So for some insane reason I'm putting my players through another session in which they have to travel to a specific destination.

Along the way, I want to throw conflict at them in order to keep things interesting.

However, I'm more interested in the Man VS Nature conflict, rather than the Man VS Man/Beast/Mother in Law etc...

By that I mean I don't want them to just have fights.

SO! I was thinking of having terribly awful weather and terrain thrown at them. Finding creative ways to cope with the hardships of the climate, as well as successfully navigating dangerous terrain.

Has anyone done something like this before?

Some ideas: using a tracker for time of day, and another tracker for the distance that they have to travel.

Each tracker has key things that occur, like at a certain time of day, there's a really bad thunderstorm with hail and stuff. Also, once they reach halfway their destination, they reach a horrible swampy marsh that they HAVE to cross.

Decisions will have to be made: increase the journey speed so as to avoid having to navigate the worst terrain at nightfall? Or risk tiring themselves out too much? Should they wait out the storm in the nearby shelter? What if the storm lasts HOURS?

Comments? Suggestions?

Personally I think, travel is quite difficult to handle. Since it is mostly the trip from story-location A to story-location B, I usually dont play the trips out. In my opinion, fights and other random encounters are just an annoyance to thee players and have the potential to stop the story dead.

But that depends heavily on the style of play, that you and your group use. If you are playing a sandboxy open-world game, travelling might be a big part of it and should be played out at least a little.

Maybe some sort of time-limit can be used to make the trip more thrilling. ("You have to reach your destination in three days, or else your friend will be hanged by the inquisition...") If the Players want to travel through the night, they might save some time, but will be more likely attacked by local wildlife, might get lost, or end up in a pit of quicksand.

Or maybe a race to the destination might be fun... The PCs must be at the destination, before another group with the same goal reaches it. How they do that is up to them... The y can try to travel faster, or even try to intercept the other group, to sabotage theri travels, or even beat them up a little...

I don't think you really need 2 trackers here. I'd use only one tracker for the whole challenge, unless time is really critical here (like, if they don't reach X under 24 hours, the town will be under siege by the beastman warbands). As you mentioned, if players want to avoid crossing the swamp at night, really, they just don't advance on the challenge tracker. If they decide to go around the marsh, well the only difference is the skill they'll use to go around (and they do lose time but you could stick it to narration). Instead of having the tracker to decide situations, you MAKE interesting situation happens.

If you think it's an interesting choice they have to make to avoid the swamp at night, well just throw at them that they're starting to think they won't reach the marsh untill dusk. You could decide few interesting situations and assign them to a number on the tracker : bad weather, steepy terrain, marshes at night, etc. You define what rolls whould be made in each situation and what's the consequences of failing them (take fatigue and/or stress, etc). Also, don't forget the tracker isn't strictly rigid! You could fool around a bit with it. If they don't stop to wait for the storm to pass, when they reach the steepy terrain, the storm is still there and you add some misfortune dices to the checks.

If travels are frequent in your games and you want them all (well, most of them anyway) to be challenges, you might also want to consider streamlining travels to a single check where the character with the best involved skill is making the check and others are assisting. The skill to roll could be different each time. Also, what's at stake could also be different. If time is the essence, for example, failing the check could result into not reaching the goal at time. Then, another travel challenge could be bad weather where failed check could make the party take additionnal stress/fatigue, etc !

you could have the "storm" being tracked on seperate tracker and the journey of the PCS on one with event spaces for certain things (bridge/marsh whatever)

Progress the storm at some defined rate, slightly randomly perhaps, and have the time when it abates defined also.

You then track the progress of the PCs along their path using the tracker, given them options for moving quicker and slower etc...

Once the storm has reached the end of its tracker, it them starts,and the PCs have to deal with this....

