Overland Travel in D&D || Dael Kingsmill

This time on MonarchsFactory I dip back into some Dungeons and Dragons to talk about my homebrew system for handling overland travel and covering long distances. Rangers are people too! Who's your fave so far in the new season of Critical Role?
Angry GM Overland Travel: theangrygm.com/...
13th Age Montage Travel: newbiedm.com/2...
---
Join in with community discussion at / monarchsfactory
If you'd like to support my work and become part of the Patron Pantheon, you can check out my Patreon page here: / daelkingsmill
---
Twitter: @DailyDael
Instagram: @daeldaily
Facebook: / monarchsfactory
Tumblr: / theladyspanishes
Discord: / discord
---
Music is by Kevin MacLeod.

[@voodoocupcake2293]

I WISH this sort of detail and inspiration was in the DMG. 5e barely acknowledges that this can be part of the game, but it has always appealed to me as an opportunity to make the early tiers such an ADVENTURE. Even though I began playing during 5e, I get a strong nostalgia for the hex crawling of older editions, and this is the kind of thinking I have been looking for to fill out one of my favourite pillars of D&D

[@briarnotblair]

May I just tell you that this video kinda feels like the best birthday gift I got today? I turned fifteen today, and have been watching your videos for about two years, with D&D videos being my favorite of yours (I don't know if you've seen it or not, but I was the person who started the D&D story thread on the reddit). I'm watching this as I curl up in my room with my cat, and explore the books I got and where I'll put them. This is the perfect end to an amazing birthday, and one of, if not the most meaningful 'gift' I'll get today. Thank you, Dael, for making amazing videos that make me happy and brighten up my day. (And for posting a video in my favorite of your series on my birthday.)

[@MonarchsFactory]

+Morgan Lynn Ahh! My heart! This brings me so much happy!! Seeing that thread on the reddit is what kicked my butt into gear to make another D&D video, I'm so glad it got to be a little piece of your birthday. Hope you've had simply the most wonderful day, and thanks for making mine really excellent with this comment.

[@briarnotblair]

Thank you! It's been an amazing day.

[@williamcasey1079]

My god, this is all so wholesome :' )

[@leem2155]

dude this is so wholesome

[@Arthurgoblin4444]

honestly I rewatch this every time I run a lot of travel again

[@Calebgoblin]

5 years later I still use this! I just recently found my ollllld travel notecards I made back when I first watched this video back in uni

[@gardenbimbo6531]

So happy to find a female Dungeon Master, I know they are out there but so much less common as big KZbinrs and resources.

[@dracoargentum9783]

Yes indeedy! We need more female DMs!

[@InvaderZed]

I've been watching Becca Scott's cathulu games. They usally are all woman players to. Watching them go from 20's glamorous to mythos horror is fantastic to watch

[@WhatsUpGazpacho]

Over land travel: or how I stopped caring and learned to love doing lots and lots of extra work

[@Geoffercake]

The Scout, Navigator and Provisioner system is exactly the same as the one in Dungeon World, which I use for D&D. They call them Scout, Trailblazer and Quartermaster. I make each person roll survival and improvise some encounter based on the lowest roll. For example, the Scout rolls the lowest but it's still an ok roll, a 12. He was separated from the group following some tracks and is caught out by the Owlbear who left the tracks. If he had tried to run the Owlbear would've got a couple attacks in but he climbed a tree. I made a couple checks for the Owlbear, it failed to follow, so just loitered around for a couple moments before moving on. The Scout was found by the group still in the tree. I tend to prefer improvising rather than using tables, these encounters aren't part of the main narrative so don't need detail, to me they're just role play opportunities

[@EJJunkill]

This is just brilliant! I especially like the scout, navigator, and forager roles...it adds an element of choice for the party.

[@brianbucceri6412]

I remember see this video when it was uploaded and then I LOST IT FOR FIVE YEARS, great to find it again!

[@SamHintz]

I’m about to run a system based around traveling more than combat and I have been quite nervous since I’ve never had traveling captivate my players. This helps so much though! Great video!

[@adamsvette]

dividing up the group into traveling roles is an awesome idea. gonna save this for later

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

One thing overland travel ought to be able to do, is be used when the PCs decide the best course of action is to pick up and move to a different city

[@ianomalley6100]

Your int and cha mods are off the charts dael

[@pokemainiak]

Honestly your vids have helped me more than just about any other D&D entity on KZbin

[@mikamelin3022]

Just found your great channel, subscribed! You deserve way more views, hope the gods of the algorithm of the KZbins recognizes how great these are! Keep rocking

[@jonathanandrews3399]

I don’t usually use random encounter tables, but when I do: I use it as a fun exercise for myself to figure out how the random encounter relates to the main plot. Or a side plot. Or a brand new side plot that now exists because of the random encounter. My party is delivering x product to town y and I, having had zero time to prepare, slum it with the random tables. I get the iconic owl bear encounter. My challenge becomes this: what’s unusual about this owl bear? Maybe it’s got a noble’s seal caught around one talon. Maybe there’s a message tied around its leg like a carrier pigeon. Maybe it’s wearing goggles. All I need to add is one little detail to capture the party’s interest and give myself a hook for an expanded side plot. And if the party doesn’t go for it, that’s okay, too. I file the plot hook in my hook file for later and go on with the adventure. I haven’t wasted any time on it. The party doesn’t feel railroaded. Our original storyline is intact.

