Noncombat encounters on the road

[Pinjata]

Hey guys,

My PCs will do some serious travelling in my next campaign (Sword coast) and a lot of it will be between small settlements. I do not want to reduce this on "you pass from one town to another", but I want to give them some fluff to chew on between two locations. Perhaps a caravan leader that tells them something about the region, perhaps a ruin that tells them something indirectly about the area, perhaps a carcass of a specific magical beast ... unintrusive things that make a journey a bit more fleshed out.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Geddy2112]

Traveling merchants and caravans are a great way to add plot hooks and texture, as well as giving the party a chance to sell loot.

Strange omens are also good(dead birds, meteors, comets, etc).

[Storm_Of_Snow]

The party reach a river bank or travel along part of the coast and come upon some fishermen landing their catch - opportunity for them to buy some fresh food to go along with their normal rations, and gather a few extra rumours.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Random tables always more random tables.

[Elvenoutrider]

I would avoid random encounter tables - look at them for guidelines but other than that you can do better.

First off - I avoid filler encounters if at all possible, and if I feel like things are going too easy, I usually have a list of encounters I want to run that dont fit elsewhere in the campaign in a notebook for just in case the party get off the rails so this is a little out of my element.

Some ideas could be - a recurring fey npc who challenges the pcs to a riddle contest or some sort of puzzle solving in exchange for a reward.

bandits are always good but just saying that is doing the time period injustice. Back in days of institutional anarchy in europe you were really only safe as long as you were within shouting distance of your lord's castle. The lords werent truly worried about their lands and serfs as long as their bottom line wasnt much hurt. What they were really concerned with was having enough men to call in case their superior or the country itself was called into a war. Due to this, any men on their lands who could fight were considered a great resource. This means that many of the lords had agreements with the local bandits that they could run around their lands and rob the peasants and travelers, have their way with people so long as they didnt kill anyone, hurt the lord's bottom line, and could be available for battle in case of war. Crossbowmen more than anyone had a reputation for this sort of thing as a crossbow was much cheaper than a suit of armor.

In addition to this, when jockeying for power, the lords would often have their men sneak into other lord's lands and attack travelers, burn villages and usually this was hard to respond to.

So where does this leave you? well it leaves you a swath of possible encounters to put together and draw from because effectively, the pcs are never truly safe on the road

[Beleriphon]

The heart of a crashed meteroite has cracked open, there's a strange baby shaped impression in the middle but there is no trace of said baby. (I'm stealing shamelessly from Dragon Age here).

[tensai_oni]

Describe the weather and the terrain. The party forced to seek refuge under the forest's trees during the rain (don't roll to see if they catch a cold or anything - it's just flavor). Farmers whistling as they move next to the road, preparing for a clement harvest. The bridge they have to cross being in a rather sorry shape - it holds for now, but who knows for how long?

[Mastikator]

Describe the weather and the terrain. The party forced to seek refuge under the forest's trees during the rain (don't roll to see if they catch a cold or anything - it's just flavor). Farmers whistling as they move next to the road, preparing for a clement harvest. The bridge they have to cross being in a rather sorry shape - it holds for now, but who knows for how long?

This.
And focus on the visceral stuff. Stuff like what does the landscape smell like. Are there fences along the road, what do they look like? Maybe you encounter a shepherd and his flock of sheep traveling in the opposite direction. What's on the side of the road, is it farm fields or trees or moss or cliffs?

[Flickerdart]

Hey guys,

My PCs will do some serious travelling in my next campaign (Sword coast) and a lot of it will be between small settlements. I do not want to reduce this on "you pass from one town to another", but I want to give them some fluff to chew on between two locations. Perhaps a caravan leader that tells them something about the region, perhaps a ruin that tells them something indirectly about the area, perhaps a carcass of a specific magical beast ... unintrusive things that make a journey a bit more fleshed out.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Medieval villages were only hours of travel from one to the next, and even important places like market towns were about 20km apart (otherwise the peasants could not bring goods to market). As the party travels they should pass a whole ton of small hamlets, the farmland belonging to those hamlets, peasants working that farmland, etc.

Ruins tend not to survive in populated areas - they are resettled or pulled apart for construction materials.

[KnightOfV]

Try to tie it in with your adventure, either to help the tone or lore. Something that players can react to, and use some social/knowledge checks.

"You stop for the night at..."

1. ...an old shrine dedicated to a key deity in your campaign. Maybe religious players receive a vision as they sleep nearby. Some knowledge checks might reveal a secret about the church or faith.
2. ...a caravan with roaring bonfires and lots of soldiers standing guard. They can tell rumors about the next town players are going to. Or try to gamble at cards with the players. Or tell stories about history in the world.
3. ... a mysterious circle of druidic stones that neither animals, nor vermin will enter. Sometime in the night, maybe druids approach the players and ask them about their purpose, and warn them of upcoming danger.
4. ... a boring campsite, but are awakened by ungodly screams. The place is haunted... but the spirits don't want to fight. They are here to give a warning, or ask the players to avenge the evil that killed them.

[RazorChain]

An old elf with crutches on the road that cackles and tells them they are all going to die.


Yollo the clown, he is depressed, if the PC's don't cheer him up he will turn into a killer clown in the next birthday he attends.


A snake oil salesman. He sells potions that don't work as intended with hilarious side effects like turning people pink, or constant hiccups for a day.

[Telonius]

They meet up with several people of various walks of life, who are on the way to a shrine. To pass the time, they decide to have a storytelling contest...

(Bonus XP to the first player to get the reference)

[Max_Killjoy]

They meet up with several people of various walks of life, who are on the way to a shrine. To pass the time, they decide to have a storytelling contest...

(Bonus XP to the first player to get the reference)

Does it have anything to do with Geoffrey Chaucer?

[Telonius]

Cookie for you!