Ryuutama: Ashes to Ashes, Day 1

I'm running a solo game of Ryuutama for myself, just to test the rules out before I run a game for real. It's usually meant to be played with a small group, so my poor character is in for a hard time. In the previous post, I created my character and got equipped for the journey.

• I play Clover Hartfeld, a Technical-type Hunter. She's on a journey to take her brother's ashes home from the town of Polem to Feruto.

The morning of my departure was clear and still, and I awoke in good condition to set out. I had the daunting choice of heading straight through the formidable forest, or adding an extra day to my journey by walking around. I decided to press straight through the forest, even though it had claimed my brother Taragon's life. Perhaps I needed to prove to myself that I could overcome it, for his memory.

The first roll of the day is for Condition, to see how hale and hearty you are feeling. I got a decent 8; it didn't really affect the rest of my day, though, since it's mainly used to resist status effects.

I've come up with a random map, but didn't bother rolling for weather on day one as I haven't finalised the random weather table yet. I also haven't set up a random encounter system yet, plus I figured the big bad forest was probably enough obstacle to overcome for now.

I set my resolve and trekked alone into the dark forest. Walking around the massive trees, pushing through the thick undergrowth, and climbing over moss-strewn logs made for an arduous journey. It really took it out of me, I must admit, but I had no choice but to press on.

Forests are Level 3 Topography, so I needed a 10 on two dice (d8+d6 or d6+d6) to succeed without some drawback. Since the forest was such a challenge, I Concentrated on every travelling roll to gain a +2 bonus (normally +1, but I get an extra +1 for my Technical type. Still, I failed the Travel roll, and lost half my HP.

By the end of the day, I was almost through the forest. Despite the disorienting environment, I managed to not get lost and was true to my course! This was a small victory, but I was too exhausted to celebrate much. I threw together my camp and settled down for an uncomfortable night.

I just managed to scrape in a success on the Direction check. If I'd failed, I would have only made it halfway through the Forest and would have had to roll against the same difficulty to get out the next day. Luckily, Clover now has just two days' walk across relatively easy Wastelands to reach her destination.

Unfortunately I didn't make the Camping check, so overnight Clover only recovers 2 HP and MP. She's now at 10/16 HP and 3/8 MP. Since Concentration takes half your MP, she'll only be able to Concentrate twice tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll roll and see if any weather influences the journey, and I'll do something about figuring out how to decide random monster encounters. The scenario guidelines suggest maybe including a fight on day 2 or 3, so it looks like basically a 33% chance of an encounter each day. If I go by the hunting rules, though, it's actually harder to find food in more difficult terrain - which includes Forests and Jungles, where I'd normally expect to find a lot of wildlife. I'm not sure if I should just have a flat per-day encounter chance, or weight it for different terrain. I suppose though, more dangerous monsters are likely to live in very difficult terrain, so things might balance out with a flat chance.

>>> Day 2