My favorite rule for traveling is that you cannot get the benefits of a long rest unless you sleep in a warm, sheltered bed. i.e., in an actual town or inn. That instantly made the players want to conserve their resources more, not just nuke every party of goblins they come up on with all their spells since they're going to get there the next day anyway. I also focus on landmarks when traveling instead of a map, since itineraries were how people traveled in the Middle Ages more than maps anyway. "Go to this city, then ask where to go from there." "Go on the other side of the mountain shaped like a hand, then follow the coastline towards the ruined tower."
For everyone saying travel is boring/unfun, I'd love to encourage you to try playing a system that includes travel as a core mechanic, and not just an optional rule or trying to find a supplement to add onto an already cluttered system. The point of travel (for me and others I've played with, anyway) is to help build the world/land you're adventuring through in unexpected ways. Those points of interests, brief encounters, lost ruins, and so on that you randomly come upon in your journeys are all possible story seeds for future adventures. Sure its not for everyone, but it can add a lot of spice and possibilities in longer campaigns. Bonus points for hexcrawls!
The 7 Principles of Reconnaissance offer useful insight in travel, encounters, and well, maybe even life in general: - Do not keep recon assets in reserve - Orient on the recon objective - Retain freedom of maneuver - Gain and maintain enemy contact - Develop the situation rapidly - Report informaiton rapidly and accurately - Ensure continuous reconnaissance Scouts should aggressively identify encounters, communicate it (horn. flaming arrow, whistle, magic item), and develop it quickly. Either hold, push, or pull the encounter while the party commits to whatever their response might be. This works for combat and non-combat encounters.
Mike, your videos are always a treat. I'm grateful for every reminder that (1) there are PLENTY of different resources out there, and (2) I can choose to play this game however my group and I like to play it.
I think doing actual travel in D&D largely depends on the group you're playing with. I know the current players that I have would zone out right away if i implemented real travel rules or requirements or even tracking things like time of day or weather. As fun as it sounds to me, that additional level of stuff to worry about or roleplay through simply wouldn't mesh with my current group. Also campaigns take long enough with new players I couldn't imagine focusing on travel in any real way.
Hello I'm sure you've answered this before but what notes system are you using in your videos? It seems as it would be great for tracking and planning out campaigns and plot points as well.
I never found travel fun as a DM. It felt like I was rolling for encounters that players were highly likely to win anyways. Tracking rations wasn't exciting and they are likely to resupply easily when they arrived or foraged for food. I thought about rest systems similar to darkest dungeons but then that's just making resting stronger.
I think one of the biggest problems with travel systems and solutions as much deeper than the system itself. I think the problem is just the direction that games have gone. when the game was about collecting treasure more so than trying to do an epic to year long quest, the travel systems. we're just more integrated. with the larger quests and larger storylines, that games now tend to have, using a few of our precious table hours to deal with some random road issues really detracts from the overall story. it's like in a movie, We don't need to see the heroes riding on a horse, talking to a flower vendor with no pertinent information on the side of the road. We want our games in our worlds to feel realistic and alive. We want our players to have agency. We want our game to have stakes and meaning. but using 90 minutes out of our 4-hour session to have virtually meaningless interactions, may make the world feel more alive, but it's stifles the plot that we've been working on for the past three sessions or more.
Where can I find them? I don't immediately find them on his website; is it within his 'So You Want to Be a Gamemaster' book? It doesn't have a table of contents and I've only read about 30% of it so far, so it might be in there. Or maybe it's one of his many videos? But if you don't mind giving me a shortcut of where to find his rules for travel, I would be very appreciative. :)
I'm not sure I like the idea of using a travel system during a regular D&D game. The occasional application of one rule or the other, sure. But not a whole system like the ones showcased. Instead, I could see travel as a whole separate adventure type, like dungeon crawl, heist etc. In that case, having a special set of rules makes sense. Essentially, the journey itself is the adventure. But, again, not as part of a different, regular adventure. And of course, everyone needs to agreed to do it that way.
