I am currently running an adventure through the Hoard of the Dragon Queen module which features a fairly prominent section where the players must travel from one city (Baldur's Gate) to another (Waterdeep). This takes about 60 days in-game time (and from what I've read involves approximately three 2-hour play sessions [I think it will probably take my group four 4-hour play sessions]). The book gives a lot of good ideas for how to set this up, but like so much else in D&D books, there is a lot left to the imagination.
I wanted to give my players a bit of scope to the caravan they are traveling with. The way D&D is structured, in a general sense, sort of cues the players into action every time I, as the DM, stop to describe something. I've tried to combat this in various different ways, but the one I hadn't tried before was simply giving them a sense that they are involved in a very large and very capable group which doesn't necessarily require their intervention. Simple descriptions didn't seem to be doing the trick, so I figured now was the time for crafting.
Generally, from the time I have an idea for my D&D group to the time that I want a finished product for presentation is about 1 week. This is due to a variety of reasons. The most common reason is that I don't have a lot of time to prepare for sessions for the distant future. I tend to gather content for the weekend session throughout the week immediately prior and this means that any ideas for embellishment of that session will need to happen during that week as well. In this case, it wasn't that. I actually had a sense of this caravan thing for quite a bit of time prior and I've been noodling with it off and on for several months. However, it wasn't until the very first caravan session that it occurred to me that my players might benefit from a little more visual impact.
The point is that I don't have a lot of time to produce the projects I imagine up, and this has motivated me to seek out the easiest method by which I can accomplish the goal. Putting together a visual aid for a massive caravan is no different. Initially, I had simply printed out a group of cards to cover the main collection of characters in the caravan - the merchants, guards, teamsters and travelers who were specifically mentioned in the module book. I even spent some time developing each of these characters into their own legitimate NPC fighters complete with stats and abilities. This was a lot of fun and something I worked on for several months to pull off. However, these core characters were by no means the entire caravan. They comprised a large set of cards, but it wasn't quite enough to give my players the visual I was hoping for.
So, I went back to the drawing board, as it were, of my mind and decided that I would create some actual covered wagons to represent each of the wagons in the caravan (15). Into these, I would cut some slots so that the character cards I'd created could fit. Lastly, I felt that I should expand the number of cards in use to cover all of the characters in the caravan, which meant that I would need to at least determine the name and some artwork for each of these characters. To accomplish this in one week, I would need to quickly ascertain the scope of what I was doing so that I could schedule my efforts accordingly. Therefore, my plan of action went like this:
1. Assign names to all characters in the caravan
2. Find artwork for all characters in the caravan
3. Plan and create cards for the caravan characters (remember I can only produce 36 cards per day)
4. Determine how to make the simplest covered wagon craft
5. Create covered wagons and add cards
I want to be honest and say that I had a lot of doubts about whether I could actually pull this off. First things first, though, I determined all of the characters that existed in the caravan's fifteen wagons:
(O) = Owner; the character who owns the wagon
(T) = Teamster; the character driving the wagon
(G) = Guard; the character guarding the wagon and its contents
(B) = Bodyguard; the character protecting the wagon's owner
