Quick Tips to make TRAVEL in a RPG Interesting 

D&D! Where a 3 day journey takes 10 minutes and a 3 minute fight takes 3 hours!

If a bard is in your party and he does not sing 500 miles they have failed as a bard

Had a game where goblins infested a forest that the PC's had to cross several times. Every time they did the goblins would jump them, steal from them, and chase them. At low levels the forest was very dangerous, goblins like traps. As they leveled up the goblins became more of a nuisance, but still too dangerous to chase into the forest as traps will kill you quick. Around lv 5-6 the players got so mad at the goblins that they hunted them (without compensation) killing every goblin in and around the forest. Killed over 200 of them over the next 2 games. The local traders were so happy with this event that they built a magnificent marble statue to the Goblin Slayers! Placed at the entrance to the forest near the Kingdom border. Then the Goblin Master knew who he needed to kill. ;-)

I am always surprised, when people make these, "how to make travel interesting" videos, nobody ever suggests, "player interaction." It does not have to be an "every day" kind of thing, but as the GM, just let the Players know, that just like sitting around the Tavern, the Players can use this opportunity to converse with their fellow Adventurers. So, if a couple of Players want to take advantage of that, for some light role playing, you can quickly set it up as, "night has fallen, you are sitting around the campfire, who is doing what", or, "you are setting up Camp, who is doing what?" It is simple, organic, and it gives the Players an opportunity to form bonds with each other. It adds a little extra bit of depth, so that these numbers, on a piece of paper, seem more real, and fleshed out. And again, it gives those who are not to keen on the combat aspect of the Game, an avenue in which they feel they have done something meaningful, and enjoyable.

Bad idea that obelisk. Ask Ben from Puffin Forest.

Remember; QUEST: Trip to accomplish a task. ADVENTURE: Trip without a destination. JOURNEY: When the trip Is more important than the task. If your characters are on a journey, the meat and potatoes of the campaign Is the actual *journey,* It's the way to get there, in which case yes, a majority of your campaign can easily take place, not at the Palace of Elashima where the Crown Prince Is about to be married off to an evil shapeshifter, but on the journey there, where you find out that there's an entire tribe of shapeshifters slowly inserting themselves into positions of power, or something else entirely! Edit: A good example of a Journey Is Lord of the Rings - Getting to Mount Doom and destroying the one ring was basically no time at all.

I just wanted to share a moment I created for my players in my current game. They were traveling by ship to an unexplored wild island (basically chult) and on the way a pod of whales breached the water and the players watched as they blew their breaths and jumped out of the water. Then what was thought to be an eagle in the sky quickly grew to the size of a dragon as a, Roc plunged its talons into the water and lifted a whale out like an eagle fishing salmon. The players realized that this island was way more wild than they could have imagined.

You can overdo it. One of my GMs has made a travel from one city to another take about 10 sittings.

I live in Iowa, we can't have IRL adventures. All land is owned. I've never seen a mountain or desert in my whole life. I've barely travelled, we can't afford it. But we play D&D for the raw sake of adventure. We tend to do what we never can.

Sometimes you can tie the end goal to the journey in interesting ways. My players were hunting a cannibal cult that set up shop in the jungle. They could have skipped straight to it but instead they spent time learning how these cultists had affected the lives of the indigenous peoples of the jungle. When they finally got to kill off the cultists it was personal to them rather than just a job.

Your mountain thunderstorm story reminded me of a similar experience climbing a mountain in Hawaii. My buddies forgot about me and I slipped and fell down the nearly vertical cliff. I thought I was going to be flung off into open space and die from the drop, but I landed on a root or something and stopped. I yelled out for help for what seemed like a while, but no one came to help. I pulled myself up the mountain by the thorny plants by the side of the path, until my hands were raw but didn't bleed much because the red mud caked into the wounds and stopped the bleeding. At long last I made it to the top, and everyone was like "I woz wundrin whur you went, hurr hurr". What made it worth it, though, was that we were so high up we camped in a cloud, an actual cloud, so thick that you can only see a foot in front of you and you could swish your arm around and it would be soaked. That, and the view going down again was stellar. I've had numerous near-death experiences, but given what came out of it I'd say this one was the closest thing I've ever come to actual adventuring.

