Hi--
So I'm preparing to run a group of friends though the three "first steps" modules. In the third one, "A Vision of Betrayal", it goes into a little detail about overland travel. I'll not give anything away because my question is somewhat generic.
When an adventure talks about traveling over dangerous mountains and other types of overland travel, it mentions how for example, movement is slowed to say 6 miles per day.
Without going super complex, I'm trying to understand how to give the players a sense that they really are traveling across mountains or something similar.
How do other make the players aware of the fact they they are traversing such a dangerous area and it is causing them to move slow? Would you suggest random encounters? the slower they move the greater the chance for an encounter? Do you bring skill checks into it?
Like I said, I'm a new GM and my players are very new, so I don't want to hit them with something overly complicated, but an tips to give them a feeling of dread, when they are presented with traveling for a couple of days through a swamp or something.
In my current state, I'd say something like "so...it took you two days to get through the swamp...". That seems lame. Thanks for the tips!
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Are you running this for PFS itself, or just for a home game?
Honestly, the journey in that particular scenario is pretty boring. The optional section requires a very large number of skill checks to move through, and there's another section earlier that also asks for a large number of saves, but they're both so long that even with very eloquent description they grow monotonous.
A better idea is to just add filler to the description of their progress. Have the party see stuff on the road, just minor non-encounters. There are already two good examples of that in the mountain section of that adventure. Have the PCs reach an especially difficult section of road, and make them describe how they move past it (but don't bother asking for rolls). Make it clear how many days are passing, and just how exhausted everyone is from walking so long, even though they've only travelled a few miles (and in fact from their vantage point on the mountain can see where they last camped). Have an NPC complain. That sort of thing.