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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zaruthustran" data-source="post: 6668360" data-attributes="member: 1457">Former whitewater river guide here (paddle slap to   [MENTION=5788]me[/MENTION]lhiac and   [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]): Wenatchee & Skykomish, WA state.I've been noodling on just such a challenge for a couple years. Nothing written down, just various thought exercises while commuting, flying, dozing off, or other mental downtime. I agree with the consensus: let the rapids be the challenge. At least at first. Introduce some mechanics, ease the players into the minigame, let them develop some mastery, and only then get crazy with the ambushes, monsters, and magic. Make this barge trip a major component of your campaign; D&D games are stories, and nothing makes for an epic story like a wacky road (or river) trip with your best friends.I said minigame up above and that's one of the routes I was exploring.  The best whitewater rafting sim I ever played is Formula De. (<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173/formula-de" target="_blank">Board Game Geek</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSYEoP0j63c" target="_blank">Tabletop episode</a>). The way the turns of the track force player choice & movement feels very much like the way rocks force water (and rafts) through channels and chutes. If you & your players are up for it, I encourage you to consider modding this classic game for your purposes. I haven't fully thought it out, but I was thinking of something like:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Go over a Formula De track with blue highlighter or blue watercolor. Point being: turn it into a river. Paint the banks green to cover up the racing paraphernalia.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Chop up the track to form tiles (keep the turns/curves intact). You'll lay these out two at a time: the tile the raft is currently on, and the tile coming up. Remove tiles that the raft has left: that's upriver--the past, man--and thus no longer matters. You only care about where you are right now, and what's ahead. #riverratphilosophy</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Create some obstacle tokens. Exposed rocks: can't go over these, and they can trap or tip you. Submerged rocks: boats can get stuck on these if the water is shallow and slow, and they can create dangerous holes if the water is higher and fast. Trees: crazy dangerous linear obstacles dangerous in high and low water that can capsize or puncture boats and trap and drown swimmers. Columns: bridge supports, old towers, drowned upright trees, and other vertical obstacles that boats can bump off of or get pinned against. Standing waves: these are the fun & classic whitewater that form fun rolling rides if little, or super fun wet splashes when crashed through if big.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Each of these obstacles should modify the spaces around them. Exposed rocks give +1 to the space upriver, and +2 to +3 speed to the spaces on either side, and create an eddy (-1 to -5 speed) immediately behind. Submerged rocks act similarly if shallow, or give big bonuses to speed right over the top of them if deep. Vertical obstacles work like exposed rocks. Trees deal damage and force skill checks. Standing waves can sap speed, soak gear, and potentially eject crew--they also elicit cheers. Speed bonuses stack; if there's a rock, open water, and another rock, then the open water between the two rocks will have two overlapping speed bonuses: both apply. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A bunch of speed bonuses near each other = rapids, and they work like this: if you end your movement in a space adjacent to a space with a speed bonus, you get drawn into that space if that space has a higher speed bonus than the space you're currently in. Sounds complex. Let me try again: if you end your movement in an open water space (no speed bonus) that's adjacent to a space with a +1, you get drawn into the +1. If that space is adjacent to a +2, you then get drawn into the +2. If that space is adjacent to a +3, you then get drawn into the +3. If that space is adjacent to another +3, or some +2s, or open water, or anything other than a +4 or higher, then your turn ends.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">That forced movement only happens when you end your turn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Normal movement: captain of the boat can call for three speeds: stop, regular paddle, hard paddle. Stop means you're floating with the river. Regular paddle means you roll 2d4 and choose which result to keep. Hard paddle means you roll 3d6 and take the highest die (and each of your crew makes a Con save with advantage, and takes 1 level exhaustion if fail). You "spend" this resource to move the raft. Spend 1 to move 1 space downriver, 1 to move sideways, and 2 to move 1 space upriver (backpaddle). You can also spend movement to negate forced movement, on a 1:1 basis. After spending any movement, move the raft 1 space downriver (unless your movement resulted in entering an eddy).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Example: the turn starts. The captain calls for a hard paddle. He rolls 3d6 and gets a 1, a 2, and a 5 (and his crew all makes con saves with advantage). He keeps the 5. He's got 5 movement to spend. So, he spends 1 to move 1 space downriver. After he moves that 1 space, the river floats him 1 more space downriver--the Formula De track will make it obvious which space to move to. He then spends 1 to move 1 space sideways (toward the outer or inner bank). The river then floats him 1 space downriver from that new position. He's got 4 movement left. Looking ahead, he sees that this will put him at the mouth a chute that forms the beginnings of a rapid formed by some rocks. So he spends 2 movement to backpaddle, and moves 1 space upriver. The river then floats him 1 space downriver--he's now back in the same space. He then spends the rest of his movement to go downriver, ending his movement 1 space away from the entrance to the chute (but not entering it). He does this because he wants to be In Control when he enters the rapid, next turn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In Control: you're In Control when you have movement remaining. If you have to make a skill check while In Control, you make that check with Advantage. If you're not In Control and are forced to move (like if you end your movement at the start of a chute, or within a rapid) then bad things can happen. You can't avoid hazards like trees, rocks, or holes. And any skill checks are straight rolls (or at disadvantage, at DM's option). It makes all the difference: going through a big standing wave while In Control can restore levels of Exhaustion or provide a bonus to the next skill check. Crashing through that same wave while not In Control can force the lead crew to make checks to stay in the boat, or turn the boat into a catapult that ejects the captain himself.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Skill checks: the simple way to do it is to use the Captain's skill. Survival is appropriate, and it'll be either a Cha check (if calling a high side to avoid being flipped by a collision with a rock, or instruct a crew how to extricate from a pin), an Int or Wis check (to read a rapid), or Str or Dex check (to haul in a swimmer).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">People ejected from the raft use the Swimming rules for skill checks/drowning, but use the raft rules for movement--including automatic movement from the river, and from rapids. They can float (0 speed), swim (1d2), or swim hard (2d4, take highest, make Con or suffer 1 level or exhaustion). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Eddies: In order to have any hope of catching an eddy, you have to enter a rapid In Control with plenty of movement remaining. Move your raft into the rapid, then spend enough Movement to negate the Speed Bonus of the space you're in and have at least 1 left to spend to enter the Eddy space. Eddy spaces have negative speed bonuses so that they can offset the speed bonuses from adjacent rocks or other hazards (remember, speed bonuses stack). An Eddy is an Eddy if the net speed bonus is zero or less. While in an Eddy, the River speed is 0--you don't drift. The players can safely disembark onto a bank or the eddy-creating obstacle itself.</li> </ul>That's a good start, I think. Needs playtesting. And it may be more fidelity than you or the players want--like I said, it's a minigame. But I think, with a little polishing, it'd be a fun change of pace.PS: Before attempting all that, the first thing you do is, watch Deliverance. And Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown. And since it's summer: run some rivers!</blockquote>

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