On the "spiraling out of control": My first GMing experience was a few years back in a Superhero game (Hero system, if anyone cares). The previous session my party had absolutely slaughtered a villain I had hoped to be a recurring mid-level mastermind, so this session began with the players doing final safety wrap-ups at the high-end political party they had been body-guarding people at when the attack occurred. I had planned for a quick conclusion to that and had a few hooks in mind for their teams next moves. What I did not plan for was for 2/3rds of the table to begin channeling their inner Columbos, Fletchers, and Poirots digging into aspects of the baddy's attack I had never even considered. [Looking back on it, my spur-of-the-moment deus ex machina of "highjacked redundant safety systems" to ensure the villain's arrival/ introduction when a PC critted on the elevator he was riding _does_ suggest a more well thought out plan than I envisioned.] Being newer and understanding how much I dislike when my characters get railroaded, I avoided actually telling my players that I had nothing in this line prepared and absolutely no idea of how to improvise something in these lines. Instead, I kept dropping what I thought were obvious hints that this investigation was well in hand by NPCs with nothing better to do; but every one of my move-along,-nothing-to-see-here nudges were interpreted as yet one more clue that this relative nobody was the big clue to hunt down the till-now-only-mentioned Big Bad. We spent two hours IRL and three days in game of me describing dead-ends, them hearing my dead-ends as "The plot thickens; The path lies nearby", me describing the new dead end, repeat. Finally we ended up with a PC trying to pump information out of a heavily drunken former co-owner of a bought-out refrigeration company at his winter home in the Cayman Islands who was under the impression that they were offering to bankroll his lawsuit against his former partners. That glorious train-wreck is how my table coined the term "ending up in the Cayman Islands" as a description for a completely out of control non-storyline that people only enjoy in retrospect.

Once I planned basically an entire area around our sorcerer's backstory and they had to suddenly miss several sessions in a row just as we were going there, I wound up improvising several sessions of swamp shenanigans

Adventures in Middle Earth is by far the best travel system. Each character has a role in the journey, such as scout, hunter, and plotter. The characters each make a DC for their role based on the difficulty of the terrain they plotted. This gives the exhausted or well rested bonuses and determines random encounters. Ultimately at the end, their condition determines modifiers at their destination.

Some fantastic tips in here, I love the idea of pushing the story forward by showing that they can't further investigate the obelisk, or whatever it may be. And as an aside, though I'm sure you hear it a lot on here, your diction is absolutely marvelous!

I do travel as a hex crawl. I have a map out, depending on terrain and how you're going you go X many hexes in a day, and I either have something planned or make a few quick rolls on a chart. NOT a monster chart, though monsters are there. it's things like an interesting merchant with special loot, a tempest, the notice of an evil being, something from one of my collection of small adventures. For starters it makes this a living breathing world where things are dangerous and people don't travel much because monsters don't oblige by staying in thier designated areas. Player might just wander to see what they can find. because yeah it might be a mini-dungeon or army, but it might be a guy with a custom magic item to sell or an overturned cart some insanely buff goblins turned into a gym, challenging all who pass to a push-up contest. they plan ahead for the trail, or suddenly have to think on thier feet when they run out of stuff. one of my players' favorite stories is still when they ran out of food in the wastes. the party on edge, fighting each other and the land trying to find something. debating on whether to go cannibal on the next person they encountered, or just kill the mule and ditch the treasure to try to make it out. it pitted them against an enemy they couldn't just blast, their own body. Now of course if they took a safe road or just wanted to narrate this particular campaign, I'd oblige and just ask what they did on the road in that campaign. but generally I fine people enjoy travel if you make it a JOURNEY with things to engage in. I wholehearted disagree on doing just an encounter or two though. Either skip the journey entirely and warp them there in a narration, or make it an undertaking. between is a waste of time. everyone will start that encounter with everything in thier arsenal and know there won't be another that day, so basically any fight will be a wash. it's a worst of both worlds sort of compromise that leads to people feeling like the time was wasted. Both travel and skip can work, or maybe just make non-combats only, but commit to one.

