Travel in the Borderlands

Travel in the Borderlands is very dangerous compared to most overland travel in Scarterra. This does not mean travel in the Borderlands is suicidally dangerous. To a PC caliber adventurer, traversing the Borderlands is pretty routine, but to a normal everyday Scarterran, the Borderlands are pretty scary.

Most of the time, travel across the Borderlands is safe and uneventful, but the Borderlands only have to surprise a person once to kill them. Imagine if someone told you there was a 1% chance that if you left your house, a bowling ball would fall on you. You would probably stay inside, or at least put on a helmet.

The Borderlands has a lot of brigands, Fair Folk, goblin tribes, roving orcs, insidious clans of cannibals, sociopathic fringe cultists, various dangerous beasts, and assorted intelligent monsters from the mountains and the depths of Scarnoctis.

Not every threat is trying to kill or kidnap any traveler they see. Some will just demand a "toll" or "tribute" and then leave their targets alone after they pay off their extortiionist. A dangerous predator might eat a single pack animal and then leave.

The mountains themselves are dangerous

Statistically speaking, more people die in the Borderlands due to accidents or inclement weather than fall to monster or brigand attacks which isn't to say that monsters and brigands won't take advantage of accident victims or victims of natural hazards.

The Border Baronies has well-defined trails but even the well-defined trails have dangerous parts to them. There are parts where travelers or pack animals can fall to their death down large chasms, or they can fall a short distance onto a pile of rocks and suffer a serious injury.

The Borderlands trails have a risk of rockslides, high winds, periodic flash floods, or the travelers can lose track of the trail markers and simply get lost. Getting lost sounds simply enough but it increases ones chances of having an accident or running out of food.

Bendek by Eron12 on Hero Forge

"Flying lets you avoid many of the pitfalls of normal borderland travel, but comes with hazards of its own. It's much harder to travel unnoticed while airborne. Also a chimera once tried to roast me for flying rather than walking"-Sir Bendek Deorac, adventurer whose party leader keeps dragging him into the Borderlands.

The Border Barons and their minions

Patrolling soldiers are an X-factor that can make overland travel in the Borderlands much more safe or much less safe.

Then men and women who rule the various Borderland states go by my many varied titles but they are collectively called the "Border Barons". Some of the Border Barons are benevolent rulers, and some of them are petty tyrants. Some of the Border Barons are strong, and some are weak. Some are wise and some are foolish.

A Border Barons lieutenants and soldiers usually reflect the Border Baron in some way, but the Borderlanders are diverse and hard to pigeonhole. It's possible for a Border Baron to have minions who are nicer, meaner, smarter, or dumber than they are. Even a nice Border Baron could have soldiers that abuse their power and even a mean Border Baron could have soldiers that demonstrate basic empathy and compassion.

Even a nice Border Baron is probably going to have a bit of "us versus them" attitude towards outsiders. Sometimes Border Barons get into rivalries with their neighbors and end up dragging travelers in the area into their feuds by accident or design. Most Border Barons are more likely to slap foreigners with more tolls and fees than they do with the locals.

Border Barons usually have soldiers patrol the lands and roads near their territory, and in theory this makes these areas safer as patrols can scare off brigands, fight monsters, or provide to aid lost travelers. But sometimes soldiers can be jerks, especially if the Border Barons they answer to are jerks. Many of the brigands and highwaymen of the Borderlands wear the uniforms of one of the Border Baronies.

Not every antagonistic Borderland soldier is a robber knight. It is possible for a well-meaning soldier to become a threat if they are too paranoid or overzealous. The Borderlands has a lot of unsavory individuals and soldiers on patrol may attack innocent people who for whatever reason "look suspicious". Travelers who are a blazing a path off the main roads are automatically more suspicious.

If there are rumors of especially dangerous criminals or monsters in the area, the soldiers may not heroically march out to face the threat. Soldiers may patrol in a lackluster manner out of laziness, cowardice or simple pragmatism. Just like in more civilized areas, Borderlander soldiers are suspectable to bribery, flattery, intimidation and hold to various prejudices and superstitions.

