Locard's principle of transference tells us that nothing moves through an area without taking something of the area along, and leaving something of themselves behind. Even for the smallest creatures, this is true. On walking through a park near my house recently, I noticed a small worn dirt path, about the width of a hand, leading across the grass for tens of metres. On closer inspection, this had been left over the course of many years by the passage of ants moving to and from their nest, nearby. If even ants leave a path, then surely larger creatures can be tracked, too.
To make the game more interesting and allow a little more freedom of choice, you can allow finding tracks to be the result of random encounters. This can let your players go looking for more trouble if they feel like they can handle it, or if they think it'll be worth the trouble, or choose to lie low and escape the area if they think they could be out of their depth. Even if they can't evade it, this might give them a small opportunity to prepare for the encounter ahead, or let it prepare for them, if it's a skilled hunter. This also makes it feel like the world is populated with monsters, but not teeming with them, Final Fantasy-style. How you can use following tracks in your game: - An encounter might involve running across the signs that a creature has passed, or lives in the area. An abomination might leave mutilated corpses, while a humanoid might leave signs of its territory- trail markings, literal signs, or skulls on sticks. A dragon might leave burned wagons, half-devoured horses, and shredded scraps of plate armour from the wagon's guards. - A wily hunter, like some Gnoll rangers, or Bugbear murderers, might leave false trails to lure in greedy adventurers. A trail leading to a killbox with elevated galleries above, or into a trap, or even into another creature's lair, can all help to soften up opposition for the true hunters to claim their kill. - Letting PCs choose which prey they go after and which they avoid can help to make your world feel like a much more lived-in place, and means they might 'bookmark' some places to come back when they're more experienced. The more you can get them to make decisions in-character, the better this will be for your roleplaying. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 10 July 2020. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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