Tinkering on an ¨Oregon Trail¨-style scenario...

[Deleted]

Hi all,

Not quite writing this with OD&D in mind, but perhaps interesting from a general campaign-builder's POV in mind:

So, in our next session, this Saturday, my group, and their elephant-tall dire boar, will be tasked by a guild of magical artificers (Meleon's Order of the Heron, FWIW) to fight their way through Orcish country, and win back a lost citadel. (Jungfernmund - ¨Maiden's Head¨; really just sounds a bit perv in English. In German, it's a generic old term for a place when a river's wellspring opened right into a river's delta.)

Now, the way there is supposed to that Saturday's adventure - and I realize that I have never done something alike: An evening-long journey scenario, without the pull of a strong metaplot/an intrinsically movitated party.

So, what would you recommend me on the matter? How would you solve a similar scenario?How would you connect the sequence of encounters?

Of course, there's already a story forming in my head as I type this... (The orcs in my gaming world are pig-headed; so, they might have a reason to go after the dire boar that the party has so obviously enslaved.) But I'm really more about the overall approach:

How would you build a scenario that develops along a character group's journey into the wilderness?

Yours,

Rafe

[foxroe]

Well, by "Oregon Trail" I suppose you mean to funnel players along a more or less linear path.

Maybe create a hex map with start and destination on opposite sides, provide a couple of obvious "trails" to take (e.g. a river, an old hunting trail, ancient overgrown road, etc.), then sprinkle the hexes with random (or planned) encounters. If you keep your "planned" encounters along the obvious trails, they'll be more likely to come up in play. This way, the players get to explore however they wish (without "railroading") and you get to challenge them with some set pieces.

Another option (or in addition to the above) would be to have them stumble upon an unfortunate explorer's map of a previous attempt. This gives the players some "known territory" to work with, and will likely goad them into taking the same path the previous explorer took.

[Deleted]

Sorry, I had not seen your answer before, Fox!

The scenario, I essentially rolled out in advance; but, alas, the party got a terrible beating by the resident BBEG, and was promptly imprisoned. They are currently stranded on an abandoned beacon ("Wayfire", in my setting), and, at the beginning of next session will likely be rescued. ...By slave traders.

[Finarvyn]

When I saw the thread's title I immediately thought of a Battlestar Galactica type scenario where folks had to make a long pilgrimage from one point to another, while also charged with the protection of non-combatant NPCs.

I suppose that what I would do is try to plan on lots of random encounters in an attempt to wear out the group through attrition. Perhaps have a general progression of wilderness types -- plains, then a giant river to cross, then more plains, a mountain range, a patch of desert, then arrival at a final destination -- so that I could throw a variety of creatures at them. 5E D&D has some rules for exhaustion whereby characters who are exhausted keep taking negative bonuses for various actions. That could make the whole adventure more and more of a grind as they grimly work their way through the sequence of encounters.

[Deleted]

That sounds like a great idea, Fin. Obviously, the game went into a totally different direction, but the exhaustion rules would check in with something I dimly remember from d20, which was some sort of envrionmental penalty if a party kept a lot of time in the wilderness. I'm going to be honest - I would script such an evening, rather than let chance decide, but I think this is something worth looking into.

Since I like the scenario, I think I will re-use a similar premise once the group returns from "The Haunt". - Basically, everything that I've done in my campaign so far serves to put the party on the war path against the dark elves that still hold a castle whose first ten basement levels you know. But after the party has established their base at Castle Firsthold, the war will likely go into more open, even uncharted territory. That's when such a long war path/trail scenario would fully come into play.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't connect the sequence of encounters. Use the random wilderness tables from Volume 3 and what happens, happens.

It's worked for me, but I've only been doing it for 44 years, so what do I know.