Asmor
First Post
As far as travel goes, a map tells you two important things: Distance between points A and B, and what you need to pass through to get there.
Unfortunately, a good map is a laborious task requiring a skillset which many do not possess.
So here's my idea. Draw a bunch of circles on a piece of paper. These circles all represent places, in the abstract. A place could be a town, a swamp, a mountain, etc. Now, draw lines connecting the circles. Try to keep the lines relatively short and always keep them straight.
The idea is that to get between two distant places, you need to pass through all the intervening places as well. Actually, if you make a well-developed web, you even allow the players to make choices about their route, such as choosing a more dangerous route which is faster.
Finally, along each of those lines connecting places, write down a number indicating distance. I'll run with the abstract idea here, and I'll use OLUs (Overland Units).
The basis for how far someone can travel by OLUs is their normal combat speed, in squares, per 8 hours. Thus, a halfling can travel 4 OLUs per 8 hours, and a human can travel 6. Light horses travel 12 OLUs and heavy horses 8.
Alternatively, based on the listed overland movement rates of light and heavy horses, you can multiply a travel method's speed in miles per hour by 2 to get its OLU speed. Thus, a longship (3 miles per hour) can go 6 OLUs per 8 hours, but it's worth noting that a ship can travel all day long so thus the ship can go a total of 18 OLUs per day.
In general, one OLU is approximately half a mile. This varies a bit depending on the terrain, however; it's longer along a road, since travel is easier and quicker, but shorter in swamps, forests, mountains, etc where travel is more difficult.
Travel by air is a bit of a problem given this solution, and here's how I'd do it; figure out the shortest route between two points, as normal, and reduce it by 25% (i.e. multiply the total distance by .75).
Unfortunately, a good map is a laborious task requiring a skillset which many do not possess.
So here's my idea. Draw a bunch of circles on a piece of paper. These circles all represent places, in the abstract. A place could be a town, a swamp, a mountain, etc. Now, draw lines connecting the circles. Try to keep the lines relatively short and always keep them straight.
The idea is that to get between two distant places, you need to pass through all the intervening places as well. Actually, if you make a well-developed web, you even allow the players to make choices about their route, such as choosing a more dangerous route which is faster.
Finally, along each of those lines connecting places, write down a number indicating distance. I'll run with the abstract idea here, and I'll use OLUs (Overland Units).
The basis for how far someone can travel by OLUs is their normal combat speed, in squares, per 8 hours. Thus, a halfling can travel 4 OLUs per 8 hours, and a human can travel 6. Light horses travel 12 OLUs and heavy horses 8.
Alternatively, based on the listed overland movement rates of light and heavy horses, you can multiply a travel method's speed in miles per hour by 2 to get its OLU speed. Thus, a longship (3 miles per hour) can go 6 OLUs per 8 hours, but it's worth noting that a ship can travel all day long so thus the ship can go a total of 18 OLUs per day.
In general, one OLU is approximately half a mile. This varies a bit depending on the terrain, however; it's longer along a road, since travel is easier and quicker, but shorter in swamps, forests, mountains, etc where travel is more difficult.
Travel by air is a bit of a problem given this solution, and here's how I'd do it; figure out the shortest route between two points, as normal, and reduce it by 25% (i.e. multiply the total distance by .75).
