Comments on: Travel in my Star Wars and D&D Games

By: Rook

Rook — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:32:01 +0000

Back in the day (I can’t believe I wrote that, am I getting old?) we, the players, would always have to take turns rolling for a “chance encounter” as we traveled. Usually three rolls per day of travel. But these days we usually hand wave most travel unless the DM has something specific in mind, a side trek or to show off a part of the game world. If we are at a lull in the game session or some of the players are getting restless (I’ve got two teen-agers in my group), then I’ll throw something random in, just to liven things up a bit.

I have no problem with making it more about the journey than the destination. To me, that can only add to the story. But if the journey doesn’t have anything substantial to add to the plot, and if your group is like mine and your game time is short, just skip it and get to the “good stuff”.
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.-= Rook´s last blog ..How DO you keep an all “evil” party from imploding? =-.

By: Daniel M. Perez, The Gamer Traveler

Daniel M. Perez, The Gamer Traveler — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:29:35 +0000

Thanks for participating.
One of the bigger issues I’m looking to raise awareness is specifically brought up by your (and Newbie’s) D&D example. In real life, the act of travel is an integral part of the process–more about the journey than the destination–yet we don’t take this approach in games, myself included at times. How can we make it about the journey? How can we make the journey itself the destination? That’s what I’d like to explore.
.-= Daniel M. Perez, The Gamer Traveler´s last blog ..Blog Carnival: Games & Travel =-.

By: Argent

Argent — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:24:28 +0000

I tend to run both as Skill Challenges, at least in circumstances where the travel is significant.

In D&D this allows the PCs to take on side treks if they want to, allows me to expand upon my world and ensure the world is real to the PCs as well as keeping that sense of imminent danger ever present in their minds. You can easily include extra encounters as a reward for success or penalty for failure and offer hints of other places to explore that the PCs can follow up or ignore as they wish.

In Star Wars this covers making the original jump, obstacles in hyper space, ship malfunction, maintenance etc.

As long as its interesting to the players and the GM its much better than just arriving at the destination.
.-= Argent´s last blog ..Handling a Major Battle in 4e Part 4 =-.

By: newbiedm

newbiedm — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:30:54 +0000

I tend to hand wave travel… simply because of time constraints (REAL WORLD). If the encounter isn’t integral to the storyline, I’m more inclined to skip it now, which random wilderness encounters would fall in that category.

This has to do with the fact that I run a 7 man party, and encounters take a long time. So playing time is at a premium, so travel and related encounters suffer.
.-= newbiedm´s last blog ..On rpgKids… =-.