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A new way of travel

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
2mur
Jun 01, 2009 22:30:48 I've come up with a new way to do long travels in D&D. I got it from the world map in the final fantasy games. Use grid paper and have each grid represent several miles (im not sure how many yet). Travel only one square at a time. The DM also has a seperate copy of grid paper with encounters and things displayed on the grids. With every grid, offer a specific landmark, encounter, puzzle, treasure or whatever you want that square to feature. Only the DM knows what the square will lead to, because it is on their sheet, but the DM offers clues to where possible encounters and landmarks might be as well. It is like a mix of a combat enounter and one of those board games that you get a card for every time you move (like Sorry, I think).
#2
silent_stone
Jun 01, 2009 23:16:24 I would say make your overland map scaled so that each square equals 5 miles, so that way, the number of squares a party could travel in a day would equal their Speed (i.e., a party of dwarves could travel 5 squares or 25 miles in a day, a party of elves could go 7 squares or 35 miles). You could even make some squares "difficult terrain" in exactly the same way you would on a 5-foot-square-scale battle map.

A square five miles on a side is a huge tract of land—I'd recommend making finding stuff a little more complex than just arriving at the right square, unless it was something that could reasonably be expected to be seen from miles away.

The DM has a master copy of the map, with every landmark on it; the players get a map with only the most obvious stuff, like major cities and mountains and rivers (they must explore/do quests/whatever to find things).

If your players enjoy this sort of thing, I think you could get some good play out of it.
#3
2mur
Jun 02, 2009 18:48:28 Thanks for the great ideas. I think your way will work much better then what I had planned out. Would it be too inconsistent if I only used this part of the time? It seems like something I would only want to do for traveling in the woods, or maybe certain trips between cities.
#4
silent_stone
Jun 02, 2009 21:34:34 Inconsistent? Nah. Use what you need, when you need it. If you don't need it, don't use it. There's nothing inconsistent about that.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 2mur Jun 01, 2009 22:30:48	I've come up with a new way to do long travels in D&D. I got it from the world map in the final fantasy games. Use grid paper and have each grid represent several miles (im not sure how many yet). Travel only one square at a time. The DM also has a seperate copy of grid paper with encounters and things displayed on the grids. With every grid, offer a specific landmark, encounter, puzzle, treasure or whatever you want that square to feature. Only the DM knows what the square will lead to, because it is on their sheet, but the DM offers clues to where possible encounters and landmarks might be as well. It is like a mix of a combat enounter and one of those board games that you get a card for every time you move (like Sorry, I think).
#2 silent_stone Jun 01, 2009 23:16:24	I would say make your overland map scaled so that each square equals 5 miles, so that way, the number of squares a party could travel in a day would equal their Speed (i.e., a party of dwarves could travel 5 squares or 25 miles in a day, a party of elves could go 7 squares or 35 miles). You could even make some squares "difficult terrain" in exactly the same way you would on a 5-foot-square-scale battle map. A square five miles on a side is a huge tract of land—I'd recommend making finding stuff a little more complex than just arriving at the right square, unless it was something that could reasonably be expected to be seen from miles away. The DM has a master copy of the map, with every landmark on it; the players get a map with only the most obvious stuff, like major cities and mountains and rivers (they must explore/do quests/whatever to find things). If your players enjoy this sort of thing, I think you could get some good play out of it.
#3 2mur Jun 02, 2009 18:48:28	Thanks for the great ideas. I think your way will work much better then what I had planned out. Would it be too inconsistent if I only used this part of the time? It seems like something I would only want to do for traveling in the woods, or maybe certain trips between cities.
#4 silent_stone Jun 02, 2009 21:34:34	Inconsistent? Nah. Use what you need, when you need it. If you don't need it, don't use it. There's nothing inconsistent about that.