I'm working on one of my first homebrews. I'm the kind of guy that enjoys the travel aspect: load carrying, buy a donkey to drag the cart, where are you camping, get a ship, are we taking this route or that route? The reason for why I'd make this essential for the campaign is for focus on elements to involve. Old enemies/rivals are following, chasing them if they don't keep pace. Or they can hunker down and set a trap, waiting for enemies to catch up. Over the mountain or under? Passing thru a secluded school of wizards on a winding road is different than taking the road thru a crowded city, and I like putting choices like this.
Problem I'm having... the source material I read so far focuses alot of having a single big city hub to bounce back and forth, while this is to constantly leave each city in a rearview mirror and keep going. Is there any campaign material on how to keep an adventure 100% on-the-road? My google searches keep getting "time travel" or just "small sidequest improvising."
Note: Happens 100% on the material plane. The item they are quested with delivering can't be teleported or portaled, and is too heavy to be flown.
With a first homebrew, you probably don't want too much travel. In general when homebrewing, you can leave details fuzzier and fuzzier the further away the area is from the PCs. This lets you make quick adjustments to your plans without the players ever knowing. And that's not even getting into the practical considerations of how long it will take you in terms of prep time to flesh out each area, so the fewer you need to fully create, the less work you are making for yourself.
The more the characters travel, the more of the world you need to fill in, and the faster you need to do it, which can end up being a challenge for you to manage.
Also, travel, in this edition, generally gets short shrift. After a few levels, the PCs have powers, abilities and spells that turn most traveling into a pretty trivial exercise. A lot of the time, DM's just hand wave it. I understand you have some complications that will make it less trivial and force them to pay attention. It's just that's probably why there's not much written about it; not many people like to do it. At least, that's my perception. I'm sure there are some people who do enjoy it, and maybe most people do. I'm just going off the threads I see about how to make travel not be boring, rather than people looking for ways to make it easier.
It's a bit of a problematic concept in my opinion.
This requires you choose one of the following:
The party are railroaded into fleeing away into the encounters you have written. They don't have choice about where to go.
The party have total free direction which way to go, and you'll need to design dozens of encounters that won't be seen.
You give the party the illusion of free choice, but they will meet the same encounters in any direction, so are effectively railroaded (probably the best option)
The game works best when there is variation, rather than continually being on the move. The more varied the gameplay, the more RP the players can do, the more relationships they can develop, the more systems of interaction they can have. I prefer it when the party do some things in the wilderness, then a swamp, then a town, then on a ship, into a mountain cave system, out the other side on the snowy peaks, down into desert, find a village, into a tomb, into a town etc.
If the party are being hunted down, isn't their best bet to get off the road completely and find allies in a town? You'll need some way to prevent that or you'll get a fully static game.
It is the 3rd option, but effectively railroaded into 1 of 2 options. They need to travel West... ship or land? I know they'll have the same ship encounter, or the same land encounter. I need to be prepared for 2 options, not dozens. Second question... did they make good distance or not? Lack of distance means previous enemies may start to catch up to them. Stealth travel/slow travel may mean they can prepare for their enemies and meet them at a defensive location.
They are railroaded into only "go West." I'm thinking it needs some balance (as you mentioned) as the sessions may alternative from travel, rest/visit/plan, local trouble, travel... choices from there will determine if the followed trouble is coming. Boring locations might passed over quickly, while staying at a wizard school or other interesting location may stay for multiple sessions.
Eventually the grand travel will lead to... 1.) Warzones 2.) Tyrannical societies 3.) Mystical places 4.) Edge of Civilization 5.) Wild places 6.) Undiscovered civilization 7.) Big Bad Fight.
Whether that is by port, mountain road, highway, cart, or dragging is up to them.
Interestingly though, aren't the interesting things that the travel leads to a bunch of locations which are not about travel?
The thing about travel is, it's boring. Apart from some inter-party roleplaying, it's actually the places that they discover that are interesting, which you'll have to be careful with as the PCs may want to stay and investigate. For the most party, travel is the most boring part of an adventure, hence why we have random encounters to spice things up. So really, you won't have a lot of travel going on - you'll have discussion of travel, then skip past the travel to the next encounter.
What do you do if the PCs just decide that they'll make a stand? If they choose to dig in, fortify, and await all comers?
