Exploring Travel Mechanics

As I work on my next project (a mobile app that generates travel adventures) I found myself diving deep into various travel mechanics and systems. I eventually came up with a system that I believe works well, and I thought it would be worth sharing how it works.

Each day of travel

The app breaks up travel into individual days. A typical travel sequence is 3 days (60-90 minutes of gameplay).

Stage 1: Daily rolls

To start each day, the party must make two ability checks. The first check is determined by travel mode (for example, if the party is tracking someone, this is a Survival check). The second check is randomly selected. Two different characters will make these checks for the group. The success of these checks affects the encounters in the next stage. There will always be 4 encounters per day, but higher rolls mean more favorable encounters.

Stage 2: Encounters

Each day of travel, the app generates 4 random events, some positive, some negative. There are 5 broad types of encounters:

1. Discovery: The party uncovers a campaign secret / clue or discovers some sort of landmark / interesting location.
2. Boon: A helpful event, often providing a benefit for subsequent encounters.
3. Random event: A role play encounter or other miscellaneous event, generally neutral or positive.
4. Challenge: An environmental / terrain challenge, often requiring an ability check to navigate. On a failure a character may take minor damage or suffer some other setback.
5. Monster: Easy or difficult monster encounter, often modified by other interesting factors.

For positive encounters, the app will randomly generate a discovery or boon. For random encounters, the app will generate an encounter from any of the 5 types. Each challenge includes potential solutions, but the party is encouraged to think about other creative ways to handle it.

There's also a small chance for a dungeon shortcut to appear, which will replace the encounters for the day.

Stage 3: Campfire

At the end of each travel day, the app will pick a random character / role play question for the party to answer. This stage does not have a mechanical effect on the travel, but rather serves as a break for the group and an opportunity to role play and develop their character.

Travel Modes

The app supports several different use cases / situations. Each mode has its own unique mechanics, encounters, and challenges.

• Exploration: Default mode. The party is traveling to a location and wants to see what they can find along the way. 
• Race against the clock: The party is trying to reach a destination by a certain time. Primary mechanic: distance to goal
• Tracking: The party is trying to track down or catch up with someone. Primary mechanic: distance to target
• Survival: The party is trying to get back to civilization. Primary mechanic: supply remaining

Get Involved!

If this all sounds interested, feel free to check out the Kickstarter campaign for the app, which is currently live! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmmicycle/5e-travel-simulator-ios-and-android-app?ref=4cz926

Creating Goals for our Party

In this post we're going to revisit things you can do when you have more time to prep. In this article we'll dive into the next idea: integrating characters into the story through party & individual character goals. I found this to be an excellent way to mesh character backstory & goals with the overarching campaign plot.

My Process:

1. Write 2 goals for each character. Think about the characters and their backstory: what do they hope to accomplish that they haven't yet? These should be things the players would be excited to pursue but haven't yet for whatever reason. Often times the Main Plot™️ is endlessly urgent, so the players need reassurance that they can pursue personal character goals as well.
2. Tie those character goals to fun rewards. Based on their play style and commonly used abilities, what magic items or artifacts would they really like? Get creative here! You can also reward titles, deeds, information, membership into certain groups, etc.
3. Create plot-related goals with fun rewards. This helps provide additional motivation beyond "we have to do the right thing for the sake of it." For some goals, I required the party to visit many different cities and complete various tasks.
4. Tie leveling-up to the completion of plot goals and/or a certain number of personal goals. This is probably the most controversial step– further down I'll discuss the potential downsides of doing things this way.
5. Create a display board for the goals (optional, but fun!). Thinking up and creating these sorts of props is why I love GMing. It doesn't have to be fancy, but having physical props definitely helps with engagement. For a free / online version, you can use something like Google Sheets / Google Docs. Final result below:

What went well:

• The players all seemed to like the goals! They tied in well to the characters as I had a good idea of who they were by then. This may work best if you introduce the goals partway through a campaign once you understand the characters well.
• The rewards were enticing but not game-breakingly powerful. It helps that the goals were already things the party was pursuing.
• It's good to have a mix of goals the party can actively pursue (i.e. complete tasks at these locations) as well as goals that we have more control over (when certain enemies are encountered / defeated). This helps us to adjust the pacing of the campaign on the fly.

What can be improved:

• Leveling up after completing certain goals seemed like an interesting idea at the time, but it's hard to balance and sync up well with story beats. In my case, the goals are taking longer than I anticipated, so it's been a while since the party has been able to level up.
• Having to travel to lots of different areas takes a while.
• Be careful that the rewards don't become obsolete by the time they are earned.

Next Project: 5e Travel Sim Mobile App

 

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to announce my next project: a mobile app that helps you run travel and exploration adventures. Be sure to follow the project on Kickstarter to be notified when it goes live!

Here's how the app works:

• Each day of travel, the app generates a mixture of various events and encounters. These can include environmental challenges, monsters, interesting discoveries, role play encounters, helpful boons, and even entire dungeons.
• Each encounter uses straightforward 5e mechanics to provide a framework while leaving room for creative solutions.
• At the end of each travel day, the app generates a campfire question to spark role-play and character development.
• The app supports various travel modes such as exploration, race against the clock, tracking, and survival.
• Encounters can be customized through homebrew secrets & clues, landmarks, and quests.

