WILDERNESS & OUTDOORS

Adventuring into unknown lands or howling wilderness is extremely perilous at best, for large bands of men, and worse, might roam the area; there are dens of monsters, and trackless wastes to contend with. Protracted expeditions are, therefore, normally undertaken by higher level characters. Forays of limited duration are possible even for characters new to adventuring, and your DM might suggest that your party do some local exploration—perhaps to find some ruins which are the site of a dungeon or to find a friendly clan of dwarves, etc. 

Mounts are necessary, of course, as well as supplies, missile weapons, and the standard map-making equipment. 

Travel will be at a slow rate in unknown areas, for your party will be exploring, looking for foes to overcome, and searching for new finds of lost temples, dungeons, and the like. If the expedition continues for several days, there will be a need to hunt for game to provide food, unless some inhabited area is found — a thorp, hamlet, village, or town — in which case your party will then be able to have another short adventure.

ADVENTURES IN THE OUTDOORS

It is necessary to have a reasonably well-detailed, large scale map for conducting adventures outdoors. Naturally, the initial adventuring in the campaign will be those in the small community and nearby underground maze. For whatever reason - player desire, quest or geas, or because of your own direction - adventuring will sooner or later move to the out-doors. What you must do to handle this is not difficult following the general procedures given below.

First, decide how you wish to proceed regarding the world at large. If you have plenty of time and ideas, you should design a continent (or a large portion thereof) which perfectly meshes with your initial setting. If this is not possible, obtain one of the commercially available milieux, and place the starting point of your campaign somewhere within this already created world. At the risk of being accused of being self-serving, I will mention parenthetically that my own WORLD OF GREYHAWK, (published by TSR), was specifically designed to allow for insertion of such beginning milieux, variety being great and history and organization left purposely sketchy to make interfacing a simple matter. 

Whatever course you opt for, the scale of such world maps should be in the neighborhood of 20 to 40 miles per hexagon. 

Such areas allow mapping of considerable territories and are optimal for movement and smaller scale maps as well, dividing each large hex into blocks of smaller hexes, 5 across the middle or 5 across each face, as desired.

Adventuring outdoors actually covers several sorts of adventuring, for it is a catch-all term for all activities not in underground or urban settings.

Thus, under this general heading will be 4 major subheadings: LAND ADVENTURES, ADVENTURES IN THE AIR, WATERBORNE ADVENTURES, and UNDERWATER ADVENTURES.

Movement rates for land and water adventures are shown under movement. Underwater movement is the same as dungeon and similar indoors movement rates, as the locale of such adventures is always limited in area.

LAND ADVENTURES

Starting from the point of origin, your players will move over not only varying types of terrain but through areas of varying human/demi-human population as well. Just as terrain will affect the frequency and type of monsters encountered, so will population dictate likelihood and type of encounter. You must, therefore, show population density on your large scale map — or at least have some idea of it in mind as adventurers move across the land. The chance of encounter is set with the following bases:

PROCEDURE

Daylight hours consist of morning, noon, and evening; night consists of night, midnight, and pre-dawn. These times equate to periods of about an hour after the party sets forth for the day, the mid-point of the journey, and near the end when camp is being made with respect to daylight hours. 

During hours of darkness, equate the periods to first, middle, and end sleep periods. Where only 1 or 2 chances for encounter exist, you may vary the time as you see fit in order to avoid player reliance on information which they should not be privy to. 

When an encounter check is indicated, roll the appropriate die, and if a 1 results, an encounter takes place. 

In this event, go to the appropriate table for the terrain, and determine randomly what sort of monster is being encountered. Note: In areas where you have detailed the monster population, a random determination should not be necessary, as this information should be recorded by you.

When an actual meeting does occur, consult the explanations accompanying the table for any special procedures to follow. Attempts by the encountering party to evade are dealt with under COMBAT, PURSUIT AND EVASION OF PURSUIT (q.v.).

[See COMBAT, Avoid or Flee, Pursuit and Evasion.]

