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DnD 5e Overland Travel: 7 Proven Methods

All the best methods for role-playing dnd 5e long distance travel.

By Riley Rath 

Table of Contents 

- we need several methods for our dnd 5e campaigns , - summary if dnd 5e long distance travel rules as written , - 7 different methods for running travel in dnd 5e, - dnd 5e overland travel dm tips , - conclusion: put it all together.

(This post is part of a series on "travel DnD 5e." Read the first post here . For more on exploration, start here ). 

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In a previous post , I talked about how travel is usually necessary for a  Dungeons and Dragons (or similar TTRPG) adventure, but the rules-as-written make it confusing and boring, so most tables skip it... so we skip it. 

But that doesn't solve the problem... we need better Dnd 5e overland travel. 

Cuz while the original 1974 version may not have had expansive homebrew and overland travel modules (like  Storm King's Thunder ) — you had to get a 3rd party supplement — worlds demand it... today's DnD is about so much more than getting from point A to point B. 

Like, you know how there is "no WRONG way to eat a Reese's"?  Well... in a similar way... there is no RIGHT way to travel in DnD 5e . 

Fun 5e travel is situational... it depends on your players, where you are in the story, and the destination up ahead... if you try to shoe-horn in a single method for every situation, you only continue the stereotype that DnD travel sucks. 

How you get there often  (though not always) matters. 

There are a lot of different ways to run travel in DnD 5e, and this post goes through them all and helps you choose which one is best for you. This post is part 2 of our travel series, the goal being: 

• To make travel a REAL option in your campaigns.
• Add a different, fun flavor of adventure into your DnD campaign.
• Add something you and your players will look forward to.

Summary of 5th Edition Overland Travel Rules as Written 

So in our other post, we covered the DnD 5e overland travel rules and why they suck. Not pulling punches here: WOTC rules and nonexistent guidelines are hot garbage and the reason no one enjoys traveling during adventures or runs it in their campaigns. 

Here is a summary of the rules: 

• When traveling, the players choose a travel pace. This dictates their movement speed. 
• Different travel speeds mean players cover a certain number of miles/hexes in a day, and each have different consequences.
• If the travel pace of the creatures in your party are different, then you will move at the rate of the slowest creature (so be aware of the races of your party composition).
• If you travel at a fast pace, you take levels of exhaustion that require you to take a long rest in order to return to normal.
• Traveling at a normal pace results in no penalties or benefits.
• But if you move at a slow pace, you can move stealthily by moving at half speed. 
• Rangers can travel easier through difficult terrain.
• Pages 111 of the DMG detail how players need to keep track of rations and foraging. 
• Travel often includes wilderness survival encounters, such as sinking swaps, rushing rivers, and avalanches.

7 Different Methods for Running DnD 5e Long Distance Travel

(Note: While many different DnD content creators offer multiple travel methods, the Dungeon Dude was, imo, the most comprehensive. Watch it here ). 

Solution 1: Narrate and "Hand Wave" Travel

I know... this post is about making dnd 5e overland travel fun... but a sure-fire way to make it NOT fun is to ALWAYS role-play travel every time the players go anywhere! I insist... DO NOT RUN TRAVEL JUST FOR THE SAKE OF TRAVELING!

Ginny D comically elaborates on this. Watch the whole thing here , but here's a summary: most of our attempts to spice up travel just ends up as filler. Which is a boring waste of time for you and everyone at the table.

Sometimes the distance is too short... or too safe... or too boring to justify spending the time. Sometimes the narrative will suffer too much if you take all the time to travel somewhere. And sometimes the mood of the players or tone at the table demands you get to the point. Regardless, at some point in your adventure, you will discover that narrating the journey is the best choice in that particular moment. 

For example, unless there is bad weather or a threat waiting for them  (due to their decisions, of course) , I usually skip travel if my party is backtracking the same route. There is an argument to be made that the party's familiarity with the route would make it much harder for them to run into dangerous encounters. 

This is the "Dnd Fast Travel" method... plot armor for player characters. 

Another reason to skip traveling is if the destination is guaranteed to be 1,000% more interesting than the journey... you don't want travel to distract a highly-immersed and engaged table. Maybe after many sessions of investigating, they JUST discovered the location of an ancient dwarven stronghold... you are probably going to want to carry their excitement straight to the entrance to the cave network rather than waste it on a slog of goblin ambushes on the road. 

When skipping dnd 5e overland travel, just have three or four sentences describing what the characters see, how fast they travel, etc. and then have them arrive at the destination. No dice rolls... no random encounters... no supplies... no nothing. Just get there!

Solution 2: Roll Every Hour

This is straight from page 106 of the DMG. Have players roll survival and perception checks every hour and roll some sort of random encounter every hour. The "random encounter" does NOT equal combat... it can be an NPC, a pretty view, a discovery... etc. 

This is surely going to result in the 6 encounters for which the DnD 5e rest system was designed . It will certainly drain the PCs hit points, spell slots, and other resources. Which is great... and very much like video game RPGs. However, it will also make dnd 5e long distance travel take FOREVER!!!!!

Don't do this unless you are hella hardcore and want to have your adventure be as realistic as possible, measuring exact distances. It is maaaaaybe an option if your entire adventure is just one long travel session (like in  Lord of the Rings )... but even that has plenty of narration. 

I believe this isn't travel at all... it's a mock  Final Fantasy RPG mechanic!

It's just standard DnD! It, like solution 1, gets rid of long distance dnd travel, but does so by stretching it out so much that it becomes the game itself. 

In my opinion, the fact that the  Dungeon Master's Guide only offers these two solutions shows how much WOTC dropped the ball. It's been 9 years, everyone... you are professionals... come on. 

Solution 3: DnD 5e Overland Travel Takes One Hour of Playtime

This is the most popular suggestion for fixing dnd 5e overland travel. Luke at the DM Lair makes the case that DMs should set aside 1 hour for travel. This is an hour of real-world activity. This hour would be enough for a short, 30-minute combat encounter, maybe a 10-minute discovery, some role-playing, and narration. He also points out that random encounters like these provide an opportunity to use fun monsters and creatures that won't otherwise come up in your game/plot. 

And while I love the DM Lair... what he does... and understand where he is coming from... and agree that this is sometimes great... I respectfully disagree with this method. I think that any of the other methods would result in both a better game experience and better story. 

Admittedly, if the party is traveling through a mountain pass or a single forest, then it works fine. But if they are traveling across continents or oceans? Or across wildly different climates? Or for so long that the seasons change? The "one single encounter" method is rarely the right way to run dnd 5e overland travel. As stated previously , the "random encounter" just makes traveling take much longer than it needs to. 

Order of the Stick has a great comic that makes fun of this... and points out how weird it is. It is one of the only times players KNOW they will get a long rest as soon as the battle ends. Which means... they will throw everything they got. Hold nothing back. After all, why not? They will just long rest and get it all back just before they reach the dungeon entrance. No stakes... no consequences... no choice... no fun... because it is a meaningless encounter that does not impact the players, the story, or their state as they arrive. 

However, if you  insist on sticking to this method, the Dungeon Dudes make an amazing point that you must heed. They suggest you treat the single travel encounter as a "dungeon room 0" that foreshadows what lies in wait at the destination. This method builds anticipation, creates a sense of the passage of time, while also getting the party quickly to the action. 

Solution 4: When All Else Fails... Run a Skill Challenge!

A skill challenge is widely considered the best thing 4e gave to us. Here is how it basically works: 

• DM says the players will resolve an encounter more cinematically rather than with a social or combat encounter.
• The DM sets an appropriate DC (difficulty class). 
• The DM sets the scene, describing the threats and obstacles the player characters have to overcome.
• Each "round," players select a skill check (or saving throw) to make. 
• If the player succeed a certain number of times, they win the skill challenge and continue their journey. 
• If the players fail a certain number of times, then they fail the skill challenge and a new scene begins.

This is the method Matt Coleville uses  ( check out Matt Coleville's video here ) . A skill challenge can bring some tension and reduce an otherwise complicated and lengthy encounter into something that is quick, cinematically exciting, and allows players to shine in different ways. They can be used in DnD 5e overland travel for anything from navigating the wilderness, surviving a flood, or socializing with random passersby on the road. Like a montage in a movie, it is a great way to accomplish A LOT in a short amount of time. 

Now, personally, I believe too many people rely on skill challenges to accomplish too much in their campaigns . That said,  they firmly belong in the exploration pillar , and therefore also have their place in dnd 5e travel mechanics. In my games, they are particularly helpful to quickly backtrack across terrain the party is already familiar with. Long story short: a skill challenge can be a useful travel tool and, when done well, very fun... especially when combined with travel roles (see the next travel post... HERE ). 

Solution 5: Let Dnd 5e Overland Travel Take a Single Game Session (or Two)

**If the first few solutions are about minimizing the journey time as much as possible, then the final few are about getting the MOST out of it**

If you want to be intentional about weaving travel into your DnD campaign and table culture, then I definitely advocate setting aside at least a session to make it fun. But how do you design a whole session around getting somewhere? 

The Dungeon Dudes offer a helpful image you are probably familiar with: Design the route(s) like you would desgin a large dungeon . Give their journey a clear structure with multiple ways to go. But instead of "rooms," you have encounters and alternation between social, combat, and exploration encounters. And don't forget to narrate the areas as they travel through and in between each encounter!

This method creates 5e travel encounters, which solves the principle problem facing everything that belongs to the exploration pillar... the lack of scenes .

Oh, what was that? Worried your adventurers will have the benefits of a long rest for each encounter? BOOM... use a rest mechanic I first heard about on We Speak Common :  "It takes 24 hours to gain the benefits of a long rest an 8 hours for a short rest."

Why apply this to dnd 5e overland travel? Because when you are on a journey... whether it be by plane, sea, car, horseback, or on foot... it is TIRING. It takes it out of you! 

