There and back again

Journeys in role-playing games have always been a bit of a bugbear for me. I’ve been at it since 1981 and seen (and tried) lots of different systems and methods and I’m still looking for the ideal way.

Some ways I’ve seen it done:

Play out every single step of the journey
“Right it’s day one, you’re in the forest. The path forks ahead, what’s your marching order? Two hours later… (rolls for random encounter)…”

Doesn’t do it for me. Too long winded, not enough grip to engage the imagination, doesn’t emulate the feel of the fiction that I want my RPGs to feel like.

Skip the journey altogether
“Okay so you’re heading for Mordor? Right you leave the Shire and 52 days later you arrive at the Black Gate…”

Not at all satisfying. It may well cut to the chase and the next carefully designed GM set-piece but it does rather short-change the world and characters, and makes the setting feel like a series of scenes that you teleport between.

Alright, those are the extremes on either end of the spectrum I admit.

I’m currently a few years into a fantasy campaign using a homebrewed system that is mainly built around Powered by the Apocalypse rules in a way but it’s been on the Frankenstein build-a-body-bench so frequently that it’s pretty much unique. And I’m still trying to find the ideal way for my own tastes and those of my group.

Inspired by a comment from a friend yesterday who’s not in the that gaming group I spent today working on one possible solution. It should make journeys quick to resolve while still building in experiences along the way, and having the possibility of the characters arriving at their destination fatigued, hungry or bearing minor injuries from trouble along the way if things didn’t go perfectly.

I won’t explain the entirety of the homebrew system it works with, all you need to understand what follows is that rolls are made on 2d6+attribute/skill with three levels of success (Failure/Partial Success/Success), and that there are conditions such as Inspired (a beneficial condition), Fatigued, Stressed etc that can modify rolls.

My idea is that a number of cards are drawn, one at a time, the number depending on the length of the journey. One character will be responsible for leading the group’s response to the situation on the card, with the outcome of their roll determining what happens to them and the group. The situation can be skimmed over with those bare rules, or roleplayed around as much as the group desires. Once that’s dealt with, the next card is drawn, and so on.

I’ll be trying it out the next time my RPG group go on a journey (probably in tomorrow’s session unless they delight me by doing something unexpected) and if it works well I can already see it being expanded – specific card-decks for particular regions, tailored to the unique conditions and perils etc.

Here are some of the cards, presented without further explanation* as I’m sure any GM can see how this will work regardless of not knowing the ins and outs of my homebrew or campaign setting.

* Alright, one explanation: Trolls in my setting are mythical Dark Gods with lots of lesser-powered trollish minions, so the references to Trolls in the cards (particularly the black-backed high-stakes card) isn’t just meaning a big rubbery humanoid with regeneration.