Expanded Travel Rules
Version 1.8
This set of rules is meant to give the day to day travel of an adventuring party a mechanical framework to lean upon and likewise make traveling through the wilds a more interesting and adventurous endeavor.
Created by DracoDruid [@GMBinder | @Reddit]
Format: DIN A4
Credit goes to u/zmobie for sparking my creativity. I highly recommend reading his Braving the Wilds post.
The Traveling Day
These rules assume, that the player characters are traveling for several days through unsettled territory and won't have neither the luxury to rest in an inn or road hut each night, nor the safety of well secured civilization.
A typical day of travel without any larger disruptions (such as combat or a detour to explore unexpected locations) consists of roughly 9-16 hours of activity, including 6-10 hours of actual travel:
- Wake up around sunrise
- Breakfast and breaking up camp (1-2 hours)
- First travel leg (3-5 hours traveling)
- Midday break (1-2 hours)
- Second travel leg (3-5 hours traveling)
- Finding & setting camp (1-2 hours)
- Rest for the evening (2-3 hours)
- sleep until sunrise (6-8 hours)
Optional: Daylight by Season
The amount of usable daylight vastly depends on the region and/or season you are traveling at. You should take this into consideration when planning your travel days.
| Season | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring/Autumn | 6 am | 18 pm | 12 hours |
| Summer | 4 am | 20 pm | 16 hours |
| Winter | 8 am | 16 pm | 8 hours |
Player activities
During a typical undisturbed traveling day, the players must make several choices for their characters.
They must choose a travel pace and activity for each of the day's travel legs, as well as the camp activities for their midday and evening rests. Each of these decisions is detailed in the following steps.
Slow Pace
Take your time. Rest often or longer.
Travel Speed. 2 miles per hour (16 miles per day)
Favored Activities. Keep Watch, Navigate, Scout, Trailblaze
Associated Activities. Draw a Map, Hunt & Forage, Sneak, Track
Hindered Activities. None
Forbidden Activities. None
Forced March
Characters can travel for 8 hours in a day before risking exhaustion. For each additional hour of travel beyond that, each character must make a Constitution saving throw at the end of every hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past 8 hours. On a failed saving throw, a character suffers one level of exhaustion. If the party is moving at a slow pace, they gain a +5 bonus to the check, and a fast pace imposes a -5 penalty.
3. Choose Travel Activity
For each travel day's leg, each player may choose one of the following activities in accordance with your chosen travel pace. Each activity has an associated ability check you will take to determine your success or failure during the travel leg.
Dangerous Activities
Several activities are noted as Dangerous. Performing one of these activities usually means having to separate from the group and thus the risk of being attacked or trapped without help.
Distracting Activities
Some activities are so demanding that you can't pay much attention to your surroundings. If you perform a Distracting activity, you suffer a -5 penalty to your passive Wisdom (Perception) score.
Exhausting Activities
Some acitivies are much more tiresome than simple travel. If you perform two Exhausting activities on one day, you suffer one level of exhaustion after finishing the second, but before looking for and setting up camp.
Focused activities
Most activities can be performed by several characters. However, some activities can only be performed by one or two simultaneously. These Focused activities can only be performed by a maximum of 2 characters, and you only use the higher of the two check results to determine their effect. If a character fails their check, they still suffer the consequences.
Draw a Map
(Distracting, Focused)
Intelligence (Cartographer's tools)
Record your travel route and mark notable landmarks for future reference and orientation.
While your companions keep watch, hunt for food and guide the party, you focus on documenting your journey. Drawing a map won't help you on your journey forward, but might proof useful once you try to find your way back. Good maps are also a highly sought-after commodity.
Make an Intelligence (Cartographer's tools) check. If your guide failed by less than 5, you suffer a -5 penalty. If the guide failed by 5 or more, your check automatically fails.
Compare your result with the following table and note the value of your cartography efforts.
Required DC by Terrain
| Map Quality | Easy | Moderate | Hard | Map Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detailed Map | 15 | 20 | 25 | 3 |
| Simple Map | 10 | 15 | 20 | 2 |
| Crude Map | 5 | 10 | 15 | 1 |
| Wasted Effort | – | – | – | 0 |
Once you have reached your destination, add the values of all checks together and divide by the total number of travel legs (rounded down). The final map's quality is equal to the corresponding value.
