Pointcrawl Rules

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Pointcrawl Rules

• Hexes will be invisible to the party. I will stop talking about them with players; they're only for my personal GM map
• What the players will know are Points and Paths
  • Points are like points of interest, waypoints, or landmarks. They help the players know where they are in the wilderness
  • Paths are the ways that players get from point to point. They can be anything from roads to rivers to game trails to "I walk from here to that tall tree I see in the distance"
• I will give you accurate distance measures along Paths to make mapping easier for you
  • Lairs and dungeons are points but the paths to get there aren't always obvious. Sometimes it's as simple as following a game trail from a pond, which leads you to an elk lair. Other times, they're harder to find
• There are other ways to find lairs/dungeons
  • You can use a Notice check while traversing a Path. The downside to doing so is A. it slows you down and B. it provokes more wandering monster checks
  • You can find high ground and look around for points you couldn't otherwise see
  • You can find maps
  • You can talk to people who know of such locations
  • You can do research in Ket
• You can always blaze your own Path rather than follow one of the Paths I describe to you. The downside to doing so is A. you can get lost and B. it may provoke more wandering monster checks
  • Sometimes, blazing your own trail is good. You find a shortcut or a point of interest you might otherwise have not found.
  • Sometimes, you are forced by the terrain into "the long way around" and you lose time or stumble into dangerous areas.

Notice Checks

• A Notice check while walking a Path will discover one of two things: either a hidden Path or a hidden Point. Not all Points are hidden, some will be easy to see while walking a Path. Some hidden Paths don't lead to hidden Points, they are perhaps shortcuts.
• Paths are generally Point to Point. Blazing a Trail is creating a new Path. That Path will "end" once you reach another Point or another Path.
  • You're at Point A. There are Paths leading North and South. You decide to Blaze a Trail West. You move West until you come across a massive tree split in half by lightning. This becomes a new Point that you can use for navigation in the future. You then would either head back East along your newly created Path or Blaze a Trail in a new direction.
  • You decide to Blaze another Trail north. You travel for a few miles and run into a Path moving alongside a river. This also becomes a new Point but it might be hard to find again unless you mark it, so you decide to stack some rocks at the intersection to help you find it again.
  • You then decide to follow the river East and the Path heads East and then South. There is a spot where the footing is treacherous and if you slip, you fall into the river. You successfully navigate the rocky footing and you come back to Point A. Now you know where you are again.
  • Now, the next time you come to Point A, you can say "if we go north here and follow the river, it's more direct but there's a chance we slip on rocks and fall into the river. Or we can go west to the split tree and then head north to our stacked rocks. It's slower but safer."