Travel Turns, D&D Overland Travel | Cmike's D&D 5e Fix

Have everyone Roll Dice & tell the story from point A to point B.
One Page Travel Tracker: bit.ly/CmikeTravelTracker
Check the comments & replies for any cool twists or variants that I didn't cover :)
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// Credit //
Carmichael: bit.ly/Cmike_tw
Mihro: Additional Editing
#DnD #DungeonsandDragons #Dungeon Master
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Brian Carmichael, Brandin Johnson, greytheboxx, Flamefreinds, kngofsummer, TundraColt, NDK, CraigBerry, Foehn Galllet, Trey Just, Jeremiah Dvorak, August Gunter, Nick Priddy, Dung3on_gurl, Nicholas Hensel, Matthew Andriaccio, Devon Happe, Sascha, Schiffer, theCrumbledCookie, Nunthius, Sean O'B, james johnson, Mason Watts, Paul P, jonathon Wehling, Idleseven, Ghitea Andrei Paul, Thoreau, Wayne Wu, Chris Sims, Tim, PeteFitz, Mihro, Aaron Charbonneau, Thomas Hunter, Snow White, Filip Norelid, Erik van, Rhee, Colton Clemmer, Luke Schroer, Klas Claywood, Adam Fofana, Zack Schinkel, Dylan Cole, Alistair (Bear), DoomsDayLord, Benthic, dancoe4, Max, Max Cook, João Sousa (MeekMegalomaniac), Hardisk, Jean, Alexander Jo, Stuart, Tue Duong, Thomas Male, Y S, Petros L. Ioannou, Kris Sharp, Tyler Dears, Pete Ludlow, Purifire, Draemian, Nicholas Genova, Brandin Johnson, XeroRez, james johnson, Arne Magnus Tranum, Cj Smith

[@CmikeDnD]

Caught my own typos.. SAD FACE!

[@FablesD20]

But now we know Result is supposed to be spelled with an "a" not just the "u" ;)

[@CmikeDnD]

It wouldn't be a Cmike video without a typo lol

[@euansmith3699]

I thought that you were using the old Anglo-Saxon spelling.

[@mees8711]

@@euansmith3699 I bought it

[@Composureman]

I'm gonna share this with my D&D group and see what they say. It sounds interesting. Nice work.

[@FablesD20]

Thank you!!

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

I love the idea of an organized travel turn and rolling dice for DC of travel, etc. All that is wonderful. But even as a naturally skilled math person I can't understand this video or the sheet because the words used are imprecise or not presented in a totally logical order, and no full examples with steps are given. Those two things being fixed would be a world of difference in understanding this video.

[@tinylittlewritter5969]

Return of the King!

[@siediousswift8088]

Cool concept, thanks for sharing. It’s one of the areas I’d like to improve.

[@matchesm]

What a great idea! Thank you so much!

[@strident3115]

Second 🥈

[@RyanStipe]

Awesome ideas! I'd love your insight on how to use this system with mounts / vehicles. A party with horses should move faster, or if they wanted to take boats down a river instead of crossing it. Would the mounts / vehicles just add more travel dice or just add a flat value each hour/day/week? I like both options, but I feel like there should be some mechanical support for "the fastest horse in the land" vs an old farm mule. Similarly, during a chase when differences in movement speed could be really important, or is it just down to the dice? Secondly, I found it a little confusing at first if all players should roll, or one roll for the party. With only one person rolling each hour/day/week, I get the impression that after a session or two, one PC would most likely be found to be "the best" at travel, so why not have them roll every time? (probably the ranger) which then basically removes the rest of the player interaction. If the DM forces everyone to take turns, it could be frustrating for the players that know someone else could roll it better. Am I misunderstanding something? any clarifications would be wonderful. Lastly, would you use the normal rules for food/water/getting lost in the PHB & DMG with this system? or do you just not worry about this at your table? Love the system, and I'm excited to give it a try!

[@FablesD20]

Great Questions! First, I googled how far you can travel on horseback in a day, they generally can go 50 miles, and trailing a wagon gets 10-15 miles. So it depends on how “true to the situation” vs “fan of the players” you want to be, but you can lower the DC or just add/subtract a D6. I personally like adding a D6 if the party finds a way to go faster, and take one away if they have to haul extra weight and go slower. It’s super easy and physically rewards a player with adding a D6 in their hands. Consider that when they’re chasing. If they find ways to move faster or lose the trail or stay on the trail through a couple successful investigation checks. Second, I didn’t express it right, my bad. Consider it similar to “taking watch” when the party is resting. There’s going to be 1-2 players who are the best at traveling, which means have them roll first, but if even they don’t make it, you go down the table and keep rolling. This system allows anyone to contribute, but also rewards players who invest in traveling, nature, etc. Trust me, players will enjoy the fact that within 1-2 rolls they get to where they are going, but also will have fun if they don’t make it there right away, because they get to have a cool encounter that you’ve planned for the terrain or journey. Third, food/water/getting lost. It’s up to you, for me I could creatively narrate, that they ran out of food or water or got lost “and that’s why they’re travel die didn’t make it all the way” so the encounter is a survival encounter- gathering water, food, and finding out where they are and where they need to go.

[@TwinSteel]

❤️🥳👍🏿

[@deanpeters660]

I've read the comments and I still don't think you addressed how everyone participated in this dice roll. If it is a 4d6 roll is everyone rolling 4d6 each and average it out or take the best outcome? They would have to roll perfect dice to make the 24 miles which isnt average? I think I am missing something.

[@FablesD20]

(from cmike) I really want to make an update video.

[@SavvyQueen18]

@@FablesD20 Please! We would love to see how this works!

