Travel

#travel

Pointy Hat's Traveling Event System 👍

Ginny Di: Why travel in D&D sucks (and 3 steps to fix it)

Beyond Random Encounters: Make the Journey a Quest

Build it the same way you would build any quest, with escalating action,
relevant NPCs, tasks to accomplish, and choices to make. Your players
set off for their first day of travel. They pass a merchant on the road, who
at first threatens the players but, if questioned, admits that he's heard
tales of bandits on this road and is afraid of being a target. Maybe your
players suggest they travel together, for protection. Or maybe not. On the
first night, a lone, stealthy bandit rifles through their saddlebags under the
cover of darkness. If their watchman's perception is good, maybe they
catch him and get some clues. If not, they will discover on the road
tomorrow that they're missing a few valuable items. The next morning,
they spot a wagon on the side of the road, burnt to ashes. Later that day,
they're ambushed by three bandits. If they decide to question them, they
might find out that the bandit camp is a half day's travel ahead, just past a
stone bridge. That might determine whether or not they're surprised when
they cross paths with the whole bandit encampment on their final day of
travel. If they helped the merchant, maybe he'll give them a discount at his
store in the next town. By taking care of the bandit problem, they have
curried favor with the local leader. Basically, the events of this journey
have affected the rest of the game.

You have plenty of building blocks to work with when putting together this
kind of travel quest. Here are a few things to consider if you're looking for
inspiration.
 Environment. How's the weather? Or the landscape? Are they
hacking their way through a dense jungle, following a well-traveled
road, navigating a series of confusing tunnels under a mountain?
NPCs. They might run into other travelers or locals who need help, act
as threats, want to charge travelers a toll, or have items or services for
sale.
Encounters. Random encounters might be boring, but that doesn't
mean you can't have any encounters. There are, of course, plenty of
ways to tie combat with monsters, beasts, or other people into the
story you're building.
Locations. Ancient ruins, buildings and their occupants, natural areas
like waterfalls, cliffs, or marshes. Maybe they'll find abandoned
campsites from previous travelers.
Choices. It's always boring to have no agency, so consider that your
players might make choices that take them down different routes,
whether that means a classic fork in the road, or something more
subtle that changes the way the journey goes for them.

Just like with any quest, create a narrative arc. And if you're worried that
you're gonna have to run travel on the fly, this is totally something you can
do in advance. The bandit example that we just went through could
basically be dropped in between any two towns or cities. Brainstorming a
few little side quests that can happen during travel isn't much more work
than prepping your own encounter table, but it's gonna be way more fun
and much more intentional to your players.

From Rolls to Roleplaying: Creating Engaging Experiences

So you're trying to spice up your travel through a wintery tundra, and you
have the players roll to see if they catch a cold. Cool. Your players each
roll a die. There is a result. Maybe you even do it multiple times. Are we
having fun yet?

Calling for a roll might seem like "something to do" while traveling, but it
often doesn't lead to any real engagement. Players come upon a river and
roll Athletics to cross it. Players need to make camp and roll Perception to
find a good spot. Players roll Survival to see if the find their way, and
maybe they roll poorly, and the journey takes an extra day. Great work! In
trying to make your journey interesting, you have only made it longer.

When you find yourself wanting to do one of these single-roll challenges,

think about how you can turn that one roll into an experience, something
your players get to actually do. Let me give you some examples. Okay, so
it's freezing out. Instead of rolling a CON save to see if you catch cold,
maybe players have to decide between taking shelter earlier than planned
to get out of the weather, or pushing forward anyway. They find a good
place to take shelter, but there are other creatures already there, trying to
keep out of the storm. Perhaps they have to decide between lighting a
fire, which draws attention, or rolling progressive CON checks and maybe
talking a point of exhaustion from the cold. If they decide to push on, they
might face a series of challenges in navigating through a snowstorm,
conserving heat, and fighting winter monsters in low visibility and difficult
terrain. These kinds of experiences encourage players to creatively
problem solve.

Fostering Connection: Roleplay Opportunities on the Road

Travel doesn't have to be dangerous to be interesting, either. It can also

be a great opportunity to get to know fellow party members through
roleplay. Of course, as a DM, you can't force your players to roleplay
amongst themselves, but there are things you can do to encourage it. For
example, you can put items or places into your players' path that are ripe
for roleplay moments. Maybe they make camp right beside a natural hot
spring, where players can relax, open up, and maybe get their flirt on, if
you run that kind of game. Maybe they stumble across a cache of liquor
that has clearly been abandoned here for years. Drinking game, anyone?
Maybe they sleep in a strange ring of trees that gives them all terrible
nightmares. Anything that you think will get people talking.

