Travelling in Game


Gamer Life General Discussion


I was wondering if anyone else felt like traveling for long periods in game blows. Recently I was playing a RPG and to get to our next town we had to travel 42 days. I was struck dumb. I couldn't believe that I was being forced to travel that kind of distance or that that kind of distance was going to take that kind of time! I went and bought a cart and donkey to carry the ridiculous amount of rations/water I'd need. To make it worse there was only going to be one town on the route and it was small. No other transportation was available either.

I'm not 100% sure why it pissed me off so much, I mean afterall it's only to say "alright, 42 days is passed" and it's over, but still, for some reason, it felt like the worst kind of wait. When the DM said it, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Anyone else ever feel like that? or know why I might have felt like that? Any comments?


There is a funky document on Travelling In Game that someone on here made..when I get home I'll post a link.


Tayleron wrote:

(...)

Anyone else ever feel like that? or know why I might have felt like that? Any comments?

Its a matter of taste I guess. Personally, I love this kind of stuff. Makes you realise how far things are without a car/plane/teleport spell.

That being said, there are a few roads where your character would need to stock a month and a half worth of rations without passing near an inn or small village to restock your supplies, even if the map doesn't show any major town. As a DM, especially knowing that you're not interested in that kind of stuff, I'd be tempted to say "it will take you half the summer, you'll have to spend 42 gp and voila, you arrive as the sun sets"...

I'd encourage you to (politely) tell your DM that this aspect of the game doesn't interest you so much. He (or She?) will then be informed and won't waste too much game energy on this in the games to come.

'findel


Laurefindel wrote:

As a DM, especially knowing that you're not interested in that kind of stuff, I'd be tempted to say "it will take you half the summer, you'll have to spend 42 gp and voila, you arrive as the sun sets"...

I'd encourage you to (politely) tell your DM that this aspect of the game doesn't interest you so much. He (or She?) will then be informed and won't waste too much game energy on this in the games to come.

Well, I imagine he knows that now because I made quite the fuss over it, haha. I was probably at the point of being annoying with my complaining, but at the time it really felt terrible to waste that kind of time.


I've played in a few games where we would spend months (upwards of a year) in game traveling between continents and locations. Those games involved a lot of sea travel, exploring new lands and tracking the BBEG across multiple continents. Most of the time our DM hand waved things (especially after we bought our own ship and had the money to fund the expeditions ourselves) but there were a few occasions where we had to figure out if we could afford to travel that far or if we needed to make some more money/get a sponsor.

Long travel times like that can make for some interesting role-playing opportunities and can take the game in some interesting directions if you have the right group.

That said, it can definitely get boring if over done.


Aaron Whitley wrote:

I've played in a few games where we would spend months (upwards of a year) in game traveling between continents and locations. Those games involved a lot of sea travel, exploring new lands and tracking the BBEG across multiple continents. Most of the time our DM hand waved things (especially after we bought our own ship and had the money to fund the expeditions ourselves) but there were a few occasions where we had to figure out if we could afford to travel that far or if we needed to make some more money/get a sponsor.

Long travel times like that can make for some interesting role-playing opportunities and can take the game in some interesting directions if you have the right group.

That said, it can definitely get boring if over done.

You know, I've never thought of it like that and I could actually see myself enjoying that kind of stuff. I think I'd need to know ahead of time that we were going to travel like that, though. Then I could at least prepare myself for the scale of it all.

Generally, I think of staying within a region, going from town to town adventuring, and only ever leaving the region if there's a real need, like the BBEG is escaping over the mountains and we have to track him down in a new area. Maybe this is from my time with computer games, like say Neverwinter Nights, where you do all the quests in town and then go to the next one and do them there and the next... etc.

I've spent the last few minutes thinking and my own DMing is like what I describe above. I set the players in a town, usually a smaller one, and give them a quest. Then once they've done that I'll find a reason for them to move on, and set the next adventure in the next town over or in the main city of the region. One time I had an adventure where they had to travel back and forth between 2 towns, but the distance was only a day by horse. Even right now, my current campaign, I started the PCs in a small town, gave them a cave to clear out, and now I'm trying to figure out a quest that will get them to move on to the next larger town, and then to the city that's near that one.

I think the reason I was so struck by the travelling is because it's something that I'd never do in one of my own campaigns.


Tayleron wrote:

You know, I've never thought of it like that and I could actually see myself enjoying that kind of stuff. I think I'd need to know ahead of time that we were going to travel like that, though. Then I could at least prepare myself for the scale of it all.

