| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hello guys,
I'll be running my last session of the year this Sunday, and as it turns out I'll have to come against one of my two greatest weaknesses as a GM, Overland Travel, in order to get the campaign to the point where I want it to get before our big break.
Now, let me explain, I LOVE overland travel, there is just a special place in my heart for moments where the party gets together around the fire, or has a hard time traveling across hazardous terrains and stuff. I guess that is what reading too many books does to you. In any case, I have tried many times with different techniques to achieve a good overland travel experience for the Parties I have GMed over the years, but I succeed only once, and not only was that a lucky shot, it did not succeed to the degree I wished it would. Being the type of GM who prepare any detail he can think of ahead of time, I have read what I have found, but to no avail, clearly this is not my forte.
I searched the forums for a couple of hours as well, and found a few threads addressing this very same topic, but I did not find what I was looking for. My current issue is a travel from Korvosa to Kaer Maga, and I would not like to just say "4 days gone, you arrive", specially since I have two players that are relatively new to the game, but, since I have this problem with any kind of Overland Travel experience I try to prepare, I'd really appreciate it if we could use this thread for all types of advice concerning this topic, it would really help me a lot.
Currently, I plan on something slightly weird - I'll split the day of travel in Riding Hours, and Total Traveling Hours. I'm using Riding Hours to describe changes on the landscape and what they come across as they move every hour; Inns, Caravans, Merchants, Road Wardens collecting taxes, Thugs, fork roads, packs of wild animals, difficult parts of the road, and other traveling hazards like a horse throwing a shoe, or becoming afraid. While, I plan to use the Total Traveling Hours for weather mostly, so that perhaps a downpour catches them at sleep time. However, it feels like It'll be just general descriptions about what they see once an hour, and if some kind of obstacle happen, they encounter it, so we zoom there, and then go back to a description per hour.
I also plan on asking them how do their usual schedule, like, how much they plan to ride a day, and how often will they take breaks, how will they handle cooking, camping, their night watches and hunting (if required).
Does anyone knows any useful techniques or tips to improve Overland Travel Experience?, to make the players truly experience traveling and have fun during these moments?.
Yeah. "4 days gone, you arrive" No aventurer enlisted in order to be able to keep track of the hours of riding...
Hello guys,
I'll be running my last session of the year this Sunday, and as it turns out I'll have to come against one of my two greatest weaknesses as a GM, Overland Travel, in order to get the campaign to the point where I want it to get before our big break.
Now, let me explain, I LOVE overland travel, there is just a special place in my heart for moments where the party gets together around the fire, or has a hard time traveling across hazardous terrains and stuff. I guess that is what reading too many books does to you. In any case, I have tried many times with different techniques to achieve a good overland travel experience for the Parties I have GMed over the years, but I succeed only once, and not only was that a lucky shot, it did not succeed to the degree I wished it would. Being the type of GM who prepare any detail he can think of ahead of time, I have read what I have found, but to no avail, clearly this is not my forte.
I searched the forums for a couple of hours as well, and found a few threads addressing this very same topic, but I did not find what I was looking for. My current issue is a travel from Korvosa to Kaer Maga, and I would not like to just say "4 days gone, you arrive", specially since I have two players that are relatively new to the game, but, since I have this problem with any kind of Overland Travel experience I try to prepare, I'd really appreciate it if we could use this thread for all types of advice concerning this topic, it would really help me a lot.
Currently, I plan on something slightly weird - I'll split the day of travel in Riding Hours, and Total Traveling Hours. I'm using Riding Hours to describe changes on the landscape and what they come across as they move every hour; Inns, Caravans, Merchants, Road Wardens collecting taxes, Thugs, fork roads, packs of wild animals, difficult parts of the road, and other traveling hazards like a horse throwing a shoe, or becoming afraid. While, I plan to use the Total Traveling Hours for weather mostly, so that...
All of these ideas will work, and I think fantastically at that.
But, one big issue: time. How much time do you have for this last session?| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Use the exploration rules' 12-mile hexes to break up the map into measurable chunks.
Add landmarks, and very brief encounters that do little more than set the scene for the region. Use travel time as the currency for these encounters, adding or losing time depending on how the PCs fare.
Here is a blog post that talks about altitude and visibility to the horizon. Use it to help you describe what the players can see from certain vantages along their route.
Ask for basic decisions regarding the route, give them two or three options and allow knowledge checks to predict the consequences, or survival, climb, jump and swim to mitigate wrong choices. Combined with the above table/blogpost, you give players real and meaningful choices about predicting the route.