What’s wrong with a road trip session? “Bogged down” means the players are directing the action, which is a good thing.

Is there a reason why do you neglect logistics? From my experience, there are players who don't like travel because it doesn't give them agency. You just move from point A to point B, there are no choices to make. Asking players for making ten dice rolls instead of one does not create agency. That's why you want logistics. Let's say four men travel for a week - they need to eat, sleep and drink. That requires preparation and careful resource management (that includes spell slots, yet I am aware there are "Goodberry" and "Create Food And Water" spells in D&D/PF). Travel itself turns into a mini-game (just ensure it stays "mini" and does not consume too much game time).

Good luck putting creatures in front of players, like "unicorn in a glade". Your PCs are going to try and either tame it as a mount, or kill it for the EXP and crafting resources. How many Wizards would want a Unicorn horn wand? How many Warrior-classes would want a Unicorn horn spear? P.S. Music at the end?

random encounter tables can be wierd, the first time I used one my players encountered a drunk hill giant, the encounter was supposed to be them talking to the giant, finding out he was missing his ring, and then find it for him. if they did he gave them some item or whatever. well, my players just attacked him at first sight, the giant being drunk and all basically couldn't resist any of the bard's "hideous laughter" spells and was slain in a very long laughing fit. my players were level 2 I think, the giant had a CR of 7. they just gained half a level from a random encounter. so yeah, the point is - know your players, if a random encounter is supposed to be played peacefully and your group is a bunch of murderhobos you might wanna consider not picking that one. or do, and perhaps you gain a fun little story (or a dead group that got smashed by an angry drunk giant).

With regards to the use of random encounter tables, a "middle-ground" method between using them and ignoring them that i have had good results with is to just skim over them and pick one to use as a sort of springboard for an encounter idea, taking the elements listed and modifying them and building a context around them until a more interesting, fleshed-out encounter is born from it. A recent example was during a game in which the party was travelling through a little stretch of unclaimed coastline, sandwiched between mountains and sea, that lay between two countries. Picking out a large group of bandits from a random encounter table, i re-contextualized them as a beached pirate crew that had run aground during a storm (the party had had to take shelter for the night the previous session due to this same storm). It was just something the players could have ignored, but as soon as they saw these guys scurrying around the beach from the road and figuring out they were pirates, they decided to pick a fight with them, and it turned into a damn good fight that actually saw them using good party tactics for the first time in the campaign so far.

The LOTR and The Hobbit "is just a lot of walking" argument is objectively false.

If they're hyped to do it, then do it. That's how I handle this. I don't view anything as being "bogged down" unless its clear that the people playing are not into what is happening. If they think there is something there, then there WILL be. That doesn't mean it will be positive, but something WILL be wherever they decide to scratch. If it derails everything, that's fine. If I describe say, a piece of art that they find that is *supposed* to just be a random treasure; and then they, for some reason, become interested in it and start asking questions, well then maybe it's actually a mimicy-thing, maybe it's actually a cleverly hidden dimension door that takes you into a pocket dimension vault for some mad wizard, maybe it's a scrying device for said mad wizard and that will be revealed later. I don't care if they don't "move forward". I will make that goal harder/darker/let the bad guy win and make everything worse, or even just forget about it and gloss over it entirely. All depends on how important I feel that detail is. That isn't to say that I don't have a master plot- but that plot is going to continue if the PCs care or not. They will see the results of their care... or their lack of it.

As a travel agent, I would say you could add in some beautiful scenery. Checks of potential bonuses to add. I play Pathfinder. I would say if there's any Shelyn or Desna worshippers in the party, they could feel the urge to draw scenery. Maybe grant them a bonus in the next town from an NPC who always wanted to stop an appreciate a sight at that time that they saw so often, but never drew or recorded themselves. Or maybe Shelyn or Desna is impressed with how good the art is, and they get a +1 sacred bonus on checks for the rest of that day? Or team bonding.

