Limiting travel

[Garonak]

I am planning on limiting magical travel a great deal in a future campaign, but I am a bit unsure how to do it.
This will include everything that increases speed, grants speed, and extra-dimensional travel. Anything with round/level stays as is (haste etc). But anything with a longer duration need some changes.
My ideas thus far:
- Increase casting time
- Higher spell level
- Reduced duration
Eg. Expeditious Retreat: Reduced to round/lvl; Level 2 spell.

Travel spells like teleport, dimensional door, planeshift, gate, rope trick etc are just plain out of reach for PCs.
This again affects spell lists and maneuvers, Travel domain comes to mind, as well as class and racial abilities.

This will also affects items, both those that grants these spells (Belt of the Wide Earth MIC204) and those that use them in one way or another (Heward's Handy Haversack and Bag of Holding) - I am not comfortable in in outright banning them, nor making them all that more expensive, but they require some sort of adjustment. BotWE is part of a set item and grants other effects, so my first thought is to just remove the teleport-thingy and reduce price.

I could and probably deal with a lot of these issues ad hoc as they arise, but it would be nice to have some guidelines to make it more or less predictable for both me and the players.

This post is a bit messy, but that stems from me not having a real plan as of yet.

[HunterOfJello]

All I see in your post is a desire to nerf a bunch of random travel related spells and items. As a DM, removing or nerfing aspects of the game just because "I don't like them" isn't a great idea.

What is your actual purpose that you are attempting to achieve and what is your motivation in attempting to achieve these goals?

[Gildedragon]

Expeditous retreat isn't too bad for travel as it allows the standard character to move what, a few miles over 20 minutes...
if you wanna impede travel impede stuff like teleportation and overland flight. Exp Retreat is a "get out of a sticky situation fast" or "do the whole runner between towns thing" spell.

If you wanna constrain the world-size: Overland flight, access to wings, and put natural barriers (rivers, the sea, mountains, chasms) in between spots.

[Garonak]

The main reason is that those spells remove large part of the excitement around adventuring (this is something I feel both as player and as DM), the whole 'getting there' part is removed.
NPC: "The enemy army will get to the city in just 20 days"
PC: "Ooh, that means that we have time for 19 days on side quests and shopping on a totally different continent".

Random encounters while traveling is gone, random encounters while resting is gone (rope trick), unless there is a very specific monster that is specially adapted to attack in those conditions which just screams of 'DM is out to get you'.

At later levels (7-8 and above) most adventures seems to be: Teleport from safe base, kill monster, rescue damsel in distress, loot, teleport back to safe base.

Time limits, random encounters, feel of long distance, the whole: 'will we even get there' feeling, and so on.

Fluff-wise and event will occur at/near the end of prior adventure which will damage magical transportation - damage, not kill off, ie. might be returned. This non-magical travel campaign will occur some 20-30 years after, which will give the world (at least the area) and new characters some time to adapt.

[AlanBruce]

My mid high level party (ECL 12-13), have access to teleport. They are currently in a ship taking a 30 day voyage to their next destination.

Could the party mage teleport them to thier destination? Absolutely. It might take a few castings, but he's a conjurer and teleports are aplenty for this guy.

Here's what I used in my campaign- I made the sea voyage interesting enough to make the players decide on their own to keep their PCs on the ship. How did I do that? I fleshed out the crew. Some are loved, others are ignored. Others are comedic relief. Some of the PCs are actually interested enough in gettingto know the wide seas and the many islands scattered through their charted course (sidequests and treasure hunting).

In short, give the party a delectable reason to want to avoid the so called teleport by throwing in a multitude of hooks. Every PC, as far as I know, likes loot and XP. Taking a voyage through uncharted islands gives them that opprtunity which would be avoided by a few teleports.

In my campaign, the party has not considered using teleprt once to reach their detsinatio (and they can, if they wished it so). The NPC interaction they have formed with the crew is strong and they have developed a kindred spirit of sorts with the npcs, going as far as helping them when problems arise out at sea. Also, PCs like to gather knowledge- expand the lore of the setting. What better way to flesh it out than by traveling? It's part of the journey. I believe it's what forms strong alliances with npcs that may later come into play when the party needs their help.

In short- get the players immersed with the npcs in yoru setting by giving them human like traits, not just sttas. Quirks, mannerisms, hooks. This gets PCs all the more inetrested.

[JellyPooga]

As a DM, removing or nerfing aspects of the game just because "I don't like them" isn't a great idea.

