So, me and my friends just started our first D&D campaign and my one friend who plays a character named Luth is the only one who has played before. The party is tracking down someone who is hiring low level thieves to steal and ship religious symbols for large sums of money and i have a plan on what they will run into when the party gets to Fearmount (where the address that the symbols were shipped to is). Luth keeps on pushing me to "fast travel" most of the way across the continent to Fearmount and i keep telling them no. The encounter there is going to be way more advanced and i need them to make stops in towns along the way so that they can level up by the time they get there. Is there any way i can either make them stop trying to get me to fast travel to whole way or to meet in the middle and have them fast travel some of the way while still leveling up and having side quests and encounters before they arrive to Fearmount?
So, me and my friends just started our first D&D campaign and my one friend who plays a character named Luth is the only one who has played before. The party is tracking down someone who is hiring low level thieves to steal and ship religious symbols for large sums of money and i have a plan on what they will run into when the party gets to Fearmount (where the address that the symbols were shipped to is). Luth keeps on pushing me to "fast travel" most of the way across the continent to Fearmount and i keep telling them no. The encounter there is going to be way more advanced and i need them to make stops in towns along the way so that they can level up by the time they get there. Is there any way i can either make them stop trying to get me to fast travel to whole way or to meet in the middle and have them fast travel some of the way while still leveling up and having side quests and encounters before they arrive to Fearmount?
Just communicate clearly. Tell the player that you have been working to prepare both short term and long term plots, and that you have a general idea of the Fearmount thing being a long term plot.
You don't want to railroad the party--there's a fine line between developing a plot and forcing the players into doing what you want them to do. But having ideas for things that can happen in between isn't by itself railroading.
You also want to keep in mind the enjoyment of the whole group. If it turns out that they aren't enjoying the smaller stops along the way, you may need to revisit your plan. But if the rest of the group is having fun and this one player isn't, just take them aside and explain what you are intending. It's not like they won't get there, it's not like they won't be able to do what they want to do. The bad guys won't 'get away' while they wait :) In essence, you are in control of the world, so there's no 'need' to get there 'right now'.
The players should have a lot of input into what happens, but as the DM you are the one putting your time and effort into figuring out what the whole group does with their Saturday night of gaming. Your plans have to have a little more weight than one player's desire to do something--otherwise you are wasting your time with preparation and plotting.
One of the biggest problems with long road trips in D&D is they are generally boring. There's the monotony of camp, rest, travel, camp, rest, travel, ad nauseam, and many players will tire of it very quickly.
Give them something to do while traveling, or skip it, and if you do give them something to do, make it feel like it belongs. Random encounters are just empty calories if all you're doing is tossing something off a random table so they can fight. Instead treat travelling like it's own mini story/dumgeon, give them something that can happen which could impact them in a meaningful positive, or negative, way. Make the encounter have hard decisions, make the encounters vary from social to combat, make the results of the encounter tax them in some fashion. If you aren't going to give them something during their travels that has meat to it, then skip the travel scene by asking "Do you want to do anything specific while travelling? Otherwise we're going to say you've reached the next town".
My players are on a two week long journey, I could spend many sessions going on about the crossing of the country like this, but in stead I've got it broken down to a few important encounters. If the players want to side track, change course, or otherwise take control of the travel, then I'll adapt. I'll toss out a couple camp scenes so they can RP and explain down-time activities, but I'll pass 2-3 days with a hand wave since travel can be pretty boring. I'll interject descriptions of the scenery when it changes, such as going from forest to rolling hills, or dessert to mountain range. I'll even tack on geological or hand made points of interest as they travel so the world feels alive in that aspect. These little details allow my players to take the wheel if they want, otherwise they just note something down and we continue along with the journey.
The encounters are a whole different matter, and should serve a purpose. The random encounters that people toss out, such as rolling a d10 and saying a random something happens on a particular result can be helpful every so often. However it's more entertaining if the players can make decisions rather than have a random Bullette pop up because you rolled a 3. As they're travelling you say something along the lines of: "On your fourth day of travel you notice a structure in the distance, off to the West, it appears to have once been a tower. The reason it catches your eye is that it has fallen and is now resting on the side of a large hill, almost like it laid down to nap". Now the players can make a decision: Do we investigate or do we continue on? At this point in time travel becomes more than just getting from point A to point B, it's now something interactive.
