Optional Rules: Overland Travel

Overland Travel

Most of His Majesty the Worm is focused on dungeon-crawling in the mythic Underworld. It abstracts concerns of food, time, and distance into the flow of the Camp and Crawl Phases. If your game takes place in a setting where the sun shines, you might want a system that adds an additional layer of logistics to travel. If this is the case, use these rules.

Each day is divided into three watches. Each watch takes about eight hours.

Using these optional rules, timekeeping becomes important. After three watches, a new day dawns. The GM should step through the calendar as they pass day by day.

For each watch, follow this procedure:

1. Choose action

The guild chooses a single overland action to take.

2. Meatgrinder

The GM draws on their Meatgrinder table for a random event or encounter.

3. Set the scene

The GM describes the random encounter in the context of the hex the guild is traveling in. The players and the GM play out the scene, and when it’s over, the GM calls for a new overland action to be chosen.

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

– Joseph Campbell

Overland actions

Each watch, the guild can perform one of the following overland actions. It’s important to note that, using these optional rules, step 1 of the Camp Phase is separated from steps 2–5.

Camp Action

Each adventurer can choose any of the Camp Actions listed on pages 137–139 to perform.

Encamp

The guild beds down for the night. Run through steps 2–5 of the Camp Phase.

Explore

Look for interesting things within a hex. The GM informs the guild of any notable features, lairs, terrain, or spoor that are discoverable within the area they’re in.

Interact

Interact with a special feature or location (e.g., exploring a dungeon or visiting a hamlet).

Travel

The guild travels from their current hex into an adjacent one. If there are clear roads, they can move +1 hex. If everyone in the guild is riding, they can move another +1 hex.

Under the eye of the sun, questions of exhaustion and hunger come into play more than under the standard rules. Characters who fail to Encamp once per day become Exhausted—all tests and all Challenge Actions are made with disfavor until they Encamp again.