Roleplaying Travel

[greyscale1]

I always have trouble doing RP during travel scenes with my players. Sure I can do challenging travel alright, and everyone has fun, the skill challenge system certainly helps.

But my real problem is this, when there is really nothing to be worried about while on the road, how do I spice it up and give my players the illusion of time passing without silly random encounters?

I usually just say something to the effect of "After several days of travel you arrive at your destination at the cusp of dawn on Lastsun (Sunday)" with a bit more or less depending on the weather or blah blah blah blah.


Any suggestions? What do you do for your group?

 

[Shroomy]

Do your players enjoy that kind of activity? Because if not, then handwaving the travel time is probably the way to go.

 

[Kzach]

Why would you want to roleplay the boring bits?

Just skip it and move to the fun.

 

[roguerouge]

Why would you want to roleplay the boring bits?

Just skip it and move to the fun.

And somewhere, the player of a ranger cries.

 

[Jack7]

Personally I describe things from my own travels that I have noticed in the background while on the move. For instance animal spoor, tracks, scats, some interesting piece of floral or wildlife. Bits of debris or trash which would give some indication of what is occurring in the local area. I mix up waymarkers or while on the march the party expects to find milestones at certain points, but those are missing or destroyed. I confuse the trial or road they follow.

Also I leave clues which might indicate local population types or even that NPCs they might be familiar with have passed the way ahead of them. Then again you can leave other clues as well, such as signs of plague, fire, earthquake, disaster, heavy trade, caravan ambush, raider army, etc.

You don't have to have your party engage any of these things directly to create a lot of tension about what they might encounter, what the clues they discover might or might not mean, or to misdirect or confuse your players.

I run a setting set in the Byzantine empire circa 800 AD, so there are always signs or evidence of barbarian border raiders (like the Goths), Arab or Persian scout infiltrations, populations on the move, wildfires, plaques, earthquakes, famines, border skirmishes, troop movements (as a matter of fact my main party is a special agent team for the Empire), monks and hermits in travel or on pilgrimage, food transport, merchant and trade shipments, pirate and brigand raids along the coastal roads, dogs which wanna take up with the party, abandoned horses, wild animals, and even the occasional monster rumor and strange track and scat evidence, that kind of thing.

Just imagine what real life would be like in your own setting, how people would move, what would be happening along any given route as it relates to the area encountered, traveled, or the destination path, and there you have it. Storms are good too, especially fierce ones along to coast and early or late season heavy snowfall, torrential flood, etc. Roadside travel is a very good way to allow the party to resolve moral dilemmas, something I include in every game. For instance recently the abbot of the Monastery of Studios asked the party to accompany his niece to Gallipolis from Constantinople. Along the way on orders from the emperor they investigated a disturbance in small village where they were ambushed by Goth raiders and the girl abducted either for ransom or to be sold into slavery. The party was also supposed to go on to Gallipolis to meet an embassy from the court of Charlemagne to escort them back to Constantinople. After the abduction the party was faced with; 1. chase down the Goths and try to recover the kidnapped girl before she was sold, ransomed, raped, or killed, or 2. proceed on to their original mission and meet the envoy from the Franks to escort them back to the Emperor. Once they made their choice (follow their orders as quickly as possible then form up a raider scout team to hunt down the girl after the envoys were delivered) I still placed numerous obstacles align the roads to slow them down and thwart their intent. Meaning you can always turn travel into a aspect of a mission or adventure. That is travel can incorporate mission objectives or hinder them.

Anyways I made up lists to not monsters to encounter on travel, but also events and evidences and clues and obstacles to encounter. things such as plague zones, rockslides on roads, pirate attacks, skirmish areas, earthquakes, wildfires, drought areas, violent storm encounters, raider bands, enemy scouts, and so forth and so on.

Use things like that instead of just monster encounters and everything or anything can become an interesting aspect of travel. Hope that helped.

 

[Doug McCrae]

But my real problem is this, when there is really nothing to be worried about while on the road, how do I spice it up and give my players the illusion of time passing without silly random encounters?

You already have the perfect solution -

I usually just say something to the effect of "After several days of travel you arrive at your destination at the cusp of dawn on Lastsun (Sunday)"

As the DMG advises on page 105 - "As much as possible , fast-forward through the parts of an adventure that aren't fun."

 

[Jack7]

Meaning you can always turn travel into a aspect of a mission or adventure. That is travel can incorporate mission objectives or hinder them.