How long are you planning to keep them travelling for? I can imagine it being fun from, say, levels 1-2 but personally I'd want to feel like I was making my own decisions about how to solve problems and not running away after that.
I recall a trilogy of just hobbits walking to a mountain.
Original idea was to incorporate unusual elements that are overlooked... Vehicles, sailor background, pack animals, camping skills... Then let's leave the city in the background. Ship? A party on horseback? Gnome mechanical wagon?
Object is a macguffin... About 540 lbs, spell-proof, can't be teleported or portaled.
There's quite a big difference to "We must take the One Ring to Mordor" and "We must keep running for our lives." One has a clear direction and end point, the other is just running without knowing where you're going. Perhaps that is what you intend though?
So these are all parts of the game, but they're typically just there to get your characters to the next interesting bit. What is it that you are going to do with them that makes putting a lot more focus onto them more interesting? (Genuine question, not intended as rhetorical). For instance, how do you make vehicles more interesting than "You're now travelling in a painted wagon." What gameplay follows on from it? I am not sure that I understand what the meat of this campaign involves, with such a focus on travelling. Apart from exploration and discovering new locations, I can't grasp what gameplay actually happens.
I have played in a campaign where the DM introduced a lot of checks based around camping. Every party member could do something to help build the camp, like set up the fire, or make food or pitch tents, dealt with through ability checks. It was intended to make survival a real issue, but actually (a) it felt demeaning that our level 7 heroes struggled to make a camp fire or erect a tent sometimes, and (b) it was time consuming when we just wanted to get on with playing the game (story advancement, social roleplay, combat encounters, exploration...). I used to inwardly groan every time the camping rolls had to begin, even if we could end up with a 1d4 inspiration die because we'd cooked a good meal. Having our fire specialist sorcerer require an ability check or fail to light the camp fire was especially aggravating.
The macguffin sounds interesting, but doesn't it tie the PCs to be around it the entire time? They can't leave it lying around, right? So does that rule out going into dungeons. I'm assuming it's pretty big as well and needs transportation. This is a cool idea but may also potentially limit other aspects of travel such as crossing a rope bridge, scaling a mountainside - or alternatively that could all be part of the challenge (making a winch to hoist it up the mountain face).
I recall a trilogy of just hobbits walking to a mountain.
Original idea was to incorporate unusual elements that are overlooked... Vehicles, sailor background, pack animals, camping skills... Then let's leave the city in the background. Ship? A party on horseback? Gnome mechanical wagon?
Object is a macguffin... About 540 lbs, spell-proof, can't be teleported or portaled.
Most of the walk was glossed over. The books spanned months and months, but we only see the few times during that span when something interesting happens. (And not for nothing, but even lots of that was pretty easily cut. I mean, I loved me some Tom Bombadil, but the movie showed us he wasn't at all necessary to the story.)
You can make the game about camping, but will that be fun for you and your players? Like Sanveal said, who wants to roll to see if you got you fire started? Being on horseback sounds fine, but what does it add, really? Horses die in fights very, very easily. You get where you're going faster, but that usually just boils down to the DM saying, it takes you a half a day instead of a day to get from A to B. And of course, most people tend to forget about the horses when they become inconvenient, like if there's a cliff, or what do you do with them when the party goes to explore this cave and then they end up in there for three days? What did they eat? Why didn't wolves eat them?
And of course, if there's a druid in the party (or someone else who acquires goodberry) one 1st level spell removes the issue of food scarcity, which is one of the big hazards of traveling.
Personally, I don't mind the railroading, with or without the illusion of choice. It's a perfectly valid way to play. It's just that traveling, imo, isn't fun. Put it this way, when you go on vacation, are you more excited about the destination or the plane ride? Sure, waking around town when you get there can be fun, but when you tell your friends back home about the trip, is the story about how you walked for a half hour to get to the Eiffel tower and maybe grabbed a croissant for breakfast along the way, or do you just skip to the part when you went to the top of it?
I recently ran a campaign for friends based on the idea that they were silk road traders. Going from place to place and buying/selling goods for profit. With adventure's along the way. The trade road becomes, in effect, a railroad as trade wants efficiency and one big route going through locations sequentially is more efficient than a dozen random routes.
