So, ive done session one and miraculously the party is going along with my idea for the main quest. Only problem is I did not expect them to so now they have to travel for a bit (aka a lot) and was wondering if there is any advice on how to keep things interesting.
There are the usual things, random encounters. If I'm going with a list of random encounters, I'll typically go with the "Roll 1d6 in the morning to determine if an encounter happens that day. If so, roll another d6 to determine when. (Typically it's evens v. odds for the first roll, with odds being no encounter, evens being yes encounter, and then 1-2=morning, 3-4=afternoon, 5-6=overnight.)
If they want travel RP'd out, this would be the way to go. And think of things outside of combat encounters like social encounters.
If they are fine with glossing over the travel, I could offer two options. 1- gloss over it entirely and tell them that X number of days later they arrive at their destination. 2- Set up a dungeon crawl along the way to give spice to a couple days of that travel but then gloss over the rest that isn't relevant. (I did this with tyranny of dragons when they were journeying north from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep. I had 2 of the random encounters that the module lays out then for plot reasons I'd thrown in a dungeon along the way. The rest of the travel was just brushed away with a statement saying the rest of the travel was uneventful.)
You could design the entire travel segment in a dungeon-like fashion. This is something I have tried before with success. Use natural obstacles such as Mountains, thick forest, and bodies of water as the "walls" as the dungeon and roads, paths, and flat terrain as the halls and rooms. Now you can sprinkle in encounters and other interest points as you see fit, and when the players run into them you can zoom in the map for that encounter.
You can throw in some side quests that force them to make decisions. They can stop and help defend the farmers from the goblins, but that sets back their travel by a week and that means something about the main plot will have advanced without them — which can be good or bad. It’s really important that the world moves on without them. This is not a video game where the quest giver will stand there in front of the shop and wait. Also, a time element makes the travel meaningful.
I’m not a big fan of random encounters, that’s just making people roll dice for the sake of rolling dice. Might as well just say, it takes you two weeks to get there, along the way you fought some wolves. Now if the wolves lead you back to a lair with a signet ring the duke would really like to get his hands on, but that will take you off course from the main quest, now you’re talking. They can make friends with the duke, which will probably come in handy at some point, but it’s made the current mission harder.
I'm not a huge fan of random encounters either, and honestly I think that the players themselves kinda define how entertaining the travel is, I had a group with a grizzled old ranger that would tell the other players all about the history and creatures of their location (with some nature and history checks), it was a fun way of drip-feeding lore without burying them in it and seemed to go down well, you could always ask the character most likely to know something to roll for some knowledge of the surrounding area and see where the role play takes you. :)
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"Did you really think I wouldn't cheat just because I was already winning?"- Dread Emperor Terribilis II
Maybe throw an inn at them and have them have to rescue someone or give them, as someone said above, some obstacles that they have to clear (maybe while some wolves show up to build tension) or make the road out and so they have to detour through a more dangerous path. Maybe have them meet an NPC on the road who represents the themes of the overarching adventure: for example, in Lost Mines, I had the players come across the campfire of an old prospector, whose corpse the found weeks afterwards, illustrating both that these lands were dangerous and what sort of lands they were in (also that it was a western.) Describe random things that happen, not just important things (though by all means make them significant). Maybe throw a description of a vista in there (or two). If you want it to seem like a far distance, give them things to do.
Otherwise, I would just say "the trip took 4 days" and maybe ask them how they kept themselves fed.
What i tend to do is tell the PCs that they have a certain amount of time (X number of days) and ask them how they spend their downtime. You can give suggestions such as having a bard Busk for nearby towns they pass and give them a performance check to see if they make any money. another idea is give them the opportunity to practice towards a non-combat proficiency such as every 5 days they get 1/5 the way to a proficiency with a chosen kit. you could always add a side quest along the way such as a road being blocked so they have to go through a cave filled with goblins .ect
Because our sessions are limited to 5hrs every other week. I fully skip all travel unless it's going to effect the world in a drastic way. Like a crack in the land that wasn't there before. My players have an airship and their journeys can be 30 days in game. If players want to study something or build something and stuff like that, great! If not it's all skipped. Even the two day ride in a carriage is skipped.