For instance, if they haven't yet reached the bridge space, then the bridge is carried away by the flood water and they have to find another way across the river, if they chose to move quicker, then they reach the bridge before the storm, they can cross safely, etc..

you could even have a few weather conditions that you want to track over the course of the journey, althuogh you might not want to over do it.

for each event space you come up with, you just need to define what its like if the party reach it BEFORE the latest weather condition has occurred (normally its "better" for the PCs), and whats its like if the weather condition has already occurred (normally "worse" for the PCs).

have some rules (fatigue based, perhaps?) for how quickly the PCs get to move along their tracker, and then the PCs have to decide on how quickly they want to travel, which might tire them, compared to moving more slowly but running the risk that the journey will be more difficult if the storm comes before they get to event 'X'....

you could even track the storm on the main PC joureny tracker and simply have it happen with it gets to the end of the tracker or at a previously determined event space or whatever... the storm then comes down on the PCs at the point where they currently are on the tracker...

pumpkin said:

Watch out! Here, I think the "bridge been carried away" is an interesting element and just crossing the bridge would be infinatly boring. If you design something interesting, you want to make sure players will play this part!
I would rather force this encounter and make player choises influence something else inside this encounter rather than not doing it enterily and missing a potentially good momment! For example, if the group manage to get there in time, the storm IS ongoing but the bridge only get carried away after one of the PC get to cross the river. It will be a big advantage to have someone on the other side (other could throw him a rope, etc) and makes for a really dramatic scene! That way, they do get this interesting encounter, but still have some benefits from their choices/successes in the whole travel encounter.

Silverwave said:

I think you're missing one of the most intriguing uses of the tracker - giving the players the illusion that they have some control over whether the encounter happens or not. Build a tracker with periodic cross points, and if you want to force the encounter, use one of them as appropriate, and make the players wonder how lucky they were to land on *this* encounter instead of *that* one. If you're careful and don't use this trick too much they'll never know the difference.

Speaking of the branching tracker idea, it seems to me that the swamp in the OP's original brainstorm is the perfect place to make use of this mechanic. This can give the players a visual representation that a trip across the swamp will be shorter but fraught with peril, as opposed to going around, which might appear safer but will obviously take much longer - or require much better rolls to make up their lost time. Personally I'd go with that, and rule that one set of rolls equals a morning or afternoon's travel, and use that to track time (unless, as earlier posters noted, there is a deadline at work). I'd be more likely to interpret boons and banes as an indication of weather, with a chaos star indicating some sort of mini encounter that might or might not delay the party.

I love the idea of using the tracker as a travel meter, incidentally. Travel in the Empire is supposed to be relatively rare for small groups and full of danger, and I think it's a great mechanic to simulate that, particularly with branching paths that could denote becoming lost or ending up at the wrong destination ("I should have turned right at Albaquerque!") Plus it's always bugged me in past campaigns to always use a map for both navigation and to track the party's location - it's too close to having the fantasy equivalent of a GPS system to capture the feel of medieval travel, IMHO.

Wow, excellent ideas. Thanks!

Yeah, the idea is to impose a sort of time pressure.

Also it will be implied that their destination will be a fair bit more dangerous at night: a ruin which, according to a successful Folklore check, is HAUNTED.

However, a successful Education check will state that this is hogwash and that the REAL danger lies in the treacherous terrain: a rocky mountainside that just won't be safe to climb at night.

Anyway, so the idea was that the travel tracker would help manage two themes: the distance that they manage to go (with pertinent landmarks along the way like the swamp, the bridge etc...) and the time in which it takes (determining when during the day it will be scorching hot, when there'll be a horrible thunderstorm, when night falls etc..).

Travel is actually a great way to build party relationship. The way to look at it is a conflict between nature, resources, and inter-personal relationships. The story moves on its own accord and agreed travel can be about going from point a to point b, unless you develop the travel as part of the journey. It should not feel like an aside, but something that is part of it.

So ask yourself, are they on the run? Is time of the essence? Is the weather a natural force or summoned? How do these wilderness encounters effect my story? If the party is delayed by weather, will they make it there on time? If they are ill-prepared for the journey, getting sick or starving, will they be too weary to do what they must when they arrive (see the journey of Sam and Frodo for those types of environs). Can you introduce a part of the setting during the journey (such as a mystical force tied to the environ, a wayward stranger, something that ties directly back to the story).

Lastly, how much can you actually roleplay here...the answer is tons. Characters are typically overshadowed by "story mode" a good conversation around the campfire might help the characters grow. Give them time to reflect on what they've done, what's going on in the story, and what they should do next. It is also a good place for them to clean out or create tension.