I gave them forks for detours, etc. and spent most of my active DM work one town or two ahead. It did take organization and time without question. That noted, once I got into the groove of developing ahead of need it worked out. They still ignored more plot hooks than they followed but... we had a good time :)
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I'm working on one of my first homebrews. I'm the kind of guy that enjoys the travel aspect: load carrying, buy a donkey to drag the cart, where are you camping, get a ship, are we taking this route or that route? The reason for why I'd make this essential for the campaign is for focus on elements to involve. Old enemies/rivals are following, chasing them if they don't keep pace. Or they can hunker down and set a trap, waiting for enemies to catch up. Over the mountain or under? Passing thru a secluded school of wizards on a winding road is different than taking the road thru a crowded city, and I like putting choices like this.
Problem I'm having... the source material I read so far focuses alot of having a single big city hub to bounce back and forth, while this is to constantly leave each city in a rearview mirror and keep going. Is there any campaign material on how to keep an adventure 100% on-the-road? My google searches keep getting "time travel" or just "small sidequest improvising."
Note: Happens 100% on the material plane. The item they are quested with delivering can't be teleported or portaled, and is too heavy to be flown.
Out of the abyss, the first half of this adventure the characters are being chased and tracked down by the drow who inprisoned them.
With a first homebrew, you probably don't want too much travel. In general when homebrewing, you can leave details fuzzier and fuzzier the further away the area is from the PCs. This lets you make quick adjustments to your plans without the players ever knowing. And that's not even getting into the practical considerations of how long it will take you in terms of prep time to flesh out each area, so the fewer you need to fully create, the less work you are making for yourself.
The more the characters travel, the more of the world you need to fill in, and the faster you need to do it, which can end up being a challenge for you to manage.
Also, travel, in this edition, generally gets short shrift. After a few levels, the PCs have powers, abilities and spells that turn most traveling into a pretty trivial exercise. A lot of the time, DM's just hand wave it. I understand you have some complications that will make it less trivial and force them to pay attention. It's just that's probably why there's not much written about it; not many people like to do it. At least, that's my perception. I'm sure there are some people who do enjoy it, and maybe most people do. I'm just going off the threads I see about how to make travel not be boring, rather than people looking for ways to make it easier.
It's a bit of a problematic concept in my opinion.
This requires you choose one of the following:
The game works best when there is variation, rather than continually being on the move. The more varied the gameplay, the more RP the players can do, the more relationships they can develop, the more systems of interaction they can have. I prefer it when the party do some things in the wilderness, then a swamp, then a town, then on a ship, into a mountain cave system, out the other side on the snowy peaks, down into desert, find a village, into a tomb, into a town etc.
If the party are being hunted down, isn't their best bet to get off the road completely and find allies in a town? You'll need some way to prevent that or you'll get a fully static game.
It is the 3rd option, but effectively railroaded into 1 of 2 options. They need to travel West... ship or land? I know they'll have the same ship encounter, or the same land encounter. I need to be prepared for 2 options, not dozens. Second question... did they make good distance or not? Lack of distance means previous enemies may start to catch up to them. Stealth travel/slow travel may mean they can prepare for their enemies and meet them at a defensive location.
They are railroaded into only "go West." I'm thinking it needs some balance (as you mentioned) as the sessions may alternative from travel, rest/visit/plan, local trouble, travel... choices from there will determine if the followed trouble is coming. Boring locations might passed over quickly, while staying at a wizard school or other interesting location may stay for multiple sessions.
Eventually the grand travel will lead to...
1.) Warzones
2.) Tyrannical societies
3.) Mystical places
4.) Edge of Civilization
5.) Wild places
6.) Undiscovered civilization
7.) Big Bad Fight.
Whether that is by port, mountain road, highway, cart, or dragging is up to them.
Interestingly though, aren't the interesting things that the travel leads to a bunch of locations which are not about travel?
The thing about travel is, it's boring. Apart from some inter-party roleplaying, it's actually the places that they discover that are interesting, which you'll have to be careful with as the PCs may want to stay and investigate. For the most party, travel is the most boring part of an adventure, hence why we have random encounters to spice things up. So really, you won't have a lot of travel going on - you'll have discussion of travel, then skip past the travel to the next encounter.