Generally, I think of staying within a region, going from town to town adventuring, and only ever leaving the region if there's a real need, like the BBEG is escaping over the mountains and we have to track him down in a new area. Maybe this is from my time with computer games, like say Neverwinter Nights, where you do all the quests in town and then go to the next one and do them there and the next... etc.

I've spent the last few minutes thinking and my own DMing is like what I describe above. I set the players in a town, usually a smaller one, and give them a quest. Then once they've done that I'll find a reason for them to move on, and set the next adventure in the next town over or in the main city of the region. One time I had an adventure where they had to travel back and forth between 2 towns, but the distance was only a day by horse. Even right now, my current campaign, I started the PCs in a small town, gave them a cave to clear out, and now I'm trying to figure out a...

We typically play that way as well. It was definitely a shocker for us the first time he asked, "Well, how are you going to get there? How are you going to pay for it?".

We were a little stumped at first and then all of a sudden the idea of making bargains with the merchants for free travel or becoming deputized agents of a city-state so we could lay claims to new territory and expense our travel became really exciting.

Over the years I've seen:

  • One character leap at the opportunity to become a minor (land owning) noble
  • the cleric convince his religious superiors to ordain him a missionary and voice of the church
  • the wizard buy a merchant company
  • Another character become an official agent of the city-state they were in with the powers to lay claim to new lands and territory on behalf of the city-state

All so we could travel without having to too heavily tap into our treasure. Its turned out to be a lot of fun.

Of course we have had a couple of instances where the traveling was a big part of the adventure (like blazing a new trail through the wilderness between two allied cities preparing for war).


Two words: Oregon Trail

This is one of the reasons I vastly prefer modern/sci-fi games. When someone says "well, let's drive to Seattle," everyone has a vague idea of what that means, what parts to handwave, what actually needs to be planned, et cetera.


Traveling long distances, and getting into misadventure on the way (and leveling up) is about as old a fantasy trope as there is (see The Lord of The Rings). There are many reasons to do it, from actually playing each step, to just wanting a certain seasonal weather condition at the other end.

If the GM does it right, everybody wins and has fun. (Though I have learned the hard way that planning too far ahead and putting too much stuff in-between can itself be an interest killer. Some players forget what the ultimate goal is, or lose desire to engage in it. Also, a playing group might disband before the destination is reached, which leaves the adventure hanging. Much bummer.)

But this:

Tayleron wrote:


I'm not 100% sure why it pissed me off so much, I mean afterall it's only to say "alright, 42 days is passed" and it's over, but still, for some reason, it felt like the worst kind of wait. When the DM said it, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Anyone else ever feel like that? or know why I might have felt like that? Any comments?

Mystifies me. I am sure you are a nice person and not a problem player. Doesn't sound like you had any outbursts or anything. However, I will say the last guy I gamed with who regularly freaked out over stuff like that, in the same sorts of situations, was the biggest problem player I have ever encountered. Everything just seemed to rub him the wrong way. Who knows why? He had a huge ego and a lot of pride. Maybe that was it?

A good example was the time the party was underground, and were taking a long tunnel to parts unknown. I explained to them that the dwarf could sense the most tenuous, slightest upwards grade, but that they could not see the end of it: it seemed to just stretch on and on. They determined that this path must lead up to the surface at some point, and agreed to travel down the length, even though it appeared to be very long.

So, thinking we were all on the same page, and that they would appreciate the fast-forward, I said, "okay, so you walk for nearly half-an-hour, and..."

And that's when the problem player exploded. Normally very impatient, I figured he would like the jump ahead most of all. But when he realized he would have to walk more than a minute or two, he freaked out, started yelling about how his character would never allow it, and accused me of railroading. I indicated that was not my intent, and offered to allow for the party to go back a ways to play out the situation differently. Not good enough for him: the session ended.

I think it's too bad when a very harmless, trivial thing is used to facilitate anger like that.


I certainly don't think I'm a problem player! I'd never yell or get angry and certainly never over something as trivial as a half-hour. Although I said I made a fuss over it, it's not like I derailed the session or accused the DM of anything, I just made a bigger deal than normal people might have.

In the situation we had just finished travelling from completing a quest and returning home, only to be sent directly on a 42 day cross land no exceptions trip. It did feel railroady, especially since we couldn't get any other transportation, though I think it was more about the length of time our characters (more specifically MY character) would be doing nothing. I feel like justifying it makes me sound like a dick, but at the time it seemed like a terrible injustice.

