Exploration
Travel
Travel is 1 of the major pillars of a GnG, and we wanted to make it something more involved, in order to do that we create a mechanical system that actually allows character to become better at travelling.
To start with we defined the terrain into different types, from plains and roads, to swamps and mountains, each tile type has a different time to travel ranging from 1-8 hours. This allows a GM to create multiple pathways with their own advantages and disadvantages for the players to choose from, as well as making the exploration of new lands feel more dangerous and exciting.
Navigation
When traveling it is important to know where you are travelling too and how to get there. Whilst constantly getting lost with no way out would be annoying we have made the concept of “Getting lost” a little different. Valuable features like roads and rives can completely stop you from getting lost where as the further you venture into the deep untamed wilderness the more likely it is that you’ll become disorientated.
1 element to help you, whether you’re lost or not, is a peak. These are elements of the terrain that are higher than others allowing you to view more of your surroundings.
The important thing is that these skills are not just reliant on purely random chance, you know the terrain of the tile before you choose to enter so you know how likely it is you’ll get lost, and more importantly your character can actually train to grow better at navigation and reduce the chances of getting lost in the first place.
Vehicles/Mounts
Roads make travel much easier, not just because that stop you from getting lost but also because they are wide and flat enough to allow you to ride on a horse or carriage. Mounts and vehicles are great for travel but they aren’t a be-all end-all solution, especially when exploring the wilderness. The wagon will help when transporting goods across plains or roads but it’ll be a hinderance in mountains and swamps.
Travel across the sky and sea is greatly different from the land, mostly because there is no terrain to wrestle with, however that is not to say that they are without their own difficulties. Whilst they are generally quicker they usually require a higher cost up-front, sailing is faster than walking but walking is surely faster than swimming.
Environment
The environment should be more than just a pretty set dressing that you walk past, there should be a distinctly different feeling scaling a mountain compared to trudging through a bog. On top of the tiles being mechanically different to travel through we also made them change how the environment interacts with you.
Snow storms, hail, avalanches, earthquakes, these are encounters that change how you traverse an area, so we made them have a mechanical impact.
Discovery
The difference between travel and exploration is discovery, going from town A to B with nothing happening in-between, that’s travel, but venturing through a forest to find the dragons cave only to stumble across a liches tower, that’s exploration.
Discovery can be planned by a GM or it can be randomly generated, both have their advantages and disadvantages so most campaigns will have a healthy mix. To help with this we created several tables to inspire a GM on these random discoveries, from a ruined bridge over a chasm to a magical tower entombed in ice, there are truly no limits.
Creatures
Random combat encounters, they are classics, they are iconic, they are usually boring. This is because the players know their PCs won’t die to some random wolves, any resources they spend will pretty much instantly be regenerated, and they have little to no plot significance. So in GnG we did something different with out random encounters, firstly you don’t regain everything when you rest, so even if the wolves don’t kill you they may make it harder to fight the BBEG later on. But more importantly we remade “combat” encounters into “Creature” encounters, these can become combats, but they don’t necessarily have to, they could just as easily involve saving the creature as it could killing it. And by providing that flexibility with he tables we have also given the GM enough wiggle room to allow them to fit the encounter into the story in a satisfying way.
Survival
Surviving the great outdoors is one of the hardest part about long journeys through the wilderness, so in GnG we wanted to make it actually challenging.
The first and most important thing we did was split long-rests into 2 different types, a comfortable rest and a rough rest. Comfortable rests can only be taken in safe places like cities so when travelling you’re forced to rough rest, these do not replenish you as quickly and as such every encounter, every trap, every time your character spends their resources it is a drain on them until they can make it back to safety.
We also added meals. Eating is vital to survive and it is a massive part of every day life so we wanted something to represent that in the game, so in order to take a rest you must eat something. Whether that be a dried ration or a freshly cooked dragons heart, you need to eat. And yes, of course we have a talent tree delving into becoming the best chef possible.