Michael Morris
First Post
Hello all. It's been a very long time since I've posted to this forumn. I've been very busy with something d20 related that I'm not at liberty to talk about for now.
Anyway, I would like to talk a little about distances in both the real world and campaign worlds. Much of this is drawn from my experiences as a truck driver. When your business is to drive 500 miles every day, you start to come to grips with how far, far really is.
Distance distortion is the most common error seen in campaign settings. Kalamar and Ravenloft are the only major settings which, for the most part, get things right, but even they tend to forget a few details about distances. I won't say Dusk is perfect in this regard either, but I have paid close attention to this detail even before beginning my driving career.
By clearing one common misconception about distances a lot can be done to make your world a lot larger than it may first appear. Mainly, your maps of your setting give you a good idea of the flight distances between cities in your setting. They do not, however, give you a good estimate of how far one has to travel overland.
Consider the following. Lexington Kentucky (KY) and Cincinatti Ohio (OH) are 105 miles apart by air. By interstate though they are 115 miles apart. Now, if a modern day freeway loses 10 miles to curves and meanders between the two you can imagine the distance lost to medieval paths. US-27, an older road between the two, goes for 140 miles. This is a 35% increase in distance between the two cities. They haven't moved at all, but depending on the quality of the roads you choose the distance can increase. And these cases are for Northern Kentucky - a somewhat hilly area, but by no means mountainous or flat (indeed, it is pretty typical for most terrains you'll find - flat plains are the exception, not the rule).
A good rule of thumb is this. Any established medieval road will by 50% farther than the air miles between two points on a map as it meanders about. If the players must blaze their own trail, then their base distance will be double normal - but allow them to roll a Survival (Wilderness Lore in 3.0) check DC 20 to reduce the distance they need to travel - 5% for each 2 points the check is made by. Hence on a check of 26, the distance is reduced to 185% of the air miles. (6 beyond DC 20). The minimum distance remains 150% of the air miles unless - obviously - the characters can fly.
You can of course play with this. If a road must skirt a particularly large mountain or navigate it's way to a pass in a mountain chain then the distance can be increased tremendously. Old roads through mountains can run 3 times as far as the distance by air.
Once you have your travel distances, you're ready to tackle time. Typically a caravan can only manage 1 MPH or 10 miles in a day. An adventuring party can usually cover twice this distance since they have lighter equipment to pack around. Progress can be greatly hindered by the lack of a clear trail though.
Most people tend not to travel more than an hour from home for any normal reason - now or then. However, since a car can go 60 miles in that hour and one can at best manage 4 miles on foot it can quickly become apparent as to why distances between villages can be so close on a European or Eastern US map - these settlements were founded in the days of foot and horse travel - before the rise of the automobile.
Villages are typically two hours apart from each other by foot. Major towns are typically one day's travel from each other and tend to be strung in chains between major cities. Cities arise either due to a crossroads situation (Atlanta Georgia), Major Port (New York City) both (Chicago Illinois), or wealth of nearby resources (Pittsburgh Pennsylvania).
Oh well, I hope this is useful. Take care all.
Anyway, I would like to talk a little about distances in both the real world and campaign worlds. Much of this is drawn from my experiences as a truck driver. When your business is to drive 500 miles every day, you start to come to grips with how far, far really is.
Distance distortion is the most common error seen in campaign settings. Kalamar and Ravenloft are the only major settings which, for the most part, get things right, but even they tend to forget a few details about distances. I won't say Dusk is perfect in this regard either, but I have paid close attention to this detail even before beginning my driving career.
By clearing one common misconception about distances a lot can be done to make your world a lot larger than it may first appear. Mainly, your maps of your setting give you a good idea of the flight distances between cities in your setting. They do not, however, give you a good estimate of how far one has to travel overland.
Consider the following. Lexington Kentucky (KY) and Cincinatti Ohio (OH) are 105 miles apart by air. By interstate though they are 115 miles apart. Now, if a modern day freeway loses 10 miles to curves and meanders between the two you can imagine the distance lost to medieval paths. US-27, an older road between the two, goes for 140 miles. This is a 35% increase in distance between the two cities. They haven't moved at all, but depending on the quality of the roads you choose the distance can increase. And these cases are for Northern Kentucky - a somewhat hilly area, but by no means mountainous or flat (indeed, it is pretty typical for most terrains you'll find - flat plains are the exception, not the rule).
A good rule of thumb is this. Any established medieval road will by 50% farther than the air miles between two points on a map as it meanders about. If the players must blaze their own trail, then their base distance will be double normal - but allow them to roll a Survival (Wilderness Lore in 3.0) check DC 20 to reduce the distance they need to travel - 5% for each 2 points the check is made by. Hence on a check of 26, the distance is reduced to 185% of the air miles. (6 beyond DC 20). The minimum distance remains 150% of the air miles unless - obviously - the characters can fly.
You can of course play with this. If a road must skirt a particularly large mountain or navigate it's way to a pass in a mountain chain then the distance can be increased tremendously. Old roads through mountains can run 3 times as far as the distance by air.
Once you have your travel distances, you're ready to tackle time. Typically a caravan can only manage 1 MPH or 10 miles in a day. An adventuring party can usually cover twice this distance since they have lighter equipment to pack around. Progress can be greatly hindered by the lack of a clear trail though.
Most people tend not to travel more than an hour from home for any normal reason - now or then. However, since a car can go 60 miles in that hour and one can at best manage 4 miles on foot it can quickly become apparent as to why distances between villages can be so close on a European or Eastern US map - these settlements were founded in the days of foot and horse travel - before the rise of the automobile.
Villages are typically two hours apart from each other by foot. Major towns are typically one day's travel from each other and tend to be strung in chains between major cities. Cities arise either due to a crossroads situation (Atlanta Georgia), Major Port (New York City) both (Chicago Illinois), or wealth of nearby resources (Pittsburgh Pennsylvania).
Oh well, I hope this is useful. Take care all.
