“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
From the award-winning team that brought you Doctors and Daleks, Adventures in Middle-earth, and Victoriana 5e comes Uncharted Journeys for 5e! Uncharted Journeys brings detailed travel rules to the 5th edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game and provides in-depth yet simple rules for creating memorable and compelling journeys. Make travel a fun and rewarding part of your 5e game!
Undertake perilous journeys as your intrepid party blazes new trails across strange and uncharted lands. Strike out across unforgiving tundra and forge your path through deadly jungles as you battle to reach your destination. Experience travel in 5e as never before with thousands of possible encounters. Meet strange and unforgettable characters along the road, and uncover lost and forgotten ruins. Expand your 5e experience with new character abilities.
Your journey starts here!
Uncharted Journeys provides a wealth of information, rules, and encounters to make travel a key part of your 5e adventures.
The book includes:
* Easy to understand rules for journeys and exploration: Set the Route to your destination and determine how long (and how dangerous) the journey will be; Prepare by gathering supplies, securing mounts, and resting before the long road ahead; and finally, Make the Journey and experience strange and unique encounters along the way, and be forever changed by your experiences.
* Rules for four key Roles required for a successful journey: the Outrider, the Quartermaster, the Sentry, and the Leader. Each Role has a unique ability that can be the difference between success and failure on the treacherous paths you travel.
* Advice on which Classes are best suited to which Roles, as well as new rules for resting and recovering Class abilities while on a long journey.
* New ways to create unique and interesting travellers you meet on the road: Where and when do you meet them? Are they friend or foe? Where are they going? Why are they travelling? What do they want?
* Rules for creating countless ancient ruins that your party can discover: who built them, how old are they, and who lurks there now? Is it an archive containing forgotten elven lore, or was it created by an ancient civilisation for some sinister purpose?
* Almost 2,000 Journey Encounters across 16 different regions, including huge cities teeming with people, thick jungle overrun by beasts, haunted lands ruled by a malicious Vampire Lord, and scorched hellscapes ruled by demons and monstrosities.
Travelling allows adventurers to explore the world outside their homeland, meet new people, learn about different cultures, and uncover lost mysteries and ancient ruins. While they may know their intended destination, the adventurers must cross vast distances and traverse deadly landscapes to get where they’re going. The Journey Rules in Uncharted Journeys presents the perils, hardships, and opportunities the party face along the way and calls upon the players to work through them using their characters’ full range of skills, resources, and abilities.
Journeys are broken into three steps:
* Set The Route: First the party must determine where they are going and choose a path. The route may be direct but dangerous, or circuitous but safe — the choice is yours! The path you choose and the terrain you're crossing will determine how dangerous your journey will be and the challenges you will face.
* Prepare: Before taking to the road, the party can prepare for what lies ahead. You can gather resources and supplies, research the lands you will be travelling through and identify dangerous enemies that lurk there, ask around for advice, or hire a guide to aid you in your travels. Once you are ready, you’ll need to rest — it may be the last moment of respite before you reach your destination!
* Make the Journey: Once your preparations are complete, the journey begins! The party must make a group check to determine the success of the expedition, with each Role undertaking different responsibilities. Based on how well the party succeeds or fails, they may have more or less Encounters along the road — these are exciting, mysterious, and sometimes dangerous events. As you reach your destination, you must determine how taxing the journey was and the manner of your arrival: Was it a difficult hike across punishing terrain that left you weak and tired? Or was the trek relatively safe, but your arrival ill-timed amidst some unforeseen catastrophe that requires your help? Regardless of what happens, you will be left changed by your experiences.
A successful journey requires cooperation and understanding from all members of the party. To help with this, Uncharted Journeys introduces Roles. Roles represent responsibilities a party member undertakes over the course of a journey. Any character can take on any Role, regardless of their class. However, certain classes may be better suited to certain Roles depending on their abilities, and guidance is provided on what class is best suited to what Role.
