Extraordinary Expeditions

Uncharted Journeys is a supplement designed to make getting there as interesting and eventful as actually arriving at the destination. Published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the supplement provides rules for laying out a route, preparing for the journey, and conducting the trip and involve the Player Characters at every stage; rules for encountering travellers on the way and creating ruins that the Player Characters might pass by; and then hundreds and hundreds of encounters categorised by location. In fact, there are almost two thousand encounters given in the pages in the book and they take up three quarters of the book! However, there is a sense of déjà vu to Uncharted Journeys, the feeling that you might have seen similar rules for such Journeys before. This is because they have been adapted from two earlier roleplaying games published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment which have extensive travel rules if not necessarily the enormous collection of events and encounters. These are The One Ring: Adventures OverThe Edge Of The Wild and its counterpart for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, Adventures in Middle-earth, and with both being based on the journeys undertaken by the Company in The Hobbit and the Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings, both roleplaying games placed an emphasis on such journeys. With Uncharted Journeys, the Dungeon Master has the option to make journeys in her campaign as important and as dangerous and interesting as Tolkien does in Middle-earth, whether important, interesting, dangerous, or all three on each and every journey, or only on the occasional journey. Then of course, the Dungeon Master has access to all of the encounters in Uncharted Journeys as well.

Uncharted Journeys begins by discussing what Role each Player Character will undertake on a Journey. There are four—Leader, Outrider, Quartermaster, and Sentry. The Leader will keep the party’s morale and provide Inspirational Resolve during the Group Travel check. The Outrider finds the safest path and has some say over the type of encounter that the Party has. The Dungeon Master will roll and describe two encounters, without giving any specifics away, and the Outrider makes the choice between the two. The Quartermaster keeps the Party well-prepared and fed on the journey. The Sentry is ever vigilant, covering the Part’s trail and looking out for followers and ambushes. It is possible to double up on these Roles, but this will come at a Disadvantage. If there are more Player Characters than Roles, then two Player Characters can take the same Role and its checks will made with Advantage. Particular Classes are better suited to the different Roles. Thus, the Barbarian and the Ranger is a good Outrider, the Cleric a good Leader or Quartermaster, and so on. In general, the various Classes are suited to either Leader, Outrider, or Quartermaster, whilst the Sentry is left as a catch-all in terms of Class suitability.

A journey is divided into three stages—‘Set the Route’, ‘Prepare’, and ‘Make the Journey’. In the first stage, the players and their characters select a destination, which will determine its length and thus the possible number of encounters. A Journey can be Short, Medium, Long, or Very Long, ranging from fifteen miles long to a thousand miles and more, and two days in length to more than a month in length.

Journey Difficulty is determined by the terrain and weather. Having set the boundaries of the Journey and some expectations in ‘Set the Route’, in the ‘Prepare’ stage, Roles are assigned and the Player Characters can make preparations with actions such as ‘Brew Tonics’, ‘Chart Course’, ‘Procure Mounts’, and so on. These require a skill check and will provide a bonus on the Journey itself. For example, ‘Prepare a Feast’ requires a Wisdom or Charisma (Cook’s Utensils) check. If successful, the first time a Player Character would suffer a level of Exhaustion on the Journey, the Exhaustion is ignored. There are lots of options here which enable the Player Characters to play to their strengths. The third stage, ‘Make the Journey’ involves the players each making a Group Travel Check according to the Role their character has for the Journey. Succeed and the Player Characters will reduce the number of Encounters they have on the Journey. Fail and they will have Encounters extra to those indicated by the length of the Journey. For this, the Dungeon Master rolls for the Encounter Type, for example, ‘A Bump in the Road’ or ‘A Place to Rest’ and consults the table for that category for the region type the Player Characters are travelling through. Of course, the Dungeon master will still need to provide the stats and details herself, but everything else is covered in the pages of the supplement.