For Ian Fleming, part of the James Bond books was the travel. The books partially function as travelogues and that makes the reader feel like Bond travels to exotic and thrilling locations. And if you look at the locations, NPC's, and encounters they all advance the travelogue. That is, the encounters, NPC's, and locations either tell you something useful or interesting about the country you have come in, or they plant a Checkov's gun. So encounters and locations should tell the players about potential allies, obstacles, or how they do things in this part of the world that they will need to know.

I'm a simple preacher: I hear about the Monolith, I click like.

That's why TOR (The One Ring) is so interesting... journeys are part of the adventure.

you are such a good storyteller, each time you started talking about your own real life adventures i got sucked in to your view. i hope i can be half as good someday.

In upstate NY e used to have a ritual space as good hour hike from our parking spot. We'd backpack up with all our ritual needs as well as an entire picinic feast. The woods smelled rich with loam and as the chipmunks nattered at us from their perches on fallen birch logs it felt as though the entire forest was alive and intelligent. As if just beyond the rustle of leaves we could hear singing. Thanks for your gorgeous and evocative post, and for bringing that memory back. I'll definitely use it when next my party needs to cross a magic forest. Great video -- I especially appreciate the points on getting the party over a long journey while still making it feel like it happened.

Unbelievably useful, as so often with this channel. Just starting DMing with my 10 year olds in ESL class; not much you can do, but you can go on a trip to Shanghai and get your shoes wet in the mud when it rains and you are stuck in the People's park, hiding under a tree. Ok, at their level, that's about four or five simple sentences, but this is the general way to do it. Thankyou.

I remember studying Naturalism in literature during highschool. It's always great to describe nature, when it integrates them and the plot with a bigger more indiferent universe.

I don't know why, but when I clicked on the vid I was convinced it said "how to make TIME TRAVEL interesting". My disappointment is immeasurable. Good vid tho :)

This is your first video that I disagree with. Having emergent adventure opportunities delaying your main adventure is not a bad thing. It builds the flavor of your world and builds heavy immersion. Your players now know that they have options and that their decisions can drive the narrative. It also gives you more material to work with that your characters can embrace as their own choice. While it may delay your main adventure, that isn't a bad thing unless you make it a bad thing.

Those travel shots in LotR that you seem to hate are literally 'descriptions' for the audience.

Reminds me of one time my old GM had a campaign that was straight up JUST the journey, on which we ofc had quite a lot of obstacles and basically mini-adventures at every stop. We spent few sessions in an abandoned castle and met a necromancer, we we attacked by an evil fairy when we visited a city. I don't know if it's a good session model to go off of. Later on he came up with better structure, where journeys lasted quite a bit, but way back to our cult was nearly instant (skip or teleport). Don't worry though, he always made sure journeys were amazingly packed with action and side stories, to the point where the target was just like another thing to tackle.

Just found your channel. I'm DMing my first campaign and so far my players seem to be enjoying. These videos are helping a lot. Thank you!

Have your encounters along the way add intrigue to the destination. The bandit leader somehow has an amulet that looks like a carving from one of the books or pictures a character has seen. A troll has a piece of gem that only comes from the region they are headed towards. Etcetera.

I have an idea I found on the internet: A plague of Shadows A single Shadow can make a whole horde in mere hours, they fit through 1 inch holes, and are sneaky boys, worthy of divine intervention (or a random group of adventurers).

What a great video. for some reason this one helped the most with how i think about balancing descriptions, rolls, combat, and dialogue. i guess a good travel segment is possible to have all of those. very well done! Thanks for your work.

I know this is an older video, but I really appreciate your channel as a whole - specifically, this is great advice! I've struggled with travel in the past, swinging wildly between the grid by grid method (which is universally hated) or else skipping too much and going "eh yay you made it". And my players have DEFINITELY been distracted by random things they found on the side of the road that have derailed the whole thing, so finding that balance is so hard. Thanks again for the advice!

Always great to be reminded to be more descriptive of the different senses as the adventures move throughout the world. Thank for another inspiring video.

Great video my man! I'm about to di a big travel sequence for my group tomorrow and found this helpful. One thing I will say is that I feel sometimes the random encounters can be fun to use because they are a nice surprise for both the players AND the DM

I've been stuck with prepping for my players for my game on Saturday. I just feel like the adventure was missing something, most noticeably in travel. Then this video popped up on my channel. Thank you so much for the tips!! this will be so super helpful.

