Six Leave the Valley

The wells in Sallowdale have gone bitter. Six people load one wagon and set out for Fairhold, twenty stages away across river, plains, woods, hills, salt flats and a high pass. The snow closes the pass after week 22. Each week you set the pace (steady, hard or rest) and the rations (full, half or scraps), then draw an event card from the pile for the country you are crossing: a ford, a fever, wolves, a kind stranger, a cracked wheel. You choose how to meet it. The dice decide how it goes. Then everyone eats, or doesn't, and you write one line in the trail log. People die. Each traveller has a name, a reason for leaving and four Health. When one dies, you write their epitaph. Some lose heart and walk back instead. The game ends when the wagon reaches Fairhold or nobody is left to drive it. Six named travellers, each with a portrait card and a reason they left 36 illustrated event cards, six for each kind of country One line of writing a week: the trail log is the whole journal Two or three sittings for a full trip; a week takes a few minutes What's in the book (29 pages) Seven pages of rules and a two-page example of play Party sheet, wagon sheet and a 34-week trail log The trail map and the twenty stages 36 event cards with optional card backs Epitaphs, walk-outs and arrivals, and a one-page quick reference You need eight d6 (six will do), a pencil and scissors. The numbers were checked over 5,000 simulated trips: about six in ten reach Fairhold with someone alive, about one in ten arrive with all six, and pushing hard on scraps every week never gets there.