RPG mechanics for traversing the Borderlands

Normally, one character acts as "the guide" and can roll lntelligence + Survival or Wits + Survival. You can the guide choose their higher attribute or the Game Master can make a judgement.   If you want the party to hunt, collecting reagents, foraging for edible plants, fishing, or otherwise try to live off the land while traveling. Normally one character is the "guide" trying to make sure the party arrives at their destination quickly and safely and another character is the "gatherer" making dice rolls per the normal rules for whatever he or she is doing. If the "guide" and the "gatherer" are the same person, apply multi-action penalties.   Intelligence is the base attribute if you are mostly concerned about getting lost or wanting to make good plans. Recomended for flyers or winter travel.   Wits is the base attribute if you are mostly concerned about dealing with unexpected problems. Recommended for spring or autumn travel.   You can roll for every leg of the journey or you can do one representative roll. If you want to save time to focus on meatier story elements, you can gloss over "inconvient things".  

Successes Rolled

  Botch: Something very bad happens (see sidebar)   Failure: Something bad happens (see sidebar)   One Success: Three inconvenient things happen (see sidebar)   Two Successes: One inconvient thing happens (see sidebar)   Three Successes: You arrive at your destination promptly without any notable problems.   Four Successes: You arrive at your destination a bit faster than expected.   Five Successes+: You arrive at your destination quickly and safely, and something unexpected and good happened along the way (see sidebar)    

Base Travel Difficulty

  Summer 3   Autumn 4   Spring 5   Winter 6    

Various Modifiers

  Characters are actively avoiding trails, +2 difficulty   Characters are hunting and foraging along the way, +1 difficulty   Characters are moving at an unusually fast pace, +1 difficulty   Characters are traveling primarily at night, +2 difficulty   Characters are hauling heavy or awkward cargo, +1 difficulty   Party has negigible amount of proper camping equipment or have a severe supply shortage, +1 difficulty   The characters are choosing not to light campfires or torches so as not to give away their position +1 difficulty   Guide has been to the area multiple times before, -1 difficulty   Guide is a true local, intimately familar with the Borderlands -2 difficulty   Party has ready access to useful magic such as Fly spells, Protection from Elements, Animal and Plant theurgy, -1 difficulty    

Group Modifiers

  The base difficulties and modifiers assume you are dealing with 2 to 10 people.   Lone travelers suffer a +1 difficulty.   Large groups are a mixed bag. If most of the large group is mostly made up of seasoned travelers willing and able to help out with chores and provide extra hands and sets of eyes. -1 difficulty for the guide.   If the group is made up of people who can't or won't help much. Examples include children, elderly, prisoners, sick or injured or prissy people with lots of demands, +1 difficulty for the guide.   If a large group has language barriers and/or the group includes people with strong internal rivalries, +1 difficulty for the guide.    

Overland Flight

  If the party has the Overland Flight spell or some other means to let the entire party fly, this does not make the Survival roll easier because its much easier to get lost when you can't see the trail and trail markers. Also, you can accident or fall or accidentally drop supplies somewhere you will never be able to find them again. Also while flying you can't pick up supplies or find helpful people enroute.   However, the party can cover ground much faster with overland flight, roughly quadruple what the normal rate of travel would be.   Note, if the entire party has ready access to the spell Feather Fall, this automatically counts as as having ready access to "useful magic".