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Desril
2011-07-15, 08:06 PM
My group has always just kind of "fast traveled" throughout the world, and I'm aiming to fix that.

How do other GMs handle travel time other than just telling the party they covered x miles and rolling for a random encounter?

An explanation of what to do or even a campaign log exert would be great

(The search function was failing, so I couldn't find any other similar questions)

Kuma Kode
2011-07-15, 08:28 PM
I've allowed characters to roleplay their travel, but generally if the journey and nothing during it are really important to the plot, there's no point in actually doing it. That's the reason behind V's travel time joke (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0145.html); random encounters and roleplaying travel are essentially just a waste of everyone's time if they're just.... there.

navar100
2011-07-15, 08:43 PM
While random encounters don't necessarily have to involve combat, it is often not logical for there to be so many that do. If you're playing 4E Points Of Light or some other primitive or post-apocalyptic campaign, then random encounter combat away. However, if you're traveling through established countries, farmland, caravan trails, known ship paths, etc., why is it just because the patry is there someone or something attacks? People have been traveling these paths since "forever" without any problem.

If orcs or goblins are harassing caravans or passersby, that's the adventure for the party to deal with. However, for the most part caravans travel from city to city in complete safety. They wouldn't be in business otherwise. You're living in civilization. Nothing dangerous like combat should really be happening on a regular basis just because the party happens to be there. Likewise, there would be no ships traveling the seas if every ship gets attacked by pirates, a sea monster, or batted with a storm.

Gamer Girl
2011-07-15, 09:35 PM
My group has always just kind of "fast traveled" throughout the world, and I'm aiming to fix that.

How do other GMs handle travel time other than just telling the party they covered x miles and rolling for a random encounter?


It depends. It's rare for me to skip time, so I don't do the ''oh you walk 5,000 miles'' kind of thing.

Quite often my group does not know where they are going. They never have an 'X' for a spot. They have to figure out where to go as the game rolls along. So this requires them to make lots of stops to encounter others and get clues and such.

I don't use travel as drama(like LotR).

A good trick is to have a detailed world...or at least the lands they might travel though. Drop hints of things they might want to find or go see, along with game effects. One of my groups just spent some time looking for 'the fountain of healing' as they were passing though the swamp, for example.

Blue Bandit
2011-07-15, 10:52 PM
In my group, the DM rolls 1d12 for each day of travel. A roll of 1 (which doesn't happen too often) means the party encounters something on that given day of travel. The encounter isn't always a random monster. Sometimes it might be a band of marching soldiers, or even just a wild animal on the side of the road. The players usually have the option to either fight, use diplomacy, or avoid them all together. In either case, the players still get experience for finding a way though the encounter.

bebosteveo
2011-07-16, 12:02 PM
In short: put stuff in front of them to slow them down.

Take a look at The Hobbit. It wasn't just "here's the quest, we arrive at the mountain after a month". There were towns to visit, rivers and gorges to cross, trolls to outwit and avoid, etc. Now in your case the journey itself is not the adventure so you wouldn't make it quite so extensive and drawn-out. Have the party meet a camp of other adventurers/travelers, find ruins or notable natural features, force them to find shelter from a major storm, stalk/watch them with fearsome night creatures, anything that shows them there is actually something between their start and end points.

The trick is making these (non) combat encounters interesting enough to keep your players entertained but not so distracting that they think its part of the quest they are on.

The Dark Fiddler
2011-07-16, 12:56 PM
While random encounters don't necessarily have to involve combat, it is often not logical for there to be so many that do. If you're playing 4E Points Of Light or some other primitive or post-apocalyptic campaign, then random encounter combat away. However, if you're traveling through established countries, farmland, caravan trails, known ship paths, etc., why is it just because the patry is there someone or something attacks? People have been traveling these paths since "forever" without any problem.

If orcs or goblins are harassing caravans or passersby, that's the adventure for the party to deal with. However, for the most part caravans travel from city to city in complete safety. They wouldn't be in business otherwise. You're living in civilization. Nothing dangerous like combat should really be happening on a regular basis just because the party happens to be there. Likewise, there would be no ships traveling the seas if every ship gets attacked by pirates, a sea monster, or batted with a storm.

There's plenty of places even today, in America at least, where they have to warn visitors to be careful of bear attacks, despite the fact that people have been visiting the area for decades. Regular travel doesn't suddenly makes a route completely safe. Then you need a bit of willing suspension of disbelief/conservation of detail; the stuff happens to the adventurers because they're the protagonists, and it wouldn't be as exciting if it doesn't happen to them (except as a plot hook or something).