Whenever travel happens in D&D, there’s rarely any NPCs to talk to and most encounters you fight in are random. Nevertheless, it’s a great time to develop your character and interact with the other players’ characters. At least once during travel, perhaps after a combat session or when passing a landmark, try to have your character do something meaningful. A GM can’t tell your character how to think and act (charm spells aside) so it’s up to you to have meaningful feelings and actions between other players.
Here are some things you can do on the road during downtime:
Scout the area. Perhaps you will find dangers before they find the party. Be sure to bring a buddy!
Hunt or gather food. Rations can be costly and heavy to carry on long trips, so this will help ease those burdens. Plus, it’s a great way to get XP if you happen upon dangerous game.
Help set up camp. You could build a shelter for the party in case of rain or treacherous terrain or temperatures. You could gather wood and build a fire, set out bedrolls, cook food, tie up and feed the mounts.
Do maintenance: Sharpen your weapons or make minor repairs to your gear. Something most people don’t think about is how much maintenance goes into all those blades, boots, straps, bags, clothes, and pouches during the eternal hiking trip that is adventuring.
About the adventure. Solidify what your plans are for the future once you get where you’re going. Remind yourselves why you’re questing.
About the past. Ask your allies about their past, especially those who haven’t opened up yet. If they aren’t ready to talk that’s fine, but at least you tried. You can also tell your allies a story about your own past, even if it’s just a silly anecdote or throwaway line. “This is like that time when I stopped that giant octopus harassing the docks!”
About motivations. Ask allies why they decided to become adventurers, or explain why you became one yourself.
About friends and family. Confide in a party member about your loved ones and where they are now. Maybe this is essential to your character, maybe not.
About fears. Confide in a party member about your worries and regrets. You can also ask a party member how they’re doing, especially if they just experienced something extreme.
About pastimes. Talk about what you do for fun or ask others what they like to do.
Learn a new spell. If you’re a spellcaster, start experimenting with new spells you intend to learn at your next level. A wizard would need to do research and plenty of experiments. A sorcerer might try to push the limits of their innate power. A warlock might need to implore their patron for new spells. A bard might have to write a new song. Divine casters might seek stronger miracles.
Practice religion. If you are a very spiritual or religious character/class, observe that. Pray to your deity for guidance. Perform a ceremony or ritual to protect you and your allies on the road.
Learn new skills. Show off a new trick you learned from a recent level-up, or train for something you will learn at your next level. If your sneak attack dice improve, maybe you learn some new takedown. If you’re about to get an extra attack, you could spar with your allies to get faster.
Try out new items. Unless you have a dedicated caster with Identify prepared, you may need to figure out what unknown magic items do by just flat-out using them. Just be careful about targeting your allies. On the other hand, if you already know what an item does you might want to just test it out.
Play music. Sing or play a song using your proficiency in a musical instrument. Unless you’re a bard, when else will you have the chance to play? Perhaps it will lift everyone’s morale.
Play games. Use your proficiency with a gaming set to play with other party members. Perhaps you can gamble some of your hard-earned loot with them as well.
Practice your trade. Work on projects with your artisan’s tools. Maybe you can make repairs to the party’s carriage using carpenter’s tools, or make a small landmark using mason’s tools, or repair armor using a large rock as an anvil with smith’s tools. Even if the result doesn’t have a mechanical benefit, it still has merit for roleplaying. Besides, you don’t want your adventures to dull your skills!
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