(M) = Mercenary; a character that is just a wagon guard, but is guarding a cultist wagon while not being part of the Cult of the Dragon
(Y) = Traveler; a character just traveling with the caravan and not part of any wagon
(pc) = The character of one of the players sitting at my table
(hdq) = A character suggested by the Hoard of the Dragon Queen book and then expanded on
(ncc) = A new caravan character created just for this project
[ Wagon 01 ] >> (O) Achreny Ulyeltin (hdq)
(T) Bivil Kirk (ncc)
(G) Shay Davencolt (pc)
(G) Unka (pc)
(B) Seraphina Tealeaf (pc)
[ Wagon 02 ] >> (O) Achreny Ulyeltin
(T) Jeremiah Rhelen (ncc)
(G) Maura Vav (ncc)
(G) Rasmaleh Hossa (ncc)
[ Wagon 03 ] >> (O) Beyd Sechepol (hdq)
(T) Pucoro Rivercrunk (ncc)
(G) Rilos (pc)
[Wagon 04 ] >> (O) Edhelri Lewel (hdq)
(T) Werond Torohar (hdq)
(G) Leda Widris (hdq)
[ Wagon 05 ] >> (O) Lai Angesstun (hdq)
(T) Losvius Longnose (hdq)
(G) Asmodius Elfscar (ncc)
(G) Jang Highcloud (ncc)
(G) Guldar Grizzlyripper (ncc)
(G) Ferin Stoneflame (ncc)
(G) Philip Chilarsk (ncc)
(B) Agamemnon Nighthush (ncc)
(B) Heath Baneforge (ncc)
[ Wagon 06 ] >> (O) Lasfelro the Silent
[ Wagon 07 ] >> (O) Noohar Serelim (hdq)
(T) Selvek Serelim (hdq)
(G) Eldkin Agetul (hdq)
[ Wagon 08 ] >> (O) Nyerhite Verther (hdq)
(T) Tessa Holygaze (ncc)
(G) Tyjit Skesh (hdq)
[ Wagon 09 ] >> (O) Oyn Evenmor (hdq)
(T) Bram Zoshen (ncc)
(G) Sulesdeg the Pole (hdq)
(B) Tross the Hound (pc)
[ Wagon 10 ] >> (O) Samardag the Hoper (hdq)
(T) Enom Tobun (hdq)
(G) Orvustia Esseren (hdq)
[ Wagon 11 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir (hdq)
(T) Stonnam Proudspell (ncc)
(G) Lajon-Ze Bluth (ncc)
(G) Percevil Xa (ncc)
(G) Hellidd Lightgleam (ncc)
(M) Fia Nei (ncc)
(M) Maizel Hardtoe (ncc)
[ Wagon 12 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Ashbezan Justol (ncc)
(G) Estrale Gladecut (ncc)
(G) Shane Nickelfire (ncc)
(M) Grayson Kuz (ncc)
[ Wagon 13 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Larion Keenblade (hdq)
(G) Jih-Zar Sezdahl (ncc)
(G) Nathan Firestream (ncc)
(M) Khudeim Dustil (ncc)
[ Wagon 14 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Meuth Laprivald (ncc)
(G) Guile Bohled (ncc)
(G) Jion Nei (ncc)
(M) Marcus Whitara (ncc)
[ Wagon 15 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Thea Lunkrit (ncc)
(G) Zach Halad (ncc)
(G) Willow Umzaka (hdq)
(G) Darren Shakoz (ncc)
(M) Fizil Riordin (ncc)
(M) Billy Babfist the Terror of Eversult (ncc)
(M) Relved Umzaka (hdq)
[ Travelers ]
(Y) Green Imsa (hdq)
(Y) Aldor Urnpoleshurst (hdq)
(Y) Radecere Perethun (hdq - the golden stag)
(Y) The Golden Stag / Allilon Elmhollow (hdq - the golden stag)
(Y) Gom Fusewalker (hdq - everything has a price)
(Y) Rarth Meadowvalor (hdq - animal abuse)
(Y) Sithad Murimze (hdq - animal abuse)
(Y) Gif Bellis (hdq - animal abuse)
(Y) Thulthran (ncc)
(Y) Bunram (ncc)
(Y) Han Zulistes (ncc)
(Y) Garum (ncc - contraband)
(Y) Atragak (ncc - contraband)
(Y) Karorak (ncc)
(Y) Oron (ncc)
(Y) Gotabak (ncc)
(Y) Kyshana (ncc)
(Y) Yllanhe (ncc)
(Y) Kramdrus (ncc)
(Y) Thonyl (ncc)
(Y) Iang Cam (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Genden Masterchewer (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Falan Avakir (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Gardir Cragbane (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Arietta Innevar (hdq - roadside hospitality)
(Y) Zelina Innevar (hdq - roadside hospitality)
(Y) Rhojurn "Carl" Carlamtath (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Grivig Spiderhide (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Bazeoh Valtoft (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Dardor Rielhur (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Norn Shemma (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Carlon Amofel (hdq - payback)
(Y) Balthasar Kazza the Incorrigible (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Jojo Lux the Stupendous (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Caesar Moose the Thrilling (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Leo Binks the Terrifying (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Frank Ornato the Majestic (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Azbara Jos (hdq)