**I expand on this in the third travel post, which contains — in my not-so-humble opinion — the best way to play travel in most dnd campaigns.**

Solution 6: 5e Travel as an Entire Adventure Arc

This solution is similar to solutions 2 and 4. You don't roll every hour like in solution 2, but you also don't design the route like a dungeon in solution 4. It is getting every ounce of fun out of 5e travel... but it is also the most time consuming. With this method, the journey IS the destination; you'll spend anything from a handful of sessions to months or even  years on the journey. Here are some situations for which this bold strategy works best: 

• If the setting/environment the players are moving through is particularly dangerous (ex: Chult in  Tomb of Annihilation ). 
• If the party begins due to some common, basic reason and you want to reveal the plot through what they encounter along the road.
• If the party joins a caravan, or the crew aboard a boat, and you want to give them ample time to get to know the NPCs. 
• If the party is fleeing and needs to rebrand, redefine, or rediscover who they are before they dive back into the main plot again.
• If you want your campaign to have a more episodic or anthology format (like  Avatar: The Last Airbender ). You slowly build the overarching plot, but have separate mini-adventures that add variety to your campaign . 

One thing I love about this method is how much downtime there is. Players will have plenty of opportunities to track rations, forage in the forests, and interact with villagers along the road. 

And though the road may be lonely, the party can keep each other company! Periodically roll which player characters make small talk. It's a great opportunity to discuss things outside of the adventure, open up, and create more complex characters. 

Solution 7: Do a Hex Crawl! 

Hex crawls are a specific mechanic invented to marry exploration and travel together. Typically, they are best when parties are searching the wilderness, rather than traveling across roads and communities. For these reasons, it will be receiving special attention in an upcoming blog post!

"What About Planar or Sea Travel?" 

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game that takes players on epic adventures across the outer and inner planes. However, planar travel in dnd 5e is all about magical settings that are different from standard Dnd 5e overland travel. They are covered in our  Travel DnD 5e Guide .

DnD 5e Overland Travel DM Tips

**There may be no "one size fits all" method... but here are some tips that always work no matter which way you choose to run it: sure-fire tips and tricks, starting with the most important...**

A) Narrate the Surroundings Well and Often 

When you travel in real life, you get out of your familiar surroundings and are thrust into the big, wide world. New settings, new cities, new peoples. And all of these different settings come with unique sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and sensations... and they are MEMORABLE. 

Guy from How to Be a Great GM points this out. He looked back on his backpacking trips and realized that what he remembers are the VIEWS from the mountain top. You know what he DOESN'T remember? Packing his food for the trip, driving to the trail, or setting up a tent. 

So DMs... you gatta regularly narrate what the characters are traveling through... like, A LOT. 

• When they enter a new area... 
• When they come across something that you need to draw their attention to... 
• And/or if 10 minutes have passed and the image in the mind's eye is fading... 

Dnd 5e Overland Travel is part of the exploration pillar ; for players to explore, they need to visualize the environment their characters are in. So always lean on over-narrating. 

And players... as the DM actively narrates, you must actively visualize . It doesn't happen passively and requires intentional effort. But trust me, it will be worth it! The adventure will feel so much more fantastic and cinematic.

B) Travel When the Player Characters Are at Lower Levels

In the previous post, I said travel can help the world feel dangerous and give it a sense a scale. That is particularly true when your players are level 1 pip-squeaks. I mean, if a Giant Rat can kill them... how are they going to fare against something as common as an Owlbear? 

On the flip side, this is particularly NOT true when they are bigger and stronger... starting around level 9. At that point, they will have access to spells like Magnificent Mansion and Teleport, which will turn arduous trekking into a walk in the park. Simply put: the tension, wonder, and experience of travel matters at lower levels. 

As your players level up and get stronger and stronger, they will find the bloodthirsty bandits that gave them such trouble are now barely an inconvenience. So much so that you can role-play a bandit encounter rather than roll it! But if you traveled at lower levels, narrating an easy battle at higher levels will reinforce just how much stronger the players have gotten! They will think  "wow... what used to take us several sessions now takes just 5 minutes!"

So if your players want to enjoy traveling in your adventure, YOU HAVE TO START EARLY. Because by level 15, players will be throwing their heads back in laughter when warned of the trek to the mountains... cuz last session they used "Gate" to magically traverse the outer planes of the cosmos... 

C) Maintain 3 Traveling Basics 

The "basics" include three things: 

• Financial/material cost
• Marching order
• Conversation 

DnD parties often adventure for potential riches... but getting there also  costs them riches. Even in the real world, long distance travel is a dangerous and expensive adventure. Ask how many taverns they stay in, what kind of food they plan on eating, what supplies they need, etc. They gold you give them is for so much more than fancy armor and magic items!

Does this mean you have to track every little thing? Heavens, no. 

• If they fall into some rapids and crash against rocks... yeah, maybe their equipment should be damaged. 
• And if they choose to stay at taverns... yeah, refer to the lifestyle expenses on page 157 – 158 of the PHB . 
• And if they choose to camp in bad weather for a week... yeah, give them a level of exhaustion until they get good sleep in a warm bed . 

The Dungeon Coach also pointed out how helpful it is to have the players decide on a "standard" marching order. Knowing who is where will come in handy when there is some sort of encounter. The DM can seamlessly transition from narration to encounter, keeping the pace of the game exciting. 

And if I may add to this point, a lot of stuff happens when the players are NOT on the road. Knowing what the characters are generally up to is better than asking them every time they break camp. So have several other "marching orders:" 

• Who keeps watch when... 
• What characters do at a tavern... 
• What they look for when they enter a town... 

Finally, just like in the real world, dnd 5e overland travel can be peaceful and uneventful. And so what do people do in those situations? They talk to one another! They catch up, ask random questions, play "I spy with my little eye," in the back of the station wagon/horse wagon!

If your table hates role-playing, then maybe this isn't for them. But my table loves it, so what I do is set up two random tables: A) characters and B) topics. If my players have nothing particularly exciting to talk about, I roll rive for characters and once for topics. And boom... in between dnd 5e overland travel encounters, those two characters have to have a conversation about that topic!

Sometimes it is just silly and fun, and other times characters learn how to fight better in combat encounters, and other times there are HUGE reveals that never would have happened!

Conclusion: Put It All Together

There you have it... seven suggestions for better dnd 5e overland travel... each of which works great with five additional tips on how to make it more fun and interesting for everyone at the table. 

In the hands of a skilled DM, each of these will work pretty well. However, each are forgetting one, crucial element... a missing piece that, until added, will leave the "travel dnd 5e puzzle" incomplete. The next post ( read it here now ) discusses that missing piece, as well as 3 super-simple mechanics you can use to make journeying across long distances truly special. 

But to wrap this up, here is a summary: 

The 7 Methods of DnD 5e Overland Travel: 

• Hand wave it away... skip to the "good part"
• Roll every hour
• One encounter/hour of play time 
• Take a single game session (or two)
• Do a skill challenge
• Spend the entire adventure arc traveling
• Run a hex crawl

3 Suggestions for Better Travel Gameplay: 

• Narrate your surroundings well and often 
• Explore when player characters are at lower levels
• Maintain the 3 basics

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 Riley Rath 

Riley is a freelance copywriter, content writer, and marketer based out of Spokane, WA. He is thankful to have the opportunity to combine his passion for imaginative role-playing to help FLGS, tabletop, board game, and D&D related businesses communicate their distinct value to players everywhere. When not playing or writing about board games or DnD, he is busy hiking, cooking, and gardening... very hobbit-like for a 6'4" dude. 

Click here if you need DnD 5e Blog Content Writing Help

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Travel and Pace

Travel and pacing.

Other movement penalties may apply, if the party has some movement restrictions (due to swimming, climbing, crawling and difficult terrain)

Travel (Map Pace)

Pace modifiers.

Climbing , Swimming and Crawling are at half speed (quarter for difficult terrain). Might require Str (Athletic) or Dex (Acrobatics) checks.

Forced March : Traveling more than 8 hrs in day risks Exhaustion. Each character must make a Con save throw at the end of each additional hr. DC 10+1 for each hr past 8 hrs. On a failed save, a character suffers one level of Exhaustion.

Mounts : Double travel distance for one hour (or more if fresh mounts available every 10 miles).

Vehicles : Wagons and carriages move at normal pace. Waterborne vessel have their own speed, and don't suffer pace penalties/benefits. Depending on a vessel (and crew), ships may be able to travel 24 hours a day.

Activities While Traveling : Characters performing activities while traveling (such as navigating, drawing a map, tracking or foraging) do not get a Passive Perception check.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Master Tips For Making Travel Interesting

Life can't be all raiding dungeons and fighting monsters, sometimes you need to fill the quiet times too.

Traveling and exploring are a major part of most Dungeons & Dragons games. They have the potential to become one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game for your players, or they can turn into long and boring sessions if not carefully designed.

RELATED: Dungeons & Dragons: Tips For A First Time Dungeon Master

There are tools and techniques that Dungeon Masters utilize to better these portions of their games, and by knowing some of them, you can elevate the experience of the players at your own table. Traveling in real life is an opportunity for adventure, bonding, and discovery , so let our D&D games reflect that.

8 Encouraging Roleplay

The time spent traveling in the game is a great opportunity for the characters to roleplay, share their stories, and bond. Especially if the game is new and the characters haven't spent a lot of time together, the downtime between significant events can bring them closer to each other.

While the more experienced players will take advantage of these opportunities themselves, the dungeon master can also encourage roleplay in such moments. Traveling is time-consuming, and it's highly unlikely for a group to spend days with each other without talking. So just reminding the players of the time passing, and asking them if there is anything they want to do or say, can easily put your players in the roleplay mood.

7 Environmental Challenges

Your player might pass through multiple environments while traveling, and facing the extreme aspects of each environment can make for memorable and challenging encounters. Surviving a sand storm, traversing narrow cliff sides, getting lost in a thick forest, or other similar events are tropes of the fantasy genre for a reason; they are exciting.

Extreme weather, dangerous hazards, and challenging pathways are great options to include in your game. There are also great tips in the Dungeon Master's Guide and other resources that can help you turn these events into interesting skill challenges for your players.

6 Random Encounter Tables

Random encounters are a great tool to make long journeys exciting and immersive. Based on the environment and the method of travel, your players might come across monsters, events, and social encounters that make the world feel dynamic and introduce a refreshing change of pace to the game.

