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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 6637221" data-attributes="member: 386">Interesting choices can liven up wilderness travelling.I think the first step is to make a well-designed map.  You can think of a wilderness map like a dungeon map - they should have the same features: choke points, traps and ambushes, secret paths, and weird features (tricks) to interact with.  In a dungeon you wouldn't put the object of the PC's goal (captives, treasure, the NPC to kill) at the end of a featureless corridor.  Keep that in mind for wilderness exploration as well.A simple example:  The PCs want to get to the adventure site.  They can take the direct route but it's through a mountain pass and they run the risk of natural hazards (difficult to climb peaks, avalanche or landslides, hidden chasms) and/or monster ambush.  They can take a circuitous route around the mountains but it takes longer and wandering monsters may cause attrition.  They can head through a haunted forest but no one who enters comes out the same.  Then there's rumour of a secret pass or tunnel through the mountains but it's guarded by a powerful monster/NPC who demands a heavy toll (not just GP!) for those who travel through; or it's hard to find and that area is plagued by monsters.Along the way the PCs will encounter things that give them more information about wherever they are going.  A burnt-out farmstead.  A deer dropped from a great height.  Features that link to the danger of the world.These monsters and NPCs should not be static; they should respond to the PC's choices.  If the PCs take the mountain pass and dust it up with bandits, the pass opens up and some nice supplies are available for purchase in town.  If they take another route, the town might be under duress from a lack of supplies.  That way the choices the players make have some setting consequences and you're not creating content that won't be seen.</blockquote>

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