The character party is going on a long travel from city A to city B. What do you as DM do to make it a entertaining journey? Scenarios etc.
What is the setting like?
>>47842638
Fantasy adventure, standard D&D style.
>>47842704
Elaborate. Personally, if I were trying to plan out something like this I'd start with the route. Where are they going, and where are they coming from? what sort of country are the passing through? What's the terrain like? Do they have enough supplies for a long journey at the start, or do they have enough money that they plan to just buy supplies as needed along the road?
The answers to those questions will inform a lot.
>>47843215
They're hired to travel to a village and deal with a undead threat. Don't think supplies will be a issue, they are given what they need for the adventure by the people who hired them. There won't be any pitstops along the way and there's about a week travel. They will be traveling on mostly plain landscape, with the occasional forest along the way. Was considering implementing some horror elements, mess with the players by tormenting the characters at night, but not really thought through.
>>47843694
Hmm. That's a fairly average length trip for the Middle ages, not super long. Lack of pitstops means fewer opportunities for drama and conflict. Terrain doesn't lend itself to environmental challenges.
How bad is the undead threat?
>>47843694
Have them meet a nice young wizard on the way. He's just coming from where they're headed.
> He is actually the Necromancer, but not Ill-meaning. Some bad dudes have hijacked his operation and he NOPED the fuck out of there
He asks them for their to and fro, then councils them on effective ways to council them, even providing a healing potion maybe.
> Insight Checks might reveal that he is having both a bad consciousness, as well as hiding something he's ashamed of: Nothig back there went according to his plan.
The day after that there's an encampment of some mercenaries. They greet the heroes and invite them over for some of the rabbit which is cooking over the fire.
They inquire about their to and fro, but are generally dicks. Also, they seem to have made it big, with some loot under their asses. Eventually, they question the Heroes as to wether or not they have seen some [Dude fitting the Necromancers Description]
> They reveal that they are hunting for the Necromancer,
> However, they hunt for him NOT to purge this world of evil, but because they fear he might slander their name after they made his plans go haywire at the heroes destination.
Finally, two days after that, they find a half-starved and half crazed peasant by the wayside. He tells them of the bandits that robbed them one by one while the undead plage came over their village. Most of the Commoners have holed up in their houses or the local guardhouse.
> He drew the short straw when it came to running for help.
Nobody in [Village] had anticipated such an escalation of the problem, after having the occasional - but bearable - undead roam the fields in the past ( which was the necromancers first tries ).
The Heroes might piece things together now, and maybe decided to ...
a) the Necromancer
b) the Mercenaries
c) just keep going to the village to purge the undead
d) a) + b)
e) go to the village and pillage what is left
>>47844027
> councils them on effective ways to council them
well, I derped there:
councils them on effective ways to fight the undead! Maybe he reveals [Macguffin] back in [his Lair], which they can use to shutdown the Undead.
In case of
> c), go to village and purge undead
turns out that [Macguffin] was stolen by the Mercenaries, and Undead will keep to pop out of the woods and terrorize the village, until [Macguffin] is first RETURNED and then DESTROYED
>>47843895
At the moment they'll have to check up on the status on the village. The undead threat is becoming larger on a national scale. So the party stumbling over some kind of undead is quite possible. Not sure what kind of undead though.
>>47843694
Also, what level are the characters? Do you just want a quick combat encounter?
Assuming a party of 4, at level 1, and you want a quick combat encounter, you meet a farmer on the road who begs you to help him defend his home. Throw in 2 or 3 zombies/skeletons.
If you want to make it hardmode, make the encounter a ghoul or two.
>>47844186
They are level 2 at the moment. I really want a encounter with a purpose, if you get my drift? Not just a random combat encounter.
>>47844027
Oooooo, i liked the wizard idea very much.
>>47844186
>>47844065
>>47844027
I think you guys can stop now. OP is obviously a faggot unable to provide information sufficient for others to help him properly.
>>47844370
What information do you want?
>>47842515
Description, perhaps an encounter or two.
Try to keep the combat low, otherwise you run into the "how the hell does everyone else survive travel" questions.
>>47842515
If the travel isn't part of the overall scenario, then use it as window dressing.
As the PCs get closer to the town, describe how the landscape or environment changes to build up the undead threat. Your typical "bright and sunny" when they left, "cold, dark and grey" now that they're a day away.
Skip ahead during the days and ask your players what they do before they bed down for the night. A simple "lost while foraging" or "failure to post someone on watch" can give you some room to mess with them.
Make up a random encounter table. Nothing big. Maybe six entries:
>Wagon loses/breaks a wheel
>Food missing, not enough to make it the rest of the way
>Freak storm forces PCs to find shelter
>A flock of crows is circling "something" in the distance
>Broken down wagon with NPC (alive or dead) with info about town
>The day and night are disturbingly quiet and no one can sleep. No resting bonuses, spell memorizing or HD recoup
Roll again on the last day before they reach the town.
>>47844081
My suggestion? Have them pass through a bog and encounter Will o' the Wisps, possibly with a mix of lesser undead surging out of the muck once they get lost.
>>47842515
Easy flowchart
>Do I have cool ideas for stuff that might happen between here and there?
>Y - Make those into fleshed out encounters
>N - "After weeks of otherwise uneventful travel, you arrive at city B!"
>>47846033
There is literally nothing I can add to this so have a 3face.
:3