[@jordanbeard6687]

First off, I know I'm late to this comment party, but love your videos. On to my actual comment - I actually use what I call a complex random encounter table, which is really a set of tables. I created them once and just reuse them for everything because they were incredibly complex. To start with I'll have one that is only viable on the roads, one for forests, one for deserts, etc. But they all have a mix of good and bad things in them, and they have a mix of combat events, interesting events (just moments of something different happening like meeting a merchant caravan), and action items (which would be closest to what you were talking about with giving the character choices and consequences). Based on where they are, what their level is, and whether I feel they have made smart or risky choices the risk level on all the charts are adjustable up or down. So for example in a land where they are being hunted, the road is by far the higher risk than the hillside or swamp would be, so I could simply add 10 to the rolls for that choice (higher #'s on these charts are usually more dangerous things so that for once it's really good to roll low). I then use a random # generator, since I always have my laptop out in front of me for music and such anyway, to set up a series of random rolls. The players then get to roll once. My random #'s dictate with charts they are on, their roll is the roll on the given chart, then if it is a combat encounter I already have an extra random # from the generator setup to decide what exactly they are facing in that encounter. I know it sounds super complex, but it allows some truly random encounters and a lot of flexibility while also being more than just a single table of random combat. It requires a lot of setup, once, then you just reuse it over and over again (I've even used it in Sci Fi games and just fiddle the enemies around a bit). Seriously, I've been using the same hand written tables for this for almost 10 years now.

[@Alefiend]

Good method for overland travel. This middle aged grognard approves. I finally found myself a group to play with. They'd been doing Rise of the Runelords for some time, and I've always wanted to go through that AP. Naturally, I joined when they were taking a break from that campaign and had a Bardstravaganza-everybody rolls up a 2nd level bard, or something bardlike, and we take it from there. Session 1 was essentially a Battle of the Bands, which is pretty funny since most of us chose non-musical archetypes. We still won, and the competition was interrupted by fighting anyway. Also, I dig the color and straightening job. You're always attractive, so this is just appreciation for variety, I guess. Take that in the least creepy way possible. :-)

[@theformalmooshroom9147]

There are plenty of magic map programs depending on what you're looking for, the hexographer series or dungeon painter studio combined with it's especially useful import/export feature to name a few.

[@Twosocks42]

I've been role-playing for going on 24 years, and DMing for 16 years, with varied activity. That said, I still always watch videos from other fellow DMs to see if they have any tidbits or wisdom I can add to my toolbox. This is a wonderful tool I will be adding to my bag of tricks. Thank you. :)

[@jaywhite6]

Really like how much you planned for that. One path my party can take right now is roughly 3 days of travel and I didn't even think of something like this! As for an interesting session, Our last session saw the party meet a Baroness, My Blood Hunter Character (who is levelling up to level 3) has now begun his "Trial of the Lycan" a series of tests to acquire rare items to use in the lycan ritual. The Blood Hunter beseeched the emissary of the Raven Queen, left the town of Komar, for the Withering Wood, and had to either fight or make an offering to a Nightmare and obtain it's heart (A Heart of Despair - Item 1 on the list) chose to Make an offering of Owlbear meat, while praying to the RQ for guidance. and was granted the Heart. (as well as a secret ability that he will not be aware of for another 3 levels or so. :P) Now they can either go for A dagger of the Lizard King (Green Dragon's fang) or a Moonshard (a piece of Meteorite which is rare/ very expensive in my world), This is the 4 day trip to get to the Orluin Bay, created by a meteor strike.

[@TheReddfox44]

It is very impressive how much work you put into your cross country travels, when ever I was DM I just picked something random off the top of my head and tossed it as the player's. I'm guessing your adventures are amazing!

[@genostellar]

I like the idea of filling the travel with choices to make, not just danger, but I'm not sure that I can agree with the idea of deciding that things happen. If the party is going to get food poisoning, I want that to be determined by a roll made by the one cooking, aided by a bonus if they have proficiency in cooking. That way, if they roll poorly (possibly against my own secret roll), then the party might get food poisoning.