This is a sentiment that I disagree with. As DM, it's your prerogative to "nerf" or remove any aspect of the game that you feel impacts negatively on your story.

AlanBruce has a point with his anecdote about his sea voyage, but don't be afraid to whomp stuff with the nerf bat too; you want to make movement magic harder to access? Go right ahead. Say that the God of Travel (whoever it might be in your campaign) gnarked off the God of Magic, causing them to change the fabric of magic to make travel-magic harder, or something. Go into detail about how the magical society has been thrown into uproar over the whole affair; wizards getting their wands in a twist, mages finding their magnificent mansions inaccessible, scholars arguing with priests and each other over the semantics, pointing the big finger of blame in various directions and so forth.

The more you sell the idea to your players, the more likely they are to accept it. Make sure, however, that you're not going to seriously screw with someones character concept. If one of your players has built a character focusing on said magics, then you're going to really put him in a back seat, at least as far as his concept goes.

[Gemini476]

Have you considered simply removing the Astral or otherwise simply taking away teleportation?

OPTION: WITHOUT THE ASTRAL
The Astral Plane is a vital piece of most planar arrangements because it makes movement across these vast distances possible. However, you may wish to exclude the Astral Plane from a cosmology you create. Doing so has the following effects:
•The following spells don’t work in a cosmology without an Astral Plane: astral projection, interplanar message,* and summon monster (I–IX).
•The following spells have elements that do not function in a cosmology without an Astral Plane: dimensional anchor and zone of respite.* (Otherwise, these spells work normally.)
•The following spells can still work, but you will have to determine exactly how they function without an Astral Plane: dimension door, teleport, teleportation circle, teleport without error, and vanish.
•Passage between non-Transitive Planes is still possible, but these planes must be coterminous or coexistent. The destination plane must connect with the plane of origin for travel to occur. Access to other planes is thus limited to specific locations on the Material Plane. There is no Astral Plane for conduits from portals to weave through.

[HighWater]

This is a sentiment that I disagree with. As DM, it's your prerogative to "nerf" or remove any aspect of the game that you feel impacts negatively on your story.
I think the point of the bit you quoted was not so much anti-DM banning, and much more against unexplained DM banning.

I'd be annoyed by a DM that said "man, no travel-improving spells!"
I'd be approving of a DM that said "No travel-improving spells, because they take away from the story and can be really hard on verisimiltude."

Important: The travel then has to be interesting, rather than being actual filler. An important part of why players use travel spells is because travel is boring and random encounters are boring. If you're unable to make travel interesting, prohibiting teleportation will just be annoying, making the sessions less-fun on average. A possible solution could be a gentlemen's agreement where players promise not to skip major bits with teleport (provided you manage to make them interesting) but retain teleport as an emergency escape.



AlanBruce has a point with his anecdote about his sea voyage, but don't be afraid to whomp stuff with the nerf bat too; you want to make movement magic harder to access? Go right ahead. Say that the God of Travel (whoever it might be in your campaign) gnarked off the God of Magic, causing them to change the fabric of magic to make travel-magic harder, or something. Go into detail about how the magical society has been thrown into uproar over the whole affair; wizards getting their wands in a twist, mages finding their magnificent mansions inaccessible, scholars arguing with priests and each other over the semantics, pointing the big finger of blame in various directions and so forth.

Having a nice bit of fluff will definitely help sell it. The availability of teleport in any setting can be a major threat to credibility as many-an-interesting-background-story would've ended up very differently if one or both parties had had access to long-distance teleport. Teleport can be a game-breaker on many levels, just make sure you're not throwing it out just so you can railroad your players through "Travel & Random Encounter" stuff that they actually find boring.

I'm unsure as to why Expeditious Retreat needs to be toned down. It only lets the party cover a bit more ground, it won't let them avoid anything (except maybe outrunning slow monsters). Basically any travel enhancing spell that still allows for quite easy intercepts probably won't require adjusting.

[JellyPooga]

Important: The travel then has to be interesting

Agreed. Very much so. That or your campaign has no travel. If you're going to force slow travel, then make it worthwhile and probably even plot-centric. Random encounters are rarely fun when having to constantly deal with them.


'm unsure as to why Expeditious Retreat needs to be toned down.

The only reason I can think of is to bring it into line with whatever fluff reason has been given. It's not that the spell itself needs toning down, but rather that it's a travel enhancing spell and it wouldn't make sense for it to be unaffected when other spells of its type are.

