🦉Unforgettable travels (and traumas)

Greetings, adventurer

I hope you had a good week.

I’m writing this newsletter as I travel through interdimensional portals.

That is to say, I’m transferring flights at the airport.

My next destination is Fantasy Basel in Switzerland, where I’ll delight adventurers from all over Europe with my finest artifacts.

And also with my English accent.

Last week I told you I’d share more details about the illustration for Mistborn, but spells of such a high level take time, and rushing them can lead to disastrous consequences.

It’s still in the printing press, after all.

That’s why, this week, I find myself here with only four hours of sleep under my belt again, experiencing the least glamorous part of my job.

Endless travel.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about this week: little tricks, tips, and reflections to make those travel sessions more entertaining and enjoyable in your role-playing games.

When the system isn’t helping

Saul is a D&D hater; he’s admitted it before.

And I have to admit that sometimes the rules don’t make it seem like much fun.

Travel, to me, is a perfect example of this.

Lots of encounter tables, provisions, terrain difficulty…

Lots of math.

For me, journeys in role-playing games have to be based on a universal purpose.

They’re there so the characters can establish a connection with their world.

To understand this, I want to use the example of my beloved series, Frieren.

In Frieren, the emphasis is on the value of the journey over the destination. The protagonists often find themselves helping characters in the most everyday situations, which in turn helps Frieren better understand interpersonal relationships.

And that’s what we want.

Helping repair a bridge, escorting a group, escaping from someone, sharing a hot meal, or finding a rare ingredient.

These situations require few rolls and just a little improvisation, but they make all the difference.

They make your world feel alive.

Not everything has to be perfect

Let me give you an example from my game. My group had to escort Ireena from Barovia to Vallaki.

It was a job that started out as a practical assignment, but one thing was clear to me.

By the end of that journey, the group had to be willing to sacrifice themselves for Ireena’s well-being.

The world had to feel extremely hostile, and they had to get to know the character better.

To achieve this, instead of throwing wave after wave of monsters and encounters at them, I decided on two things.

I created a flight mechanic: they had to find shelter at dusk or fortify themselves in some way, they were being followed.

But aside from that, I created moments of calm, where they could sit down and interact with Ireena and other characters.

Dancing and feeling joy in a world of terror.

The session was a complete success. By the end of it, the group had a few more traumas, but they knew the world better, understood more things, and felt integrated into it.

That’s why my golden rule for travel sessions is to think about what I want to achieve with that journey.

As I finish writing this, I’m already getting calls to set off for lands of delicious chocolate and dreamlike architecture.

So I’ll say goodbye, but not before asking you:

Successful quests and better rolls,

🦉 Irene the Wizard
🦃 Saúl the Bard