RELATED: Dungeons & Dragons: Tips For Dungeon Masters To Balance Encounters

There are many tables available online for different environments and for certain player levels that you can use, but you can always handcraft the encounters yourself or take inspiration from available resources and change them to fit into your world.

There are also a few ways to decide what encounter your players will be facing for each portion of the travel. Some DMs will ask their player to roll, and this conveys the feeling that the players are in charge of their own fate. Other DMs might choose to roll themselves in secret and set up the encounters in a more unexpected and surprising way.

5 Using Different Vehicles And Methods Of Travel

When talking about travel in D&D, most will imagine a group of adventurers traversing long distances on foot, on horseback, or sometimes by ships. These are the most common means of travel in fantasy settings, but there's nothing wrong with shaking things up from time to time.

Traveling alongside caravans, using flying mounts , hopping through teleportation circles, or if your setting allows it, airships and trains can provide a different course of adventure for your players to experience. You can also consider multiple methods of travel for different parts of the way to make a long journey more interesting.

4 Discovering Landmarks

A commonly-missed opportunity for newer DMs is establishing a more realistic world through landmarks and points of interest. While traveling between two major cities of your world, it's not realistic for the whole journey to be through the uninhabited wilderness or empty roads.

Including small and subtle landmarks along the way can help your players immerse themselves within your game, interact with more aspects of the world, and go on various small adventures. Small towns and villages, abandoned ruins, secret hideouts, and secluded societies can be a few examples of interesting discoveries during the journey.

3 Meeting Other Adventurers

It's easy for the players to think they are the sole heroes and saviors, and while this is not necessarily a problem in a game of D&D, it might not be the feeling you want to convey as a Dungeon Master, especially in the earlier, lower levels. In a living fantasy world, many adventurers roam around the world to help those in need or make some extra coin.

RELATED: Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Master Tips For Creating Memorable NPCs The best way to communicate this aspect of the world with your players is for them to meet other adventurers. Traveling is a great opportunity for these meetings, and you can create small side adventures where your players help other adventurers and share the victory, or even go against them to reach a valuable treasure.

2 Tracking Supplies and Rations

There are many D&D groups that focus on the survival aspect and mechanics of the game. But for others who don't find that style of game interesting on its own, survival can still be an interesting challenge while traveling long distances.

Tracking the exact amount of rations and supplies is a nuisance for players and DMs alike, but you can always estimate how many days into the journey the characters will start running low on food and water. Without spells such as Goodberry or Create Food and Water, your players might need to hunt and forage, trade with passing caravans, or try to fasten their pace and reach a town before running out of supplies.

1 Prepare Hidden Treasures

Traveling and exploration go hand in hand in a game of D&D, and the DM should be ready to reward their players' curiosity with small treasures. If your players ask for details or search for interesting locations during the journey, and they always end up empty-handed, they will be discouraged from exploring in the future.

Preparing a list of small hidden treasures, such as buried chests of coins, lost weapons and items, or unique and interesting magic items can help you both in improvisation when your players start exploring, and in rewarding their attention and good perception or investigation rolls.

NEXT: Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Master Tips For Creating Fleshed-Out Worlds

How to Design a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Around Travel

Building a D&D campaign around an epic journey can be a great way to create a unique adventure for your players, though it does come with challenges.

Travel tends to get brushed over in Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and for good reason. Managing the numbers for food, carry weight, and travel time can be tedious for both players and Dungeon Masters alike. Finding a way to include these mechanics without slowing down the pace of the session can be tricky, especially if it isn't the focus of the campaign.

While the fantasy genre is full of stories about long journeys, translating that into a D&D campaign can be tricky since they differ so much from a traditional TTRPG adventure. Keeping a strong narrative throughout can also be tough since DMs have to account for the fact that the party will always be on the move. However, running a travel-focused campaign can be a ton of fun if handled right. Balancing survival on the road with the expected D&D narrative adventure is key to a great journey-focused campaign.

RELATED: Dungeons & Dragons: How DMs Can Make a Hydra Fight Unique

Give the Party a Time-Sensitive Goal to Encourage Travel

One of the biggest risks involved with a travel-heavy adventure is that the party will end up stagnating in the same location. This can become a larger issue if the party is in a city, which can take away from the survival gameplay that comes from being on the road. A great way to keep adventurers moving forward and engaged is by giving them a clear goal that has a measurable time limit. This way, there's always a driving force pushing players forward.

Making this time limit measurable in-game is important. For example, the character may have to complete a goal before a certain date to prevent a horrible event. Giving the party a magical item that reflects the time limit could also work for more fantastical settings. DMs can also choose less-obvious timers, such as having a hostile army slowly begin to take over a region. Those kinds of world-focused timers take a bit more work to manage, but they pay off in terms of immersion and maintaining the flow of the journey.

RELATED: How To Run a Post-Apocalyptic Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

Mapping Out the Setting Is Crucial

Some campaigns only require DMs to have a few major locations planned out, travel-focused campaigns require more in regard to mapmaking . Mapping out a unique and interesting region players will be traveling through is almost a requirement for this kind of adventure, as it gives both the players and the DM a way of tracking the party's route. DMs should also consider creating a variant of the world's map specifically for players that reflects the map their characters would be looking at in-game.

Knowing the setting goes beyond just mapping it out. It's next to impossible to predict the exact route players will take during this kind of adventure, so it's important for a DM to be prepared. Every location doesn't need to be planned out to the smallest details. DMs should just have a general idea of the world's major locations so that they can at least improvise encounters, environments and descriptions if needed.

It's also important to encourage the party to plan their route ahead of time. Not only is this a great chance for role-play, but it also gives DMs a chance to see what areas the party will likely pass through during their journey. If a DM is planning on having survival mechanics like hunger and thirst, they should make sure that the map they provide to players has some kind of distance scale. This will allow players to better plan their travels around the supplies they have.

RELATED: How to Homebrew a Dungeons & Dragons Background

Carry Weight Is a Crucial Mechanic to Enforce

While most DMs tend to hand wave or simplify carry weight, it is vital that it is enforced in a journey-focused campaign. Carry weight dictates how much food, water, and other crucial supplies a party can carry with them. By enforcing it, the party has to think about the supplies they need for their travels -- and how to obtain them.

Hunting, fishing, setting up camp, and seeking shelter become so much more important for a travel-focused campaign. There will likely be moments when a party can't make it to the next town or city before they need to rest. One way to emphasize the importance of supplies is to make shelter, food, and water a requirement for taking a long rest. This is also a great way to work survival mechanics into a campaign without making them too overbearing.

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5 DM tips for making DnD travel interesting!

Posted by Janet Forbes | Dec 17, 2021 | DM Tips & Advice | 7

Travel is a part of so many campaigns and adventure stories. After all, it’s called the Hero’s Journey for a reason! And making DnD travel interesting is a real challenge. Too often, it either feels so laborious that the party is bored by the time they get there. Or else, it’s so quickly skipped over, that it doesn’t have any impact on the players at all.

5 tips for making DnD travel interesting!

1. vary the modes of travel.

If your players always travel in the same way, it can get pretty boring pretty fast. So, your first step is to give them several options! Maybe they’ll still choose the same familiar mode, but there’s a chance they’ll pick another one. Then, make sure that traveling with a different method changes their travel speed too! You can use the DnD travel speed table as a reference for how far can characters travel on foot in a single day (assuming they walk for 8 hours):

• Slow pace: 18 miles (about 29 km)
• Normal pace: 25 miles (about 38 km)
• Fast pace: 30 miles (about 63 km)

But, of course, other methods of transportation will have different speeds. A ship will be faster, while a carriage might be slower, depending on how heavy it is and how many horses are used to pull it (news flash: horses need to rest too)! So, to sum this section up, give your players clear choices of travel modes that make sense for the location they’re going to, and calculate the travel pace from that!

2. Introduce not-so-random DnD travel encounters (but not Pokemon style!)

Random encounters are a great way to spice up travel—but be careful! They can feel random to the players at first, but make sure to tie them up with the story or the world in some way. Fighting 1d4 wolves just because they were walking in tall grass will feel pointless (and poor wolves, they were just chilling!). So, what should a good “random” encounter include?

• Themes and tone: make sure that the encounter reflects the campaign’s theme and tone. This will make it feel more consistent with the world!
• Link it to the story: sure, you can give them some wolves to fight… and then reveal that they were the pets of an important NPC they’ll meet. Whoops!
• Tactical interest: what will your players get from it? It could be some loot, new information, cool powers…
• A reason to care: why would the players engage with this encounter? Tying them to their backstories, or a cause or NPC they care about. is a sure-fire way to make them engaged.

And remember that encounters don’t have to be only combat: they could meet an NPC, find an ancient ruin, … up to you! As long as the encounter has a goal (other than “being filler”), you’re good to go!

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3. Introduce weather and geographical difficulties… with impact

There’s a basic weather table in the DM’s Guide (page 109), but remember that weather changes biome by biome, and the difficulties of the ice wastes are not those of the scorching desert. However, whether they’re ice storms or sand storms, creating days of easier and harder weather can create variation in days of travel. You can challenge the players’ initiative. Are they wise enough to shelter for the day or press on? Will they finally use that magic item they’ve been hoarding? More importantly, will they arrive in a weakened or less-prepared state?

This is something that Cubicle7’s “Adventures in Middle Earth” does very well—it creates difficulties on the journey which can put the players at an advantage or disadvantage when they arrive. This is important, as their prowess in travel then affects the major story arc too. Players may suffer from fatigue, be weakened, or may not have access to all their spells.

Another way to do this, if weather difficulties aren’t appropriate for your setting, are geographical difficulties. Here’s a quick roll table you can use with some ideas and examples.

If the players can’t think of a way to go on, they’ll need to navigate to another path. You can introduce additional difficulties, such as getting lost! This might put unexpected challenges in their way, add additional time to their journey, or introduce them to a nightmare fuelled realm they were initially trying to avoid!

