Regions

A region is an area of the world, defined geographically by its physical features. It might be a vast forest or a sandy desert; or it might be a snow-tipped mountain range or a stretch of underground caverns. Regions are often—but not always—named areas on the map. Regions are important building blocks of the world, and each region has its own properties and encounter tables. Later in this chapter are some common regions for Narrators to use.

Combined Regions. Sometimes an area on the map might fit the description of more than one region. The Narrator may choose either region, combine both, or create a new region.

Terrains. A region can have more than one kind of terrain and those listed are general suggestions for the most common types to be found there. Ultimately the types of terrain in a region are at the Narrator’s discretion and the needs of the campaign.

Regions and Tiers. Each region on the map is designated with a tier (from 0–4) which corresponds with the adventuring tiers of play. Any region can be any tier, but some regions lend themselves towards certain ends of the scale; for example, a tier 3 Country Shire would be highly unusual, but a tier 2 Feywood would not.

The combination of region and tier allows for a wide array of building blocks with which to build the game world. A tier 1 Feywood might be a small forest on the edge of a village where it is rumored that satyrs play in the moonlight, while a tier 4 Feywood could be home to powerful and capricious fey beings, or ruled by an ancient green dragon.

A region’s tier determines the difficulty of the challenges encountered within. Exploration and monster encounter tables are all categorized by tier, making it easy to select tier-relevant encounters. Of course, exceptions can and do exist, and a powerful monster can wander into that tier 1 Country Shire, or a cruel necromancer might make their lair on the outskirts, but such an occurrence is not typical of that region and is usually used as the subject of an adventure rather than a random encounter.

It should be noted that it is possible for a low-level party to wander into a region too dangerous for them. The Narrator should provide clues to the danger level and—where appropriate—allow for some means of escape should the adventurers find themselves in over their heads.

Party-Appropriate Challenges. In some games the Narrator may prefer not to designate regions with a default tier, and instead present the adventurers with encounters and challenges appropriate for their level.

Weather

Each region contains a short list of randomly generated weather options. These are generally limited to non-extreme weather conditions, including clear, overcast, mist, rain, and snow, and are purely descriptive tools to help the Narrator set the scene—they do not affect the adventurers. More extreme weather events are treated as exploration challenges and include phenomena like blizzards, dense fogs, hail storms, sandstorms, tornados, thunderstorms, and more.

Roll a d20 for weather once for each region. In the winter season, add 5 to the roll, unless the region is in a notably warm or tropical clime.

Encounters

Each region the adventurers travel through will include one or more encounters. The Narrator decides how many encounters the party has.

Encounters include four categories: exploration challenges, monsters, social encounters, and scenery. It is important that the players do not not know which type of encounter they’ve stumbled into—it should be introduced to them narratively. That chill feeling might be mere scenery, but it might be the sign of some kind of undead spirit, or it might foreshadow a weather event. 

Each region presents encounter tables which include all four encounter types. The Narrator can roll on these tables, choose an option, or introduce something new.

Along a journey the Narrator should employ a mix of combat encounters, social encounters, exploration challenges, and scenery. Exploration challenges, which are detailed later in this chapter, have assigned tiers and challenge ratings that correspond to adventurers’ levels. It is assumed that high-level adventurers are able to pass tier 1 exploration challenges without much effort, but a tier 4 exploration challenge poses a major threat.

Ultimately how many encounters adventurers have while traveling is at the discretion of the Narrator, but in general it’s recommended that the party has at least one encounter (combat, exploration, or social) in every region they journey through to make it memorable. Some regions are going to have more encounters than other regions—either because they are tumultuous, the area plays an important part in the campaign, or they are large in size—and the types of encounters the party might have in a given region are listed in its Exploring table. Depending on the needs of the game and campaign setting, the types of encounters, frequency of encounters, and difficulty of certain journey activities might be different.