That all being said. The world around them doesn't stop moving. Skipping 30 days of travel is 30 days that the world still advances.
I send out a summary between sessions for long travel (as agreed upon by my group for convenience). That way I can add detail and interesting bits and pieces without doing it at the table (which takes forever with a group like me that want to poke around everything) or just saying "4 days later, you get there. yay." As an example:
The party starts to descend from the rocky shale you had been traversing and out onto the plain, the snow seeming to deepen with every step. It doesn’t take you long before you realise that it’s time to kit out with some more of your snow gear that you bought what seems an age ago. The group takes out their snow shoes and fumble about for a while, slowly working out that the long bit goes at the back and how to fit the straps around your sturdy boots. Once reshod, with the exception of Grom who is not even knee deep yet, you step out gingerly onto the snow, sceptical of this new development. But to your surprise, your new shoes work well, and instead of sinking past your knees, you stand lightly atop the snow. You move on, cutting directly east towards the river bank in the distance where the snow should be less. Hours pass as you trudge, slow but steady, determined to put as much distance behind you before you make camp. At your new rate of travel, it will take over a week to make the glacier. You reach the river a little after lunch, having broken out the dwarven travel rations an hour earlier. To the dwarves credit, it tastes excellent as far as travel rations go, the dried meat being well seasoned without being too salty and the hard biscuit sweetened with honey and cinnamon. Once you reach the river bank, the snow is shallow enough that you can remove your snow shoes, and the groups pace increases. There may be more chance of you running into wildlife along the waters edge, but the faster pace seems worth the minimal risk of another meeting with wolves or crag cats. With the sun on your back, you push on.
I use a d20 table. Every number is a day that has its own thematic events. I then break up these events into 4 hour segments for that day. Then have the navigator roll that D20 to determine what happens that day. It might be that during the first 4 hours nothing happens. Then the weather starts to change in a foreboding manner. How will the players deal with it, or prepare for stuff. Then the weather starts to actually occur. During the night it results into such a heavy storm that they have to get out of the tent to secure the herrings or what not. Meaning no long rest. Other day could be an old idol along the wayside. They can leave an offering. At night butterflies and such cover their tents and hide them from other travelers/bandits. Another day they can run into a merchant convoy. Or have the wind in their backs to travel longer distance. They could stumble on some tents with broken leathery egg shells. Leading to its own little side exploration with an ankheg and its young or something.
There were moments that I as DM thought were stupid as ****. But the players loved it. Stumbling on a old broken down house to rest for the night. Making a fire in the old hearth, but the chamber fills with smoke. Apparently some birds nested in the chimney. They wanted to deal with every little bit of it. So we did :P
I have such a table for varying environments. The road, Swamps, Deserts, mountains etc. However depending on how involved your players are. It can still lead to just narrating these events and just skipping to the next day. You need to feel it out. I've had a group play out every day. While another group, playing the same campaign, just skipped 4 days since they didn't want to travel and roleplay things out at all.
There are also times where I handcraft the journey instead of the random table. Such as a 3-4 day mountain pass climb/journey from the village to the stronghold. Goal is to set certain expectations, create a certain atmosphere and also build up a specific tone that works through it all. Then a more typical adventure setup is better. Simply because climbing up the mountain to the destination is linear anyhow. Question is...will they arrive at their destination and in what shape? Perhaps learning some information along the way as well. Dropping some random weird stuff that can show and get the players involved with more of the world. While not going to far of the path you need them to go. Showing them the world is a dangerous place when Giant Children can almost TPK them by simply playing a child's game. That was so funny to watch.
When you create a small area. Have it make sense. For example. You created an area where Bullywug setup camp behind a waterfall in a glade on the edge of some woods. They never were there before and the rangers/hunters of the village are keeping an eye on this development. What the players don't know is that due to conflicts in the north the bullywugs ran to the south away from it. Now you roll on the d20 table and see that the group would get approached by a speaking familiar or the ghost of someone. PC's can investigate this if they desire. So why not tie in this random encounter with the bullywug situation that is in the same area. Letting the players get into the woods a bit led by the ghost/familiar to a corpse. With a request to give it a proper burial. However the corpse could be pinned to a tree with some spears sticking through. Foot prints in the mud could be of the bullywugs. Gradually leading to more development that you can improv on the spot having a nice Outline combined with a Random Encounter to work with as baseline.