As a GM you can start all of this with decent internal dialogue (what the character is thinking or reflecting on...such as you remember that woman's face murdered by Chaos Cultists), you can also create interesting - and sometimes humorous events - around cooking, someone cooks bad tasting food, it's time for roleplay about how bad the food is. This could become a running joke.

Really, it comes down to play-style and what your players enjoy, but the journey is generally more important than the destination. Just like in a slasher flick, it is way more interesting to see someone being chased than being killed. So crafting good journeys is the key and making sure they relate to the story.

I mean, if you have a hunter, how often does he go hunting? What if that hunting goes wrong (with a success and three banes) and though he killed the deer, now he has to escape the giant bear or somehow the deer itself was tainted. You see? It's just a question of how you can go about making it interesting is the key.

Very interesting post, commoner!

Yeah, I know, it's not really helping the topic here, but just wanted to point out good things!

This might be a good opportunity to describe what I do for travel encounters.

Depending on a few factors (road conditions, weather, patrols or lack thereof) I roll a number of Fortune or Misfortune dice each day and track the net boons or banes. When either reach a certain threshold over the course of the trip (usually 4 or so, but whatever works for your pace or the area the group is traveling in), the party has an encounter, either a good one or a bad one and the counters reset.

I currently don't use the progress tracker for this, but I can see the uses. Maybe have a tracker with red going one way and green another with a neutral piece in the middle. You could move the track either way with boons or banes.

I also add in extra fortune dice for players using an appropriate skill to aid travel (usually Nature Lore).

In addition, it can help you narrate the trip. Roll some net boons one day? Describe nice weather and friendly passers by. Roll a few banes one day? Describe delays and bad weather.

Of course WHAT encounter the players have is up to you. Perhaps you have a list of encounters you'd like them to have.

So far this system has been easy, elegant and very little work to add some spice to the player's travel.

There were a lot of great ideas here.

For me, it all comes down to meaningful decisions. You can design this travel as something that you want to do, a different sort of challenge for the players to deal with. But if you want to make it lasting and impactful, you have to make the decisions meaningful.

If you have your storm, for example, and the bridge is buckling and could blow away, then the players will just hoof it to reach the bridge. That's really a given. You can force them to do skill checks and so forth but that's just dice rolling. You can make it so that one of them gets their foot caught. It would add tension as they have to fight to free that character, however, that's just upping the tension.

When you would have to do to turn that encounter into something with a meaningful decision is have a choice for them to make. Have one of the players notice something off to the side, before they reach the bridge. Something important to them. A child face down on the side. Several chests off to the side. Something that will pique their interest. Something that will make them have to decide whether the bridge or the side scene will be their objective.

If they choose the bridge, you can then add something on the other side of the bridge. Perhaps the wailing parents of the child who they couldn't find. Something like that which might inspire them to brave that bridge again.

What the scene, when players make rolls, they just make rolls. There is little investment. It's a challenge with randomness to overcome. But when players make decisions, that's when they get invested in their characters. Investment will lead to attachment to the story and to the character and you will ultimately have a stronger game.

Have them run out of food; either as a result of miscalulation on their own part, or maybe have some of the iron rations go bad or be stolen/lost, or just by having an inn they expected to restock at be unexpectedly closed or burned to the ground. Maybe an entire village has dissapeared or been abandoned - it's a mystery! Maybe they're even working with an outdated, inaccurate or even wilfully misleading map?

Either way, they'll have to make some interesting choices, like:

• Do they power through on half rations - with a corresponding fatigue loss?
• Do they take time out to hunt, fish and scavenge for food - sacrificing travel speed for substinence?
• If so, will they leave the beaten track in seach of better hunting grounds? What might they encounter in the wilderness?
• Could they - mid-travel - switch to a career more suited for survival in the wilderness? They should certeinly have the option.

Watch a few

I think you could really drive the point home by having a character (of an NPC, if you're feeling generous) perish as a result of having low fatigue caused by undernutrition. Say they encounter an aggressive bear while being weakened from fatigue loss. Hopefully, they realise that they'll have to run for it - they are too exhausted to risk fighting such a fearsome beast. Now - not all of them have to be able to outrun a hungry, angry bear. They only have to not be the slowest person in the group... even a really hungry bear can only eat so much...

www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0145

Read and enjoy, on this very topic.

