Guide me in my Travels

[MasterSmithwise]

I'm looking for some guidance or advice on making traveling more interesting. Right now I calculate the journey given to me by the players and then briefly describe the scenery as they make their way through the terrain, having them roll for travel as they progress through the days. This usually results in several rolls being made in a row and the companions have arrived at their destination in a minute or two.

We don't do any kind of camping or refuge finding or anything. My wife made a character with good hunting and exploring and feels like she doesn't get to utilize her character in the way she made, which is the worst thing I can do as a loremaster!

So what are some things I could do to spice up traveling a bit? My group's luck seems to be ridiculous and hazards just never happen. They roll eyes constantly until it's travel, haha. No joke. Never a hazard in any of my campaigns. What do some of you do during traveling?

[Elmoth]

Make them camp. Make them travel.

What I do (I learned this from the other LM in my group) is to make the travel rolls in secret, so they have no freakin' idea if they are rolling Eyes or not. This puts the players on their guard, even if not necessarily jumpy. I describe in a sentence or 2 how the fellowship travels through this or that terrain, and how they see those wolves in the horizon, that promptly disappear. Or any such thing. Mirkwood is great for noises, sudden tree branch movement et al, but any terrain can be jumped for false passes, semi landslides, boggy terrain sucking them in et al. Make them feel the environment, and make the environment feel like a treat.

Or make the rolls *after* you describe such things, so the players can specify what are they doing exactly instead of "I scout the area". Or use both resources

Camping is another great moment for them to feel nervous. It is also a great moment for PC talk about the mission and how they will develop the,. You might even introduce uncertainty by talking one or 2 players out of the room and introducing potential hints as to how they might be seeing the situation from a racial point of view or some other stuff like that. That might spark good discussions. Or not. Both situations happened in our TOR saga. I do not do that, but sometimes the other LM cuts us when we are having a discussion regarding the trip, and forces us to have such conversation during the travel (if we want to continue it). if we fail the travel rolls sometimes it sparks a "I told you that" situation, tha tis great from a roleplaying point of view

Problem with all this is that it might eventually come up repetitive, but journeys *are* repetitive somewhat. Any friend of yours that travels for work will confirm this, regardless of where he is going.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Xavi

[Majestic]

In addition, you might flesh out a scene that depends on skills like Hunting, Explore, or Search. Give your wife's character the opportunity to shine, perhaps finding something of value or discovering a vital clue (something none of the others could have pulled off).

Those Hazards will come. Trust me. Once you've done enough travel, they're bound to occur.

[Elmoth]

In addition, you might flesh out a scene that depends on skills like Hunting, Explore, or Search. Give your wife's character the opportunity to shine, perhaps finding something of value or discovering a vital clue (something none of the others could have pulled off).

Those Hazards will come. Trust me. Once you've done enough travel, they're bound to occur.

QFT. In both cases

[Falenthal]

When designing an adventure, don't only write down ideas of "what happens" in the starting and end locations of a travel, but also create something that happens to the company related to the places they're passing through.
This encounters shouldn't be triggered by Hazards, they should occur regardless of rolls. But the main point is, they have to be related to the terrain:
For example, if they are crossing Mirkwood, present them with a situation where they have to look for food and/or water. And, when doing so, make them approach a small group of sleeping spiders.

In game terms, it could run like this: After more than a week of travel along the elven path, you find your food bags to be empty. You need to refill them, and also would be great to find some water. Otherwise, you can go on along the path, but will be Weary (Tired? I can't recall the name in english) until you get out of Mirkwood and have a prolonged rest.

The group might choose to split up, and they can even try to find ways so that the hunter(s) don't loose track of where the path lies. Then you allow the hunter(s) to roll Hunting. With a success, they find a deer, but ask for an Awareness roll (or another Hunting test) to discover that 2 Attercops are also sneaking on it. You know how this goes: if the heroes fail their Awareness rolls, they might go for the deer... and be trapped by the spiders! Otherwise, they have to choose wether to go back to their comrades and loose the deer (and carry the burden of being responsible for the whole party being Weary), or attack the spiders, or... whatever ideas they come up with.

It's not a situation that will kill the group, but a simple scene makes some of your players shine, and gives the whole group a better glimpse of what is to travel along Mirkwood, the Long Marshes, the Anduin Vales, etc than just saying "This time the TN is 18 and need 3 Fatigue tests. Mirkwood is very dangerous, you see!".

See ToW for lots of encounters and situations like the ones here. In fact, think of Don't Leave the Path: most of the scenes the players have to play and resolve are like developed Hazards. The whole adventure is a single Travel, and each chapter is a fleshed out Hazard.