[Ranting Fool]

My campaign has the whole "God of Travel is Dead" so no long range teleports of any kind (Everything from Dimension Door and lower works fine) the reason for this was that the players disliked all the teleporting around in the last campaign and asked me to do something about it.

Also I've got a lovely main plot hook

Player "Errr... in your world when a God dies another God takes over his powers / a bunch of smaller ones take over. So why isn't there a new God of Travel?"
Me "Exactly"
Player "OOOOoooooo Lets go find out what happened!" :smallbiggrin:
So we've had lots of traveling through frozen wastelands and pirate style adventures while they hunt down clues as to what happened to destroy the God of Travel.

As DM you should always feel free to add or remove anything that you don't want in your campaign provided you:

A: Do before campaign starts and inform players of any and all changes (We had a big sit down where everyone suggested things that wanted to change or wanted me to have a look at )
B: If players don't have access to something NPC's should have access to it without a good reason
C: If you have to change something because it causes major problems to you campaign explain to the players why (A few times it's been because I didn't realize how deadly X combo was)

[Mellack]

I am not sure limiting travel spells will even have the effect you are looking for. By mid levels it is pretty easy to get a hippogriff or something similar.
I think your solution is more along the lines of making the travel more interesting. Random encounters do NOT do that. They can quickly get boring and inconsequential. Try having lots of little side quests or interesting bits to explore on the way so they want to go look. Otherwise saying "I teleport there" and "I spend a week riding there" really have no difference.

[Lightlawbliss]

I am DMing a campaign right now where most of the "OP" or "makes things to easy" magic is "restricted access". Essentially, the government has stepped in and is making getting certain kinds of magic, including the entire teleportation sub-school, much harder to use through the information on using it. The players, to my knowledge, have no problem with this and seem to enjoy the added challenge and plot hooks it grants. However, do note that the spells are still available, the players just have to figure out how to get what they want and put effort into getting that spell they feel they need/want.

I find this logic helps me avoid stupid misakes: If I changed ______ (ex: a spell) this way, what would ______ (ex: the casters) in this world do to adapt.

In the above example, the restrictions are a logical reaction to magic being used in "bad" ways. Because of the restrictions, casters find those magics more valuable and are more careful on when to use them so they don't share that valuable knowledge for free.

If you ban a spell without plot hook, you leave a hole that would be useful to have filled. It is thereby likely that somebody would have invented a spell to fill that hole and the ban is pointless. With plot hook, people (like maby your players) will go and try to fix it if they can.

Ps: increasing casting time of spells should be done with extreme care, seemingly minor changes can take a great spell and make it junk.

[NichG]

Actually, I don't think travel necessarily has to be interesting, and its actually better in some ways if it isn't later on in the campaign. Instead, travel must be quick out of character regardless of how long it takes in-character.

Basically, removing fast travel options allows for a wider range of time-limit-based challenges. But if the basic move is 'spend a month to go from city A to city B' then its best if the players aren't making the decision to do that or not out of character because they're e.g. bored of wilderness encounters. So if you say 'you've taken this road before, I won't run it in detail again, if you want to take the road we tick forward a month and you're there' then the players can recognize it more as a decision about in-game factors of timing rather than out-of-game factors.

Generally the nice thing about limiting travel and making travel times longer is that it stretches out the timeline of a campaign to be more gradual. Rather than the world completely changing state in a week due to hectic teleportation and people shooting up to high levels, it gives time for the slow factors in the campaign world to matter - rulers have kids, those kids grow up, and you can have succession conflicts emerge without being found in media res; mundane armies actually have time to get places and matter; populations and opinions can shift; towns can become cities over the course of the campaign due to the prosperity introduced by the actions of the PCs; organizations can evolve; etc.

[jjcrpntr]

I'm kind of doing this in my campaign now. Teleports and such are rare if at all to be had. Part of the reason is that the first mission the PC's went on was to retreive some cursed items and bring them back to a library. The PC's had a bag to protect them from the madness the items caused but they still suffered a daily "curse". These things were all just fun stuff, one day it was the guy holding the bag was under the effects of greater rage and had to roll a will save or attack the nearest target (friend or foe), happened to be the wizard that day and he damn near killed the barbarian. It made for one hilarious night of pathfinder foolishness.

One of the first things one player did when they found the items was ask around for a teleport to take them right to the library. Had I let them it would have sped things up yes, but it really would have ruined a lot of fun for everyone, and they would have missed out on a lot of fights (which they needed for XP/gold).

