Here are my notes with a few new ideas incorporated. Hopefully someone finds these helpful: *TRAVEL PREP* Write out scenery descriptions ahead of time. - Imagery and flowery language - Personification and zoomorphism - Scale contrast Break up scenery descriptions with narratively relevant encounters that escalate in intensity. - Skill checks (with stakes) - Roleplay among party members and with NPCs - Combat Use resource management to make travel challenging and fun. - Time - Supplies - Spells and abilities *EXPLORATION PREP* Create information deficit to pique interest. - Sight - Hearing - Smell Use resource management to make exploration challenging and fun. - Time - Supplies - Carrying capacity - Spells and abilities - Hit points

My players ask me a question about my world.. Me: "Ah yes of course I have that info right here. *checks notes* .............What are these notes ...what do they mean?"

"isn't communication wonderful when you actually do it" why do you attack me this way Dael

did i just tear up by the thought of how gorgeous a moment it'd be to hear a walking song in a dnd sesh? maybe so

"What are these notes? What do these notes mean?" the eternal struggle

me, the DM: Following the lazy bends of the river you glance a hawk gliding in the warm updrafts My players: We shoot the hawk

scarf confidence

"Packs laden with loot, are often low on supplies" -Narrator in Darkest Dungeon (missspelled darkest)

The greatest trick that Travel ever pulled, was convincing the world it didnt exist.

I really like having 'campfire encounters' where the party is sitting around a campfire and I ask each of them a question about their characters. Usually there is some roleplay there as the other characters hear those answers.

Re: scene setting descriptions - one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got, which I have been able to apply constantly to my GMing and my job as a communications consultant, is that the first thing you need to do is *populate the scene.* Before you get into a page and a half of flowery descriptions about all the inanimate objects in the room, put the characters who are there in first. Human people don't relate to inanimate objects (unless we can anthropomorphize them like teddy bears and Roombas). Human people relate to living things, especially other human people. Start your scene description with the people who are there and what they are doing, and use that as a context for everything else of import around them. That keeps your story rolling and keeps the audience's attention. For example, if the party walks into a den of thieves, don't start by describing the scale in feet and the location of the bar. Start by describing the one table in the middle of the room around which a group of scruffy-looking men and women sit hunched over hands of playing cards. They pause the latest round of betting to stare in the party's direction before one player extinguishes her cigarette in a puff of acrid smoke, and reaches into her vest to produce a finely engraved golden revolver-which she pushes across the table into the betting pool piled up in the center of the table. But even as play resumes and the party makes their way inside, it's clear they are all keeping one eye on group. From there you can radiate your physical description of the space outwards from this table to highlight other important things about the space-the dim wrought iron oil chandeliers overhead, the dilapidated piano in the corner, the solitary chap in the back nursing a black eye and a whiskey, the wizened bartender sliding a mason jar of moonshine across the counter to some other NPC of note. But by starting with that little vignette in the center of the room, you've established the mood and tone, some characters, the smell of cigarette smoke, and give a point of reference for the players' imaginations to latch onto.

One thing I like to do is make "random" encounter tables and then never roll on it, instead picking the right encounter for the flow of the story and session and the mood of the table.

Love the idea of seeding character interactions beforehand for players who aren't always at professional level of improv (myself included in that)

Another "DnD video that came just in time for my campaign today" from Dael. This with Runesmith's travel/exploration video has been a huge help planning a pirate ship/hexcrawl/island hopping arc in my campaign.

"These are my personal breakdowns-" that's usually how my worldbuilding goes too.

It's cool to see every episode having more and more added to the shelves at the back.

i think we should all have cat's attitude from red dwarf. "my clothes look good, my hair looks good. i look good."

I'd embrace my inner theater kid, but he always goes through dramatic death throws, so over the top.

It's very interesting because I am part of two different parties, one that has been pure travel the entire time while the other is all exploration. This definitely got me thinking.

2:57 The LAST thing I expected going into this was a Del Tora Quest reference.

it's so surreal hearing you shoutout deltora quest in some of these videos, as someone who grew up on those books and hasn't really met anyone else who read them since. Man, that's nostalgic

I see Sea Shanty TikTok has reached Dael Kingsmill as wel...