[@TwinSteel]

@@FablesD20would love to see it

[@Vulstok]

So I was guided here from a Underdark group. How would you adapt this system for an average travel distance of 6 miles per day?

[@FablesD20]

I'm actually working on that video.

[@SavvyQueen18]

As a beginning dungeon master, I never really liked the idea of traveling. I've seen other people conduct travel in the slowest, most agonizing way. But this genuinely makes me excited to try and do travel! But I just don't quite understand how this works mathematically. Say my players are traveling for 3 days (would the DC be set as 13 since 10+3 days) it's very easy for them to roll on average a 13 if they start in the morning (or have them land in a margin of error). Their arrival would be quick and efficient to the next point of interest that I have, but how do I give the players time to interact with each other during that travel? The party needs to grow right? Would it be more logical to split the days up and make the DC higher so that there is more interactions between player characters instead of just advancing the story quickly? Overall a still good idea, but some examples would be good to have.

[@FablesD20]

Ya im work shopping other ideas to make even easier and just plane simple to run travel. The biggest reason i like travel is, it grants opportunity for exploring the world. Of course there’s times to just skip it or sum it up, but sometimes it can be it’s own adventure or downtime 😇

[@FablesD20]

If they choose to start early and try to “win traveling”, you can let be easy for them to win. On the other hand, if you don’t feel like you might need time or have something really dramatic or cool for them, make the DC harder or it takes longer. All you need is a couple nights away from the safety of their town to let the monsters find them. 😇😈

[@SavvyQueen18]

@@FablesD20 Your totally right, I guess it really is just up to the GM as usual, haha! Thanks for the reply!

[@FablesD20]

@@SavvyQueen18 we would love to see what you come up with! we have a homebrew category in our discord where everyone shares and comments on ideas 😇

[@JhrJasper]

Cool idea in letting rolls decide some form of virtual travel distance/progress but I'm not really following how everyone gets to contribute in this system? For instance party of 4 has to travel for 3 days (a 72 mile journey total) This results in a dc of 36 for the travel, its overland, along a road so they get the 4d6 travel dice. Does everyone get to roll a single of these dies in order or is one party member accountable for 4d6 / a day of the journey because you say that within the 8 hours everyone gets to roll? So for instance I roll the first travel turn and I get 4+4+1+2=11, we get to roll random encounter, this means 1 day has passed now Next day 6+5+4+3=18, we add the 11 from previous turn -> 29, still not meeting 32 so another random encounter Next day, we make it, i roll 6+6+2+1=15, maybe in this case I could say we make the journey in the first quarter of the day because of the 6 already beating the DC? Am I right in this scenario? And what does the Push at the risk of exhaustion yield? An extra d6 on the travel turn roll? This is also not really clear to me.

[@FablesD20]

Fairly Correct. The idea that everyone gets to contribute means every CAN contribute, similar to stay up and doing watch while others continue their long rest. It grants the freedom for everyone to be apart of the gameplay. So the the odds of hitting the needed DC every day is average/above average. The odds are it will normally take 1-2 more days longer than expected when traveling. Therefore when an NPC or the DM tells the party it will take "about 3 days" that's the ideal situation based on previous travelers' experience, but in D&D, the dice allow that to be different every time. Which means usually everyone (in a 4-5 group) gets to roll, but if the party is smart to have their nature folk roll first, they could get there before the full table gets to roll (which is also a good thing) because that's less encounters that could kill them. The "Push" follows the PHB rules for "pushing through the 8hrs of travel", which is, for every hour they fail a con save when pushing, they gain one lvl of exhaustion. Hope that helps

[@WheelerCub]

I guess I'm a little confused about all players rolling around the table. So if the DC is 24 for a single day's worth of travel, and the PCs leave in the morning gaining 4d6 on the first roll, does that mean with a roll of 13 , they traveled 13 miles, and now the next player clockwise gets to rolls 2d6 to continue presuming it's now the afternoon? And if that doesn't break 24 miles, then the next player at the table rolls 1d6 presuming it's now the evening? And if they still haven't made their 24 miles, then they are either done for the day, falling short of the distance, with the option to push further rolling another 1d6 per hour to reach the 24 with a chance of exhaustion? Or does each player roll 4d6 when their turn comes up? I'd like the multi-contributing player options to be clearer on your cheat sheet if possible.

[@FablesD20]

Great question You have it mostly correct. If player one rolls 13, that is 13miles. But everyone around the table get 4d6 if the first player got 4d6. The time they start the travel sets the dice count for the rest of the travel day (8hrs).

[@WheelerCub]

@@FablesD20 Thank you! So if the party leaves in the afternoon, they roll 2d6 each and if we go around the table and they still don't reach the 24 miles by the last player, then they must camp, or risk exhaustion traveling through the evening? Or are players guaranteed to get in 24 miles of travel within 8 hours, but the dice rolls just show the likelihood of encounters during that time?

[@romanvasquez5786]

First

[@Walthanar]

ok, as a 30 years long DM and with a degree in physics, I must say I'm sorry, but I understood nothing and nothing made sense about this :(

[@Ciofey]

I feel you do not fully explain what travel dice are, what they do, or what they represent, when to use them, or for what purpose. Do you roll them or do the players roll them? If more than one person is traveling in a group which proficiencies add to the roll? Or is it just the proficiency of the point person that add to it? Also, you do not have an actual example of using travel dice. You are quite confusing.

[@FablesD20]

originally I thought I did, but similar to your comment, others have expressed the same, so I do need to make a new video

[@Ciofey]

You are doing great, and with an attitude like that you will learn much and go far.