There is guidance too on what happened if the Journey is abandoned, but oddly, there is more to do once the Journey is complete, but this is not a stage in itself. At the end of a Journey, after all of the Encounters have been resolved, each Player Character make a Constitution check. Failure leaves the Player Character with a level of Exhaustion, success grants him temporary Hit Points, and success for every Player Character means they are also Inspired. The Player Character with the Sentry Role also rolls to see if the Party arrives safely or not, which might mean ‘Unforeseen Danger’ or it might mean complete ‘Safety’ or anywhere in between. It is at that this point that the Dungeon Master can also give out rewards, short-term, bonuses, and Experience Points. The Journey rules take up just twenty-two pages out of a two-hundred-and-ninety-five book. They provide the means to make Journeys not just more of a challenge, but interesting. There is room too within the mechanics to do two things. One is to roleplay out the events of the story, and as a result, allow the other, to play out a story.

The Encounters themselves are listed type by type and region by region in the largest section of the book. First, it sets the parameters and requirements for Encounter Type. For example, ‘A Chance Meeting’ requires the holder of the Leader Role to make a Wisdom (Insight) to gauge the mood of NPCs encountered, which will make the Group Check, which requires everyone to make a Charisma (Persuasion) or Wisdom (Insight) to impress the NPCs, easier or more difficult. Success might mean the NPCs points the Player Characters to a nearby ‘Natural Wonder’, a ‘Place to Rest’, or even ‘Hidden Reserves’, whilst failure could result in ‘A Bump in the Road’, ‘Danger Afoot’, or a ‘Deadly Fight’. These are Encounter Types in themselves, so there is a definite sense of progression if this occurs. ‘A Place to Rest’ has the Quartermaster Role make a Wisdom (Survival) check to gain Advantage—and hopefully not Disadvantage—on the Constitution (Perception) that all of the Player Characters have to roll. Success means they gain the benefit of a long Rest or a Short Rest, but failure can inflict a level of Exhaustion. If the Encounter Type provides the mechanical aspect of the Encounter, the flavour comes from the description given in the Encounter tables. For example, a ‘Place to Rest’ for the Great Cities Encounter Type could be ‘Bardcore’ where the Player Characters can perform at an inn for their bed and board, even after they have gone to bed, or a ‘Perfectly Normal Pub’ where the patrons seem to be highly engrossed in their own doings. Could there be something strange going on? Whereas, a ‘Place to Rest’ for the Hellscapes Encounter Type could be the ‘Sleep of the Just’ where an abandoned iron prison offers a refuge or a ‘Curious Cabinet’ where in a Tielfing trader offers the Player Characters the change rest in her cabinet, some disassembly required—and not of the cabinet! In many cases, if the Player Characters are successful, they gain Inspiration. However, multiple successful Encounters can mean multiple incidences of Inspiration. Of course, this is not possible, so in such incidences, they gain extra temporary Hit Points, bolstered by the success of their Journey.

In between all of the rules—well all twenty-two pages of rules—and the Encounters—all two-hundred-and-twenty-three pages of them—are the means to create NPCs which the Player Characters might meet in the Encounters, as well as where and when. This covers their backgrounds and their demeanours, and is supported with twelve example encounters. Then Uncharted Journeys does the same for ruins. This is more extensive with tables for who built the ruins, how old they are, what the ruins are and their possible points of interest, what they look like now, and what they might be used for currently. They are very nicely done, the result being a quick and dirty location created with a few rolls that the Dungeon Master can take the time to further detail, as necessary.

Physically, Uncharted Journeys is very well produced. Its rules are clearly written and easy to use, and the artwork excellent throughout.

Uncharted Journeys provides the means to support an aspect of fantasy roleplaying games and Dungeons & Dragons, that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in particular does not do—and that is journeys and expeditions and their consequences. With an inexhaustive list of Encounters and clear simple rules Uncharted Journeys gives the Dungeon Master and her players the option to play journeys and expeditions out and make them both challenging and interesting, and events along the way matter.