The map is not the territory. Give the players the map that their PCs bought, not the territory.
Weather makes travel interesting. Did you know that hurricanes can kill lots of people?
Did you know that rain counts as concealment, and so forces survival checks to navigate? Trees do the same thing.
If there is an awesome landmark on your map, preferably something fantasy-ish like a huge ruin, monument, or statue (or all three if you're of a Tolkien mindset) then the players can find their position when they see it from miles and miles away. If they're off course when this happens, then they will always remember that little bit of set dressing.
Use a random encounter table, but wisely. This is an advanced GMing technique that is often misused and has developed a bad reputation, but if used consistently it can greatly enhance wilderness campaigning. Just remember that encounters don't have to mean combat, and even those that probably will end in blood don't start with an initiative roll. Use the encounter chance consistently and make sure the players have a clear idea of the risk involved with traveling long distances. A GM should roll on a table to sharpen their own awareness that the story is not fixed, that anything can happen. It is still a story, and you have to tell it on the fly. Don't do yourself the disservice of making a random element in that story a crappy one.
Use non-encounters when you roll. If you roll encounters 5% per hex, 15% per stationary day and 15% per stationary night, then you should always have *something* for the players to encounter, even if there is no monster/animal encounter. Could be the prop tables from the GMG. In a pinch, I roll on the monster table anyway, and have them catch sight of the monster or find evidence of its leavings. I tend to favor animals or VERY strong monsters on the table for these encounters — bear claw marks on the tree, owlbear pellets with human boots in, or a black dragon sighted from 3 miles away on the skyline.
Encountered animals and many monsters are only looking for an easy meal. Remember to role-play their motivations. Wolves won't fight to the death unless they are starving, and even then... However, they are stealthy enough to get into PCs packs and ransack the rations. And that opens up opportunities for survival checks that any careful PC avoids by overstocking rations.
The object of all of this detail is not to catch the players with gotcha scenarios, but rather to make the road memorable. You're doing it right if your players are still confident enough to take minor risks (and the occasional major risk). If the players are paranoid and overprepared, you may have spoiled the fun.
I can probably give you more advice, but frankly I'm still at the beginning of my own first wilderness campaign, and I'm still learning.
Personally, I would either plan an encounter or two (at most), choose or roll up some weather, and choose or roll up some road conditions, and leave it at that.
In the books I read, rarely do you hear about the 'downtime' journey beside a few scant details, unless it was important to the story. Depending on the writer, it would be some thing like "...and after four days in the saddle, our heroes arrive at Backwater town, weary from their journey but ready to take on the Crimson Knights," to what you were describing: a short description of the of how the terrain changed as they traveled.
Unless, of course, something (plot driven) happens...
I would do something like this..."The road wanders through the grassy plains as if drawn on the ground like a drunken god, but the paving stones are good and for two days you make descent time until you hit the Blister Forest. The gray clouds that gathered to the south finally broke when you reached the old oak forest. You have a few hours of very wet and miserable daylight left, if you want to keep pushing through the storm, or you can pitch the tents here. The caravans in front and behind seem to seek the shelter in the trees, and the road clears of foot traffic the moment the first rain falls. Stay put? Okay, what's the watch like and everyone one it give me a perception roll...
...the night was a particularly miserable one, as the rain refused to stop, and the temperature dropped. No, no snow, or ice, but it is cold, and wood is wet, and everything you have is soaked. What? Okay, everyone is soaked to the bone except the wizard with the 'stay dry' spell. Do you want to wait out the storm or push on? Push on it is.
The road through the blister forest lack paving stones, and has become a thick, soupy mess that has a definite hatred for you wagons. By the time it finally stops that afternoon, all of you are sore, chilled, and likely hating the wizard. You only spot two caravans that are pushing through the weather, but they are going much slower than you.
The sun, however, comes out in force, and by the next day not only are your clothes and equipment dry, but the road is too. The mud did not solidify into anything smooth, with wagon ruts, hoof prints, and footprints making the whole road into an ankle twisting minefield. You pass both caravans that pushed through the storm- about two hours apart, and both were stopped as the wagoners worked to replace a wheel..."
A little long winded, yes, but its better than "4 days go by", and the heroes do have opprotunity to adjust things (camp with the caravans, stay with some walkers, help fix the wagon wheels, etc.)
But that's just how I'd do it.