Upon reviewing movement rules in 4e I've notice a number of peculiarities:
4e defines a turn as 6 seconds. In a turn you can move twice by using both your move action and standard action.
Considering that base movement speed for most characters is 6 squares and running gives +2 squares, that grants a total of 8 squares for 1 move action.
8 squares * 2 move actions = 16 squares.
1 square = 5 feet.
16*5 = 80 feet / 6 seconds
or ~13.3feet/sec(fps) or ~9 miles per hour(mph)
Running 6 minute miles is quite easy, and 4 minute miles is very fast. So that's 10mph and 15mph respectively. Many people can achieve a 15mph sprinting speed. Why is 4e's speed so low?
Next to horses: Considering that the speed of a riding horse is 10 squares, and running is 10+2, that gives riding horses a full turn movement spent running of 24 squares. 24 squares = 120 feet;
20fps = ~13.6mph
That's less than what a human can run!
A horse that isn't bred in any particular manner should be able to run at 30mph, with better horses achieving over 40mph. (specific circumstances can allow some horses to achieve speeds of over 50mph)
This isn't taking into account that traveling diagonally counts as 5 feet based on the rules even though it should be treated as 7 (this is a minor issue compared to the speed issue).
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How did previous editions deal with these issues and were the speeds much different than they are now (in 4e)?
4e defines a turn as 6 seconds. In a turn you can move twice by using both your move action and standard action.
Considering that base movement speed for most characters is 6 squares and running gives +2 squares, that grants a total of 8 squares for 1 move action.
8 squares * 2 move actions = 16 squares.
1 square = 5 feet.
16*5 = 80 feet / 6 seconds
or ~13.3feet/sec(fps) or ~9 miles per hour(mph)
Running 6 minute miles is quite easy, and 4 minute miles is very fast. So that's 10mph and 15mph respectively. Many people can achieve a 15mph sprinting speed. Why is 4e's speed so low?
Next to horses: Considering that the speed of a riding horse is 10 squares, and running is 10+2, that gives riding horses a full turn movement spent running of 24 squares. 24 squares = 120 feet;
20fps = ~13.6mph
That's less than what a human can run!
A horse that isn't bred in any particular manner should be able to run at 30mph, with better horses achieving over 40mph. (specific circumstances can allow some horses to achieve speeds of over 50mph)
This isn't taking into account that traveling diagonally counts as 5 feet based on the rules even though it should be treated as 7 (this is a minor issue compared to the speed issue).
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How did previous editions deal with these issues and were the speeds much different than they are now (in 4e)?