I tend to pre-roll a few random encounters (or just pick ones I find interesting). But I don't just throw them in - I try to create a bit of a story around them.
For example: the heroes are travelling from Hommlet to Greyhawk to investigate a nasty necromancer that escaped from them. En-route, there is a "random" encounter with half a dozen hobgoblins in the Gnarley Forest. I will drop hints, either through tracking the hobgoblins' route, or through questioning a survivor, that they have been sent out by their chieftain to patrol because of an unusual upsurge in the number of undead in the area recently. The heroes follow this up, and discover an old abandoned silver mine within which are a number of skeletons and zombies. Around the area are a number of dead hobgoblins, murdered almost without reason, with pieces of flesh carved off them. If they investigate the mine, they discover the mindless undead are digging up onyx which has been discovered there by the necromancer they are chasing. He has been killing hobgoblins to use their flesh and blood to create zombies and skeletons, and using these to mine the onyx to use for the more powerful "create undead" spell.
His plan is to use these more powerful ghouls and ghasts - along with the zombies and skeletons - to take control of the hobgoblin tribe. He will use this to protect him from the heroes hunting him. Of course, now that they're onto him, he'll attempt to escape into the ruins of an old temple (maybe even the abandoned Temple of Elemental Evil if you're feeling up to it! :) ), throwing undead minions and necromantic traps at the heroes until they finally confront him in some epically-appropriate setting (maybe a flooding cavern, or an underground grove of trees akin to the Gulthias Tree, allowing the necromancer to command undead twig-blights or somesuch).
Voila! A random encounter with half a dozen hobgoblins becomes a pretty neat side-quest related to their primary nemesis (who may still escape, of course!). But it could lead to further interesting developments, such as a hobgoblin tribe that is indebted to the heroes and could be used to aid them later on.
The other thing I meant to mention was to perhaps have a look at "The One Ring" game. It has an interesting system for making travel more fun, and while it's specific to that game system, it shouldn't be too hard to modify for D&D.
There are all sorts of ways to handle long travel. For example if they are on a ocean bearing ship then there could be all sorts of things that can happen. Like issues with pirates for one. Or even a small invasion of sea creatures. If traveling across the land then there can be all sorts of things that they find along the way. Like a strange ruined keep high up on the side of a mountain that seems to be no way to get to. But someone is calling for help. What about if the party is traveling by means of a coach and they get attacked by bandits or even a pack of werewolves forcing them to deal with not only a damaged coach but continual raids as they attempt repairs or whatever. Just be creative and have fun with it. Your players will love you for it.
I come up with a narrative that offers the players The possibility of doing things along the way if they do choose. It basically encourages possible role play between them and then and npcs. It can be used to garner the players with knowledge of things/activities in the campaign their surroundings or simply to make things feel more like being actually in the world and not just taking action in it.
Here is something that works well for our group. I break down the travel into a montage of story encounters that the players whip up with their own imaginations. I usually call on a player and ask something like, "Tell us something interesting that happened on day one of traveling that didn't involve combat." The players come up with great story encounters and participate in the world building. It's also a good way to award inspiration or some bonus xp.
A couple of us (we switch DMs in and out, it makes sense don't worry) have had long travel, and while random encounters are always the usual and most obvious option, therein lies the issue: they're obvious. We always allowed for roleplay and social situations to play out during travel, usually allowing the players to get to know the NPCs they're helping (if any), to learn more about the situation and world, discuss tactics, etc. Now this doesn't mean that you should never use random encounters, but don't use them as a crutch. After all, who knows where the roleplay during travel could lead?
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"You are a slave. Want emancipation?"
-Persona 5
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So, ive done session one and miraculously the party is going along with my idea for the main quest. Only problem is I did not expect them to so now they have to travel for a bit (aka a lot) and was wondering if there is any advice on how to keep things interesting.