Oh also, when we got there we found out we were a decoy. We weren't even doing anything important. That just blew my mind! But that's something else, I had no idea back when I was upset about the travel.

I am, like your player, impatient and in a dungeon situation I am generally the one out front (even if I'm not supposed to be sometimes), but I take my volly of arrows like a man and drop to neg hp. I know when I've been stupid and accept it. Note that I am working on being more patient, but I just don't have the mind to sit for 5-10mins and debate about opening the door or crossing the bridge. Sometimes you have to be the one to move the adventure ahead.

I may sound a little bitter, but I'm not really. I'm usually the guy that takes the RP lead so I tend to get caught up in story stuff.


Tayleron wrote:
Note that I am working on being more patient, but I just don't have the mind to sit for 5-10mins and debate about opening the door or crossing the bridge. Sometimes you have to be the one to move the adventure ahead.

Any chance you could give a motivational speech to my players on moving ahead?

I wrote up 3/4 of a page of notes for a game (excluding NPC stats.) Due to the fact that there were three doors from which to choose at the beginning, they got through exactly the first paragraph of 5 on the page.

I had planned for a 3 session adventure, covering 2 weeks in game. I cut out 7 days of in game stuff just to speed it up. We've finished 6 sessions and they're not done yet.

Clearly, I have learned something about my group and will no longer plan for a fun 3 session side quest.

And they wonder why after 6 months of weekly games they've only just hit level 6. That only after I have been, shall we say 'generous', with bonus XP. We are using the fast level progression table.

The last game I ran for a year finished out at level 17. At this rate, they'll be level 10 if they're lucky when we hit a year.

Liberty's Edge

Way back in the mists of time, the very first adventure I ever wrote was based around a journey.

The characters started in one town, were given some compelling reason to go to the next one along... about 10 days' travel if mounted, and off they went. Along the way they met some interesting people, not all of whom wanted to kill them, and a bunch of bandits, who most decidedly did (or at least, wanted to feed them to the troglodytes who lived in caves below the bandits' base, only the trogs wanted to sacrifice them to a bizarre creature of my own invention who lived even deeper below them...). And eventually they did reach the next township and did whatever it was they'd gone there for.

Think it took about 3 sessions to play through and... well, people have kept asking me to run for them since, so it can't have been all bad!

A few years later a major campaign was all journey-based as well, firstly around the World's End Marches, then a sea trip to some islands and thence they were supposed to go further on to the next continent but they never got there. Shame, it was all mapped out and ready for them, but they decided to go back to the Marches and set up as a mercenary company instead.


Gerrinson wrote:
Tayleron wrote:
Note that I am working on being more patient, but I just don't have the mind to sit for 5-10mins and debate about opening the door or crossing the bridge. Sometimes you have to be the one to move the adventure ahead.

Any chance you could give a motivational speech to my players on moving ahead?

I wrote up 3/4 of a page of notes for a game (excluding NPC stats.) Due to the fact that there were three doors from which to choose at the beginning, they got through exactly the first paragraph of 5 on the page.

I had planned for a 3 session adventure, covering 2 weeks in game. I cut out 7 days of in game stuff just to speed it up. We've finished 6 sessions and they're not done yet.

Clearly, I have learned something about my group and will no longer plan for a fun 3 session side quest.

And they wonder why after 6 months of weekly games they've only just hit level 6. That only after I have been, shall we say 'generous', with bonus XP. We are using the fast level progression table.

The last game I ran for a year finished out at level 17. At this rate, they'll be level 10 if they're lucky when we hit a year.

Playing in our sunday night game, we have people arrive at 6:30 PM or so, and then play till round about 4am. That's a good nine solid hours of gaming, and my most satisfying day of the week. We stock up on energy drinks and usually chips and pizza (alchohol tobacco free gaming FTW!) and settle down for a real game experience, with my wife, a completely novice DM, running for a trio of experienced game masters. We leveled up on fast progression about 1.1 times a night. (twice in one game TWICE in a 13 level career!)

There are MANY tips in the DMG2 for running actual games, and it's mostly metagame information on how to be a better DM. Great things about PC motivation, table conventions, and house rules. You need to learn, ASAP, that as the DM your job isn't just to write the game, but to arbitrate quickly and concisely, and to keep the game on the rails.

