Expedition moves

Leaving the village: outfitting, the road, camp, and coming home.

Chart a Course

When you wish to travel to a distant place, name or describe your destination (“Gordin’s Delve,” “the hagr’s lair,” or “wherever these tracks lead”). If the route is unclear, tell the GM how you intend to reach it.

When you wish to travel to a distant place, name or describe your destination (“Gordin’s Delve,” “the hagr’s lair,” or “wherever these tracks lead”). If the route is unclear, tell the GM how you intend to reach it. The GM will then tell you what’s required, the risks, and how long it will likely take.

When you set out on the journey, the GM will present each of the challenges one at a time—plus any surprises that you couldn’t have seen coming—in whatever order makes the most sense. Address them all and reach your destination.

The GM picks requirements and challenges from the lists below (as many as make sense, based on the seasons, the terrain, how well the party knows the area, and established threats), writing them down with tick boxes. Requirements and challenges are usually linked with “and” but can use a merciful “or” (e.g. “You’ll need to bring warm clothes OR the way will be hard and grueling”). If “First you must travel to —” is chosen, Chart a Course for each leg of the journey (this requirement can nest two or three levels deep).

Outfit

When you prepare for an expedition in a friendly community…

When you prepare for an expedition in a friendly community, mark as many load diamonds on your Inventory insert as you wish to carry, either on specific items or in “undefined.” Mark up to 3 diamonds for a light load (quick and quiet), 4–6 for a normal load, or 7–9 for a heavy load (noisy, slow, quick to tire). Also, mark a number of circles in the Small Items section equal to 4+Prosperity (again, on specific items or in Undefined).

You can select:

• Items printed on the Inventory sheet
• Other common, mundane items
• Any of your special possessions
• Special items for which you Trade & Barter

Tell the GM what you’re bringing and answer their questions about your gear and where you got it.

Small items don’t count towards a character’s load—they’re things that could fit in a purse or boot with room to spare (some coins, a tinderbox, a knife, etc.). Marks placed in “undefined” can later be transferred to specific items via Have What You Need. Followers need to Outfit, too.

Requisition

When you borrow some of the steading’s assets for an expedition (like the horses or a plow)…

Roll: 2d6 +Fortunes

When you borrow some of the steading’s assets for an expedition (like the horses or a plow), roll +Fortunes:

• 10+: go ahead, but bring it back safely
• 7–9: you’ll need to do some convincing
• 6−: don’t mark XP—you can take the asset with you, but if you do, reduce Fortunes by 1

If borrowing multiple, related assets (like the horses and the wagon), you only need to make this move once. If you borrow an asset and fail to bring it home safely, that almost always counts as Meeting with Disaster: reduce the town’s Fortunes by 1 (or more).

Note on XP: this move’s 6− line reads “don’t mark XP” unconditionally, so it is on the XP-suppression list. The 6− result still lets you take the asset anyway at the cost of −1 Fortunes.

Have What You Need

When you decide that you had something all along…

When you decide that you had something all along, transfer a mark (or marks) from your “undefined” inventory to a specific item or a slot. If you mark a slot, fill it with a common mundane item or something from your special possessions.

Alternately, you can expend a use of supplies to mark an additional small item/slot.

Whatever you produce, it must be something you could have had all along. The GM or any player can veto unreasonable items.

This move can only produce items the character already owns or common, mundane items (like those on the Inventory insert or things that could be easily acquired in an iron-age home or farm). The GM may also allow a retroactive Trade & Barter for special items via a flashback. Once produced, the item is in your inventory: you can drop it, use it up, break it, give it away, etc.

Recover

When you take time to catch your breath and tend to what ails you…

When you take time to catch your breath and tend to what ails you, expend 1 use of supplies and regain HP equal to 4+Prosperity. You can’t gain this benefit again until you take more damage.

When you tend to a debility or a problematic wound, say how. The GM will either say that it’s taken care of or tell you what else is required to do so.

Struggle as One

When you Defy Danger as a group…

Roll: 2d6 + the stat that fits

When you Defy Danger as a group, establish the party’s approach and each roll +STAT (per Defy Danger):

• 10+: you do well enough to get someone else out of a spot, if you can tell us how
• 7–9: you pull your weight
• 6−: you find yourself in a spot; the GM will describe it or ask you to

If you roll a 6− but someone saves you, don’t mark XP.

xpSuppression: conditional—a 6− on this move normally marks XP, but not if another character’s 10+ (or the resolution of the scene) saves you from your spot before it bites. Everyone rolls at once; those participating in the struggle can’t Aid each other (to Aid, a character must be somehow unaffected by the struggle). If a 10+ roller comes up with something plausible to rescue a 6− character, it happens—no more rolls required.

Keep Company

When you spend a stretch of time together…

When you spend a stretch of time together, ask the others if they want to Keep Company. If they do, take turns asking a PC or NPC one of the following:

• What do you do that’s annoying/endearing?
• What do I do that you find annoying/endearing?
• Who or what seems to be on your mind?
• What do we find ourselves talking about?
• How do you/we pass the time?
• What new thing do you reveal about yourself?

