My Group only travels at night...Help

[Taku Ooka Nin]

Superman427 wrote:

My group doesn't meet again until after the new year (lots of traveling), but I will let you all know. Thank you for all the amazing recommendations/advice. I think I was just not fully thinking through all the trouble night traveling could be...ie night monsters, bandits stumbling upon sleeping camp in daytime, completely closed up small towns at night, city gates closed at dawn...Lots of great ideas.

Demons, Daemons, and Devils all like the night, and they are all always trying to get to the material plane so they can cause havoc. The party gets ambushed by a group of succubi and incubi. After the PCs kill some of the demons they retreat, but swear revenge for their fallen comrades. Now the PCs have a good reason to take watch forever because the demons could, quite literally, just teleport into their camp and attack them.

Outsiders be dangerous.

[DM Under The Bridge]

Hags, lots of them.

Backed up by shadows, and some of the hags took improved grapple. Which they use after the shadows drain str.

[Black_Lantern]

The creatures of the night are far more frightening than some bandits.

[Taku Ooka Nin]

One option is to put them in a demi-plane where there is no night. A massive would be planet with the star in the center with the world literally surrounding it.

Naturally it would have to be a fake star, and the PCs could probably just fly up to it only to realize this. I remember I had an entire campaign that was about the PCs trying to figure out where they were and how to escape.

[Drachasor]

Superman427 wrote:

Long time reader, first time poster.

I'm DM'ing for a group of (mostly) new players. Unfortunately, that means a lot of rules don't come up until someone breaks one (and then the game stops as I or the only other experienced player explains why the four of PC's shouldn't attack and kill the entire town for not picking up their bar tab...(they're all chaotic neutral or true N). After a bandits random encounter on the road, one of them came up with the great idea of traveling at night because "bandits have to sleep too".
Now I'm stuck, the group only travels at night now. They take forever to get anywhere and I'd like to get them acting a bit more like a normal party. (When the group shows up in a town, they immediately go to sleep...It's hard to get them to meet an adventure hook without reworking a tavern's bar hours or making the npc into a night owl.
Help? Ideas?

There's no need to do anything in particular. Just explain the consequences.

When they try to do stuff in town at night, explain everyone is asleep and the town is dead. If they make too much noise, people will complain and be unhappy with them. They'll figure out pretty quick they need to be awake during the day in towns. Or they should.

If they take forever to get places because moving at night is slower, then they'll encounter more enemies. Bandits operating during the day will also come across them, disrupting their sleep. And Bandits are capable of noticing tracks left by the party during the night, so tracking them is perfectly sensible if you expect easy pickings. There is more activity in general during the day, so it will probably be the case that their sleep will get interrupted more often.

And I'd explain the problem to them out of character first. See if they won't come around.

There's no need to be particular mean or anything. Nor is there any need to have big monstrous bad guys attack during the night as they travel when they get left alone if they sleep. Because that doesn't make a lot of sense really.

[Brad McDowell]

Design encounters that include a deadline.

[FLite]

I would just have them ambushed by bandits.

yeah, bandits have to sleep some time. That's why the bandits set a watch, and everyone else goes to sleep. When they see people approaching, they wake up the camp.

For that matter, caravans have to sleep sometime too. Which is why some bandits travel at night to sneak up on sleeping caravans.

[MrSin]

FLite wrote:

I would just have them ambushed by bandits.

yeah, bandits have to sleep some time. That's why the bandits set a watch, and everyone else goes to sleep. When they see people approaching, they wake up the camp.

For that matter, caravans have to sleep sometime too. Which is why some bandits travel at night to sneak up on sleeping caravans.

Half-Orc bandits have dark vision too! but let's not stereotype.

[Kydeem de'Morcaine]

Have the local cops hassle them.

"A well armed group of morally iffy people wandering about my town in the dark? Not happening on my watch!"

[Titania, the Summer Queen]

Don't know if its been stated, but insects are attracted to light. So swarms....

[Makarion]

Don't forget to enforce alignment rules. If they go about stealing, make sure they are chaotic. Then have the Hellknights show up. Shop keepers DO get tired of robbers, you know?

[Brad McDowell]

Kydeem de'Morcaine wrote:

Have the local cops hassle them.

"A well armed group of morally iffy people wandering about my town in the dark? Not happening on my watch!"

Sean Connery's character from The Untouchables!! I agree.

[krevon]

Why do I picture a Pathfinder equivalent to Micheal Jackson's Thriller video coming?

[Touc]

Make sure they're fatigued if a day-time adventure comes and they're on a night-time sleep cycle. Also, any walled town is not going to let someone enter during the middle of the night. Finally, many predators are active during the night, should be higher chances of more nasty encounters than just bandits.

[Spudster]

do they all have dark vision or low light vision? if not, perhaps already using them, but the Darkness rules on pg 442 of the CRB should help spice things up a bit....at least when the moon is new (25% of the month)

-max half speed unless dc 10 acrobatics check made (fail = fall prone)
-no precision damage
-opponents have total concealment
-lose dex mod to ac
- -4 to perception and most str and dex based skills

against foes that can see combat should be nasty (especially those that can see and use ranged weapons or deal precision damage)

and maybe say Rocs hunt only at night...on moonless nights

[DM Under The Bridge]

Eh, hearing is worse on a quiet dark night?

Baffling.

Lose dex mod to AC is harsh.