4. Introduce Micro Points of Interest and Scene Pieces!

Remember the non-combat encounters we talked about before? They are a great way to reinforce your world’s genre, tone, and theme (if you don’t know what that is, read about the meta !). To create a good point of interest, follow the four points we talked about for encounters. Otherwise, even if that scene piece is amazing, your players might not be interested in investigating it! Here’s a roll table of 1d6 ideas you can use to start your brain going:

As you can see, these are all pretty genre-agnostic, but also very much open to your interpretation! For example, the riddler could be magic, but maybe they could be a very skilled rogue too. An important part of this kind of encounter is to create a specific atmosphere, so preparing your descriptions in advance might be a good idea if you’re not a master of improvisation! Think about whether you want the events to be creepy, wondrous, mysterious, mystical or even funny, and tailor the details accordingly.

5. Nuke Teleport spells

Sure, magic is cool and all, but what’s the point of going the extra mile to make travel interesting if your party can just teleport wherever they want? Now, that doesn’t mean you have to outright ban all teleport spells from your game—there’s nothing wrong with short-distance teleportation! To prevent long-distance teleporting, you could add external magical elements that prevent teleportation magic from being enabled. For example, cities in your world could have a complex magitech device that creates an anti-magic bubble around them. Or maybe teleportation magic is illegal! Both options add a new layer to your campaign that will not only make travel more fun, but might also come in handy for future plot points.

Check out this blog post by Wolfgang Baur from Kobold Press talking about this exact topic!

GACUCON! Play DnD while you travel in style, on the ultimate vacation for geeks!

GACUCON is the Games, Animations, and Comic Ultra Convention Cruise! Yes, that’s a thing—sail on an amazing cruise together with fellow RPG players, cosplayers, and all-around fantastic people! They organize a cruise every year  And guess what? We’re doing Summer Camp 2022 with them! During the 6-day cruise, from July 3rd to 9th, we’ll host worldbuilding workshops, RPG sessions, quests with scavenger hunts, and more! We’re very excited, and we’d love it if you were there with us (by the way, one of the WorldEmber prizes is a free cruise for 2 people!). Check out GACUCON and start sailing the seven seas!

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What are your tips for making DnD travel interesting? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments! Getting ready to start a campaign? Send your players our DnD character creator to get them prepped! 

About The Author

Janet Forbes

Janet Forbes (she/her) is a game developer, fantasy author, and (secretly) velociraptor, and has rolled dice since she was knee-high to an orc. In 2017 she co-founded World Anvil (https://www.worldanvil.com), the worldbuilding, writing and tabletop RPG platform which boasts a community of 1.5 million users. Janet was the primary author of The Dark Crystal RPG (2021) with the Henson Company and River Horse Games, and has also written for Kobold Press, Infinite Black and Tidebreaker. As a D&D performer she has played professionally for the likes of Wizards of the Coast, Modiphius and Wyrd Games, as well as being invited to moderate and speak on panels for GaryCon, TraCon, GenCon, Dragonmeet and more. Janet is also a fantasy author, and has published short fiction in several collections. You can shoot her a message @Janet_DB_Forbes on Twitter, and she’ll probably reply with rainbows and dinosaur emojis.

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The distances mentioned under 1 are frankly, purely imaginary. As a former infantry man I can tell you that you may make a walking speed of 6km per hour but after a full day you would need at least a days rest, even if you are fit. And that is with modern equipment, shoes, backpack etc. So when calculation realistically you want to think about 2 things first. 1. What will be the task of the next day? 2. Might there be combat? A march of 60+km in 10 hours is possible but the next day at least will need to be rest. If you are really fit and used to it, you could even manage 10 hours at 6 km/h for a second day. Provided good equipment, especially on your feet. Realistically the prolonged (several days) travel distances for a 8h hike on maintained roads and easy paths should be around 4 km/h for a grown male with a load of about 15kg. Provided, again that he is adequately fit and used to such activity. So ~32 km (20 miles) is realistic. You could adjust the speed by +/- 1km/h for fitness or smaller characters etc. and by +/- 2 km/h for a slightly more demanding terrain such as less well kept paths or heavier loads etc. IF it is only travel as fast as you can then you can calculate at 7-8 km/h but remember even adventurers will suffer exhaustion from that and would have a hard time “dungeoning” the next day.

These are the distances mentioned in the DnD official material – but it’s so interesting to learn that they’re not accurate! Have you tried incorportating yours into a system?

Another Infantryman chiming in. The Dungeon Master’s Guide in Chapter 8, Exploration Section, sets 24 miles in 1 day as a reasonable rate of travel, which is close to the 32km/20 miles limit that was mentioned earlier. Appendix A in the Player’s Handbook gives you a Condition called Exhaustion with levels of exhaustion that you could tie to miles of travel. 1 day at this rate of travel could induce 3-4 levels of exhaustion which the party would then have to rest off. Just based off my own personal experience, after 12-18 miles with a 40+ pound pack load plus armor/fighting load, I need at least a day or two to be back to normal. Using Exhaustion levels vs. Miles traveled would be my recommendation for a system. It is certainly possible that a character could reach 6 levels of exhaustion and die from walking too far with no rest. Its been done in real life.

Thank you for sharing your experience as well :D! Have you played a game with these kinds of rules for realism? How did they make the game more fun for you?

I have not played a game with rules like that but I might try it at some point. I tend to gloss over travel most of the time with “You travel from A->B” which may not be the most fun and interesting way to handle it. The article has provided some inspiration for me to try different things out in future games though. Just thought I’d chime in with an easy solution to the realism issue if it helps somebody else out.

Oh, yeah definitely~. I really appreciated you chiming in :D. I’ve always found the rules for meticulous travel interesting, but I’ve never calculated these sorts of things myself. I think it’s more interesting to do your method “Travel A -> B” when the point of the adventure isn’t the journey and we’re instead focusing on set pieces. 🙂 What do you think?

Yeah absolutely. I was kind of mulling over where I might try using a more meticulous system for travel, or what fun could be had out of it, and a few things I thought of were that you could use it as a motivator for the party to spend some of that sweet dungeon gold finding transportation for the next time they want to travel a long distance. Buying horses and a cart because the last time they traveled halfway across fantasy country those 1d4 random bears that ambushed them from the woods with a plot device were a lot more challenging with 3 levels of exhaustion.

You could use it as part of a chase scene with a BBEG, set them against the clock and a distance, see how much they’re willing to sacrifice to get somewhere in time to save xyz. Arrive exhausted, tough fight ensues that might not have been as tough if they had more time.

Just 1 level of exhaustion makes dealing with “random” environmental/geographical challenges more challenging. It could make it feel like the stakes are higher.

I think to make meticulous travel fun, it shouldn’t be a regular part of the game but something that gets mixed in now and again in order to spice things up. Level 1-10 if you want to go way across the map somewhere the travel could make for a fun adventure in itself, but you learn from it and buy a horse drawn carriage or buy passage on an airship next time.

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Using Fast Travel in DnD 5e

Traveling in DnD is bound to happen, and as tempting as it may be to roleplay your way through each and every travel sequence, it can sometimes seem like a mundane chore ( although if you’re wanting to make travel a bit more spicy, here are 5 random encounters from my last article ). As the DM, you set the tone for everything – travel being no exception – so in order to keep things from going stale you must decide when to fast travel and get to the juicy bits. 

This Article Will Discuss:

Why Fast Travel in DnD 5e? When to Avoid Fast Travel When to Include Fast Travel How to do Fast Travel Sequences

Why Fast Travel in DnD 5e?

As I just touched on, the main reason that you’d want to fast travel is because the events of travel have become boring, repetitive, or ‘everyday’. It’s lost its luster, so to speak. In a world of instant everything ( you can see and talk with someone on the other side of the world in real time…whenever you want…just think about that for a minute. If ‘Sending’ is a 3rd-level spell, then video chatting someone has got to be at least a 5th-level spell) it’s hard to blame DMs and players alike for just wanting to get to “the good stuff”. 

The second (related) reason is simply time and a lack thereof. If your group only meets up once every few weeks, nobody wants to take a few months of real life time acting out every little thing that happens on a 10-day not-super-note-worthy caravan trip in character. If time is a limiting factor (and lets face it, all of the scheduling memes exist for a reason) you should just jump right into the more exciting stuff. 

If you’re unsure, just honestly ask the table. “ Hey is it cool if we kind of fast-travel through the next XXX miles/days of the journey so that we can keep the momentum going? ”. In my experience, I’ve found that players absolutely love fast traveling. 

When to Avoid Fast Travel 

With all that being said, there are definitely certain times and places where it’s worth “playing out” the travel and letting players experience it instead of just zooming through. In general, I think lower level players should be fast traveling infrequently until they level up a bit. Think about it, getting attacked by bandits is a waaaay bigger deal when the PCs are level 3 vs. when the PCs are level 10. Simple roadside encounters actually carry significance when the PCs are lower level, and a single nat 1 or nat 20 might determine whether the party loses a member or not. On the other hand, when the PCs are ballin’ at level 15, they are not worried about getting stopped by any random bandits and can easily dispatch the majority of creatures who would get in their way during routine travel. A general rule that I try to use is: as PCs level up, their ability to fast travel increases (due to them being significantly stronger, and also by having access to greater resources).

Another time when you should avoid fast traveling is if there is something truly unique, novel, or noteworthy about the specific journey. This could mean the PCs are traveling through a special environment, or with a new vehicle or animal companion. Basically if they’re doing something out of the ordinary that could be universally deemed “cool”, you want to be sure that the players get to experience it to some degree. Riding on the back of a dragon turtle while chasing versions of themselves from the future is a pretty cool and unique scenario. That’s exactly the sort of thing that you should be extrapolating on and playing out in increased detail. Sitting in the back of a cart, Skyrim style, and explaining a bunch of details that ultimately amount to nothing is time that could be better spent on other exposition and adventure scenes ( although there is something to be said about the occasional ‘boring’ or mundane scene to help balance and contrast the exciting scenes, but this really depends on the group. Shopping episodes are great for this!)

