Intersting overland travel.

[Cerwin]

I'm gming a homebrew campaign and my level 2 party is going to be traveling from the town that is the center of this section of the story to a near by fort(several days travel) to ask the commander there to help protect the town from a large bandit attack that is expected in about 3 weeks.

I want the next session to be them getting the mission to go get help and travel there doing the actual asking either at the end of the up coming session or beginning of the following one.

Which brings me to my question . I'm wanting the travel there to be more interesting than just % to get a random encounter once a day. Anyone that has any ideas I would appreciate it.

[dragonhunterq]

dotting for interest - I haven't found a decent answer in 30 years (yikes!), so usually just describe it in a sentence or two and get on with the plot. I don't even bother with random encounters anymore.

[GM 1990]

Possible "encounters".

1. A small merchant caravan (RP and shopping possibilities).
2. Flocks of migrating waterfowl and herd animals (maybe a stampeed and skill checks to avoid)
3. Prisoner transport (RP and name drop an for later story arc)
4. Broken down wagon and farmer (RP and skill checks)
5. Stormy weather (just a hassle, but after several days of rain everything is wet and nasty)
6. Washed out bridge/road (skill checks, perhaps RP with local farmers to fix)
7. Lone stranger/NPC (introduction to bring back at a later date, maybe during the bandit raid)

Keep in mind, that even these basic RP/skill check encounters can easily burn 20-30 minutes each (or more if your group is RP heavy or large). So factor that into your IRL timelines if its important to hit certain plot points each game session due to limited session time or wrapping up story arcs before someone moves/school is out etc.

Since teleport, fly, and some other spells eventually make overland travel kind of pointless, I always cherish the opportunities at lower level to put in these kind of things which will probably not be any kind of challenge for them once they're 8+th level.

I might roll just a couple times on the random tables in advance. Think about the results that come up - maybe there is a sidequest option from one or more of them. Doesn't even have to be a combat encounter, but could somehow hook or be an easter-egg for a later plot hook.
I GM homebrew (sandbox) as well, and I always make random rolls even if I don't actually use the encounter, as they often inspire some small or sometimes large story arcs to toss out for the PCs to think about.