I think a good event to use is a simple mystery. I once had my players needing to go to one country to another by crossing a great sea. But when they were crossing a member of the ships crew walked in on NPC and saw something they shouldn't have. The witness was then killed. Now the players have a murder mystery on their hands.

Thank you so much for these videos! I’ve watched quite a few and they are always succinct and wonderfully useful.

Something I think goes overlooked is weather. Weather can effect how a party travels, what kind of encounters they can run into, and what their resource management can become by the time they reach their destination.

Great video! I have recently started running a campaign for my group of friends, first time doing any dnd at all. On our first session right at the beginning,, myplayers were in the town hall and they mayor was telling them about missing people. One of my players jokingly claims "Its werewolves Mr mayor.", to which I respond.."haha no no, there haven't been werewolves here for 30 years!". ... Whelp...for the next hour all 5 of them were walking around town, trying to find any information or clues on werewolves and why they were kidnapping people based on that one thing the mayor said. And every time they asked an NPC about werewolves I'd say the same thing...THERE ARE NO WEREWOLVES HERE. This just caused them to think the town was hiding something from them. We all had a good laugh after the session once they figured out the campaign had literally zero to do with werewolves.

I wanna add that I think the investigation frustration you described: "You try a, you check b, you look at c; you find nothing nothing nothing". Can be a very nice tool to throw off your players once in a while. I only use this very seldomly, but in those moments, with the players being at unease not knowing what to do, you really feel a tension growing in your group. This has created some very amazing moments in the campaign I DM, but it is very easy to overdo

That's brilliant! I haved some great advice to new dms, everything you do on game, npcs, encounters, gossips, fights, itens, quests, everything I do is focused on moving foward the story. For good or bad ways, just keep the story going and the game on. I always present a npc or item on the way, thinking "this is gonna make the game go foward or go back?" Every npc or location is a oportunity to discover a secret or something else about the quest, vilans, etc. 🖖 Guy been amazing as always!

I really liked hearing about your real life hiking experience. Your descriptions were excellent. You should share your experiences with us more!

Well put, and it was lovely to hear about your tent experience, and the thistles. One thing I plan to do for my campaign, where my players are about to cross a continent in 10 ingame days (about 2 weeks of Earth days), is give them the opportunity to tell stories with each other, with inspiration as a reward. This lets them contribute to the world (where the GM can select set how fictional/impactful the story actually is!) and helps the party bond more. All while the GM gets to take a break. I even plan to add story-enhancement items to grant greater inspirations (stepping up from 1d4) - so now there's another entire discipline of tool use on top of combat and utility.

South African DM here! Your tale about the misadventures braving the thunderstorm on the mountaintop really resonated strongly with some of my own memories I have of time spent in the Drakensberg. My own campaign is only two episodes in and I have really enjoyed your tips on creating better adventures. I was especially dreading the trek from base to a quest location,but these tips should make it better for all. Keep up the good work!

I have an obelisk civilization! The oldest known civilization, though most don’t know what they are. They move about as quick as a snail so most won’t notice movement and just be like why is there a random obelisk in this field? But it’s actually been traveling for a hundred years which is a day’s work for them. If you tip them over you’ve effectively killed them. They can’t die but that is death for them because they’re usually stuck there forever till they erode. If you tip them there’s a sealed hole into their bottom where their may be some loot or some rocks

This video was super helpful. I'm DMing my first session ever next week and the stenario is extremly simmilar to the exempel you use in the video so it helped me a whole bunch.

In my current Elven/fey/Nature Campaign the players have a safehouse in a place of intrest. And THEN when they want to go somewhere, they have to plan, take their stuff, have a traveling means, and we have a session of a journey. like a filler episode.

Excellent video!!! I leaned so much, fantastic work Guy

Your videos are fantastic and I thoroughly enjoy watching and learning from them. Great work, as always! Love, peace, and chicken grease.

