I have a 4 player party currently guiding a convoy of 70 refugees with caravans live stock and horses from one place to another. During the journey I want the party to need to cross a river without a bridge etc.
i would like to make this a skills test or something similar.
Well, swimming across would be Athletics, moving the animals across would likely be Animal Handling. They could try building a bridge or a dam which would be Dex or Carpenter's Tools if they have them. Moving wagons across a river would be a very difficult task.
yeah I like the idea of bridge building... id like them to come up with a way over that is not just a die roll type deal as a few high rolls will remove all tension.
I think i may hint at very bad weather before it and have a flood or white water type deal near by.
They could get attacked while crossing. A70-person refugee convoy with only 4 guards is a prime target. (Typical bandits won’t know they don’t have much worth stealing. Slavers will be after as many people as they can grab.) With the convoy stalled at a river, it’s a good time to launch their assault. The players have to fight off the bandits to buy the refugees time to get to the relative safety of the other side of the river. Then you hand wave the convoy getting across and just make the players figure out how to get their own selves across after they fight. And you could add a time element for tension, with bandits dragging off a cart every few rounds, unless the PC’s drop what they’re doing to go help.
Another classic way to ford a river is raft building, which requires fewer materials and less sophisticated engineering knowledge than bridge building.
Nature or Survival to find a good fording spot. If they tank that roll, they find a bad fording spot and lose some livestock during the crossing.
Nature or Survival or Perception to find materials. If they tank that roll, it takes longer for them to find materials than they'd like, since the weather or Xalthu's slavers are closing in.
They have to build the raft (tool proficiency, failure means the raft comes apart in a reparable way, but each time they cross with a crummy raft they lose 1d4 refugees), someone has to swim the river (Athletics, failure is obvious)), they have to figure out how to get a rope (which they use to drag the raft) across the river.
During the crossing, Animal Handling to keep livestock calm (Failure, and they lose some livestock).
Once those rolls are done, they have a raft that can carry 20 refugees at a time, which sets you up for a classic fox-goose-grain puzzle.
Add Xalthu's slavers, set something on fire, and you've got a river crossing!
I should add: if they make all those rolls, they’ve earned a win. If they get everything across before the slavers get to them, they should have the river between them and the bad guys. They get to cut the rope, smash their raft and not worry about the slavers for several days.
The more I think about it though. The slavers might not want to attack at the river. A convoy of 70 people with carts could be a good quarter mile long, if not more. Stopped at the river is probably the more defensible position since everyone is clustered instead of spread out. While they’re moving, there’s no way the PCs can be everywhere along that group at once. The slavers should be picking people off like hyenas going for the sick zebra.
the constant threat will really make the players consider how badly they need that short/long rest. And when they do finally get to safety, they’d probably want to go back and rescue anyone who was taken.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi,
I have a 4 player party currently guiding a convoy of 70 refugees with caravans live stock and horses from one place to another. During the journey I want the party to need to cross a river without a bridge etc.
i would like to make this a skills test or something similar.
Any ideas my mind is drawing a blank.
Thanks.
Well, swimming across would be Athletics, moving the animals across would likely be Animal Handling. They could try building a bridge or a dam which would be Dex or Carpenter's Tools if they have them. Moving wagons across a river would be a very difficult task.
yeah I like the idea of bridge building... id like them to come up with a way over that is not just a die roll type deal as a few high rolls will remove all tension.
I think i may hint at very bad weather before it and have a flood or white water type deal near by.
They could get attacked while crossing. A70-person refugee convoy with only 4 guards is a prime target. (Typical bandits won’t know they don’t have much worth stealing. Slavers will be after as many people as they can grab.) With the convoy stalled at a river, it’s a good time to launch their assault. The players have to fight off the bandits to buy the refugees time to get to the relative safety of the other side of the river. Then you hand wave the convoy getting across and just make the players figure out how to get their own selves across after they fight. And you could add a time element for tension, with bandits dragging off a cart every few rounds, unless the PC’s drop what they’re doing to go help.
Another classic way to ford a river is raft building, which requires fewer materials and less sophisticated engineering knowledge than bridge building.
Nature or Survival to find a good fording spot. If they tank that roll, they find a bad fording spot and lose some livestock during the crossing.
Nature or Survival or Perception to find materials. If they tank that roll, it takes longer for them to find materials than they'd like, since the weather or Xalthu's slavers are closing in.
They have to build the raft (tool proficiency, failure means the raft comes apart in a reparable way, but each time they cross with a crummy raft they lose 1d4 refugees), someone has to swim the river (Athletics, failure is obvious)), they have to figure out how to get a rope (which they use to drag the raft) across the river.
During the crossing, Animal Handling to keep livestock calm (Failure, and they lose some livestock).
Once those rolls are done, they have a raft that can carry 20 refugees at a time, which sets you up for a classic fox-goose-grain puzzle.
Add Xalthu's slavers, set something on fire, and you've got a river crossing!
so cruel i love it ... yep i like this alot
amazing idea love this
I should add: if they make all those rolls, they’ve earned a win. If they get everything across before the slavers get to them, they should have the river between them and the bad guys. They get to cut the rope, smash their raft and not worry about the slavers for several days.
Xalthu’s slavers is my new band name!
The more I think about it though. The slavers might not want to attack at the river. A convoy of 70 people with carts could be a good quarter mile long, if not more. Stopped at the river is probably the more defensible position since everyone is clustered instead of spread out. While they’re moving, there’s no way the PCs can be everywhere along that group at once. The slavers should be picking people off like hyenas going for the sick zebra.
the constant threat will really make the players consider how badly they need that short/long rest. And when they do finally get to safety, they’d probably want to go back and rescue anyone who was taken.