I'm in the camp of "just teleporting around kills a lot of the fun of exploration". At the same time I don't want people wasting time, so what I do is if a ship journey is planned to be peaceful we just fast forward, or I'll ask them "ok it's day 3, anyone want to do anything on ship? No ok (roll percentile) nothing happens today moving on".

[Garonak]

A LOT of good suggestions here!

I am not the only one in the group that has been considering a travel restricted campaign, so getting the players on board shouldn't be that much of an issue.

The whole sea voyage is a very good idea, except at this point I have no plans for it. The main focus of the campaign will happen in an area that takes roughly two weeks to go from one point to another - some quests might take the PCs further.

A flying mount does not in any way go against my wishes. A flying mount is susceptible for random encounters, and they still have to land to rest.

Killing the god of travel might fit quite well with my plans.
I also liked the suggestion of god of magic v god of travel.

What suggestions do people have for how to implement it mechanically?

[Slipperychicken]

I agree with parts of this. Flight and teleportation spells are anathema for games which revolve around travel (or even which try to emulate the countless stories based around travel. The Odyssey could have been a lot shorter if Odysseus simply teleported home). Effects like Longstrider, Expeditious Retreat or Mount which just make PCs move at a horse's pace or less aren't so bothersome, since they're still getting to the destination when the GM dictates, and still have to deal with encounters and obstacles on the ground.

So if the troubles of traveling are essential for your game, I'd say it's reasonable to talk to the players about it before the campaign, and suggest bans on long-distance instantaneous travel effects (such as Teleport, Tree Stride, Astral Caravan, and so on. Short-distance effects like Dimension Door will probably be fine), as well as flight effects, and effects similar to Rope Trick (Such as Magnificent Mansion) which let PCs sleep in near-total security without significant resource expenditure. Effects which merely increase land speed aren't so troublesome unless they start going at mach 1 or some truly ludicrous speed like that. It's important to talk about the reasons why you wouldn't want these effects in the game, and to address the players' concerns.

[jjcrpntr]

What suggestions do people have for how to implement it mechanically?


In my campaign it's simple. It is just really, really rare for a wizard to know the spells. It's like in my campaign magical items exist but they exist in limited quantity because the skill for making powerful magical items has been lost over the years. This avoid a giant magic market which I hate.

By and large my players are completely fine with both things with the exception of one player who is basically a treasure hunter and all he wants is buckets full of gold so he can go nuts in the market. The guy was complaining that the only thing he had was a homebrewed magic orb and a +1 shortbow (for his barbarian) and MW armor, a MW great sword and like 20 potions at level 4.

Thankfully he other players are starting to bring him in line I think.

[Mellack]

When you say it will take two weeks of travel, travel by what means? On foot, horse, ship? These all have different speeds. I ask because you can stop instantaneous travel, but as characters get higher level, they can start moving at very high speeds.

[Duke of Urrel]

There are areas of the neutral alternative plane of Outland that have the limited magic trait. In these areas, not only teleportation, but all spells above a certain spell level must fail, or at least are impeded. Suppose your PCs inadvertently wander through an interplanar vortex and end up somewhere in Outland where magic is restricted. Now, they have several problems. Their first problem is to realize that they have actually left the Material Plane, and this will be especially hard for PCs to solve if their higher-level Divination spells won't work. The second problem is to figure out in which direction they must travel to get to a place where their spells will work normally. (The solution is to move away from the Spire, but it takes some Knowledge of the Planes to be aware of this.) The third problem is that by the time the PCs have realized these things, they may have gotten themselves into all kinds of other trouble.

I wouldn't let PCs wander into Outland without any warning. Let them be told that there's a scary forest ruled by Obad-Hai from which few adventurers have ever escaped alive. Let the PCs scoff that they should have an easy time dipping in and out, because they can teleport now! Then let them discover the hard way that it's not that easy...

[JellyPooga]

One mechanical way of limiting spells of whatever type, that I particularly like but mileage varies wildly between players is material components.

Assuming your campaign world doesn't have every item readily available to anyone with sufficient funds, slapping costly material components on to spells you want to restrict means you don't have to mess around with the "balance" issues of spell duration, level, etc. whilst simultaneously allowing NPCs access to said magic when thematically appropriate without making those NPCs either ludicrously high level or being the owner of a particularly powerful magic item that the PCs could steal and abuse (thus rendering the limitation on travel magic useless).

