How do you deal with traveling in your games?

[CharlesRyan]

I find that "the road" is a great place for encounters that set the stage for or foreshadow some element of the adventure to come.

Even more importantly, I like the world my campaign is set in to have an impact on the players' experience, and travel is a great way to illuminate the setting.

But all that said, it's no fun bogging down the pace of the campaign with extraneous attention to unnecessary elements, so the majority of travel in my games is hand-waved. There's nothing wrong with that; movies, novels, and other forms of narrative entertainment don't usually spend a lot of time on parts of the story that aren't relevant.

 

[Quickleaf]

For me it depends on what I want to achieve, so I tend to think of travel as falling into one of these groups:

Danger - PCs need to avoid something dangerous while on the road, like alerting enemy forces while traveling thru hostile territory, since I run 4e this would be a skill challenge

Flavor - sometimes I just want to insert a scene or two to give the PCs a feel for a new area or continue an ongoing subplot (like a recurring gypsy seer), these would be 10-minute mini-encounters, I might include minor quests

Consequence - something from their past catches up to the PCs, for better or worse, like that enemy they let live organizing an ambush, or that poor couple they helped pro bono giving them some herbal poultices and journeybread

Foreshadow - the PCs get a hint of what lies ahead, such as a run in with refugees fleeing a dragon attack, or an edgy military checkpoint looking for an escaped killer, or they pick up rumors at the inn

Speed Travel'- I just want to get the PCs to the next adventure I do the same as you do, one sentence sums it up, but sometimes the group wants to accomplish things or RP inter-party a little

Adventure - a few times I've turned travel into full fledged adventure, such as an ocean voyage fighting mutineers or a desert caravan becoming a side quest to rescue a kidnapped sheikh after a midnight raid

 

[Thasmodious]

I do a bit of all of the above. I don't do random encounter tables, but I have a nice big file of sketches for all kinds of campaign/PC background/world-building encounters and happenings that I can pull from if this particular journey needs an encounter or two. Sometimes I just handwave the travel with a spat of description and "here we are". One of my favorites of late is to use a tricked out version of Savage Worlds free, and system neutral, Dramatic Interludes (available to d/l here: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Downloads). Basically, it's a mini-system to cover the passing of days or hours on a journey. Each player is given occasion to relate a story, encounter something along the journey or find something of significance. It's a structured form of letting the players describe the journey.

In my current game, a Firefly game, as the PCs live on the ship, there is often a lot going on during a journey between planets. There's the risk of ship problems, various pursuits of the crew (tinkering with the ship, repairing this or that, tending injuries over the long haul, researching their next move on the Coretex, receiving and sending waves, etc), and I'll usually play out a dinner in the galley and segue into a Dramatic Interlude.

 

[Viking Bastard]

But all that said, it's no fun bogging down the pace of the campaign with extraneous attention to unnecessary elements, so the majority of travel in my games is hand-waved. There's nothing wrong with that; movies, novels, and other forms of narrative entertainment don't usually spend a lot of time on parts of the story that aren't relevant.

I think the key for me is to find a way of glossing over that doesn't feel quite as instantaneous.

If I can get the players involved, that's a definite plus.

 

[Mark CMG]

Those travel times are a great place to include setting atmosphere and perhaps weave in an unobtrusive clue or inconspicuous bit of flavor that can go unnoticed in the moment but has later importance, foreshadowing with drawing attention to it.

 

[BraveSirKevin]

I suppose it also depends where in the session the travel takes place. If possible, I try to keep the players engaged where they are until the end of the session, so that departing from their location is the end of this session and arrival at their new destination is the beginning of the next one.

If that's unavoidable, then I do tend to gloss over it as well. I don't much care for random encounters because they do require a bit of prep, and they might not happen, which would have wasted my time. What I do do however, is plan some non-random encounters and pass them off as random. Basically, whenever there is some travelling happening, I work out how many days it will take, and tell them as much, then roll a die for each day, paying no attention to the result. Either something happens, or nothing happens, and that's all been decided before hand. Player's get the risk factor, because they don't know that it's not random, and I get some actual mileage out of prep work.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Unless something particularly interesting is going to happen during that travel, I gloss over it much like you do.

