What's a bothy? ...And why would they be perfect for your game?

Confession time: I don't play Warhammer 40K, but I do read the tie-in novels. Well, some of them, especially Dan Abnett's stuff. I can't recommend his Gaunt's Ghosts books enough.

So, in one of his books, Titanicus, a group of soldiers in stranded in unfamiliar terrain when they connect to some of the indigenous folks. They take them to what they refer to as a halt: a common public shelter or resting place shared by a community.

After some research, I discovered the bothy: a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. So, why would this be a great fit for exploration based games?

Lairig Leacach Bothy, Lochaber, Scotland

(All quotes are from Titanicus by Dan Abnett)

Ashlag claimed to know of an old 'spector's halt halfway up the cut. The halt was a longhouse built from scrap metal and wedged under the lip of a cliff overhang. It was worn and decayed, and partly concealed by netting and wire matting. A small, wooden latrine block stood away to the left. The door of the longhouse wasn't locked. Ashlag explained that the longhouse, and halts like it, were common property, left open to shelter anyone in the indigent community who might pass by.

The description of the halt stuck with me. And while playing a solo game of Eco Mofos, in which exploration of an unknown world plays a big part, my mind turned back to this idea. But what makes these shelters special? There are a few elements that makes these more than just a place to safely camp out for a night. They have supplies, journals and are used with a code of honor.

Halts: bothy inspired communal shelter procedures for Eco Mofos

To differentiate them from their real life counter parts, I'll stick to the term halt like in Dan Abnett's novel. In this post I'll describe how to create these bothies or halts for Eco Mofos, but of course they should be easily implemented in any OSR/NSR game, especially those with a focus on exploration.

If you're running a Westmarches campaign with multiple player groups, halts could be a great way to be able communicate between groups.

Finding a halt

When traveling at Day scale, whenever the rolls for Environment and Feature are the same, you encounter a halt.

Supplies

One wall was shelved from floor to ceiling, and the shelves were crowded with unwanted items that previous visitors had left behind: small pieces of machinery, jars of preserved rice and less readily identifiable foods, rusted tools, a rebreather mask, ore samples, a prospector's hammer, three dead lamps, shards of polished glass, animal bones, twine, a billhook, wire and shreds of cabling, a pair of gloves, two flasks of mixed spice, the blade of a rotary saw, battered pots and pans, three chipped drinking glasses and a signal flare. 'Offerings, said Ashlag, entering the longhouse behind them. 'You use this place, you leave something for the next visitor.'

Each shelter contains a number of items. To stock a halt for Eco Mofos, roll 2d6 times on the d666 Items table. Whenever players revisit a halt, cross out 1d6 of the items they didn't take, and roll 1d6 times on the d666 Items table to update the supplies.

Journals

'Who's Wessman?' Varco asked. 'The last person to use the halt, said the old man. 'How do you know that?' 'It's on the wall, said Ashlag. Varco looked at the bare wall. He realised that its irregular, mismatched panels were covered in tiny writing, floor to ceiling. Many different hands had made the marks. There were scripts of different sizes and styles, in various colours of ink, some so badly faded with age that they were barely visible. Most of the separate entries were short, just a few lines, and all of them were crammed tightly together. In places, there were sketches of maps or diagrams.

'Anyone uses the halt, see, they write it here. Who they were, when it was, what they used or left. Sometimes they say where they were going, or where they've been. Sometimes they leave news. Halt walls are a marvellous place to hear news of old friends and rivals. See here? Durn Tasler's son wedded, two winters back, at Shortwater. Durn wrote this on his way back from the gathering'.

For each halt create a short list of journal entries, about 6 will do for an initial log. For each entry determine the age by roll 1d4:

1. 1d6 years old
2. 1d6 months old
3. 1d6 weeks old
4. 1d6 days old

For each journal pick or roll an NPC on the NPC tables.

Want to create the journal entries from scratch? Generate half of the entries using the Job table, the other half by rolling on the Random Events tables from the Faction rules. Use the Portents table if you need some inspiration.

If random events already happened that your players don't yet know about, add them to the journal, same with rumours you want your players to learn about.

This could also be combined with David Blandy's procedures to track the reputation of the player characters. Maybe some of the journal entries reference the deeds of the punks.

On subsequent visits the number of new entries depends on how long ago it was the players visited. For each passed in-game week roll a d6. On a 1 a new entry is added to the journal.

The Code

'It's all here. He pointed a dirty finger at another small chunk of script. 'See? Says Orgman halted here, seven years back. There's the date. He took a shovel he needed, with thanks, and left a battery that still had work in it. And here, six weeks later, the Zamne brothers halted, driven up by a dust blow. They were here three nights. They took the battery, with thanks, and left a servitor's manip, in good order. They also filled the rice drum, but apologised for taking the last of the salt meat. And they promise to replenish the salt meat next time they pass this way'.

A simple code of honour is followed by all Wasters and Punks using them:

1. Take what you need, leave what you can
2. Leave a log about your stay and any relevant news
3. The halt is a sanctuary: Treat any other visitors like you would treat guests in your house

Players are free to ignore the code, but it's a code all Wasters and Punks know about, and reputation is easily lost, and hard to regain. If the players disregard the code, whenever they have an encounter with other Punks or Wasters roll 3d6 when determining their Reaction, and pick the two lowest dice.

Adding halt/shelter procedures to your game

So, what do you need if you want to add rules for this to other games?

• A mechanism to find a halt.
• A method to stock the items found
• A way to generate random journal items

How would you add them to your favorite game?

Varco picked up the glow-globe and turned his attention back to the wall. He read that someone called Reydo or Reldo had halted four months back, and left a spool of mining det-tape in return for the food he'd taken. An unnamed wildernaut, six weeks earlier, wrote how he'd taken the lube oil left by another visitor, urgently needed for the gears of his strider, and left 'a pail of assorted screws, nuts and nails'. A hippine driver called Caswester, passing by with his train of animals at the turn of the year, proudly reported that he 'had taken nothing and therefore left nothing'. Someone else, nameless and dateless, had simply written 'thank you for the shelter. I was going to die'. Another entry, made by an individual who signed himself as 'Jindal, twist' blessed the halt for its power and water, and 'most excellent, comfortable craphouse'. Varco laughed, and shook his head.

Happy gaming! Peter

This article was first posted to my Substack newsletter:

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