There are the usual things, random encounters. If I'm going with a list of random encounters, I'll typically go with the "Roll 1d6 in the morning to determine if an encounter happens that day. If so, roll another d6 to determine when. (Typically it's evens v. odds for the first roll, with odds being no encounter, evens being yes encounter, and then 1-2=morning, 3-4=afternoon, 5-6=overnight.)
If they want travel RP'd out, this would be the way to go. And think of things outside of combat encounters like social encounters.
If they are fine with glossing over the travel, I could offer two options. 1- gloss over it entirely and tell them that X number of days later they arrive at their destination. 2- Set up a dungeon crawl along the way to give spice to a couple days of that travel but then gloss over the rest that isn't relevant. (I did this with tyranny of dragons when they were journeying north from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep. I had 2 of the random encounters that the module lays out then for plot reasons I'd thrown in a dungeon along the way. The rest of the travel was just brushed away with a statement saying the rest of the travel was uneventful.)
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You could design the entire travel segment in a dungeon-like fashion. This is something I have tried before with success. Use natural obstacles such as Mountains, thick forest, and bodies of water as the "walls" as the dungeon and roads, paths, and flat terrain as the halls and rooms. Now you can sprinkle in encounters and other interest points as you see fit, and when the players run into them you can zoom in the map for that encounter.
There's this article which gives some suggestions. https://theangrygm.com/getting-there-is-half-the-fun/
You can throw in some side quests that force them to make decisions. They can stop and help defend the farmers from the goblins, but that sets back their travel by a week and that means something about the main plot will have advanced without them — which can be good or bad. It’s really important that the world moves on without them. This is not a video game where the quest giver will stand there in front of the shop and wait. Also, a time element makes the travel meaningful.
I’m not a big fan of random encounters, that’s just making people roll dice for the sake of rolling dice. Might as well just say, it takes you two weeks to get there, along the way you fought some wolves. Now if the wolves lead you back to a lair with a signet ring the duke would really like to get his hands on, but that will take you off course from the main quest, now you’re talking. They can make friends with the duke, which will probably come in handy at some point, but it’s made the current mission harder.
I'm not a huge fan of random encounters either, and honestly I think that the players themselves kinda define how entertaining the travel is, I had a group with a grizzled old ranger that would tell the other players all about the history and creatures of their location (with some nature and history checks), it was a fun way of drip-feeding lore without burying them in it and seemed to go down well, you could always ask the character most likely to know something to roll for some knowledge of the surrounding area and see where the role play takes you. :)
"Did you really think I wouldn't cheat just because I was already winning?"- Dread Emperor Terribilis II
Maybe throw an inn at them and have them have to rescue someone or give them, as someone said above, some obstacles that they have to clear (maybe while some wolves show up to build tension) or make the road out and so they have to detour through a more dangerous path. Maybe have them meet an NPC on the road who represents the themes of the overarching adventure: for example, in Lost Mines, I had the players come across the campfire of an old prospector, whose corpse the found weeks afterwards, illustrating both that these lands were dangerous and what sort of lands they were in (also that it was a western.) Describe random things that happen, not just important things (though by all means make them significant). Maybe throw a description of a vista in there (or two). If you want it to seem like a far distance, give them things to do.
Otherwise, I would just say "the trip took 4 days" and maybe ask them how they kept themselves fed.
What i tend to do is tell the PCs that they have a certain amount of time (X number of days) and ask them how they spend their downtime. You can give suggestions such as having a bard Busk for nearby towns they pass and give them a performance check to see if they make any money. another idea is give them the opportunity to practice towards a non-combat proficiency such as every 5 days they get 1/5 the way to a proficiency with a chosen kit. you could always add a side quest along the way such as a road being blocked so they have to go through a cave filled with goblins .ect
Because our sessions are limited to 5hrs every other week. I fully skip all travel unless it's going to effect the world in a drastic way. Like a crack in the land that wasn't there before. My players have an airship and their journeys can be 30 days in game. If players want to study something or build something and stuff like that, great! If not it's all skipped. Even the two day ride in a carriage is skipped.