Travel Speeds and Activities
——————————————— Travel Activities ———————————————
| Pace | Travel Speed | Favored | Associated | Hindered | Forbidden |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast | 4 miles per hour; 32 miles per day |
– | – | Keep Watch, Navigate, Scout, Trailblaze |
Draw a Map, Hunt & Forage, Sneak, Track |
| Normal | 3 miles per hour; 24 miles per day |
– | Keep Watch, Navigate, Scout, Trailblaze |
Draw a Map, Hunt & Forage, Sneak, Track | – |
| Slow | 2 miles per hour; 16 miles per day |
Keep Watch, Navigate, Scout, Trailblaze |
Draw a Map, Hunt & Forage, Sneak, Track | – | – |
Expanded Travel Rules v1.8 | by DracoDruid
Hunt & Forage
(Dangerous)
Wisdom (Survival)
Gather food and water along the way.
During your travels, you keep an eye out for nearby sources of food and water, such as roots, fruits, small game, and hidden springs.
Make a Wisdom (Survival) check and compare the result with the region's abundance level on the following table to determine the number of fresh rations you can manage to provide. Each ration can sustain 1 person for one day (i.e. 1 pound of food and 1 gallon of water).
—— Number of Rations ——
| Abundance | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plenty | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 |
| Average | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 26 | 29 | 32 |
| Scarce | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 36 | 40 |
| Barren | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | – | – |
Keep Watch
(none)
Wisdom (Perception)
Detect hidden pursuers and prevent being surprised by an encounter.
You keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for any looming or approaching danger, as well as signs of close-by pursuers.
Make a Wisdom (Perception) check. If your result is lower than your passive Wisdom (Perception) score, you take the higher.
The DM determines the DC for any threat or other suspicious activity along your path and compares it to all (passive) Wisdom (Perception) results.
If you travel at a Fast Pace, apply a -5 penalty to all passive Wisdom (Perception) scores.
Scout
(Dangerous, Exhausting)
Intelligence (Investigation)
Scout ahead to find new paths, approaching dangers, and interesting places.
If your travel informations where rather vague, or you are simply curious to see what else is there to see, you can scout ahead of the group.
Make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. The DM determines the DC for any noticeable thing in the vicinity.
You might find such things as creatures waiting in ambush, favorable paths, or hidden locations.
In addition, if your Intelligence (Investigation) check beats the Navigation DC, you may give one of your travel companions a +5 bonus to their travel activity check.
Sneak
(none)
Dexterity (Stealth)
Stay away from potential dangers or pursuers.
Sometimes you need to move quietly for a while to avert the eyes and ears of close by enemies or to cover your tracks and take detours to shake off possible pursuers.
In order to do so, you don't need the whole party to perform the Sneak activity, as the party members that do, can try to keep everyone else as stealthy as possible.
Add the Dexterity (Stealth) check results of all sneaking party members together and divide the total by the number of all characters in the group (rounding down). This is the final and effective result for the group's efforts.
Expanded Travel Rules v1.8 | by DracoDruid
Track
(Focused)
Wisdom (Survival)
Follow a specific set of tracks or find those of creatures in the vicinity.
Sometimes you don't try to find a specific location, but follow or chase another creature or group.
Instead of using the Navigation activity, make a Wisdom (Survival) check against the Navigation DC to find and follow the track of your quarry. If your quarry is trying to cover their tracks, use the higher of their Sneak result or the Navigation DC.
If you check fails by less than 5, you are having some trouble following your quarry. Your travel speed is halved (rounded down) for this travel leg.
If your check fails by 5 or more, you have made a mistake. Your travel speed is halved (rounded down) for this travel leg, however, you moved away from your quarry.
If you rolled a total of 5 or lower, you got lost. Depending on the nature of your surroundings, getting lost might entail additional complications and dangers.
A different use for the Track activity is to read the tracks your group crosses during their travel, in order to glean what kind of creatures are roaming the vicinity.
Make a Wisdom (Survival) check. The DM determines the DC for any possible tracks you might find and to which creatures they might belong.