[See COMBAT, Encounter Distance for distances between parties with regard to planned or random encounters.]

MOVEMENT

As mentioned previously, movement rates have been given elsewhere. There rates assume that a party of from 1 to 100 creatures are concerned.

If more than 100 are in the party, reduce movement rate by 1 mile per day for each additional 100 or fraction thereof, but in no event should such adjustment slow the rate of movement of the party to below 50% of normal speed.

BECOMING LOST

Any party not guided by a creature knowledgeable of the countryside through which the party is moving, or which is not following a well defined course (river, road, or the like), or which is not using a well-drawn and correct map, might become lost. This is determined prior to the commencement of a day's movement. Determination is based on the terrain:

To find the direction of movement if a party is lost, roll d6, 1-3 indicating left, 4-6 indicating right. Each hex face is 60°. If a loss of direction of 120° is possible, roll a second d6, 1-3 indicating a 60° direction loss, 4-6 indicating 120°. 

In any direction, loss is possible, roll a single d6, with results being read off clockwise considering the intended direction of travel as 12 o'clock, and giving 2 chances for complete loss and movement in the exact opposite direction, thus: 1 = right ahead, 2 = right behind, 3-4 = directly behind, 5 = left behind, and 6 = left ahead, i.e. there is NO chance of the party ever accidentally moving in the desired direction when the die indicates the condition of being lost exists. Direction of lost movement is illustrated below:

PROCEDURE

As soon as the die roll indicates the party is lost, determine the direction. If it is onto a space which has previously been travelled over and mapped by the party, then they will recognize that they became lost. Tell them that they moved in X direction, rather than that which was desired, but they have seen landmarks and realize their error. If movement is into an area where the party has not already been and mapped, then immediately roll again to determine if the party will be lost the next day also. If no such lost direction is indicated, then the party will realize it has made an error the next day; but meanwhile describe terrain as if they had actually moved in the desired direction, i.e. as if they had not been lost with regards to direction. This will, of course, result in the erroneous mapping of a space until corrected. If the party will also be lost the following day, the procedure above is followed until they are no longer lost. At that point, they will realize that they have not been moving in the desired direction, or series of directions, but they will NOT know just where they became lost. They will have to back-track and attempt to locate the last space which they mapped correctly and go on again from that place.

It must be understood that parties following a correct map will never become lost. Procedures are only for exploration of unmapped terrain.

REST

Movement rates are postulated on sufficient daily rest periods so as to obviate the necessity for any protracted rest periods of a day or more during the course of any journey. If normal movement rate is exceeded, however, then special rest periods in addition to any subsumed brief breaks in travel are required. This is detailed below:

FORCED MARCH

It is possible to make forced marches up to twice the distance shown for daily movement rate. 

Such forced movement increases the daily rate in 10% increments, from 10% to 100% at the option of the party, to a maximum of double normal movement rate; but as soon as a total of 100% of additional normal movement rate is reached, or as soon as the party determines to assume non-forced movement, whichever first occurs, a mandatory rest period must be enforced. 

Rest period depends upon the total percentage of forced movement:

To find the time required for enforced rest, simply find the total percentage of rest time and deduct this from normal daily movement rate.

Thus, 30% means that 30% of movement the next day is deducted, as the party rested during that period. 

At 3 hours per 10% increment of forced movement, 70% equals 210%, so 2 full days, plus 10% of a third day must be spent in rest from the forced march.

EXHAUSTION

Failure to rest after normal movement is equal to 100% means that beasts of burden have a cumulative chance of dropping dead of 10% per 10% increment of additional movement of any sort. 

Other creatures lose 1 level of ability or hit die in the same manner, until 0 is reached and exhaustion kills them. Such loss of vitality, whether by beast of burden, creature, or character requires a full 8 hours of additional rest for each such 10% increment, hit die, or level of ability lost. 

For example, a 12th level fighter who moves an additional 90% of movement after exceeding normal movement by 100% must rest 72 hours, consecutively, in order to regain 12th level of ability. Prior to that period of rest, the character is effectively 3rd level!