I don't use "wandering" encounters much. There may be consequences of actions that will catch PCs en route, or there may be planted plot hooks for them to find. But, if not, then the time passes uneventfully, and we "cut to the chase" so to speak.

Same here. There are few things in a game that can be more boring than a travelog. So unless something is going to happen, keep the atmospheric bits short!

 

[Viking Bastard]

Lots of good responses!

Those travel times are a great place to include setting atmosphere and perhaps weave in an unobtrusive clue or inconspicuous bit of flavor that can go unnoticed in the moment but has later importance, foreshadowing with drawing attention to it.

I like that thought. Now it's just a question of how I'll adapt it into the game and my style.

Related: One of my players decided to roll a unprompted perception check when the group was traversing some mountains. I decided to go with it and said she noticed something following them from a distance. I have no idea what it is and or how it will come into play, but plan to make it important somehow later on.

 

[billd91]

I like to spend a certain amount of time and effort in travel as PCs get around. I find it helps both me and my players get a better feel for the game world as a living thing and not just an unimportant frame for adventure sites.

I handle things with a mix of summary and detail. I'll generally ask my players what sort of standard things they'll do as part of their travel - marching order, wearing armor or not, expectations of breaks to rest, how they'll set up camps in the wilderness, what kind of watches they may set, and so on. I'll also have pre-set up some weather and setting appropriate encounters for them to have assuming they don't take measures to prevent them from happening.

Once the prep's done, I'll start in on summarizing the journey by describing the types of terrain and atmosphere. I'll also describe what other traffic may be like, all while giving them the chance to do whatever they want in response to what I'm saying. I'll break up the summary with any encounters they have on the way.

Ultimately, I find that breaking up the adventuring with travel gives players who invested in wilderness or travel-oriented characters a chance to hold the spotlight. This is especially true for fighters with mounted combat feats who have a hard time justifying their use in your basic dungeon.

 

[Beginning of the End]

So far, once the players decide to go somewhere, they just kind of 'pop' from one location to another, with a little dry commentary from me ("The trip took the better part of the day and when you get there it's well into the evening. You might consider looking for a place to stay for the night"). This leaves me a little dissatisfied and seems to disrupt the flow of the game, but on the other hand I don't want to spend too much time and energy whenever the PCs decide to take on a short trip.

How is it dealt with in your games?

Boils down "it depends". Like most pacing in RPGs, we find it really becomes a question of identifying the meaningful choices for PCs.

At one extreme, you can easily have situations where the method of getting from Point A to Point B is totally irrelevant -- whatever choices the PCs make in terms of method of travel, precise route, or diversions along the way will make no difference, so you should feel to say, "Okay, you ride over to X and then..."

At the other extreme, you could have a campaign which is all about exploring uncharted wilderness. In that case, the decisions of the PCs about method of travel, travel time, route, and potential diversions are what the core of the campaign is about, so you're going to want to focus on those choices.

If you're interesting something a little closer to the latter, drop me a PM with your e-mail address and I can send you some playtest documents DMP has been working on for hex-based exploration play.

If not, here are some key questions to ask:

(1) Is the trip potentially dangerous? How could that danger be avoided/detected/etc.?

(2) Does it matter what route they take? If so, what's the important distinction between "different routes"? (For example, do you just need to know if they go through the Haunted Forest or around it? Or would the exact path they follow in the Haunted Forest make a difference?)

(3) Does it matter how long it takes them to get there? (Then you should determine their method of travel so that you can calculate travel time.)

(4) Is there anything particularly interesting that the PCs might see or encounter along the way?

That should allow you to identify the points of meaningful decision that the players need to make. Everything inbetween can usually be covered in a few sentences of descriptive text.