Travelling

  • The world is broken up into ‘hexes’, even if you are not using a hex map to track travel. Each hex is 10 kilometers from one side to its opposite, meaning it is usually impossible to see outside of the hex you are in until you come within 2 km of another hex.
    • You can see Mountains from 10 hexes away.
  • When the party begins Travelling, they enter the Travel Phase and gain a number of Movement Points equal to the slowest party member’s Overland speed. Mounted characters use their mount’s movement in place of their own. The party uses their Swim speed in water and their Fly speed in the Sky. 
    • Travelling with the Naturewalk Capability reduces the cost of travelling in the corresponding hex by 1 to a minimum of 1, after modifiers. For example, riding a Lapras in the Ocean would reduce the movement cost from 3 to 2, while riding Gogoat in the Grasslands and Combing the Area results in a movement cost of 3. (2 x 2 = 4; 4 – 1 = 3)
  • A Travel Phase is typically 4-8 hours long and you use Movement Points to travel and explore the world around you. If you enter the Downtime Phase for an Extended Rest and you still have Movement Points left, you may use those Movement Points the next day, assuming you wake up early. You can never save more than a single Travel Phase’s worth of Movement Points at a time and you do not keep Movement Points when entering the Adventure Phase.
  • There are up to 3 Travel Phases in a single day. When you enter a Travel Phase, roll on the Weather Chart to determine what the weather will be like for the rest of that Phase. Each terrain type has its own Weather Chart.
  • When you enter the Travel Phase, you may choose the Route you wish to go on, if any. One typically learns about Routes through maps, guides, magical powers, stumbling upon them, and the ever-popular signpost. A Route is a well-traveled path from one area to another that often has obvious landmarks and weaker Pokemon than the wilderness, and is typically easier to traverse than other paths nearby.
    Routes have a number of aspects that differentiate them, such as Travel Speed, Difficulty, Landmarks, and Hazards.
    A Route’s Travel Speed is how many Movement Points it takes to move through it. This typically ranges from 1-3 points.
    A Route’s Difficulty is the average level of the Pokemon and other encounters on it.
    A Route’s Landmarks are its distinguishing features that inform you of where you are.
    A Route’s Hazards are any significant obstacles obstructing your path, such as a landslide covering the entrance to a cave, or a zone of time that freezes anyone who enters it.

    • Routes may or may not have have easily marked paths. When travelling in those that do, you cannot get Lost if you roll a 1 on your Encounter Roll, and nothing happens instead. Some Routes do not always have obvious paths, however, and may simply involve travelling from landmark to landmark. It is possible to get Lost on these unmarked paths.
      If you encounter a landmark you do not recognize, you can attempt to identify it with Recall Survival Factoid. If you succeed, you learn the name of the landmark (if it has one) and if it’s a part of a larger landmark, such as finding a stream that’s part of a river you previously encountered.
  • Even when travelling on a Route you are travelling through hexes, or at least 6 mile increments. 
  • A roll will be made on the Random Encounter table for each hex you enter. These have a range of effects, from stumbling across an ancient ruin to coming across feuding Pokemon, finding an excellent vantage point to map from, or even find a bounty of food!
    • When you roll an Encounter, roll 1d8 to determine that Encounter’s Disposition. Their Disposition is not the same as their Attitude towards the party, although their Disposition may inform it. The color of the Encounter determines what range on the Disposition Chart you roll – a darker Encounter means you roll from 1-8, while a lighter Encounter means  you roll from 3-10.
  • Hexes require different movement compared to others, depending on the major terrain type of that hex.
Terrain/Feature Movement Point Cost
Sky 1
Grassland 2
Wetlands 3
Desert 3
Forest 3
Caves 3
Ocean 4
Mountain 5
Crossing a River +1
Travelling at Night +1
Entering/Exiting a Cave × 2
  • You also have different movement options while travelling. You may limit or accelerate your movement according to the table below. When rolling multiple times, take the lowest roll unless specified otherwise.
Movement Option Movement Point Cost
Hurry – (Roll twice for random encounters and take “Encounter” if possible) × 0.5 
Cautiously Advance – (Roll twice for random encounters and take “Nothing happens” if possible) × 1.5 
Hunt/Forage – (Gain Resources equal to the Survival Ranks of everyone in the party)
[CANNOT BE DONE IN THE DESERT, SKY, CAVE, AT NIGHT, OR WHILE ON A MOUNT]		 × 1.5 
Comb the Area – (Roll twice for random encounters and take “Discovery” if possible) × 2 
Survey the Area – (Discover the terrain type of all the hexes around the hex you are entering; range doubled in Mountains)
[CANNOT BE DONE IN CAVES OR AT NIGHT]		 × 2 
Hunting/Foraging in Caves- (Gain Resources equal to the Survival Ranks of everyone in the party, roll twice for random encounters and take “Encounter” if possible)
[CANNOT BE DONE IN CAVES OR AT NIGHT]		 × 2 
  • It is possible to get Lost while travelling, usually when rolling a 1 on the Encounter table. If you are Lost, you enter the hex you are trying to, but you must succeed on a Recall Survival Factoid attempt to stop being Lost. The Task Difficulty depends on the Movement Point Cost of the terrain you have entered: Novice difficulty for 2 MP or less; Adept difficulty for 3 MP; and Expert difficulty for 4 or more MP. If you are also travelling at night, then the Task Difficulty increases by one tier. If you fail this roll, the GM rolls a d6 to determine which direction you travel in next. The hex directly North is always 1, and each number progresses clockwise.
    You may make a new Recall Survival Factoid attempt whenever you enter a new terrain type or spot a visible Landmark. You may also make an attempt once per movement if you have a compass with a +2 bonus, but if you fail, the GM rolls a d6 to determine which direction you think is north.
  • When entering the Downtime Phase for an Extended Rest, this counts as entering a Travel Phase, so you roll on the Night Weather Table (or whatever time of day you will be spending most of your Phase in). You may undertake 2 Downtime Actions as normal – one for the night and one for the morning after. You should put up a Watch while the rest of the party sleeps; Watches last up to 4 hours, so there are typically 2 Watches per night. During each Watch, roll on the Night Encounter table to see if anything happens.
  • Once per day when taking an Extended Rest, the party consumes X number of Resources, where X is the number of Trainers and Pokemon in the party. You can only consume Resources during an Extended Rest. A creature’s Size influences how much it consumes according to the table below.
    A Mini-sized creature eats so little food that it only matters whether or not you have anything to feed it, rather than how much.

    • A Resource is capable of feeding Hypervores, Omnivores, Carnivores, Herbivores and Filter Feeders. See Pokemon Diet for details.
    • Generally, if you have paid for commercial lodging then you should not need to consume Resources. However, if you simply stay at a generous person’s home, they may not have enough food to spare. Your GM should be sensible, but err on the side of generosity.
    • You can find food with the Wilderness Living power.
    • If a creature fails to rest for 24 hours, they take 1 Mind Damage. If they fail to consume Resources or other sustenance for 24 hours, they take 1 Body Damage.
Creature Size Resource Consumption
Mini Negligible
Tiny ½ Resource
Small 1 Resource
Medium 2 Resources
Large 3 Resources
Huge 5 Resources
Massive 7 Resources
Gigantic 10 Resources
Pokemon with the Nullivore diet do not consume Resources at all, while Ergovores, Terravores and Phototrophs do not consume Resources as long as they have access to natural electrical currents, ground/rocks, and the sun respectively. If they do not have access to these, then they suffer from starvation unless they have another diet type.