Land Ho!
It was not close this month. Asked which random encounter table ought to inspire our next big arc, our Quest Givers were definitive. So for the next several weeks, all our finest pirates, buccaneers, and assorted scallywags will be exploring “Ruined City Risen from the Sea.” (Better luck next time, “Jungle City” and “Scorched Land!”)
I must say though, that is certainly an ominous color for a subaquatic metropolis. It’s almost… sanguine in hue. Who knows what ancient empire of blood once called the lost city of Aqua Vitae home? Good thing Handbook-World’s perkiest dhampir happened to luck into the place! But then again, Swash/Buckle were always going to find Aqua Vitae, no matter how poopy their rolls or empty their heads.
You see, if the plot calls for you to discover the location of the secret catacombs or whatever, you’re going to discover them. The adventure (and the cool dungeon your GM prepared) can’t happen if you fail to do so. That’s means you’re free to dump your Survival type skills, ignore all the plot points and clues, and just wait passively for the plot to come to you.
Careful readers may notice a hint of sarcasm in that last bit.
Exploration is SUPPOSED to come with consequences. Making it to your destination before your supplies run out, exhaustion sets in, or the other team beats you to the punch are a few examples. In other words, if the style of game you’re running dictates that the party MUST get where they’re going eventually, then there MUST be something beyond raw navigation to ratchet up the tension. The question is what.
So for today’s discussion, why don’t we talk shop about wayfinding on the world map. How do you like to spice up long-distance travel? What bad stuff happens if the PCs take too long, and how do you communicate that bad stuff to the players? Whether we’re talking about the classics (random encounters!) or the narrative (clocks!), let’s hear about your go-to techniques for epic voyages down in the comments!
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I love to set up a series of hazards & encounters on the way to the mission. On one adventure, a journey across a sea of glass inspired by Eberron’s Shadows of the Last War (2004) and The Lost Tomb of Martek (1983), there were navigation checks, Profession (sailor) checks, heat exhaustion checks, blindness checks, schools/flocks of crysmals swimming through the glass and glass zombies walking across its surface. The PCs had the option of spending time and money to heed the locals’ advice, or they could hurry on their way across a scorched wasteland in full armor with insufficient water, yadda yadda, in an effort to beat their rivals to the location of the dungeon.
Once there, they have the option of directly confronting the rival NPC party or (if they’re lucky or skilled enough) finding an alternate (and faster) way inside.
I’ve run it a few times and seen all different levels of cleverness and numbskullery. For every team in sarongs and loose robes doing their best John Carter impression there is another who arrives blinded, fatigued, injured, and a day late to what will be a grueling dungeon in its own right.
>he PCs had the option of spending time and money to heed the locals’ advice, or they could hurry on their way a
So if I could extrapolate, the fundamental choice is “fast and risky” vs “slow and safe?”
I can’t possibly be the first responder? How did I get here first? Did I miss the left turn at Albuquerque?
Anywhere, I don’t do “epic” voyages… I hate running long sea voyages, I hate trying to not TPK the PCs on a Wandering Damage Chart ocean encoutner, because usually… that’s what happens. It’s rare PCs are competent swimmers, and even then with armor and gear, it’s rare they’ll survive a fall into the water… and that’s almost inevitable.
As exemplified by arriving early without any difficulties… that’s how most sea voyages go in games I run. Occasionally they’ll be a plot twist with pirates, or privateers, or the Kraken… but in those cases the idea is to remove the PCs from the safety of their boat, so the encounter comes predeveloped for ‘rescuing’ anyone before they can drwon.
Usually. Frequently. Sometimes. Okay, look, mistakes have been made…
All triton party? Bunch of little Swashes running around not drowning. 😀
I couldn’t drown Swash… too cute. Buckle on the other hand…
Well, in 5e at least, there’s the variant rule (I think it comes from a Middle Earth module or supplement, not sure) that you can only take short rests, because long rests need to happen in “appropriate places”, i.e in a secure building with actual beds and some safety, i.e not in the middle of the wilderness. So the consequence of taking too long is that you’re going to be that much more depleted when you finally reach the place.
But otherwise yeah, there aren’t too many levers to pull in those kind of situations. Random encounters have their limits. Food would be important if that aspect of the game wasn’t a pain to track and thus ignored by most everyone. You can only stretch your description of a travelling montage for so long. Etc, etc.
I think that, if the group HAS to find the place, and time for whatever reason cannot be an important factor, then the best thing to do is that high rolls mean finding EXTRA stuff. Maybe you find an alternate forgotten entrance into the cavern of doom that allows you to sneak on the cultists from behind. Or maybe on the way you find an abandoned shrine with some goodies.
Basically, if the plot must move forward regardless, then it’s easier (and, IMO, more enjoyable) to reward the players for doing well rather than punish them for doing bad.
I saw that going around a few months back. “Safe Havens” was the thread. A good discussion lives over here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/tsdgmj/conversations_about_long_rests_in_safe_havens_are/
You don’t want to overdo it, nor (unless you’re sandboxing) distract too much from the main campaign , so no more than one or at most two “encounters” between far destinations… bandits, monsters, inclement weather, etc.