[MasterSmithwise]

When designing an adventure, don't only write down ideas of "what happens" in the starting and end locations of a travel, but also create something that happens to the company related to the places they're passing through.
This encounters shouldn't be triggered by Hazards, they should occur regardless of rolls. But the main point is, they have to be related to the terrain:
For example, if they are crossing Mirkwood, present them with a situation where they have to look for food and/or water. And, when doing so, make them approach a small group of sleeping spiders.

In game terms, it could run like this: After more than a week of travel along the elven path, you find your food bags to be empty. You need to refill them, and also would be great to find some water. Otherwise, you can go on along the path, but will be Weary (Tired? I can't recall the name in english) until you get out of Mirkwood and have a prolonged rest.

The group might choose to split up, and they can even try to find ways so that the hunter(s) don't loose track of where the path lies. Then you allow the hunter(s) to roll Hunting. With a success, they find a deer, but ask for an Awareness roll (or another Hunting test) to discover that 2 Attercops are also sneaking on it. You know how this goes: if the heroes fail their Awareness rolls, they might go for the deer... and be trapped by the spiders! Otherwise, they have to choose wether to go back to their comrades and loose the deer (and carry the burden of being responsible for the whole party being Weary), or attack the spiders, or... whatever ideas they come up with.

It's not a situation that will kill the group, but a simple scene makes some of your players shine, and gives the whole group a better glimpse of what is to travel along Mirkwood, the Long Marshes, the Anduin Vales, etc than just saying "This time the TN is 18 and need 3 Fatigue tests. Mirkwood is very dangerous, you see!".

See ToW for lots of encounters and situations like the ones here. In fact, think of Don't Leave the Path: most of the scenes the players have to play and resolve are like developed Hazards. The whole adventure is a single Travel, and each chapter is a fleshed out Hazard.

This sounds amazing. I'm probably going to steal this exact example for the first one.

Some of the things I think I struggle with are the mechanics of these types of things. Coming from a D&D/Pathfinder, GURPS, homebrew background, I'm used to there being mechanics for food and water that are very spelled out. At which point to do I suddenly tell the group, "Ok you're now out of food"? What I don't want to have happen is my players arguing that they would have brought more food if they knew they would run out so soon, but since we didn't explicitly roleplay the gathering of food before the journey they were destined to fail.

What's ToW? And what are you referring to that you're hypothetically increasing the TN to 18? I have yet to increase the TN of anything to 18, especially not anything travel related.

[Otaku-sempai]

Some of the things I think I struggle with are the mechanics of these types of things. Coming from a D&D/Pathfinder, GURPS, homebrew background, I'm used to there being mechanics for food and water that are very spelled out. At which point to do I suddenly tell the group, "Ok you're now out of food"? What I don't want to have happen is my players arguing that they would have brought more food if they knew they would run out so soon, but since we didn't explicitly roleplay the gathering of food before the journey they were destined to fail.

What's ToW? And what are you referring to that you're hypothetically increasing the TN to 18? I have yet to increase the TN of anything to 18, especially not anything travel related.

By ToW, he seems to mean Tales from Wilderland (TfW). Don't have your players simply run short of food; come up with a reason for it. The bag containing the food was not properly secured and critters made off with and/or spoiled your supplies. Or there is a mishap while crossing a stream or river. Or some other disaster took place. You could fudge a Hazard role if worse comes to worse and force one to occur (this is where secret rolls come in handy).

[MasterSmithwise]

Ok so I think this has identified my issue. These suggestions all imply that I'd be making false hazards, but the travel rolls are what this is for. My group won't like secret rolls, I know that for sure. But critters stealing food is almost exactly what a hazard my entail. So, am I right in my understanding that there's not really much to do if hazards don't happen? I mean I can be more thorough in my explanations, but the group has a 28 day journey across mirkwood and thus far the first half of the journey has yielded no hazards.

[Hermes Serpent]

I usually describe the party's surroundings so they get a feel for the terrain. I talk of the wildlife and flora that they see. All this gives a great feel for the area they are travelling through. Sometimes a terrain feature catches their attention and off they go checking out the feature and that leads to a side adventure or encounter.

[MasterSmithwise]

I usually describe the party's surroundings so they get a feel for the terrain. I talk of the wildlife and flora that they see. All this gives a great feel for the area they are travelling through. Sometimes a terrain feature catches their attention and off they go checking out the feature and that leads to a side adventure or encounter.

I think I'll just have to get good at doing this. I like the other suggestions but they all benefit greatly from secret rolls, which my group won't allow me to do.