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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6697402" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Forgive my skepticism, but my understanding from reading Army papers on engagement ranges in Afghanistan is that the typical firefight in Afghanistan occurs at ranges of about a kilometer (due to range limitations on weaponry). Urban fights in Iraq were much closer, on the order of 100m, but if you're claiming that Afghanistan fights average 30m then I just don't believe you know better than the Army does. Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your claim.BTW, you seem a bit confused on the ratio between meters and feet. 30 meters is 100 odd feet, not 60.Here in Washington it's hilly enough that I often can only see half a mile. Sometimes I can see a mile or more, along roads, when it's either flat or elevated terrain. And that's without even deliberately trying to gain elevation, like I would if I were, say, a PC who is actively expecting life-and-death struggles and has a vested interest in knowing who or what is around to kill him. There's a reason the DMG gives standard visibility range as 1-2 miles.I don't know about you, but I scan at least 500' ahead of me even when I'm just casually driving, not even fighting for my life. You keep talking as if PCs spend all their time in thickets and undergrowth; I'll agree that 1 mile is not a realistic encounter distance for forested terrain, but when I said that I start many or most encounters at distances of 1 mile (absent Stealth) you can then infer that my campaign doesn't happen in a thick forest. Furthermore, when PCs are travelling, they generally travel through open terrain instead of through thick forest because it is faster. The same factors that lead to faster travel also support higher visibility.When one or both parties try to employ Stealth, engagement ranges at my table shrink considerably, so combat won't occur until someone fails Stealth, even if the encounter "started" further out. Each successful Stealth roll gets you half the remaining distance to the enemy without being spotted. Potentially they might never notice each other at all.And I just flat out don't share your apparent belief that an SF scout or veteran PC won't generally notice a large body of non-stealthy enemy troops until they get within 100' of him. That is shorter than my driveway!</blockquote>

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