D30 Overland Travel Mishaps

Adventurers walking from one location to another with gear on their backs face several challenges. Whether backpacking in Traveller or Call of Cthulhu or journeying in Dungeons & Dragons or Ryuutama, here are d30 mishaps an explorer might encounter on the trail.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay​

These mishaps use D&D 5E rules. For each journey decide on a number of Survival checks a group makes, every day or every two or three days. A failed check triggers a roll on the mishap table. On a natural 1 roll on the special mishap table. Alternatively, add these in as set encounters either picking a desired result or rolling randomly. If an event affects only one PC roll randomly to determine which one or choose the PC making the Survival check.

Mishap Survival Check Table (-2 DC on a trail, +2 DC for foul weather)

Terrain	Difficulty Class
Grasslands	7
Deserts and hills	12
Forests, mountains, and swamps	17

Roll a d30 to determine the mishap or a d6 for a special mishap. To simulate a d30 roll any die, odd roll 1d20 on the chart and even roll 1d10+20 on the chart. All saves on the mishap table are DC 13 and DC 15 on the special mishap table.

Mishap Table

D30 Roll	Mishap	Effect
1	Lost, walking in circles	Roll d6 for hex side moved through; if hex side is the desired direction stay in current hex instead
2	Venomous snake	Snake bite +5; Constitution save or 1d6 poison damage and poisoned for 1 hour
3	Dangerous weather	Blizzard, lightning, tornado; 2d6 damage
4	Monster disturbed	Random encounter
5	Savage animal	Bear, boar, large cat, or large canine attacks
6	Provision shortage or spoiled food	Lose half your rations to miscalculation or rot
7	Blocked terrain	Cannot move in desired direction due to debris, washed out trail, etc.
8	Worn out	Gain a level of exhaustion
9	Quicksand/mud/water/flooding	Fall results in being restrained; after 1d4 rounds begin suffocating or use DMG description for quicksand
10	Sprained ankle or blisters	Speed is halved for 1d3 days, magic healing cures
11	Torn clothes and gear	Until mended, suffer disadvantage on Charisma skill checks if appearance matters
12	Landslide	Dexterity save or 2d6 damage and restrained and suffocating until Strength check to dig out
13	Spider bite	Constitution save versus poison or 1d6 poison damage and poisoned for 1 hour
14	Distracting weather	Fog, heavy rain, or hail; disadvantage on ranged attacks and Survival checks
15	Wasp’s nest	Dexterity save or poisoned for 1 hour
16	Mosquito swarm	Carries the disease sewer plague
17	Pestering animal	Angry squirrel or mocking bird pesters you triggering a random encounter
18	Poisonous plants	Poisoned until washed clean
19	Black flies	If not in shelter, disadvantage, lasts 24 hours
20	Ticks	Carry cackle fever
21	Lost gear or weapon	1d6 on a 1 a weapon is lost otherwise a piece of gear
22	Hunter’s trap	Dexterity save or restrained by net/snare or animal trap; 50% chance it is an animal trap that also inflicts 1d6 damage
23	Sick or rabid animal	Small animal bite +5 for 1d4 damage and exposure to sewer plague
24	Fall from cliff, into cave, sinkhole, or old well	Dexterity save or fall 1d3x10 feet
25	Skunk	Dexterity save or “poisoned” until washed off
26	Dirty drinking water	Everyone’s drinking water tainted with sight rot
27	Fire	A fire burns in your intended direction, turn away or Constitution save to dash through: succeed poisoned by smoke for 1 hour, fail as succeed and take 2d6 fire damage
28	Lice	“Poisoned” until treated
29	Fire ants	Take 1d6 poison damage, poisoned for 1 hour, and lose half your rations
30	Broken gear	1d6 on a 1 a weapon is broken otherwise a piece of gear

Special Mishap Table

D6 Roll	Special Mishap	Result
1	Razorvine	Per the DMG
2	Acid rain	Find shelter or take 2d6 acid damage, leaves behind acid puddles for 1d6 hours
3	Ash storm	Blocks the direction you want to travel, push on by making a Strength saving throw or gain a level of exhaustion
4	Dust tornado	Dexterity save or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and Speed reduced by half for 1d6 hours
5	Magnetic pulse	If wearing metal armor, Strength save or prone and restrained for 1d6 hours
6	Weird energy	Intelligence save or “poisoned” for 1d6 hours as strange visions warp your sight

Exploring the wilderness is a wonderful challenge but it also brings a host of possible mundane mishaps. In a magical or supernatural world there may be even stranger mishaps. Use these tables to spice up travel in your RPG of choice.

