Overcome Boring D&D with Points of Interest 

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If my players purposefully ignore a juicy POI, I sometimes bring up another adventuring band in the next tavern, flaunting all of the easy loot they got there. 😅

I roll for an event every morning and night for each day of travel. One time they met a friendly storm giant on a dragon hunt, they need red wyrm blood to ferment their dire bee honey mead, and he carried the party so a 3 day trip turned to 1 day and they befriended the son of the storm giant king in my world. It's a hit or miss hut usually hit system. I've got a d10 list of events/encounters for every situation

i literrally asked chatgpt: Certainly, here are a variety of points of interest (POI) players might discover while traveling from one town to another: Abandoned Campsite: An old, apparently abandoned campsite. It may still have supplies, remnants of an old fire, or potentially even clues as to who might have been there and where they went. Haunted Ruin: A crumbling old castle or fortress rumored to be haunted. Players could explore for treasure, or perhaps seek to lift the curse. Mystic Spring: A hidden glade with a spring said to have magical properties, like healing or granting minor blessings. Bandit Hideout: The hidden lair of a band of highwaymen, filled with stolen goods and a gang of tough enemies. Hermit's Hut: The dwelling of a wise old hermit who may provide guidance, healing, or even teach a new skill. Wild Beast's Den: The nest of a dangerous beast that's been troubling local farmers or townsfolk. Players could be rewarded for dealing with the problem. Sacred Grove: A place revered by local druids, this peaceful grove could provide a safe rest place or a source of herbal components for spells or potions. Merchant Caravan: A group of traveling merchants that may have exotic wares not available in the local towns. Ancient Monolith: A large, weathered stone engraved with ancient runes. It could be a puzzle, a map, a monument, or a key to some ancient mystery. Wayside Inn: A friendly (or not so friendly) stopover for travelers on the road. Players can rest, gather rumors, or find side quests here. Cave Entrance: A dark opening in the side of a hill. Could it be a monster's lair, a bandit hideout, a natural cavern, or an entrance to a subterranean dungeon? Strange Phenomenon: This could be a magical anomaly, an unusual creature, a celestial event, or a temporal distortion. These can be used to introduce new quests, create interesting effects, or just add some mystery and wonder. Farmstead: A simple farmer's house, barn, and fields. They might need help with pests or bandits, have produce for sale, or just offer some hospitality. Wrecked Carriage: The wreckage of a carriage or cart by the side of the road, potentially with valuable goods scattered around, or signs of a kidnapped passenger. Remember, POIs are not only sources of loot or combat encounters but also an excellent way to add depth to the world's lore, providing players with new narrative threads to follow or adding complexity to current ones.

I think this crosses over with how I like to handle "random encounters". Basically, I think it's better when you actually flesh out an encounter as though it were a planned encounter, but leave it random as to when and where it can be encountered. Also, having some portion of them relate to adventures in the area. For example, if you are going to a village because you've heard that they are being raided by goblins, random encounters could be: different goblin parties (scouting party, raiding party, hunting party), but it could also included a raided caravan or homestead or survivors, maybe others hunting the goblins, or a goblin campsite. But it could also be something unrelated ... a child looking for a lost pet, clerics on a pilgrimage, merchants on the road, villager hunting party, etc.

For more mission based games instead of hexcrawls, I subscribe to the Dora the Explorer method. Before they head out, they know of 3-5 distinct locations they will cross and get some minor details on them, and then they must guess what could happen at each location and prepare accordingly. Makes for far more memorable travel encounters and gives a sense progression leading.

Level Up A5e have a fantastic journey system that include all three pillars with methods and tables to create cool regions to explore . Also perfect to run Westmarch game style campaign .

