Travelling

[ShadowImmor]

Hello Hivemind!

I am running a 5e Campaign in a Homebrew setting and world, and the party are about to make a long (3 months in game time) journey. It is across mostly plains and hills, no mountains or gorges, just the odd river and perhaps lake.

I want the journey to feel long for the players (not terribly, but I really don't want to just gloss over it and say "You arrive"), does anyone have any advice on what to do? Or any systems they know of to make it a bit more interesting than "you walk for 3 months. You fight some dudes on the way."?

Thanks in advance!

Dan

[Yora]

Travel takes no time. When the players are meant to feel that a lot of time has passed between starting and arriving, there needs to be a lot of things that happen inbetween. Random encounters can happen, but simply being attacked by bandits or wolves doesn't really add anything to the experience. It's better to have the journey take them through various villages where they can have small adventures while they are stocking up on supplies.

[Contrast]

We really need a bit more info on how and why they're travelling. Would they be happy to stop off and rest or are they in a hurry? Are they going cross country on foot or on trails with a cart or...etc etc.

A typical thing might be to have them join up with a travelling merchants caravan and then something happens (a lovers tryst splits the caravan into factions, a murder mystery, undercover bandit signalling his friends, revenant haunting the caravan and they need to figure out why, people disappearing into the night) which the PCs need to resolve.

I like Yoras idea as well - throw a bunch of NPCs at them and whichever one seems to click, have something happen around them.

Edit - I've changed my mind, have them encounter a travelling circus. Lots of room for interesting events there plus if the PCs are so inclined they could spend the downtime practising at their own circus act of some variety which could be fun :smallbiggrin:

[Jophiel]

You come across a young man near a cart with a broken wheel and axle. He explains that he was attacked by [monsters] a ways back which killed his companion/guard. He escaped but the cart was damaged in the flight. If the party is able to repair the cart, he'll offer to travel with them and pay them some stipend at his destination once he has had a chance to sell some wares. Traveling with him will perhaps make the party move a little faster as he is well used to this route and has tricks and tips for getting along smoothly. Once in town, he can help connect the party to a useful NPC or two, vouching for the party's honesty and good nature. Note that his destination doesn't need to be the party's destination; it could be a midway point or even slightly off the track.

If the party isn't able (or is unwilling) to help him, he'll try to sell some wares to the party, explaining that he's overextended and needs the money to pay for repairs. He'll explain that these [items] that he'll sell for X will easily sell for Y in [location] but he sadly has to let them go at a loss to complete his trip. Insight, etc will reveal that he's being honest and you can set up a useful NPC contact in [location] by being the guy interested in the trade goods.

[SirGraystone]

A lot depend of how many game sessions do you want spend on travel. You can play a dozen sessions having adventures along the way, or just a few minutes describing the journey. The level of your characters matter too, a group of level 10 is not going to worry about wolves or bandits, but whatever the levels they may stop to help find a lost child. (Well some players are heartless and wouldn't).

Things that you usually find a road are village (for adventure hook or just social encounter at the inn), ferry when on river or lake (who may try to gouge the PCs on the price), all kind of travellers or caravans who may travel with the players or just meet them and share a fire for the evenight trading tales and rumors.

If adventure await them at the end of the journey, I would probably take 1 session to get them there and build 3 to 5 short encounters along the way.

[Sigreid]

First, add a few features and encounters to th trip. Second, describe the seasons changing.

[ShadowImmor]

Thanks for your help so far, and you've made good points. Bit of background -

Basically the party received a letter from a group known as the Antiquers (think fantasy archaeologists) asking them to meet them at a town 3 months away, as the group would be leaving on an expedition in four months (they have pottered about for 3 weeks, so they have about 3 months and a week to get where they're going).

They are level 4 (very close to level 5), and have dealt with bandits and wolves. I'd like to spend a few sessions travelling, but no more than say 5 or 6, enough that the players FEEL like it's been a long journey, but not so long they get bored. Each session we do tends to be about 3 hours long.

[Jophiel]

How often are your sessions? Four sessions spread out over a real-time week is going to feel different to the players than four sessions spread out over two months. In any event, if you're spending 12+ hours on traveling, you're obviously going to need some one-shot adventures along the way more involved than When Bandits Strike. I'd try to look up some small one-shots you can convert into events in towns or caravans while they travel rather than "You decide to go explore this old mine" dungeon crawls.

[Demonslayer666]

Along with a couple memorable encounters, like interesting NPCs and some combats or maybe an interesting location, describe the terrain and the difficulties they face. Weather, terrain, how it makes them feel, lack of variety of food, etc. Maybe break it down by day, or every few days. Have some varying descriptions of places they can find to make camp, or lack thereof.

[Jophiel]

Have a spot where the group needs to hunt deer and another time where someone dies of dysentery.

[Man_Over_Game]

See if you can look through a copy of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen book.

It has a list of random encounters that occur while you're protecting a caravan. They're all a lot of fun, and pretty fleshed out for what you're looking for.