Listening to Dael reading the scenic descriptions from My Brother Michael makes me want to listen to a full audiobook read by Dael

Another element of great travel description is some feeling of foreshadowing or mood setting. Picture how you want the characters to feel when the travel ends (and becomes exploration e.g.) and weave that into your description. "As days grow shorter and shadows longer, you realize you have left the safety of your homelands. It is a subtle change, but a change nonetheless. Roads become less maintained, with long distances of heavy mud. The fog, that eternal fog, clings to the manes of the horses as they toil to pull the wagons. Proud, long pine trees that filter the light have given way to gnarly, old oaks and beeches, intent on casting gloom and shadow on their mossy surroundings. There are sounds you do not know, sounds of animals that turns your head. The horses grow nervous and it has become a tiring job of driving the wagons. The chill that comes from cold nights and mist-soaked clothing makes that few feel like banter or conversation. On the last days, the dark clouds that have been hanging overhead for a while now, finally deliver on their grisly promise and rain starts pouring down. Miserable and tired, you finally see the faintest orange glow from torches...the first roadside inn in days beckons with a promise of warmth and rest." It immediately sets the tone/mood (I'm feeling miserable but thank gods for this inn) for the players to start from. ('Innkeeper! Throw some extra logs on the fire and bring me some mulled wine. These boots will take a while to dry!')

Someone get Dael a small table so she can practice putting books down nicely while on camera.

I'm 23 minutes in, and I'm already realizing I'm going to have to watch this at least 3 times to get all the juicy bits. There's so many good ideas in here.

Adore what your doing with your channel the blur of writing and gameplay tips that not many channels can pull off as well as you do it. Plus the dnd theory crafting it's just *Chief's kiss*

Just remember if you want to make travel interesting you need conflict which becomes resource management against the environment and weather. Plus, you always have to kill someone with dysentery

i watch a LOT of dnd advice videos, not all of them have me actually taking notes ... xx

The impressionistic map of notecard areas is called a pointcrawl (like in the hexcrawl family) and they slap! Hope you check try that technique out sometime! Great video!!!

Scarf Confidence feels like it should be a D&D feature. After a minute in your presence while wearing a scarf, you have advantage on all Persuasion and Deception checks, and disadvantage on all Intimidation checks. Because who could be intimidated by that cuteness.

I love the modification to long rest. No hit point recovery and only half of spell slots recovered. It's ::chef's kiss:: magnifique.

Scarf confidence and “I’m extremely attractive” what great truths could be shared. Loved the vid, there are things I will definitely steal

Other Pop culture examples: Lost In Space and The Martian for Exploration stuff as well. It's not typically them vs. a concerted enemy or aggressor (though that does happen), it's more them vs. an ineffable force. Gravity. Oxygen. Low food stuffs. Microscopic metal-eating parasites (disease).

Wow, dropping an Understanding Comics gem of advice in a DnD video; truly in unprecedented times

Travel through a point of interest is "dungeon crawling," travel around a point of interest is "exploration," and travel between points of interest is "downtime." New Dms often struggle with the third. My suggestion is to treat the open road like you would treat the inside of a tavern. Have several interesting characters and details that flesh out the environment, but never spend too long there.

Never thought to make that distinction either. Some good advice here! My solution was just to throw out random encounters in general if I wanted the players to get to a place fast, but to put them in if I had some thematically interesting stuff in mind. Lots of die fudging going on when I just didn't feel like actually doing an encounter on the way to their destination.

I cannot emphasize enough how useful your videos are. Each video can completely change how a game is run _for the better._ I've had to take notes each video because I can't afford to waste a single thing in them! Thank you for producing these videos!

As someone from the wild western states, yes: channeling your inner cowboy is precisely how you look good in a scarf.

So much confidence.

Deltora Quest was my jam, I saw books 1 and 2 (collection books) at a thrift store and bought them immediately

I made travel super important in the beginning of my players campaign. My map takes in-game weeks to traverse by cart with a game mechanic that also creates a sense of danger for long periods of time outside of city walls. Now travel is a decision and stopping anywhere risks the party if they are short on time. Going across the map without of plan can cause several deadly encounters to deal with. Since it was all built in from the start it created a more enjoyable travel experience and had my players asking, "How much time before X".

Just commenting to help the youtube algorithm...

Improvisers, Dael, they're called improvisers!

Fun to hear you mention Stellaris! Great little stories in there.

RE the clickbait as hook, I've found this works particularly well for character hooks and backstory, ala kessel run

For a mechanical side of things, there is the journey mechanics from the 5e Middle Earth stuff. It's a great way to handle the travel side of things and making it an adventure in its own right

I love random encounter tables. I tend to treat all travel as exploration, with the idea being that the world is wild and old and even travelling through relatively civilized areas brings risk and discovery. But I also go through the trouble of making customized encounter tables for each region that evolve as the characters shape the world, eliminate threats, make alliances, etc.

