Travel Scene

Travel Scenes involve the party of players traveling from one location to another; this can be as simple as finding one’s way through a city, or as difficult as traversing from one end of the continent to the other. What determines the difficulty of the journey is determined by the player’s ability to navigate to a destination, to avoid environmental hazards, and to pace.

Destination or Discovery

In a travel scene, a party wins by getting to their destination or discovering a new place.

Travel scenes depend on a party to work together in order to reach a location. There are roles a party must take in order to safely get anywhere, the most necessary of these being a navigator who uses skill checks to determine a path forward. There are other roles, such as a gatherer who can hunt or find water for the party, a leader who makes sure everyone stays together and keeps up a consistent pace, and a scout who leaves the party to scout ahead for potential dangers.
Below, each of these roles are shown, with individual roll outcomes being listed for each:

Player Character Roles

Players would a role can dedicate themselves to giving advantage to one of their other players, or alternatively, taking the same role as one of their players, adding an extra die when performing the check. A player can take on as many roles as they so desire and as is agreed by the table, but may only roll their d10 once which counts for all of their roles they occupy.

Navigator

Navigators guide their team toward a destination.
Navigator’s Direction-Sense Outcomes

Destination Type	Check Modification
Known or Close	Advantage
Known and Far	—None—
Uncertain or Unmapped	Disavantage

Player Roll Outcome	Effect
Crit Pass	Players cannot be ambushed or suffer negative random encounters.
Pass	Nothing
Half Pass	Players veer off course by 1 unit. The Navigator is aware of this.
Fail	Players veer off course by half the amount of units moved (maximum 3). Navigator makes a Mental save to know whether they have veered off course.
Crit Fail	Players veer completely off course. Player makes a Mental Save at end of day to know whether they have veered off course.

Scout

Scouts make sure the environment is safe and traversable for their team.
Scout’s Watch Outcomes

List of Environment Types for reference: Forest, Grassland, Mountain, Swamp, Arctic, Desert, Underground, Aquatic, Weave, Urban.

Environment Type	Check Modification
Pleasant	Advantage
Natural	—None—/td]
Harsh	Disadvantage

Player Roll Outcome	Effect
Crit Pass	Players find a shortcut, and move +1 units. GMs, No hazard encounters may happen.
Pass	GMs, No hazard encounters may happen.
Half Pass	GMs, hazard encounter rolls are made at advantage. On fail, no random encounter happens
Fail	GMs, hazard encounter rolls are made at double advantage. On fail, no random encounter happens
Crit Fail	GMs, a hazard encounter occurs.

Leader

Leaders set the pace for the Team and lead the way.
Leader’s Pacemaking Outcomes

Pace Type	Check Modification
Stealthy (leave no trail)	Disadvantage
Regular (leave a trail)	—None—
Fast (leave a trail, gain exhaustion on half pass or worse)	Advantage

Player Roll Outcome	Effect
Crit Pass	Players travel an extra unit. With Stealth, instead, enemies cannot track you except by magical means
Pass	Nothing With Stealth, instead, enemies have double disadvantage to track you.
Half Pass	Players are strained themselves to keep pace. Lose 5 health. With Stealth, instead, have disadvantage to tracking you, but you lose 5 health.
Fail	Players hurt themselves during travel. Lose 5 health and move -1 unit. With Stealth, instead, enemies can track you. Lose 5 health and move -1 unit.
Crit Fail	Players lose 5 health and move -2 units. With Stealth, instead, enemies have advantage to track you. Lose 5 health and move -2 units

Gatherer

Gatherer are an optional but can provide food and water to their team.
Gatherer’s Resourcefulness Outcomes

Resource Availability	Check Modification
Flourishing	Advantage
Average	—None—
Barren	Disadvantage

Player Roll Outcome	Effect
Crit Pass	Player finds two days worth of water and food. (double party number).
Pass	Player finds one day worth of food and water. (equal to party number)
Half Pass	Player finds half a day's worth of food and water (half party number, rounded down)
Fail	Players does not find any food or water.
Crit Fail	Players does not find any food or water, and takes 5 health damage.

