Making Overworld Travel Fun
It’s easy to gloss over, or even dismiss, probably the most in-game time-consuming aspect of TTRPGs: travel. If characters spend 3 weeks walking/riding/sailing from one plot thread to another, and deal with the “important” stuff in 2 days, why shouldn’t we make the journey as fun as the destination? Here are some ways to make Overworld travel more interesting for players.
“Overworld” generally refers to the areas of a map or region which are not towns, cities, dungeons, or places of interest. Basically, everything in between. Naturally, these areas are fairly desolate, and aside from “Random Encounters” (more on that in a moment), there isn’t much going on. Yet still, crossing an entire desert or boating across an ocean certainly must entail some action and take a significant amount of time, right? Weather conditions, crew member health and morale, vessel conditions, and of course role-play opportunities must surely factor in to these trips, and can be used as a means to make these journeys more interesting.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide and similar sources have scant suggestions for situations like these, and most of them are simply “Here is a ship, and here’s a table for Random Encounters.” Not too appealing, and the reason many DMs simply race through travel sections. Random Encounter (RE) are exactly what they sound like: some random environment-appropriate monster comes across your players meddling in their habitat and decides to attack. REs don’t really serve much of a purpose nor add to the story, which is why we personally avoid them. Why throw in an encounter just for the sake of it? Surely, there must be something more we can do to make travel story-relevant or, at the very least, offer some character-building opportunities.
Here is a brief list of fun ways to improve Overworld travel:
Let Players have input into Vessel Design: For most lower-level players, the primary mode of travel will be on foot or on horse, but in later stages of the game, you should consider ships/boats, trains, wagons, or even airships (players lose their minds when a flying airship shows up in a fantasy RPG). Take advantage of these vessels by letting your players help plan, design, and prep the voyage. Spend part of a session discussing the kind of ship(s) available, or ask the players what they would like as their Wish List. Cannons, engines, room layout, and more can be a lot of fun to invent side-by-side with your players, instead of just handing them a stat block. Speaking of which, stat blocks (AKA, the “character sheet” for the vessel in question) should be something you create together, in or out of sessions. It could be beneficial to appoint one “captain” to act as ringleader of the group, someone who you know to be proactive. Of course, as DM it is your responsibility to negotiate aspects of the vessel, such as AC/HP of the vessel, amount of damage the vessel can inflict if it has on-board weaponry, and other game-mechanic options. If you’re stuck or unsure, turn to historical references for ideas on sizing, capacity, and general feel of the type of vessel you’re looking for. Encourage your players to design the ship from scratch rather than use a pre-made stat block, including drawings/pictures/renders for visual appeal, as well as grid designs (graph paper works perfectly for the 5-foot squares DnD utilizes on maps).
Throw in Environmental Skill Challenges or Hazards: While Random Encounters may be a bit boring, who doesn’t love a massive tidal wave or storm approaching a ship? Natural weather phenomena are inevitable during long journeys, and can/should be included in the form of Skill Challenges. If you’re not familiar with the term, a Skill Challenge is a turn-based scenario similar to combat, but relying solely on the Skills section of a player’s sheet. Each Skill can only be used ONCE during the Skill Challenge. The DM picks a DC (Difficulty Class) for the challenge, the number which the players must meet-or-beat in order to succeed, as well as a Success-to-Failure ratio you give them ahead of time (do not tell them the DC). A good rule of thumb is to take your players’ average best Skill Modifier and add ~10+ for the DC (depending how hard you want it to be). For example, if all of your players have about a +5 in one or two of their highest Skills, the DC should be at least 15, maybe more if the party has lots of ways of incurring Advantage or improving their rolls in some fashion. Then make sure the number of Successes needed is about double the number of allowable Failures. For example, players need to have a combined 6 Successes before they meet 3 Failures. Roll for Initiative, and have each player describe (in turn order) how they are dealing with the crisis and which Skill they are using, then make a single roll. Treat it like a Pass/Fail course. Let them be fun and creative with this, do not draw it out on the map, and have fun with it. I recently had a Skill Challenge aboard an airship flying over the desert in which the players had to deal with a magical sandstorm barraging the ship and damaging the hull and engines. The Charisma-heavy players used Persuasion and Intimidation to get the NPC crew to handle the repairs and keep the ship aloft, while Martial classes ran around saving people or literally punching giant flying rocks to protect the engine. As long as the Skill is appropriate to their action, you as DM should be fairly liberal with what they can do, as long as they have a fun and logical justification for what they’re doing. *I like to help out the casters in these scenarios, who may not have great Skills to work with, by letting them use Arcana (Wizards, Warlocks, Sorcerers), Religion (Clerics, Paladins, Rangers, Druids), or Performance (Bards) to cast any spell they have available without expending a Spell Slot.