But if travelling in the wilderness is a significant part of the game, characters _will_ be using those outdoors skills (skill challenges are always useful), finding creative use for some of their abilities, and suffering if unprepared. And of course, if the group has any relevant racial abilities — say, a Goliath’s ability to endure cold weather and the effects of altitude — then it’d be a shame not to give them the chance to shine.
> finding creative use for some of their abilities, and suffering if unprepared
This sounds like you’re using character sheets as inspiration for your character building. Sort of “working backwards” from solution to encounter. It’s an interesting approach. Any other examples of what that looks like in practice?
I’m not sure you read that how I intended… I simply mean that many characters will have some special abilities from race or class (this was especially true in D&D 4e), and wilderness travel can often represent a good opportunity to put them to use… often stretching them a little beyond the exact wording, but my group are usually happy to play things a little loose, rule of cool.
But yes, character sheets certainly do inform encounter planning… but I don’t think that’s particularly unusual, it’s just about knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the party, so that you know how to challenge them, but also how to let individuals shine on occasion.
Like the example I used before… I know a Goliath is resistant to cold and well at home in high mountains, so at some point the party should find themselves travelling through such an environment. Maybe the Cleric or Wizard has divination magic, so I should set up opportunities for it to be useful. Or those minor abilities that 5e characters get from Backgrounds… they’re pretty weak, but often good flavour, so looking for opportunities for players to benefit from them is just good practice… again, giving characters a chance to shine.
I can just hear “Movin’ Right Along” playing for these two.
“Movin’ right along,
Do I see signs of men?
Yeah, ‘welcome’ on the same post
That says ‘come back again’.”
Footloose and compass-free. 😀
The Journey is the Game. Literally in my homebrew. I have bunches of stuff hardwired into the world for the party to run across, no matter which way they go. If I decide to run a short story arc then I will scatter the things they need to run into across in their path. If they suddenly take a hard left and head off into the wilderness, the pieces of the story arc will gladly follow them like a happy puppy.
Having a thoroughly thought out and mostly mapped world makes this kind of gaming easy. Throw in a binder for general random encounters, a binder for NPC encounters and several binders with information on the towns, villages, tumbledown hovels they might encounter, means you can run a game at the drop of a hat and cover most playing styles while doing so.
(Okay, no joke, that ruined city in the background? Glorious! Love the ominous red design rising from the sea with the crescent moon in the back! Totally a place I’d like to visit. If I could survive.)
Laurel’s been killing that style on her “Schools of Magic” stuff. Stoked to see it in the comic. 😀
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1454518874/tabletop-rpg-schools-of-magic-full-set?click_key=a60a11f014dc07499b29118a6f8b427ec0684d59%3A1454518874&click_sum=5869446b&ref=shop_home_active_1&frs=1&sts=1
(Oooh, very nice! Necromancy’s my favorite, both in magic and in the pictures, especially if those are roses of blood. And I love the bells and twisting spine.
Enchantment is beautifully sinister, and mystically alluring, as it should be, and Transmutation’s got a powerful presence to it, strong and imposing. Then illusion makes me smirk with that flamboyant mage, and armored abjuration looks quite imposing to me.
The others are lovely as well of course, however those are the ones that caught my attention the most. It was good of Conjuration to go with crows though. Crows are awesome.)
I think Transmutation may be my favorite. Love all the visual references to specific spells.
Since I like pilfering mechanics from every system I encounter and homebrewing it into other systems, I use an idea from FATE. When you fail a roll, you can accept a reduction in the quality of the result in exchange for boosing the roll, hopefully to a success. So, every say, 5 points they fail their survival roll by, roll once (minimum once) on a *fun* table of travel complications.
I still remember the look on my GM’s face every time he asked, “Would you like to make a devil’s bargain,” in Blades in the Dark.
Was that look one of those smiles which make you mentally picture a large dorsal fin above it?
Yeah, but also pumping your insight to ridiculous levels allows you to grill the NPCs at a metaphysical level by nagging the DM, and you get to act like an anachronistic Sherlock Holmes doing it in-character~
Speaking as a DM, I would like to discourage the metaphysical torture of my people.
Bah, youngins. In my day a GM had to remain on their toes constant ever-vigilant and prepared for the PCs to arrive with pitchforks, tar, and feathers.
GMs these days have it easy what with your “non-adversarial GMing styles” and your “shared narrative experiences”! Why we had nothing but adversarial natures and PCs gunning to take the GMs down a peg or two! And we hated it, which is why things have changed now that I’m talking about it. Wait, what was this about… oh right…
Okay, look, every now and then GMs need a little torment, it’s good for them. With out pain there can not be growth, without cutting and pruning of the dead ideas, new ideas can not flourish. Think not of your Players knives and shears as implements of torment, but as tools of the garden you shall create together… and don’t forget to “prune” them just as much as they dig into you! Little PC 5@#%%@s, make ’em bleed Claire… make ’em bleed.
What dhampir pirate’s voyage is complete without a good sea shanty?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tJELpDfKU