I’m running a west marshes campaign and rations go so out the window once you get the spell create food and water. Or the ranger takes good berry. I would highly recommend gritty realism as you describe.

Seeding inter-party role-play ahead of time is maybe the biggest revelation I've ever had. I heard many people talk about how they encourage RP every time their players rest around the campfire and that sounds great too, but it feels more like you're imposing it and players don't get to say no to it. Hearing your friend sing and realizing most of what I listen to on Spotify could be considered travel songs (UK/northern Europe folk music) is another big revelation, though I don't still know how to take it.

IN my game, sometimes a day's travel takes an hour or two of table time, sometimes a whole week can take half that. It depends on what the characters are doing or looking for, and whether there are pre-planned "random" encounters I've placed.

Petition to have Dael read an audiobook? Those segments were so well read!

I'm addicted to listening to people read stories, thanks for the narration!

So this is really cool, the idea of the character interactions and progressions during travel, I started a new campaign just a few days ago with some players new to me as a dm and one player new to dnd altogether and I started them with a traveling quest, they started in one town and were given a cart and task to retrieve goods from two other nearby towns for a festival that would be happening in a few days time, so their character who hadn’t known each other got a lot of time to interact and bond during the encounters while I familiarized them with the local region and planted seeds for future quests, they hadnt even returned with the goods by the time we ended the session but they were already excited about returning to some of the locations to look into different people or things they’d seen and interacted with. The travel was a great tool to get them all comfortable with each other and immersed in the world

Dael Says walking Song. My Brain: AND I WOULD WALK 500 MILES AND I WOULD WALK 500 MORE!

This video could be subtitled, Dael describing EXACTLY how the "5 things you didn't know about X" videos get me to watch.

DM Tip for travel: Travel descriptions are a GREAT time for Dms to expo dump...I mean world build. In fact here is my tip: DMs DO NOT do a world building exposition dump at the beginning of the campaign. Rather whenever travel tell them the specific names and history as they travel: You travel down Smiths Road, so named because in the War of Epic Awesome King Awesome The Ruler made this road to transport swords from the Great Dwarven blacksmiths in the hills to the battlefront which gave the next town, Battlefront Town, it's name.

Can confirm, you do look wonderful with the scarf.

10:45 Get flowery, get purple! Me, making notes for my coming DnD game regarding purple flowers that spew sleep inducing pollen: How does she know???

speaking of exploration rules and games, Darkest Dungeon is an amazing resource. it has all that Dael mentioned and more

This is completely accidental but the "Articulate" on the top-right-handcorner is like a call to action. I love it.

Always excited for new content. And this video is so long! And it has SEA SHANTIES!

I've instilled mechanics and gameflow to capture the specific wonder of the scene in Lord of the Rings (movie) where Aragorn describes the Argonath to the Fellowship. Players get a chance to describe from their PC's perspective things they might come across.

Understanding Comics! Yes, Scott McCloud is absolutely useful in understanding storytelling as a whole.

Loved the debate around separating Travel and Exploration. I truly believe this is something that should be approached more frequently. Great video as always

Yessss!!!! I had no idea how much I needed this video. Thank you! Thank you!

Damn Dale, the way you said "Use all of them!" 21:17 was 100% the same tone one uses to order an army to attack.

best part of this video 15:00 where you talk about teasing at things you want to reveal rather than describing them directly and dully.... im a very direct engineer so i needed this reminder 😆

Dael, this video is the most helpful resource for what my games currently need. I share many of your views on this and had begun to reach some similar conclusions, but you were way ahead of me and have afforded me a chance to piggy-back straight to a language to conceptualise it through, strong goals to strive for, and a couple of actionable to-do:s for churning them into a reality. Thank you very much indeed, Dael!

Referencing Scott McCloud in a D&D video... that I was not expecting and I love it. Going back to read those books RIGHT NOW. Great video, thanks!

THOSE TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS ARE DRIPPING WITH DELICIOUSNESS, WOOO IF I GOT THOSE IN ANY OF MY CAMPAIGNS I WOULD LOSE MY APE BRAIN TO A WAYWARD FANTASY, I'M GONNA GENTRIFY THE MINDS EYE OF MY PLAYERS!

I think it's funny that you talk about tolkien's rhythm of description and encounters and end with "more on that in a little bit" and segue immediately into talking about information deficit.