When to Include Fast Travel

To figure out when to include fast travel sequences in DnD, take everything that I said in the last paragraph and think of the exact opposite. So if low level = embracing the journey and not necessarily the destination, then high level = let’s take our airship across the continent straight to the cult leader’s hideout and start fucking stuff up with the railgun. Likewise, if the PCs have gotten to experience a special environment or mode of transportation for a bit, then it may be time to consider fast traveling in those situations. Dealing with the sweltering heat of the jungle and needing to worry about finding clean parasite-free water to drink? Very fun for a session or two, but maybe not fun every single time the PCs want to travel anywhere. 

Another reason you may want to fast travel is if the party is full of PCs who are entirely wishy-washy with their adventuring plans and schemes (but I mean, come on, PCs making a plan and then completely abandoning the plan to instead travel in the complete opposite direction never happens…). Including too many travel sequences can also give PCs too much time to change their mind about what they’re doing. By the time they get halfway towards where they need to be, it could be an entire session later (and up to a few weeks in real world time) and they may completely forget what their plan was, or why they were headed there in the first place. I say this out of guilt, as someone who has been an accomplice to this exact thing multiple times ( but the new idea is SO MUCH BETTER than the last one… we have to try it ). If you bring PCs straight to the action, they don’t have the time to consider every possible alternative and must face the music of their decisions. 

How to do Fast Travel Sequences

Okay, so you’ve pulled the trigger and decided to start allowing a bit more fast travel in your DnD campaign. First, congratulations! Second, get ready for some improv! One of the downsides of having fast travel, particularly in a more open world setting, is that it can become very difficult – though not impossible – to plan ahead for certain sessions since the PCs can kind of end up anywhere. But enough worrying about that, it’s now time to get down to the nuts and bolts of actually describing the scene. 

It’s pretty simple, you’re gonna need a montage !

Instead of actually going through and describing every single day or event in the journey, just summarize them succinctly through a montage-type of sequence. This is the sort of thing that might require a couple of minutes of you monologuing as the DM, but it doesn’t need to be very complicated at all. 

Step 1 : Describe the PCs leaving their current location Step 2 : Loosely and quickly describe a scene (or scenes) along the way and indicate the passage of time Step 3 : Describe the PCs arriving at their destination. Congratulations, you’ve done it!

And here’s a quick example for you

Step 1 : You finish gathering any last minute supplies that you may have needed for the journey, pack the wagon, saddle up your horse, and begin down the road out of Exampletown.  Step 2 : A few days go by, and the red rocky terrain gradually softens, cliffs turn to hills, and you start to see bits of greenery popping in here and there. It starts as a few cacti and bushes, but after a few more days you find yourself completely surrounded by tall lush grass and aspen groves. Step 3 : After winding through the forest, with skittering squirrels and nervous deer, you find a massive oak gate with guards that welcome you to Placeville. 

Ta-da! It really doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. I hope you enjoyed this article and found it to be useful!

A special thanks for my patrons for making this article possible!

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Road and Travel Encounter Tables for D&D 5e

"The path ahead is broken by a river, where the remains of a bridge offer a risky crossing. Amidst a herd of goats several locals are taking part in a ritual at river's edge. It is led by a woman with an antlered mask"

Random tables for Dungeons and Dragons road encounters. Tables for Road Encounters (Levels 1-4, 5-10 and 11+), Beasts, Beasts of Burden, Domesticated Animals, Groups of Travelers, Lone Travelers and Marauders

Road Encounter Tables - creatures | locations | non-combat | enhancements

[Photo by Pat Whelen on Unsplash]

Road Encounters Levels 1-4

Roads and trails encounters.

Roads and trails connect the cities and ports of fantasy nations. A few newly built but many fallen into ruin upon the causeways of older empires. A highway connecting two prominent cities, an ancient trail through sylvan woods or a road built by dwarves and now used by local tribes. Encounters happen at haunted crossroads and narrow paths, with desperate brigands, friendly pilgrims, hungry mercenaries, locals herding goats and any others on the path.

There is a 5e road random encounter generator at ChaosGen. And also a pdf of these and more tables at the DM's Guild as Road Encounters .

Unusual terrains - feywild | shadowfell | lower planes | elemental | jungle  | roads | ruins | sea

Road Encounters Levels 5-10

Road encounters levels 11+, beast encounters (levels 1-4), beasts of burden (levels 1-4).

Usually encountered with travelers or as part of a caravan.

Domesticated Animals (Levels 1-4)

Domestic animals have a 50% chance of being accompanied by 1d6 commoners or tribal warriors

Group of Travelers (Levels 1-4)

Group of travelers (levels 5-10), lone travelers (levels 1-4), lone travelers (levels 5-10), marauders (levels 1-4), marauders (levels 5-10), more encounters.

If you liked these there are D&D Generators at Chaos Gen , a monthly random tools Newsletter and an instagram of Random Tables .

You might also like

Boats, Ships and Events Onboard - D&D Noncombat Sea Encounters

Beaches and Underwater - D&D Noncombat Sea Encounters

Islands and Open Sea - D&D Noncombat Sea Encounters

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How to run time travel in D&D

After 20 years of DMing, I’m still coming across things I’ve never done before. Two weeks ago, it was time travel. My friends’ 18th-level characters were pulled back 10,000 years into the past. They not only had a chance to learn some of the world’s lore: they got to change the past. It was fun – but it wasn’t simple.

In this article, I’m going to share some of my experiences of running time travel in D&D and offer some advice to DMs looking to introduce it into their games.

Why time travel?

For me, I wanted to use time travel for three main reasons:

• Depth and scope. Time travel gives the players cosmic significance and context. It puts their actions within a much bigger picture. The adventure isn’t just about what happens in the present: it’s suddenly much bigger than that.
• Power escalation. It’s good for players to see how mighty their characters have become. They’re not squashing giant rats in a cellar any more. Time travel, like planar travel, is a way of showing the players just how far they’ve come.
• A new challenge. At high levels, it’s easy to feel invincible ( ‘If it’s got stats, we can kill it’ ). Time travel challenges players in new and unique ways. It’s a new toy for them to play with (and, probably, break).

Writers keep coming back to time travel because it’s fun . But then again, some people hate time travel. From a narrative perspective it can be messy, inconsistent, confusing, or frustrating. If you’re in this boat, you might not like this article. Hey, I have others.

Where we’re going, we don’t need rules

First off, it’s worth pointing out that time travel is not covered by the rules of the game at all. It is very much a case of DM fiat. The only ability in the game that comes to close is the 9th-level spell wish, which also brings with it a lot of DM interpretation. To the best of my knowledge, time travel is briefly alluded to in two official 5e adventures, and in both cases there’s no explanation as to how it happens.

If you want to run time travel in your game, you can do it however you choose. That said, time travel comes with all sorts of story consequences. It might not be covered by the rules of D&D, but it has its own internal ‘rules’ which vary from table to table.

I prepped for time travel in my own game by reading an excellent Chris Perkins article from his DM Experience series. I highly recommend it. I also spent a lot of time on Wikipedia and TV Tropes reading about temporal paradoxes. Be warned: this will make your head hurt.

If you’re going to run time travel, here are some questions you need to think about.

Changing time

Three solutions to the grandfather paradox

Is time immutable? The big one, really. Can the players change time? You may have heard of the grandfather paradox: if I go back in time and kill my grandfather before he had children, what happens? There are three main ways around this:

The parallel universe. Changing the past creates a new timeline. I think of this as the Rick and Morty solution. You kill your grandfather and return to an alternate timeline: a copy of the original timeline where events happened differently. This option gives your players the most scope to change history but potentially creates the biggest headache for you as a DM.

The past cannot be changed. A variant of this is ‘the past has already been changed’. This is the approach taken by J K Rowling in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It might be the most logically pleasing solution, but it runs the risk of making the players feel like the choices don’t matter: in effect, a kind of railroading.

Somewhere in between. I call this the Doctor Who approach (‘wibbly wobbly, timey wimey’). In essence, time is unfathomably complicated, and sometimes you can change it, and sometimes you can’t. It’s essentially a big handwave, which some players will find frustrating. For you as a DM, though, this option gives you the most control.

However you do it, you need a solid understanding of your world’s history and the order of events. Time travel is all about causality: x happened because y happened, and so on.

Here’s a tip: you don’t actually have to decide until you see how your players respond. Some players will throw caution to the wind and try to meddle as much as they can. Others will want to play it safe and watch from the sidelines. I went into the session expecting the former, but ultimately the players chose to make very changes to the established timeline – and as it happens, the change they made was such a cool idea that it made more sense than the storyline I had originally planned, so, in the end, I was able to go with the Rowling model after all.

How does it happen?

You have a lot of freedom here. The only limit is your imagination. Is time travel a divine gift? Is it powered by an artifact? Is it linked to a specific location? Or is it completely mysterious and inexplicable? You’ll need to give it some thought and come up with your own answers.

DM-controlled or player-controlled? If you give players the scope to travel wherever they like within the game’s timeline, be prepared to do some serious improvising. Anything can happen and probably will. If you keep hold of the reins yourself, be careful not to create too much of a railroad. Roleplaying games have an unwritten social contract, and collaboration is a big part of this. If players don’t get to shape the story, you’re essentially writing a novel and dragging everyone along with you.

One-off or unlimited usage? In my campaign, the time travel was limited to a single session. It’s a fun diversion, but it runs the risk of becoming a real headache if it goes on longer than that, and you can end up completely overwhelming yourself. If you want time travel to be an ongoing part of your campaign, I would talk to the players first and check that it’s something they’re into.

In-game effects. Does time travel cause exhaustion? Are time travellers ethereal in the past? Does time travel require any kind of ability check or spellcasting? You don’t have to do any of these things, but it can add flavour and further challenges.

Visuals. This might be more of an aesthetic choice than a mechanical one, but it might matter, so it’s worth thinking about.

• Video tape. Time is something you can rewind or fastforward through. You can speed up, slow down, pause. This is how it works in The Time Machine by H G Wells.
• Wormhole. Going back in time involves a going through a portal into another dimension, or something equivalent. This is the Bill & Ted approach, and my own.
• Instantaneous. There’s a flash of light, and, boom, you’re in the past. Or the future. This is how time travel works in Back to the Future, Ocarina of Time, The Time Traveller’s Wife, and About Time.
• Unseen. You don’t see the time travel happen – it just happens. This is how time travel works in Groundhog Day. It is also how ‘mental time travel’ occurs: you close your eyes, fall off to sleep, and suddenly you’re in the past.

