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West Marches: Handling Return to Town
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7219785" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>I've always run travelling through the wilderness just like any other scenario - it's just a big wide open dungeon. Frequently with mini-dungeons. If I can come up with interesting, logical encounters I do so, if I can't I gloss over it.</p><p></p><p>But there's no reason you can't add to the story during a wilderness encounter. Who or what lives in the forest? Why is it so scary? Let's say you've decided that there are goblins in the forest that use giant spiders as mounts. There are any number of possibilities there from "the PCs are the hunted" to "rescue the princess".</p><p></p><p>Let's say the group hears screams for help and discover a nymph being dragged away by our goblins of the eight legs. Do they rush to her rescue? Go after her sister that was taken moments before the group arrive? If they don't rescue the nymph does she come back as some kind of aberrant drider seeking vengeance on those that could have saved her? If they save her she gives them some type of reward, which could be a trinket or a promise of aid in the future.</p><p></p><p>Then there's pacing. Personally I use the alternate rules where a short rest is overnight while a long rest is several days to a week in a relatively safe location, so I can just string together some "signature" events and be done. If you don't want to do that you can have a couple of encounters and then say something along the lines of "you haven't had a long rest because of the constant misery and rain, not to mention the nightly raids".</p><p></p><p>That last part is something I also want to address. You don't have to detail out every encounter. Sometimes you just say "you had a few minor skirmishes, but no significant resources were used". So you can have some intro encounters to various regions. One area is dominated by the goblins of the eight legs, but they don't dare cross over to the dead lands where zombies walk the earth.</p><p></p><p>You can use a lot of this to hint at future enemies and locations. Strange statues of hideous beasts in the forest? Maybe it's really a medusa they'll have to fight later. Giant sized footprints that are days old? Someone else to encounter someday. Throw in a bunch of little mysteries and pay attention to what captures their attention and build on it later.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, those are some of my thoughts. Don't get caught up in a slog-fest, only play out significant (or initial) encounters, feel free to throw in exploration and interaction encounters.</p><p></p><p>Good luck!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 7219785, member: 6801845"] I've always run travelling through the wilderness just like any other scenario - it's just a big wide open dungeon. Frequently with mini-dungeons. If I can come up with interesting, logical encounters I do so, if I can't I gloss over it. But there's no reason you can't add to the story during a wilderness encounter. Who or what lives in the forest? Why is it so scary? Let's say you've decided that there are goblins in the forest that use giant spiders as mounts. There are any number of possibilities there from "the PCs are the hunted" to "rescue the princess". Let's say the group hears screams for help and discover a nymph being dragged away by our goblins of the eight legs. Do they rush to her rescue? Go after her sister that was taken moments before the group arrive? If they don't rescue the nymph does she come back as some kind of aberrant drider seeking vengeance on those that could have saved her? If they save her she gives them some type of reward, which could be a trinket or a promise of aid in the future. Then there's pacing. Personally I use the alternate rules where a short rest is overnight while a long rest is several days to a week in a relatively safe location, so I can just string together some "signature" events and be done. If you don't want to do that you can have a couple of encounters and then say something along the lines of "you haven't had a long rest because of the constant misery and rain, not to mention the nightly raids". That last part is something I also want to address. You don't have to detail out every encounter. Sometimes you just say "you had a few minor skirmishes, but no significant resources were used". So you can have some intro encounters to various regions. One area is dominated by the goblins of the eight legs, but they don't dare cross over to the dead lands where zombies walk the earth. You can use a lot of this to hint at future enemies and locations. Strange statues of hideous beasts in the forest? Maybe it's really a medusa they'll have to fight later. Giant sized footprints that are days old? Someone else to encounter someday. Throw in a bunch of little mysteries and pay attention to what captures their attention and build on it later. Anyway, those are some of my thoughts. Don't get caught up in a slog-fest, only play out significant (or initial) encounters, feel free to throw in exploration and interaction encounters. Good luck! [/QUOTE]
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