[@Ranerdar]

This needs to be written out somewhere. It sounds awesome.

[@marctelfer6159]

The DnD game I've been playing online with a few friends who are a bit all over the place geographically has basically fallen apart, so living vicariously through other DnD games is my whole thing right now :P

[@jonmattison3939]

Would you be willing to post up your "12 days" overland tables? I get the gist of how they work but I struggle from staring at a blank piece of paper and would be helped by seeing yours and personalizing it for my needs. Keep up the great & fun D&D videos. Thank you!

[@jessr5143]

This is actually a really great system to use! I'll have to look into doing that more for my low level players. In the campaign I'm a player in, we just departed Whitestone after saving the sixth De Rolo child (an aasimar toddler named Vax) from cultists looking to kidnap him. In thanks, Percy let us use the airship he built to travel to Lyrengorn to find Bigby's tower. We were led to the hidden tower on the snowy tundra in the middle of winter, some of us taking a point of exhaustion, and promptly fumbled about in the wizard tower, getting tossed into random rooms, encountering weird gravity, mimics, and a powerful steam gollum that took most party members out in a single hit.

[@4saken404]

Great video. It's one thing to see a video that offers several suggestions. It's quite another to see one that gives you concepts that help inspire your creativity! This video gave me all kinds of ideas!! And at the core of it all is the one critical aspect: choices. Player agency.

[@heavymetaljess_]

Your videos were recommended to me twice this week so I finally came over and watched one and I LOVE this idea! I'm totally going to build charts for each of the travel areas in my game. Also I subscribed and am excited to watch more of your videos.

[@JackDespero]

Great ideas and great video. Thank you for your time.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Thought that was very useful - shall certainly be doing something similar I reckon. I had a nice travel encounter with a party once where they came across some Hobgoblins guarding the road and setting up taxes to take from travellers - I didn't imagine it would go this way but the PC's managed to not only convince the Hobgoblins to not take their hard-earned gold but then proceeded to 'legitimise' their enterprise...making it an ACTUAL toll on the road rather than just bandits, and made good friends with the local Hobgoblin warlord - your PCs will surprise you - who would have thunk it, from a rather standard and dicely combat/conversation encounter. When it comes to Critical Role, I really like Travis' character - Fjord. It's awesome seeing him be the talker of the group, using his spells and abilities in innovative ways. SO much fun seeing him step out from the hulking shadow of Grog. Nott is also amazing, but that's because Sam is brilliant haha. Would like to hear more about your D&D adventures :)

[@SolidFoxHoundSF]

A group of witches infest the land with their malevolent power in my game. Everytime overland travel happens the players get disoriented and will have a sort of vision that I’ll describe on the way (like a piece of fruit on a tree that morphs into a tree hung body etc.) and then they’ll be near the destination when the vision ends. I’ll also throw in encounters with tribes and groups that inhabit the lands as necessary so they get to know the inhabitants. Other times random encounter tables I’ll write make do. It’s a sandbox so the players will map the visions and the environment as they go.

[@natashasurvivallady8021]

I really love the idea of the random dog befriending the party and maybe making them choose to sacrifice resources. It would also make for awesome roleplaying! ^_^

[@MdBabul-nj7gs]

N mjj. X nm

[@johnsalkeld1088]

A good road based thing is road tolls - a good hills based thing is as a consequence to tolls there will be smugglers

[@rasnac]

I am not a DnD player, but I can say that in historical tales and first hand sources like memoires and journals, travelling from a town to another is usually the most interesting and dangerous part of the story. Skipping over that with a montage would be giving up opportunity for great sotrytelling and roleplaying opportunities imho. That said, I found your detailed plans for travelling days quite creative and smart. By the way, cool new hair Kingsmill! Loved the colour. :)

[@connierule3902]

Could you cite some? I'd love to do some inspirational reading.

[@sonjaquan5775]

"Ask not an Eldar to talk about their D&D game, for they will give you three answers, all of which are excessively long and terrifying to know." - Someone, I'm sure. I like your method! I dig the completeness of it. In my own game I just place my brain in the appropriate geographical setting (I travel specifically to gather sense memory details for DM narration) and just narrate what bubbles through the grey matter which does mean that I occasionally miss a chance to hook a tangential plot detail, but I personally find that winging it is 90% of the joy of DMing. As for the new season of Critical Role, Caleb and Nott are wonderful, Fjord and Beauregard are delightful, and Jester is a treasure. There isn't enough Ashley Johnson, but we're inured to that reality by now.

[@fplaysdm74]

Sonja Quan what about Mollymauk?

[@KubinWielki]

@@fplaysdm74 [SPOILERS for anyone who haven't watched CR season 2 ep 26 yet. You've been warned] Turns out it doesn't really matter anymore, does it?