Pathfinder has great content on both travel and exploration. You can run an entire travel campaign, like Oregon trail using their rules. The road, terrain, and weather are all potential threats to challenge the characters.

i think of travel as a scene change. a layering of descriptions (like an onion, not a cake) which contrasts by first giving plain general descriptions of where people are going, and slowly making a point when coming to a close by either personifying things or giving descriptions not usually associated with the things to mark a point of interest (example "the clouds rolled in" compared to "the sky boiled in turbulence")

Amazing channel, amazing person. Instant Subscribe. Also, one thing I often do for travel is have my players take it in turns to improv describe the journey and events and interactions as they go along. I have found this really enhances what would normally be a bland few sentences of general description in most campaigns.

Something that I have seen forgotten is that the healing from long rest is only available if the character is adequately fed, watered and sheltered.

I'm just passing by to say that Piranessi was one of the best book i've read in a long time. Priceless.

Piranesi is an absolutely beautiful book that everyone should read

This is your reminder NOT to throw that book you're holding.

The comment of character development happens in travel reminds me of a pet peeve I have with JJ abrams space movies where he tends to ignore travel times for teleporting instantly where other series use that travel time for discussion between characters.

upvoted for the scarf advice, now on to the rest of video.

Good good good video! Also seconding the whole 5 torches deep line of books, even if you dont find it interesting as a game on it's own its still just a bunch of fantastic little toolboxes for basically any version of D&D

My characters were traveling between two areas of interest, and I planned a couple of fun encounters and rolled for random encounters along the way. But then a great storm came up and they took shelter in a way station where they would be stuck for 36 hours. So for the next session I told them each to come up with something to share with the group, in the mode of The Decameron. A tale, a song, something. The bard had a great song and a story and reticent fighter recounted her backstory. I had to cover the NPCs, so I sang a sea shanty and had two characters trade jokes. Another NPC did an improvised retelling of Beowulf from the monster's perspective -- "And then he went after my mom!" While another (a gray one-eyed wanderer who may or may not have been Odin) recited the Anglo Saxon poem "The Wanderer" (in translation). It was a great session and a fun way to spice up a travel sequence.

This was very illuminating. The distinction between travel and exploration is brilliant.

I have also been thinking about this in relation to a system I was designing (that can honestly be "tacked on" to pretty much any pre-existing RPG), specifically the idea that *Travel* =/= *Exploration*. I'm more partial to a system where bookkeeping is kept to a minimum or done so for the sake of drama (I'd rather do an inventory slot system over tracking each pound of weight, and I think most people would). Something I appreciate about Five Torches Deep is their solution for having a middle ground between "player preparedness" & "character preparedness" with the Supply system, however I personally wanted something where the actual journey there had an impact on that. Plus I thought it'd be a great opportunity for the players to make the decision of "how much should we bring with us?" The basic idea is that when you leave to travel towards your intended destination, you'd have to pick how much "Supply" (this is an abstracted resource, similar to FTD) you'd bring along with you from your reserves and put that many tokens in a container, along with a number of "Complication" tokens equal to the dangerous conditions of the path. You then draw a number of tokens equal to the travel time/distance needed to get there, and for each Complication there is an event that occurs which hinders the party in some way and/or costs them some material (no actual negative effect except not getting a Supply, that is punishment enough). However for Supply, you get to add that token to the party pool, representing that the group made good time, overcame harrowing circumstances without expending materials, or discovered something useful along the way. At any time during the actual "dungeon crawl" a player may choose to expend one of those tokens to succeed on a roll they would otherwise fail, demonstrating them having the right tool for the job (they should describe what it is they used in order to do that, obviously). And that is pretty much it! I have some concepts for how to have the recovery of Supply function in order to minimize incentive for dumping all your supply into each expedition and getting them all back immediately upon returning to home or resting. And I have some concepts for making a simple "weather system" that will actually allow for a bit of variance in the difficulty of travel (Complication tokens) and be helpful in making the world feel more dynamic.

I want to known more about warthogs...

The only problem with the “gritty “ concept is that people automatically associate hp with physical damage. Hp are an abstract. A dagger is just as deadly to a 20th level Paladin as it is to a 1st level Wizard. The difference, the skill in battle, the knowledge of turning a blade aside at the last minute, the hours spent building the stamina to fight for hours, this is all part of those hit points, this is what must be worn down before that dagger can slip in, and find its deadly mark. This is why regain of hp over a long rest is actually feasible

Delightful, start to finish. I have missed you and your wondrous ramblings so much. Have a good "2020."