(Y) Jamna Gleamsilver (hdq)
(Y) Par Bargun (ncc)
(Y) Brie Searrow (ncc)
(Y) Darnoa (ncc)
(Y) Nheshun Poko (ncc)
(Y) Ebrer Battlerun (ncc)
(Y) Zavedar (ncc)
So, I had exactly 36 of the new character creations to make (along with 4 characters specified in the adventure who I had not yet made cards for [Selvek Serelim, Larion Keenblade, Willow Umzaka, Relved Umzaka]). I didn't really make cards for the travelers unless they were actually needed (and those I had definitely already made). This may seem like a lot, but it was actually encouraging. 40 cards is entirely doable within a week's time. The only thing I needed to figure out was how I would make the actual covered wagons.
I spent some time browsing around the internet, looking at some craft projects and template offered up by others and found all of the covered wagons to be a bit more complicated than what I was looking to do. Instead, I came up with a simple single-sheet design that I would bend into a semicircle and latch in place with some small strips of foamboard. It isn't as fancy as the other things I looked at, but it certainly would get the job done efficiently. With just bent paper acting as the wagon cover, I could easily cut slits into the paper to hold the cards up.
So, I created a quick design for the wagon and printed off fifteen copies. These I cut out, colored (only the cultist wagons), and added helpful labels to. Then I used Super77 to glue them to some white posterboard. This meant I had to cut the shapes out a second time, which proved a little tedious, but still pretty time effective.
After they were all cut out, I sliced up some little bits of foamboard (two per wagon) to hold the paper in place and cut out some slits for the cards. Then I folded the paper into the wagon and inserted the cards.
It turned out pretty well.
I wanted to give my players a bit of scope to the caravan they are traveling with. The way D&D is structured, in a general sense, sort of cues the players into action every time I, as the DM, stop to describe something. I've tried to combat this in various different ways, but the one I hadn't tried before was simply giving them a sense that they are involved in a very large and very capable group which doesn't necessarily require their intervention. Simple descriptions didn't seem to be doing the trick, so I figured now was the time for crafting.
Generally, from the time I have an idea for my D&D group to the time that I want a finished product for presentation is about 1 week. This is due to a variety of reasons. The most common reason is that I don't have a lot of time to prepare for sessions for the distant future. I tend to gather content for the weekend session throughout the week immediately prior and this means that any ideas for embellishment of that session will need to happen during that week as well. In this case, it wasn't that. I actually had a sense of this caravan thing for quite a bit of time prior and I've been noodling with it off and on for several months. However, it wasn't until the very first caravan session that it occurred to me that my players might benefit from a little more visual impact.
The point is that I don't have a lot of time to produce the projects I imagine up, and this has motivated me to seek out the easiest method by which I can accomplish the goal. Putting together a visual aid for a massive caravan is no different. Initially, I had simply printed out a group of cards to cover the main collection of characters in the caravan - the merchants, guards, teamsters and travelers who were specifically mentioned in the module book. I even spent some time developing each of these characters into their own legitimate NPC fighters complete with stats and abilities. This was a lot of fun and something I worked on for several months to pull off. However, these core characters were by no means the entire caravan. They comprised a large set of cards, but it wasn't quite enough to give my players the visual I was hoping for.
