). 

You should buy this if you want overland travel to be meaningful, challenging, and a rewarding experience by itself. You should not buy this if you do not engage in overland travel (even travel inside a city, remember), or if you're comfortable with handwaving overland travel elements. Otherwise, it's a great book and I'm sure as hell glad I got it, not least of all because I get to show it off to y'all!

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## Libertad

Even though I own the book, this was a pretty fun review to read!

There are some things I would like to add. Of the 16 encounter biome types, some are pretty clearly inspired to be compatible with some of the official 5e campaigns. Hellscapes are good for Descent Into Avernus, as one poster previously mentioned, and Lands of the Fae would work well with Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Of course they can be used in whatever setting you want, but those two jumped right out at me.

Going further, the overall feel of encounters posits a rather high-magic world, or one that cranks up the supernatural wonder of the worlds of D&D a bit, albeit not to a ridiculous extent. For example, in Great Cities one of the Bump in the Road encounters involves a stone giant construction crew tearing up the road to rebuild it. And in Grasslands, one of the Dark Place encounters has the party come upon the titantic corpse of a dead Tarrasque, possibly causing fear of something bigger and deadlier out there that slain the legendary beast. Notice that I said "a dead Tarrasque" and not "the Tarrasque." Several encounters of various types in War Torn Lands have local armies making use of magic and monsters to wage war, such as a Shield Guardian retrieving the bodies of dead soldiers as a Chance Encounter or magical land mines as a Bump in the Road.

These aren't constant or the norm and certain elements can be changed on the fly by the DM, but as I know that there are some campaigns which have restrictions of various types (Dragonlance being low-magic, nonhumans being shunned in pre-5e Ravenloft, etc) this may be something to consider.

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## sambojin

Thanks for the great review from both of you. It's a pity we have to wait until the hardcopy book ships for the .pdf, but it'll make a good little late Xmas present to myself.

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## Libertad

> Thanks for the great review from both of you. It's a pity we have to wait until the hardcopy book ships for the .pdf, but it'll make a good little late Xmas present to myself.


Hey now, I really just provided commentary here, but I appreciate the thanks! :)

I may review it myself for my own take on things, although with Sparky's thread I feel that I'll just be going over the same ground covered unless there's enough demand. One thing I was considering highlighting was a consolidation of the various ability checks for each biome or the average Challenge Ratings of creatures that show up, particularly during Monster Hunts and Deadly Fights.

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## Sparky McDibben

> Even though I own the book, this was a pretty fun review to read!


Thanks! Some of the official reviews hardly give you a feel for the product, so I like these more in-depth explorations. 




> These aren't constant or the norm and certain elements can be changed on the fly by the DM, but as I know that there are some campaigns which have restrictions of various types (Dragonlance being low-magic, nonhumans being shunned in pre-5e Ravenloft, etc) this may be something to consider.


Oh, that is a really good callout - I hadn't considered using these outside the vanilla fantasy envelope. 




> Hey now, I really just provided commentary here, but I appreciate the thanks! :)
> 
> I may review it myself for my own take on things, although with Sparky's thread I feel that I'll just be going over the same ground covered unless there's enough demand. One thing I was considering highlighting was a consolidation of the various ability checks for each biome or the average Challenge Ratings of creatures that show up, particularly during Monster Hunts and Deadly Fights.


I am always down to read someone else's take! I actually got into this whole review thing because I read your _Brancalonia_ review and thought, "Man, we need more reviews like this." So I'm super-excited to hear your thoughts!

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## Libertad

> Thanks! Some of the official reviews hardly give you a feel for the product, so I like these more in-depth explorations. 
> 
> 
> 
> Oh, that is a really good callout - I hadn't considered using these outside the vanilla fantasy envelope. 
> 
> 
> 
> I am always down to read someone else's take! I actually got into this whole review thing because I read your _Brancalonia_ review and thought, "Man, we need more reviews like this." So I'm super-excited to hear your thoughts!


Thanks, that one was fun to write.

Right now I PMed one of the mods asking if an exception can be made for double (and triple and quadruple etc) posting for the purposes of reviews given its newness as an infractionable offense. Otherwise I'll just link the reviews from other sites that do allow double-posting.

I am considering reviewing the Delver's Guide to Beast World first, although Uncharted Journeys should be a lot shorter, so don't know how and when I'll fit that in whether doing it after or during the Delver review.

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## Sparky McDibben

> Thanks, that one was fun to write.
> 
> Right now I PMed one of the mods asking if an exception can be made for double (and triple and quadruple etc) posting for the purposes of reviews given its newness as an infractionable offense. Otherwise I'll just link the reviews from other sites that do allow double-posting.
> 
> I am considering reviewing the Delver's Guide to Beast World first, although Uncharted Journeys should be a lot shorter, so don't know how and when I'll fit that in whether doing it after or during the Delver review.


Yeah, I did get lucky on this one that you and Sambojin and a few others were willing to engage with me and ask questions or clarify matters. The other thing here is that there are so MANY goddamn third party supplements that the risk of crossover is pretty low anyway. Literally didn't know anything about the Delver's Guide until about five minutes ago and now I'm like, "Wait, hopepunk Redwall shenanigans + dungeon delving? Um, yes!?"

 :Small Big Grin:

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## Spriteless

This is so neat. You got me ordering a hard copy of the book from the publisher's websits. I really like hard copies...

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## Sparky McDibben

> This is so neat. You got me ordering a hard copy of the book from the publisher's websits. I really like hard copies...


Thanks a bunch!

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