DM Tom's page

OK, confession time.

I've been playing since Christmas, 1979, and DM'ing most of that time. In all that time, I've never seriously run a wilderness adventure. Now I may have to to get my players where they need to go.

How do you run the "table talk" (or maybe narration) in the wilderness? I'm comfortable with "You open the door, it's a room about 20x20 with a fire pit in the center..." and the transitions from location to location, but I'm clueless about wilderness.

I know that you don't narrate each tree and stream crossing, but do you just say "you travel through the hills for 8 hours with no encounters"?

How do you transition from travel to tactical-level detail? Every stop, or just for fights?

Do these questions make sense?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Tom

It looks like my players will be running through another set of adventures before they might get into the STAP. (I'm doing only moderate railroading, so their initial decisions are putting them on a path farther north than Sasserine.) By the time things take them down toward the Southfens (which is where Sasserine is in my campaign), they'll probably be in the 3rd-5th level range. What would y'all recommend?

- Stick them into the STAP at a level-appropriate point - Bullwug Gambit or Sea Wyvern's Wake?
- Start them off at TINH, beef up the encounters per Scaling sidebar and count on some slower level progression to catch the adventure up to their levels after a few sessions?
- Something else I didn't think of?

One P.S.: This is a small group, probably just three PCs (Bard, paladin and druid or sorcerer if they all survive) and maybe an NPC.

TIA for suggestions...