[@danzka86]

Hi there. First of all, I am happy I have stumbled upon your channel. You said something in on of your other videos, I think the animal companion rule one, that really puts into words what I like about this channel. You said that, contrary to Matt Mercer, Matt Coleville and other people in that category, you don't have years and years of experience, but only a handfull. To me that is really what makes your Channel good. There are many channels out there from big name DM's and we can learn a lot from them. But they also have a certain approach to the game and they don't have the set of fresh eyes that are sometimes needed to get a fresh approach to the game. These days a lot of new players crop up around the world with the game having its second golden age and all. I think both Matts, Perkins, Merls, Nerdarchy, DmScotty and such have a lot of knowledge for those new players, but I think they sometimes lack the perspective of someone who is relatively new to D&D. Just wanted to let you know that I think it is really great that you just embrace that and are not afraid to put yourself out there. That paragraph became a bit longer than intended ':) . What I wanted to comment in the first place was about your three "job designations" when traveling. I like the concept but i feel like it could be improved upon depending on the party. To me both the provisioner and the navigator bot rely on the same skill survival to handle their respective roles, whereas the scout would probably utilize perception an their end. Having the party delegate people to these tasks, they will probably try and optimize by putting the most capable people on the spot. This means if the party might have to compromise if they only have one character who is proficient in survival. That is not necessary a bad thing since it will create interesting situations when either the navigator or provisioner fails. But I think I would adjust these roles depending on the kind of journey that is to be undertaken. I think the scout and the navigator would probably be a constant, but i would say the provisioner would only make sense in areas were there is plenty of food to be foraged. Alternative roles could be: Captain/driver if the journey is on ship or wagon and make use of dexterity sleight of hand checks with the added vehicle proficiencies granted by some backgrounds. Horsekeeper if the journey is on horseback and utilize animal handling. Fielddoctor could apply to most journeys and work of the medicin skill and ensure that injuries sustained during travels are treated properly. These are just some top of my head ideas, but the point is to take your idea and add to it so it can support a wider variety of characters, because I think giving all players the opportunity to shine every once in a while is important. So I think for DM's to use this is great, but every now and then the third role to be assigned should be switched up so that other classes might have a moment to shine. With keeping the navigator and scout at all times, i think it stille keeps that emphasis on Ranger type classes being the most important which i think is crucial.

[@vicnedel02]

I made a specially tweaked rain forest weather table for when the party was travelling trough the jungle. Visibility was lessened already because of the foliage and their movement rate was slowed during heavy rain so they decided to wait out the worst of the storm and made camp. It rained for three days and three nights straight. On the forth day the sun came out. They packed up their tents and set out, later that evening despite the warnings of their guide, they decided to continue travelling in the dark. They were ambushed by ghouls who leaped from the trees down on their heads and during the battle, they were separated from their guide. It also began to rain again so they hunkered down again hoping that the guide was alive and they would find him tomorrow. The man was paralysed and dragged away by ghouls but since it was dark and the visibility was low because of the foliage, the party was unaware of what terrible fate befell him and assumed that he was a coward and ran, leaving them behind. And that is the beginning of the story of how my party spent a miserable month and a half lost in the jungle. Things got pretty desperate for them, but they adapted.

[@Semblance_of_Chaos]

Azgaar's map generator. There's your magic map program. For free.

[@josephercanbrack8393]

My system of overhead travel has been the three encounter chance rolls per day. To speed it up, I roll hundreds of rolls in advance, write them down, then cross them off in order. I do save the monster roll to there and then.

[@jgrayson1940]

Keen to hear more about your D&D adventures!

[@bucketspree4952]

this video actually has really inspired me to try new things with overland travel

[@saetharion]

Haha yeah! New Dael&Dragons video! I like the hair! There were a lot of really cool elements to this video, some very thoughtful and creative ideas. I think you hit it on the nail when you said travel can make some of the most interesting stories. Some of the oldest works we have are of travel; from things like certain parts of The Cantebury Tales or Don Quixote, travel was often not undertaken lightly or without caution. Especially with DQ, the story is the travel itself and what's found on the road. That said, I think implementing this idea is something that needs to be taken into context with the group available (thought I say that about everything); for instance if players aren't really interested in this kind of adventure and just really want to get to that next town or city for the urban adventure or that dungeon for the crawl, slowing them down this way can be frustrating (even if I feel like it's way cooler to implement these as it really grounds the adventure with the level of detail and brings them into the world). Also, the number of party members needs to be taken into account, because if you're implementing the work weariness with 3 people working during the day, you kind of need 2-4 others to take watch depending on how long you want your watches (if you do the 4 hour shifts then that person sure as hell aint getting a long rest unless they're an elf), so you'd need to have 5-6 party members, potentially more. Rambling aside, it's always great to have the time to catch up and binge on MonarchsFactory videos. I'm honestly so happy to hear your campaign's still around and I know the pain of needing that DnD fix. I think one of my favourite things I threw at my players recently was a High Elf bridge guardian. To pass, all they had to do was beat him in a contest. What was the contest you ask? It could be anything you picked! From things like "ability to not sweat" if they're a lizardfolk, or "scratch your own tail" if they were catfolk. One of my players used this as a way to mine information by making the test a comparison on theoretical approaches to depriving dragons of their magic (a goal of theirs). The Bard got into a cooking contest, the Barbarian a lifting competition (which they almost lost when the guardian magicked themselves 2 extra arms and 2 metres of height). They could interact as much as they wanted with the guardian, or just fly past it since they were high level enough. It was quite funny when the vampire tried to fly past and got airbended into the river below. They decided to fly a little further away the next time.