I really like the tables of Xanathars Guide, granted they are all monsters, but if I roll giants I can then just use it for "You see signs of giants" "Encounter a dead giant" (if I want to foreshadow a dragon etc) rather than just have combats each time. Will use the point of interest system on top of that now ^^

I do both. I'll have points of interest that populate my overall world map, almost like mental doodles of stuff that could be cool or interesting. If you go to that section you're almost guaranteed to run into it. If they never go, then it stays there. And then I also do the ones where I really want to show them something or really want it to exist in the world. Those are the ones that I put wherever they happen to be and then they get locked down into those places after the party's interaction solidifies their reality.

Another reason for throwing encounters at the party during travel is to drain resources. An adventuring day should have multiple encounters of probably differing danger levels. If you don’t take advantage of them during travel, it’s hard to fit as many plausibly into the narrative.

Potentially my favorite example of my players missing Points of Interests and side quests involved them learning of an Isle in rough seas that could only be seen at midnight on a full moon that supposedly contained the burial place if a World Important Great Wyrm and their Legendary Artifact Weapon... Well they didn't wanna wait for a full moon on the ship so they passed that location saying they will go back another time. Ok fair enough. Then maybe a session or two later, they find out that the evil Mercenary Guild and the Captain that killed one of their companions was actually in the Port across from where they were, only 3 hours travel... Well, they didn't go confront him because they wanted to continue on with the quest. Ok, fair enough. So I thought, "Ok, this Mercenary Caption isn't an idiot, there's rumors of this legendary artifact weapon around out there in the world." So, he ended up securing the weapon himself on his travel back to the main continent. With his new power of the weapon, has made even more havock on the Continent that he would have been able to, and actually managed to kill an NPC the players knew and trusted. The players learned of this maybe 4 sessions later, and a big "uh oh" moment befell them as they realized that not only has this nemesis mercenary captain killed yet another ally of theirs, but has grown even stronger now that he has acquired this artifact. Reoccurring villains are just amazing. This guy started out as a Level 6 Paladin, and is now at least a CR15 creature from all the preparation and levelling up he has been doing himself.

I'm having fun running a couple of different games in the same area of my world for different people. My first group stopped at the place of interest and absolutely refused to spend the night there cuz they thought it was creepy, and ended up having a random encounter with a yeti trying to camp in the high mountain pass. Second group decided to spend the night there and just check out the creepy basement before bedding down for the night, fought a bunch of shadows and got the loot hidden under the basement stairs. That was a static place of interest."Trapper Dan's cabin". Anytime someone crosses those mountains, it is an optional stop. And now it's a safe one but with an investigation check you might find signs of other people's activity, animal encounters, or items, trinkets, or gear stored by previous parties. Or an albareness because the last people left the door open.

I have a system using 2d4 and 1d6 that I have the players roll if I don't have that section of the world fleshed out. It really helps me generate fresh ideas. This is how I use the rolls. 1d4- person, place, thing, event 1d6- very good, good, neutral, bad, very bad, DM choice 1d4- new quest, side quest info, main quest relevant, DM choice.

The Journey system from Adventures in Middle Earth is pretty good.

I never use random encounters with one caveat: I have a short list of encounters specific to the story but not tied to a place or time that I can pepper in whenever it makes sense. Mostly, my players love maps. So I put a bunch of POIs on maps they come across. That way, when they look at where they’re traveling, they can identify whether they want to check out the old ruins or whatever along the way. Until I think there’s a chance they’ll be close to a certain POI, it’s just a blurb; an idea of what’s there for me to flesh out if they look like they’re going that way.

This was such a problem with my games, if I ever get another group this is on my list of videos to watch

I read the title and thought "that's brilliant" and immediately had a dozen ideas! I like yours too. You can even see it in fiction, like Tolkien. You don't just relate to what happens, but where. Sometimes the locations and events are crucial to the main quest, and sometimes they're just POI's the characters choose to visit or get drawn into. And sometimes what's there directly ties in, and sometimes it doesn't. But it makes their journeys memorable, because it links events to their locations, which themselves are memorable.

