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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7384052" data-attributes="member: 29398">My point is that the bits I bolded contradict each other.  "Sometimes dangerous" automatically means "interesting" because as soon as there's danger then either combat mechanics (for combat) or some other sort of hazard-resolution mechanics (for other hazards e.g. landslide or getting lost) come into play; with all the attendant risks of bad dice luck leading to someone dying or losing a pile of gear or whatever.And, even though there might not in the end have been any risk to the PCs at all you and they can't know this until the trip is over; and assuming your game world has weather patterns similar to ours the odds are very good that at least one or two significant weather hazards would arise during a trip that long.  Never mind monsters or hostile inhabitants of an area.In a futuristic game I can sort of see wealth being handled differently - part of the whole 'futuristic' thing - but in a typical coin-based medieval-fantasy setting I can't imagine not tracking wealth.Besides, if people don't have wealth what are the thieves supposed to steal? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I've no clue on any of that - it was your example to start with. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The relation to player agenda/stakes etc. is that they want to get to Tokyo and this is what's involved in getting there.In a setting where a journey from Washington to Tokyo is potentially dangerous and certainly time-consuming, when the players state they want their PCs to make this journey, a DM who says in response words to the effect of "OK, you're in Tokyo" is being far too easy on his PCs via bypassing all the risk and danger of the trip. (though he's also denying them some possible xp they might have accrued in dealing with said risks...)Just because the players say they want to go to Tokyo doesn't mean the PCs have to get there right now, or even this session.Your point about presenting the PCs' experience without appreciable gaps is also valid...I hate it when something (e.g. research or item-crafting or whatever) becomes relevant later and players want to retcon into gaps and say "Oh, I could have done it during those four months of travel it took us to get here".  I reply with something like "You can't have done it then because you didn't think of it then", and boom: instant argument.  Bleah.I've learned that the way to prevent this is to a) not leave big gaps behind whenever possible, and b) get players to tell you clearly what their PCs are doing during downtime, at least in general terms.Lanefan</blockquote>

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