Campfire | An Elegant Travel System is a role playing game supplement by Matthew Ross is a role playing game supplement published by AbyssalBrews for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a nine-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $4.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Open Game License. There is a second, printer-friendly version of the PDF with only seven pages as it lacks the front cover and the illustrations have been removed, making it shorter. In addition, there is a Worksheet, which is a single page PDF for keeping track of a journey. This comes in two versions, one of which is a form-fillable PDF, and a zip file with five jpgs from the book.
After a short piece of fiction, the opening paragraphs explain that journeys can have an effect.
Finding Your Way explains that players often have little interest in the hows of getting places and that this supplement is intended to make such journeys interesting.
Phases of Travel explains there are three phases; Preparation, Expedition and Resolution.
Preparation covers setting the Travel DC, a modifier for the weather conditions and a Destination Score that needs to be hit to arrive there.
Expedition is the travel phase which has the characters using their skills to overcome the Travel DC and when enough success or failures have been achieved, the phase ends.
Resolution starts by determining whether the journey was a Windfall or a Hardship; the first has a d20 table of positive consequences, the second a d20 table of negative ones.
Make It Your Own Journey looks at how a GM can make a journey their own.
Thank You is thanks.
Variant: Obfuscated Travel has the GM keeping the information about the journey secret.
Campfire | An Elegant Travel System in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though short, has enough sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a variety of colour illustrations. Presentation is good.
This supplement is essentially a subsystem for 5th Edition to make a journey into a sort of mini-game within the game itself. It can make the journey more interesting, though it might be better to pair it up with some terrain-specific encounters as well. It’s a useful little addition, though expensive at full price. Campfire | An Elegant Travel System can be found by clicking here.
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