I'm fairly new to D&D and stumbled over your channel recently while doing some long-term research so that my campaigns are good when I eventually sit down in the GM chair. I've been devouring everything you've posted since. I'm a fellow South African now living in Texas, and I have to say I'm exceptionally proud of the success of your channel, given you're a countryman. I also suspect you were describing the sunset in the Drakensberg this episode...? I don't know. But you made me miss South Africa. The prettiest beaches I've ever seen. I remember distinctively coming through the pass on my way to Cape Town and seeing all of the city laid out before me. It was incredible. Anyway, I'm going to put it on my bucket list, come hell or high water, to play D&D in a campaign GMed by you just once in my life. Pipe dream, I know, but I'd love to see all of what you teach in action first hand. Take care, friend.

Dude, I found this channel today and I am watching all your videos. Really good.

Oh I love this. First time DM so I'm watching a lots of videos, but I'm also a writer and I love adding what types of trees and flowers and fruits and smells and noises the players experience. Of course one of the players asked what kind of noises can we hear it. I was proud of myself because I was ready with a real youtube video creepy sounds a hunter recorded when he was trying to watch for deer. I haven't really experimented with voices. Of course traveling through the Dark Forest was part of my adventure I wrote and the trees move making it difficult to navigate or even escape but once is fun once. Then I used evil vines and screaming mushrooms. The goblins would appear when they heard the mushrooms. Then the party encounted a battle between goblins and a ettin which they smartly avoided. I feel I'll have to make it quicker when they go back through. Thanks

Another great topic. Can't wait to load this into memory.

Thank you so much for doing this! Its amazing advice!

Excellent video!!! Thank you! I am trying to avoid the use of portals after portals so I can make my players explore roads and different ways to get to villages etc. This video really helped!!!

I know this is an old video to comment on, but I am so glad I watched it. I have suspected for a long time that you are South African, but was never sure. Your accent is is such that I thought you may be British. Very very happy to see a fellow South African do well on RU-vid and be an amazing voice for us nerds everywhere. You sir, have a new subscriber !

very usefull as always. Please inspire me about space travels!

THIS is literally a game-changer for me! Thank you!! :-)

The travel and camping scenes from the hobbit and LOTR movies were by far my favorite scenes in the movies. There should have been even more to emphasize just how arduous the journey was supposed to be. If you don't like that sort of narrative and description then you definitely want to avoid the books. Tolkien spends chapter upon chapter describing the journey and the environments.

im making a campaign at the moment set in ancient japan and im using japanese legends and folk lore quite heavily and this really helped.your the best😁

Very good advice for a common stumbling point in sessions

That story about setting up the tent in the storm reminded me of a trip up a mountain when I was a teen in the Boy Scouts. My patrol and I decided to set up camp outside the tree line on a rocky flat. We couldnt stake the tent in to the rocks of course, and we woke up with us and the tent having been blown way to close to the edge of the rocks!

Once again, the topic I need when I need it Well done

Great video as always :-) Thank you!

Great stuff, thank you!

Love your content! You're the best! This is my obligatory comment to enhance your RU-vid algorithm performance.

When you describe that sunrise... I can see why you’re a GM👌👌👌

Thanks for your videos!

Thanks you very much! This will be so helpful for my open world game

"The Hidden Fortress" has some nice journey ideas: encounter with patrols, two interactions with checkpoints and a memorable moment of the fire festival. Also the Zatoichi movies usually have a journey with a moment in the blazing Japanese summer, or the scent of plum blossoms in the spring etc.

This was a good one. Thanks!

Great video, helped me a lot

Horses and carts make it more interesting in that they invite vehicle combat, rest, carrying more supplies, a coach driver/ferriman npc (that might not always agree, could give information, and could get killed off while you're away), and faster travel.

i am actually a big fan of video game RPG, and learning about TTRPG from your channels have been a blast! i am a murder hobo lol and if i were to run a session i would be trying to level my players up and having a grand adventure … VGRPG roots i guess haha

this was very inspiring ♥

> quick tips > 20 minutes > ok Great vid though! I've subscribed and started bingeing your videos, you're amazing and your advice has helped me with my first campaign as DM, my friends have loved it and it's been a massive success and I feel like I'm connecting with my friends properly for the first time in years. Thank you so much for your help.

