RPG Evolution - D&D Tactics: Hikes

I go on a lot of Boy Scout hikes. If I were in an adventuring party in a fantasy world, I'd never make it.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

Our hikes average anywhere from a half hour to several hours, depending on the terrain and season. We have one Scoutmaster who could easily qualify as a ranger, but for the rest of us, real life challenges make it clear that out-of-shape wizards are going to be in trouble if they have to walk to their next destination.

Weather Matters​

For obvious reasons, walking in the snow can be tough. We avoid hiking in winter, but we have hiked in Spring and Fall through rocky terrain. The toughest terrain we've encountered if after a recent rain with leaves on the ground. The combination makes it difficult to see a clear path (if there even is one). We've gotten lost in places we've hiked previously just because leaves covered everything. Wet leaves also make the ground slippery. More than one Scout has plunged their foot into an unseen puddle or slipped on a rock.

Adventurers in this sort of terrain will likely have challenges tracking, finding a path, and even just moving through it. This is one of the reasons I started using a walking stick, if only to test how to proceed. Characters familiar with the outdoors (barbarians, druids, ranger) will have an easier time of it than those who are unaccustomed to being outside the confines of their hometown.

Hikes Are Exhausting​

When the weather's nice, I try to walk every day in my neighborhood and when it's not I run on my treadmill. In both cases, the terrain is flat enough that I can turn off my brain. Not so when hiking, which requires constant vigilance as you determine your next step, avoid blundering into branches, and try to spot the path forward.

In unfamiliar terrain, a hike is not merely something you do while you do something else. Characters who want to perform most skills in difficult terrain will find it nearly impossible. Except maybe for singing, so the bards have something to do (the Scouts won't let me though for good reason).

Natural Hazards​

The outdoors can be beautiful but it isn't ordered to make life easier for anyone to pass through it. Woods are filled with dead branches and fallen trees that will have to be circumnavigated. The aforementioned leaves make everything slippery and conceal holes that can trip you up. And there is wildlife that can react poorly to intrusions -- my son was stung by a hornet just walking up rocky steps near a castle.

Characters who are uncoordinated or unaccustomed to traveling outdoors may well take damage just by trying to make their way, or end up exhausted in the process.

Leave No Trace​

In Scouts, we encourage the philosophy of "leave not trace," which means you leave the terrain how it was when you arrived. That means no picking up sticks or feathers or rocks to take with you. It also means essentially covering your tracks.

Cityfolk unaccustomed to the outdoors may be surprised how visible their blundering is to beasts and trackers. When cover your tracks, getting the wizard to stop leaving crumbs behind is as important as leaving fewer footprints.

Avoiding the Long Hike​

The modern solution to these challenges is to just take a car or walk on a paved road. In fantasy campaigns, there are rarely equivalents, but magic provides some solutions.

Find the path eliminates a lot of the guesswork of trying to find the easiest route through rough terrain (a bit like spotting trail markers even when there are none). And freedom of movement is like walking on a flat road. But the most magically economical solution is probably the fly spell. Flying over a forest is a significant advantage, and species with natural flight can get places much faster than their grounded companions.

Your Turn: How has your real life hiking experience influenced traveled in your games?

 

[Thomas Shey]

The DM just needs to set the scene, and make sure that in doing so, the objective of being a fun game is still maintained.

That's the trick, of course. Some people just consider the cross-country part a barrier to getting to the interesting parts of the game (whether that's puzzle solving, combat or interacting with NPCs) and its going to be hard to do anything that changes that view.

 

[Dioltach]

I don't think every step of the journey needs to played out, that wouldn't be fun for anyone. But you can start the journey with a steep climb and a nest of vipers on the slope, then later gorge that needs to be crossed (while avoiding the ogre that lives there), and end the first day with a sudden rainstorm. Then you can extrapolate from there, and say, "With further encounters like this along the way, it's taking you almost twice as long as you'd thought to get to your destination - and remember that time is running out!"