Final thoughts

Whatever happens, be prepared for the unexpected. As Perkins says, if improvisation isn’t one of your strengths, it’s probably best to forgo time travel for noow. Loosen your grip on the reins and be ready to fail forwards. Be ready for temporal paradoxes: they will happen even if you try really hard to prevent them. Time travel is bonkers, but it can also be an awful lot of fun. 

To subscribe,  click here . You can unsubscribe any time. You can find me on  Facebook  at scrollforinitiative,  Twitter  at scrollforinit, and  Instagram  at scrollforinitiative. And if you like what I do, you can support me on  Patreon  or buy me a coffee  here.  

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Easily Missed Trivia And Lore ABout Vecna In DnD

• Vecna is a lore-rich villain with incredible powers, including sensing secrets that impact many lives.
• His evil mother raised him with cruelty and occult practices, shaping Vecna into a twisted figure with no reliance on others.
• Vecna's mysterious mortal life, rivalry with the Raven Queen, and ability to corrupt others make him a formidable and sinister entity.

Vecna is one of the most famous villains in all of Dungeons & Dragons ' 50-year-long history. Originally introduced in 1976 through a first-edition supplement called Eldritch Wizardry, Vecna first appeared as no more than a piece of history that explained the existence of two artifacts: the eye of Vecna and the hand of Vecna.

Dungeons & Dragons: How To Run A Secret Villain As DM

In this book, we were told that Vecna was an ancient and evil lich whose destruction left behind only his eye and left hand. Fifty years later, Vecna is one of the most lore-rich villains in the game. Perhaps this only makes sense, though, as Vecna's portfolio as the god of evil secrets lends itself to forgotten knowledge as well as stories of the most horrific sort.

He Can Sense Secrets

Or at least the ones that matter most.

In addition to all of the regular powers granted to him by lichdom, including a paralyzing touch, powerful spellcasting, and eternal life, Vecna's status as the deity of secrets allows him to sense whenever a secret that could affect the lives of five hundred or more people is passed on to another.

While this ability doesn't immediately reveal the secret to Vecna, knowledge of its existence is likely more than enough for Vecna to chase the secret down. Whether by employing his cronies or visiting the secret holder himself, the secret won't likely remain unknown to Vecna for very long.

His Mother Was Evil

We'd still take evil mom over karen mom.

If you've ever wondered how a being as evil as Vecna might come to exist, it takes an entirely evil mother's touch. Vecna's writings reveal that the woman who bore him practiced all sorts of occult activities, including animal sacrifice and visiting with monsters.

Beyond that, she was cruel to her son in all things and taught him that the only person he could ever rely on was himself. There's nothing quite like a mother's love, even when it comes to raising one of the most twisted figures in D&D's many worlds.

His Mortal Life Is A Mystery

Fitting for the god of secrets.

While Vecna has spoken about his mother in his writings, the remainder of his life among the living is unclear. Generic information, including that he was a powerful wizard originally from Oerth, is largely agreed upon; however, the details of this backstory are shrouded in mystery.

It's also said that Vecna is the first mortal to achieve lichdom. Conflicting stories are told concerning exactly how Vecna achieved this feat, but the truth is probably more difficult to swallow than any of the common tales.

The Raven Queen Is His Rival

Why is the raven queen so cool.

Thanks to the events of Critical Role, the Raven Queen is one of the most popular deities in Forgotten Realms lore. What's lesser known is that she is a vehement opponent of Vecna as the god of evil secrets wishes to claim her portfolio so that he might gain the power to harvest knowledge from passed souls.

While Vecna has largely abandoned this plot, if the opportunity presented itself to overthrow the Raven Queen, Vecna would seize it in an instant. After all, siphoning knowledge from harmless souls is much easier than interrogating the living.

Nothic Cults Worship Him

Nothics are also known as wizards who didn't pay attention in class.

Many a wizard has chased after the secrets that Vecna holds seeking to muster power for themselves. Unfortunately, most fall prey to the overwhelmingly intelligent lich's traps. More often than not, these traps turn the wizards into nothics that serve Vecna as spies.

Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Best Ways To Become A Lich

The god of evil secrets can see through his nothic's eyes at all times, and they also make for great additional defenses to Vecna's many trap-riddled tombs.

He Authored The Book Of Vile Darkness

A masterclass in being a bad guy.

The Book of Vile Darkness is the most evil tome in all of existence and holds no shortage of evil secrets, including the true names of various fiends, extraordinarily foul spells, precious information, the methods to creating undead, and more.

While it's rumored that Vecna was the original author, the book has passed through the hands of many terrible mages. In their vanity, most owners have made additions to the book to help future servants of the darker powers in their endeavors.

Acererak Was His Apprentice

Not all master-apprentice relationships end well.

If you're familiar with the written adventure Tomb of Annihilation, chances are you've heard of Acererak. In case you're not, you have likely still viewed him before, as Acererak is the lich printed on the front of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Before he became a lich, Acererak was a half-demon who worked as Vecna's apprentice. During this time, Acererak saved Vecna from certain doom at the hands of clerics of Pelor. However, Vecna later learned that the whole ordeal was constructed by Acererak himself so that he might gain his master's favor.

He Has Traveled Through Time

Time travel always complicates things.

Strange objects known only as black obelisks exist in many of the official adventures published for Fifth Edition. As it turns out, these obelisks were originally created by a mysterious group known as the Weavers.

Dungeons & Dragons: Who Is Vecna And How Did He Become A Deity?

The reason the Weavers are so mysterious is thanks to Vecna. The god of secrets supposedly used one of the obelisks to travel back in time and annihilate the Weavers, as well as all knowledge of them, from existence. Exactly why Vecna did this remains a mystery to this day.

He Successfully Invaded Sigil

Might he do it again in vecna: eve of ruin.

Sigil, also known as the City of Doors, is known as the most impregnable metropolis in the D&D multiverse. Even so, Vecna alone has managed to successfully invade and take over the city though it did require centuries of planning.

Unfortunately for the god of evil secrets, a group of adventurers managed to remove him from the city thanks to the Lady of Pain's help. Since then, Sigil has been even further fortified against outside incursions.

His Evil Corrupts Others

No one is above vecna's corruption.

It should come as no surprise that a being as evil as Vecna corrupts all who open their hearts to his influence. That being said, players are often taken aback when using Vecna's artifacts—the hand of Vecna, eye of Vecna, or Book of Vile Darkness—inevitably leads to their character becoming evil .

If you don't want to play an evil character, stay away from these objects and destroy anything that tempts you towards Vecna's authority. There is no redemption for this entirely evil being, and it's almost assured that the same goes for any who follow in his dastardly footsteps.

Dungeons & Dragons: How To Roleplay A Lich As A DM

Use the Driving Focus on your iPhone to concentrate on the road

With iOS 15 and later, the Driving Focus helps you stay focused on the road. When you turn it on, text messages and other notifications are silenced or limited.

When you have the Driving Focus set up, you can ask Siri to read replies to you , so you don't have to look at your iPhone. Incoming calls are allowed only when iPhone is connected to CarPlay, a car Bluetooth system, or a hands-free accessory.

Set up a Driving Focus

Tap Customize Focus.

Follow the onscreen instructions to set up your options, like Allowed Notifications.

Turn the Driving Focus on or off

If you already have the Driving Focus set up, you can quickly turn it on or off from Control Center:

Open Control Center .

Touch and hold Focus, then tap Driving to turn it on or off.

Turn on the Driving Focus automatically

Go to Settings > Focus, then tap Driving.

Tap While Driving under Turn on Automatically, then select one of these options:

Automatically: Driving will be activated based on detected motion.

When Connected to Car Bluetooth: Driving will be activated when your iPhone is connected to car Bluetooth devices.

Manually: Driving can be activated manually from Control Center.

Activate With CarPlay: Driving will be activated automatically when your iPhone is connected to CarPlay.

Customize your notifications

To allow or silence notifications from certain people:

Under Allowed Notifications, tap People.

Tap Allow Notifications From or Silence Notifications From.

Tap Add People, then select the contacts that you want to allow or silence notifications from.

Share your Focus status

When you set up the Driving Focus, you can turn on Focus status so that apps display that you have notifications silenced when people message you. Since apps only know that you have notifications silenced but not which Focus is on, the name is never shared. Focus status is shared in apps when you have a Focus on and after you give an app permission.

To turn Focus Status on:

Go to Settings > Focus.

Tap Focus Status.

Turn on Driving.

* To share Focus Status, Share Across Devices must be on in Settings > Focus.

Turn on Auto-Reply

With Auto-Reply, favorites and those you allow notifications from will get an auto reply when you have the Driving Focus on. They can choose to notify you anyway by sending "urgent" as an additional message.

Tap Auto-Reply.

Select an option, like No One, Recents, Favorites, or All Contacts.

From here, you can customize the auto-reply message that people get when they message you while a Driving Focus is on.

Learn more about the Focus features that let you concentrate when you need to step away from your device.

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The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness

Can cities make it illegal to live on the streets.

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Katrin Bennhold. This is “The Daily.”

This morning, we’re taking a much closer look at homelessness in the United States as it reaches a level not seen in the modern era. California —

As the number of homeless people has surged in the US —

More than 653,000, a 12 percent population increase since last year.

The debate over homeless encampments across the country has intensified.

It is not humane to let people live on our streets in tents, use drugs. We are not standing for it anymore.

People have had it. They’re fed up. I’m fed up. People want to see these tents and encampments removed in a compassionate, thoughtful way. And we agree.

With public officials saying they need more tools to address the crisis.

We move from block to block. And every block they say, can’t be here, can’t be here, can’t be here. I don’t know where we’re supposed to go, you know?

And homeless people and their advocates saying those tools are intended to unfairly punish them.

They come and they sweep and they take everything from me, and I can’t get out of the hole I’m in because they keep putting me back in square one.

