Free tables Travel — encounters by terrain

Random Forest Encounters and Travel Events — d20 Tables

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

Most campaigns skip the forest 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 ring of mushrooms with a single footprint in the middle.	Wolves circle the camp at night, testing its edges. — 1d6+2 × Wolf (CR 1/4)
2	An ancient oak with a door carved into its trunk, too small for anyone.	An owlbear has claimed the only clearing big enough to camp in. — 1 × Owlbear (CR 3)
3	A snare with something still in it, and the hunter nowhere near.	Giant spiders have webbed the path, and something is struggling in the silk. — 1d3 × Giant Spider (CR 1)
4	Claw marks on a tree, higher than a person could reach.	An ettercap is herding spiders toward the camp. — 1 × Ettercap (CR 2); 1d2 × Giant Spider (CR 1)
5	A clearing where the birds all stop singing at once.	A bugbear has been ambushing travellers and wearing their cloaks. — 1d3 × Bugbear (CR 1)
6	A woodcutter's axe left in a stump, its handle carved with a name.	A goblin hunting party is chasing a deer straight at the party. — 1d6+2 × Goblin (CR 1/4)
7	Deer watching from the treeline, completely unafraid.	A brown bear with cubs — and the party is standing between them. — 1 × Brown Bear (CR 1)
8	Ribbons tied to branches along a path that isn't on any map.	A giant boar bursts out of the undergrowth, already wounded and furious. — 1 × Giant Boar (CR 2)
9	A stream that runs uphill for about ten paces.	Dire wolves have brought down a deer and won't give up the path. — 1d3 × Dire Wolf (CR 1)
10	An abandoned charcoal burner's hut with a warm hearth.	Outlaws demand a toll in the name of "the free folk of the wood". — 1d6+2 × Bandit (CR 1/8); 1 × Scout (CR 1/2)
11	A standing stone swallowed by roots, a face half-showing in the bark.	A dryad asks the party to carry an acorn out of the forest and plant it somewhere safe.
12	Spider silk strung between the trees, thick as rope.	A lost child says they live "just past the big tree". Every tree is big.
13	A fallen tree bridging a ravine, too neatly to be chance.	A charcoal burner warns the party off the old road, and won't say why.
14	A tree hung with wind chimes made of small bones.	A hermit offers a bed for the night in exchange for news of the world.
15	Wild honey dripping from a hollow high in a trunk.	A fallen giant of a tree blocks the path. Going round costs half a day.
16	A campsite with the fire still smoking and the bedrolls still out.	A lost royal hunting party demands to be guided back to the road.
17	Fog lying in the hollows at noon that never lifts.	A body lies in a hunter's pit trap, with a map in its coat.
18	A spirit shrine piled with offerings of acorns and teeth.	Migrating elk block the path for an hour, hundreds of them.
19	A glade where every tree is dead and the grass is perfectly green.	A woodcutter's family begs for help: their father went into the deep wood two days ago.
20	Someone chopping wood in the distance, who stops whenever the party does.	A ring of standing stones hums faintly whenever anyone steps inside.

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.