After 2+ decades gaming, I think I'm qualified to offer a few quick tips:

Turn Limits: Players will hem and haw about the appropriate tactical decisions *forever* sometimes. Put out an egg timer or a Boggle(tm) hourglass and say *go* each turn that comes up. One minute is sufficient for any round in which no one is doing high-multiples of actions, such as casting quickened spells and handling summoned monsters. You aren't immune to this rule, you just get two minutes. People who take too long can lose out on partial actions, or they're holding their action. No decision by the end of the round? New round.. Sucks to lose actions, but you have roughly .5 seconds to decide what happens in your combat round, and then the rest of the time doing it. Players need to pay attention to the game, or otherwise you might need to take a night off and play HALO.

Play your monsters: KNOW your monsters tactics before hand! Play your animals as dumb animals, play your spellcasters as intelligent and prepared spellcasters, play your warriors as semi-tactical intelligent warriors, but don't overplay their smarts. Sometimes they miss AoOs, sometimes they step into the wrong place. Have a few pre-arranged genius tactical ideas for your dragons before you ever get to them. Remember that mindless creatures move in straight lines towards nearest targets and continue to do that until destroyed. Do your homework. Doing it on the fly slows everything to a crawl.

Ask Your Players: 'Hey Guys? Is this fun?' Interrupt them in the middle of their ten minute argument to ask this question. Just try it and see if it starts an argument or if it leaves them all flabbergasted and then gets them back on track. If it starts an argument, tell them some guy online told you to do it and it was a bad idea, then appologize to your gaming group for me... It doesn't work on everyone. ;p

Standardize Lists: Have some STANDARD activities pre-set for your group. It may require a bull session to work this out, but it will speed up your gameplay!
*Marching Order
*Post Combat Activity
*Camp Roster/Breaking-Ending Camp Activities
*Party Travel Speed Per Hour/Day/Week and Cost per travel (you can do this without their help until something changes, like teleport, or adding horses or a cart/wagon)
*Dice Conventions
*Door Orders (Standard Operating Procedure)

Dice Conventions are extremely important and should be handled first.
Example: Roll all your dice at once for all your attacks/damage for the round. Color coded dice obey the ROY G BIV rainbow law of order, red before orange before yellow before blue, etc. Dice must be rolled on a flat surface, anything not on the surface is a tilt, read the dice for the group.

We can bang out a round of combat with ten monsters in -eight minutes-. You get into a serious swing, then you have a party leader who chooses the direction, and the standard 'Door Orders' that your party follows already written on a piece of paper that can be posted on the wall where everyone can see.

No more arguments, no more wasted time, MORE TIME FOR FUN!

You can work things things out in character or out of character, but work them out. The Paladin is the party leader, he sets policy. The rogue is the navigator, in the dungeon or out, he chooses the direction you go, the Paladin leaves those choices up to him. The cleric handles the parties finances and makes all the decisions on where the treasure goes. The wizard decides when to rest, and makes all the decisions on combat tactics, and handles all investigations.

If arguments happen during combat, tell players they need to move along before people waste an action.

Get your ducks in a row and your game sessions will flow very well. Having an experienced rules lawyer in the party can be a hindrance, or an asset, depending on how you want to use them. Make them responsible for making general rule calls at the table and spouting mechanics if anyone is unsure of them, or set them to looking up rules you've already run to correct the table AFTER the encounter, and continue to run with the mechanics you thought were correct at the moment. Spellcasters should be able to quickly reference a print-out of any spell they have prepared, either in book or pdf or some printed format at all times.

And I can't stress this enough... Study. Read your core book in the bathroom, on the train, on the bus, while re-watching old TV shows... whatever. If something you have planned uses a mechanic, make a flashcard for that mechanic, or at the very least, read it twice and make certain you can recite most of the rule accurately so you can make the correct calls in the game. Once you have your referee skills down, guiding your party with "Let's move on..." and getting everyone to set up Standard Adventuring Procedure will, in effect, cast Quickened Game Night...


I happen to like long travel times in games. It breaks up the pace a bit, and adds in the presumed in game downtime without pressing the pause button on the plot.