That debate is now reaching the Supreme Court, which is about to hear arguments in the most significant case on homelessness in decades, about whether cities can make it illegal to be homeless. My colleague Abbie VanSickle on the backstory of that case and its far-reaching implications for cities across the US.

[THEME MUSIC]

It’s Friday, April 19.

So Abbie, you’ve been reporting on this case that has been making waves, Grants Pass versus Johnson, which the Supreme Court is taking up next week. What’s this case about?

So this case is about a small town in Oregon where three homeless people sued the city after they received tickets for sleeping and camping outside. And this case is the latest case that shows this growing tension, especially in states in the West, between people who are homeless and cities who are trying to figure out what to do about this. These cities have seen a sharp increase in homeless encampments in public spaces, especially with people on sidewalks and in parks. And they’ve raised questions about public drug use and other safety issues in these spaces.

And so the question before the justices is really how far a city can go to police homelessness. Can city officials and police use local laws to ban people from laying down outside and sleeping in a public space? Can a city essentially make it illegal to be homeless?

So three homeless people sued the city of Grants Pass, saying it’s not illegal to be homeless, and therefore it’s not illegal to sleep in a public space.

Yes, that’s right. And they weren’t the first people to make this argument. The issue actually started years ago with a case about 500 miles to the East, in Boise, Idaho. And in that case, which is called Martin v. Boise, this man, Robert Martin, who is homeless in Boise, he was charged with a misdemeanor for sleeping in some bushes. And the city of Boise had laws on the books to prohibit public camping.

And Robert Martin and a group of other people who are homeless in the city, they sued the city. And they claimed that the city’s laws violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

And what makes it cruel and unusual?

So their argument was that the city did not have enough sufficient shelter beds for everyone who was homeless in the city. And so they were forced to sleep outside. They said, we have no place to go and that an essential human need is to sleep and we want to be able to lay down on the sidewalk or in an alley or someplace to rest and that their local laws were a violation of Robert Martin and the others’ constitutional rights, that the city is violating the Eighth Amendment by criminalizing the human need to sleep.

And the courts who heard the case agreed with that argument. The courts ruled that the city had violated the Constitution and that the city could not punish people for being involuntarily homeless. And what that meant, the court laid out, is that someone is involuntarily homeless if a city does not have enough adequate shelter beds for the number of people who are homeless in the city.

It does seem like a very important distinction. They’re saying, basically, if you have nowhere else to go, you can’t be punished for sleeping on the street.

Right. That’s what the court was saying in the Martin v. Boise case. And the city of Boise then appealed the case. They asked the Supreme Court to step in and take it on. But the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. So since then, the Martin v. Boise case controls all over the Western parts of the US in what’s called the Ninth Circuit, which includes Oregon where the Grants Pass case originated.

OK. So tell us about Grants Pass, this city at the center of the case and now in front of the Supreme Court. What’s the story there?

Grants Pass is a town in rural Southwestern Oregon. It’s a town of about 38,000 people. It’s a former timber town that now really relies a lot on tourists to go rafting through the river and go wine tasting in the countryside. And it’s a pretty conservative town.

When I did interviews, people talked about having a very strong libertarian streak. And when I talked with people in the town, people said when they were growing up there, it was very rare to see someone who was homeless. It just was not an issue that was talked a lot about in the community. But it did become a big issue about 10 years ago.

People in the community started to get worried about what they saw as an increase in the number of homeless people that they were noticing around town. And it’s unclear whether the problem was growing or whether local officials and residents were worried that it might, whether they were fearing that it might.

But in any case, in 2013, the city council decided to start stepping up enforcement of local ordinances that did things like outlaw camping in public parks or sleeping outside, this series of overlapping local laws that would make it impossible for people to sleep in public spaces in Grants Pass. And at one meeting, one of the former city council members, she said, “the point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road.”

So it sounds like, at least in Grants Pass, that this is not really about reducing homelessness. It’s about reducing the number of visible homeless people in the town.

Well, I would say that city officials and many local residents would say that the homeless encampments are actually creating real concerns about public safety, that it’s actually creating all kinds of issues for everyone else who lives in Grants Pass. And there are drug issues and mental health issues, and that this is actually bringing a lot of chaos to the city.

OK. So in order to deal with these concerns, you said that they decided to start enforcing these local measures. What does that actually look like on the ground?

So police started handing out tickets in Grants Pass. These were civil tickets, where people would get fines. And if police noticed people doing this enough times, then they could issue them a trespass from a park. And then that would give — for a certain number of days, somebody would be banned from the park. And if police caught them in the park before that time period was up, then the person could face criminal time. They could go to jail.

And homeless people started racking up fines, hundreds of dollars of fines. I talked to a lot of people who were camping in the parks who had racked up these fines over the years. And each one would have multiple tickets they had no way to pay. I talked to people who tried to challenge the tickets, and they had to leave their belongings back in the park. And they would come back to find someone had taken their stuff or their things had been impounded.

So it just seemed to be this cycle that actually was entrenching people more into homelessness. And yet at the same time, none of these people had left Grants Pass.

So they did make it very uncomfortable for homeless people, but it doesn’t seem to be working. People are not leaving.

Right. People are not leaving. And these tickets and fines, it’s something that people have been dealing with for years in Grants Pass. But in 2018, the Martin v. Boise case happens. And not long after that, a group of people in Grants Pass challenged these ordinances, and they used the Boise case to make their argument that just like in Boise, Grants Pass was punishing people for being involuntarily homeless, that this overlapping group of local ordinances in Grants Pass had made it so there is nowhere to put a pillow and blanket on the ground and sleep without being in some kind of violation of a rule. And this group of local homeless people make the argument that everyone in Grants Pass who is homeless is involuntarily homeless.

And you told us earlier that it was basically the lack of available shelter that makes a homeless person involuntarily homeless. So is there a homeless shelter in Grants Pass?

Well, it sort of depends on the standard that you’re using. So there is no public low-barrier shelter that is easy for somebody to just walk in and stay for a night if they need someplace to go. Grants Pass does not have a shelter like that.

There is one shelter in Grants Pass, but it’s a religious shelter, and there are lots of restrictions. I spoke with the head of the shelter who explained the purpose is really to get people back into the workforce. And so they have a 30-day program that’s really designed for that purpose.

And as part of that, people can’t have pets. People are not allowed to smoke. They’re required to attend Christian religious services. And some of the people who I interviewed, who had chronic mental health and physical disabilities, said that they had been turned away or weren’t able to stay there because of the level of needs that they have. And so if you come in with any kind of issue like that, it can be a problem.

That’s a very long list of restrictions. And of course, people are homeless for a lot of very different reasons. It sounds like a lot of these reasons might actually disqualify them from this particular shelter. So when they say they have nowhere else to go, if they’re in Grants Pass, they kind of have a point.

So that’s what the court decided. In 2022, when the courts heard this case, they agreed with the homeless plaintiffs that there’s no low-barrier shelter in Grants Pass and that the religious shelter did not meet the court’s requirements. But the city, who are actually now represented by the same lawyers who argued for Boise, keeps appealing the case. And they appeal up to the Ninth Circuit just as in the Boise case, and the judges there find in favor of the homeless plaintiffs, and they find that Grants Pass’s ordinances are so restrictive that there is no place where someone can lay down and sleep in Grants Pass and that therefore the city has violated the Eighth Amendment and they cannot enforce these ordinances in the way that they have been for years.

So at that point, the court upholds the Boise precedent, and we’re where we were when it all started. But as we know, that’s not the end of the story. Because this case stays in the court system. What happened?

So by this point, the homelessness problem is really exploding throughout the Western part of the US with more visible encampments, and it really becomes a politically divisive issue. And leaders across the political spectrum point to Boise as a root cause of the problem. So when Grants Pass comes along, people saw that case as a way potentially to undo Boise if only they could get it before the Supreme Court.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We’ll be right back.

Abbie, you just told us that as homeless numbers went up and these homeless encampments really started spreading, it’s no longer just conservatives who want the Supreme Court to revisit the Boise ruling. It’s liberals too.

That’s right. So there’s a really broad group of people who all started pushing for the Supreme Court to take up the Grants Pass case. And they did this by filing briefs to the Supreme Court, laying out their reasoning. And it’s everyone from the liberal governor of California and many progressive liberal cities to some of the most conservative legal groups. And they disagree about their reasoning, but they all are asking the court to clarify how to interpret the Boise decision.

They are saying, essentially, that the Boise decision has been understood in different ways in all different parts of the West and that that is causing confusion and creating all sorts of problems. And they’re blaming that on the Boise case.

It’s interesting, because after everything you told us about these very extreme measures, really, that the city of Grants Pass took against homeless people, it is surprising that these liberal bastions that you’re mentioning are siding with the town in this case.

Just to be clear, they are not saying that they support necessarily the way that Grants Pass or Boise had enforced their laws. But they are saying that the court rulings have tied their hands with this ambiguous decision on how to act.

And what exactly is so ambiguous about the Boise decision? Which if I remember correctly, simply said that if someone is involuntarily homeless, if they’re on the streets because there’s no adequate shelter space available, they can’t be punished for that.

Yeah. So there are a couple of things that are common threads in the cities and the groups that are asking for clarity from the court. And the first thing is that they’re saying, what is adequate shelter? That every homeless person situation is different, so what are cities or places required to provide for people who are homeless? What is the standard that they need to meet?

In order not to sleep on the street.

That’s right. So if the standard is that a city has to have enough beds for everyone who is homeless but certain kinds of shelters or beds wouldn’t qualify, then what are the rules around that? And the second thing is that they’re asking for clarity around what “involuntarily homeless” means. And so in the Boise decision, that meant that someone is involuntarily homeless if there is not enough bed space for them to go to.

But a lot of cities are saying, what about people who don’t want to go into a shelter even if there’s a shelter bed available? If they have a pet or if they are a smoker or if something might prohibit them from going to a shelter, how is the city supposed to weigh that and at what point would they cross a line for the court?

It’s almost a philosophical question. Like, if somebody doesn’t want to be in a shelter, are they still allowed to sleep in a public space?