So, I went back to the drawing board, as it were, of my mind and decided that I would create some actual covered wagons to represent each of the wagons in the caravan (15). Into these, I would cut some slots so that the character cards I'd created could fit. Lastly, I felt that I should expand the number of cards in use to cover all of the characters in the caravan, which meant that I would need to at least determine the name and some artwork for each of these characters. To accomplish this in one week, I would need to quickly ascertain the scope of what I was doing so that I could schedule my efforts accordingly. Therefore, my plan of action went like this:
1. Assign names to all characters in the caravan
2. Find artwork for all characters in the caravan
3. Plan and create cards for the caravan characters (remember I can only produce 36 cards per day)
4. Determine how to make the simplest covered wagon craft
5. Create covered wagons and add cards
I want to be honest and say that I had a lot of doubts about whether I could actually pull this off. First things first, though, I determined all of the characters that existed in the caravan's fifteen wagons:
(O) = Owner; the character who owns the wagon
(T) = Teamster; the character driving the wagon
(G) = Guard; the character guarding the wagon and its contents
(B) = Bodyguard; the character protecting the wagon's owner
(M) = Mercenary; a character that is just a wagon guard, but is guarding a cultist wagon while not being part of the Cult of the Dragon
(Y) = Traveler; a character just traveling with the caravan and not part of any wagon
(pc) = The character of one of the players sitting at my table
(hdq) = A character suggested by the Hoard of the Dragon Queen book and then expanded on
(ncc) = A new caravan character created just for this project
[ Wagon 01 ] >> (O) Achreny Ulyeltin (hdq)
(T) Bivil Kirk (ncc)
(G) Shay Davencolt (pc)
(G) Unka (pc)
(B) Seraphina Tealeaf (pc)
[ Wagon 02 ] >> (O) Achreny Ulyeltin
(T) Jeremiah Rhelen (ncc)
(G) Maura Vav (ncc)
(G) Rasmaleh Hossa (ncc)
[ Wagon 03 ] >> (O) Beyd Sechepol (hdq)
(T) Pucoro Rivercrunk (ncc)
(G) Rilos (pc)
[Wagon 04 ] >> (O) Edhelri Lewel (hdq)
(T) Werond Torohar (hdq)
(G) Leda Widris (hdq)
[ Wagon 05 ] >> (O) Lai Angesstun (hdq)
(T) Losvius Longnose (hdq)
(G) Asmodius Elfscar (ncc)
(G) Jang Highcloud (ncc)
(G) Guldar Grizzlyripper (ncc)
(G) Ferin Stoneflame (ncc)
(G) Philip Chilarsk (ncc)
(B) Agamemnon Nighthush (ncc)
(B) Heath Baneforge (ncc)
[ Wagon 06 ] >> (O) Lasfelro the Silent
[ Wagon 07 ] >> (O) Noohar Serelim (hdq)
(T) Selvek Serelim (hdq)
(G) Eldkin Agetul (hdq)
[ Wagon 08 ] >> (O) Nyerhite Verther (hdq)
(T) Tessa Holygaze (ncc)
(G) Tyjit Skesh (hdq)
[ Wagon 09 ] >> (O) Oyn Evenmor (hdq)
(T) Bram Zoshen (ncc)
(G) Sulesdeg the Pole (hdq)
(B) Tross the Hound (pc)
[ Wagon 10 ] >> (O) Samardag the Hoper (hdq)
(T) Enom Tobun (hdq)
(G) Orvustia Esseren (hdq)
[ Wagon 11 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir (hdq)
(T) Stonnam Proudspell (ncc)
(G) Lajon-Ze Bluth (ncc)
(G) Percevil Xa (ncc)
(G) Hellidd Lightgleam (ncc)
(M) Fia Nei (ncc)
(M) Maizel Hardtoe (ncc)
[ Wagon 12 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Ashbezan Justol (ncc)
(G) Estrale Gladecut (ncc)
(G) Shane Nickelfire (ncc)
(M) Grayson Kuz (ncc)
[ Wagon 13 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Larion Keenblade (hdq)
(G) Jih-Zar Sezdahl (ncc)
(G) Nathan Firestream (ncc)
(M) Khudeim Dustil (ncc)
[ Wagon 14 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Meuth Laprivald (ncc)
(G) Guile Bohled (ncc)
(G) Jion Nei (ncc)
(M) Marcus Whitara (ncc)
[ Wagon 15 ] >> (O) Cult of the Dragon / Rezmir
(T) Thea Lunkrit (ncc)
(G) Zach Halad (ncc)