I had my party go through the desert and find an oasis where a tribe of Grung lived. Previous Grung generations had been befriended by Dwarves, so the Grung were friendly to the one Dwarf in the party. The first night, they all gathered in a basin alight with torches, and Grung performed a three part play for the party. The party was able to make perception checks to interpret what what being performed since they didn't speak the language, and were therefore able to acquire lore and background they needed for the next part of the adventure. The party needed to know the right route to go, so the Grung agreed to tell them- provided they kill the local Froghemouth that occasionally attacked the village. It turned into a great moment in the party's travels. 🙂

I mix the static and dynamic methods. Some POIs are totally static and clearly marked on the map, like the tower of the oracle or that really big active volcano. Others are quasi-static, like The Valley that gets flooded with mists (and millions of giant centipedes) every day. It can go wherever I want…. As long as it is at the edge of some mountains. A few are totally dynamic, just drag and drop wherever I want. Those usually have little to nothing to do with the climate, biome, environment, etc. Like finding an old merchant with a broken down wagon or encountering a recurring minor villain.

I had a DM with great travel (not even anything special, just some other travelers or plants/animals or a small temple and stuff. Inconsequential but providing cues for roleplaying. And we played. It made travel great. Last GM was horrible in many ways, travel was nonexistend, something I guess she took from our current GM. He tends to skip much travel cause he says he feels it will be boring for us and he doesn't have that many encounters planned. I, with some friends in one of two groups, try to slowly coax him into allowing more travel without fighting encounters at every second corner. I personally like acting out setting up camp, taking care of food and stuff and talking among the characters, socializing in time is Important too.

Y'know, I've watched a fairly good amount of your videos and had never noticed, but your background is a Green screen! 😅 It's a Still image, and it's a shock because I was convinced you were always using the same background. But I was so wrong 😂 It's a still image. Hahahaha. Anywho! Thank you for sharing these tips and tricks!! 😁

Used to have a GM who called random encounters "Wandering Damage"

In my current game I’m using poi’s However due to the nature of the game generally being set in one city I’m not able to use it often but in theory the party will be heading out of the city soon

Reaction Rolls and Encounter Distance completely changed our approach and attitude to travel and random encounters.

I want to put useful or interesting things in my travel phases. Might be a wandering merchant which has magic items in their shop. Or super cool locations which offers a little oneshot-sidequest, maybe unexpected, funny combats with beasts. Or offering social interactions, which, weirdly enough, might repeat in strange coincidence to their main adventure and end up in a nasty villain, or cool friend following them!

Funnily enough I had the opposite problem with one of my players, he felt that we just teleported from one location to another. Granted, I was a new DM and didn't think about happenings on the road besides what players wanted to find via rolls. Like some asked if they could hunt animals.

I do something very similar but I put all my ideas into a list and roll for what my players encounter.

Also is this sort of stuff going to be in the Kickstarter Secret Art of Gamemastery?

I had one where the party found a Naga, and it told them that a nearby town was being attacked by a stone monster. That monster ended up being basically a giant turtle with a farm on it, and the party found out later that it was a farmland turned into a god by the Kuo-Toa, and the people in the city it originated were starving cause of it

You could also use MCDM Matt’s quest system idea to get them in POIs

5:43 The Background is making me increasingly anxious.

My world has 30 hours so during days of travel I have a leader roll a d10 with pro if they have survival & that's how long it is until they have an encounter, dangerous areas have a negative modifier and all that butt yea

For overland random encounters, I personally favor making the encounters predominantly *random*, not necessarily *hostile*. Traveling merchants, farmers taking their crop to the city, a half-naked bard escaping paternal justice, a harmless ghost haunting an old, abandoned farmhouse, that sort of thing... Random encounters don't *need* to be violent, or even suggest violence as an option.

If I buy the $15 patreon do I get the back log of Lair magazine?

I do a lot of different things. It would practically be a long video or a book to explain all the things i do.