Yeah. I mean, these are complicated questions that go beyond the Eighth Amendment argument but that a lot of the organizations that have reached out to the court through these friend of the court briefs are asking.

OK. I can see that the unifying element here is that in all these briefs various people from across the spectrum are saying, hello, Supreme Court. We basically need some clarity here. Give us some clarity.

The question that I have is why did the Supreme Court agree to weigh in on Grants Pass after declining to take up Boise?

Well, it’s not possible for us to say for certain because the Supreme Court does not give reasons why it has agreed to hear or to not hear a case. They get thousands of cases a year, and they take up just a few of those, and their deliberations are secret. But we can point to a few things.

One is that the makeup of the court has changed. The court has gained conservative justices in the last few years. This court has not been shy about taking up hot button issues across the spectrum of American society. In this case, the court hasn’t heard a major homelessness case like this.

But I would really point to the sheer number and the range of the people who are petitioning the court to take a look at this case. These are major players in the country who are asking the court for guidance, and the Supreme Court does weigh in on issues of national importance. And the people who are asking for help clearly believe that this is one of those issues.

So let’s start digging into the actual arguments. And maybe let’s start with the city of Grants Pass. What are the central arguments that they’re expected to make before the Supreme Court?

So the city’s arguments turn on this narrow legal issue of whether the Eighth Amendment applies or doesn’t. And they say that it doesn’t. But I actually think that in some ways, that’s not the most helpful way to understanding what Grants Pass is arguing.

What is really at the heart of their argument is that if the court upholds Grants Pass and Boise, that they are tying the hands of Grants Pass and hundreds of other towns and cities to actually act to solve and respond to homelessness. And by that, I mean to solve issues of people camping in the parks but also more broadly of public safety issues, of being able to address problems as they arise in a fluid and flexible way in the varied ways that they’re going to show up in all these different places.

And their argument is if the court accepts the Grants Pass and Boise holdings, that they will be constitutionalizing or freezing in place and limiting all of these governments from acting.

Right. This is essentially the argument being repeated again and again in those briefs that you mentioned earlier, that unless the Supreme Court overturns these decisions, it’s almost impossible for these cities to get the encampments under control.

Yes, that’s right. And they also argue they need to have flexibility in dealing actually with people who are homeless and being able to figure out using a local ordinance to try to convince someone to go to treatment, that they say they need carrots and sticks. They need to be able to use every tool that they can to be able to try to solve this problem.

And how do we make sense of that argument when Grants Pass is clearly not using that many tools to deal with homeless people? For example, it didn’t have shelters, as you mentioned.

So the city’s argument is that this just should not be an Eighth Amendment issue, that this is the wrong way to think about this case, that issues around homelessness and how a city handles it is a policy question. So things like shelter beds or the way that the city is handling their ordinances should really be left up to policymakers and city officials, not to this really broad constitutional argument. And so therefore, the city is likely to focus their argument entirely on this very narrow question.

And how does the other side counter this argument?

The homeless plaintiffs are going to argue that there’s nothing in the lower courts’ decisions that say that cities can’t enforce their laws that, they can’t stop people from littering, that they can’t stop drug use, that they can’t clear encampments if there becomes public safety problems. They’re just saying that a city cannot not provide shelter and then make it illegal for people to lay down and sleep.

So both sides are saying that a city should be able to take action when there’s public disorder as a result of these homeless encampments. But they’re pointing at each other and saying, the way you want to handle homelessness is wrong.

I think everyone in this case agrees that homelessness and the increase in homelessness is bad for everyone. It’s bad for people who are camping in the park. It is bad for the community, that nobody is saying that the current situation is tenable. Everyone is saying there need to be solutions. We need to be able to figure out what to do about homelessness and how to care for people who are homeless.

How do we wrestle with all these problems? It’s just that the way that they think about it couldn’t be further apart.

And what can you tell me about how the Supreme Court is actually expected to rule in this?

There are a number of ways that the justices could decide on this case. They could take a really narrow approach and just focus on Grants Pass and the arguments about those local ordinances. I think that’s somewhat unlikely because they’ve decided to take up this case of national importance.

A ruling in favor of the homeless plaintiffs would mean that they’ve accepted this Eighth Amendment argument, that you cannot criminalize being homeless. And a ruling for the city, every legal expert I’ve talked to has said that would mean an end to Boise and that it would break apart the current state that we’ve been living in for these last several years.

I’m struck by how much this case and our conversation has been about policing homelessness rather than actually addressing the root causes of homelessness. We’re not really talking about, say, the right to shelter or the right to treatment for people who are mentally ill and sleeping on the streets as a result, which is quite a big proportion. And at the end of the day, whatever way the ruling goes, it will be about the visibility of homelessness and not the root causes.

Yeah, I think that’s right. That’s really what’s looming in the background of this case is what impact is it going to have. Will it make things better or worse and for who? And these court cases have really become this talking point for cities and for their leaders, blaming the spike in encampments and the visibility of homelessness on these court decisions. But homelessness, everyone acknowledges, is such a complicated issue.

People have told me in interviews for the story, they’ve blamed increases in homelessness on everything from the pandemic to forest fires to skyrocketing housing costs in the West Coast, and that the role that Boise and now Grants Pass play in this has always been a little hard to pin down. And if the Supreme Court overturns those cases, then we’ll really see whether they were the obstacle that political leaders said that they were. And if these cases fall, it remains to be seen whether cities do try to find all these creative solutions with housing and services to try to help people who are homeless or whether they once again fall back on just sending people to jail.

Abbie, thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Here’s what else you need to know today. Early on Friday, Israel attacked a military base in Central Iran. The explosion came less than a week after Iran’s attack on Israel last weekend and was part of a cycle of retaliation that has brought the shadow war between the two countries out in the open. The scale and method of Friday’s attack remained unclear, and the initial reaction in both Israel and Iran was to downplay its significance. World leaders have urged both sides to exercise restraint in order to avoid sparking a broader war in the region.

And 12 New Yorkers have been selected to decide Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, clearing the way for opening statements to begin as early as Monday. Seven new jurors were added in short order on Thursday afternoon, hours after two others who had already been picked were abruptly excused.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment made to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign. If the jury convicts him, he faces up to four years in prison. Finally —

This is the New York Police Department.

The New York Police Department said it took at least 108 protesters into custody at Columbia University after University officials called the police to respond to a pro-Palestinian demonstration and dismantle a tent encampment.

We’re supporting Palestine. We’re supporting Palestine. 1, 2, 3, 4.

The crackdown prompted more students to vow that demonstrations would continue, expressing outrage at both the roundup of the student protesters and the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Free, free Palestine.

Today’s episode was produced by Olivia Natt, Stella Tan, and Eric Krupke with help from Rachelle Bonja. It was edited by Liz Baylen, fact checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Will Reid Pat McCusker Dan Powell and Diane Wong and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Katrin Bennhold. See you on Monday.

• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma
• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser
• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’

Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Abbie VanSickle

Produced by Olivia Natt ,  Stella Tan ,  Eric Krupke and Rachelle Bonja

Edited by Liz O. Baylen

Original music by Will Reid ,  Pat McCusker ,  Dan Powell and Diane Wong

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Debates over homeless encampments in the United States have intensified as their number has surged. To tackle the problem, some cities have enforced bans on public camping.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments about whether such actions are legal, Abbie VanSickle, who covers the court for The Times, discusses the case and its far-reaching implications.

On today’s episode

Abbie VanSickle , a Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading

A ruling in the case could help determine how states, particularly those in the West, grapple with a rising homelessness crisis .

In a rare alliance, Democrats and Republicans are seeking legal power to clear homeless camps .

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Abbie VanSickle covers the United States Supreme Court for The Times. She is a lawyer and has an extensive background in investigative reporting. More about Abbie VanSickle

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Wizards of the coast president cynthia williams resigns.

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Wizards of the Coast is home to tabletop gaming titans such as Magic The Gathering and Dungeons & ... [+] Dragons

According to a filing with the SEC on April 15th, the current president of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming will be stepping down at the end of this month. Cynthia Williams held the position for two years. The previous holder of the position, Chris Cocks, is currently CEO of Hasbro.

Independent gaming news outlet Rascal broke the story earlier this morning on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. According to Hasbro, the company does not have a successor for the position lined up. The search is on for her replacement.

Williams came to the company from Microsoft. She was General Manager and Vice President, Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team for their Xbox division. Her selection led many to believe that Wizards of the Coast was looking to expand into the digital space. Shortly after taking the position, Wizards of the Coast acuired D&D Beyond and has since made it central to their marketing strategy.

The Best Gaming Mouse That’ll Improve Your Aim

The company saw some of its highest moments within the two years of her tenure. Wizards of the Coast’s earnings were a bright spot during a tumultuous few years for parent company Hasbro. The company capitalized on the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons to release the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film as well as create its own FAST channel, D&D Adventures.

There were also moves that cost the company goodwill and potentially affected sales. The handling of D&D’s OGL damaged relationships with third party publishers and caused many fans to seek out new games to play and support. The company also employed Pinkertons to reclaim accidentally leaked Magic The Gathering product in a reaction deemed too harsh by fans of the game.

Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular that it has ever been. The film was well-recieved by fans and looks to be a cult classic in the making. Even more new fans came to the game from the massive breakout hit Baldur’s Gate 3, a computer game adaptation of D&D that’s both a critical favorite and a massive financial success.

While the company celebrates Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th Anniversary, the game stands at a crossroads. The new versions of Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual and Dungeon Masters Guide need to thread the needle between being welcoming to new fans of the game while also offering new content that fans already invested in Dungeons & Dragons will want to purchase. Change too much and fans will be upset over deciding which rules to use for their games. Change too little and old fans won’t see the need to spend money on books that work the same way as their current ones do.

Williams last day as president is April 26th, 2024. A spokesperson for Wizards of the Coast had this to say when Rascal News reached out for a comment:

"We’re excited for Cynthia to take the next step in her career and grateful for the contributions she has made in her more than two years at Wizards and Hasbro. We wish her the absolute best in her next endeavor. We have started the search for our next President of Wizards of the Coast and hope to have a successor in place soon."

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