[@MonarchsFactory]

+Ahmed Al Awadhi Oh, totally! If I didn't have a character who has so much of their class abilities tied up in travel I would probably stick to the montage and move on, but as is I wanted it to carry some weight. Also keep in mind that the party can always choose to not elect anyone as navigator/provisioned/scout, they just have to be ready for the risk/reward trade off. Having said that, mine is a party of 7 so this is designed with a large group in mind, you're right.

[@saetharion]

That is an excellent point, I suppose they don't need a provisioner if they have rations, or a navigator if they're following a road as well. The system as a whole definitely seems like something I'd be interested in trying out and playing with. Being able to make every person in the group feel like they're contributing in some manner or another for something like this would do wonders for helping group bonding/cohesion and make them feel like they've accomplished something together, especially at lower levels with new characters where it's actually a struggle and you're trying to bring them together. I'm curious, you put so much thought and detail into every aspect of your game, I was wondering what you do for music? I kind of slack off in this regard and have a few of those megavideos with hours of backgrounds and just let it run, switching it up in combat or new areas.

[@MonarchsFactory]

+Ahmed Al Awadhi Hahaha, you ready for an insight into madness? I have playlists split up by mood - combat, tension, eerie enclosed, eerie open, general outdoors, magic peaceful and magic scary have served me well. I also have playlists for specific significant locations which thankfully there aren't many of thusfar.

[@saetharion]

That... that sounds spectacular! And like so much work. Do you just scour the youtubes for videos? What's your process for collecting tracks?

[@tehspikey]

My adventure story is not D&D (but still tabletop ofc) and more of a out of game story but still exciting... A few months ago I ran a game of my homebrew system at a small con. It's an adaption of the Age system (i.e Dragon Age, Fantasy Age and Titansgrave) in a world loosely based on the PS2 game Gladius - four societies duking it out in gladiatorial tournaments. I had a three hour game of about 1/2 setup/intrigue and 1/2 combat. One of the comments I received was from a great bunch of RP-ers, who said combat was usually super boring to them, but combat in my game was super fun. I took that as a win.

[@ZakB_69]

Love the D&D videos, last session I ran, the party (lvl4) tried hunting a mammoth. Ended up with the mammoth retreating into the forest with the minotaur barbarian clinging on for dear life.

[@blackxmask8155]

i just love hearing u speaking

[@marctelfer6159]

Completely unrelated, my brother and my mum watch "Neighbours" and "Home and Away" every afternoon. I usually go into a different room to watch something else (usually something on KZbin), but we got takeaway and I'll eat that with them instead, so we're altogether. All of a sudden, I hear what I thought was "Wollongong". I don't know if it's mentioned much in either programme, but all I could think was "Dael's from there!" and then got on KZbin to rewatch some mythology videos, because why not :P

[@LunarMelodia]

I'm definitely considering using this in my homebrew campaign, such a fantastic system!

[@falconashek8913]

Three of my favorite games, Smash Up, Dead of Winter and Pandemic. My friend and I are in June of Pandemic Legacy. Great vid.

[@DeusViator]

New Hair?! Love it! I think the only thing I'd worry about from a player's perspective is the somewhat high tendency to lose the long rest benefits. Perhaps just because i play a sorcerer who damn well needs his long rest to recover anything at all but I'd probably like the option as a player to make sure we do get that long rest but perhaps cover less ground that day which might add another day onto the journey at the end.

[@MonarchsFactory]

Which would be a perfectly decent choice to make for the cautious traveller! All about that give and take. :)

[@InameAsOne]

GURPs, not D&D, but during a large-scale combat encounter, I looked at one of my spells and realized there was no real upper limit on what it could do. Most uses of the spell were for pushing someone away from you with a burst of air, but it increased by 1d8 force points per 2 spell points spent on the cast, with every 8 force points pushing the target(s) back 1 hex. Naturally, on my turn I told the GM that I cast Shape Air at 40 points. It took me 20 turns, but at the end of it, I pretty much set a hurricane at the opposing army and knocked 80% of them nearly 2km. The spell is now banned at more than 10 points.