 

[GMMichael]

D33 Roll	Mishap	Effect
31	Travel guide quits/dies	Wisdom checks required to reach correct destination
32	Someone brings up "the issue"	CHA saves or party stress level raises
33	Bard joins party	CHA checks to keep him from singing the same annoying song...

 

[Racegamer]

"To simulate a d30 roll any die, odd roll 1d20 on the chart and even roll 1d10+20 ..."
Unless my brain is not working today, using this method a quarter of your of your rolls will be from 1-10, half will be from 11-20, and a quarter will be from 21-30 - not an even distribution.
You would be better to roll one d6: 1-2 roll 1d10, 3-4 roll 1d10 +10, 5-6 roll 1d10 +20.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

D33 Roll	Mishap	Effect
31	Travel guide quits/dies	Wisdom checks required to reach correct destination
32	Someone brings up "the issue"	CHA saves or party stress level raises
33	Bard joins party	CHA checks to keep him from singing the same annoying song...

Hah 32 and 33 are gold.

To the OP @Charles Dunwoody it would be cool to also have a sub table for weather. One that's a bit more robust than what's in the DMG.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Hah 32 and 33 are gold.

To the OP @Charles Dunwoody it would be cool to also have a sub table for weather. One that's a bit more robust than what's in the DMG.

Good idea. I'll see what I can come up with.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Good idea. I'll see what I can come up with.

When I have my players roll for weather (yes, I like them to roll that one), I have them roll a 10 sider. If they roll a 1-7, the weather persists as it was yesterday, with the lower number meaning it "persists more". In other words if it was raining, a 1 means more rain, a 3 means same amount, a 7 means still raining but clearing up. 8-10 I say it's a change. But I make it up when it happens...

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Weather is one of those things that is easy to gloss over in a game but really matters a lot in the real world when you are outside 24/7. I think there are some ideas to explore there.

 

[Minigiant]

Anytime it see an overland travel table, I like.

I have one for when I DM. Only 10 outcomes but if you roll low you then roll on a worse table of bad stuff.

 

[mh972]

"To simulate a d30 roll any die, odd roll 1d20 on the chart and even roll 1d10+20 ..."
Unless my brain is not working today, using this method a quarter of your of your rolls will be from 1-10, half will be from 11-20, and a quarter will be from 21-30 - not an even distribution.
You would be better to roll one d6: 1-2 roll 1d10, 3-4 roll 1d10 +10, 5-6 roll 1d10 +20.

I personally prefer your method, but the one they suggest gives an equal distribution also... It just looks awkward

Roll any die, odd use a 1d20 and even 1d10+20... so say we roll a d4 initially, on a 1 or 3 you get an equal chance of a 1-20... if the d4 was a 2 or 4, a 1d10 and add 20 still gives and equal chance of getting a 21-30... What makes it fair is you have a 50/50 chance of getting odd or even on the d4 (or d6, or d8, or whatever), no matter what there is only one way out of 30 to get each number from 1 to 30

 

[Tonguez]

D33 Roll	Mishap	Effect
34	Witch Signs hanging in the trees	Wis save or become frieghtened
35	Dysentery Strikes the Wagon Train	Con save to resist Nausea
36	Trespassing on Sacred Ground	Hallow/Unhallowed Ground
37	Migrating Swarms	Your path is blocked by a large swarm - you can attempt to cross it
38	Pollen Clouds	A thick cloud of pollen hangs in the air causing fatigue to those who breath it in
39	Strange Lights	Wis save or become dazzled by the strange lights
40	Short Cut	Automatically overcome the next mishap