(G) Willow Umzaka (hdq)
(G) Darren Shakoz (ncc)
(M) Fizil Riordin (ncc)
(M) Billy Babfist the Terror of Eversult (ncc)
(M) Relved Umzaka (hdq)
[ Travelers ]
(Y) Green Imsa (hdq)
(Y) Aldor Urnpoleshurst (hdq)
(Y) Radecere Perethun (hdq - the golden stag)
(Y) The Golden Stag / Allilon Elmhollow (hdq - the golden stag)
(Y) Gom Fusewalker (hdq - everything has a price)
(Y) Rarth Meadowvalor (hdq - animal abuse)
(Y) Sithad Murimze (hdq - animal abuse)
(Y) Gif Bellis (hdq - animal abuse)
(Y) Thulthran (ncc)
(Y) Bunram (ncc)
(Y) Han Zulistes (ncc)
(Y) Garum (ncc - contraband)
(Y) Atragak (ncc - contraband)
(Y) Karorak (ncc)
(Y) Oron (ncc)
(Y) Gotabak (ncc)
(Y) Kyshana (ncc)
(Y) Yllanhe (ncc)
(Y) Kramdrus (ncc)
(Y) Thonyl (ncc)
(Y) Iang Cam (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Genden Masterchewer (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Falan Avakir (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Gardir Cragbane (hdq - stranded)
(Y) Arietta Innevar (hdq - roadside hospitality)
(Y) Zelina Innevar (hdq - roadside hospitality)
(Y) Rhojurn "Carl" Carlamtath (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Grivig Spiderhide (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Bazeoh Valtoft (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Dardor Rielhur (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Norn Shemma (hdq - no room at the inn)
(Y) Carlon Amofel (hdq - payback)
(Y) Balthasar Kazza the Incorrigible (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Jojo Lux the Stupendous (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Caesar Moose the Thrilling (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Leo Binks the Terrifying (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Frank Ornato the Majestic (hdq - adventuring life)
(Y) Azbara Jos (hdq)
(Y) Jamna Gleamsilver (hdq)
(Y) Par Bargun (ncc)
(Y) Brie Searrow (ncc)
(Y) Darnoa (ncc)
(Y) Nheshun Poko (ncc)
(Y) Ebrer Battlerun (ncc)
(Y) Zavedar (ncc)
So, I had exactly 36 of the new character creations to make (along with 4 characters specified in the adventure who I had not yet made cards for [Selvek Serelim, Larion Keenblade, Willow Umzaka, Relved Umzaka]). I didn't really make cards for the travelers unless they were actually needed (and those I had definitely already made). This may seem like a lot, but it was actually encouraging. 40 cards is entirely doable within a week's time. The only thing I needed to figure out was how I would make the actual covered wagons.
I spent some time browsing around the internet, looking at some craft projects and template offered up by others and found all of the covered wagons to be a bit more complicated than what I was looking to do. Instead, I came up with a simple single-sheet design that I would bend into a semicircle and latch in place with some small strips of foamboard. It isn't as fancy as the other things I looked at, but it certainly would get the job done efficiently. With just bent paper acting as the wagon cover, I could easily cut slits into the paper to hold the cards up.
So, I created a quick design for the wagon and printed off fifteen copies. These I cut out, colored (only the cultist wagons), and added helpful labels to. Then I used Super77 to glue them to some white posterboard. This meant I had to cut the shapes out a second time, which proved a little tedious, but still pretty time effective.
After they were all cut out, I sliced up some little bits of foamboard (two per wagon) to hold the paper in place and cut out some slits for the cards. Then I folded the paper into the wagon and inserted the cards.
It turned out pretty well.
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