Plot-Relevant Encounters: While REs are fairly useless, there’s no reason why the BBEG wouldn’t send some of his/her minions to attack the party during the extremely long and arduous journey to the next dungeon. In fact, it almost makes more sense that a villain would choose a time when players are weary and resources are getting low to do away with them. There are ample opportunities for on-board battles which can be more fun than a simple dungeon-room encounter, and these fights may add new elements that the players have not encountered before. Fighting aboard a train? Create mechanics for how difficult it would be to jump on the roof and fight with all the wind. Perhaps one of the smarter enemies would bypass the fight and attack civilians/NPC crew members, or worse yet, go for the engine room or attempt to derail/destroy the vessel entirely! A few low-level barbarians on horseback could easily ride ahead and dismantle pieces of a train track. Factor in environmental conditions like a sea-storm or extreme heat or cold, and the players are suddenly battling both nature and monster, making for a memorable and exciting encounter. Most importantly, try and bring in relevant plot or character points to the fight, rather than just a gang of bandits. Maybe there’s a spy aboard the ship, or a recurring nemesis is following the players on horseback and plotting revenge on one of the characters. These types of encounters feel more organic and actually propel the plot forward, rather than being a simple distraction.
Do your Best Oregon Trail Simulation: Many of us RPG veterans were around in the time or Oregon Trail, and have a nostalgic fondness for the way it tracked and incorporated travel elements into what seemed like an otherwise mundane trek across the United States. Applying these same concepts to our favorite TTRPGs, we can create a simple-yet-engaging way of handling travel without being too time-consuming. By dividing travel into a few “legs" of the journey and creating mechanics for things like food rations, morale, speed, and health, we mimic the aspects of travel without having to literally role-play every day of the trip. Here’s how we recommend doing this: Start by creating a Travel DC, again using the formula in the “Skill Challenge” section listed above. Next, create physical (or digital) barometers indicating a) Vessel/Party Speed, b) Crew Morale, c) Food Rations, and d) Crew Health, each with Low/Medium/High settings (if you’re feeling ambitious, you can create more in-between metrics). Start the Crew Morale and Health at High, unless the party starts the trip by pissing off the crew or if it’s a specifically frightening trip which could lower crew morale. Ask the party where they want Rations and Speed: in either case, they can go Low, Medium, or High (or Slow, Medium, Fast for Speed). If they go Medium for both, do not alter the Travel DC. If they opt for Fast Travel or Low Rations, bump the DC up +1 for each (and vice-versa; -1 to the DC for High Rations or Slow Travel). Make sure to have the group spend appropriate GP to buy food for the trip in town before leaving (you’ll have to determine how many pounds of rations qualify for High/Medium/Low for the whole crew for a single day; otherwise they would of course just opt for High Rations all the time since there’s unlimited food to go around). Then it’s time to begin the journey. Split the journey into legs (say, 2-3 day increments), for however long the journey will take; e.g., if it’s a 2-week (14-day trip), you’ll have roughly 5-7 distinct legs. Treat each leg like a round of a Skill Challenge or Combat: ask the PCs to come up with a role on the journey for them to be in charge of (this could be cooking, ship maintenance, fishing/hunting, captaining, keeping watch/lookout, or simply performing or hanging out with the crew to keep people happy). Make sure there is a distinct Skill from the character sheet’s list for each (I use Survival or Nature for food gathering and food prep, Perception for lookout duties, Performance or Persuasion for crew interactions, you get the idea). Then Roll Initiative, and in turn-order, have each player describe what they’re doing for that leg and then make a Skill Check based on their activity. Feel free to confer Advantage if they give an especially good description or go above and beyond in some way. After each round, take the average roll from the party and compare it to your updated Travel DC (which as you’ll recall is adjusted based on the aforementioned criteria). If the team meets the DC, nothing changes. If they are 1-5 below the DC, lower Crew Morale and/or Health by 1 stage and describe something negative that happens during that leg (e.g., if the Lookout had the worst roll and brought the average down, perhaps the ship hits an iceberg and suffers some HP damage and forces the Speed to decrease by 1 stage, losing a day or two). If they fail by 5+, Crew Morale and/or Health lowers two stages and something more catastrophic happens. And of course, flip the script if they beat the DC. Get as creative as you can/want, and make sure you are asking the players to react to the situation. If Crew Morale gets low enough, consider having them mutiny or follow orders less and less, perhaps slowing travel or causing some in-game tension, maybe even a full-blown encounter. Do this for each leg of the journey, and keep it organic as you go along. Recognize that health will also affect morale, and constant fast-speed may also tire out the crew. Throw in some encounters, skill challenges, and other RP situations, all of which can affect crew Health and Morale, as well as the vessel’s “health” or condition, and repeat until the journey is done. At the end, assuming they survived the voyage, award XP based on [how many crew members survived] X or / [crew morale] X or / [crew health] X or / [amt of food remaining] X or / [ship condition]…or come up with your own formula.
Role-Playing During Travel: Even if you’re not interested in any of the above, you should always use travel/down time as a way of getting the players to discuss their characters a bit more. Oftentimes in TTRPGs, we lose sight of the story and focus too much on combat, dungeon crawls, etc., and forget about the story aspect. If the players are spending 2 weeks aboard a wagon to get to the next kingdom, they must be doing something during that time. Go around the table, checking in with each player and asking them to describe what their character is interested in, who they’re talking to, and what they’re doing. Dive deep and if players are having trouble, give some examples of things they can do or see, or maybe discuss some of the features they’re passing or invent some fun crew member or passenger NPCs to interact with. Most of the time, you’ll find that the players love to waste time talking to the onboard chef and learning great recipes.
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