My players have sizable journey coming up next week where they have a two week trek on horseback, so I'm trying to figure out if I as the DM should make them play out all fourteen days and nights (sped up obviously) or if I should do it by two weeks. I'm posting to gain any type of advice from fellow DM's who have dealt with this issue in the past and what they did, thanks!
I'd break it into two weeks of travel. Do maybe one encounter each week. Maybe a traveling merchant with a broken wagon or something one week and maybe a chance encounter with some bandits or some strange creature the next. Don't do a day-by-day pacing. Set it up as more of a travel montage.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Okay, thanks! I planned on a few different encounters happening already during the time but I was afraid it may seem too fast. However, with your idea of the broken wagon and the merchant just gave me a brilliant idea. Thank you!
Or a bandit posing as a broken down merchant with friends hiding in the bushes! Then, the second week there is ACTUALLY a broken down merchant and the party will be super suspicious.
Keep in mind - not every bump along the road needs to be a potential combat encounter.
You (or the players) could use that time to delve deeper into their backstories. The characters might sit around a campfire one night sharing stories. Someone might use this time to open up to another character, perhaps while sitting on watch.
You could have a certain character receive dreams or visions from their deity or their patron during one of the nights along the journey.
The party might encounter or witness some disturbing omen or portent that foreshadows some trouble ahead, like maybe one night the Moon turns a dark red for a few hours, or maybe the road they're traveling along crosses a large field and all the plants and trees in the field are dead, and there are dead birds scattered all over the ground, but only within maybe a 100 foot radius.
Or you could just mess with them. Just tell them that they have the distinct sense that they're being watched, but no matter how high their Perception checks, they almost see something out of the corner of their eye, but then its gone.
Sometimes it's more fun to do mental damage to the players than it is to do physical damage to their characters.
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Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
I think there are three ways to handle traveling in RPGs.
If all of the adventure is going to happen at the target location and everything in between would be like "filler" episodes on a TV series, you can simply skip the traveling. "After two weeks of travel just as the sun sets you see the gates of Zhadash. Exhausted but euphoric at the thought of sleeping in a solid bed again, you make your ways past the gates". Done.
On the other hand the journey itself could be the adventure, or an essential part of it. If the party is chasing an evil wizard, maybe they come across a small village that struggles to fight off the wizard's undead minions. Or they come across a small monastery, where the evil wizard was once rescued and the monks remember the nice young lad with hope in his eyes and a gleaming passion for justice... so you can sprinkle in some background on your main villain. And maybe even find common ground with the BBEG and some way to negotiate with them.
The third option to me would be a relaxed journey without specific goals. On such a journey I would focus on little one to two session long adventures that connect to the world and make it seem alive. Maybe a merchant needs some help after his assistant got sick and offers to take the party with him if they help him transport his wares. A local doctor might need help finding a rare plant, that only grows in the old, unfortunately haunted dragon ruins near the village... a small town celebrates a bountiful harvest and organizes an archery tournament and several party games. My players always loved it when they came across a festival and got their fortunes read by an old woman or competed in a quiz game.
If you go with option three, sooner or later your players will stick to a certain NPC, location or plot and you can expand on that to a bigger adventure. :-)
The one thing I would never do as a DM is to have "random combat encounters" like five wolves attacking the party at night. To me that is just a waste of time, but if I realize the players want to fight something, I will try to create a reasonable encounter on the fly for them.
I appreciate these ideas as well! I have the group traveling to a cave right now to take out a barghest, and along the way I planned on having them bump into traveling merchant headed the same direction. It's all part of the storyline! I'll definitely be implementing some of the ideas you've given.
My players have sizable journey coming up next week where they have a two week trek on horseback, so I'm trying to figure out if I as the DM should make them play out all fourteen days and nights (sped up obviously) or if I should do it by two weeks. I'm posting to gain any type of advice from fellow DM's who have dealt with this issue in the past and what they did, thanks!
I'd break it into two weeks of travel. Do maybe one encounter each week. Maybe a traveling merchant with a broken wagon or something one week and maybe a chance encounter with some bandits or some strange creature the next. Don't do a day-by-day pacing. Set it up as more of a travel montage.
Okay, thanks! I planned on a few different encounters happening already during the time but I was afraid it may seem too fast. However, with your idea of the broken wagon and the merchant just gave me a brilliant idea. Thank you!
Or a bandit posing as a broken down merchant with friends hiding in the bushes! Then, the second week there is ACTUALLY a broken down merchant and the party will be super suspicious.
Keep in mind - not every bump along the road needs to be a potential combat encounter.
You (or the players) could use that time to delve deeper into their backstories. The characters might sit around a campfire one night sharing stories. Someone might use this time to open up to another character, perhaps while sitting on watch.
You could have a certain character receive dreams or visions from their deity or their patron during one of the nights along the journey.
The party might encounter or witness some disturbing omen or portent that foreshadows some trouble ahead, like maybe one night the Moon turns a dark red for a few hours, or maybe the road they're traveling along crosses a large field and all the plants and trees in the field are dead, and there are dead birds scattered all over the ground, but only within maybe a 100 foot radius.
Or you could just mess with them. Just tell them that they have the distinct sense that they're being watched, but no matter how high their Perception checks, they almost see something out of the corner of their eye, but then its gone.
Sometimes it's more fun to do mental damage to the players than it is to do physical damage to their characters.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
I think there are three ways to handle traveling in RPGs.
If all of the adventure is going to happen at the target location and everything in between would be like "filler" episodes on a TV series, you can simply skip the traveling. "After two weeks of travel just as the sun sets you see the gates of Zhadash. Exhausted but euphoric at the thought of sleeping in a solid bed again, you make your ways past the gates". Done.
On the other hand the journey itself could be the adventure, or an essential part of it. If the party is chasing an evil wizard, maybe they come across a small village that struggles to fight off the wizard's undead minions. Or they come across a small monastery, where the evil wizard was once rescued and the monks remember the nice young lad with hope in his eyes and a gleaming passion for justice... so you can sprinkle in some background on your main villain. And maybe even find common ground with the BBEG and some way to negotiate with them.
The third option to me would be a relaxed journey without specific goals. On such a journey I would focus on little one to two session long adventures that connect to the world and make it seem alive. Maybe a merchant needs some help after his assistant got sick and offers to take the party with him if they help him transport his wares. A local doctor might need help finding a rare plant, that only grows in the old, unfortunately haunted dragon ruins near the village... a small town celebrates a bountiful harvest and organizes an archery tournament and several party games. My players always loved it when they came across a festival and got their fortunes read by an old woman or competed in a quiz game.
If you go with option three, sooner or later your players will stick to a certain NPC, location or plot and you can expand on that to a bigger adventure. :-)
The one thing I would never do as a DM is to have "random combat encounters" like five wolves attacking the party at night. To me that is just a waste of time, but if I realize the players want to fight something, I will try to create a reasonable encounter on the fly for them.
I really like these ideas as the purpose of my campaign is to be heavy in psychologically damaging moments. I'll be using these for sure!
I appreciate these ideas as well! I have the group traveling to a cave right now to take out a barghest, and along the way I planned on having them bump into traveling merchant headed the same direction. It's all part of the storyline! I'll definitely be implementing some of the ideas you've given.
If you've never read the Angry GM he does have a lot of interesting diatribes on RPG subjects. Travel being one of them. I like this particular article: https://theangrygm.com/getting-there-is-half-the-fun/
Matt Colville has an interesting video on travel.