* Leader: The Leader is a confident and wise party member who is capable of encouraging the team to persevere through challenges they otherwise could not surmount.
* Outrider: The Outrider scouts ahead of the group. They are responsible for finding safe routes, and tracking threats to the party.
* Quartermaster: The Quartermaster is responsible for maintaining and finding food and supplies for the party. They ensure the group is well stocked, and that supplies are readily available after a hard day’s journey.
* Sentry: The Sentry is the eyes and ears of the party. They keep watch over the party and their surroundings, and are often the first to spot danger.
Each Role has a Role Ability that you can use once per journey. These unique abilities can be the difference between success and failure, particularly on long and gruelling journeys, so choosing the right time to use them is vital. For example, the Quartermaster can expend provisions to grant an ally a d6 bonus die to Skill Checks, while the Outrider can force the GM to reroll on the Encounter table to try to get a different event.
As well as their Role Ability, each Role lists options for the type of checks the Role makes during the departure step of a journey. These are Ability Checks, Skill Checks, or Tool Checks that contribute to the overall success of the journey. GMs can also allow players to propose a different type of check if it makes sense for their Role and as part of the story.
Encounters represent the challenges the party must face and people they meet along the way. The results of these Encounters cause lasting consequences that impact the rest of the journey and may help or hinder the party’s progress. A long journey with more Encounters is generally more perilous and will put a greater strain on the group.
There are 12 different types of Encounters that can occur, including chance meetings with other travellers, strange and mysterious events, thrilling monster hunts, deadly ambushes in ancient ruins, or the opportunity to secure a much needed campsite.
Uncharted Journeys contains tables for each type of Encounter, each of which are broken up by the type of terrain or environment you are travelling through, meaning there are hundreds of different things that can happen! We’ve already included Encounters for what can happen when travelling through darkened woods, thick jungle, frozen tundra, parched desert, and more. With each stretch goal we will add extra environments and biomes, including regions scarred by war, haunted lands ruled by a malicious undead vampire, and dream-like landscapes where the fae roam.
Ruins are relics of the past, long since abandoned by their creators and slowly reclaimed over decades or centuries. Uncharted Journeys gives the GM tools and advice to create unique and memorable ruins and locations, asking a number of key questions and offering tables and suggestions for how to create your ruin.
* Who built it? Who constructed the ancient ruin? Was it built by elves, and designed with elegant sweeping arches; or by dwarves who favoured practical and sturdy architecture? Perhaps it was built by some unfathomable being and defies the laws of physics? Determining who built the ruin gives a strong foundation (no pun intended!) for how the ruin looks and what it feels like to explore.
* How old is it? Ruins can vary wildly in age, from ramshackle wooden buildings abandoned by the last generation of humans, to ancient masonry carved by dwarven stonesmiths, who believe that their work should last as long as their species shall endure in the world.
* What was its purpose? Even after years of neglect, the original purpose of a ruin might still shine through. Was it once an intricate tomb built to house a royal dragonborn emperor, or a sturdy military outpost, still standing strong centuries after the war was lost? Do these ancient relics still hold helpful hints, or sombre secrets? Perhaps carvings of long lost stories remain inscribed on the walls, just waiting for your bard to revive its tale. Valuable loot may be coveted away in a secret cellar, now easily exposed due to the processes of time and weather.
* What does it look like now? These ruins may have stood gloriously once upon a time, but the elements eventually whittle down even the hardiest of structures. Has the dwarven bunker been reclaimed by nature, with choking vines heaving bricks into their embrace, or has the halfling house began to sink into the ground below, leaving only faint traces of its upper level for intrepid explorers to discover?
* What is it now? Have these ruins been forgotten completely, superstitiously abandoned by all and left squarely in the past? Or do these sites still teem with life, providing shelter to hibernating owlbears, or breeding grounds for giant arachnids? An unsuspecting party might not discover this renewed purpose until it’s too late…
Uncharted Journeys allows GMs to write their own histories, injecting life into their created worlds and giving their players mysteries to unravel and questions to ponder.
