Running a long travel session

[Xavrias]

Little Background, I'm running a homebrew setting where the world is mostly ocean dotted with small and large island kingdoms, the largest landmass in the world is slightly smaller than Australia, most islands are much smaller. My players have just wrapped up one major arc, and are now headed to another arc I had hinted at, however, it is on the far side of the Inner Ocean.

In other words, my players are about to travel 45 days or so by boat, and so far I have made it a point not to skip over long chunks of travel time on purpose, and they have generally seemed to like that. I don't necessarily run through every single day, but I do scatter events through their travels to make it seem more authentic I suppose!

45 days though is a long time, so I was just wondering if anyone had undertaken long journeys like that in their campaign, and what kind of events and such they had brought in to break it up, without just feeling like a long string of random encounters, or is it perhaps better to just do one big event, and then skip over the rest of the time?

Lemme know your thoughts, any ideas you have for ocean travel would be great too! Thanks in advance!

[Mike Miller]

What have you done in the past for travel? How long is their typical travel?

Maybe have two sessions of normal travel and then a big event for the third session. Then they arrive. That way it really gives them the impression that they are far away.

I know my group wouldn't like that, but we go zip zoom travel done! So that isn't a fair comparison.

[Gallowglass]

I mean, it comes down to how much time you want to invest before they get to the next mission that you already have ready to go.

Encounters take time. Some take a short amount of time, some take a long amount of time. I think its fair to say the longer encounters are -usually- (not always) more interesting.

The first option is the old random encounter table. They are on the ocean for 45 days. Figure out how likely an encounter is then roll that 45 times. Give them random encounters as they go.

That's pretty boring, because random encounters tend to be "and three merfolk randomly decide to attack your ship, roll initiative". Final Fantasy: Tabletop edition. NTTIAWWT

The second option is to have some planned encounters. If you do that, then they'll probably be devoting a session or two to the travel before they get to the next mission and, at that point, the travel IS a mission.

Is there a recurring enemy that is hunting them or wants to beat them to the next waypoint? Is there any points of interest between A and B that it would be nice to throw in some exposition about for later missions. Are they alone on the ship? Do they own the ship? Are they passengers? Are there other people around that could be sabotaging them?

So do you want to design a mission in between the last mission and the next mission? Or do you just want to get to the next mission? That's what it comes down to AFAIC. How much effort -you- want to put into the travel time.

[rel]

For travel to be interesting the outcome cannot be predetermined. If the party will always end up sailing into port ready for the next adventure in approximately the same state no matter what they do then the players choices on the journey are meaningless.

This means that the actual encounters are no longer a challenge, they become meaningless and therefore boring.

This means you have two approaches to encounter design depending on whether or not the travel itself is the challenge:


Approach 1: Travel is a challenge
If the players failing to cross the ocean or losing resources (like their boat, crew and loot) along the way are valid outcomes then the challenge becomes 'will we make it and what will it cost?'. The encounters themselves are less meaningful than the process as a whole.

In that case a random encounter table and meaningful (meaning a real chance of running out, costs for doing so and decisions to make about what to focus on replenishing) resource management mini-game is all you need.

Approach two: Travel is a speedbump
If the game is actually going to continue once you get to the other side of the ocean and the travel is a glorified scene change then encounters serve a different purpose; they can add flavor to your world and provide natural exposition.

Encounters are designed by starting with something you want to tell the players and then coming up with a way to show it instead through an encounter:

Who are the friendly factions on the next continent? Some friendly encounters with them might help introduce them and get the party used to working with them.

What is the feel of the area? how is it different to where you were before, flavor encounters and description can emphasize differences and similarities and make the players feel like they are going somewhere new.

What is the next game arc going to be about? You can include some foreshadowing encounters to introduce the new hostile factions, their tricks and game themes in a natural way. Done right the players won't even realise it was foreshadowing until much later.

What about NPC's? major or minor, friendly or hostile. Travel encounters are a good way to introduce them. Also, if the players kill the wrong NPC you have a bit of time to rewrite things.

[Ken Murikumo]

Have some kind of event happen every few days, as needed. Use different types of encounters. Not just enemy encounters.
Non-enemy ones can include stuff like:

-They encounter a famous tradesman's personal ship and do business (ship to ship, over water).

-Same as before but with a non-hostile pirate ship. (cooperative pirates are fun to roleplay)

-Derelict / abandoned ship just floating there. Lets go check it for loot!

-Encounter an island not recorded on any map the party has... And it's moving. It's a giant turtle, so big is has hills and trees on it's shell. Also home to rare plant & animal life!


Also, i would give them 1 or 2 big encounters (as was suggested). But i would make these encounters last several days instead of a big 1-shot battle.

-A kraken (or whatever giant setting appropriate beast) is chasing them. Let the battle take place in stages, over the course of a few days. Have it stalk them and give them a chance to realize this. then have it attack, fight with the party for a bit, then retreat. Repeat until they kill or maim it sufficiently.

-(if the ship they are on has a crew) Have the PCs investigate a scene that takes place on the ship. The encounter takes place on the ship within the crew and PCs. It could be a mole / rat was discovered, stowaway, murder mystery, one hell of a party where everyone wakes up naked and VERY off-course.