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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6801342" data-attributes="member: 6778044">That's the published travel time from several past supplements.This has been a topic of much debate in the past. Waterdeep to Cormyr is about double the distance, plus through some mountain passes, and took about 2 to 2 1/2 months on average. A Cormyrean merchant could expect to make it to Waterdeep and back once in a trading season (spring to autumn) with stops along the way.The roads in the Forgotten Realms are a mix of dirt and grass, with enough space for two wagons to pass. In some portions there is enough space for 4 wagons wide.Overland travel in the PHB/DMG for the various editions is quite optimistic for long range travel. Most travel is via caravan, as it's the safest. These are described in various locations as well, but usually include a couple of extra wagons loaded with basic weapons for defense, extra axles and wheels, and the wagons themselves can be used as spares. Four or more wagons of food and water are the norm, and the caravan itself gets fairly large, with dozens of wagons and a lot of people. Wagons are typically hauled by mules, sometimes oxen. The oxen are slower, but require fewer rests and can subsist on lower quality food. A typical day of travel, including stops, in a caravan of this nature is 15 to 20 miles a day.A party on foot can travel faster, of course, but the 30 miles a day is extremely optimistic. Most of the experienced people that contributed to earlier conversations, as well as some research online, says 10 miles a day is average when carrying a loaded pack, particularly if we're talking people wearing armor and having periodic encounters on the way. An exceptional day would be 20 miles.Horseback isn't much quicker. You might get 30 miles/day, or even double that, but then the horse needs to rest for a day or two, so you still end up with about a 20 miles/day average. The advantage of horses for long distance travel is not speed, but how much you can carry. The Pony Express could manage a trip across the US in about 10 days, but they changed to a fresh horse every 10 miles, and a fresh rider after 75-100 miles and rode day and night. The load wasn't allowed to be more than 175 lbs including the rider.The same technique was used on the Persian Royal Road (2,800 miles) allowing frequent changes of horse and rider to move messages (official business, not gossip) taking about 9 days. Regular travelers on the same road took about 3 months.This is part of why I say news travels slowly. Somebody spotting a dragonborn for the first time in Cormyr has to consider it newsworthy enough to even have a story to tell. That's most likely going to be something of great heroism, like slaying a dragon or defending their village, or the opposite, such as being spotted in a battle against the Cult of the Dragon. Two months later the news might make it to Waterdeep. But unless there's a regular flow of stuff about dragonborn, the news (and they) just don't kind of exist until there is something of significant, and preferably, repetitive in nature. If the news doesn't make it this summer, then it probably won't get there until the next.Sea travel is much faster, obviously, but that's limited, and only reaches so far up river. From the Sea of Fallen Stars to the Sword Coast it's all by land, and difficult and monster infested land at that. Mostly through mountain passes. The Zhentarim cut across Anauroch, to get a shorter route to the west, and perhaps that was enough to make two trips each year. Another likely route would be to head from Cormyr and the Heartlands to the North in the spring, then south to Baldur's Gate and the southern lands coming back east in the following spring. That way you could continue to travel with your wares year round, and it would take a full year to return 'home.' Depending on the actual route it could take longer. A round trip on the Silk Road from Rome to China (4,000 miles) and back was a two year trip. Another factor in the Forgotten Realms is that the maps have changed, somewhat significantly. The 3rd edition that they squished the southeast northward, to better fit the sheets of paper, which shortened travel routes by a significant margin (by at least 1000 miles in some directions if I recall). The 4th edition squished the entire continent more by using a different scale if I recall. I can't find the specifics right now, but I never really used the 4th edition maps, and when I did I didn't have to worry about measuring distances. The 5th edition maps seem to be on the same scale as the 3rd edition ones.Ilbranteloth</blockquote>

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