[RuneQuest] RQ and Movement Rates

[Odhanan]

Hello everyone.

I thought some on ENWorld would be interested by this: I'm reading the new Mongoose RuneQuest rules. I really love the way the system has been cleaned-up and updated, but one thing I've read on p.84 of the base book just made me stop and think - "huh?"

The movement rates. See: In a combat round, you get 1 to 3 Combat Actions depending on your Dexterity score. All humans have a fixed movement rate per Combat Action of 4 meters.

Now, a combat round lasts 5 seconds. So it means that a normal human can walk from 4 to 12 meters per 5 seconds, according to the rules. Double that speed if s/he sprints. Then, the movement table explains that an average walking human covers 48m. in a minute, 2.9km. in an hour and 34.8 km. in a day.

Does that seem realistic to you?

I know RPG rules are abstract representations, but still. I mean. Walking normally, I can sure walk more than 12 meters in 5 seconds, and I don't think I have 18 Dex. A world champion can cover 100 meters in sprint in less that 10 seconds. According to the RQ rules, a world champion with 18 Dex would have to run for more than 20 seconds to cover the same distance! Weird...

Is there something somewhere I forgot to read? Something I don't get? What do you guys think?

PS: after some trouble in creating an account, I was able to create an account on Mongoose's message boards. The question has been asked there as well, but by all means, if you know where I make a mistake or have an opinion about this, be my guest!

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, bear in mind, if it's for Runequest, the rules were probably made with ducks in mind, not humans. So that's why it seems slow.

 

[Simm]

Yes, you can move farther than 12 meters in 5 seconds.
The question is: can you move more than 12 meters in 5 seconds through a swirling melee.
Besides it seems to me that they just chose a speed that works well in combat and stuck to it.

 

[Odhanan]

Yep Simm. That's actually the kind of reaction I got on the RQ forums as well: these speeds assume that you're hacking your way through a melee and are encumbered somehow. But that begs the question: why then would the rules assume that "ALL humans have MOV 4" (4 meters per Combat Action). All of them? That's too much of an approximation for me.