I am currently GM'ing for a group of friends and am having difficulty coming up with ideas for encounters while they are traveling between cities. When we last left off they had just finished traveling 1 day of a 5.25 day trek to a city where they were told a crime lord they are hunting for resides. (They are hunting for him since the crime lord, Alister, sent thugs and bandits after a group of traders the party was escorting. By defending the traders the party got on the bad side of Alister who has since sent multiple assassins after the party, one of which killed the parties wizard, and has sent a single messenger to tell them to stop searching for him or they will be killed, suffice it to the party refused and was attacked by the messenger.) Their first day went fairly uneventful, a carriage passed them on the road and they were attacked by assassins while they slept, tho that is seeming like its going to be difficult to do anymore since the party's new druid (replaced cleric, read my thread CRAZIEST SESSION I'VE HAD TO DATE) has decided she will order her Ape companion to stand guard at night and sleep while they travel and I'm not sure how to work around it's scent ability.
All of this mixed with my lack of creativity lately is making it difficult to come up with ideas. What can people suggest I do for encounters during the travels?
~Aod43254
Well, the ape would need to sleep at some point, too, so at best he's keeping an extra watch. And apes aren't particularly intelligent.
As for encounters, hit them with something they wouldn't expect. Shambling mounds are always fun, and pretty much indistinguishable from the terrain until it decides to attack. Depending on the environment, you could also hit them with a swarm, a wandering troll or two, or some fey. Not every encounter needs to be directly story related, and random wilderness encounters, while annoying as hell if done constantly, can still provide a challenge.
Negate aroma a spell from the apg will work to counter scent.
Maybe even throw in some roleplaying encounters like a small rainstorm and a wagon stuck in mud. An enviornment and level of the party will be really helpful.
An enviornment and level of the party will be really helpful.
They are currently traveling along the main road system of the country (when I get a chance I will try to scan and show a link to my horribly drawn map). The country is made up of mainly flatland, plains and the like, with some small forests around, large body of water along the east of the country, two rivers going through the country, large mountain range along northern border, and a large forest in the west.
Tho get to their destination they will have to travel past a few small forested areas, cross a river, and pass through 2-3 towns (can't remember exact amount and don't have map in front of me).
I have ideas for distractions in the towns, tho the party seems to be strictly focused on hunting for/killing Alister or finding more information about him (they only know the name, a city he is supposedly in, and that he has pull almost all around the country aside from in the capital and in the north), but have no ideas for the road.
~Aod43254
Go to koboldquarterly.com. On the bottom of the left side of the page are dozens of links to different topics covered in articles with great encounter and roleplaying ideas. Click on the links for Your Whispering Homunculous, Now the Twist, Hazards, Trap, Encounter, Magic, Monster, Haunt, Dragons, and Dungeon. You can spend days looking through everything there!
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OK - I know how you feel. Here's something I've used on several occasions...
1. Go here and use it as a village 'just off the road ' this means the players have a visual reference and you haven't had to draw a map of a village:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/HoH_MW/01_HeroesHorror_300_ppi.jpg
2. populate it with NPCs from the GameMastery Guide - INSTANT VILLAGE
3. Think PC/MMORPG plots - missing animals, rangers, druids, children
4 have them get to know some of the villagers
5 have them go to bed for the night
6 Next morning they wake up in a ruined/deserted village, the beds they wake up in are rotting away, the stairs are rickety and the village is haunted by (not to powerful) undead
7 they are approached by the silent ghost of the mayor/inn keeper or who ever. this ghost points towards a local forest....they find the bodies of all the villagers..Players may now want to put all the village to rest and find the cult/monsters/baddies who sacrificed the villagers
8 they defeat the bad guy, get the gold, get the girl etc etc
9 village can now be re-populated as a tradepost/ coaching village
Cheers!