Roleplaying Travel

[hong]

Well... it's true that I never really grokked Oblivion....

 

[el-remmen]

Here are a couple of examples of descriptions of travel that also include PC choice as they ended up in my "Out of the Frying Pan" story hour. Just imagine that instead of the thrid person they were being told to the players in the present tense second person:

The next few days were hard walking, most of it uphill, and when it was down, it was through loose dirt and treacherous roots that led down to jagged plateaus of black basalt that had burst out of the ground long ago.

The only foliage here were crabby trees, and thick vines on rocks that cracked them to reach the sparse water.

The weather was warming up, but the nights still had a frost to them, and when their trail brought them above the level of the river gorge, a fierce wind would whip down and sting their eyes and chill them to the bone.

They finally reached the gorge after five days of marching, and all were disappointed that there seemed no easy way across. The other side was at higher elevation, and they could see the dark shade of many thick green trees above them. The gorge was as wide as two hundred feet in places, but they could see that further north were the gorge turned west around a black hill atop the opposite cliff, it narrowed some.

“We’ll find a way to cross up there,” Ratchis said with confidence. “But it will be getting dark soon. I’ll bring us another mile or two closer and then we’ll find a place to camp and get a good look in the morning light.”

Everyone agreed wearily. Even Gunthar did not seem to have a quip ready.

Just after dawn the Keepers of the Gate had left Nikar by the western road, and had turned northward with the town less than a half-mile behind them. They marched along narrow paths that wound between farmsteads; many atop carved plateaus draped with bright green. At first they passed locals with wagon and wheelbarrows bringing things to market in Nikar, or the occasional stray farm dog begging for treats, but by the end of the second day they walked through a thick forest wedged into foothills of the nearby mountains.

They marched from dawn to dusk, taking short breaks to eat and stretch. Gunthar led Fearless the Llama for an hour or two a day, but usually the task fell to Martin the Green who had a way with animals no one had noticed before.

On the fifth day of marching, the forest suddenly dwindled out into nothing. A nasty blue-green blight was on the north side of all the trees and soon the Keepers of the Gate found themselves in a barren expanse of tall jagged rock cracked in many places by tiny streams coming from the northeast.

They cut east following the main stream back up into the mountains, hoping to avoid having to do any actual climbing for as long as possible and taking advantage of the clean cold water to bathe and refill their skins.

And here is how one of those descriptions leads directly to a potientional "encounter":

Several days later, the Keepers of the Gate had made their way past the first of the mountains, led by Ratchis through deep undercuts made in them by cold streams. In this way they were able to avoid the worst of the climbing, and where they did have to climb some, they found the llama was deft and leaping up onto to rocks and from one to another, as long as they were not too high or too far apart.

Beyond this, was a world ringed by mountains. It was a grassy highland many miles across and marked with many streams and ponds, and littered with huge stones left behind by retreating glaciers thousands of years before. The high plain was broken up by great jagged ridges that rose and fell as if the hard earth had once been sand, and some colossus had dragged its feet walking back and forth.

As usual, Ratchis took point, leaving Logan to lead the rest of the group and he jogged ahead to each rise, squatting down and looking over to make sure nothing awaited them beyond. He would jog back and forth all day, seemingly tireless, reporting what he saw, and for two days it had always been ‘all clear’.

One hazy mid-morning, Ratchis made his way to the top of a ridge, expecting to see the rest of the plain beyond, but instead it was a ragged ravine that ran east from the mountains to a river the party had noticed at the western border of the plain. Movement on the opposite ridge caught his eye, and he lowered himself down even more. It was twelve, or perhaps sixteen, humanoid figures, picking their way up the opposite ridge and over it.

 

[WayneLigon]

We'll roleplay out travel when it become important. The Eberron game I did featured a truck-load of travel. Through 15 levels they went to all but five of the areas, crossing that gigantic 5000-mile-across continent twice.

Sometime it was played out, with at least descriptions of the travel and areas they were passing through.

Other times, we'd pull out the laminated Eberron map and whistle the Indiana Jones theme while drawing a line in red wet-erase from Point to Point B or at least the first travel encounter.

Never underestimate the Indiana Jones theme.

 

[Ydars]

Doug; I would never DARE say Hong's style was not video-gamey enough after I saw the thread with Imaro v Hong!

I also don't use certain material whatever the PCs do; I have a largish set of maps, a largish set of encounters (and sometimes not even this; I wil completely wing it if required; and believe me, with my lot, it often is required) and I go from there. I just make it up as I go along; the thing I love about this approach is that I don't know what is coming next any more than my players do; it is sort of like DMing and playing at the same time. I am only five minutes ahead of them.

I just throw out leads until someone bites. Then I run with it. I am not saying I do this all the time; I love complex over-arching stuff as well, but this is what I do during travel or between adventures. I like my campaigns to combine a bit of everything.

I think you are all slightly misunderstanding me; most people wing a little (choose this or this or this) but I am talking about completely letting go and turning up to the session with not one clue about what is going to happen, sometimes completely unprepared. I start with a intriguing situation, and then the players literally build the adventure before my eyes.

It started as an accident; I was busy one day and didn't have enough prep time and then was forced to completely wing it. The players commented that they liked the session much better and so I tried it again. It doesn't always work; so I have learnt to have a backup plan but I haven't needed to use it more than 1 session in 6 or 7. I am convinced it is sub-concious now because I rarely need to think about it to pull it off. It is just the greatest feeling when it works!!

 

[Ginnel]

Travel in general should equal, you move along, The scenary is this (anywhere from a short description to tolkien-esque yawn fests), mention any interesting things on the road, big river, waterfall, abbey, thorpe, town, ranch, farms, castle. If they wish to explore that well let them, and remember if you haven't got it planned out try thinking of Cliches/films/books for a bit of help (siren at a waterfall/farmstead full of cultists)

Of course nothing interesting needs to be there but then again why not have something interesting there, the game isn't about running the players to your own plots saying that anything else they do is pointless, give improv a go or on the other hand have 3-4 prepped adventures for random insertion into your campaign.

Of course if the players say they want to get to their destination and fast forward everything else go through the description of the scenery and how it changes and then have them appear outside said destination.

I would say the "you travel 2 weeks your there" description of travel is taking a bit too much out, even

"you set off north from the town of Clee the lettuce fields turn to wild grasslands as you travel along the old kings road, you see the occasional farm and merchant on your travels but it seems the road is not in regular use, finally on your 14th day of travel you descend into a valley, an abandoned keep rising from its centre, which can only be the Keep of Vale you have been sent to explore"
Note by leaving the descriptive options in players, may go erm can I buy something from the merchant, or can we bed down at that farm, adding in an extra bit of interaction, where you can sow a seed of plot/give interesting information to the players

 

[Ydars]

Oh and sorry for the use of the word "Railroad"; I am fairly new here and didn't realise how emotive this word is to this community. I don't have a problem with railroading personally; I think it is an inevitable part of being a DM and everyone does it most of the time unless you submit yourself to what I describe above, and even then the DM is influencing the players big time.

The above is also only useful in small doses as any play style is monotonous if employed all the time. My advice to any DM is mix up your styles; plan meticulously for five sessions, wing it for five sessions, or overlap so that the over-arching stuff is planned but the microstories are completely winged etc etc

The MASSIVE advantage of 4E is that this winging it will be so much easier.

 

[hong]

I agree with Ydars.

Group hug!

 

[Ydars]

Yay!

 

[Ethalias]

Group hugs are made entirely of win.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

What's with all the love here? You know there is just a limited amount of it in the world, and if you're wasting it here, somewhere else a couple gets into fight! Ever thought about that?