Travel by the Seasons

Bendek by Eron12 on Hero Forge

"I've had to travel between baronies in the winter, and I don't recommend it. It's cold, wet, and windy. Heavy use of the Endure Elements spell was the only thing keeping it from being a miserable experience. And you certainly shouldn't travel alone in winter."-Sir Bendek Deorac, adventurer whose party leader keeps dragging him into the Borderlands.

Winter is the most dangerous season. Most Borderlanders locals and visitors choose not to engage in travel during the winter. Ice and snow make the trails slick, so people or pack animals are more likely to have accidents. Trail markers markers are even the roads themselves can be obscured by snow making it easier to become lost. Getting lost is of course much more deadly when there is less avaiable food and/or the risk of freezing to death. Heavy snow falls can create a risk of avalanches.

The risk of being attacked is much greater because the figurative and literal monsters are often extra desperate and they have fewer targets to choose from. There are also some dangerous beasts and monsters that have a reverse hibernation pattern and will only come out when it's cold.

by Me with Hero Forge

Norabruck Grumblespine, dwarven Circuit Priestess of Nami

Spring is the second most dangerous season, largely because of the remnants of winter. Fog is especially thick making it easier to lose track of trail markers or not see a loose rock and slip. Early spring has snow melts and late spring has heavy rainfall and frequent thunderstorms. Melting snow and heavy thunderstorms can raise the risk of flash floods or mudslides.Creatures that have traditional hibernation patterns are waking now, and they are all going to wake up hungry. Some monsters have a reverse hibernation and are only active when its cold. These terrifying monsters are about to go to sleep and they often want one last good meal before bedding down again. Spring is the primary mating season for many dangerous wild beasts and wild besasts (like mortals) tend to be even more dangerous when horny.

It's not harvest time yet for many months, but a lot of mortals have found out that their winter stores didn't last as long as they hoped, so many locals might be feeling desperate, and the desperate may be motivated to rob travelers. Some Borderlanders just have cabin fever from being cooped up all winter and are more prone to take stupid risks. Once planting season begins in earnest, most of the locals are going to be pretty busy and not have time to moonlight in banditry.

Bendek by Eron12 on Hero Forge

"Summer is considered the best time to travel in the Borderlands, but that doesn't mean it's carefree. The wildlife is more active, and it was during the summer when a death goat headbutted me off a cliff."-Sir Bendek Deorac, adventurer whose party leader keeps dragging him into the Borderlands.

Death Goats asside, Summer is the safest season for travel in the Borderlands. It is still possible to face inclement weather, but the risk is much smaller. Lost travelers are certainly less likely to freeze to death or starve. Most Merchants and casual travelers make their border Barony trade runs during the summer. Stahlheimer dwarves making pilgrimages to the The Great Stone usually make their journeys in the summer.

Summer is sandwiched between planting and harvest season so if the local Borderlander farmers want to visit the next Barony over yonder, now is the time to do it. The Orra Market Fair in Fumaya which caters specifically to Borderlander vistors.

If you see a traveler in the spring, winter, or fall that traveler is probably either very desperate or very well-seaoned or both. Summer is when the tenderfoots and newbies traverse the Borderlands, so foolish or inexperienced outdoorsmen are likely to create preventable problems. One would think that the higher number of inexperienced travelers would mean there are more brigands and thieves, but there also are more patrols of soldiers which usually discourages banditry.

Unless the soldiers are the brigands. Some of the Border Barons who are greedy or desperate will step up their efforts to extract "tolls" from travelers near their lands. With or without the permission of their lords, soldiers may seek to bully or exploit travelers who don't look like they know what they are doing.

by Me with Hero Forge

Norabruck Grumblespine, dwarven Circuit Priestess of Nami

Fall is the second safest season in the Borderlands. Weather is usually safe in the autumn, but Nami enjoys being unpredictable, and the autumn is a major time for unexpected weather phenomenon. Autumn can see unexpected winter blizzards and unexpected spring rainstorms or bouts of fog. High winds start to become a problem in the fall. With the leaves falling, its easier to find trail signs and markers, but it's often harder to find the actual trail if its covered by leaves.Beasts or monsters that have a normal hibernation pattern that want to sleep during the winter are trying to fatten themselves up at this point. Humanoids or intelligent monsters may be trying to gather food or other supplies for the coming winter so they are more motivated to rob travelers. If the Border Barons and/or their soldiers are a bunch of bullies, autumn is their last real chance to fleece travelers before normal travel shuts down.

