I’ve written previously about hex- and point-crawl travel. But long-distance travel is different from hex crawls in several ways. Therefore, you should treat such travel differently in certain ways.

The heroes probably use roads as much as possible; they may even choose to go by ship or riverboat. That choice of road or water means that not only do they go faster, but there’s less of a chance of encounter with monsters but less of a chance of discovering interesting places that aren’t mapped points of interest.

Different Rules

Give the heroes a choice of two or three routes. These can be a shorter, more dangerous land route vs a longer, easier one or a land route vs a sea route, etc. The choices should be significantly different in part because of the type of monsters they can encounter.

• For land travel, count up 18-mile hexes to get the number of days it takes to make the journey by road on foot; half that for a horse. The heroes (and horses, if any) will need to rest for 1d3+1 days every 7 days, altho they can use magical healing to avoid it. This is realistic and allows for a minor adventure in a city while recuperating from travel.
• For sea travel and boat travel down river, count up the water miles and divide by 60 to get the number of days the voyage takes. For sea travel, add 1d20 days for storms, lack of wind, etc. For down-river travel, add 1d4 for poor weather and other problems.
• For travel up river, count up the water miles and divide by 30, then add 1d4 for problems.

Figure on one random encounter every few days using a dice timer of d12, d10, d8, d6, d4, d3, d1. The heroes should also encounter 1 minor point of interest at the same rate, if they’re traveling by land. On a river, start with d20. For a journey at sea, you might just plan just a single point of interest for the whole voyage (see below for some ideas).

Keep in mind that players may want to bypass random encounters and even most points of interest. They’re on a voyage to somewhere specific.

Minor Points of Interest for Sea Travel

1. Sunken ship in shallow water.
2. Derelict ship without a crew (due to storm, fire, or monster).
3. Ruined watch tower or lighthouse on shore. (Sea travel should stay close to shore, as was historically the case before major advancements in navigation.)
4. Small, unmapped island.
5. Sea cave in a cliff or rocky shore, perhaps hiding an oddity.
6. Normal minor point of interest on shore while stopping for supplies.