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Go ahead light that fire...
Ok, so you got a group of friends armed to the teeth and the appropriate amount of survival gear and you got ten days of heavy trekking through light woods to get to the mesa that the green dragon built her lair into...
We all know what comes next: random encounters!
After that comes rest, relaxation, healing magic, and setting up camp. You know the routine. Where do the horses go? Who checks the bedrolls? Who goes first on the nightly watch roster? Etc..
At this point I usually begin to hammer first timers with some evil little tricks. They covered the basics, but wow did they leave a GM with a deviant mind with a lot of openings. For instance, most campsets involve bedrolls arranged around the fire for light in the darkness and to allow the watch to keep an eye on them. Usually horses are secured to a nearby tree or wagon. The watch does his time either sitting on a rock sharpening his sword, or she sits on the wagon with her elven eyes peering into the darkness.
Now this I consider a bad move. Here we got a sentry who is guarding compatriots yet is totally out in the open. A drow with their paralysis poison and a hand crossbow bolt with a few levels in rogue has the party stone cold dead. One nice bolt and it's wham bam thank you mam guess who's off to the slave pits!
If you are on watch, move away from your group a bit, and keep the ears open. First indication is gonna be a Listen check in the dark. And, you wanna make sure your character is up to snuff with that skill. Nothing sucks worse than missing a giant stomping up because you put zero ranks in the sucker. Don't even get me started on what happens when a monster comes from the air either! One way to defeat that was a smart party that had a hide for the watcher to rack out in. Up in the trees was their favorite way too. They caught many a monster by forcing a sneaking creature to make Spot checks versus the watcher to even KNOW to sneak in...
Campfires? Burning light pits that pinpoint the party while they rest? I would instead recommend a cold camp and merely have a nice way to surprise enemies with a sudden light source. One inventive group I had used a bunch of Continual Light spells on easily concealed sources that could be uncovered. One smart character had a few weapons enchanted with it so when they were drawn he almost always had light.
Smart people have a ranger. Ranger's can always ask the GM if they can make a Knowledge (nature) or Survival check to see if they can figure out any particularly dangerous residents of the local flora and fauna. Would be smart to know if the area you are sleeping on is notorious as the "Burrows of the Blood Worms" land. Might want to start living in the trees on that one. Elven rangers can show you how to throw a tent up among the trees im sure.
Did your party set up camp for a while, take their time and think things through? I recommend a Survival check to see how well they did. If they don't do so well then it can be described as many small wrong decisions. Food left out, campfire smoldering and green leaves making lots of smoke, animals tied to a bad place. You can make a ton of small things seem real bad. You can even have a creature tucked away in the back of your mind to hit them with.
One barbarian player was adamant about making sure everyone knew he was a slob. Tossing food around left and right and always leaving his gear dissheveled. Guess what, real life fact is bears LOVE people that leave their food around on the ground...
Druids are indispensible too. Who else can turn a giant tree into a natural cabin? They can even do a whole bunch of nice things. Food, water, and shelter provided with nature are the basics that can be provided, and can even be USED to provide bonuses to the group in avoiding late night stalkers.
Camping, one of the most dreaded random things that parties hate. They can help make it fun, or you can help make it a FUN thing...
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