Travel Scene Grid

For those who use a grid for tactical combat, the grid displayed below is very different. The grid’s squares each represent a connected but separate Zone—meaning either distance or time it takes to get across a single square can be used to determine the amount of “space” each zone has. For the sake of travel, each square’s zone should be roughly the same “size”.
With this in mind, using the table follows a basic premise:

1. It uses a 6 by 6 grid of adjacent and connected zones that represent an abstract amount of distance as is necessary to the kind of travel being performed by the party.


2. The party all start in one square (unless they separate or have been separated).


3. In order to advance and determine the proper course, the party must make a skill check to safely and correctly advance.


4. 4) In each zone, all player characters get their action, and moving a square counts as a round—the amount of time passing during the round depends on the GM.


5. Finally, each zone offers unique advantages and challenges, from traps to cover to random encounters.

by The Moro

Tracking in Travel Scenes

Tracking occurs when player characters seek to track and locate, most often, creatures. Tracking does not help one find treasure, sadly. This said, if what you desire lies deep within the metaphorical jungles with probable pelt and pulse, tracking is what you need.
When tracking the abstract distance presented by the 6 by 6 grid, it instead should represent a shorter amount of distance or even time than could be convinced in the general travel grid—for example, each square represents an hour of travel, and a half-mile radius.
Using Skills in Player Roles in Travel Scenes
When a player holds a role, they may choose any skill to use for the check. However, the player must justify how they are use it for their role, and the GM must deem the skill acceptable, reasonable, and relevant.
When a role goes unfilled, there is no longer a number of successes that need to be reached for that role. Instead, the GM rolls 1d10 to represent the party’s fate using the Variables of Success

Optional Rule: No Double-Tapping Skills
GM, to keep players from relying on one skill over and over during travel, you may implement this rule: no skill can be used twice in a row. This way, players must at least alternate skills during travel.

Advanced Travel Guides

The following represent concepts and rules players can use to benefit them in a travel scene.

Intervals: Keeping Time in Chimera

Players can get up to a lot in one in-game day. While a GM must decide for themselves how much time has passed in their game as a result of player character actions, Chimera provides some guidelines.
First among these are the concepts of "intervals"; an interval is equal to four hours. As such, there are six intervals in a day to account for the 24 hour day cycle (we're keeping it as earth-like as possible here for ease of time-keeping only). Each interval starting from the start of the day to the end has a name: 1) dawn, 2) morning, 3) noon, 4) dusk, 5) night, and 6) midnight. These distinctions are meant to help players and the GM visualize how time can be categorized and thought of in Chimera.

GM's Corner:
GMs might want to consider making each milestone worth an interval. A milestone, in this case, depends on thr GM's current campaign or module, the quest the character's have set out to complete; thereby, on completion of a portion of their quest (finding a clue, finding another lead, exploring 5 rooms in a dungeon, etc), they have completed a milestone, and an interval has passed. This is a fairly abstract means of thinking of time passed and it will not work for every GM. Before a GM gets better at GMing, this hopefully provides a basis to create consistent means of keeping time.

For those wishing for more in depth time keeping, please view the items below.

Sessions in a Month

Note, that on Tara, Months are referred to as Moons because the agreed upon calendar is a lunar calendar. Additionally, Seasons, which vary in length, dictate what kind of quests can be taken.
In Spring, 3 total and separate quests can be taken during the season before it ends. Most quests during this time are to help reset infrastructure, guard and repair walls, or some easy monster culling.
In Summer, 6 total and separate quests can be taken. This is a time of heavy adventuring across Tara. Quests are plentiful and varied.
In Fall, 4 total and separate quests can be taken. Mt. Muspel will fume and bubble over, maybe explode, releasing its Ash into the sky. Monsters will often be reinvigorated by this strange event, and become bolder, more prevalent before the incoming winter. Quests will be more difficult, but the coin too will be greater.
In Winter 7 total and separate quests can be taken, but be warned: with longer nights comes more fierce monsters and the bitter cold leaves little for them to steal and eat; it makes them desperate, which makes them doubly more dangerous. So goes the saying: "No one Adventures during Winter, no one who wants to be alive anyway." As such, only the strong, foolish, or fearless Heroes set out and remain out during the Winter, taking quests from villages unguarded by city walls. Sometimes, the coin may not be much, but Monsters may have extra loot within their lairs. Another word of caution; do not be surprised if no city opens its gates to you, for fear of Corruption.