If they need a little more prompting, social encounters can also be a great
way to encourage roleplay. They can meet locals or fellow travelers who
ask them questions, give them information, or treat them kindly or poorly.
Imagine your players meet a fortune teller on the road. She asks to share
their campfire and gives a reading to any interested party member. This
can get them thinking about their personal quest lines and talking about
their backstories and goals. Who wants a reading, and who scoffs at it?
Why? Do players take these readings seriously, or are they skeptical?
This is also a fun chance as a DM to plant clues that don't necessarily
have to be true. If that doesn't spark conversation between characters, I
don't know what will.

Or a traveling merchant can introduce fun, interesting new items or

weapons. In one of my home games, our party crossed paths with a
traveling salesman called Dr. Alabaster. He sold us healing potions that
we weren't 100% sure would actually work like a regular healing potion.
Negotiating with him, trying to Insight check him to see if he was conning
us, and then later taking a risk downing that potion during combat was all
really fun and memorable. Depending on how players treat the people
they encounter on their journey, you can introduce NPCs that will come up
in the game later. Helping someone in need might benefit them down the
road if this person has power or has influence over someone with power.
Harming someone might come back to bite them. And an innocent
campfire conversation with a stranger might end up giving them important
information for a future quest. I know I keep referencing "Lord of the
Rings", but... Come on. Take a page from "Two Towers" and give your
players a Gollum to bounce off of.

The Road Ahead: To Detail or To Skip?

If you heard those three tips and it sounded like a lot of work, that's fine.
You don't actually have to make travel interesting. As Matt Colville
rightfully says in his video about travel, "Unless you think that traveling
through the wilderness is going to advance the plot, I am giving you
permission to just skip it." If none of this sounds fun for you, or if you don't
have any bright ideas for tying your journey into a story, you're allowed to
just not do it. Maybe roll to have players determine if their journey goes
smoothly or not, and include consequences like taking longer, using up
more rations, etc. But you don't have to roleplay every day of travel if you
don't think it'll add to your game.

Every table is different, and some tables might prefer fast travel and get to
the good stuff. But if you, like me, were way too strongly influenced by
epic fantasy journeys in books and movies and really want to have some
travel moments, I hope this will help you avoid those draggy, boring
sessions that are occasionally broken up by a random and
inconsequential fight.

Comments

I used to play in a campaign once where every time we set up camp

we would have a story-telling improv activity where we would get a
prompt and each of our characters would each tell a story from their
past based off it. It was easily one of the most memorable parts of the
campaign.
I use a short set of rules to run travel in my games.
1. everyone gets to take an action each day, such as keeping watch,
driving the wagon, scouting ahead, or maybe a downtime activity.
Then providing description based on that, as well as the general
environment.
2. I plan out a number of "Random" encounters that may occurs
during the trip, such as threats, interesting locations, or NPCs.
3. Each day that passes I roll a D6, on a 1 an encounter happens.
Each day that nothing happens I add another D6 to the pool. Also
if something that the players do during their actions would draw
attention to them I will either add another D6 or roll all the dice
then and there. Once an encounter happens the pool either resets
to 1D6, or if the party is close to their destination or has already
used up all the planes encounters then I'll fast tract them to the
location. The thrill comes from letting the players see the dice pool
and watching their reactions as it grows in size.
I use a modified version of this as well for certain events, such a
sneaking through a dungeon or other location. I add dice to the
 pool every so often, but only roll it when the party draws attention
to themselves.

Tales Arcane: How to run travel in Dungeons and Dragons

#plot

Comments 👍
It's also super great for character backstory development, especially if
you're running a module and don't know where you can put in nuggets
for your player's backstory.
Cleric looking to convert worshipers to her obscure god? Have
them come across a group brainwashed by a conman to treat
him like a prophet to a made-up deity, so the Cleric can defeat
the conman and convert the citizens.
Player looking for his long lost adventurer father? Have an NPC
claim to know him and can take them to him if they help him with
a task but as it turns out, hasn't actually seen the father in ages
but may still inadvertently offer some clue.
Got a Warlock who wants to please his patron? Have them
stumble upon a cult from the patron's rival whose plans they can
put a wrench in to please the patron.
Of course there's fun to be had in truly random encounters too,
but travel encounters are so good for adding elements to the
story the characters were missing without necessarily forcing a
tie-in to the main campaign plot.