I'm working on a journey system with a few specific goals. One of which is to hone down on events that can happen to parties during a journey which - ideally - present the players with interesting problems to solve.Working document is here if you'd like to peruse: https://files.catbox.moe/7hfxya.pdf I'm curious if any experienced GMs have ideas on interesting journey complications (both positive and negative) that- ideally- might allow for opportunities for players to problem solve?Picrel is the list I've got right now (very basic)
My one and only bump
A long time ago, in a discussion about character traits in a narrative game, someone explained how he really didn't like the idea of splitting character concepts into Flaws and Positive aspects, because that restricted players from thinking more creatively and dynamically. The best character concepts were ones that could be both good or bad, depending on how the players chose to work with it. With that bouncing around in my head, I began to re-examine my random event charts, and came to grow wary of splitting events into positive or negative. I had been running random events where they were split in such a fashion, and I realized the players had been naturally subconsciously meta-gaming. They would react to a situation with less curiosity and just try to figure out whether the situation was meant to be good or bad for them, and the whole process began to feel less organic. I feel events should strive for a similar level of flexibility. While some may be obviously bad or good, I get concerned when too many are too obviously weighted in such a fashion, especially after having recently played with a DM who employed such an obvious system and was clearly designating characters as enemies or allies long before we ever interacted with them. One player even started deliberately messing with clearly designated ally NPCs just to see if he could actually influence events, and when it became clear that we were just sort of stumbling into situations where how good or bad they were had already been decided by some roll of the die, Man may be the measure of all things, but a Player-centric universe where all things are determined by their relation to the PC's fate begins to feel like a very small world.
>>97358910One thing I've included is treasure chests (in a puzzle format) and replacement PC/NPCs (ala tree of woe). Now I also do hexcrawls so that changes how stuff is run, but stuff like that could work for you.One other thing I do for travel is preroll the encounter types, the PCs then roll during play to see how "well" they do, on a 5/10/15/20 scale. I'd add some stuff to account for that
>>97358910I think the ambush should always be an attempted ambush the players can spot. I think you're on the right path, but there's no player agency in this yet.
>>97359721>They would react to a situation with less curiosity and just try to figure out whether the situation was meant to be good or bad for them, and the whole process began to feel less organic.Honestly, I hadn't thought of this. Really, your post gave me a lot to think about. Perhaps "events" should be divorced from what I originally had planned. Maybe the best designed events/encounters/situations have a grey zone that allows for curiosity, exploration, and alternative outcomes depending on the approach characters take.Do you think there's also room for "fortune/misfortune"? I could always reduce pathfinding to finding a way or getting lost. I just feel like it misses out on depth in doing so.>>97359723The cool thing about my system is that it runs very similarly to a hexcrawl in the sense that the entire map is very much open to the players to explore. However, the actual specific (and accurate) measurements of terrain are only known to the GM (via a hexmap- which the GM can key an populate if they choose). I'm a big fan of creative encounters that can be plopped down in front of players (Forbidden Lands style)
>>97359791Regarding ambushes, I agree with you. I'm going to revise how encounters occur. Rather than encounters being rolled on the "Journey Complication/Fortune" table, I think encounters will be a function of how long the journey is and how deep into the wilderlands the players are. I use a primarily D6 system, so what I had in mind was that for each "Leg" of the journey, you roll a certain number of D6's. For every 6 that is rolled an encounter/scenario would trigger. The scenarios inspired by >>97359721 and others should aim for flexibility of outcome rather than predetermined "good or bad" (though there's nothing wrong with a little bit of good and bad sprinkled in). What I'm trying to do differently is encounters that don't rely purely on rolled creature tables (e.g. Dolmenwood or other classic fantasy). Nothing wrong with that approach, I'm just trying something different.This would have me rethink complications and fortunes entirely on brief situational modifiers that affect travel (such as clear skies, some gear wear, or findings something useful along the trail).
>>97359721This seems to be a complex problem, but it also seems to be easily solved by just not resorting to random dice to decide encounters. Basically: make a story instead of using a table.
>>97359845That's a cool way of rolling for it. Big danger, big reward is good. I'd advise looking at the rings of power journey rules. Long rests and stuff. I think I might have an old version of my own somewhere that might be useful for ideas. A lot of that system revolved around journeys though so it might not be useful. What are you thinking about with enemy groups? Location based?
>>97359865OP here so NTA, but the solution might very well be planning encounters prior to travel. I've built that consideration into my system. Specifically, one of my "rules" is that players decide on their destination, route, and planning the journey the session prior to the actual travel session. It's a good way to get excited for the next session, allows for the group to source rumors/quests/information on landmarks, and possibly clarify errors in information they previously received (e.g. "the River you're trying to reach is four days away, not two")>>97359930ToR journey rules definitely inspires me. I would love to see your system! For enemy groups I think by allowing the GM to consider the planned route and tailor possible encounters to the context. I have a soft spot for a little bit of randomness, so maybe the GM can come up with a few different encounters and I could provide some robust encounter tables that are location agnostic to provide inspiration. I do like giving GM's some idea of what fauna live where, to help with planning.
>>97359721Were you going to finish your sentence?
>>97359796Stop thinking in terms of discrete encounters.In real life, you don't get harassed by a homeless guy at a gas station because the DM decided that should happen. It happened because there simply really was a homeless guy there, and he chose to do that of his own free will. The game works the same way.
>>97359845Bottom's better.
>>97359865No. Games aren't stories.
>>97360250I tend to agree. For me, random tables help me more when they are used to brainstorm interesting things that exist in the world as opposed to how they are classically used (encounter "generators"). I think it's hard not to distinguish discrete situations, though. Your solution sounds like "this area has X/Y/Z in it and if the players go there, they encounter X/Y/Z", correct?>>97360253Got it, so any random travel complications or fortunes would be more interesting if they are very brief and have some kind of downstream effect (such as the examples provided)? I'm starting to lean this way as well and have "encounters" exist more as things that exist along the path that players can interact with
So when you hear the advice "stop thinking in terms of discrete encounters" your response is to continue doing exactly that?Do you actually want help? Are you even thinking about what you're reading? Are you just talking to hear the sound of your own voice?
>>97360362I think I misunderstood the advice. Could you help me understand what you mean? What would travel look like at your table?
>>97360399Look at the homeless guy example again. He didn't end up at that gas station because of a random table. He ended up there because of a series of real events constituting his lifetime that actually happened, irrespective of the subjective knowledge of any other person.Everything in the game works the same way. This is quite straightforward and self explanatory.
>>97360406The players aren't omniscient. Whether the hobo is there or no has no relevance on whether it was a dice roll or somehow planned.
