Hey /tg/, i was wondering if i could get some help and maybe some suggestions from you guys.
In my current campaign my PC's need to get from The South to the North in a limited time frame, roughly 4 months during winter. And I'm honestly not sure how to make the day to day travel interesting, or ways to go about just making it more than "You travel for a few days... BANDITS, you travel for a few more... DYSENTERY, and a few more... VILLAGE etc etc"
So does anyone got any thoughts.
>>44223977
Have reoccuring characters or themes as the PCs travel.
at first there are crows, then crows feeding on dead animals, then a couple days later the crows are feeding on an entire dead villiage, then over the next hill you see...A MEGA CROW
A young man keeps following the PCs, he constantly nags them to help him hunt, or to help him make weapons, or to train him, or let him sleep in the camp. He seems obsessed with hunting or evadingSOME CREATURE
After weeks of this, the boy suddenly disappears one night and doesn't show up. the PCs are all painfully aware of the lack of this young man, and his camping gear is still set up a short distance from the PCs camp.
Later that night aSOME CREATUREattacks the PCs.
Also random encounters can be pretty varied. take the Traveller rural encounter table for example. you roll 2d6. One is the 10s, one is the 1s. So a roll of a 4 and a 6 would be 46.
>>44223977
Old lady and her grand daughter. They receive and shelter the player for one night without charge but...they are actually werewolf ambushing travelers during winter. And the pc's are the new hunt.
>>44224054
>they are actually werewolf ambushing travelersSo they're travelers that ambush werewolves? so that would make the party.... Werewolves!? MAJOR PLOT TWIST
>>44224048
Something like this. Add build up, like one day they encounter a dude getting mugged by bandits. The next day you see said dude who helps you out for helping him, the next day you encounter said bandits looking for said dude, then the next you find out the dude is late on payment to the bandits because he took out a loan for whatever reason. Then you find out that said dude took out a loan to start a coven and was actually a rogue warlock, who gave the PCs an item to help them out when in reality it was a brewed up new jinx he was trying out.
Killing him yields help from the bandits in that they allow you to travel through their territory with a cut of any spoils the party they may find, and if the party skimps they have means of locating through spread out camps.
Is this shit /tg/?
>>44224048
Hmm, thanks man. Like the chart and the ideas.
>>44223977
Use the weather as a antagonist.
>>44224224
I intend to. But i do have a question for all. Would you use like a chart, and roll for weather or have set patterns and have yourself control the weather?
>>44224279
Depends on game / group / if it's irl or online. Too many variables.With my regular group that I play a ton of games with I'd use handcrafted shit, for people I don't know I'd do a mix, for the group I play with online I'd just roll since they're a bit more spastic and seem to enjoy more randomness to their campaigns
Encounters that are "random", but you have to polish them until they feel not that random anymore - tie them to the characters, the theme of the story, the general feeling. You do this to keep the tension high and get the player interested.
Also, you NEED to build up and use some kind of tracking for the weather and the base needs like hunger-sleep-thirst: this will allow you to represent the struggle between the pcs and the environment without going for goblin and bandit chopping, which you already realized is boring after a while.
In movies and books travels are an excuse for the characters to get to know eachother, exchange point of views, expose fluff, and generally make the audience know them better. Otherwise they are just a very quick montage of very beautiful scenery.
In a rpg you need to make it interesting through inter-player roleplay, or broad description of the scenery, which is going to be boring unless you are a very skilled storyteller, since it's basically the GM talking alone.
Or you start keeping track of their needs, food, water, and slowly tire them out with some combat scene, making them feel the weight of the journey AND making them regret not being really prepared to leave the comfy civilized space.
Also, you ALL should get the fuck in here, folks:
>>44190276
>>44224279
I homebrewed a system with charts to roll on for climate, precipitation, and wind, all based on what season is in.
I roll randomly on the season chart for each day, and then try to figure out a coherent pattern from the results.
>>44224083
That photo never fails to make me giggle
Thanks for all the answers and ideas guys. I'm new to the whole GM thing. So this has all been a ton of help.
>>44224048
what game is this from?
>>44224048
Can I steal your MEGA CROW idea, anon? I totally wanna wreck my party's shit with this.
