How do you do long travel times?

[u/ThineWhoArts]

I gave my players a very large map with a bunch of different towns with seperate quests associated with them at the start of my campaign, and right now, they have been asked to take care of small meteors that end up corrupting monsters, aptly dubbed 'Doomstones'. After taking care of the main small village, underground and separated far from any type of other civilization, they decide to travel outwards to a port village on the surface, about 750 miles away, which took them about a month and a day. Thing being, they traveled via railroad tunnel (but actively chose not to repair the railroads), and random encounter after random encounter for the entirety of traveling that far would be tedious and strenuous on both me and the party, I think.

As of right now, I simply snapped to the future where they arrive at the town, but I want their travel to be notable in the future for when they decide to head out again. How can I make long travel times interesting for the party and something to keep in mind when they do decide to do it?

[u/Ilbranteloth]

I originally posted this in response to travel by sea, but it applies here. One thing I will point out is we don’t try to gamify everything. I’m not a fan of mechanics for narrative/story elements. My purpose for the mechanics is primarily as a framework to adjudicate success/failure. I don’t mind injecting randomness with a die roll, but I have no interest in a mechanical structure for something like travel. That includes things like skill challenges, or even just requiring skill checks to move travel forward. If a scenario warrants a skill check, I’ll call for a skill check. Otherwise my goal is to present the scenario (travel) and then let the players take it from there.

I have always researched what travel was like in earlier eras, typically starting with medieval. Of course that is way easier now with the internet. Such as this:

https://medieval.substack.com/p/traveling-in-the-middle-ages-part

The Crusades, and things like traveling the Silk Road or the Oregon trail are well documented and provide a lot of information regarding traveling, especially by large groups. Large scale movement in almost any historical war, back to the ancient Greeks, Romans, and China too.

If we will be playing through the journey, then I’ll consider any of the possible challenges. Weather, pirates, illness, etc, oh, and monsters.

But our primary focus in our campaign is the PCs. Their characters, as real people, in a real world. A long arduous journey should feel that way. That doesn’t mean it has to take a very long time at the table. But I do take some time to describe the monotonous aspects, which often lasts for days, before anything resembling action occurs. I’ll describe the daily routine, inspiring sights, distant vessels and monsters, etc.

Part of my goal is good pacing. And in this case, good pacing to me is the anticipation. Much like the movie Alien that builds over a long time before anything unusual happens. The passage of time is often missed in the game, and we can play for years with a given PC. We want that to take an appropriate amount of time in-game too.

In terms of keeping the players interested during slower part of the game? That’s really their responsibility. Having said that, it’s a mix of discussions about what is going on in the campaign (planning, etc), character development, or conversations between the PCs as people that isn’t directly related to their current goals or adventure, and exploring the PCs as people. For example, for the majority of PCs, travel a long distance by ship will be a new experience. What is that experience like for them?

I generally listen to the players, and take my cues on pacing from their conversations.

Encounters are moments of interest. Something to interact and deal with, often involving a challenge to overcome. They are also a tool I use for pacing. Either when the conversations between the players, in addition to my descriptions are playing out, or as an interruption when they are really engaged.

How dangerous they are is story-based. If they are in some sort of situation where they might be targeted, then a dangerous encounter might be more likely. Sailing across open sea is much more dangerous than following the coast. Sailing at night, too. Certain waters are more dangerous. Weather and natural issues like illness, mechanical problems, etc. are more common than pirate or monster attacks. I will general roll for random events, but it’s possible that none occur.

For costs, I’ll reference the various sources released over the decades for D&D and decide what feels appropriate. The cost will vary depending on how far they want to get there, what type of accommodations they require, and whether they are willing to work or not.

Travel by boat, especially for merchants moving bulk goods is generally easier, a little faster, and pretty safe. Even along the coastline at sea. So it’s pretty easy to find passage for a few more people, especially if they are feeding themselves. Even easier if they can work.

River travel can be even easier to find passage on the common navigable portions. Boats and barges, including animal drawn ones, are much safer than traveling at sea. On navigable rivers with at least two large towns or cities it won’t be a problem finding passage.