2 Ways to Make D&D Travel Less Boring

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For many game masters and players, travel, whether by land or sea, can be boring and uninteresting in D&D and other RPGs such as Pathfinder 2. So what does a GM do? In general, when a game element is not fun, you have 2 options: 1) skip it and move along to the fun bits, or 2) try to make the boring stuff better. If I'm not just skipping travel (handwaving it), there are two basic approaches to making travel in Dungeons & Dragons more fun for everyone. First, random encounters. Second, points of interest (POI).
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[@theDMLair]

Ask me your own question! Just leave a comment. THE SECRET ART OF GAME MASTERY | Get decades of GM experience in one book! www.kickstarter.com/projects/thedmlair/the-secret-art-of-game-mastery?ref=77qgbg

[@peterterry7918]

"As you walk through the forest you encounter a small lake with a sunken ship in it..."

[@samuelfaucett7861]

Things that make travel interesting - Weather (temperature, precipitation, wind) - Danger (traps, wandering monsters, hunters, chases) - Choices (actions; forage, track, scout, etc.) - Time (limits especially) - Downtime (training, crafting, etc.) - Rapport (roleplay among PCs, NPCs, followers, hirelings) - Treasure and XP

[@elementalon2166]

I love to put shrines of old civilisations on their path because it builds the world and pantheon of gods just a little bit more.

[@robertnett9793]

The problem with points of interest is, that players might find them... well interesting. And go explore those instead of the adventure you set up. That should in no way mean you shouldn't use these. Just be aware, that you should prepare yourself for the inevitable curious players exploring the shit out of your qaint waypoint only meant to flavor the travel bit. And another thing: Random encounters are not random. You know there's travel ahead. you know you want encounters on the road. Prepare those encounters. Even if you want to challenge yourself, or can't up with a good idea and use random tables: Use them before the adventure and prepare the encounters. Last thing: Have a list of 20 names 10 male 10 female of different cultures/species ready. Players WILL ask for names. Confuse them by giving them one right off the bat without flinching.

[@RobertWF42]

In addition to points of interest, interesting decisions make travel more exciting. For example, ask the party if they want to take the long, safe route through the desert with little water or game or the short, dangerous route through the lush valley?

[@decoy2424]

I like these shorts because it seems like you’re always either in middle of work, or on your way somewhere nice 😂

[@theDMLair]

In the middle of work. Somewhere nice is my basement. lol

[@GreycatRademenes]

Also recommend talking with the players what is interesting to them. I've heard horror stories like one where the DM basically skipped almost whole of the jungle part of ToA, because the DM thought it was boring while the players had little to say.

[@lordnedrah7329]

I would actually just take the rules from another system that has better travel rules. Specifically Ryuutama and The One Ring have some excellent travel systems that can be stolen.

[@MoonlitMongrel]

I think a important thing to do is make random encounters, social/combat/exploration scenarios

[@soundhead18]

Or #3 a situation they have to figure out to get around. For my group I was DMing, they made their ship invisible and tied a rope to it in order to find it later, and they put the other end under a rock, but then a towns person came by when they were gone and cut the rope, so they had to figure out how to find the ship. Luckily they set the anchor

[@paulsavas2394]

Add explosions! Fixes everything!

[@cragland94]

resource management can bring a lot of tension to exploration/travel if you can find some encumbrance and carrying capacity rules that you like

[@julyol119]

If it's between important locations, I like to have the party travel with a caravan or pilgrimage or something. This way they can have stuff happen, that's not directly related to them. It's like having a city that's on the move.

[@flameloude]

Feels like just skipping it becomes detrimental if you have a ranger in the party. Considering in the early levels you'll be ignoring one of their main class features.

[@robertnett9793]

Indeed. But in that case you should make the jorney worthwhile not only for the Ranger but for the rest of the party.

[@flameloude]

@@robertnett9793 agreed

[@georgelaiacona111]

I try to incorporate the non-fun stuff into the story with similar methods to yours, for example, "random" encounters that add story points.

[@michaelhockman3420]

Random encounters during travel can be great for world building and seeding future adventures! Especially when they aren’t all combat.

[@alanthomasgramont]

I find random encounters mostly a waste of time. But points of interest that might lead to future games is a great idea. Otherwise, after level 3, I just tend to get the players there after a few sentences of narration sort of outlining what they might have seen along the way. If they interrupt me and want to go investigate that statue high above the ridge that they would have passed by, no problem, then it’s a point of interest.

[@GoodOldGamer]

Land or sea is so last edition. Now it's air and teleportation. 😋🤭

[@Nesseight]

DM makes a roll to determine a random player character, and then another to decide whether or not "they have died of dysentery"

[@ryanellis4818]

Unless it IS fun and interesting, we just skip it. I always ask "anyone got any RP or tasks they wanna play out while we travel?" And if everyone says no, we just Fast Travel. Unless I planned an encounter on the way.

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

One issue people have with “random encounters” is the “I will roll a random monster, not tie that monster into the broader setting, and have the monster immediately be aggressive to the party from ~60 feet away” which gets SO boring. Add non-monster “encounters”. Vary the encounter distance and attitude when it is a monster. Tie the monster into the setting (is there a lair nearby? Is this an invasive monster that is a portent of things to come?) Yeah. Random encounters can be really cool! You just need to make sure there is a little more to it than “you turn the corner, an ogre attacks you!”

[@mrgunn2726]

In cinema they call it a montage! In literature they call it in media res... The only problem with the point of interest is the PCs may decide this is the adventure and not the one you prepared. :/

[@nikoisland6731]

Id make travel interesting via survival elements. Such as the weather and whatnot

[@KingsNerdCave]

My players just except other than some basic descriptions I'm not going to fill a days worth of travel from one town to another with nonsense, if I have a random encounter I use it, but sometimes it's better to just say you leave the town, X days pass, now you're in the next town here's what happens.

[@princesskanuta3495]

Adventures more interesting!

[@dahelmang]

Could you move the text up just a little bit? There's an overlay with the title of the video and name of the channel that covers it up for me. Maybe other people don't have that problem 😅

[@madness1931]

This is something more people need to pay attention to. I've now sat through two weekly sessions (in a row), just traveling east, and now north, to our destination... just to hunt and kill a monster (side content). That's 7-8 hours of only RP, that we could have skipped. I don't mind RP, in fact, I like it. But traveling is boring, and we've done so much traversal RP (through the campaign), it's gotten VERY repetitive.

[@christianresel8051]

Skip... the error that kills the RPG out of DND. THE ONLY REASON WHY "DSA" IS EVEN CONSIDERED HERE! It has a MASSIVE focus on RPG and not FIGHTING althout it has a deep fighting system, althou its stupid to say "your ordinary, you not hero, 2 wolves will kill you no matter how powerfull you are"... yea... they wont...

[@CollectiblesEtc]

Unpopular opinion: Random travel encounters are stupid.

[@theDMLair]

I kind of agree. I generally plan the encounters my players will come across while traveling. My "random encounters" are almost never random.

[@theDMLair]

no random encounters are pretty stupid

[@robertnett9793]

Jup. Especially when you roll them on the fly. You don't win anything as a DM by 'challenging' yourself and deliver some half baked encounter. You can prepare a few encounters beforehand - or as an exercise when bored just make up random encounters yourself and stash them for later use.

[@keighne7650]

@@robertnett9793 Skill Issue, be more efficient and dynamic with your encounters.

[@ElDaumo]

Have you been losing weight?

[@theDMLair]

Yes! I'm down about 15 or so pounds from January. Working on losing more, too! :D