What I mean is the game assumes some kind of down time. Adventurers dont go from level 1 to 20 in a year, but they will if you adventure every day of that year. Space a week of adventuring with a month of travel though, and things start to make more sense. In addition if you can get a mobile platform for it (like carts or wagons) this allows casters and crafters (not just for casters anymore) to have ample time to do their reasearch/crafting. I never really liked the 'There is a huge evil hanging over the world, but here take 2 weeks off because you should have some down time'. I much prefer 'there is a huge evil hanging over the world and your information tells you their headquarters is on the other side of the continent.'


I just checked at home and I discovered- Laurefindel is the one who wrote the document I was referencing!! Post your stuff again re: travelling in game, Laurefindel, it was really excellent may provide the answers Tayleron seeks!!!


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Freehold DM wrote:
Post your stuff again re: travelling in game, Laurefindel, it was really excellent may provide the answers Tayleron seeks!!!

This set of houserules can be found HERE

In a nutshell, it attempts to mimic the combat round mechanics (free actions, swift actions, move action and standard actions etc...) and transpose it to a period of 12ish hours. It assumes that adventurers are 'active' for about half the day (the other 12 hours being dedicated to sleeping, keeping watch, cooking food, sharpening your sword, change the damaged straps in that armor, practice those spells that will magically appear in your spellbook when you level-up etc).

It was created as a tool for games including players that enjoy micromanaging a trek on a daily basis, but I'm not sure whether it would help Tayleron who has less interest in in-game trekking in the first place (that's meant to be a negative comment by the way Tayleron).

[edit] Makes me realize that I never re-edited this page. It could use a few more instructions (such as a clear indication that foraging doesn't half traveling speed as described in the PHB since it take an action, therefore reducing the total distance traveled). Also, he chart doesn't indicate any action for shopping, which is outrageous since it arguably is the most commonly performed action by adventurers...

'findel


Laurefindel wrote:

This set of houserules can be found HERE

In a nutshell, it attempts to mimic the combat round mechanics (free actions, swift actions, move action and standard actions etc...) and transpose it to a period of 12ish hours. It assumes that adventurers are 'active' for about half the day (the other 12 hours being dedicated to sleeping, keeping watch, cooking food, sharpening your sword, change the damaged straps in that armor, practice those spells that will magically appear in your spellbook when you level-up etc).

It was created as a tool for games including players that enjoy micromanaging a trek on a daily basis, but I'm not sure whether it would help Tayleron who has less interest in in-game trekking in the first place (that's meant to be a negative comment by the way Tayleron).

[edit] Makes me realize that I never re-edited this page. It could use a few more instructions (such as a clear indication that foraging doesn't half traveling speed as described in the PHB since it take an action, therefore reducing the total distance traveled). Also, he chart doesn't indicate any action for shopping, which is outrageous since it arguably is the most commonly performed action by adventurers...

'findel

WOW! That is simply fantastic! Thank you for sharing Laurefindel.


Tayleron wrote:

I certainly don't think I'm a problem player! I'd never yell or get angry and certainly never over something as trivial as a half-hour. Although I said I made a fuss over it, it's not like I derailed the session or accused the DM of anything, I just made a bigger deal than normal people might have.

In the situation we had just finished travelling from completing a quest and returning home, only to be sent directly on a 42 day cross land no exceptions trip. It did feel railroady, especially since we couldn't get any other transportation, though I think it was more about the length of time our characters (more specifically MY character) would be doing nothing. I feel like justifying it makes me sound like a dick, but at the time it seemed like a terrible injustice.

Oh also, when we got there we found out we were a decoy. We weren't even doing anything important. That just blew my mind! But that's something else, I had no idea back when I was upset about the travel.

I am, like your player, impatient and in a dungeon situation I am generally the one out front (even if I'm not supposed to be sometimes), but I take my volly of arrows like a man and drop to neg hp. I know when I've been stupid and accept it. Note that I am working on being more patient, but I just don't have the mind to sit for 5-10mins and debate about opening the door or crossing the bridge. Sometimes you have to be the one to move the adventure ahead.

I may sound a little bitter, but I'm not really. I'm usually the guy that takes the RP lead so I tend to get caught up in story stuff.

Heh. I'm typically the cautious and deliberate one but the last couple of sessions I've switched roles and been the one kicking in doors. Haven't gotten myself killed yet though so I may be onto something.


Just a note relating to long travel times and such, but I wonder how many people who have not read the Lord of the Rings books and only seen the movies realize that the events took many months from the beginning of the first book to the end of the third book, including weeks and weeks of travel time. I just wonder if the DMs who like doing the long travel time adventures were influenced by reading Tolkien.

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