I concur with a lot of issues mentioned.
There should be a list of what can happen while traveling or exploring.
- Travelling safe paths leads to more automatic encounters but expected or safe ones. The burned out mansion two days out of town that everyone knows about, the patrols between Homeburg and Porttown, the cart track from the main road towards Iffydorp is three days from Porttown roughly here, &c.
There should be a thematic list of bad things that could happen including but not solely monster attacks.
- New ruins, magical zones, faerie rings, monster lairs, abandoned bandit camps, recent battle ground, monster territorial markings, &c. Potential new adventure sites to be explored or come back to, plot hooks (where are the bandits, why did they leave?), in-game warnings of dangerous monsters or other encounters that would be in line for the party to encounter or notice that it is beyond them right now. Also demonstrations of wonderous encounters that highlight the characters are in a magical world, and an opportunity for engaged or clever players to exploit or take inspiration from.
Weather issues; Man vs. Nature issues.
- Blizzard, torrential rain, river crossings, blazing heat, forest fire, sandstorm, mountain climbing, &c. Explanations as to how skills, classes, and spells interact and overcome these obstacles, with an emphasis on cooperative skill use. Ideally, class abilities of 9+ level or spells of 4th+ level can bypass these issues through grit, skill, or magic. Lesser abilities can mitigate but not obviate the issue.
Part of the issue is loss of supplies; equipment, food, and shelter. We have numerous records and journals from history where a lost canoe or leaking fuel can has caused injury or death from lack of supplies. I absolutely appreciate that many people are disinterested in the minutia of inventory management. I believe this is where upkeep or supply abstractions come in handy. Everyone starts the adventure with what they would reasonably need. A mishap along a river leads to a loss of food for X characters. The consequences are partial rations leading to loss of movement, -2 to skill checks from hunger, disadvantage, exhaustion levels, whatever. This can be addressed by foraging and hunting, which the fighters, rangers, and druids can more easily contribute to, along with those from a more isolated or hunting culture. The consequence becomes slower travel because you have to supplement your food, or fewer spells since some are used or saved to provide food for the party.
This avoids "gotchas" where the party didn't think to buy tents, but also rewards the player who carries the fur and wool cloak they have due to their background. Why did they bring it in the middle of summer? It's a part of their heritage and fond memories of their home life. Amazingly, this faerie glade leads to the Court of the First Thaw, where the climate is perpetually in late Winter. The party can go, but one character will be in good stead. I think this helps address a, legitimate I think, objection a poster had in another thread about the inherent pointlessness of inventory management. They said something like it was just a gotcha lottery for the GM. That should be avoided, I think. It is reasonable to assume a degree of competence from PCs, enough that they would bring sufficient food and appropriate clothing for whatever trip they make. The trick is then how well are you able to avoid or mitigate hazards and their consequences.
I agree with the list of three types of travel:
- Going to a known location.
- Going to a reported location.
- Going to an unknown location / general exploration.
These have much different requirements and expectations.
I agree that there are some spells and abilities that wholly remove consequences for exploratory travel. This is fine for some groups, no argument there. In this case exploration needs to be more about what can be found along the way and how much time is required to find the / an objective. There should be a reason why crossing a mountain pass in Winter is a bad idea, and it should be defined how bad is bad for 1st, 5th, 9th, 12th+ level parties. For which group is the pass actually impassable, difficult, navigable, or trivial to access? Which isn't to say there are no consequences or danger. However, given the number of otherwise prepared but inexpert people who require rescue while mountain climbing every year, it makes sense that some first level parties need to wait until Spring.
While camping experience isn't required, I do believe that those who craft exploration rules will craft a better product after camping some and reading adventure fiction and travelogues from the early 1900s. It gives you an idea of what can and has happened and how skilled and untrained people survived, or didn't.