Heck, you could even write is into the fluff as part of some kind of major deific intrigue;

- God of Magic is gnarked at God of Travel for, oh I don't know, uh...using the wrong soap in the heavenly shower. He decides to curb freedom of travel by limiting travel magic.
- God of Commerce, seeing an opportunity, sneaks in a little addendum to the limitation, making travel magic very expensive indeed. Magical reagents for travel magic become a valuable commodity overnight, opening wild and varied new business.
- God of Travel, feeling hard done by, has a little chat with the God of Thieves, who steals the secret of travel magic from the God of Magic.
- God of Thieves, decides that he might get a better price selling the secret of travel magic to a higher bidder. God of Travel is understandably not happy.
- God of Travel tries to hire the God of Murder to threaten the God of Thieves, but the God of Murder (being a thoroughly disreputable kind of chap and a good friend of the God of Thieves), turns around and kills the God of Travel.
- Now, the God of Magic isn't happy because he's lost the secret of travel magic, the God of Thieves is feeling a bit guilty over the murder of the God of Travel, the God of Commerce is loving it with all the new business, but is appalled at the actions of the God of Murder, who in turn is feeling great because he just became the God of Travel too, which makes the God of Thieves (who is currently the possessor of the secret of travel magic) very uneasy indeed, knowing what just happened to the last guy to tangle with the God of Murder over those very secrets. The God of Commerce, then, being reliant on the travel that the God of Murder and Travel has jurisdiction over finds himself in a very tricky situation; does he align himself with the clearly Evil God he is now reliant on or does he try to stage some kind of coup to rectify the situation he inadvertently caused by trying to sneak in his little money-making scheme to the God of Magics petty revenge?

Oh the possibilities!

[Garonak]

Barumph BUMP

What would happen if you put a Bag of Holding inside a Portable Hole (or vice versa) while on the Astral Plane?

Would it be plausible to damage the Astral Plane or even destroy it then?

This is just an idea that popped into my head while considering the fluff behind this thread.

[Werephilosopher]

Barumph BUMP

What would happen if you put a Bag of Holding inside a Portable Hole (or vice versa) while on the Astral Plane?

Would it be plausible to damage the Astral Plane or even destroy it then?

This is just an idea that popped into my head while considering the fluff behind this thread.

They'd both be destroyed, nothing else would happen. The Astral cannot be destroyed, nor can it be "damaged" by merely sticking one magic bag inside another.

...according to canon, anyway. If you want it to work that way in your campaign, go for it, but be prepared to have reasons why insane reality-destroying abominations don't just buy some magic bags and take a quick trip to the Astral to get the job done.

[Dimcair]

Important: The travel then has to be interesting, rather than being actual filler. An important part of why players use travel spells is because travel is boring and random encounters are boring. If you're unable to make travel interesting, prohibiting teleportation will just be annoying, making the sessions less-fun on average. A possible solution could be a gentlemen's agreement where players promise not to skip major bits with teleport (provided you manage to make them interesting) but retain teleport as an emergency escape.




+1 that.

The last Owlbears our DM threw at us during rest I just ignored and kept preparing my spellbook for the next day. People who like to hit things with objects cut them down rather fast. Of course, if it would have been a more powerful creature I would have not let the party down, but in MOST random encounters I'd assume the 'CR' is not sky-high.
WE DID find a nest with a little white Owlbear though, named him ''Furby" and he is a mascot now. (In the backpack together with Gregor the goblin).

My point: You can miss out on fun if you get totally rid of random encounters.
However, if your main storyline is engaging I will spend every second trying to find out more about it, being excited, and playing around different scenarios and outcomes in my head as to how to proceed and succeed.
Random encounters just annoy me at this point since playtime is scarce.

If the next clue is in a remote village I want to get there in as little OOC time as possible. If thats teleport or walking? I don't care.
A gentlemen's agreement seems the best solution to me.

Cheers

[Lightlawbliss]

thread necromancy

[Zale]

PCs aren't the only ones to get teleportation magic.

It's not the big stompy army you have to worry about- it's the small group of elite troops that are engaging in a teleport-aided blitzkrieg.

If I were doing this, I'd just make it so that that the transitive planes are not always coterminous to other planes. Oh, sure, there are places where it always connects, but there are also places where it never does- and everywhere in between it roils and shifts and fluxes like the tides. People build trade hubs in the steady zones and fortresses in the dead ones, and every else is just somewhere.

You can't use teleportation magic with any degree of reliability anywhere outside of a steady zone- and even if you do, unless your destination is also a steady zone, you have no real assurance you'll end up there. Dead zones simply don't allow teleportation at all. Can't go in or out.