What do you do if the PCs just decide that they'll make a stand? If they choose to dig in, fortify, and await all comers?
How long are you planning to keep them travelling for? I can imagine it being fun from, say, levels 1-2 but personally I'd want to feel like I was making my own decisions about how to solve problems and not running away after that.
I recall a trilogy of just hobbits walking to a mountain.
Original idea was to incorporate unusual elements that are overlooked... Vehicles, sailor background, pack animals, camping skills... Then let's leave the city in the background. Ship? A party on horseback? Gnome mechanical wagon?
Object is a macguffin... About 540 lbs, spell-proof, can't be teleported or portaled.
There's quite a big difference to "We must take the One Ring to Mordor" and "We must keep running for our lives." One has a clear direction and end point, the other is just running without knowing where you're going. Perhaps that is what you intend though?
Vehicles, sailor background, pack animals, camping skills
So these are all parts of the game, but they're typically just there to get your characters to the next interesting bit. What is it that you are going to do with them that makes putting a lot more focus onto them more interesting? (Genuine question, not intended as rhetorical). For instance, how do you make vehicles more interesting than "You're now travelling in a painted wagon." What gameplay follows on from it? I am not sure that I understand what the meat of this campaign involves, with such a focus on travelling. Apart from exploration and discovering new locations, I can't grasp what gameplay actually happens.
I have played in a campaign where the DM introduced a lot of checks based around camping. Every party member could do something to help build the camp, like set up the fire, or make food or pitch tents, dealt with through ability checks. It was intended to make survival a real issue, but actually (a) it felt demeaning that our level 7 heroes struggled to make a camp fire or erect a tent sometimes, and (b) it was time consuming when we just wanted to get on with playing the game (story advancement, social roleplay, combat encounters, exploration...). I used to inwardly groan every time the camping rolls had to begin, even if we could end up with a 1d4 inspiration die because we'd cooked a good meal. Having our fire specialist sorcerer require an ability check or fail to light the camp fire was especially aggravating.
The macguffin sounds interesting, but doesn't it tie the PCs to be around it the entire time? They can't leave it lying around, right? So does that rule out going into dungeons. I'm assuming it's pretty big as well and needs transportation. This is a cool idea but may also potentially limit other aspects of travel such as crossing a rope bridge, scaling a mountainside - or alternatively that could all be part of the challenge (making a winch to hoist it up the mountain face).
Most of the walk was glossed over. The books spanned months and months, but we only see the few times during that span when something interesting happens. (And not for nothing, but even lots of that was pretty easily cut. I mean, I loved me some Tom Bombadil, but the movie showed us he wasn't at all necessary to the story.)
You can make the game about camping, but will that be fun for you and your players? Like Sanveal said, who wants to roll to see if you got you fire started? Being on horseback sounds fine, but what does it add, really? Horses die in fights very, very easily. You get where you're going faster, but that usually just boils down to the DM saying, it takes you a half a day instead of a day to get from A to B. And of course, most people tend to forget about the horses when they become inconvenient, like if there's a cliff, or what do you do with them when the party goes to explore this cave and then they end up in there for three days? What did they eat? Why didn't wolves eat them?
And of course, if there's a druid in the party (or someone else who acquires goodberry) one 1st level spell removes the issue of food scarcity, which is one of the big hazards of traveling.
Personally, I don't mind the railroading, with or without the illusion of choice. It's a perfectly valid way to play. It's just that traveling, imo, isn't fun. Put it this way, when you go on vacation, are you more excited about the destination or the plane ride? Sure, waking around town when you get there can be fun, but when you tell your friends back home about the trip, is the story about how you walked for a half hour to get to the Eiffel tower and maybe grabbed a croissant for breakfast along the way, or do you just skip to the part when you went to the top of it?
I recently ran a campaign for friends based on the idea that they were silk road traders. Going from place to place and buying/selling goods for profit. With adventure's along the way. The trade road becomes, in effect, a railroad as trade wants efficiency and one big route going through locations sequentially is more efficient than a dozen random routes.
I gave them forks for detours, etc. and spent most of my active DM work one town or two ahead. It did take organization and time without question. That noted, once I got into the groove of developing ahead of need it worked out. They still ignored more plot hooks than they followed but... we had a good time :)