Ranger Fast Tracking
Rangers treat Tracking as a Normal Pace activity. Meaning, they gain advantage when tracking at a slow pace, and can track with disadvantage at a fast pace.
Trailblaze
(Distracting, Exhausting, Focused)
Strength (Athletics)
Cut a path through thick undergrowth or create hand- and footholds.
Traveling through difficult terrain slows your journey significantly. You can help your companions by clearing a path for them to follow.
Make a Strength (Athletics) check against the Navigation DC. If you succeed, the terrain's travel speed penalty is reduced by 1 mile per hour.
If you succeed by 5 or more, the terrain's travel speed penalty is reduced by 2 miles per hour instead.
If you fail the check by less than 5, you still reduce the terrain's travel speed penalty by 1 mile per hour, but you automatically suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of the activity.
In any case, the terrain's travel speed penalty can't be reduced below 0.
4. Making Camp
When it's time to make camp for the night, the characters need to start looking for a suitable camping location.
If you had characters Scout on the last leg, they may make an additional Intelligence (Investigation) check, while characters that Kept Watch may make an additional Wisdom (Perception) check with disadvantage. Either check is compared to the table below.
If none of the party took either activity, or you are not content with the campsites you found, you must travel on for another hour (risking a forced march), in order to search again. You may reassign travel activities at this point.
Once night sets in, you can only search for campsites by Scouting and your Intelligence (Investigation) check is made with disadvantage.
Campsites
Each campsite is defined by up to three different properties (see below), determined by the DM (at random or chosen).
| Search DC | Campsite properties |
|---|---|
| 5 | 0 |
| 10 | 1 |
| 15 | 2 |
| Search DC | Campsite properties |
|---|---|
| 20 | 3 |
| 25 | 4 |
| 30 | 5 |
Comfortable
The campsite has even ground and is reasonably protected against all but the harshest weather.
You regain half your maximum hit dice (rounded down, minimum 1) and reduce your exhaustion level by one after completing a long rest (as usual).
In an uncomfortable location you only regain one quarter of your maximum hit dice (rounded down, minimum 0) and don't reduce your exhaustion level.
Defendable
The campsite has a natural barrier or is otherwise difficult to reach (e.g. inside the canopy of a large tree or up on a rock ledge).
Approaching creatures need to succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check to enter the camp.
This property can be selected twice, increasing the DC to enter the campsite to 20.
5. Camp Activities
Once a party sets down to rest, players can choose one or more of the following activities.
Each activity takes roughly one hour, i.e. each character can perform one of these activities during a short rest, or two activities during a typical long rest of 8 hours (6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of light activity).
You may always expend hit dice to regain lost hit points, but you can take a special camp activity to accelerate your recovery (see below).
Optional: Interrupted Sleep
If a character doesn't get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep during a long rest (e.g. if they need to take the middle watch), they don't recover one level of exhaustion upon finishing it.
A creature's 6 hour sleep is also considered interrupted if they need to stay awake for more than 10 minutes (e.g. when being alerted by the watch), or when being engaged in combat.
Focused Activities. Focused camp activities can be performed multiple times, however, only the last result is applied.
Attune Magic Item
(Distracting)
none
Attune to a magic item you hold on your person.
Attuning to one magical item takes time and concentration. You must have identified the items magical properties before you can attune to it (see below).
Camouflage Camp
(Distracting, Focused)
Dexterity (Stealth)
Use natural materials to hide your campsite from prying eyes.
You can use natural materials like rocks or foliage to hide your campsite.
A successful DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check adds the Hidden property to your campsite (if it doesn't already have it).
The DC to find your campsite is equal to the result of your Dexterity (Stealth) check.
Cook Hearty Meal
(Distracting, Focused)
Wisdom (Cook's utensils)
Cook a hearty meal to restore additional hit dice.
A good night's rest is not guaranteed when camping in the wilds and a fine cooked meal can go a long way to remedy this fact.
Make a DC 15 Wisdom (Cook's utensils) check. You need one fresh ration of food for every person that will partake of the meal, as well as a reasonable amount of seasoning.
If you provide at least 50% more fresh rations than necessary, you gain advantage on this check. If you can only provide half the required amount of rations (but not less), you gain disadvantage.
