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| Traveling, one of the central point of many a story - How to make them engaging during a game - |
(Summary TL;DR)
. Journeys are usually resolved in a very mechanical
manner during rpg games, giving more importance to their logistics
(distance, kind of mount used, movement rate of the party etc.)
instead of focusing on their narrative aspects and possibilities for
player interaction with the world.
. It is possible to create more engaging journeys by
making the players participate directly with them, giving their
characters explorer jobs (hunter, scout, watcher, guide) and making
'travel tests' in order to create scenes that deal with the
tribulations of a journey.
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Few images in fiction are more evocative or instill the
imagination more than travels towards distant lands, different people
and forgotten realms (ha!). Be that in movies like Star Wars, in
electronic games like Final Fantasy or in books as in the Lord of The
Rings, the journey is one of the main troupes in every great saga.
However, in most rpg games, there are few or none
discussions surrounding that subject, on how to make the Journey a
crucial and essential point in an adventure. In most of the times, a
journey becomes just the mechanical calculus of the different
variables related to the journey: the distance to be threaded upon,
the movement rate per day by the group, the supplies etc.
In the Dungeon Master guide of 2 nd edition AD&D,
for example, there is an entire chapter dedicated solely to 'Time and
Movement', detailing land movement, sea movement, the use of various
kinds of mounts and even tips for how to make a calender ingame.
However, there are no descriptions on how to create a scene of a
journey similar to that we see in fiction, engaging and immersing
into the game world. This kind of conduct repeats itself in many
other rpg books – be they new or old.
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| Weird vistas and great opportunities for interaction - Journeys are more than only survival tests - |
At most, it is discussed on how to make survival rolls
and random encounters. In regards to survival, everything boils down
to a few dice roll to see if the characters are able to stay on
route, gather food and things like that. Normally, such rolls have
little to do with the main adventure, e works mostly as purely
'mechanical' than something to add to the story. In regards to random
encounters, they try to simulate the unexpected events that may
happen during a travel. Most of the time, they can be resumed to
combat encounters – something similar to the style of electronic
rpgs like Final Fantasy. However, some random encounter tables may
have also natural disasters (rain, storms, land slides), social
encounters (wandering traders and artists), hidden places (abandoned
houses, lost ruins) and things like that.
Those two details – survival rolls and random
encounters – add a little more life to travels; but they yet are
not enough to engage truly the players. For the survival rolls are
too mechanical and abstract and less endearing, and the random
encounters are, at most, independent from the character's action and,
therefore, feel 'detached' of feeling.
How so can it be done to emulate scenes that we see in
fiction, like when, in The Hobbit, the dwarves were unable to light
the bonfire. Or when in The Lord of the Rings, Sam and Frodo,
together with Gollum, go towards Mordor crossing dangerous and
impressive landscapes? Those scenes were more than just simple
survival rolls and random encounters. They had a proper pacing and
evocative imagery. Is it possible to simulate those in a mechanical
point of view?
Here enters The Oner Ring, one of the first (maybe the
first, but I'm not sure) rpgs to deal with Journeys with as much
importance to an adventure as Combat Encounters or Social Encounters.
The system mechanics try to emulate exactly that kind of journey seen
in those books and in other works of fiction – both the logistics
side of it and the narrative one.
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| Adventurers meet a maiden near the forest - Traveling can be a source of curious interactions - |
Knowing how many travel rolls are needed, the group must
decide which character will fill the exploratory jobs of hunter,
scout, watcher and guide. With all set, each character makes their
travel roll. Each one of those rolls represent not one day of travel,
but a part of the whole journey. With the result of those rolls, the
GM may invoke a happening, either a complication (if the rolls were
bad) or something good (if the rolls were very successful).
For example, supposing that the players want to make a
journey through a mountain pass, which will take 10 days and need 3
travel rolls. In the travel roll, the hunter fails. So the GM look
upon the table of complications derived from a failed hunt roll and
he may either chose one or random roll it. It may be that the hunter
was targeting a deer that a mountain lion was also interested with,
and the lion attacks the hunter. Or maybe the prey that he got was
ill and all characters must make a saving throw against poison. Now,
on the second travel roll, let's say that the guide roll a critical
success. The GM may now choose a good happening related to the guide,
and say that they found a passage through the mountains – an old
tunnel. After a little bit of exploration through ancient forgotten
ruins of a dwarven settlement, the group is able to transverse the
mountains, shortening the travel and needing only 2 travel rolls
instead of 3.
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| Travel rolls alow interaction with the game world (Forest Bridge, by Pavel Elagin) |
As it can be seen, this makes the Journey much more
interesting for the players and the GM. Different from the generic
Survival tests, each character happen to contribute to the game.
Instead of random events disassociated with the rolls, those are
motivated directly by what each character does. Traveling becomes a
crucial part of the adventure and the GM has the chance to create
vivid depictions of land, people, weather, making the experience more
immersive for all.
And what about you? Have you tried the mechanics of The
One Ring, or have you did something similar in your games? How have
you been dealing with journeys? I hope this post helps showing
different ways to make traveling more exciting. I intend, in the
future, elaborate more about the details of it and how to adapt that
system to other rpgs.
Until then,
Valete!
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