The characters aren’t literally asking each other these questions—the real-life players and GM ask each other questions about each others’ characters. You or any player can decline. Good times to Keep Company: when you Make Camp; during a stretch of uneventful travel; after everyone gets a 7+ on Struggle as One; when part of the party splits off and play jumps back to those waiting; when two or more characters share a watch; or while the party does some boring task (like Foraging or chopping timber).

Make Camp

When you settle in to rest in an unsafe area…

When you settle in to rest in an unsafe area, answer the GM’s questions about your campsite. Each member of the party must consume 1 use of supplies or provisions; if you use a mess kit (requires fire & water), then 1 use can provide for up to four people.

If you eat and drink your fill, and get at least a few hours of sleep, pick 1:

• Regain HP equal to ½ your max
• Clear a debility

If your rest was particularly peaceful, comfortable, or enjoyable, you also gain advantage on your next roll.

This move triggers when there’s danger afoot, the PCs have been hurt, or they deliberately stop to rest at a site—not every night of handwaved travel (the GM can simply use up supplies for glossed-over days). Deprivation: if you don’t get food, drink, or rest, at first you simply don’t get to make the pick-1 choice; the longer you go without, the more danger you’re in (Defy Danger, then debilities, then escalating GM moves).

Forage

When you spend a few hours seeking food in the wild…

Roll: 2d6 +WIS

When you spend a few hours seeking food in the wild, roll +WIS. In winter, you have disadvantage. On a 10+, pick 2; on a 7–9, pick 1:

• You acquire 1 load diamond of provisions (1d6 uses)
• You acquire an extra 1d6 uses of provisions
• You discover something interesting or useful
• You avoid danger or risk (else, there is some)

Provisions can substitute for supplies when you Make Camp, 1-for-1.

One “party” rolls this move: if two or more go together, one Forages while the others Aid. If they split up, each group can roll—potentially gathering more food but courting more danger. It’s possible to travel while Foraging, but as a rule you cover only half the distance you otherwise would.

Return Triumphant

When you return home in triumph, having saved your fellows, put down the threat, seized the opportunity, etc.…

When you return home in triumph, having saved your fellows, put down the threat, seized the opportunity, etc., then clear one of the steading’s debilities (diminished, lacking, or malcontent). If the steading has no debilities marked, then increase Fortunes by 1.

To trigger this move, the PCs’ return must be triumphant—something that makes folks celebrate or at least talk excitedly. When in doubt, poll the table: if anyone (GM or player) thinks the return isn’t triumphant, the move doesn’t trigger. Begin and end with the fiction: don’t just adjust the steading’s stats—show the reunions and celebrations.

Supplies, Load & Inventory (expedition rules)

NOTE: This is rules text, not a rollable move—it collects the “…a corresponding amount of supplies” sidebar (pp.304–305) and the “Loot, load, and inventory” sidebar (pp.326–327) that govern the expedition moves.

## Supplies

“Supplies” are something characters can have in their inventory. They represent stuff that the PCs might need or want on an expedition: food, water, whisky, bandages, salves, etc. The steading’s Prosperity affects the quality and quantity of supplies available: add the steading’s Prosperity to the number of uses the party gets out of each load diamond of supplies (1 diamond of supplies = 4+Prosperity uses).

Supplies get used when…

• …they Recover;
• …they Make Camp;
• …they Have What They Need to produce additional small items; and
• …the GM uses up their resources (supplies are what gets used up).

By default, each person in the party consumes 1 use of supplies per day. But if someone has and uses a mess kit (which requires water and fire), then:

• a party of up to 4 will expend 1 use of supplies per day;
• a party of 5–8 will expend 2 uses of supplies per day; or
• a party of 9–12 will expend 3 uses of supplies per day.

Without a mess kit, each party member expends 1 use of supplies per day.

Pack animals can graze or browse, and carry enough extra feed to “cover” themselves. Use best judgement for other animals (a Ranger’s pet wolf can probably fend for itself; small critters don’t need much food; well-heeled hounds probably need to be fed from the party’s supplies).

If the party travels with a pack animal or a cart laden with at least 1 Surplus worth of supplies, there’s no need to track individual meals and uses. As long as they have access to their stash, they can effectively re-Outfit out of it.

## Loot, load, and inventory

If a PC or follower acquires something in the field (like loot) and wants to bring it along, they have to add it to their inventory.

Small items (things that could fit in a pocket, purse, or boot with room to spare) don’t count against a character’s load. The player can just add them to the Small Items section of their Inventory sheet. There’s no hard limit on how many small items they can carry, but the GM can call shenanigans if it seems unreasonable.

Items with one or more load diamonds count towards a character’s load. Remember: 3 diamonds or less is a light load, 4–6 is normal, and 7–9 is a heavy load. Characters can drop (or give away) items from their inventory to make space, or discard (or give away) undefined diamonds.

If they want to carry 10 diamonds or more, or something very heavy/awkward (like an unconscious ally or a loaded sled), then not only will they be slow and noisy, but they’ll also risk exhaustion, accident, and/or injury. The GM tells them the consequences, then continues to make it a significant part of the fiction and their moves.

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