As they travel on, you give them the description of a wagon broken down, the wheel busted up, the wood torn apart. That's going to get their attention, they'll investigate, and they find nothing. A few hundred feet away they see another wagon, in the same disrepair, and it becomes apparent something happened here, but this wagon has a small stuffed animal wearing a necklace. Now, they can investigate, gather information, and formulate an idea of what may have happened. You can use their ideas to make it more or you can work something in that's different, like the weather was bad and storms caused an accident. You could have them run into the survivors in the next town, and potentially have a trinket that one of them had lost. Now they see that the world lives, it breaths, and the little details like that have a greater impact.
If you don't want to put that kind of work into travel, then simply skip it.
If you don't want to put that kind of work into travel, then simply skip it.
Agreed. I've never been one for random encounters. Even when I don't have large campaign-level plots, I would much rather plan something they will 'randomly' encounter than just roll up a monster to fight for the sake of fighting. But I tend to like my RPGs to be story telling and thematic.
But yeah, just 'travel' isn't exciting. This isn't Trudgings and Wagons, it's Dungeons and Dragons :) The encounters are where it's at.
I am in agreement with the other two, there is no need to blip across the map in an instant, but you also should not be playing out a weeks long cross country trek hour by hour.
I would ask the players the route they intend to travel and what they are doing in terms of marching orders, then based on that figure out how long they will take to get to various locations. Then describe the scenery of the area, any notable landmarks they pass and when terrain or weather changes, as well as an indication of how long has passed, giving the players an opportunity to RP among themselves whenever they want to. Otherwise only breaking from the short descriptions for a more notable event, meeting stranded travelers, fending off the local fauna, anything that would be classed as an encounter.
thank you to everyone who commented so far! these are really helpful and i'm definitely going to only stop for important encounters and ill be sure not to drag out the travel too long. I already know the route they'll be going so ill plan accordingly. My next meet is Monday and they'll have an encounter that isn't too major, they just need to earn some money but it also doubles to highlight the rot that is spreading over the entire western side of the continent because for most of the pc's it'll be their first monster encounter. After that i think ill skip the travel till the next major town which'll be a change of scene for them since it is more prosperous than anywhere they've been before. Thank you again to everyone for being so kind and helpful!!
Encounters and adventures while traveling should be part of the game. It is a long way across a country or continent, and the land is not always tame and safe. That said hose adventures and encounters should be fun for the group. Empty combats with monsters that are nothing more than wandering bags of Experience Points are going to get boring pretty quickly, unless your players love combat for its own sake. Definitely skip over the mundane bits of travel. Ask for a camp procedure, a marching order and that sort of thing. Assume it's being followed. But there is no need to role-play every day of riding down the trail, stopping at another inn, etc if nothing out of the ordinary happens.
thank you to everyone who commented so far! these are really helpful and i'm definitely going to only stop for important encounters and ill be sure not to drag out the travel too long. I already know the route they'll be going so ill plan accordingly. My next meet is Monday and they'll have an encounter that isn't too major, they just need to earn some money but it also doubles to highlight the rot that is spreading over the entire western side of the continent because for most of the pc's it'll be their first monster encounter. After that i think ill skip the travel till the next major town which'll be a change of scene for them since it is more prosperous than anywhere they've been before. Thank you again to everyone for being so kind and helpful!!
That's exactly the idea. When I plan a 'minor' encounter, I am either thinking "What is going to be the fun part about this?" and/or "What are they going to learn from this?"
Not everything they do has to be related to the overall big plot. But if not, it should be cool and fun. If it has to do with the big plot, then they should be learning something, or in some way making (or having the chance to learn or make) some kind of progress on the plot. Like your plan to show them some of the rot--they're learning something. Then the next Big Plot encounter, maybe it's meeting a new important NPC, or finding a new clue, etc etc. Exactly the idea you're talking about.
If you have a lot of traveling to do, I say just have them roll for random encounters each travel day, and otherwise skip to important events that you need to occur along the way.
If you have a lot of traveling to do, I say just have them roll for random encounters each travel day, and otherwise skip to important events that you need to occur along the way.
I personally don't appreciate random encounters. I'd rather cut to important plot points or encounters that are constructed for a purpose. But I know a lot of people who like the random ones okay. My concern is that if you have a player who's already antsy about getting where they're going, the perception that anything they do along the way is random won't help that player's attitude.
There is one other option. Let them blip to Fearmount if they REALLY wish this to happen. Tone down what they might face just a little if they are ill prepared for it but make it difficult enough that they might find themselves on the cusp of a TPK. Then find ways in-story to indicate to them the resources that they passed up and how they could have been of great aid in Fearmount. They might think twice the next time.
I acknowledge that this is 'teaching your players a lesson' and is, IMHO taboo for a DM. So this is a knife's edge to balance. I hope I never will be the type to become a 'teacher'. But I always remind my players that, though it is my goal to help them shine, I cannot be held accountable for dumb decisions or impatience on their part.