Then you throw a few more encounters at them, stressing the need for speed. Add some rolls to determine fatigue after yet another day's forced march, and the whole thing becomes a challenge. The players will get a sense of satisfaction as their PCs arrive at their destination

 

[Laurefindel]

I don't think every step of the journey needs to played out, that wouldn't be fun for anyone. But you can start the journey with a steep climb and a nest of vipers on the slope, then later gorge that needs to be crossed (while avoiding the ogre that lives there), and end the first day with a sudden rainstorm. Then you can extrapolate from there, and say, "With further encounters like this along the way, it's taking you almost twice as long as you'd thought to get to your destination - and remember that time is running out!"

Then you throw a few more encounters at them, stressing the need for speed. Add some rolls to determine fatigue after yet another day's forced march, and the whole thing becomes a challenge. The players will get a sense of satisfaction as their PCs arrive at their destination

Adventure in Middle Earth, which seems to be the basis for the new Uncharted Journeys, as well as EN World’s level up are using that kind of approach, which basically consist of how well you start, what crap happens on the way, and in what conditions you are on arrival. Level up has a neat concept of « supplies » that scratche the itch for tracking stuff without going into the minutiae of travel gear. It’s a good compromise between handwave and a board-game level of logistics, with enough moving parts to give bonuses and penalties without going overboard.

 

[MGibster]

Back in 2010, a flash flood swept through a popular campground killing 18 people. I went to that campground in 2020, and I was flabbergasted to see where the state put a highwater mark on the trees as it was something like 15-20 feet off the ground.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Back in 2010, a flash flood swept through a popular campground killing 18 people. I went to that campground in 2020, and I was flabbergasted to see where the state put a highwater mark on the trees as it was something like 15-20 feet off the ground.

That's similar to the situation I mentioned in Arizona where people drown every year camping in dry stream beds because they're natural wind cuts. Except there are times of the year where flash flooding in those is almost a given.

 

[Demetrios1453]

That's similar to the situation I mentioned in Arizona where people drown every year camping in dry stream beds because they're natural wind cuts. Except there are times of the year where flash flooding in those is almost a given.

From late June to basically right about now. You never know when a storm will pop up during monsoon season. And, what's worse, the storm might not even be near you, but the flash flood will move miles downstream.

 

[Thomas Shey]

From late June to basically right about now. You never know when a storm will pop up during monsoon season. And, what's worse, the storm might not even be near you, but the flash flood will move miles downstream.

Yup. We were camping a half mile from the stream bed (on a hill to make doubly sure) once when we heard the thing go roaring through. I'm not sure we'd even have had enough time to wake up if we'd been in it, let alone get out of it, especially if we reflexively tried to save any of our stuff.

 

[MGibster]

That's similar to the situation I mentioned in Arizona where people drown every year camping in dry stream beds because they're natural wind cuts. Except there are times of the year where flash flooding in those is almost a given.

Yeah, I don't sleep in dry river beds because the water is going to come back at some point. Even if it doesn't rain where I am, it might rain a few miles upstream. The incident in Arkansas took place on a camping site. Torrential rain poured down and flooded people while they were in their tents.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Woods are filled with dead branches and fallen trees that will have to be circumnavigated. The aforementioned leaves make everything slippery and conceal holes that can trip you up.

I don't think players realise that, essentially, non-tracked forest is all difficult terrain.

I have conversations every few weeks from players who walk 20+miles a day when hiking (on formed, benched trails) who think their characters can do the same in untracked wilderness. I get it that adventurers are probably fitter than us modern folks, but modern tracks make an immense difference

There are also the "a move of 30 means I can go 32 miles in 8 hours" conversations.

Yes, you could go 32 miles in 8 hours, on a featureless plain. Once you factor hills and creeks and rivers and insects and navigation, as well as bio breaks, you are making 12 miles in 8 hours and you'll be thankful for that. Where I grew up, there were places so covered with leatherwood scrub that 1 mile in a day was not unheard of.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't think players realise that, essentially, non-tracked forest is all difficult terrain.

These are people who've never had to walk through even deep leaf pile, let along the self-mulching forest floor.

Yes, you could go 32 miles in 8 hours, on a featureless plain. Once you factor hills and creeks and rivers and insects and navigation, as well as bio breaks, you are making 12 miles in 8 hours and you'll be thankful for that. Where I grew up, there were places so covered with leatherwood scrub that 1 mile in a day was not unheard of.

Honestly, the places you could maintain those speeds at full that aren't roads are probably (no pun intended) thin on the ground.