You know what the difference is between travel encounters and a dungeon is? Nothing. Except the way you think about them. For me as a DM travel was always a highlight. Would you run a dungeon full of meaningless random encounters? I wouldn't, so I didn't run travel that way. I'd have my players plot out their route on the map, then calculate how long this trip will take. Then I'd flesh out what's on this route by thinking of each half day (or day or every other day or whatever is appropriate to divide up travel time) as being one room or one section of a dungeon. What's there? What do they see? Is this the day/room full of goblins or hill giants? The day/room with a rickety bridge over a swift running river that looks suspiciously like a perfect ambush spot? Will the player cross the bridge head on or think of some other way across (and I'd quickly flesh out are there fords or a ferry nearby or not etc) or maybe they make a raft or use magic etc. On days where nothing happens throw in flavor, a landmark, a hastily abandoned camp site etc. Or build up to an encounter, a group of dead bodies two days old, the next day a burned out farmstead that's one day old (the players now knowing they're going to catch up to whatever's been on this rampage the next day).

Oh so you're a POI Boi. Got it. 😂

Bacon

Upside of dynamic placement: the players will find interesting stuff Downside of static placement: it's more realistic, so realistic that if they go off the parts of the map you have filled, you have to start explaining to your players why they are walking across miles and miles of giant blank grid paper.

Editing and production of this video is excellent. If you were up for it, doing an entire video of sample-thumbnails beyond your lizardfolk-Greatwyrm example. I get that these videos are a lot of work. You could have ten sample-mini-POI-adventures ('plug & play') with three KenBurns image-clips each and, boom, you are done. Kill the sound-track, it isn't contributing (or add it sporadically to add interest). why don't you call the use of POI-hooks to incentivize the POIs then... why not call them 'hooks'? Thanks, amazing video. Get back to me if you like this idea (ha! i place bets that your fan base is so large that you can't even find time to read this, let alone connect with your target audience anymore).

This is great content like you did when you just break into the market. really helpful and precise without shows, ty for this, it was insightful and easy to understand and implement :).

13:04 Ok... But if you give everyone the same formula, don't you run the risk of becoming the next "Matt Mercer Effect"? Creativity shouldn't be manufactured, it should be individually encouraged; I like that these video's might give people alternate ideas on approaching things they've maybe not done great, but I worry that the "new crowd" might miss the point that these are suggestions and ideas to encourage their own creativity, and take these as Dogma and just "repeat, repeat, repeat". I know, I know, "If you have so many thoughts and Ideas, where's your RU-vid channel?" ...I dont have one, because I wouldn't know how to ensure that Advice to the new crowd wouldn't be taken as dogma, and conversations with the old crowd wouldn't be taken as eye-rolling same-old advice...like, "no shite, dude, make Points of Interest 'dynamic' in the world, so you can fill out the world you created by the players exploration".

I dunno why people have trouble making travel interesting. The whole LotR is a movie trilogy about adventurers travelling. The whole movie is nothing but travel. In the books here's a few more things but it's still mostly travel. Just have the players run into expected places where they will have to deal with stuff to continue. Roads aren't featureless.

The problem with doing the "quantum ogre" with your Point-Of-Interest, moving it in front of the party no matter what they do, is that the very moment any of your players with a brain has figured out that you have EVER EVEN ONCE railroaded them into an unavoidable encounter, they'll know NO CHOICE they make about ANYTHING in your ENTIRE game world or campaign actually matters at all, because you failed to fix the reality and consequences PERMANENTLY in advance. It is an unforgivable sin. Their game time with you was wasted; they would have been better off playing a rogue-like game at home, alone, on the computer. You were running a dishonest shell game, and so NONE of the gameplay they ever did at your table ever mattered. I would leave your game forever and advise everyone to do the same, for life.

Fix this, fix that.. Let us all just accept the fact that the game is terrible and move on to better things. "Rolemaster Unified", for example.

Skyrim fast travel system is terrible and hurt the game so much.