Page 106 - Dungeon Master's Guide

WILDERNESS Specific wilderness locations might have their own
special features. For example, the Spirit Forest and
Between the dungeons and settlements of your the Spiderhaunt Woods might feature different kinds
campaign world lie meadows, forests, deserts, mountain of trees, different kinds of flora and fauna, different
ranges, oceans, and other tracts of wilderness waiting weather. and different random encounter tables.
to be traversed. Bringing wilderness areas to life can be Finally, a wilderness trek can be enhanced by calling
a fun part of your game, both for you and your players. attention to the weather. "You spend the next three
The following two approaches work particularly well. days crossing the swamp" sounds less harrowing than,
"You spend the next three days trudging through knee-
TRAVEL- MONTAGE APPROACH
deep mud- the first two days and nights in the pouring
Sometimes the destination is more important than the rain, and then another day under the beating sun, with
journey. If the purpose of a wilderness trek is to get swarms of hungry insects feasting on your blood."
the characters to where the real adventure happens,
gloss over the wilderness trek without checking for HouR-BY-HouR APPROACH
encounters along the way. Just as movies use travel Sometimes the journey deserves as much time and
montages to convey long and arduous journeys in a attention as the destination. If wilderness travel feature
matter of seconds, you can use a few sentences of prominently in your adventure and isn't something you
descriptive text to paint a picture of a wilderness trek in want to gloss over, you will need more than a descriptive
your players' minds before moving on. overview to bring a long and harrowing journey to life;
Describe the journey as vividly as you like, but keep you'll need to know the party's marching order and have
the forward momentum. "You walk for several miles encounters at the ready.
and encounter nothing of interest" is okay, but far less Let your players determine the party's marching
evocative and memorable than, "A light rain dampens order (see the Player's Handbook for more information).
the rolling plains as you travel north. Around midday, Characters in the front rank are likely to be the first to
you break for lunch under a lonely tree. There, the rogue notice landmarks and terrain features, as well as the
finds a small rock that looks like a grinning face, but ones responsible for navigating. Characters in the back
otherwise you encounter nothing out of the ordinary." rank are usually responsible for making sure that the
The trick is to focus on a few details that reinforce the party isn't being followed. Encourage characters in the
desired mood rather than describe everything down to middle ranks to do something other than blindly trudge
the last blade of grass. along behind the front-rank characters. The Player's
Call attention to unusual terrain features: a waterfall, Handbook suggests activities such as mapmaking and
a rocky outcropping that offers a breathtaking view over foraging for food.
the tops of the surrounding trees, an area where the Wilderness journeys typically feature a combination of
forest has burned or been cut down, and so on. Also planned encounters (encounters that you prepare ahead
describe notable smells and sounds, such as the roar of of time) and random encounters (encounters determined
a faraway monster, the stench of burned wood, or the by rolling on a table). A planned encounter might need a
sweet aroma of flowers in an elven forest. m~p of the location where the encounter is set to occur,
In addition to evocative language, visual aids can help such as a ruin, a bridge spanning a gorge, or some other
set the scene for the characters' travels. Image searches memorable location. Random encounters tend to be
on the Internet can lead you to breathtaking landscapes less location-specific. The fewer planned encounters
(in fact, that's a good phrase to search for) both real and you have, the more you'll need to rely on random
fantastical. As striking as real-world scenery can be, encounters to keep the journey interesting. See chapter
wilderness travel can be used to remind the players that 3 for guidelines on creating your own random encounter
their characters are in a fantasy world. Once in a while, tables and when to check for random encounters.
spice up your descriptions with some truly magical A good way to keep wilderness encounters from
element. A forest might be home to tiny dragonets becoming stale is to make sure they don't all start and
instead of birds, or its trees might be festooned with end the same way. In other words, if the wilderness
giant webs or have eerie, green-glowing sap. Use these is your stage and your adventure is the play or movie,
elements sparingly; landscapes that are too alien can think of each wilderness encounter as its own scene,
break your players' sense of immersion in the world. A and try to stage each one in a slightly different way to
single fantastic element within an otherwise realistic keep your players' interest. If one encounter comes
and memorable landscape is enough. at the adventurers from the front, the next one might
Use the landscape to set the mood and tone for your come at them from above or behind. If an encounter
adventure. In one forest, close-set trees shroud all features stealthy monsters, a character tending to the
light and seem to watch the adventurers as they pass. party's pack animals might get the first indication that
In another, sunlight streams through the leaves above monsters are near when a pony whickers nervously. If
and flower-laden vines twine up every trunk. Signs an encounter features loud monsters, the party might
of corruption-rotting wood, foul-smelling water, and have the option to hide or set an ambush. One group of
rocks covered with slimy brown moss- can be a signal monsters might attack the party on sight, and another
that the adventurers are drawing close to the site of evil might allow safe passage for food.
power that is their destination or can provide clues to Reward characters for searching while they travel by
the nature of the threats to be found there. providing things for them to find. Broken statues, tracks,

CHAPTER 5 I ADVENTURE ENVIRONMENTS
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