Adventuring

In order to find treasure and experience, your group of characters will need to brave a variety of dangerous indoor and outdoor adventure locations. From here on out, indoor adventure locations will be referred to as "dungeons" and outdoor adventure locations will be referred to as "wilderness." Exploration inside of Dungeons is segmented into ten-minute Rounds, while exploration in the Wilderness is segmented into one-hour Turns.



Rounds

Each Round represents ten minutes. Anything a group of characters can conceivably try in ten minutes may be accomplished within a Round. After exploring for 6 Rounds, groups of characters must Rest for 2 Rounds. The referee can ask any character to roll a Check to determine whether or not the action is successfully accomplished by the end of the Round or not. For example:



Turns

Each Turn represents one hour. Anything a group of characters can conceivably try in one hour may be accomplished within a Turn. After exploring for 4 Turns, groups of characters must Rest for 2 Turns. The referee can ask any character to roll a Check to determine whether or not the action is successfully accomplished by the end of the Round or not. For example:



Food and Water

Adventurers need to keep themselves well-fed and watered in order to survive. Rations and waterskins must be used every day in order to prevent starvation and thirst. For each day a character goes without either, suffer -1 to all rolls and to Health. When a character reaches 0 Health in this way, that character dies.



Maps and Notes

Use your character sheet as well as any notebook, sheets of graph paper, or other writing implements to keep records of the places your character goes and the people they meet.



Exploration Procedure

  1. The referee describes the adventure location from the perspective of the player characters, offering up details of the environment, dialogue with nearby non-player characters, and pathways forward or behind.
  2. The players come to a decision about what to do, asking clarifying questions about the environment. The group comes to a consensus and makes a statement of intention to the referee.
  3. For each action the players take, the referee describes the result and marks the passing of one Round or Turn. The referee can use a d6 to count down Rounds or a d4 for Turns with the remaining number of turns facing up.
  4. Once a certain amount of Rounds or Turns have passed, the referee updates time records, initiates Resting, rolls checks for Wandering Dwellers or Monsters, and repeats the process until the game has ended.
  5. If the player characters are not in a safe location, like a village, town or city, away from the Dungeon or Wilderness by the time everyone has to go home and end the game session, those characters are lost and must be rescued from where they were lost by a new party of player characters before the group can resume roleplaying them.
  6. Characters that end the game session in a safe location, like a village, town or city, gain a +1 bonus to their first roll when the next game session starts.


Dungeon Exploration



Delving and Resting

After delving the dungeon for six Rounds, characters must rest to recover their strength for two extra Rounds. If the group pushes on instead of resting, they suffer -1 to all rolls and to Health until they do. For each Round they go without resting, the penalty increases. After the group has Rested for the sixth time inside of the dungeon, any future Resting will not restore them to full strength and they will suffer penalties to rolls and damage.



Light

Assume that the residents of a dungeon do not need light in order to move around the environment - most places will be dark unless another character brings in a light source. At the beginning of a Round, the referee will describe everything the light touches. Dungeon dwellers will notice lights on a roll of 3-in-6. For Candles this roll is 1-in-6, and if a Lantern is shuttered there is no chance of detection.



Searching

Searching is always successful if enough Rounds are spent searching and there is enough light in the environment to conduct an investigation. Secret doors and other hidden treasures may require cleverness to find - out of place objects or other clues may lead to new discoveries that mere searching cannot reveal.



Marching Order



Front; Torchbearer

This group of characters is at the fore of the party while delving. If a character loses sight of the Torchbearers or if the light of the Torchbearers is snuffed out, characters can become lost in the Dungeon. When an encounter begins, these characters are closest to the other Side and begin Combat in the Melee Zone.



Flank; Scout

This group of characters is at the side of the party while delving. Scout characters are the first to be warned about traps and hazards that the group can come across. When an encounter begins, these characters are near the other Side and begin Combat in the Near Zone.



Rear; Candleholders

This group of characters is at the rear of the party while delving. When an encounter begins, these characters are furthest from the other Side and begin Combat in the Distant Zone.



Wilderness Exploration



Setting Up Camp

After journeying into the wilderness for four Turns, characters must rest to recover their strength for two extra Turns. If the group pushes on instead of resting, they suffer -1 to all rolls and to Health until they do. For every two Rounds they go on without resting, the penalty increases by 1. When the party Rests, they set up Camp, consuming one Camp item per person. This camp remains a safe place to rest, like a tavern or inn, for three days after it is set up. For every day after the first three days, there is a 1-in-6 chance of a weather event, monster attack, or other catastrophe to occur. Groups can set up as many Camps as they like, as long as they have enough camping gear.



Tracking

Any character can follow a trail left by the presence of a beast, a group, or an individual. If the trail is many days old, the referee can ask for a Check to see if it can be picked back up again.



Searching

Searching is always successful if enough Turns are spent searching and there is enough light in the environment to conduct an investigation. Hidden entrances and other lost places may require cleverness to find - out of place landmarks or other clues may lead to new discoveries that mere searching cannot reveal.



Marching Order



Front; Vanguard

This group of characters is at the fore of the party. If a character loses sight of the Vanguard or if the Vanguard loses the trail, characters can become lost in the Wilderness. When an encounter begins, these characters are closest to the other Side and begin Combat> in the Melee Zone.



Flank; Navigator

This group of characters is at the side of the party. Navigating characters are the first to be warned about pitfalls and hazards that the group can come across. When an encounter begins, these characters are near the other Side and begin Combat in the Near Zone.



Rear; Wagoneers

This group of characters is at the rear of the party. When an encounter begins, these characters are furthest from the other Side and begin Combat in the Distant Zone.