Free tables Travel — encounters by terrain

Random Arctic Encounters and Travel Events — d20 Tables

Free d20 tables for arctic travel in 5e: twenty things to pass and twenty encounters, half of them not fights.

Most campaigns skip the arctic with "three days later, you arrive", because making up three days of it on the spot is work. These two tables do that work: something to see every day, and something that occasionally finds the party.

Each day, roll d20 on the first column for something the party passes. Then roll a d20 encounter check: on a 17 or higher, something finds them, so roll d20 on the second column. Make it 19 or higher on a quiet, patrolled road and 15 or higher somewhere nobody sensible goes. That works out to 10%, 20% or 30% a day.

About half the encounters aren't fights. A broken bridge or a lost traveller changes a journey just as much as wolves do, and it doesn't cost a spell slot. The fights use SRD creatures only, with their counts and challenge ratings, so you can rate them before anyone rolls initiative.

For the weather, don't roll fresh each day: that gives blizzard, sunshine, blizzard. Start somewhere mild and move it at most one step a day (better, the same, or worse on a d6: 1–2, 3–4, 5–6). Four days then read as a journey rather than a slot machine.

The table

20 results. Roll d20.

d20	On the way	If something finds them
1	A ship frozen into the ice, miles from open water.	A winter wolf and its pack have the party's scent. — 1 × Winter Wolf (CR 3); 1d4+1 × Wolf (CR 1/4)
2	An aurora so bright it lights the snow green.	A starving polar bear charges out of the white. — 1 × Polar Bear (CR 2)
3	A mammoth skeleton standing upright where it froze.	Ice mephits play cruel tricks, then attack. — 1d4+1 × Ice Mephit (CR 1/2)
4	An explorer's cairn with his journal inside.	A saber-toothed tiger stalks the party across the snow. — 1 × Saber-Toothed Tiger (CR 2)
5	Footprints in the snow that simply end.	A mammoth, maddened by an old spear wound, charges the camp. — 1 × Mammoth (CR 6)
6	An ice cave glowing blue from within.	Hunters of a local tribe mistake the party for raiders. — 1d6+2 × Tribal Warrior (CR 1/8)
7	A whalebone arch over the trail.	Raiders come ashore through the broken ice. — 1d4+1 × Berserker (CR 2)
8	A village of snow houses, abandoned in good order.	A frost giant demands tribute to let the party cross its glacier. — 1 × Frost Giant (CR 8)
9	A frozen lake with shapes visible beneath the ice.	Gaunt, starving wolves surround the camp. — 2d4 × Wolf (CR 1/4)
10	Snow falling upward in one spot.	The frozen dead of a lost expedition dig themselves out of the snow. — 1d6+1 × Zombie (CR 1/4)
11	A spear stuck in the ice, its haft carved with tally marks.	A blizzard pins the party in place for a day.
12	A hot spring ringed with green moss amid all the white.	A trapper offers furs in exchange for help hauling a sled.
13	An ice wall carved with enormous faces.	The ice cracks; the party must find another way across the frozen lake.
14	A loaded sled whose dogs' harnesses have been cut.	Hunters offer the warmth of their camp, if the party shares its food.
15	Crevasses opening like cracks in glass.	Frostbite sets in for anyone without proper furs.
16	A lone tree frozen solid, with fruit on it.	A lost reindeer herd blocks the way, their herder nowhere to be seen.
17	Silence so complete the party can hear their own hearts.	A message is carved into the ice: "Turn back."
18	A pillar of smoke from a distant chimney.	A shaman invites the party to a ceremony under the aurora.
19	Snow-covered ruins of a tower that looks older than the ice.	A snow bridge over a crevasse looks solid.
20	A white hare that follows the party for hours.	An explorer's supply cache, still stocked, with a map to the next one.

Questions

How often should I check for random encounters?

Once a day of travel is plenty for a montage. Checking every few hours is for when the journey IS the adventure, and it slows the table down fast.

Should every random encounter be a fight?

No. A road where everything is a fight teaches the players that travel is a tax. Half the results here are people, obstacles and discoveries for that reason.