[Sigreid]

It may sound dumb, but this probably actually covers you pretty well. Play it once and use it as a template.

https://classicreload.com/oregon-trail.html

[Keravath]

Making it feel long has more to do with your narration than the actual events on the trail.

How are they traveling? Are they mounted? Do they have pack animals? Are they carrying everything? Since they can't carry three months of food they will need to obtain food and water along the way. Are there maps? Is the region they are traveling through inhabited? Are there villages/communities/larger towns? Are they entering different countries with different political systems? Are there borders and border controls - perhaps at a bridge over a river? How fast are they moving?

Based on some internet sources - a typical wagon train might move 2 miles/hour or 10 miles/day while an average horse might be 20-30 miles/day sustained. At this rate, 3 months travel would be somewhere between 900 and 2700 miles depending on how many rest days are taken and intervening terrain.

Are there roads? Are they traveling cross-country? Are there areas inhabited by hostile creatures or people?

If you want them to reach level 5 before the end of the journey then a few encounters along the way would be appropriate. These could be anything from encountering bandits to helping townfolk in a village with a local issue to stopping a local monstrous predator, meeting a tribe of orcs that turn out to be friendly/hostile or even deal with some of the issues with weather or foraging for food in a particularly unpopulated area. The party will always need to keep in mind their time frame for arrival and keep on track so they aren't late.

However, between each encounter, spend several minutes narrating the days of travel, the sore feet, the wet clothing after a rain storm during the day, the dust and grime, the frequent need to find food and water. Hour after hour, day after day and week after week. The narration will make the experience feel like a long time if you can make it sound long even if the number of actual sessions is relatively short.

You might even want to include some possible future plot twists on the journey. You don't need a plan for these now but by adding them now you can tie back a future plot line.
e.g.
Orc raids - unknown to the players (or DM at this point) maybe they will tie into a larger arc or uprising of someone organizing the plains orc tribes
Monstrosity raiding villages - could tie into a future plot line where the monstrosity is the result of an evil wizards actions or a dangerous artifact or something else

By seeding your adventure with possible adventure hooks you will have a world that ties together better when you actually decide to tie something on those hooks or not. Just remember that the players have no clue about the significance of world events so from their perspective it will just seem like a very cool tie in to a past experience/encounter. However, unless you want them to follow the hook at that point in time leave off supplying sufficient detail to track it down. (e.g. the orc band could be a hundred miles from their usual territory and it would take too long at this point in time for the party to track it down. There is no sign of where the monstrosity that attacked the village came from so there is no way to track it down at this point in time ... unless you WANT a side quest at this point in time).

Anyway, the key to making the experience feel long is for you to make it SOUND long when you talk about the experiences, the daily grind, sleeping outside day after day, the rare stop at an inn or village for fresh food, supplies and maybe an indoor bed.

[Zhorn]

Even over a long travel scenario, you'll want to have a little fast forwarding now and then. Mostly just between where you want to place the encounters, speed past the moments that are just:
travel> sleep > eat > repeat
if you have time, I do recommend a look at Matt Colville's "Making Travel Interesting"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQ2JgZIjVI

Like some of the others have mentioned, lifting encounters from Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Oregon Trail suit overland travel very well.
In between, perhaps run skill challenges (see video if unfamiliar, jump to 9:44) with the number of successes pushing the 'fast forward' components by a number of days (depending on how high above the DC they get), then at every set numbers of failures throw in an encounter.

[ImproperJustice]

Savage Worlds has a simple little encounter system where you draw a card from a deck of playing cards at various intervals. The suit determines the type of encounter:

Heart: Friendly or neutral npcs
Spade: Enemies
Diamond: Fortune (from shelter, to wealth, to a shortcut)
Club: Obstacle (actual obstacle, resource shortage, possibly creatures demanding a toll or just in the way).

You can wing something for these, or write down ideas in advance for the various numbers drawn.

[ShadowImmor]

How often are your sessions? Four sessions spread out over a real-time week is going to feel different to the players than four sessions spread out over two months. In any event, if you're spending 12+ hours on traveling, you're obviously going to need some one-shot adventures along the way more involved than When Bandits Strike. I'd try to look up some small one-shots you can convert into events in towns or caravans while they travel rather than "You decide to go explore this old mine" dungeon crawls.

Sessions are once a week, three out of four weeks. I may only take four sessions, but between four and six. I kind of skimmed over the first long journey they made, partly because it was with a caravan, but I feel that I've missed a bit of a trick making the journeys themselves interesting.


Along with a couple memorable encounters, like interesting NPCs and some combats or maybe an interesting location, describe the terrain and the difficulties they face. Weather, terrain, how it makes them feel, lack of variety of food, etc. Maybe break it down by day, or every few days. Have some varying descriptions of places they can find to make camp, or lack thereof.

That is a good idea, I was thinking of doing one "event" per travel week. So meeting someone on the road, finding out their food supplies are lower than they thought etc.


Have a spot where the group needs to hunt deer and another time where someone dies of dysentery.

I'm assuming that's a reference to Oregon Trail, which I've never played, but know the base premise.