That all being said. The world around them doesn't stop moving. Skipping 30 days of travel is 30 days that the world still advances.
But to each their own.
I send out a summary between sessions for long travel (as agreed upon by my group for convenience). That way I can add detail and interesting bits and pieces without doing it at the table (which takes forever with a group like me that want to poke around everything) or just saying "4 days later, you get there. yay." As an example:
The party starts to descend from the rocky shale you had been traversing and out onto the plain, the snow seeming to deepen with every step. It doesn’t take you long before you realise that it’s time to kit out with some more of your snow gear that you bought what seems an age ago. The group takes out their snow shoes and fumble about for a while, slowly working out that the long bit goes at the back and how to fit the straps around your sturdy boots. Once reshod, with the exception of Grom who is not even knee deep yet, you step out gingerly onto the snow, sceptical of this new development. But to your surprise, your new shoes work well, and instead of sinking past your knees, you stand lightly atop the snow. You move on, cutting directly east towards the river bank in the distance where the snow should be less. Hours pass as you trudge, slow but steady, determined to put as much distance behind you before you make camp. At your new rate of travel, it will take over a week to make the glacier. You reach the river a little after lunch, having broken out the dwarven travel rations an hour earlier. To the dwarves credit, it tastes excellent as far as travel rations go, the dried meat being well seasoned without being too salty and the hard biscuit sweetened with honey and cinnamon. Once you reach the river bank, the snow is shallow enough that you can remove your snow shoes, and the groups pace increases. There may be more chance of you running into wildlife along the waters edge, but the faster pace seems worth the minimal risk of another meeting with wolves or crag cats. With the sun on your back, you push on.
I use a d20 table. Every number is a day that has its own thematic events. I then break up these events into 4 hour segments for that day. Then have the navigator roll that D20 to determine what happens that day. It might be that during the first 4 hours nothing happens. Then the weather starts to change in a foreboding manner. How will the players deal with it, or prepare for stuff. Then the weather starts to actually occur. During the night it results into such a heavy storm that they have to get out of the tent to secure the herrings or what not. Meaning no long rest. Other day could be an old idol along the wayside. They can leave an offering. At night butterflies and such cover their tents and hide them from other travelers/bandits. Another day they can run into a merchant convoy. Or have the wind in their backs to travel longer distance. They could stumble on some tents with broken leathery egg shells. Leading to its own little side exploration with an ankheg and its young or something.
There were moments that I as DM thought were stupid as ****. But the players loved it. Stumbling on a old broken down house to rest for the night. Making a fire in the old hearth, but the chamber fills with smoke. Apparently some birds nested in the chimney. They wanted to deal with every little bit of it. So we did :P
I have such a table for varying environments. The road, Swamps, Deserts, mountains etc. However depending on how involved your players are. It can still lead to just narrating these events and just skipping to the next day. You need to feel it out. I've had a group play out every day. While another group, playing the same campaign, just skipped 4 days since they didn't want to travel and roleplay things out at all.
There are also times where I handcraft the journey instead of the random table. Such as a 3-4 day mountain pass climb/journey from the village to the stronghold. Goal is to set certain expectations, create a certain atmosphere and also build up a specific tone that works through it all. Then a more typical adventure setup is better. Simply because climbing up the mountain to the destination is linear anyhow. Question is...will they arrive at their destination and in what shape? Perhaps learning some information along the way as well. Dropping some random weird stuff that can show and get the players involved with more of the world. While not going to far of the path you need them to go. Showing them the world is a dangerous place when Giant Children can almost TPK them by simply playing a child's game. That was so funny to watch.
When you create a small area. Have it make sense. For example. You created an area where Bullywug setup camp behind a waterfall in a glade on the edge of some woods. They never were there before and the rangers/hunters of the village are keeping an eye on this development. What the players don't know is that due to conflicts in the north the bullywugs ran to the south away from it. Now you roll on the d20 table and see that the group would get approached by a speaking familiar or the ghost of someone. PC's can investigate this if they desire. So why not tie in this random encounter with the bullywug situation that is in the same area. Letting the players get into the woods a bit led by the ghost/familiar to a corpse. With a request to give it a proper burial. However the corpse could be pinned to a tree with some spears sticking through. Foot prints in the mud could be of the bullywugs. Gradually leading to more development that you can improv on the spot having a nice Outline combined with a Random Encounter to work with as baseline.
