What we take for granted

[Supplement Four]

Your players need to get from point A to point B. You look at the map and see the Cimmeria lies between Aquilonia and Hyperborea. So, you draw a straight line across Cimmeria, guestimate the mileage and how long it will take your players to get across. Then you advance your campaign the appropriate number of days with your players starting next session in the witch country of Hyperborea.

We kind of take the details for granted, don't we? Now that I've developed Cimmeria a bit for my campaign, I know it's not as easy as "drawing a straight line across the country to guestimate mileage". There are areas in there that travelers will want to avoid--and I'm not just talking about physical obstacles and extremely rough terrain. I'm talking about cannibals and Cimmerian clans that are a step above savages. I'm talking about areas where certain types of nasty beasties congregate. I'm talking about more civilized Cimmerian clans that just don't tolerate non-clansmen moving across their territory. And, I'm talking about the odd roving danger, like the Vanir raiding band that has moved deep into the country looking for thralls or the bandit band up from the Border Kingdom trying their hand in a new environ.

This has made me think. You really need a guide to go through unknown territory, woudn't you? Or, you'd need to know the lay of the land pretty well yourself.

Even, as a GM, you didn't want to have any encounters moving your player party from Aquilonia to Hyperborea, part of the story should be to secure a guide--or at least add a lot of time to the travel to count for the time the PCs stay in friendly Cimmerian villages and learn from the locals which areas to avoid.

This should be true of any area in the Hyborean Age. I'm sure it's a similar danger to move through Shem as it is to move through Cimmeria.

This is just food for thought. We take for granted how easy it is to move cross-country.

It shouldn't always be that easy.

 

[Supplement Four]

Not in my Campaign S4, I make the Players struggle with every footstep, I roll encounter for everyday, evan if they wounded, frustrated that every time they move they encounter some thing new, also it can be unusual encounter:

Wow. Really?

If a wandering encounter would blow the flow of my story, I'll typically ignore it. Heck, even if a planned encounter does't feel right--or I think I can get more impact out of it doing it at another time--I'll change its timing on the spot.

And, I think that Conan stories, even more than your usual D&D fare, lend themselves to quick long distance transport.

My post was kind of rambly, but my point was to consider all the hazards a traveler is exposed to during a long distance trip. Instead of going straight across country, obtain a guide--or have an encounter ready that displays the horrors of that particular land.

 

[tarkhan bey]

As an old Ravenloft player, I rarely use random encounters. I may occasionally throw in something that seems random, just to set the cat among the pigeons, but it is inevitably to open a potential subplot or a future story arc. I feel that its more in keeping with the style of the original tales not to throw too much random stuff in.
Somewhere,lost in the depths of this forum, there is a random andventure generator. It works quite similarly to the one in Savage Worlds Solomon Kane Rpg.

 

[Spectator]

I'm not a fan of random anything, hell, your the GM start thinking and creating. It would be kiinda weird if the PCs are going from point A to Point B, and got robbed, butt-raped, assautled by a succubus, gored by a bull, attacked by an owl, run over by a chariot, and robbed by a halfling?!?!?, just cause your random encounter generator had a bunch of wicked rolls!

 

[Supplement Four]

I think random generation is a tool like any other. Used one day, it can liven a game with the unexpected. Used another day, it can bog down a game with more of the same.

It's the GM's job to know when to use the tool and when not to.

But, I wouldn't eliminate it from the bag of tools available to the GM.

 

[Supplement Four]

But back to what you really asked S4 , think of all the nomadic Tribes in Cimmerian, how do they get about, they must have to pass though others terriatory, therefore must be friendly most of the time to permenant settlers, they would give vivid descriptions of the terrain, this glen there, this coloured cliff, some rock in the shape of a bull etc, this would help the Permanent settlers, who would be told stories by the wanderers of the land around and it dangers.

I think some areas are friendly, and some are not. That's why the guides are needed--or someone in the party who knows the lay of the land.

As for the nomadic Cimmerian Tribes, I think they keep to a certain region, for the most part. Off the top of my head, a particular tribe may go as far north as the Eighlophians and as far east as the Breaknecks. South, they'll go past the Field of Chiefs, but much farther than that, they run into a clan for which they are at war with.

The west is open, but it is also populated. So, while going west will not cause a war, they also know that there are tribes that direction claiming territory, and they may not like it much if the entire nomadic clan winters in one of their hunting grounds.

So, thus, a nomadic clan will have a territory and boundaries as to where it spends the winter and summer.

I imagine, though, that Cimmeria is not so densely populated that a lone traveller, or a few, couldn't pass through dangerous territory and never have an encounter. I'm sure that happens a lot.

It's when the tresspassers are caught that matters.

 

[strategos14]

usually if if characters make a point to say that they travel by popular trades routes (if one is available to from point A to B) then random dangerous encounters aren't generally an option i use. GENERALLY. traveling via established roads within the same country really shouldn't be too dangerous. especially for armed men. if it was dangerous every time you left a town, then there would be no trade or civilization really. no town even. you'd be in Pictland of Cimmeria. in other words, traveling from Akibitan to Eruk via it's main trade route will not exactly run the risk of getting attacked by a random dragon. i know anything can happen but sometimes traveling in this way is where i find a chance to move the story forward.