Everywhere else, you roll to see if you can use a teleportation spell, then roll to see if you end up where you wanted to go, then roll to see how far you ended up away from your destination. Even under the best circumstances, you're basically hurtling an arrow into a hurricane. You can only hope it ends up going in the direction you want it to- expecting it to hit a particular person is very optimistic.

And as for the spells that generate interplanar spaces- would you want to spend the night in something that may move several miles while you are sleeping, or dump you out in the middle of the night?

[Svata]

effects similar to Rope Trick (Such as Magnificent Mansion) which let PCs sleep in near-total security without significant resource expenditure.

Yeah, by the time Magnificent Mansion is available, they are fairly high level, so they should be allowed to sleep in comfort. Also, it has three expensive focus components, so it isn't without resource expendature.

[Svata]

thread necromancy

Nope. Was within 45 day limit.

[Slipperychicken]

Yeah, by the time Magnificent Mansion is available, they are fairly high level, so they should be allowed to sleep in comfort. Also, it has three expensive focus components, so it isn't without resource expendature.

I said significant resource expenditure. By level 13 (when wizards can normally cast the spell), 15gp is a rounding error, and it's a focus, meaning the petty sum is paid once and forgotten about.

[Dimcair]

thread necromancy

Also, the CREATOR of the thread bumped it up. That is hardly ''thread necromancy''. :smallsigh:

[atemu1234]

PC: "Ooh, that means that we have time for 19 days on side quests and shopping on a totally different continent".

Have you tried limiting their side-quest options? Or not letting them go shopping? Or LOWERING THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU HAVE TO GET THERE? Any of these sticking?

[JusticeZero]

The main reason is that those spells remove large part of the excitement around adventuring (this is something I feel both as player and as DM), the whole 'getting there' part is removed.I disagree. Overland encounters become a boring waste of time at the same levels that it becomes possible to skip them. While rampaging bandits and orcs are exciting at level 6, at level 12, they are just a waste of a few minutes, and people welcome the ability to avoid them. If you are annoyed by the 7+ game, might I recommend you look into E6 rules?

[Lord of Shadows]

Have you considered simply removing the Astral or otherwise simply taking away teleportation?


Quote Originally Posted by Manual of the Planes
OPTION: WITHOUT THE ASTRAL
The Astral Plane is a vital piece of most planar arrangements because it makes movement across these vast distances possible. However, you may wish to exclude the Astral Plane from a cosmology you create. Doing so has the following effects:
•The following spells don’t work in a cosmology without an Astral Plane: astral projection, interplanar message,* and summon monster (I–IX).
•The following spells have elements that do not function in a cosmology without an Astral Plane: dimensional anchor and zone of respite.* (Otherwise, these spells work normally.)
•The following spells can still work, but you will have to determine exactly how they function without an Astral Plane: dimension door, teleport, teleportation circle, teleport without error, and vanish.
•Passage between non-Transitive Planes is still possible, but these planes must be coterminous or coexistent. The destination plane must connect with the plane of origin for travel to occur. Access to other planes is thus limited to specific locations on the Material Plane. There is no Astral Plane for conduits from portals to weave through.

This above is very handy as a starting point (or even as the complete mechanic). As for why this situation exists, the war of the gods theme is a good idea, although it may cause complications among the clerics. Since inter-dimensional/planar travel is somewhat based on harmonics (i.e., the tuning fork as the component for Plane Shift), perhaps some force has disrupted those harmonics. Several real-world things could be borrowed as the cause, from a nearby star going nova, to a distant quasar with a once-in-so many thousand-years burst of radiation, etc. etc. Google "Astronomical Anomalies" and get creative. Of course, in the setting, it could be attributed to anything... such as a war of the gods, except in this case there would be no disruption in clerical powers. There could even be ancient prophecies that the party could uncover over time that hint at what is going on. There could also be very rare, very small areas deep in the earth that are shielded by some mineral where short jumps are possible (on the same plane).

[Dornith]

My suggestion for restricting magical long distance travel: say something along the lines of "Something is blocking magic," or "Unstable magic in the region makes magical travel unpredictable." That way, you aren't out right banning anything, but still leave room to screw with your players if they decide to take the chance. For example, if there's something causing magic to go crazy in a certain area, and the players teleport over it, they could end up somewhere in the middle of a random desert, and they have to figure out where they are and how to get back, as well as fight off anything that attacks them.