5 ways to improve travel in D&D 5e

 As a new DM I have found that travel can become an issue at time. If traveling from point A to point B ends up taking several sessions then the players will become bored. The same goes for if travel goes too fast, like look you arrive at your destination without any problems. Yay. No that is boring. No one is playing D&D 5e for the travel and if they are they want something to happen. Since I have ran Vampire the Masquerade in the past. I decided to look at how I did travel and encounters for that system.

#1. Travel should occur every other game session or as needed.

    Don't waist time making a long 3 day game session about travel. Shorten it to a session that takes place in-between major locations. Now I know what you are thinking "Won't that make things boring?" Not if you do #2. 

#2. Give the party 3 to 5 tasks 

    By giving the party a tasks they must complete allows the players to feel like they accomplished something during the journey. And by tasks I don't mean roll a random encounter and see what happens bullshit. No I mean have those tasks planed out. Use each task to mark a days worth of travel. This is also a good way to reward experience points for each task completed. I normally do 200 experience points per tasks. Which would come to 600 to 1000 experience points each travel session. 

#3 Roll a D4 

    Roll a D4 to decide how many additional days the party traveled. This travel time can be without any issues or a random encounter happened. This is up to you as the DM. 

#4 Fast Forward during Long Rest.

    If you notice I said long rest, not short rest. This is a simple trick that can be used in-between tasks. For example the party just helped an old woman find her ring. Unsuccessful they continue down the road. After 6 hours of walking they find themselves growing hungry and tired. The party is now eating and will soon be resting. Fast forward. 

#5. Don't give long descriptions.

    Now I know some DMs like to give long over drawn speeches about how the grass is very green and the road looks to be worn down from years of travelers going over it. Skip these parts. Only describe what is important to your campaign. If there is something in the trees mention the trees. Perhaps a group of bandits lie in wait, hiding amongst the tree tops. Perhaps there is something shiny there. By shortening down what is around allows players to focus on what is important and not become distracted by whatever else is around. I also like to do this because it allows me to plan out ambushes here and there for the party to deal with.