Travel on the Road and such

[Lord Jolly the Scribe]

How long should it take a person to travel from the far end of Nemedia on the Road of Kings to Shadizar in Zamora? I was never good with calculatig travel times and such, plus I was wondering if there were plenty of stopping places along the way or if players would need rations and such for the trip?

Also, are there many roads in Hyrkania and such or is it mostly just open land to travel across? I am pretty sure it is easier to travel in Aquilonia and such Hyborian lands but I was wondering about Vendhya, Shem, Koth, Hyrkania, and the Black Kingdoms. How is the raod systems there and how would it affect travel time?

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Clovenhoof]

That's not so easy. Let's see. At 30ft base speed, the daily distance covered is 24 miles _if_ you take your provisions with you.
If you need to forage for food and water, you can do so with an easy Survival check and move at half speed for the day, so that is 12 miles.
Alternatively, allow the party to go hunting after setting up camp for the night -- allow them one or two hours to successfully track down and kill some game. If they (or their most experienced hunter) doesn't manage that within the time, they'll have to go to bed hungry or draw on reserve rations.

The distance from the far end of Nemedia to Shadizar appears to be well 1.000 miles. AND the Road of Kings leads over one or two mountain passes, which further reduces speed to 18 or 9 miles per day, respectively, for the mountaineous part of the journey.

So all in all, I'd say the journey should take at least 50 days if they march as far as possible every day and buy their supplies, or 100 days if they forage all the time.

Hope that helps.

 

[urdinaran]

Clovenhoof's calculations are good. Thing is, there are so many variables that can come into play. One day they might get lucky and hitch a ride on a turnip wagon; another day might see them holed-up in a tavern waiting for the rain to stop. No matter what, the prospect of walking 24 miles per day for 54+ days is not fun; that much walking will take its toll on the body and force you to take some time off to recuperate. Assume they will probably take 1-2 days off from travelling per week.

Given that the Road of Kings is a major road, it is safe to assume there will be plenty of places to stop in order to rest and resupply.

Another thing to consider is crossing a border. There will probably be some sort of tax, a search, possibly even a long wait before any of this transpires. Also, the border may be closed a night, forcing the PCs to wait till morning and queue up with several caravans also wishing to cross.


In the end, it's going to come down to how realistic and detailed you really want their trip to be.

 

[DaveNC]

Whenever I run into this, I try to tailor it to whatever campaign or storyline I am running. Sometimes, I'll just say "it's a long, hard journey to Shadizar, and four months later you arrive to find your purse a little lighter, but just in time for the ... " and lead into the next encounter for the characters. Or, I'll make the journey more involved and have a couple of one session adventures/encounters on the road. Like have the characters encounter a caravan that is hiring on guards, or get attacked by bandits in the hills or meet a NPC on the road that shows them a "great shortcut" or whatever. It just depends on what suits the game I'm running at the time. Don't get bogged down in the specifics of a long journey when nothing of real importance happens to the characters.

 

[FailedSpotCheck]

I rigged up a system where, if they are on the road for a week or more, I have a table that decides if they have a random encounter that week while on the road. To decide the no. of encounters I roll 1d8-1 (min 1) and then consult a table. I assume that the party has at least 1 encounter/week (otherwise it would be a dull week!). "Other" normally means garden-variety animal, but could mean something else :shock: if excitement is called for.

In populated areas:
human encounters: 98%
other: 2%
In rural, semi-wilderness areas:
human encounters: 30%
other: 70%
In wilderness areas:
human encounters: 2%
other: 98%

I also have some harsh High Living/Interstitial Events rules that introduce the possibility that one or more characters died between sessions. :twisted:

 

[Evil_Trevor]

One way to improve travel times is to ride a horse which means you can cover a maximum of forty miles per day based on the movement rate given for a riding horse, a caravan or wagon will be slower perhaps only covering thrity two miles a day. A fleet warhorse pushed can take you at a movement rate of 50 feet or (extrapolating for each 10 foot move roughly eight miles per day) about forty eight miles, I'd round that down to forty five miles and limit it too 3 consecuative days then reduce it by five miles per day until the horse gets rested for a couple of days.

Travel is easier by road, along the way there will be settlements where food, grain for the horses and water can be bought,the surface makes it easier for the animals.

Tito's like the SRD and A.E. rule book give the movement of a wagon as the same for a Donkey or Mule so I assume that is how they calculated it, I would allow a work horse to pull a wagon faster and further say 30 miles per day along a good flatish road.

 

[slaughterj]

Given that the Road of Kings is a major road,

That's a big assumption, see some other recent threads on the Road of Kings.