I am mean (and I started playing in AD&D) so my players get ZERO HP back for resting but they do get 1/2 of their hit dice (rounded up). I like the thing about limited spell recovery. That sounds like it could be a lot of fun to spring on them. I was also thinking, for long trips, about being "in travel" and then coming "Out of travel". Maybe coming out of travel is when you make a couple of CON saves to see how exhausting the trip was. If they want to explore the church that they saw in the distance then they have to come "out of travel". Maybe they get 1 or 2 levels of exhaustion which they either have to spend time to rest and get back or carry with them when they start traveling again. I really like this idea.

Relating to that notion of getting your players to RP by contacting them in advance about acting a scene such as an argument during dinner; I love what Matt Coleville does in the digital format, slipping secret chat messages to individual players highlighting character specific knowledge, and pulling back and seeing if sparks fly spontaneously. "It's not a wode, you filthy human!" Hmm, that might not be the exact quote, maybe I could find the real thing if only I remembered who I'm quoting...😄

To make travel interesting: step one, become a world-class author capable of weaving magnificent vistas into the mind's eye with naught but your words.

It's implied sometime between 9-10 minutes, but plains and flat landscapes can well hide a lot. Many people forget this too often. Whole armies can be (and have been) hidden in such terrain.

IRL I love exploring, so I like very much your calling attention to this. In general: **Travel = have some expectation of what's (likely) ahead and what you will need. Typically grabbing standard supplies (eg wagon and normal shoes). Done to get there, so generally more of a chore that needs done (though they may enjoy the variety of scenes and people). Also, generally have expectation of help or available provisions or other people along the way if really needed. **Exploring = Don't know what's ahead. Guessing what to expect and trying to be prepared. More likely to bring non-standard/more specific items that make the generality more bearable (eg heavy boots for the possibility of mud or stream crossings) or make an extreme difference in to make a harder challenge bearable (Lewis and Clark river crossings: could find sticks to make a simple boat frame quickly, but they carried the heavy skins with them so it wouldn't be a travel halting event). You are leaving the common path, so normal help is not expected to be available. For fun, for the challenge, etc. *expense may be a big limiting factor for either, but exploration tends to be a lot more expensive because the specialized tools are the opposite of daily (eg, I can find a shovel in most any hardware store, but how about a grappling hook?) Commonality: *if you are trying to be alert for too long, it will wear on you and you will start to lose focus or details. But, travel is more inclined to boredom and that much sooner. Exploration is easier to stay alert, but if under difficulty is more exhausting *eg heavy rainstorm on top of trying to see on an unknown and treacherous path for hours during the night vs same storm but simply plodding along the known road/path where you can kind of tune out and just pay enough attention to not trip on a rock or rut I find there is a big difference in how people pack/what they bring. Is your character logical-analytical? *More inclined to overthinking than act before you think? Then you should have your character, if anything, carry too much. (packing is a skill fyi. Just try a backpack camping trip with someone who doesn't hike or camp much) *act before you think type? then your character might grab his cloak, but be didn't bring rope, medkits, etc. instead just wanting to go and/or assuming he could make it work with is carry machete.

I legitimately took notes during a lot of this video! I feel like using these two aspects of ttrpgs as two separate things to plan around/for like the way they are in books really helps me understand writing a bit more. Understanding the importance of planning and talking with your players is huge for me too. Personally, I found that not enough of my past DM's have reached out to me, their player, and asked questions. Those questions are often relegated to the intro session 0, or the campaign survey. I think just keeping the line of communication in one direction (Player reaching out to DM) is a detached way of performing the DM role at the table. As a DM, we can give players the heads up of where the session is going can help them get an idea/plan in mind to really embrace the moment or not, and in that scenario we are not left wanting for something weird or fun to happen. 95% of DnD players are not improvisors, nor should they have to be in order for their engagement at the table to be optimally enjoyable.

I love this vid and descriptions should be in the DMG; I only saw it once i LMOP. I love travel, exploration and random encounters; thats why I bought some 3th party resources for this.

Deltora quest unLOCKED some memories in my brain

"The moon shines brightly down upon glade where you have set up camp." Player -- I howl at the moon. Me -- Okay, make an intimidation check Player -- 12 Me -- The moon is unphased. Player -- I go to sleep Me -- You wake up in the realm of the Moon Goddess, "I heard you was talking shit!"

The bit about manga building a sense of place piecewise reminds me of a silence of three parts in the kingkiller chronicle

Darkest Dungeon is a great example of balancing treasure, and resources necessary to continue!

Piranesi is SO good