If you succeed, each person partaking of your meal regains a quarter of their maximum hit dice (rounded down, minimum 1). If you fail, the meal is eatable, but not additionally refreshing. If you rolled a total of 5 or lower, the whole meal is spoiled and the rations are wasted.
A creature can only benefit from one hearty meal per long rest.
Fortify Camp
(Distracting, Focused)
Strength (Athletics)
Build barricades or other obstacles around your camp.
You can use wooden spikes or large boulders to barricade your campsite or dig a ditch and rampart around it.
A successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check adds the Defendable property to your campsite (if it doesn't already have it).
The DC to enter your campsite is equal to the result of your Strength (Athletics) check.
Hunt & Forage
(Dangerous)
Wisdom (Survival)
Gather food and water or hunt local game.
This is the same action as the travel activity. However, since you are not traveling at this point, you may make the corresponding Wisdom (Survival) check with advantage.
Identify Magic Item
(Distracting)
Intelligence (Arcana)
Focus on a magic item you hold on your person to identify its properties.
If you lack the magic abilities to use the identify spell, you can try to ascertain the nature of a magic item by focusing on its aura and trying to decipher its glyphs and markings.
Make an Intelligence (Arcana) check. The DC depends on the rarity of the magic item you wish to identify. On a success, you learn the items basic properties and are able to attune to it.
| Magic Item Rarity | DC |
|---|---|
| Common | 10 |
| Uncommon | 15 |
| Rare | 20 |
| Legendary | 25 |
| Artifact | 30 |
Expanded Travel Rules v1.8 | by DracoDruid
Keep Watch
(none)
Wisdom (Perception)
Keep watch while your companions are resting.
A long rest requires at least 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of light activity. Depending on the size of the traveling party, you are advised to take shifts keeping watch while the others try to gain some sleep.
Make a Wisdom (Perception) check. If your result is lower than your passive Wisdom (Perception) score, you take the higher.
The DM determines the DC for any threat or other approaching danger (hostile creatures or natural phenomenons) and compares it to all (passive) Wisdom (Perception) results.
Characters performing one of the other camp activities (i.e. not sleeping and not keeping watch) only contribute their passive Wisdom (Perception) score.
On a success, the watchers are able to wake and warn the rest of the party, and prevent being surprised.
Set up Traps
(Distracting, Focused)
Wisdom (Survival)
Set up traps to slow approaching enemies.
You can set a number of small traps like caltrops, slings, and small pits around your camp.
Make a Wisdom (Survival) check. The DC to find these traps with an Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check, as well as the DC for any saving throw made to resist their effects is equal to the result of your Wisdom (Survival) check.
Rest and Recuperate
(none)
Wisdom (Medicine)
Take care of your wounds, eat, drink, and catch your breath.
You take your time to catch your breath, eat and drink a little, and properly dress your wounds.
Expend one use of a healer's kit and make a Wisdom (Medicine) check. The DC depends on the severity of your wounds (see the Dress Wounds table).
If you succeed, you can roll any hit dice rolled to regain hit points during this rest twice, using the better of the two results.
Tend to your Animals
(Distracting, Focused)
Wisdom (Animal Handling)
Take care of your mounts and beasts of burden.
Long journeys can prove taxing and dangerous for animals if they are not properly cared for.
You make sure that your mounts and other animals are properly fed, secured, and check for any signs of wounds or illnesses.
Make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check against the Navigation DC. The DC is increased by 5 if you are tending to types of animals you aren't familiar with (e.g. exotic mounts from a distant land).
If you fail, your animals must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the Navigation DC to successfully finish a long rest.
Tend to the Wounded
(Distracting)
Wisdom (Medicine)
Take care of your wounded companions.
You go around camp, making sure that the wounds of up to six creatures other than yourself are properly cleaned and dressed.
For each patient, expend one use of a healer's kit and make a Wisdom (Medicine) check, in order to assess the wounds and properly dress them. The DC depends on the severity of their wounds (see the Dress Wounds table).
If you succeed, the patient can roll any hit dice rolled to regain hit points during this rest twice, using the better of the two results.
Dress Wounds
Hit points above DC* 75% 5 50% 10 25% 15 0 20
Expanded Travel Rules v1.8 | by DracoDruid