How would a party plan a trip from the Giantdowns to Yeninskiy?

[Osprey]

I think most landlubbers would find the sea voyage infinitely more terrifying as well -much as air travel terrifies people today, but with a far worse accident record when it comes to medieval seafaring! If a ship goes down at sea, survivors are rare.

[Magnus Argent]

I think most landlubbers would find the sea voyage infinitely more terrifying as well -much as air travel terrifies people today, but with a far worse accident record when it comes to medieval seafaring! If a ship goes down at sea, survivors are rare.

If I understand Delazar's question correctly, he's looking for travel times from point A to point B. I don't dispute anything anyone here has said. Lots of good info and good advice. But I think he's trying to address a calendaring issue so his PCs can stay in sync.

Not Back Street. NSYNC.

No?

[masterdaorin]

Would overland be faster than by sea?

It shouldn't be, by any stretch of the imagination (if you exclude magic).

A ship could probably travel a sea zone in a day, assuming perfect conditions, so you simply have to count the number of sea zones from the port(s) departed to determine the travel time to the destination.

From the Giantdowns, the best way to go about this is to head to the port of Nolien and get to one of the larger ports (most likely Skapa Hjarring or Aaldviika) and head to a major Brecht port. From there I would assume it should be easy to find a Brecht merchant ship heading to eastern Cerilia.

The trouble would be finding a captain that would want to go to Yeninskiy. No right-thinking sea captain would want to venture there, unless the pay was really good...

[Delazar]

I sent a map of the continent to the players, so they figured this out in between sessions, I think we can work with it:

• from Lemnjohen to Mandal by LAND - 3 weeks
• stay in Mandal (adventure) - 1 week
• from Mandal to Folda Fjord by LAND - 2 weeks
• stay in Folda Fjord - 1 week
• from Folda Fjord to Kopingdal (Hjolvar) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Kopingdal - 1 week
• from Kopingdal to Alber (Grabentod) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Alber - 1 week
• Alber to Gnoll Fens by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Gnoll Fens - 1 week
• Gnoll Fens to Luthkovsky by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Luthkovsky - 1 week
• Luthkovsky to Hilov (Yeninskiy) by SEA - 1 week

They'll have a real "adventure" in Mandal (in our campaign, the White Witch is dead, Mandal is an undead-infested ruin, and the PCs are trying to recover the Ring of Winter), then the "montage" travel will start.

In Folda Fjord they have an NPC waiting for them with a drakkar and a contingent of Vos warriors, they will travel together.

I'm thinking of having the travel last a full session (2-3 hours), by having some RP encounters when they stop at each place of rest. Then at least they'll have a sense they've traveled, I hope.

[Osprey]

I sent a map of the continent to the players, so they figured this out in between sessions, I think we can work with it:

• from Lemnjohen to Mandal by LAND - 3 weeks
• stay in Mandal (adventure) - 1 week
• from Mandal to Folda Fjord by LAND - 2 weeks
• stay in Folda Fjord - 1 week
• from Folda Fjord to Kopingdal (Hjolvar) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Kopingdal - 1 week
• from Kopingdal to Alber (Grabentod) by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Alber - 1 week
• Alber to Gnoll Fens by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Gnoll Fens - 1 week
• Gnoll Fens to Luthkovsky by SEA - 1 week
• stay in Luthkovsky - 1 week
• Luthkovsky to Hilov (Yeninskiy) by SEA - 1 week

They'll have a real "adventure" in Mandal (in our campaign, the White Witch is dead, Mandal is an undead-infested ruin, and the PCs are trying to recover the Ring of Winter), then the "montage" travel will start.

In Folda Fjord they have an NPC waiting for them with a drakkar and a contingent of Vos warriors, they will travel together.

I'm thinking of having the travel last a full session (2-3 hours), by having some RP encounters when they stop at each place of rest. Then at least they'll have a sense they've traveled, I hope.

Wow, a 4-month voyage at best - assuming there are no delays from bad weather or monster mishaps! I can't imagine trying to describe all of the lands and sea voyages they would see in just a few hours of gaming, especially if you allow PCs some options to interact with NPCs, shop, sightsee, etc.

I would expect multiple sessions in addition to those needed for the adventure...and some rolls for random encounters (or roll them ahead if you prefer to carefully plan everything) might also spice up a long trip and break up the narrative description.

Some rolls for weather might also make for a nice variable.

I know some DMs like to control everything ahead of time, but I have always found it fun to make those rolls in-game so players know that not everything is scripted and carefully balanced - it gives a sense that the natural world is unpredictable and dangerous, and not merely a storied script in which the DM decides everything.

[Delazar]

I just like to be prepared

The way I do it, I plan what in my mind is the most probable course of action, and what are my NPCs’ goals, and how they plan to achieve them.

Then the PCs throw a wrench into it all, and we have a game!

Concerning the trip, of course if the party wants to stop longer at each location, looking for adventure there, they’re free to do what they like.

It’s a TTRPG after all.