New Procedure: Mountaineering

The mountain is not a hex: it is a trial of endurance, physically and spiritually.

The lives of mountains and people are often at odds, and the average person has no reason to challenge them—but you are not the average person.

During their adventures, the party may find it necessary to cross a mountain or mountain range, rather than taking the long way around. Doing so can be accomplished using the Mountain Crossing Procedure, which compresses the journey into 3-to-5 “legs,” with each leg representing a major push through a pass, over a ridge, into a valley, or up a cliff, and each of which is roughly equivalent to a full day’s travel.

Identify the Crossing

The party should identify their intended route, and the game master will determine the difficulty:

• Known pass or route – Moderate Toughness (2-3 Legs)

• Rough crossing – Difficult Toughness (4 Legs)

• High peaks – Extreme Toughness (5 Legs)

Additionally, the game master will determine the journey’s intensity based on the difficulty of the terrain and the presence of other threats: either low, standard, or high. The intensity will determine encounter check frequency and probability.

The Mountain Loop

For each Leg, resolve the following steps in order:

1. Weather

Use the Worldwide Adventure Generator (WAG) Table A: Weather Conditions to determine weather conditions for this Leg.

2. Terrain

Use the WAG Table B: Hex Feature to determine predominant terrain features for this Leg.

3. Event

Depending on the intensity of the journey, there is between a 1-in-5 and 1-in-2 chance of an event occurring each Leg.

4. Encounter Check

Use the WAG Table D: Encounter Check & Table E: Encounter Type to determine if an encounter occurs during this Leg.

Note: Conduct encounter checks according to the crossing’s intensity.

5. Action

Each leg, the party will choose their approach:

6. Outcome

At the end of each Leg, the game master should perform an Outcome roll that determines the overall “success rating” of that Leg.

Modifiers

• +1 if the step was navigated carefully;

• +1 if this step’s Event is beneficial;

• -1 if this step’s weather is severe;

• -1 if this step’s Encounter inflicted casualties.

The outcomes of each Leg determine the overall success or failure of the journey.

Resource Dice

If the party is:

• Well-supplied

• Allied with a region

• Or has carefully prepared for the journey

They gain one resource die per Step to be used alongside the Outcome roll:

Discovery

If the party Scouts the Route, use the WAG Table F: Discovery to determine what they find. The speed with which they scout determines their likelihood of making a discovery:

• Quick (no delay) – 1-in-10 chance

• Careful (+1 Leg) – 1-in-5 chance

Completion

Once all legs of the journey have been completed, the party (or what remains of them) will arrive at the final outcome. If the majority of the legs were successful, their crossing was clean and they are no worse for the wear; if the results of the legs were mixed, they may arrive strained and fatigued with lost or exhausted supplies; if the results were failure-heavy, they may arrive in a dangerous or otherwise wrong location, or be stuck in the mountains for additional legs.

Note: if the Outcome of every step was a failure, there is a possibility that such a journey could result in a total party death in the mountains.

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