When we still were in the early stages of creating our Dungeons Daring (TM) fantasy RPG and our Jörðgarð (TM) campaign setting, the three of us who were working on the projects at the time did some heavy duty research on foot and horse travel times. We had started with the official D&D 3.5 travel times that were listed in the d20 (TM) Standard Reference Document, and we were quickly skeptical about some of the times listed there. That was bolstered by discussions with friends who have horses and who ride a lot, friends who told us that some of the things listed in the d20 document were nonsense. That was the thing that brought us to do our research.Originally Posted by kortleggur
After that we did searches in the Internet and found a wide variety of tables, lists, etc. We ignored those that had no attribution and also ignored those that were said to be based on individual deeds (When Adi Dong put on his traveling shoes, he was known to walk 60 miles a day, regardless of whether he crossed meadow, mountain or desert.), etc.
What we concluded in the end is that there is a near-infinite number of factors that substantially influence the number of miles/kilometers that a creature (particularly a walking human or a horse) could cross in a certain period of time. Every table we had found had values that were based upon a narrowly finite set of factors. When we asked ourselves after this research what we were going to do to create a travel time guideline. Our Scottish professor suggested a table six pages long. The rest of us said - and he agreed almost immediately - that we were doing this for a fantasy role playing game, and only maniac game masters would use such a table. Others would shudder and run.
As a result, we conjured our own table, which I posted farther above, and like all others we had seen, it is narrowly finite, excluding 100 valid factors for every factor it considers. That's why I said it's probably not much better or worse than most other tables.
In your last post, your comment Special surface is also interesting. is particularly germane. I don't think we ever encountered a travel time table anywhere that took into consideration the aa lava beds you showed (Icelandic: Apalhraun) or the more crossable pahoehoe lava fields (Icelandic: Helluhraun) in your comparison.
For our project group, it's great that you posted this, because to make our future Jörðgarð campaign setting accessory The Northeast, which will include Miðgarð, Ásgarð and Tröllheim, it will be necessary to include aa lava beds (Aphalraun) and pahoehoe (Helluhraun) lava fields. We hadn't considered that yet, and perhaps wouldn't have given it proper consideration at all. So your posting already has been helpful.
That poses some questions. I've never walked through an aa lava field (Aphalraun), nor do I known anyone who has, but your photo is impressive. Based upon the picture, I would guess that if a PC party had to cross such a lava field, it would have to leave pack animals and riding horses behind. This doesn't look like the kind of terrain through which one could lead a horse on foot. Is that assumption correct?
I also wonder with what tempo a PC party could cross this lava field. Based only upon the photo, I would guess that a party on foot could cross - at the very most - about 5% of the distance in a given time frame that it could on a flat, level road. You estimate it at 25%. How about saying more about why your figure is so seemingly generous.
We have a good collection of textures, but none that are suitable for aa and pahoehoe lava fields like those shown in the photos. Does anyone know where there are some textures that replicate these well?
A last point of interest: When we were doing our travel time research, a U.S. Army infantry major who was a D&D (R) fan sent us a study that was done during the Vietnam war to determine what kind of march times were optimal for foot soldiers. Premises behind that study were the assumption that non-exhausted foot soldiers could fight considerably better than tired soldiers, and that too many commanders were forcing infantrymen to march too far in a day's time, increasing one's own losses and diminishing potential enemy losses.
One of the interesting findings in this study was that field grade infantry officers (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel) who had top physical fitness scores still could march in a day's time only about 65% as far as enlisted infantrymen and company grade officers (2nd lieutenant, 1st lieutenant and captain). The reason, the study concluded, was that field grade officers almost always moved by jeep and/or helicopter, while most enlisted infantrymen and company grade officers were on foot. The field grade officers were physically fit but not especially fit for long travel by foot.
This conclusion is not particularly surprising in its own right, but the relevance to fantasy RPG campaigns really stood out for us. Many RPG groups in overland campaigns travel on horseback. Such PCs, when forced by events or circumstances to do without their mounts, should have penalties for long marches, for the same reason that field grade officers can do less than their counterparts of lower rank.
Reply With Quote