I was watching Ginny Di’s video Why travel in D&D sucks (and 3 steps to fix it) last week and thinking about all the travel involved in my game. Not just travel, though, my group is also going to be hunting creatures or looking for artifacts. She talks about not just doing the typical run-ins with bandits, or a plot-irrelevant tower, or useless pretty rocks. (Note: I don’t think I’ve ever found a pretty rock on the ground in D&D, but I have a couple characters who would have loved that, most, however would not.) After this video, I glanced at my random encounter tables for travel and realized I had to do much better.
Here I’ll take some old writing advice, if it doesn’t further the plot, toss it out. In this case, I’ll modify it a little bit: if it is not campaign relevant, can’t become campaign relevant, or won’t add fun roleplay, toss it out. Because sometimes, adding a bit of fun irrelevance to travel, if done is moderation, can be fun. Mostly, though, I’ll try to stick to relevant “random encounters” to keep my players engaged in the world. Some travel will be quick, and might have no encounters, and just offer group roleplay opportunities.
Let’s take a moment, however, to remind ourselves that this is not a single-teller story. When I say plot here, I mean the story we are all weaving together. A random abandoned house could be irrelevant, but a random abandoned house that has been clearly ransacked by those the party is hunting could add clues to their adventure. An indecipherable obelisk in the wastes would be irrelevant, but a decipherable one could give them clues to a cult they’ve been dealing with. A traveling salesman or bard could be both entertaining, and a source of information or resources.
Another aspect to the journey is the goal. In this case, my players are beginning the game as members of the Slayers Take, so they’ll be hunting monsters. I don’t just want them making a couple of survival checks every single hunt they go on. So, I’ve decided on three different types of skill challenges. 1) Group skill challenge, 2) Opposed skill challenge, 3) Social skill challenge.
Group skill challenge is a mechanic you can see on streams like Critical Role. Each member of the party offers up a skill and tells how they are going to use it to help the party. The tracker still gets to use Survival, but the other party members don’t get left out. A rogue might use stealth to hide the party from predators. A cleric might use medicine to keep the party from contracting diseases in a swamp or a sewer. A perceptive person might keep a look out for threats or their prey. This way everyone gets to participate. In my game, I’m setting it up so that winning this challenge requires 5 (this number might change) successes before 5 failures. Failure means they run into a different monster than the one they were after.
Opposed skill challenge is something we do all the time, on a single check basis. In this case, however, sometimes the things the group is hunting, are hunting them right back. Or something else gets on their trail instead. These will be group checks vs. the enemy. Things like survival, stealth, perception will be used to try and get more successes than the other group. Whichever group gets to 5 (might change) first, catches the other group off-guard in some way.
Social skill challenge is about interacting with the people around them. Some of their quarry is rather unusual, and people talk. So, if they’ve already done the above skill challenges, or it just wouldn’t fit, I’ve created new sets of NPCs to talk to for direction. Different levels of persuasion checks will get different answers, and failures can lead the party astray or into the wrong den. I love Characters, so I’m having fun making extras outside the city for my party to meet. Perhaps they’ll become even more plot relevant later, only time will tell.
I’ve got a great group of players, they’ll probably surprise me and come up with other interesting ways to pass the time, or hunt their quarry. I am excited to see what happens.