That's basically the conclusion I came to. I'm currently playtesting just that thing. (Available on Reddit for free) Currently we're running an adventure where the PCs are traversing the desert as the undead warriors of a recently dead necromancer. They have to find the necromancer's body and her heart that was taken by the angel that killed her. If they don't do that and resurrect her they'll become mindless killers for the remainder of their unlife
i feel bad for those who say travel is too boring. travel is THE best time for adding storytelling, you get the environmental story, you get dialogues, you get nature based rp to reward the nature based classes, you can explore and find side quests, you can establish routes that you create for yourself and fortify them, you can tie it into kingdom building. a sandbox has more travel than a linear but i would never ever ever cut travel from a game, if you cant make travel fun then thats your weakest link and your game is only as good as its weakest link in other words if your travel system sucks your game is not the best. if your game include the words “and you walk, and you arrive” more than once, i would quit
Travel is the most boring part of fantasy role-playing games, IMO. Even Lord of the Rings trilogy used travel montages. If learning PbtA games taught me anything, it's skip to the "good stuff." And the good stuff isn't travel in FRPGs to me. I'll never not skip travel in any FRPGs game I do again unless there is an actual story-like adventure along the way (ala Moria). And at that point I'll skip to the adventure and then skip to the destination after. I think GMs bog down their games with travel and players don't find it fun, but a grind.
same. i've added random tables for travel and planned out things pc's might see to prompt a side quest if interested. even still, i don't find it fun. i'd rather just get back to the adventure or campaign.
My favorite rule for traveling is that you cannot get the benefits of a long rest unless you sleep in a warm, sheltered bed. i.e., in an actual town or inn. That instantly made the players want to conserve their resources more, not just nuke every party of goblins they come up on with all their spells since they're going to get there the next day anyway. I also focus on landmarks when traveling instead of a map, since itineraries were how people traveled in the Middle Ages more than maps anyway. "Go to this city, then ask where to go from there." "Go on the other side of the mountain shaped like a hand, then follow the coastline towards the ruined tower."
For everyone saying travel is boring/unfun, I'd love to encourage you to try playing a system that includes travel as a core mechanic, and not just an optional rule or trying to find a supplement to add onto an already cluttered system. The point of travel (for me and others I've played with, anyway) is to help build the world/land you're adventuring through in unexpected ways. Those points of interests, brief encounters, lost ruins, and so on that you randomly come upon in your journeys are all possible story seeds for future adventures. Sure its not for everyone, but it can add a lot of spice and possibilities in longer campaigns. Bonus points for hexcrawls!
The 7 Principles of Reconnaissance offer useful insight in travel, encounters, and well, maybe even life in general:
- Do not keep recon assets in reserve
- Orient on the recon objective
- Retain freedom of maneuver
- Gain and maintain enemy contact
- Develop the situation rapidly
- Report informaiton rapidly and accurately
- Ensure continuous reconnaissance
Scouts should aggressively identify encounters, communicate it (horn. flaming arrow, whistle, magic item), and develop it quickly. Either hold, push, or pull the encounter while the party commits to whatever their response might be. This works for combat and non-combat encounters.
I enjoy these quick focused videos as much as the longer ones
I bought Trials and Treasures and it really is a great book. Thanks for the recommendation!
Mike, your videos are always a treat. I'm grateful for every reminder that (1) there are PLENTY of different resources out there, and (2) I can choose to play this game however my group and I like to play it.
I appreciate that!
I agree! A much more digestible approach for me than “If your system doesn’t have this, then play one that does”
I think doing actual travel in D&D largely depends on the group you're playing with. I know the current players that I have would zone out right away if i implemented real travel rules or requirements or even tracking things like time of day or weather.
As fun as it sounds to me, that additional level of stuff to worry about or roleplay through simply wouldn't mesh with my current group. Also campaigns take long enough with new players I couldn't imagine focusing on travel in any real way.
Yeah one of my players b**** and moan whenever I penalize them for not eating or drinking for a week straight.
I'd love to check out the Weird Wastelands, but I do wish there was a print version. I'm an analog kind of guy.