Let me expound on that a little bit. Suppose you had a mission to patrol a certain road or deliver a package in a war zone or a dangerous area. Then by it's very nature the travel components of the mission would be one of the most exposed and vulnerable aspects of the mission, or in this case adventure. And if you had enemies who had lain down ambushes along the way, already knew of your travel routes, or were simply watching you then travel becomes a vital component of the adventure and a chief obstacle to overcome in accomplishing your mission. It is not just movement, it is movement to achieve objective, meaning it is part of the mission, meaning it is an objective all by itself. Secure travel is an objective in any dangerous or hostile environment. It cannot be ignored, and to do so is dangerous and even reckless. That does not include random things you will encounter as a result of just the general area you travel (assuming you are not always traveling well patrolled, liberated, and well-protected routes). My point is travel is always part of a mission if the area you are entering is not previously and completely secured. Indeed part for your mission might be to secure the area as you move through it to make it safe for others. So travel can be vital to mission. And in dangerous or frontier or border or disputed areas, it always will be.

 

[Ydars]

I could disagree MORE than with the people who say travel is not important in a game. Travel sets the mood of the campaign and can be used to underline the themes of your game. If you want your game to be more than a complete railroad, you need to have microstories that keep the campaign alive and can be dropped in to give people something quick to focus on. If they don't take the hook, find a way to use the story again in a different way later on.

Make a set of micro-stories that are basically one encounter that can be dropped into travel. For best effect, break them up into encounters before and after the adventure.

Here is an example; BEFORE adventure; PCs are staying at an isolated road-side inn. At night, they hear something furtive going on outside. If they investigate, they find the Innkeeper moving "drunken" people out into the stable.

AFTER adventure; PCs come back to same Inn; an old man is searching for his missing son, who disappeared whilst travelling the road. That night the old man also disappears.

You get the picture; the Innkeeper is drugging random travellers and selling them as slaves. If the PCs stake the place out, they find that the Innkeeper has odd deliveries of wine barrels every new moon. The slaves are transported in the barrels. This will result in a small fight or maybe some diplomacy; instead of having it as the evil Innkeeper, his wife could be being held hostage by the slavers etc etc etc. This could lead to the PCs tracking to the bandit lair or not. I have DMed whole campaigns were the PCs just go from microstory to microstory.

The other thing that Ranger characters might like is natural hazards; in a PoL setting, rivers freeze over, bridges collapse, animals are scared by predators (e.g. pack mule) and the players have to find the thing before the mountain lion kills it and scatters all their equipment. This can make for some fantastic gaming sessions that use skill and rely on tension and can make for a great tonic when you have played a couple of pure combat sessions.

Even getting lost can be enormous fun; the PCs can stumble across something they would never have found by intent; e.g. if they didn't take the hook about the slavers at the Inn, they could encounter the slaver's camp next time they get lost in the area.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you want to make "Roleplaying Travel" interesting, there must be something to "roleplay against". Insert a few NPCs that offer advice or ask questions. Or behave suspicious. Maybe someone has a broken cart and needs help from the PCs. Something needs to be happen, and whatever is happening must be interesting.
- Combats are usually always interesting. Players get to roll dice, and they have to fight to survive.
- Getting information is usually interesting. An information on what is awaiting the PCs, or a potential plot hook.
- Something mysterious happening is also good. Why is someone asking all the questions about the PCs? Who is this cloaked figure/wealthy merchant/savage warrior accompanying the PCs?
- Obstacles are not limited to monsters. Maybe the road ahead is flooded after a long rainfall. Or a tree blocks the way. The PCs have to deal with the obstacle. Sometimes, the obstacle could just be finding the right way.

A possibility to make the travel time interesting is to make it its own mini-adventure. Something is happening along the road. Maybe the PCs have to visit multiple settlements along the path.

But in the end, don't over do it. If nothing suitable exists to enrich the travel time, saying "2 weeks later, you arrive at your destination", isn't that bad. (Think of Indiana Jones and the Red Line on the Map. Indy travels around a lot, and most of the travel is not visible, only the destinations..)

 

[hong]

I could disagree MORE than with the people who say travel is not important in a game. Travel sets the mood of the campaign and can be used to underline the themes of your game. If you want your game to be more than a complete railroad, you need to have microstories that keep the campaign alive and can be dropped in to give people something quick to focus on. If they don't take the hook, find a way to use the story again in a different way later on.

Nothing in this thread even hinted at a railroad, until you posted. If the players decide on their own to go somewhere, and the DM says "2 weeks later you arrive", that is not a railroad.