Free tables Travel — encounters by terrain

Random Coast Encounters and Travel Events — d20 Tables

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

Most campaigns skip the coast 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 wreck on the rocks, its figurehead staring out to sea.	Sahuagin raiders come ashore under cover of darkness. — 1d4+2 × Sahuagin (CR 1/2)
2	A lighthouse with its lamp unlit.	Harpies nesting on the cliffs sing travellers toward the edge. — 1d3 × Harpy (CR 1)
3	Seals watching the party from the rocks.	Giant crabs swarm up out of a tide pool. — 1d6+2 × Giant Crab (CR 1/8)
4	A tide pool full of fish that shouldn't live here.	Pirates beach a longboat and come looking for valuables. — 1d6+1 × Bandit (CR 1/8); 1d2 × Thug (CR 1/2)
5	A cave that only appears at low tide.	A drowned sailor's widow begs for help. She is not what she seems. — 1 × Sea Hag (CR 2)
6	A fishing village where every door is painted blue.	A giant octopus drags a fishing boat under, crew and all. — 1 × Giant Octopus (CR 1)
7	Barrels washed up on the beach, stamped with a noble crest.	Sharks circle a swimmer the party could just about reach. — 1d3 × Reef Shark (CR 1/2)
8	A bottle sealed with wax, a message curled inside.	Smugglers take the party for customs men. — 1d4+1 × Thug (CR 1/2); 1 × Scout (CR 1/2)
9	Gulls fighting over something shiny.	A water elemental rises out of a whirlpool beside the causeway. — 1 × Water Elemental (CR 5)
10	A causeway to an island, uncovered for an hour a day.	Merfolk, furious about fishing nets, attack from the shallows. — 1d6+2 × Merfolk (CR 1/8)
11	The bones of a whale on the beach, picked clean.	A fishing village asks the party to help search for a missing boat.
12	Smugglers' marks chalked on a cliff.	The tide is coming in fast, and there's half a mile of causeway left.
13	A sea stack with a hermit's hut on top.	A ship's captain offers passage cheap, no questions asked.
14	Fog rolling in off the sea at midday.	A smuggler offers good money for help moving cargo tonight.
15	A drowned forest, its stumps showing at low tide.	A drowned sailor washes up, clutching a map.
16	A harbour wall carved with the names of the drowned.	A storm drives the party into a sea cave covered in old carvings.
17	A beached rowing boat, oars neatly stowed, blood on the seat.	A merfolk emissary surfaces with a message for "the land people".
18	Fishermen mending nets who stop talking as the party passes.	The lighthouse keeper begs the party to relight the lamp before a ship arrives.
19	A sea-worn stair up the cliff that leads nowhere.	A huge sea creature lies beached and dying on the sand.
20	Singing over the water at dusk, from no ship anyone can see.	Dolphins escort the party's boat and steer it round a hidden reef.

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.