Great video.
Thanks for this video!
I wanted to check out the Uncharted Journeys but the link seems broken!
Fixed! cubicle7games.com/uncharted-journeys-roleplaying-game
Thank you sir!@@SlyFlourish
Hello I'm sure you've answered this before but what notes system are you using in your videos? It seems as it would be great for tracking and planning out campaigns and plot points as well.
He uses notion but has recently started also using obsidian.
I never found travel fun as a DM. It felt like I was rolling for encounters that players were highly likely to win anyways. Tracking rations wasn't exciting and they are likely to resupply easily when they arrived or foraged for food. I thought about rest systems similar to darkest dungeons but then that's just making resting stronger.
For my home brew (first every mini adventure) I’m thinking about dodging this but idk. Conflicted
I think one of the biggest problems with travel systems and solutions as much deeper than the system itself.
I think the problem is just the direction that games have gone. when the game was about collecting treasure more so than trying to do an epic to year long quest, the travel systems. we're just more integrated.
with the larger quests and larger storylines, that games now tend to have, using a few of our precious table hours to deal with some random road issues really detracts from the overall story.
it's like in a movie, We don't need to see the heroes riding on a horse, talking to a flower vendor with no pertinent information on the side of the road.
We want our games in our worlds to feel realistic and alive. We want our players to have agency. We want our game to have stakes and meaning. but using 90 minutes out of our 4-hour session to have virtually meaningless interactions, may make the world feel more alive, but it's stifles the plot that we've been working on for the past three sessions or more.
I'm suprised you didn't include the Alexandrian rules in travel. I found it to be so much more useful and interesting than Uncharted Journeys.
Where can I find them? I don't immediately find them on his website; is it within his 'So You Want to Be a Gamemaster' book? It doesn't have a table of contents and I've only read about 30% of it so far, so it might be in there. Or maybe it's one of his many videos? But if you don't mind giving me a shortcut of where to find his rules for travel, I would be very appreciative. :)
I'm not sure I like the idea of using a travel system during a regular D&D game. The occasional application of one rule or the other, sure. But not a whole system like the ones showcased.
Instead, I could see travel as a whole separate adventure type, like dungeon crawl, heist etc. In that case, having a special set of rules makes sense. Essentially, the journey itself is the adventure.
But, again, not as part of a different, regular adventure. And of course, everyone needs to agreed to do it that way.
That's basically the conclusion I came to. I'm currently playtesting just that thing.
(Available on Reddit for free) Currently we're running an adventure where the PCs are traversing the desert as the undead warriors of a recently dead necromancer. They have to find the necromancer's body and her heart that was taken by the angel that killed her. If they don't do that and resurrect her they'll become mindless killers for the remainder of their unlife
Sl.y incredible ~take care,
i feel bad for those who say travel is too boring. travel is THE best time for adding storytelling, you get the environmental story, you get dialogues, you get nature based rp to reward the nature based classes, you can explore and find side quests, you can establish routes that you create for yourself and fortify them, you can tie it into kingdom building. a sandbox has more travel than a linear but i would never ever ever cut travel from a game, if you cant make travel fun then thats your weakest link and your game is only as good as its weakest link in other words if your travel system sucks your game is not the best. if your game include the words “and you walk, and you arrive” more than once, i would quit
Travel is the most boring part of fantasy role-playing games, IMO. Even Lord of the Rings trilogy used travel montages. If learning PbtA games taught me anything, it's skip to the "good stuff." And the good stuff isn't travel in FRPGs to me. I'll never not skip travel in any FRPGs game I do again unless there is an actual story-like adventure along the way (ala Moria). And at that point I'll skip to the adventure and then skip to the destination after. I think GMs bog down their games with travel and players don't find it fun, but a grind.
If you can't or won't make travel one of the "good parts", I agree you should skip it.
same. i've added random tables for travel and planned out things pc's might see to prompt a side quest if interested. even still, i don't find it fun. i'd rather just get back to the adventure or campaign.