Rules / Hexploration / Encounters & Camping
Encounters & Camping
The Encounter Roll
Each activity block (a continuous stretch of time in one hex doing one kind of thing: travelling through it, Searching it or camping in it) gets one d20 Encounter Roll from the GM.
- An encounter happens if the d20 is at or under Danger Value × effective hours in the block.
- A natural 20 is always safe passage, whatever the numbers, so no block is ever more than a 95% chance.
- Leylines: in a hex with effective Leyline Strength 2 or higher, the Danger Value is +1. Apply this before camp preparations or other reductions.
Effective hours are the block's hours of exposure:
- Travel block: the hex's travel time (1 hour open, 4 wilderness), including Cautious Travel's 1½ (rounded up) and the extra hours from getting lost or a Blunder, and less an Amazing Success's saved hour. Speedy Travel and Amazing Successes lower the risk by saving hours; Cautious Travel and getting lost raise it. Faster-than-walking travel (Conveyance) rolls once per travel hour at 1 effective hour instead.
- Search block: the time spent searching (see the search-time table), or however long the party lingers.
- Short Rest: its 1 hour.
- Camp block (Long Rest): the full 8 hours, with no discount for being asleep. This is deliberate: camping in a dangerous hex should risk an interrupted rest and make the party plan ahead. Camp preparations reduce the Danger Value, the hours, or both.
| Danger | DV | 1-hour hex | 4-hour hex | 8-hour camp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trivial | 1 | 5% | 20% | 40% |
| Low | 2 | 10% | 40% | 80% |
| Moderate | 3 | 15% | 60% | 95% (24, capped) |
| Severe | 4 | 20% | 80% | 95% |
| Extreme | 5 | 25% | 95% (20, capped) | 95% |
Aether-Touched Encounters
An encounter triggered in a hex with effective Leyline Strength 2 or higher (or under a tear in the sky; Aether Weather 8) is Aether-touched: local creatures twisted by the Aether. Roll or choose the hex's usual creatures as normal, then give each one Aether-Touched mutation (two at Strength 3 or under a tear in the sky). The mutations are Identity Traits in the Adversary Maneuvers compendium (Aether-Touched). Each counts as an extra Build Selection, worth +10% XP as usual. The random encounter tables also lean a little toward Aberrations, Outsiders and Elementals in leyline country.
Camping
Making camp is a real decision, not a free safe action. The camp block rolls the full 8 hours of the Long Rest, so an unprepared camp in a Moderate or worse hex is all but certain to be interrupted (capped at 95%). Camping is a Safe or Trivial choice by default; anything riskier needs preparation, or a move to a calmer hex. An encounter during a Long Rest interrupts it under the usual rules: rolling Initiative interrupts it, at least 1 hour rested still grants Short Rest benefits, and resuming after an interruption costs 1 more hour.
Each preparation below lowers the Danger Value, the effective hours, or both, and is chosen during Make Camp. Limits: the Danger Value can't drop below 1 in a hex that isn't Safe, and effective hours can't drop below 2. Apply the DV reductions first, then the hour reductions, so a fully prepared party in an Extreme hex still doesn't get a nearly free night.
| Preparation | Requirement or cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Good Site | A Reading a Hex answer, a Discovery (shelter, hollow, overhang, high ground) or a vista point | DV −1 |
| Cold Camp (no fire) | A Survival check against the hex's Stealthy Travel DC | DV −1, or −2 on a critical success. No fire means no cooked food, and cold weather hits harder. Can't be combined with Fire and Smoke. |
| Fire and Smoke | A fire is lit | Effective hours −2 (animals and natural threats keep away), but DV +1 against intelligent threats; the GM decides which applies from what the hex's danger actually is. Can't be combined with a Cold Camp. |
| Fortify | +1 hour of Make Camp, taken from Free Hours | Effective hours −2 (barricades, traps, alarms). If an encounter happens, the party isn't surprised. |
| Standing Watch | A party of 2 or more taking turns; the Long Rest takes 9 hours, and the extra hour counts as exposure | If an encounter happens, the party has Advantage on Initiative. Watchers still get full rest. |
| Move First | Spend a travel block moving to a calmer hex | No special rule: the new hex's DV applies, and the move gets its own Encounter Roll. |
| Wagon or riverboat shelter | Travelling with one | Counts as shelter: the Long Rest is never halved for lack of it. |
Worked Examples
- Moderate hex (DV 3), no preparation: 3 × 8 = 24, capped at 95% (only a natural 20 is safe).
- Moderate, Good Site and Cold Camp: DV 1 × 8 = 8, a 40% chance.
- Moderate, Good Site, Cold Camp and Fortify: DV 1 × 6 = 6, 30%.
- Severe hex (DV 4), Good Site and Cold Camp: DV 2 × 8 = 16, 80%; adding Fortify, 2 × 6 = 12, 60%. Severe hexes push the party to move on.