Overland travel is generally not too complicated, but if you don’t do it often or haven’t handled it before it can be a bit intimidating.

 

Get your players to establish a routine at the beginning of an extended trip of how they will handle things like setting up camp, setting watch, and marching order.  This will make it easier to determine what who is where when stuff happens.

 

If the party is on the way to the dungeon, next city, etc. then any encounters should motivate them to reach their destination.  Older modules are full of charts for random encounters that happen during overland travel.  I try to steer away from random encounters as much as possible.  If you have encounters prepared (and you should) then insert them into the travel when they will have the biggest impact on the players.

 

Unlike a dungeon, overland travel encounters are generally a matter of time rather than of place.  If the journey from village A to city B takes 2 days, then you need to decide when during that trek the encounter will happen. 

 

If the encounter is a group of thieves waiting in ambush, then it should happen while the party is travelling, not camping.  If they are hired assassins, then they will strike when the party is most vulnerable, usually during a rest period.  You can have a lot of fun creating the timing of the encounter.  Striking just as the sun begins to dip when shadows are at their longest in a murky forest, or rising up from the grass on the windswept plains can offer some interesting surprises.

 

If the party is on an extended trip and will face several encounters, then you have a great opportunity to really play with the timing.  Do the Night’s Assassins always strike at night?  The party will catch on quickly to timing like this, even going so far as to reverse their schedule, trying to rest during the day and travel at night to throw off the attackers.  Or do the ambushes happen irregularly or appear to be random?  Think through what personality traits drive your NPC’s and the players will enjoy it more.

 

Remember to include all your overland encounters in your overarching XP and treasure levels.  All too often the random wandering monster doesn’t have any treasure.  After a few of these types of encounters the party’s resources can be drained or their XP level will outweigh their treasure.

 

As always, have a fun game!

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This encounter is designed as a level 8 encounter as a tough challenge for a 5^th level party.  The treasure listed with the encounter card is for a level 5 party.  You could easily substitute in a treasure packet of any level appropriate for your party.  The encounter, of course is generic enough to be dropped into any campaign, or used as a random encounter.

 

The orcs here are led by their leader Hard Fang, an old, scarred orc who has trained his followers in the use of the trident.  Hard Fang has spent years developing his gang, and favors hit and run tactics.  Because of his vast experience, Hard Fang has learned patience, and to wear his enemies down.  His followers, however, are prone to fits of rage and sometimes ignore his commands.

 

Hard Fang has no problem using muscle from any race, and has brought a pair of gnolls into his group. 

 

The setup for this encounter involves an ambush for unwary prey.  Everyone in the group is familiar with the terrain and they try to remain mobile, engaging their foes only from superior positions.  The melee combatants do their best to draw the enemies into a position where they can be fired upon easily.

 

• Hard Fang Orc Chieftain (700 xp) level 8 elite brute
• 3 Orc Forkman (200 xp) level 5 brutes
• 2  Gnoll Huntmasters (200 xp) level 5 artillery

 

You can download the encounter card here.  You can find all of the associated cards on the downloads page.  And if you need more information about how to use encounter cards, there is an article here.

 

I suggest using the blades camp map from Faiths of Eberron, available from the Wizards of the Coast, though you should definitely choose a map of your liking.

 

Hard Fang will have blocked off at least one of the entrances to try to force any enemies into the area to the west where he can use cover for his archers. 

 

Hope this provides some inspiration.

 

As always, enjoy the game!

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