D&D 5E Becoming lost -- how exactly does it work?

[Prakriti]

For those of you who don't just hand-wave overland travel -- what exactly are the mechanical consequences of becoming lost in 5E? According to the DMG (p. 112):

"If the [Survival] check fails, the party inadvertently travels in the wrong direction and becomes lost. The party's navigator can repeat the check after the party spends 1d6 hours trying to get back on course."​

This seems pretty vague. For example, the DMG doesn't say when the party discovers that they've traveled in the wrong direction (i.e. How far do they travel "in the wrong direction" before they realize their mistake?).

I almost get the sense that the "wrong direction" part is just fluff text, and the party doesn't actually move on the map (to a random hex, for example). They just lose 1d6 hours out of their day for every navigational failure. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I don't know.

 

[Oofta]

When I've done it they get off course in a random direction set by a D8 that I roll. Depending on where they end up they may have to backtrack and lose a day of travel as they retrace their step back to when they were on the correct trail. In other cases they merely lose a few hours as they cut back to where they were. That can be dangerous though as they risk getting even more lost and depends on another set of survival roles to ensure they have the correct bearings.

In some cases getting lost can be a lot more serious if they're not able to retrace their steps. Just because they realized they were lost doesn't mean they suddenly know where they need to go.

 

[reelo]

Try this:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[iserith]

For those of you who don't just hand-wave overland travel -- what exactly are the mechanical consequences of becoming lost in 5E? According to the DMG (p. 112):

"If the [Survival] check fails, the party inadvertently travels in the wrong direction and becomes lost. The party's navigator can repeat the check after the party spends 1d6 hours trying to get back on course."​

This seems pretty vague. For example, the DMG doesn't say when the party discovers that they've traveled in the wrong direction (i.e. How far do they travel "in the wrong direction" before they realize their mistake?).

I almost get the sense that the "wrong direction" part is just fluff text, and the party doesn't actually move on the map (to a random hex, for example). They just lose 1d6 hours out of their day for every navigational failure. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I don't know.

If we're using a hexmap, then I roll a d6 and they end up in the hex indicated. If we're using a more abstract map (as might be the case with a simple town-to-dungeon scenario), then they lose time and get another wandering monster check.

 

[DND_Reborn]

For those of you who don't just hand-wave overland travel -- what exactly are the mechanical consequences of becoming lost in 5E? According to the DMG (p. 112):

"If the [Survival] check fails, the party inadvertently travels in the wrong direction and becomes lost. The party's navigator can repeat the check after the party spends 1d6 hours trying to get back on course."​

This seems pretty vague. For example, the DMG doesn't say when the party discovers that they've traveled in the wrong direction (i.e. How far do they travel "in the wrong direction" before they realize their mistake?).

I almost get the sense that the "wrong direction" part is just fluff text, and the party doesn't actually move on the map (to a random hex, for example). They just lose 1d6 hours out of their day for every navigational failure. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I don't know.

"This seems pretty vague." Well, welcome to 5E LOL!!!

So, like a lot of 5E, you can handle it however you want. We roll a d8 for random direction (if you are on hex, use a d6 of course). Depending on the hex size and how far the group can travel in 1d6 hours, we might end up in a new hex or in the same one, before the check is repeated.

Fortunately, we are usually on established paths or roads for most of our party's travel.

 

[toucanbuzz]

One of the best articles I've read about travel is the AngryGM's "Getting There is Half the Fun." Covers getting lost and a solid way to handle it.

 

[Hriston]

Right, the way it’s written is pretty decent if you’re using an active check. If you roll too low, the consequence is losing 1d6 hours being “lost”, and then the game moves on.

I don’t use that because I want the party to actually go somewhere they don’t intend to, so I use the navigator’s passive Survival against which the terrain makes a contested roll, which may have advantage or disadvantage depending on the terrain. (I think I basically go with the DMG in terms of how difficult it is to navigate in each terrain type.) If the navigator loses the contest, the party goes into the wrong hex (randomly determined, again based on terrain type). If it’s one they’ve traveled through before, I’ll describe it in a way that they recognize that they went the wrong way, but if it’s someplace new, I let them think they went the way they intended.

 

[jasper]

You just need to figure out how many miles per hour the group travels. Now if you hex map the adventure, and your dm's map shows all the locations. It vague so you can adjust on the fly. AND IT UP TO YOU to be more detailed. As people have said. It could be you are very late for dinner, missed the train; or you stumble onto the naked nerds of New Hampshire commune.

 

[briggart]

Try this:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Rabbitbait]

I found it worked pretty well in Tomb of Annihilation, but I can't remember if it was the rules in that adventure or whether it was a house rule.

I had two markers, one for the players on their map and one for me on the DM layer (I use roll20). If they got lost (failed survival check) I rolled a random hex and moved my marker onto that hex. I moved their marker to where they thought they were going.

They had a chance to realise they were lost if they either rolled a very good survival check the next day, if they reached a place they knew was somewhere else or if they came to a large clearing or somewhere where they could easily get their bearings. When they did that I would move their marker onto the same hex as mine.

They would also sometimes realise they were lost if I described more jungle and they knew that they were meant to be arriving at a location.

The next day I would get them to roll another survival check (at a higher DC) and if they got that they would head in the right direction (for the hex they thought they were in) or if they failed they would go in a random direction again.

However, sometimes they weren't able to get their bearings even though they knew they were lost. At one point in the adventure they slogged through the jungle for 20 days. They knew they were lost but they just couldn't get a bead on where they were. They eventually came to a place they had been before which was far away from where they were trying to get - they had walked in a circle, having heaps of random encounters in the meantime and losing one party member (killed by a giant scorpion)

I don't know if this helps (or makes sense) but it worked really well for us.