Contenido
In games where exploration isn't the main focus, you may wish to abstract wilderness travel in some way that makes it faster to resolve while still retaining its more engaging elements. In such games, you can run wilderness travel as a series of ability checks using skills of the party's choosing.
At the start of each day while traveling, have each party member choose the activity they will be focusing on for the day. The chosen activity will determine the skill they will be using for the day. The activity chosen must somehow aid in the party's travels. Below is a list of example activities and skills that could be associated with them.
Foraging
The Survival skill can be used to forage for food, water, or other natural supplies that are essential for survival.
Gathering Information
The History and Nature skills can be used to gather any information about the surrounding environment that is directly useful (e.g. knowledge of a nearby unholy site to avoided).
Keeping Watch
The Perception skill can be used to watch for any incoming threats.
Navigation
The Survival skill can be used to avoid becoming lost.
Raising Morale
The Performance skill can be used to raise morale among the party.
Scouting
The Investigation and Stealth skills can be used to scout for locations of interest or upcoming hazards.
To avoid travel being tedious or repetitive, encourage the party to be creative, and possibly to partake in a different activity on some days as a way to spice things up. With some out of the box thinking, almost any skill can used to aid in the party's travels.
Once everyone has chosen their activities for the day, have them make ability checks using the associated skills. For some checks, consider resolving it as a skill contest. For example, if one party member decides to keep watch, they might make a Wisdom (Perception) check contested by the Dexterity (Stealth) check of the predator that has been stalking them. For other checks, you can set the DC according to how difficult the task is. For example, if a second party member decides to forage for food and water, you can set the DC according to how abundant food and water are in the region. Feel free to take inspiration from other rules, such as the Foraging DCs table in the Dungeon Master's Guide, to determine the DC for a given task.
If at least half the party succeeds on their checks, the whole party succeeds in their travels for the day, and their exhaustion level (if any) is reduced by one. Otherwise, the party fails for the day. On a failure, the party suffers from a penalty chosen by the DM: either one or more days are added to their total travel time, or the entire party suffers one level of exhaustion that only goes away after the exploration is completed or when an effect that removes exhaustion is applied. The former penalty can represent mishaps like getting lost or failing to notice a natural barrier that cannot be passed, and the latter penalty can represent events like participating in combat, suffering from a lack of food and water, or participating in a forced march in order to make up for lost time.
Remember that extreme weather phenomena and other natural hazards can either increase the DCs of various tasks or impose disadvantage on certain checks the party makes. For effects such as Extreme Heat and Extreme Cold that impose saving throws, have the party make one saving throw against them each day, rather than each hour. Levels of exhaustion imposed by these effects can only go away after the wilderness travel is completed or when an effect that removes one is applied.
If the party has gathered enough successes to make it to their destination, they have completed their travels. If they gather too many levels of exhaustion, they might succumb to the wilderness and die, or they can suffer some other fate that requires a new, separate adventure to overcome.
While this variant may seem cumbersome to use due to the length of its description, it can actually make traveling through the wilderness engaging and fun while also cutting down on time that would be spent towards tracking specific resources and participating in random combat encounters.