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Thank you. ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
Come up with reasons for them to care about the encounters along the way. if what's happening right now is not relevant to their goal, then they will instinctively and rightly, fairly want to find a way to skip it. However, if this little pit stop happens to be very important to them ever having a chance to reach their destination, then they will care very deeply about making sure it goes well.
For example: we could go to Fearmount right away, but if we get there without the special key from the hard-to-find hermit, we'll be out of luck. Oh, and he sold it to a traveling merchant who traded it to a talking donkey who lent it to an ogre in a swamp.
Now, who brought their adventuring boots today?
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So, me and my friends just started our first D&D campaign and my one friend who plays a character named Luth is the only one who has played before. The party is tracking down someone who is hiring low level thieves to steal and ship religious symbols for large sums of money and i have a plan on what they will run into when the party gets to Fearmount (where the address that the symbols were shipped to is). Luth keeps on pushing me to "fast travel" most of the way across the continent to Fearmount and i keep telling them no. The encounter there is going to be way more advanced and i need them to make stops in towns along the way so that they can level up by the time they get there. Is there any way i can either make them stop trying to get me to fast travel to whole way or to meet in the middle and have them fast travel some of the way while still leveling up and having side quests and encounters before they arrive to Fearmount?
Just communicate clearly. Tell the player that you have been working to prepare both short term and long term plots, and that you have a general idea of the Fearmount thing being a long term plot.
You don't want to railroad the party--there's a fine line between developing a plot and forcing the players into doing what you want them to do. But having ideas for things that can happen in between isn't by itself railroading.
You also want to keep in mind the enjoyment of the whole group. If it turns out that they aren't enjoying the smaller stops along the way, you may need to revisit your plan. But if the rest of the group is having fun and this one player isn't, just take them aside and explain what you are intending. It's not like they won't get there, it's not like they won't be able to do what they want to do. The bad guys won't 'get away' while they wait :) In essence, you are in control of the world, so there's no 'need' to get there 'right now'.
The players should have a lot of input into what happens, but as the DM you are the one putting your time and effort into figuring out what the whole group does with their Saturday night of gaming. Your plans have to have a little more weight than one player's desire to do something--otherwise you are wasting your time with preparation and plotting.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
One of the biggest problems with long road trips in D&D is they are generally boring. There's the monotony of camp, rest, travel, camp, rest, travel, ad nauseam, and many players will tire of it very quickly.
Give them something to do while traveling, or skip it, and if you do give them something to do, make it feel like it belongs. Random encounters are just empty calories if all you're doing is tossing something off a random table so they can fight. Instead treat travelling like it's own mini story/dumgeon, give them something that can happen which could impact them in a meaningful positive, or negative, way. Make the encounter have hard decisions, make the encounters vary from social to combat, make the results of the encounter tax them in some fashion. If you aren't going to give them something during their travels that has meat to it, then skip the travel scene by asking "Do you want to do anything specific while travelling? Otherwise we're going to say you've reached the next town".
My players are on a two week long journey, I could spend many sessions going on about the crossing of the country like this, but in stead I've got it broken down to a few important encounters. If the players want to side track, change course, or otherwise take control of the travel, then I'll adapt. I'll toss out a couple camp scenes so they can RP and explain down-time activities, but I'll pass 2-3 days with a hand wave since travel can be pretty boring. I'll interject descriptions of the scenery when it changes, such as going from forest to rolling hills, or dessert to mountain range. I'll even tack on geological or hand made points of interest as they travel so the world feels alive in that aspect. These little details allow my players to take the wheel if they want, otherwise they just note something down and we continue along with the journey.
The encounters are a whole different matter, and should serve a purpose. The random encounters that people toss out, such as rolling a d10 and saying a random something happens on a particular result can be helpful every so often. However it's more entertaining if the players can make decisions rather than have a random Bullette pop up because you rolled a 3. As they're travelling you say something along the lines of: "On your fourth day of travel you notice a structure in the distance, off to the West, it appears to have once been a tower. The reason it catches your eye is that it has fallen and is now resting on the side of a large hill, almost like it laid down to nap". Now the players can make a decision: Do we investigate or do we continue on? At this point in time travel becomes more than just getting from point A to point B, it's now something interactive.
As they travel on, you give them the description of a wagon broken down, the wheel busted up, the wood torn apart. That's going to get their attention, they'll investigate, and they find nothing. A few hundred feet away they see another wagon, in the same disrepair, and it becomes apparent something happened here, but this wagon has a small stuffed animal wearing a necklace. Now, they can investigate, gather information, and formulate an idea of what may have happened. You can use their ideas to make it more or you can work something in that's different, like the weather was bad and storms caused an accident. You could have them run into the survivors in the next town, and potentially have a trinket that one of them had lost. Now they see that the world lives, it breaths, and the little details like that have a greater impact.