See if you can look through a copy of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen book.

It has a list of random encounters that occur while you're protecting a caravan. They're all a lot of fun, and pretty fleshed out for what you're looking for.

That could be good but I don't know if I can get a copy of it, (mainly lack of funds at the moment) I was thinking about adapting the Adventures in Middle Earth travel mechanic, as that's based in 5e, but we'll have to see.


Making it feel long has more to do with your narration than the actual events on the trail.

How are they traveling? Are they mounted? Do they have pack animals? Are they carrying everything? Since they can't carry three months of food they will need to obtain food and water along the way. Are there maps? Is the region they are traveling through inhabited? Are there villages/communities/larger towns? Are they entering different countries with different political systems? Are there borders and border controls - perhaps at a bridge over a river? How fast are they moving?

Based on some internet sources - a typical wagon train might move 2 miles/hour or 10 miles/day while an average horse might be 20-30 miles/day sustained. At this rate, 3 months travel would be somewhere between 900 and 2700 miles depending on how many rest days are taken and intervening terrain.

Are there roads? Are they traveling cross-country? Are there areas inhabited by hostile creatures or people?

If you want them to reach level 5 before the end of the journey then a few encounters along the way would be appropriate. These could be anything from encountering bandits to helping townfolk in a village with a local issue to stopping a local monstrous predator, meeting a tribe of orcs that turn out to be friendly/hostile or even deal with some of the issues with weather or foraging for food in a particularly unpopulated area. The party will always need to keep in mind their time frame for arrival and keep on track so they aren't late.

However, between each encounter, spend several minutes narrating the days of travel, the sore feet, the wet clothing after a rain storm during the day, the dust and grime, the frequent need to find food and water. Hour after hour, day after day and week after week. The narration will make the experience feel like a long time if you can make it sound long even if the number of actual sessions is relatively short.

You might even want to include some possible future plot twists on the journey. You don't need a plan for these now but by adding them now you can tie back a future plot line.
e.g.
Orc raids - unknown to the players (or DM at this point) maybe they will tie into a larger arc or uprising of someone organizing the plains orc tribes
Monstrosity raiding villages - could tie into a future plot line where the monstrosity is the result of an evil wizards actions or a dangerous artifact or something else

By seeding your adventure with possible adventure hooks you will have a world that ties together better when you actually decide to tie something on those hooks or not. Just remember that the players have no clue about the significance of world events so from their perspective it will just seem like a very cool tie in to a past experience/encounter. However, unless you want them to follow the hook at that point in time leave off supplying sufficient detail to track it down. (e.g. the orc band could be a hundred miles from their usual territory and it would take too long at this point in time for the party to track it down. There is no sign of where the monstrosity that attacked the village came from so there is no way to track it down at this point in time ... unless you WANT a side quest at this point in time).

Anyway, the key to making the experience feel long is for you to make it SOUND long when you talk about the experiences, the daily grind, sleeping outside day after day, the rare stop at an inn or village for fresh food, supplies and maybe an indoor bed.

These are all good points and I will have to consider all these questions. Perhaps even some map-reading challenges? If they fail they realise they've added time onto their journey?


Even over a long travel scenario, you'll want to have a little fast forwarding now and then. Mostly just between where you want to place the encounters, speed past the moments that are just:
travel> sleep > eat > repeat
if you have time, I do recommend a look at Matt Colville's "Making Travel Interesting"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQ2JgZIjVI

Like some of the others have mentioned, lifting encounters from Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Oregon Trail suit overland travel very well.
In between, perhaps run skill challenges (see video if unfamiliar, jump to 9:44) with the number of successes pushing the 'fast forward' components by a number of days (depending on how high above the DC they get), then at every set numbers of failures throw in an encounter.

I will have to look at that when I get a chance!


Savage Worlds has a simple little encounter system where you draw a card from a deck of playing cards at various intervals. The suit determines the type of encounter:

Heart: Friendly or neutral npcs
Spade: Enemies
Diamond: Fortune (from shelter, to wealth, to a shortcut)
Club: Obstacle (actual obstacle, resource shortage, possibly creatures demanding a toll or just in the way).

You can wing something for these, or write down ideas in advance for the various numbers drawn.

Yeah I was thinking about this, and I agree it's a cool idea, I was thinking about doing an encounter table that would have a similar premise.

[Zhorn]

I will have to look at that when I get a chance!
I find a lot of Colville's videos are very helpful, even if just for hearing things from a designer perspective (for those unfamiliar, he's a video game designer by profession... and if i recall correctly a fantasy author also?). Even if the types of campaigns he runs have a huge tonal difference to what I'm looking for, just the general attitude of "how do I ensure this will be engaging/enjoyable for the players" is always worth listening to.
Two things all d&d players like are agency and rolling dice (otherwise they wouldn't play d&d), and skill challenges are a great way to make a railroad feel less railroady. It's still a point A to point B sequence, and it's going to take a set amount of in-game time, but the players are given a way to interact with it that feels like its on their own terms.