[@remingtongack2507]

this is such a helpful video thank you!

[@lowleypeasentmr.l8836]

I make a list of small adventures based on region (ocean, desert, ect.) So I'm not going to use the event time tables but I'm definitely using that role mechanic.

[@captainbashir5174]

I really love this, I would love to play in a game that had this type of nuance. the party I run for would flay me alive if I added this amount of impedance to the flow of the story.

[@robpegler6545]

I have a table somewhere in my homebrew system that specifies how long a horse can maintain a particular gait (walking, trotting, cantering or galloping) and how many miles he'll cover in that amount of time. Yeah, I'm _that_ GM.

[@Jedisbar]

Man seeing you with straight hair is a trip. Looks good, but yea.

[@munderpool]

While it doesn’t always fit the scenario, I usually tried to make the wandering monster encounter be a foreshadowing of the adventure to come. Perhaps some of them are part of the enemy occupying the distant ruins, or the survivors who run away from the party track them with reinforcements that night, or a prisoner takes them to the hidden location.

[@jasonscarborough94]

The last time I ran a quest that required overland travel, my brother ended up recruiting a coven of Dryads, a Drow sorcerer, and his pet Shield Guardian to the party's side, the damned Drow even forfeited his claim to any of the loot because he got a Nat 1 on is Diplomacy check

[@rowdybeaman1436]

I love Wonderdraft, it is a 1 time purchase map making software that is honestly super simple to learn. MAGIC MAP SOFTWARE

[@1Maklak]

I like how there are multiple flavour things that can happen on the road and aren't combat, especially a flock of sheep blocking the way. The group of dogs trying to take down the sheep doesn't have to be rabid. Hungry strays will often form packs and are arguably more dangerous than wolves, because they aren't afraid of humans. They can also simply belong to some farmer; even in this day and age there are people who feed only things like grits to their dogs because "the meat is running in the forest". So if the group decides to hunt down the dogs, they could meet an angry owner later. In any case, if they group has horses, pursuing and engaging the dogs shouldn't be a problem, especially if there is a spellcaster or an archer. I'd argue that going cross-country will likely be slower than following the road, even when the road isn't a straight line because hills have 75% movement speed when there is a trail or a road and 50% movement speed cross-country.

[@michaelwinter742]

Wow. I just populate the world with a variety of things. If they encounter the thing, they deal with it.

[@Eupolemos]

3:21 - 3 roles

[@ttibke]

Still.... so.... awesome.

[@animistchannel2983]

It sounds like you put some great ideas together, but I'd make one exception. Roads are much faster than going through wilderness hills and forests. (Really. Try it some time and see how many kilometers per day of useful map movement you get hiking off-trail in a national wilderness area etc.) That's why empires spend enormous resources to build them. Roads also get built through what would have been the quickest & easiest course already. They are also generally safer, because they suggest someone is bothering to maintain them for useful purposes like trade. The problem with roads is that if there are dangers (bandits etc), they will be harder to avoid; plus there are tolls and politics and so on. I think I run my games sort of inverted to a lot of GM's. I run a ton of wild time, with cities and "dungeons" as pit-stops between journeys. I guess that's a manifestation of my own life, and growing up with a lot of National Geographic etc. I have daily rolling charts for stuff that pops up in the wild, from isolated folks to old ruins, potential allies, quirky characters, wildlife encounters, terrain challenges, inspiring views, magical/spiritual creatures, weather events, and so on. A thunderstorm brewing is perfect for making the party check out that cave or old tower or hermit's house I have up my sleeve as a reserve. I'll also have a lot of stuff on the list just floating, waiting for a good place in the journey to plop them down. For honesty's sake, I make all my npc's actually see the party as they are. Half a dozen armed and armored adventurers with bonded creatures and arcane sigils all over their gear are unlikely to get messed with by anyone who isn't totally suicidal, ESPECIALLY in the wild. Some natives may act suspicious, but they will also accept payment & help if it is offered. I find players enjoy doing local charity/heroics for others who are just plain folks. It feels like rescuing a kitten, and a good way to bring out local secrets and campaign development. If all the clues were in the library, then all the treasures would be found already :)

[@TheGoblinoid]

You just got shouted out by Matt Colville in a video covering this very topic! Great stuff, subscribed!

[@DaveButtons]

The magic map programme is Wonder Draft. Not sponsored, I paid and love this app.

[@boones999]

Nice video :) Here's an addendum of the only rule that really matters regarding travel: If you have a choice, NEVER travel through a terrain type where the random encounter table contains monsters that can petrify. Never. You know what's gonna happen and no one wants to drag your stony ass along.