If you are interested in learning more or following the project, be sure to check out the Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dmmicycle/5e-travel-simulator-ios-and-android-app?ref=4cz926

Resource: Black Market Stalls

Since my party was in a sketchy town, I decided to include some interesting black market stalls for them to explore. Here's a list of the stalls I included:

• Shady amulet dealer: Magic amulets for sale, but each also carries a minor curse. They are suspiciously cheap.
• Mystery meat skewers
• Witch selling hexes, jinxes, curses, etc
• 2 Hex spell scrolls – 20 gp each
• 2 Bestow Curse spell scrolls – 100 gp each
• Remove Curse spell scroll – 150 gp
• Forger: fake identity documents
• Potions and poisons
• Arrow poisons – 10 uses, arrows must be coated ahead of time. +1d6 poison damage. 100 gp
• 2 Potions of healing – 100 gp each
• Stolen goods: jewelry, art, coin purses
• Seer selling blessings: player rolls 1d6
• 1: Curse. -1 to all d20 rolls until next dawn.
• 2-3: Nothing happens
• 4-6: Blessing. +1 to all d20 rolls until next dawn.
• Random magic item auction
• Gambling games
• Snail racing track

Let us know if you have suggestions for more black market stalls!

Fortune Teller Mechanics

In this post we're going to revisit things you can do when you have more time to prep. Specifically we'll dive into the first idea: using a fortune teller to develop the larger story. I found this to be a fun way to provide hints / secret information, foreshadow events, and create some intrigue / mystery.

Here was my process:

1. Think about the next mini-arc of the campaign. Which quests are the party likely to tackle? Which locations / NPCs / enemies might they encounter? what unresolved character backstory elements can I work in?
2. What useful / fun information can I provide that relates to these elements?
3. Create fortunes out of that information. They should ideally be enigmatic in the moment but provide that "Ohhhh" moment once the situation is encountered.

These are the fortunes I came up with:

1. Your hearts are held by the one of fire (a wizard was the one who kidnapped a character's children– foreshadowed by a flaming statue)
2. A chained animal is always most dangerous (during a prison break, some of the other prisoners may betray the party)
3. The stick of change lies deep underground (hint for a wand of true polymorph)
4. Those who are fiery may be tempered by cold (BBEG & lieutenants are vulnerable to cold damage)
5. As you search for knowledge keep your nose to the ground (useful book may be found on the lower shelves of the library)
6. Beware the one-eyed head (mayor with an eyepatch may betray them)

Fortune teller mechanics: 

The players can choose to receive 3 random fortunes or roll to see how many they'll get. If they choose to roll, they will roll a d6, with the number corresponding to the fortune they'll get. They can keep rolling until they repeat a number.

Feel free to share your thoughts / ideas on these mechanics!

Leaning into “Yes, but…”

While prepping for my latest session, I thought about a situation that perfectly encapsulated the concept of “Yes, but.” This is just one example, but the idea can be applied to many situations.

The encounter: The party is trying to retrieve a set of keys from a guard house. I know they can cast Mage Hand, and from experience they'd probably want to try and use it here.

The "No." approach: We may be tempted to find a reason why they couldn’t use Mage Hand. After all, a single cantrip circumventing the whole challenge feels anticlimactic. But doing so negates the choices our players made during character creation. It’s fine to challenge our party’s weaknesses sometimes, but we should balance that with opportunities for them to showcase their strengths, as well.

The "Yes, but" approach: We can anticipate what our party might do and account for them in the encounter. In our example, we can allow them to use Mage Hand to retrieve the keys, but they must make a Sleight of Hand check to avoid being noticed. Although we're still requiring a check, it may be easier than not using Mage Hand at all. We should think of our party's abilities not as instant solutions, but as ways to attempt to solve a problem (which may or may not work– it's up to the dice).

Are there any other approaches you would take?

Simple Auction Mechanics

In a recent session, I had an auction of magic items and other artifacts and wanted to share the simple mechanics that I used. The goal was to have a more random and interesting way to acquire items.

The setup:

1. Make a list of 3-5 items for bid. Most should be randomly generated to model the feel of a random auction. For added intrigue, you can reveal only some info about an item (for example, a "magic ring" could be up for auction but they don't know what it does).
2. Decide on a starting bid for each item, perhaps 60-70% of what a shopkeeper would charge.
3. Decide on a bid increment for each item. If the starting bid is 150 gp, a good bid increment is 10 gp. (This doesn't have to be exactly balanced. Prefer easily countable increments.)
4. Decide how many other "bidders" are interested in the item to start. A useful magic item may attract 10 bidders, while something less popular may only have 5 or 6.

The auction:

1. Start by allowing the party to bid the starting amount if they are interested in the item.
2. Roll a d20 for each NPC bidder. If the result is a 10 or higher, that NPC is willing make the next bid. Remove any dice that are 9 or lower. If no NPC rolls a 10 or above, the PCs win the auction.
3. If there are still NPC bidders, allow the party to bid higher if they are still interested. If they decline, an NPC wins the lot.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until a winner has been decided.

Example:

Item: Winged Boots

Starting bid: 100 gp

Bid increment: 10 gp

Bidders: 7

1. Party makes a starting bid of 100 gp.
2. NPCs roll: 18, 13, 14, 4, 5, 18, 7. Four bidders are still interested and bid 110 gp.
3. Party bids 120 gp.
4. NPCs roll: 16, 4, 7, 12. Two bidders are still interested and bid 130 gp.
5. Party bids 140 gp.
6. NPCs roll: 4, 9. No bidders are interested, party wins item for 140 gp.

Have you ever used an auction in your game? Let me know what mechanics worked well.