D&D General Setting a campaign on a river

[Undrave]

There's be no way to really track the distance covered over any number of days, and with a winding river it would be really hard to even tell the general direction you're going. Especially through a dense forest.

That's what using the stars and the sun as reference points is all about.

Though, it doesn't actually matter that much, if you're following the river, what direction you're going in. what's important are recognizable landmarks.

Heck, the public map might just be a series of straight line of varying size (or color coded for depth?) that branch off the central main river with series of points on the side that act as landmark. A bit like a subway map while on the train. It might make note of tricky curves and rapids, giant rock formation, man made landmarks, etc, and you only need more precise map if you're going to be walking off the river. If there's a section where you have to go through the woods to get passed a waterfall, maybe the public map has an asterisk that say "See local map 25" or something for that specific area and that map is the one that had more effort put in it.

 

[Yora]

I thought it would be interesting if players try to take overland shortcuts between two arms and up in a completely different place than they thought because the map was wrong. Maybe there's ways to have characters make a navigation check to get to places if there are no reliable markers left behind by other explorers.
"Take the west arm where we tied a blue cloth to a tree branch hanging over the water." is easy. "Take the fifth of the major branches on the north bank after having passed the dead tree." might be too vague to be reliable.

I did some work trying to find out the cargo capacities of various river sailing ships. I got one very detailed fact sheet for a huge modern dhow, but I think the numbers would not have been that different for older dhows, and I think the capacities are probably similar to a junk of comparable size. Assuming ship weight and cargo capacity for these ships scales proportionally as you make them smaller or bigger, I got these numbers:

40 meter deck length: 480,000 pounds
30 meter deck length: 200,000 pounds
20 meter deck length: 60,000 pounds
15 meter deck length: 25,000 pounds
10 meter deck length: 7,500 pounds
5 meter deck length: 940 pounds

That last number happens to be the number you get for a typical 15 foot canoe, so that seems to hold up.

 

[Undrave]

That last number happens to be the number you get for a typical 15 foot canoe, so that seems to hold up.

Speaking of canoe, I found this page while looking up something: Glossary of Canoe Terminology

And speaking of 15 foot canoe, let me introduce to the 30 feet rabaska: Rabaska - Wikipedia

This is probably the best bet for a D&D party, unless you're going into really shallow streams.

 

[Yora]

I like small dhows as the next largest boat size.
Those things are fast and make good distance with little effort. If the river is deep enough and you get some wind.

 

[Eltab]

I really like the idea of having a West Marches style public map that shows the known surroundings, to which players can add their own discoveries to share it with other parties. I could simply make a complete hidden map and just uncover all the rivers that a party has explored.
Having players attempt to draw their own maps as they go and the public maps accumulating errors over time sounds really fun to me, but without advanced surveying equipment, what would the characters even be able to scribble down? There's be no way to really track the distance covered over any number of days, and with a winding river it would be really hard to even tell the general direction you're going. Especially through a dense forest.

Any ideas how expanding the existing maps could be made into an activity for players?

One possibility would be to have players who want to map their progress make a navigation check, to determine how accurate their notes of their progress are. WWN makes skill checks with 2d6. You could have the player roll one die and the GM roll the other one, so the player can have an indication of how confident the character is in the accuracy of the notes is.
Then you also could have different maps made by different characters for the same areas, and players might have more trust in the maps of a character known to have a very high Navigation skill level.

Tomb of Annihilation has some "getting lost in the wilderness" rules for D& D 5e. They are not detailed, because per the plot you are supposed to hire a guide not wander the jungles on your own.

 

[Yora]

I keep getting greatly inspired by Kenshi, and a big part of that game struggling to find food since it's set in a desert.

Does the issue of food and water become trivial when traveling along a river? There certainly could be smaller side rivers with toxic water or very few fish, but generally speaking, are food and water always in unlimited supplies when you're with a small group in a natural river environment?

 

[Staffan]

I keep getting greatly inspired by Kenshi, and a big part of that game struggling to find food since it's set in a desert.

Does the issue of food and water become trivial when traveling along a river? There certainly could be smaller side rivers with toxic water or very few fish, but generally speaking, are food and water always in unlimited supplies when you're with a small group in a natural river environment?

The DMG has some very basic rules on foraging (if traveling at a normal or slow pace, you can forage which means you get to roll Wisdom (Survival) vs a DC of 10 to 20 depending on conditions, in order to find d6+Wis modifier pounds of food and d6+Wis modifier gallons of water). If on a river and there are no conditions saying otherwise, I'd certainly put the DC in the lower range – there are few environments that are as hospitable as a river.

 

[Yora]

What I am wondering if this would be so easy that players should automatically succeed with no meaningful chance of failure at the first attempt.

 

[slobster]

What I am wondering if this would be so easy that players should automatically succeed with no meaningful chance of failure at the first attempt.

I think that's possibly a good idea, though you might be able to introduce some "succeed but" or "succeed and" consequences if you want to have them roll but spice things up. For example, if they fail DC 10 they still get food, but you roll a random encounter. If they exceed 15/20, they get food but they also get valuable pelts/herbs/poison frog venom they can sell downriver.

Or you can just have them succeed without rolling, but mention each time how the PC with survival proficiency is getting then all food, saving them from eating poison, etc. That way at least they get to feel smug about it!

 

[aco175]

You can add some things about the government having patrols in the regions they are exploring. They would have interest in securing wealth and knowledge from the past kingdoms. It could be some wild west Calvary and/or Roman legion. In some areas there may be a heavy hand and justice while in others they may be there to aid you. Some depends on how far you are from civilization.