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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 8046796" data-attributes="member: 1125">One of the best games I played and a defining moment for Orbril theGnome was a series of ‘encounters’ on the way to the planned adventure.The adventure officially was a hunt for a griffon who had been terrorising travellers on the north road, but we never actually go to the griffon (so technically failed, though I suspect it may have been pretence).However on the first night of the trek our camp was targetted by a herd of carnivorous  hamsters searching for a meal. We had to get rid of them and Orbril decided he wanted to capture and tame a couple of them - after getting nets and sleeping gas (Orbrils an alchemist) we succeeded in that and Orbril eventuallyused the hamsters to create his Travelling Circus.A couple of days afterwards, on that same adventure (with the Hamsters tied to wagon) we got lost and heard cries for help. That lead to another adventure where we went into a lost crypt and were chased by serpent headed mummies. We susrvived and headed back to the town to report that to the authorities.Anyway my advice is to treat the Wilderness as a Dungeon made up of open spaces and linking paths AND make the exploration part of the Adventures. 1 You should be able to use the approach to the crypt/caves/castle as an interesting part of the story where you can find information about your goal, find useful resources/tools and explore options.2 Describe the big landmarks (Mountains, River, Town) to give the Players map references, but  3  PC should be using navigation and survival skills and the Players should draw their own map (keep the players active so they’re not just responding to the4 DM)4 Have a safe path and an open sandbox created entirely by a List- if the PCs use the safe path they get to the encounter quickly, if they go off path they might get lost5 Get lost = Have an Encounter but Don’t use Random Encounters - encounters should be flexible and varied but they should offer the PCs something more than just gold and XP farming. 6 Remember that Random encounters dont have to be monsters - seeing smoke in the distance, or cut marks on a tree trunk are encounters too. (Remember to explore in 3 dimensions and if your in the right place spot things in the distance (smoke, circling vultures), weird noises)7 encounters with useful resources, unusual flora and sites of interest are good especially if those resources can be used in later encounters.8 Make PCs keep track of supplies and encumbrance (as this also keeps PC active). They may have to gather food, water and other supplies as part of their exploration now</blockquote>

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