D&D 5E Rewarding Overland Travel

[Vaalingrade]

Makes travel way less onerous, though I'm sad that rolling a 2 is a 50% chance of boredom I'd just chop those two off and let resources be interesting resources.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I had 2 outlanders, one druid and one ranger. They all deal in absolutes. One always finds food, the other never gets lost.... I talked with my players and made them very good at it (advantage in foraginf and double the proficiency when navigating) but not automatic successes.

So you managed to talk them into making their foraging ability worthless? Advantage is basically the norm in 5e.

 

[Bolares]

So you managed to talk them into making their foraging ability worthless? Advantage is basically the norm in 5e.

I didn't "talk them into" anything. I explained the experience the adventure was trying to give them, and what problems I thought those features could bring to that experience, and we worked together to make something we all could agree on.

 

[mrpopstar]

I had 2 outlanders, one druid and one ranger. They all deal in absolutes. One always finds food, the other never gets lost.... I talked with my players and made them very good at it (advantage in foraginf and double the proficiency when navigating) but not automatic successes.

If you'll allow...

Dehydration and exhaustion are major concerns in the jungles of Chult, and outlanders in the adventure were not able to find fresh water using their wanderer feature because the land did not provide for it.
It was possible to make the water found in the rivers or on the ground safe to drink by boiling it, but a pot weights 10 lb. (which is 1/3 the capacity of a backpack) and you can only boil 1 gallon at a time.
Don't forget that outlanders focused on foraging are not focusing on noticing threats.

You would've traveled through coastal, jungle, mountain, swamp and wasteland terrains. You're only protected from being lost while traveling through a ranger's favored terrain (assuming the ranger focused on navigation).
The outlander's wanderer feature is based on memory, so their navigation is not guaranteed. Their benefit is that if your party got lost and happened to re-enter a hex they'd previously passed through, the outlander would be able to recognize that. That doesn't mean they know where to go next (but does assume they at least know the direction of the hex you just came from).

 

[Yora]

Nice tables to quickly generate sites that can be seen while traveling through the wilderness to a destination.
But what does it add to the game to randomly roll if and when the players come upon of these? What is the gain compare to determining them in advance and putting them down along the party's path?

 

[BookTenTiger]

How about just giving them XP for seeing new things as they explore? More for unique / first time they encounter something (in example their first elf settlement), somewhat less for "new" things (say a different human town along the river), and less for typical things (say another midlands village that they've seen many of). You learn by exploring and seeing new things. Just set up some experience rewards, keep track of what they pass through and hand out the experience when they have time to consider what they've seen. You could vary XP by level, race / ancestry, background, class etc.

I think that's definitely a viable idea. I tend to use Milestone leveling in my games, so I think the characters would need different rewards.

One neat thing would be to add "natural wonder" to the list of rewards. When the characters come upon a really big waterfall, or a massive mudpot of prismatic colors or something, they get Inspiration!

 

[BookTenTiger]

"Just whipped this up since you had some time". I want to play in one of your games, great job.

Ha ha ha, this is just the way my brain works. I came up with the idea in the Exploration Pillar thread, and then it just wouldn't leave me. I had to create this to get it out of my mind!

Also I'm a teacher, so woooo summer break!

 

[BookTenTiger]

Can you expand on this? What did you change about outlander's wanderer feature, or other things you mention?

The Outlander feature is:

You have an excellent memory for maps and geography, and you can always recall the general layout of terrain, settlements, and other features around you. In addition, you can find food and fresh water for yourself and up to five other people each day, provided that the land offers berries, small game, water, and so forth.

This, and other powers like Goodberry or the Goliath's carrying capacity, make it difficult to create a fun system using consequences like reducing rations or relying on endurance.

Let's say I have an Overland Travel system in which I keep track of rations and water. One character with an Outlander in the group would provide for everyone, making it so that there is no consequence for travel.

But in this thread I'm saying... that's a good thing! The Outlander should be able to provide food and water, because that's the background they chose!

So I think Overland Travel should focus on rewards of travel instead of consequences. You can still implement the Food and Water cost, but now introduce new cool things in the landscape, like shelters, lost travelers, statues, etc. And I guarantee you, if you have the characters follow deer tracks to find a clearing where giant deer graze, the Outlander in the group is going to bring that into the narrative to explain their background feature!

 

[BookTenTiger]

Makes travel way less onerous, though I'm sad that rolling a 2 is a 50% chance of boredom I'd just chop those two off and let resources be interesting resources.

This is just an idea for a list. If I were using it in a campaign, I would adjust it both to that campaign and the environment. It some, it may be far more likely to encounter enemies. In others, resources might be super rare.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Nice tables to quickly generate sites that can be seen while traveling through the wilderness to a destination.
But what does it add to the game to randomly roll if and when the players come upon of these? What is the gain compare to determining them in advance and putting them down along the party's path?

I mean, what's the point of any Random Table? Sometimes it's fun to roll in advance and plan ahead, and sometimes it's fun to see what the dice give you in the middle of the adventure!