[@StubbornProgrammer]

I love the montage idea. If it needs more RNG you could just sort of do mad-libs with dice. "Your part encountered a [challenge or obstacle] that they overcame by thanks to [party member's attribute]." Bonus points if the party fleshes out the story. Also serious question: You seem really well organized at DM-ing. Is this just a D&D thing or are you basically an organized person?

[@MasterLycan844]

StubbornProgrammer it does take a certain amount of organization but it’s up to what each DM requires to handle their sessions.

[@PapaBear_Gaming]

Organization depends on a couple things, it does make things easier flat out to be honest, however you can do without organizing or even planning depending on how good you are at thinking out a plotline and especially how good you are at improvising. I tend to think a half and half is good, putting in too much effort makes DMing seem like a chore rather than something super fun to do, so I plan out some stuff, and leave a few things open. It's important to be able to handle a new situation on the fly also, eg the party decides to kill the friendly halfling that nicely tied your quest together because he was wearing that fancy silver ring on his finger you put there in order to get their attention in the first place, now you have to improvise to either make the quest organic and now they're the villains of that town, or improvise to save your quest line and just don't tell them what you intended.

[@MintyDarkFinger]

I don't know about Dael. But I personally am the least most organised DM on the planet. I have one half of a note book and a few vague plot points on an A4 sheet for the session. Everything else in terms of information I rely on my players (Spells, stats etc). I think people should try their best to improv as much as possible and where they can because it's been some of the best sessions I've ever had with my party. This works better with sandbox campaigns where they can go anywhere and meet anyone but even in a linear styled campaign with a focused arch villian, just getting a feel for a character and ad-libbing does wonders and basically has your PCs making the plot for you with their ideas.

[@nymalous3428]

This is the second D&D video of yours that I have watched (I don't remember what the first one was). Both were well-made, entertaining, and informative, so I am subscribing. For me, when I am running a game, I do not use random encounters. Everything is planned out from the beginning. This doesn't mean that it is a linear plot-line, just that I have every encounter all ready and in place. I find random encounters to be a distraction from the story that I'm trying to tell, and even though they don't all have to be combat, they still drain resources from the group in time, energy, and attention. Does this mean that I have a large number of encounters that never get used? Yes... and no. Any encounter that the party does not run into simply gets recycled into the next adventure (perhaps with minor modifications). Does every encounter I create have some over-arching reason and attachment to the central plot of the campaign? No. Some are just circumstantial encounters that are interesting for their own sake, others are there for realism and immersion, and some are meant to drain those resources that I was talking about (but intentionally rather than accidentally). Mostly I find that pacing is better when I have all my ducks in a row and don't have to check for random encounters. So, to sum up, every encounter is planned, not all need to be run into (if party goes a different way, sneaks past, don't notice, etc.), and recycle unused encounters.

[@stevethedragonborn]

To those looking for good map makers: I recommend either using Hexographer it's easy to use and free. Or, Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator which is free, and adding a hex graph overlay in photoshop if you wish.

[@zippyfreak]

This method is brilliant, have to say i always found the 'travel' aspect of D&D very disappointing, so this is great. Consider this.... (with best of intentions and greatest gratitude)...... STOLEN!! :) Mwahahahaha

[@PukeSkywanker]

Awesome 😊. Your D&D vids are great. I hope there's many more coming? 😀

[@scottmefford6917]

Everyday Dael Kingsmill is simply gorgeous. Dael with straight hair? HFS 😍😙💞

[@Zorum24]

The magic map maker I recommend is Wonderdraft

[@gregmccormack5709]

Very cool Vid, I'm definately going to be adding more flavour to my travel after watching this.( aside from combat encounters of course)

[@solsunforgevlogs9837]

So many cautious canine capers

[@lyingcat9022]

This is awesome! I might try to put one of these in a game and see how it goes :) Oh and is this a house rule that you lose your long rest if you are woken up? Doesn’t a long rest allow for up to 1 hour of fighting or travel and 2 hours of light activity?

[@JunkyardBard]

There is a magic map program! It's called Inkarnate. It's browser based, too!

[@bassmanjla]

YEUP.. I definitely want to play in a game of yours someday.