Someone (maybe FFG) should make an travelling guide, including natural hazards of the Empire, small encounters at the road, and the like. If you could throw in an encounter or 2 per journey, travelling would be more interesting....

btw the old Gamemaster`s toolkit had some really good encounters for travelling purposes.

Mal Reynolds said:

I second that, a travelling guide with information about hazards would be great. The guide would also be a great way to add rules (and prices) for horses, coaches and other means of travel.

Some good ideas. Myself I would like travel to be a mix of good and bad, as in not every coaching inn is a Rough Night at Three Feathers (though one absolutely must be).

Some older edition products now available as pdfs from rpgnow etc. have random travelling encounters etc. in them, such as the earlier edition Game Masters Toolkit (contents are almost completely edition-neutral, has a number of events suggested for different terrains etc.)

The Winds of Chaos site I was pointed for imperial calendars also has road and weather conditions tables and other items.

http://www.windsofchaos.com/?page_id=92

Mal Reynolds said:

It would be awesome if they released it as a straight-to-PDF mini-guide for a few dollars so that we didn't have to wait for it to come out as part of a bigger supplement.

Travel is boring.

Man v Nature conflicts are also boring.

The better solution seems to me to just describe how miserable everyone is in the freezing rain or how nice the roads are in spring (as appropriate for the scene) and get to the good stuff.

Just my two coppers.

Llanwyre said:

I wouldn't mind seeing that. It would be nice is they put an expanded version of it in a World supplement. I really want to see a world supplement with maps and all the fluff of the old 1e and 2e D&D campaign boxed settings. The old Forgotten realms one came with a transparency to overlay the world may with a mileage grid as well as cards showing the standard caravan formations. Stuff like that made running overland and travel scenes fun.

I am currently working on travel rules. You roll for Nature Lore or Folk Lore, get a bonus if someone in the group has Education Geography specialty.

I then designed an action card with defferent results.

The players roll on Encounter tables (not just combat ... all kinds of things). The exact table is dependant on the check made and the action card result.

I don't know how it turns out yet, but I intend it to be light and just add a bit of flavour to travelling.

Gallows said:

****!

I was thinking of the same. creating a 8-10 page Travelling guide of the Empire, based on the Gamemaster toolkit (2nd edition), with tables and such, but with no cards. But you beat me to it.

Anyway your ideas seems pretty good. Mind if you post it on Hammerzeit once you done? I would love to see how it turns out.

Good gaming.
Ps: will still do my Travelling guide, but after I done my distinguishing mark table (pretty extensive), drug rules and my own scenario Carnival of Death or the thief & the coin. So I will be pretty busy. Maybe I can incorporating some of your rules in my Travelling Guide?

Mal, check out pages 12 and 13 of my Expanded Characters Module for WFRPv2. There's a bunch of distinguishing marks you can use there.

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DagobahDave said:

ooh, thanks a lot, this was very good, very good indeed I downloaded the whole thing. Don`t you want to make a 3rd edition of your works and upload it for hammerzeit. I think a lot of people would appreciate your work. Good job.

btw: what program did you use? it looked very professional

And again, thanks mate

Thanks, Mal. I think just about everything in there will work for V3, but it seems odd to call for d100 rolls when d100 isn't used in V3.

To speed up the process, I created one-click character generators that you can find on Winds of Chaos. Check them out:

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You could skip anything that's specific to V2, and these generators would work pretty well for V3 characters.

All of my Warhammer play aids are available to anyone who wants to tinker with them or pick them apart. Reuse and modify anything you like, and post it to your own site. I don't mind.

Oh, I used Photoshop to create the pages for that Expanded Characters Module, and then put them together with Adobe Acrobat. But that's not the way it's supposed to be done! These days I would use InDesign. The file sizes would be smaller and it'd look a lot sharper.

LOL Dagobahdave I just found out that I had bookmarked your fine site a long time ago, I just forgot about it.

This spring to mind another very good feature with warhammer rpg (whatever edition), namely the extensive and high quality of fan materials. Another good reason to get into wfrp.

Cheers and good gaming