If you don't want to put that kind of work into travel, then simply skip it.
Agreed. I've never been one for random encounters. Even when I don't have large campaign-level plots, I would much rather plan something they will 'randomly' encounter than just roll up a monster to fight for the sake of fighting. But I tend to like my RPGs to be story telling and thematic.
But yeah, just 'travel' isn't exciting. This isn't Trudgings and Wagons, it's Dungeons and Dragons :) The encounters are where it's at.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
I am in agreement with the other two, there is no need to blip across the map in an instant, but you also should not be playing out a weeks long cross country trek hour by hour.
I would ask the players the route they intend to travel and what they are doing in terms of marching orders, then based on that figure out how long they will take to get to various locations. Then describe the scenery of the area, any notable landmarks they pass and when terrain or weather changes, as well as an indication of how long has passed, giving the players an opportunity to RP among themselves whenever they want to. Otherwise only breaking from the short descriptions for a more notable event, meeting stranded travelers, fending off the local fauna, anything that would be classed as an encounter.
"Unless you have a 12 book contract to fill."
-Robert Jordan
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
thank you to everyone who commented so far! these are really helpful and i'm definitely going to only stop for important encounters and ill be sure not to drag out the travel too long. I already know the route they'll be going so ill plan accordingly. My next meet is Monday and they'll have an encounter that isn't too major, they just need to earn some money but it also doubles to highlight the rot that is spreading over the entire western side of the continent because for most of the pc's it'll be their first monster encounter. After that i think ill skip the travel till the next major town which'll be a change of scene for them since it is more prosperous than anywhere they've been before. Thank you again to everyone for being so kind and helpful!!
Encounters and adventures while traveling should be part of the game. It is a long way across a country or continent, and the land is not always tame and safe. That said hose adventures and encounters should be fun for the group. Empty combats with monsters that are nothing more than wandering bags of Experience Points are going to get boring pretty quickly, unless your players love combat for its own sake. Definitely skip over the mundane bits of travel. Ask for a camp procedure, a marching order and that sort of thing. Assume it's being followed. But there is no need to role-play every day of riding down the trail, stopping at another inn, etc if nothing out of the ordinary happens.
That's exactly the idea. When I plan a 'minor' encounter, I am either thinking "What is going to be the fun part about this?" and/or "What are they going to learn from this?"
Not everything they do has to be related to the overall big plot. But if not, it should be cool and fun. If it has to do with the big plot, then they should be learning something, or in some way making (or having the chance to learn or make) some kind of progress on the plot. Like your plan to show them some of the rot--they're learning something. Then the next Big Plot encounter, maybe it's meeting a new important NPC, or finding a new clue, etc etc. Exactly the idea you're talking about.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
If you have a lot of traveling to do, I say just have them roll for random encounters each travel day, and otherwise skip to important events that you need to occur along the way.
I personally don't appreciate random encounters. I'd rather cut to important plot points or encounters that are constructed for a purpose. But I know a lot of people who like the random ones okay. My concern is that if you have a player who's already antsy about getting where they're going, the perception that anything they do along the way is random won't help that player's attitude.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
There is one other option. Let them blip to Fearmount if they REALLY wish this to happen. Tone down what they might face just a little if they are ill prepared for it but make it difficult enough that they might find themselves on the cusp of a TPK. Then find ways in-story to indicate to them the resources that they passed up and how they could have been of great aid in Fearmount. They might think twice the next time.
I acknowledge that this is 'teaching your players a lesson' and is, IMHO taboo for a DM. So this is a knife's edge to balance. I hope I never will be the type to become a 'teacher'. But I always remind my players that, though it is my goal to help them shine, I cannot be held accountable for dumb decisions or impatience on their part.
Thank you.
ChrisW
Ones are righteous. And one day, we just might believe it.
Come up with reasons for them to care about the encounters along the way. if what's happening right now is not relevant to their goal, then they will instinctively and rightly, fairly want to find a way to skip it. However, if this little pit stop happens to be very important to them ever having a chance to reach their destination, then they will care very deeply about making sure it goes well.
For example: we could go to Fearmount right away, but if we get there without the special key from the hard-to-find hermit, we'll be out of luck. Oh, and he sold it to a traveling merchant who traded it to a talking donkey who lent it to an ogre in a swamp.
Now, who brought their adventuring boots today?