[@magecraft2]

My system depends a lot on what the plan for the adventure, if they are just going somewhere and the journey is not important then I will maybe make a few random enc rolls (I have a large amount of these encounters which are similar to your events and include mini adventures) but normally they just get there. This is just DM style as this can be interesting but can drag out the journey too much imo. If the journey is part of the adventure then I go very similar to what you are talking about. With travel remember the non road journey is only quicker if they are travelling by foot otherwise the road will be quicker :). Also on road you have inn's which can be a great source of fun and info. My player know if they want to get somewhere to take the safest route (usually road or boat if coastal) unless they want some fun and then they wander into the wilderness (unless the area is civilised then they get into trouble walking on someones land e.g. Farmer Maggot in LOTR). Your jobs sound great for a wander into the unknown but on a known journey they maybe to specific (or more they overlap) I normally have the person leading them to make a survival role per day in the wilderness but none needed on a road. Wow that was a lot more than I planned to write :)

[@BordrKing]

Inkarnate is indeed a magic map program that's a free to use in browser app

[@someguy99]

God dammit, Dael! Your hair looks fantastic!! Also......I'm about to DM a D&D session that takes place in an Abby where the head abbot turns out to be an evil necromancer......should be fun!

[@martinlarsson8947]

Anyone who wants inspiration for mastering overland travel should probably reread the hobbit. It reads like the best `tale from the table’ ever and mainly consists of overland travel with very little combat.

[@jackfranciswest3778]

Ur content slaps I’m eating it up ty ty ❤️

[@craigbainton4173]

I'm putting my party up against a really beafed up revenant this weekend. A few NPCs are trying to help, (one of which is a high level fighter and the Wizard in my parties dad) and it is going to be super deadly if they don't think tactically about this. I gave it a few OP abilities like the 'no regaining hit points' thing from the big fetas at the end of Tomb of Annihilation. I hope I don't kill another party member as I killed one a few sessions ago. 😅😈

[@Telleryn]

I'd love to see you DM or play a streamed game

[@aenorist2431]

And the Map is middle earth ... remembered after seeing it in a drunken night :D Nice stuff though.

[@archangel2106]

This is great!

[@ryanwillmon7689]

inkarnate is a pretty good map program

[@dracawyn]

Do you have a downloadable version of your random encounters? Because these are fantastic!

[@symphony10]

Omg this is amazing thank you.

[@royragesevers3685]

I'm a pain... And I was looking for more specifics. Like, what modes of transportation are there? Especially with world's like Toril, I'm not sure how adventures or commoners alike, travel from settlement in their day to day lives. Are there rules or is it up to the DM?

[@thomaslnd]

Use Inkarnate if you want to create maps! Its a great tool. Takes alittle bit of practice learning how to digitally draw though.

[@dreddbolt]

A dark and foggy night it is for you to be deemed guilty by association and arrested by paladins of a harshly lawful order. A thief (perhaps the party rogue) has tried to steal a holy artifact from the mausoleum of an age-old celebrated hunter of demons, devils, and undead... only to find the door unsealed and the artifact missing. The culprit (a UA stone sorcery sorcerer, arcane trickster, or eldritch knight), a snot-mustard-yellow tiefling woman, was discovered... but far too late, for you are shackled to a horse-drawn cart. Seven in all, with three in front and three in back, you are escorted along with the suspected conspirator and the actual culprit to a dungeon to be interrogated. The mists claw at the horses as the party is transported along the forest path. Suddenly--- A wereboar in hybrid form charges in on a dire-rhinocerous mount and jackknifes two of the paladins on horseback. The leader of the paladins orders for the prisoners to be escorted with immediate haste. As the cart lumps and bumps along, the misty forest path quickly turns into a rickety bridge over an inky black abyss below and mysterious rolling red clouds above. After jumping a gap in the maddeningly warped bridge, the bolts in your shackles begin to violently shake loose. What do you do?

[@StepBackHistory]

Is there an easy way to manage food and food levels etc.

[@drekfletch]

Magic map maker: Edited to actually add the map maker used by twitter.com/unchartedatlas. mewo2.com/notes/terrain/

[@OutOfPrintGM]

Some cool ideas thaks

[@diabetoyes1278]

You are so cool!

[@darcyvandelaar6200]

Your D&D videos are so great, thank you for making them! :) I'd love to know if you'd handle overseas travel in a similar way? My party are about to set off on a ship to the capital and I'm very interested in the opinions of other DM's on the topic :)

[@exile3897]

OMG this is too perfect. I have a session comming up with over land travel. The party has been hired as extra muscle by a mercenary company to escort a wealthy merchant, who demanded the "Heros" he had heard about join the escort. Of course they were ambushed on the road. The kick is the mercenary company set the ambush, they have been going from city to city and raising the danger on the road creating a demand for escort services. Then when they get a big contract they kill everyone and steal the lot. Because of their experience doing this they get a surprise round which wasn't as bad as it could have been because most of them happened to be in complete cover from the archers and riding their own horses instead of riding in the wagons. Now I can add some more stuff like a broken wagon wheel, meeting a sick family on the road(maybe the family followed them and would as such need protection during the battle), and if the ranger is out scouting we may be able to take out some of the ambushers before hand...hopefully he does that because he plays his ranger like a barbarian but it makes for so much fun and chaos.