So what is supposed to happen when the party runs out of rations?

So what is supposed to happen when the party runs out of rations?

So what is supposed to happen when the party runs out of rations? I can’t find any mention in the rulebook; I assume it would mean that they can’t use the “make camp” move until they get more. Should I allow them to hunt small animals to replace their rations? Or should I force them to return to town? Should they take damage every day that they don’t eat?

10 thoughts on “So what is supposed to happen when the party runs out of rations?”

  1. What happens when they run out of rations and they do nothing about it is that eventually they die.

    What happens when they run out of rations and they do something about it is that the players describe what their characters are doing, and you make GM moves. No different than anything else in the game, really.

  2. Rations are used to measure time but they can always take the time to hunt, gather, steal food or explore places to look for food. Maybe each class has tips on finding food.

    Then as GM you can metagame it to a simple ration amount found to just keep with it on measuring travel time. And if they don’t find anything I’d personally try giving them a -1 to all rolls every couple days until they get food. Instead of killing them, bring in a prominent NPC to the story with food and a favor the players must do for a price.

  4. What Al Gordon is the explanation for about 95% of problems you might encounter. Players describe what they are doing, GM responds with moves according to principle, the taxable listens for move triggers and everyone follows the fiction.

  5. And you get increasingly brutal with your GM moves: revealing unwelcome truths (“if you don’t find water in the next few hours, you’re going to start shaking and getting confused”), telling them the requirements (“before you can even think of committing spells to memory, you gotta get some food in you”) or consequences (“with hands shaking from hunger, you’re not sure you’ll shoot straight; you might hit Ovid”), etc.

    Starvation sucks. 

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