Using the Three Imperatives

The Rule of Realism for Borderland Travel

During most of the year a lone traveler or a small band of travelers going on an overland trek across the Borderlands has about a 2% chance of being attacked. A large and well-organized caravan has about a 1% chance of being attacked.

In the winter, chances of being attacked roughly double. There are fewer travelers in the winter, but the nefarious forces in the wilderness are hungrier and more desperate so they will take more chances with the few travelers they see. Also, there are far fewer patrols of the Border Barons' soldiers during the winter, so intelligent monsters and bandits know that they are less likely to face reprisals for their actions.

This refers to the overall journey. Travelers across the Borderlands are probably going to hopscotch from one Border Barony making pit stops. Travelers don't face a 2% chance of being ambushed every time they go from one neighboring Border Barony to the next, the 2% chance refers to the odds of being attacked once over the course of a very long journey.

The chances of being attacked while traveling roughly doubles while traveling in the winter. The chance of being attacked while traveling off-roads roughly quadruples unless the traveler is capable of flight. Flying characters will often attract attention, but relatively few hostile forces can catch them though the things that can catch them are are extremely scary.

If the Game Master randomly determines the PCs are going to encounter something at some point in their journey, he should probably choose where and when on their journey they encounter the dangerous threat.

The Rule of Cool and Playbility for Borderland Travel

You can roll percentile dice all you want, but ultimately the Game Master gets to choose whether or not the player characters deal with a hostile encounter.

The normal rules of probability usually don't apply to player characters or fiction protagonists. The story revolves around them one way or the other.

If they player characters haven't had any excitment in a while, the chance of facing an interesting combat encounter rapidly approach 100% if the Game Master thinks it will make for good storytelling. Especially if the players enjoy playing combat encounters.

If the real story is in a specific Border Baronies and not between the Borderlands, and the RPG session is of limited duration, than the odds of the PCs being randomly attacked in while in transit rapidly is probably 0% because a random combat encounter its an unwelcome interruption.

Like with random attacks, the presence or absence of natural hazards depends more on the needs of the story rather than stastical probability though I recommend tying natural hazards to the rule of playability.

The Rule of Playability for Borderland Travel

The odds of facing inclement weather or some other natural hazard are higher than the odds of being attacked, but rather than assign a flat percentage chance to bad weather or natural hazards, it's best to roll Survival. Assume a bad roll means the characters did something foolish or they had some bad luck. A bad very roll means that the characters did something foolish and had bad luck.

It's up to the Game Master how often you want to make the players roll Survival. Too many cooks spoil the broth, so you usually have one character acting as a guide rather than have every character make a separate survival roll and pool them together though if you want to focus on team play, one character can be the navigator, one can take point for navigating natural hazards and one can look for enemy ambushes.

Choosing wise routes and not getting lost leans towards Intelligence + Survival. Dealing with complications as they occur is primarily Wits + Survival, and preempting problems in the first place is usually Perception + Survival. Rather than roll for every leg of the journey, and every aspect of a journey it is usually best to make a few representative rolls. You can throw in a few Perception + Alertness rolls too, which can throw a bone to players of characters who have Alertness bonus as a racial features.

Game Masters can adjust this pool based on what kind of natural hazards they want to deal with, or they can be nice and let the player pick their best mental attribute the guide has to pair with Survival. Game Masters can also use skill based rolls to determine if and when the player characters are attacked. If the player characters roll very well, they might be able to turn the tables and get the drop on some bandits.

If gratutious dice rolling gets in the way of telling a good story, the Game Master can always just hand wave that the characters make it to their destination safely.

You can theoretically roll Fatigue checks for every leg of the journey but that is time consuming and not very fun. I recommend only rolling Fatigue when you know the characters are heading towards something difficult or dangerous, so you can find out how "fresh" they are when they face the obstacle.

If the characters are racing the clock and are to opting to forgo rest and are force marching, then in that case, the Game Master should require lots of Fatigue Checks.