The only time I ever had player investigate a lair after a random encounter was when they were in a desert, it wasn't windy so the tracks were obvious, and also because it was a desert, it was not going to be very far because the attackers weren't carrying much in terms of food/water. In other words, they only ever investigated when I opened the door for them to do so.

Knowing my players they'd want to catch that fish, deconstruct the obelisk, tame/kill the unicorn, as it gives them bragging rights, trophies, gold and/or xp. It's gonna be a hard retrofit of our game style but I find almost all of your advices... utilisable to a certain extent.

Thank you for creating the tabletop finder, I found a singular player for my table so far but we've been able to create a useable single player campaign, so thank you

9:36 my first gm did this when we were looking at mysterious door after I rolled a nat 20. "It's a door." Was all he would say. It was a lever system door and he didn't want to "give it away" Really hurt my overall D&D experience

Just did my first DM tonight, for my boys: I bought the "Essential Kit" version of the game that comes with a prefab module, "Dragon of Icespire Peak". We were in the south end of the large map, and there are swamps there: I said "you must make a save, or else be trapped in quicksand!!" Well, one of our guys got caught, and it took maybe 3 minutes to get him out. But, it created a sense of immediate danger, and until we freed him? His character had already been injured by orcs who were charging him, so he was understandably concerned.

"3-Headed-whatever" is totally my favorite monster from now on

I'm about to have my players embark on a 10-ish day journey across the plains, skirting around a forest, to get to a citadel of Pelor. I've been thinking about how to get them excited for it and this is going to help!

nice advices thank you very much

We were on a journey through the jungles of chult and met some giants. We hid inside of a rope trick spell when we were over run and someone brought a bag of holding into the rope trick. We spent 6 months irl time stuck in the astral plane. Was actually pretty fun but definitely one of those spiraling out of control random encounters

This actually really helped as my campaign is taking place across an entire super continent

encounter i make op the spot: -you come across a stream, make a perseption check =succes -you notice there's something off about this water +i use detect magic -you notice that the water has a very slight enchantment effect on it. +i want to try to jump over it =succes -not wanting to test the waters you gracefully leap over the stream +i too would like to try to jump over it =succes after a crit fail as a halfling -after thinking you wouldn't make it you trow your entire body forward. you catch a mouth full of grass, but you have avoided the water. +then i too shall try to jump over the water =fail -while making a briliant head start you just way to early and land in the middel of the stream +i shout "guys, help me" -while that is what you try to say what instead comes out of your mouth is "guys, help me"(with a pitched up voice) i call it, the squeaky river (:

Your my favorite dnd youtuber

13th Age uses the players for this you go around the table and ask them to describe briefly an encounter they had on the way and how their character helped them get through it.

I tend to make 0-1 encounters during a travel. Usually the travels in my campaign take about 2-3 days in game time. Sometimes the encounters are just a small thing happening in the forest. Sometimes it's a random hunter they chat with for a while and gain insight and lore of the world. Sometimes it's a medium difficulty combat encounter. Traveling is just such a big part of the game and it easily takes 25-30% of session time if I really start to put encounters and stuff into it. And usually the players have some time dependent stuff that doesn't necessarily have to be done. But if they postpone it, it will turn to shit usually and a quest fails in a way. This makes it so that the players don't just keep traveling from town to town like fast travel.

I've constantly had issues involving my Rangers and their talents when I DM, an issue I sought to rectify and strived tirelessly to correct, because as a Ranger player myself I've often felt my DM never allowed my character's talents to shine. All tutorials and guides I've seen online that orient themselves on involving Rangers say that I must never skip the journey and travelling, as this is where a Ranger truly shines. The only problem with this instruction is that it never indicates HOW I'm supposed to narrate that journey without just throwing encounters willy-nilly; the concept of doing this does not sit well with me. This video has proven very helpful in the elaboration of journey narrative and has helped me better myself as a GM. Thank you.

My players were very suprised at how challenging and fun travel was. They underestimated the weather and often got lost due to vague directions. They had rests along the journey and the descriptions I gave during them (along with some background music) really emerged them in the roleplay aspect of the game. And when an encounter did pop up, they were genuinely nervous.