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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7294368" data-attributes="member: 29398">Danger, Will Robinson!If the adventure is supposed to be linear but there's travel (and thus choices) involved make good and sure you include all kinds of notes for the DM covering the inevitable 'what-ifs' for when - not if - the characters don't follow the path.  Because it's ironclad guaranteed that some groups will stray, or come up with a way of bypassing or shortcutting the travel.Designing a linear adventure that doesn't end up as a railroad is extremely delicate work.I'd make "travel" its own chapter between the city chapter and the destination chapters.  The travel chapter includes your maps and write-ups for the lands they're going through on any of these journeys, the random encounter tables (if any), the set-piece encounters the party are in theory going to meet, and again a bunch of what-if answers for the DM should any of these travels and-or areas be somehow bypassed, short-cutted, or avoided entirely.My recommendation is to if at all possible not put any encounters in the 'travel' parts that are essential in order to complete the adventure, 'cause sure as dammit if you put an essential encounter out there that's the one they'll find a way to avoid or bypass.For example: if the adventure expects them to travel from city A to city B along a rather obvious main road and has an essential encounter placed along said road you can bet there's going to be parties who will find a way to do one or more of the following, depending on their level and-or reasonably available resources: - stick to back roads and-or go cross-country, to avoid being seen by the locals and-or to specifically avoid encounters on the main road - go to the coast to city C, take a boat to city D, then walk inland from there to city A - fly - teleportand the DM should expect the module to provide answers to these things.Lanefan</blockquote>

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