It's RPGaDay season again. Here's a link to the blog post with the current year's prompts.
Today's prompt is Journey.
You might be relieved to hear that I'm not planning to link to Traveller again today. I did consider discussing Rim Expeditions or Deepnight Revelation, but I think that perhaps there are other prompts coming up where they would fit better...
Journey takes me right to Tolkien. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings both have journeys at the heart of their stories, but editions of the various Middle Earth related roleplaying games didn't put them front and centre of the game, and as a result were something less than they could have been. The One Ring makes travel, and the finding of refuges and places of sanctuary outside the wilds, really important and as a result, feels much more like the fiction it seeks to emulate.
Yes, earlier takes on Middle Earth had wonderful mapping and fantastic gazetteers (I'm especially thinking of Iron Crown Enterprises' work here) but somehow it was incidental.
In The One Ring, travel will bring fatigue, encounters and threats. Outside of the points of light, Middle Earth is a dangerous place, and each members of the party will make rolls to progress safely. One character will take the role of the guide, leading the fellowship on its travels, and using the all important Travel skill. Others will be the Look-Outs, rolling Awareness to keep watch. Scouts will roll Explore to find trails and set up camps. Finally, the Hunters will find food in the wild using the Hunting skill. Not everyone will have to roll every part of the journey; who it is depends on the event that happens.
The path is planned on the hex maps and the distance you travel without an event is determined by the Guide's skill roll.
Events will affect one of the roles, who will have to use their skill to try and avoid consequences. The Loremaster (GM) is given guidance on the types of event that could happen but it is tailored to the fellowship that is making the journey. Events will typically cause fatigue, but they can also bring dread (through shadow points) or restore hope. You can also be injured. Having pack animals will reduce fatigue along the way.
It's a mechanistic approach but it works really well and uses a simple procedure to manage the process.
When we played The Darkening of Mirkwood, journeys across the forest were very dangerous until we helped restore the Dwarven Road, and crossing the mountains even more so. We had one journey across what remains of Angmar where we ended up dumping lots of equipment as we were so fatigued. When we finally emerged into Eriador, we were incredibly relieved. The loss of fatigue really drives tension.
If you fancy a more generic version of this, Cubicle 7 took the mechanics that did for the first edition's D&D 5e line and turned them into a decent book called Uncharted Journeys, which I recommend.
In summary, I love the way that The One Ring has made each journey an important and memorable part of the game, using simple procedures that evoke the feel of the books that the game seeks to emulate.
7th August 2025
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