Like Melan, I force the characters to actually travel. Because I use Wilderlands of High Fantasy, it generally goes something like this:
Me: "You have been told that the town of Beacon is 30 miles due South, on the Coast."
Group: "Well let's get going, I want to put as much distance between us and that posse as possible!"
Me: "It is currently 8 pm, would you like to travel through the night?"
Group: "Yes!"
Me: "Torches or no torches? Torches will double your chance of an encounter, since beasties are drawn to the light. No torches will halve your speed, since many of your group don't have low-light or darkvision."
Group: "We will risk torches."
Me: "Very well." (Roll for the first four hours on the Mother of All Encounter Tables, no encounter...roll four times for getting lost...not lost) "As you leave the cultivated bean fields of Cloven behind you, you begin to ascend into broken, rugged hills scarred by the recent hurricane. A thin moon rises, barely illuminating the muddy gulleys that you are using as make-shift trails. You keep your ears sharp and your speech to a minimum, and see nothing in the dim light behind you. As far as you can tell, no one is pursuing you. It is now midnight. You have travelled a total of four miles, and you reckon yourselves to be in hex 3113. (I show the "Player's Map" -- a mostly blank hex sheet with a coastline that conforms to the GM map, created by Melan no less, and the Players are free to draw in "rugged hills" on hex 3113...I also allow them to see the hexes around them...jungle to the northeast and southwest, and plains to the south) "Would you like to make camp or continue?"
Group: "We continue. We don't trust that Lammasu. We think he knows we're evil."
Me: "Very well." (Roll for the next four hours on Mother of All Encounter Tables. The result is 12 wolves. Roll a d4 to determine which hour the encounter takes place in. The result is 3. Roll three times for getting lost. They get lost on first hour. Roll d6 for random direction, it's to the southeast, toward the coast). "As you continue to huff and puff through the gulleys and peaks of this vertical terrain, the moon slowly sinks into the horizon, leaving a sky spotted with sparkling stars and mottled with dark clouds. Give me spot checks." (Compare the wolves' hide with the spot to determine encounter distance) "But after a few hours you can see that the terrain levels out ahead. That realization puts an extra spring in your step as you push forward at a heightened pace. And then you suddenly halt, for you notice several pairs of yellow eyes ahead, blocking your path. Turning a circle, you see you have been steallthily surrounded by wolves." (draw a square on the battle map and place the wolves at the correct distance around it) "Place your minis in the square and then roll for Initiative!" (resolve the battle, and then, afterward) "You hope that the wolf carcasses don't attract the attention of something higher on the food chain, and decide to push on even further. Indeed, the hills recede behind you, as expected, and you begin to smell salt in the air. You pause and listen. Yes, it's the sound of surf! It is now 4 am and you have moved another 4 miles. By your reckoning you are on northern edge of hex 3314." (show them the player's map)
Player 1: "Wait a second, that's a good four miles from the coast at least. We shouldn't be able to hear the surf from here."
Player 2: "Oh, crap, we're lost again!"
And so forth.
Me: "You have been told that the town of Beacon is 30 miles due South, on the Coast."
Group: "Well let's get going, I want to put as much distance between us and that posse as possible!"
Me: "It is currently 8 pm, would you like to travel through the night?"
Group: "Yes!"
Me: "Torches or no torches? Torches will double your chance of an encounter, since beasties are drawn to the light. No torches will halve your speed, since many of your group don't have low-light or darkvision."
Group: "We will risk torches."
Me: "Very well." (Roll for the first four hours on the Mother of All Encounter Tables, no encounter...roll four times for getting lost...not lost) "As you leave the cultivated bean fields of Cloven behind you, you begin to ascend into broken, rugged hills scarred by the recent hurricane. A thin moon rises, barely illuminating the muddy gulleys that you are using as make-shift trails. You keep your ears sharp and your speech to a minimum, and see nothing in the dim light behind you. As far as you can tell, no one is pursuing you. It is now midnight. You have travelled a total of four miles, and you reckon yourselves to be in hex 3113. (I show the "Player's Map" -- a mostly blank hex sheet with a coastline that conforms to the GM map, created by Melan no less, and the Players are free to draw in "rugged hills" on hex 3113...I also allow them to see the hexes around them...jungle to the northeast and southwest, and plains to the south) "Would you like to make camp or continue?"
Group: "We continue. We don't trust that Lammasu. We think he knows we're evil."
Me: "Very well." (Roll for the next four hours on Mother of All Encounter Tables. The result is 12 wolves. Roll a d4 to determine which hour the encounter takes place in. The result is 3. Roll three times for getting lost. They get lost on first hour. Roll d6 for random direction, it's to the southeast, toward the coast). "As you continue to huff and puff through the gulleys and peaks of this vertical terrain, the moon slowly sinks into the horizon, leaving a sky spotted with sparkling stars and mottled with dark clouds. Give me spot checks." (Compare the wolves' hide with the spot to determine encounter distance) "But after a few hours you can see that the terrain levels out ahead. That realization puts an extra spring in your step as you push forward at a heightened pace. And then you suddenly halt, for you notice several pairs of yellow eyes ahead, blocking your path. Turning a circle, you see you have been steallthily surrounded by wolves." (draw a square on the battle map and place the wolves at the correct distance around it) "Place your minis in the square and then roll for Initiative!" (resolve the battle, and then, afterward) "You hope that the wolf carcasses don't attract the attention of something higher on the food chain, and decide to push on even further. Indeed, the hills recede behind you, as expected, and you begin to smell salt in the air. You pause and listen. Yes, it's the sound of surf! It is now 4 am and you have moved another 4 miles. By your reckoning you are on northern edge of hex 3314." (show them the player's map)
Player 1: "Wait a second, that's a good four miles from the coast at least. We shouldn't be able to hear the surf from here."
Player 2: "Oh, crap, we're lost again!"
And so forth.
Our current party is full of these never-do-wells, and it's a blast.
