OSE Homebrew: Travel Points and Fatigue
I wanted to come up with a couple simple systems for overland travel and fatigue. Below I detail the concept of Travel Points, Hex Exploration and Fatigue.
Travel Points
Depending on the PC's movement rates, the slowest character's movement rate determines the party's Travel Points per day.
| Mv. Rate | Travel Points per day |
|---|---|
| 40' | 6 |
| 30' | 4 |
| 20' | 3 |
| 10' | 2 |
Travel Points are spent to cross hexes, explore hexes, and other daily activities. Travel Points can be interpreted on average as approximately 2~Hrs per Point, but more accurately it's a vague representation of a chunk of a day. It'll be up to DM discretion to determine how much extra time a party has to adventure if they start late or in the middle of their adventuring day.
The party's Travel Points may be spent beyond their total, but no more than double their daily Travel Point total. Each additional point spent beyond the daily total is subtracted from the subsequent day's Travel Point total.
Example: A party with a movement rate of 30' have 4 Points. They spend 5 Points in their first day of travel, and thus on Day 2 they will only have 3 Points to utilize.
Point Costs
| Crossing Terrain | Travel Point cost |
|---|---|
| Plains or Grassland | 1 |
| Roads or Trails | 1 |
| Hills | 2 |
| Forests | 2 |
| Swamps | 2 |
| Mountains | 3 |
| Deserts | 3 |
| Activities | Travel Point cost |
|---|---|
| Search a Hex | 2* |
| Thoroughly Search a Hex | 4** |
| Forage, Hunt or Track | 2*** |
*Searching a hex has a 2/6 chance of discovering a Point of Interest determined by the DM.
**Thoroughly searching a hex has a 5/6 chance of discovering a Point of Interest determined by the DM.
***The chances of Foraging, Hunting and Tracking are detailed in additional tables below
| Terrain | Forage | Hunt | Track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plains or Grassland | 4/6 | 3/6 | 3/6 |
| Forests | 5/6 | 3/6 | 3/6 |
| Hills | 3/6 | 3/6 | 3/6 |
| Mountains | 2/6 | 2/6 | 2/6 |
| Swamps | 5/6 | 2/6 | 2/6 |
| Deserts | 1/6 | 1/6 | 2/6 |
These chances can be adjusted determined by the skill of who's performing these activities. If, for example, a Ranger or Demi-human accustomed to the environment were to gain a +1 to their chances, if the result is 6/6 chance, roll two d6 and if you roll Snake Eyes (two 1s) the attempt fails. This applies to both Searching hexes and attempting to Forage/Hunt/Track.
Fatigue
Fatigue is an extension of the commonly missed rule found in dungeon crawls where on the 6th turn of each Hour, the party must stop what they're doing and rest, for the dungeon makes their mind weary of focus and nerve.
A PC must consume a Ration (2 lbs of food composed of hardtack, cheese, dried meats, fruits and nuts) and a Waterskin (2 Quarts of fluid) daily to stay in tip-top shape. If a PC does not consume a Ration for 2 days, they gain 1 Fatigue, and everyday after that an additional 1 Fatigue. If they do not consume a Waterskin, they gain 1 Fatigue per day dehydrated.
Fatigue in the dungeon is interpreted as a stacking debuff of -1 to all dice rolls while inside, while Fatigue in the wilderness translates to an incremental loss of 10' per Turn.
If the PC's total Fatigue reduces their movement beyond 10', they have 0 movement and are too weak to move.
These Fatigues both represent the mental and physical stress experienced in exploration and travel, and when a player reaches 4 stacks of Fatigue they become comatose from a loss of energy, severe toxin build up, and bodily weakness. If on the character's last day they are not magically restored or given ample nourishment, their organs shutdown resulting in death.