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

[Ancalagon]

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

there are, in a way, two challenges here. First, what about distances that take longer because the terrain is bad etc? Well, how do you measure the distance between two places with limited technology? unless you are doing a formal survey, you're going to measure by the time it takes to travel it.

The second is what about a particularly fast or slow traveler? Well they would learn that they cover 4 leagues in a day, or that this horse can do 12 leagues in a day for two days, but no more, etc etc.

 

[S'mon]

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?

Since miles are organically derived (whether from paces or furlongs) they can have meaning & exist in a fantasy world ok. The Roman mile of 1000 paces = 5000 feet seems particularly suitable to a world based on a 1 pace/5 foot square grid.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I measure everything in 5-foot squares. Once players hear the astronomical number of squares it takes to reach the next town, they tend to just stay in the dungeon where they belong .

No, seriously, I calculate distance using miles, but when I present the information to players I just refer to the time it takes to travel those distances. Maybe it's just the Midwesterner in me, but I still tend to think of travel in terms of how long it takes to reach a destination anyway.

 

[Oofta]

In general I put it in terms of travel time because that's all that matters. For actual units to calculate time travel I use miles because it's what I'm used to.

 

[Nytmare]

It depends entirely on the game (exploration, intrigue, hex crawl, whatever) but I usually describe distances in travel time.

 

[jasper]

Miles, minutes, city blocks, or days. It depends on when and where they are travelling.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I use dragonmiles, to keep the players immersed.

Each dragonmile is roughly equivalent to a mile on Earth.

The big difference is that I put the word "dragon" in it.

 

[Laurefindel]

I said earlier that I use miles and leagues to measure distances, but most of the times I tell a number of days to reach destination.

One big distinction I tend to make is the difference between travel time « as the wolf runs » and « as the crow flies », the former taking into account terrain difficulty.

As a rule of thumb, the wolf takes twice as long to travel a distance made by the crow, unless the characters use a particularly well-built road (like Roman highways) or plains/desert with clear landmarks, or four times as long in difficult terrain such open forest (no path) and mountain roads.

Even with our modern roads, it’s hard to drive from point A to point B in less than 1.5 times the straight distance.