Thank you all! This was really helpful and insightful. I was feeling pretty stressed but this all makes sense.
I tend to pre-roll a few random encounters (or just pick ones I find interesting). But I don't just throw them in - I try to create a bit of a story around them.
For example: the heroes are travelling from Hommlet to Greyhawk to investigate a nasty necromancer that escaped from them. En-route, there is a "random" encounter with half a dozen hobgoblins in the Gnarley Forest. I will drop hints, either through tracking the hobgoblins' route, or through questioning a survivor, that they have been sent out by their chieftain to patrol because of an unusual upsurge in the number of undead in the area recently. The heroes follow this up, and discover an old abandoned silver mine within which are a number of skeletons and zombies. Around the area are a number of dead hobgoblins, murdered almost without reason, with pieces of flesh carved off them. If they investigate the mine, they discover the mindless undead are digging up onyx which has been discovered there by the necromancer they are chasing. He has been killing hobgoblins to use their flesh and blood to create zombies and skeletons, and using these to mine the onyx to use for the more powerful "create undead" spell.
His plan is to use these more powerful ghouls and ghasts - along with the zombies and skeletons - to take control of the hobgoblin tribe. He will use this to protect him from the heroes hunting him. Of course, now that they're onto him, he'll attempt to escape into the ruins of an old temple (maybe even the abandoned Temple of Elemental Evil if you're feeling up to it! :) ), throwing undead minions and necromantic traps at the heroes until they finally confront him in some epically-appropriate setting (maybe a flooding cavern, or an underground grove of trees akin to the Gulthias Tree, allowing the necromancer to command undead twig-blights or somesuch).
Voila! A random encounter with half a dozen hobgoblins becomes a pretty neat side-quest related to their primary nemesis (who may still escape, of course!). But it could lead to further interesting developments, such as a hobgoblin tribe that is indebted to the heroes and could be used to aid them later on.
Hope this helps a bit!
The other thing I meant to mention was to perhaps have a look at "The One Ring" game. It has an interesting system for making travel more fun, and while it's specific to that game system, it shouldn't be too hard to modify for D&D.
There are all sorts of ways to handle long travel. For example if they are on a ocean bearing ship then there could be all sorts of things that can happen. Like issues with pirates for one. Or even a small invasion of sea creatures. If traveling across the land then there can be all sorts of things that they find along the way. Like a strange ruined keep high up on the side of a mountain that seems to be no way to get to. But someone is calling for help. What about if the party is traveling by means of a coach and they get attacked by bandits or even a pack of werewolves forcing them to deal with not only a damaged coach but continual raids as they attempt repairs or whatever. Just be creative and have fun with it. Your players will love you for it.
I come up with a narrative that offers the players The possibility of doing things along the way if they do choose. It basically encourages possible role play between them and then and npcs. It can be used to garner the players with knowledge of things/activities in the campaign their surroundings or simply to make things feel more like being actually in the world and not just taking action in it.
Here is something that works well for our group. I break down the travel into a montage of story encounters that the players whip up with their own imaginations. I usually call on a player and ask something like, "Tell us something interesting that happened on day one of traveling that didn't involve combat." The players come up with great story encounters and participate in the world building. It's also a good way to award inspiration or some bonus xp.
That is a good idea jplangen, I believe I will have to try this with my group.
A couple of us (we switch DMs in and out, it makes sense don't worry) have had long travel, and while random encounters are always the usual and most obvious option, therein lies the issue: they're obvious. We always allowed for roleplay and social situations to play out during travel, usually allowing the players to get to know the NPCs they're helping (if any), to learn more about the situation and world, discuss tactics, etc. Now this doesn't mean that you should never use random encounters, but don't use them as a crutch. After all, who knows where the roleplay during travel could lead?
"You are a slave. Want emancipation?"
-Persona 5