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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 3780228" data-attributes="member: 3192">Gosh, EVERYTHING practically is a good overland challenge for low level characters.  Food, sleep, protecting their camp, rationing supplies, hunting for supplementary food and simple craftable gear.  The environment is THE hazard in overland travel.  That includes weather, plants and animals (or lack thereof), water sources, trails and roads, geography's impact on speed and the ability to traverse it (think of obstacles like cliffs, sinkholes, etc.)3 BANDS of trolls!?  That's a bit much for that level, no?  Even as a warning.  Why haven't these three fought each other into one surviving band?  Better think of how they can run from these before the players need to.  Place some other "run from" creatures in wandering encounter tables beforehand too.  That should get them in the mindset of running away and that it is okay.  Maybe a hint or two about creating a plan or strategy after they have successfully escaped once will work?  You know, "in case it comes up again?"  Marching order is just as important in the woods as in the dungeon.  (And at least there you can bring along mounts and vehicles)Are your trolls swamp trolls?  Most D&D ones are, but that certainly isn't a requirement.  If the team is traveling through swampland, then they just bit off quite a bit for 3 characters averaging 3rd level.  Maybe in one or two more they'd have an easier time of it, but swamps are notoriously dangerous to travel in because of the monsters that hide/live there.  And that's not even counting the bugs, disease, poisonous creatures, ease of getting lost, and achingly slow travel times.For encounters, really, think plants and common animals for encounters first.  The real challenge is the resource game and learning how to travel with and without roads or paths through wilderness.  Travel is almost never easy at this level, so make sure they make direction checks and roll on your weather table as often as your wandering encounter ones.  There are plenty of rules for all this in the DMG and PHB ch. 9.  Also, give detailed descriptions as they go along.  These include warning hints per results a normal take-10 would give on the relevant skills.  Spot, Nature, Survival, etc.  Say, red skies before rain or storms come so they can learn when to take shelter (and what that is).  Also, deadly plants tend to leave carcasses.  Not just man eaters, but poisonous ones too.  Tracks and spores are evidence of animals (re: monsters) in the area.  These are always a good hint, both when the PCs may will want to go around and when they know they must travel through. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Really, there are plenty of ideas.  I'm betting you will get more here.</blockquote>

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