D&D 5E How do you measure distances outside of combat?

[jmartkdr2]

I should note: it's often easier to peg a mile as being exactly 6,000 feet (which is a big pace if you're basing it off of that). That's actually much closer to a nautical mile (1 minute latitude or 6,080 feet), which is based on the size of the planet (and therefore more universal), and has the very handy effect of lining up neatly with movement rules.

10 feet base movement = 1 mile per hour traveled under this assumption.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I use miles strictly for ease-of-use. Same way my days are all 24 hours with sunrise around 6 am and sunset around 6 pm. And there are 7 days of the week and they just happen to be named the same as ours. And the 12 months of the year all have matching names and seasons to our world.

This is one of those things where "immersion" doesn't matter if I have to spend all my time memorizing all new words and recalculating all new numbers.

 

[AOieiosle]

I use time as a measurement, and even then time adjusts as-needed for pace of the storytelling game.

 

[Asisreo]

I use miles unless we're talking extremely short or extremely large distances. For short distances, like the size of a coin, I might reference centimeters or smaller metric units.

For extremely large distances, I'll use lightyears which is indeed an actual unit I've had to use before. Things get hectic at high levels.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Time is the most fitting for a medieval feel. A three-day trip would be a very reasonable way to describe a distance.

 

[el-remmen]

Time is the most fitting for a medieval feel. A three-day trip would be a very reasonable way to describe a distance.

Yes, I usually describe journey distance in days. Or if the PCs have access to a map they might discuss a route in miles (direct) vs. days (finding a way around) when considering terrain and traveling off roads and trails.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

In theory I'd go for leagues, and have advocated for such, because what really matters in an RPG is generally "how long will it take to travel there", and because it gets into the mindset of how premodern societies tended to think about distance as well. So a double win.

But, I tend to actually think in miles and play with people who do as well and so I most often default to that.

I also once had a group who interrogated a goblin about the distance to his tribe's cave and (because I didn't really want to commit to a firm distance) he only knew the distance in "gobsangs". They nearly killed him for not knowing the gobsang to mile conversion rate.

 

[overgeeked]

Do you still use miles? Do you use kilometers? Do you care that these both have real world meanings that wouldn't be meaningful in the game world?

Or would you use a measure like a League or a Daylong Journey instead?

How much does immersion matter when your adventuring party is travelling?

I either use Adventures in Middle Earth’s journey rules or a mix of B/X and AD&D2E’s overland movement rules. Getting lost, going the wrong direction, wandering monsters, miles per movement point, extra movement cost by terrain type, etc, I track food and water, and I keep track of the group on a digital map.

The first abstracts a lot and is faster / less work, but the second feels more like real people moving through a real place.

 

[Lanefan]

Miles for distance; feet for shorter distance, or for altitude. Miles combined with time for travel e.g. "It's about 120 miles to Karnos from here and it's good road all the way, so barring interruptions it'll take you six days to walk there". Fathoms for sea depth.

The problem with using time as a travel measure is that while the distance between two points doesn't change, the time taken to cover said distance very much can.

For example, the adventure I'm running right now is in rough hills about 25 miles west of a big city. During this adventure they've been back and forth to town about half a dozen times. The first few times they made the trip it took 'em at least two long days* each way, as they neither knew the most direct route nor had a Ranger to guide them. Now, given that they've both acquired a Ranger and become more familiar with the route it takes them a day and a half*, tops.

* - assuming no serious interruptions e.g. weather bad enough to prevent or seriously hinder travel.

 

[Charlaquin]

a league. How far is a league? It's how far you can travel in one hour. Once the players understand that, it's super useful

This doesn’t seem to account for variable travel pace?