Between Here and There: Short Encounters For Long Journeys

Mixing up your RPG encounters

By John Teehan

It’s handy for a GM to have a collection of short, flexible encounters suitable for dropping into a game session when there is a need to change up the pacing or party challenges, or color up the world a little.

To start, I’d like to introduce something I call “Road Challenges” — encounters meant to be experienced on those long roads betwixt cities and towns, towns and dungeons, dungeons and haunted monasteries, and so forth. They’re ideal for when you want to add some adventure to the narrative journey between places, change up the rhythm of the overall game, or just give the players something to do should you all be waiting for other players late to the table.

While most game master guides offer some suggestions for outdoor encounters, they’re often just sets of random tables. The spontaneity of rolling random encounters can be fun, it can also be work. Consider some of these suggested Road Challenges to make your game mastering easier.

(Note: These are presented with fantasy settings in mind. In the future, I may address other game settings such as science fiction and horror.)

Warning Sign

“While traveling down a wooded…