Template:Complex Travel

The travel distances on the travel type table do not account for natural or political boundaries, assuming travel occurs in roughly a straight line with no external delays. If you would prefer to add complexity, use the following modifiers. Use the slowest moving travel type if multiple people with multiple forms of locomotion are traveling together. To apply modifiers you must first select a terrain type, then apply terrain modifiers and finally apply travel qualities. Multiply this fraction by relevant number on the travel type table, rounding up. If the total is 0, then travel is limited to no more than one mile per day, at the Storyteller's discretion.

Terrain Type

Select terrain type to determine base movement.

Open: x1 base movement. Includes rolling plains or tundra, calm waters and otherwise gentle terrain.

Difficult: x3/4 base movement. Mounts or wheeled vehicles at x1/2 base movement. Includes forests, deserts, ice plains, foothills, a river ford, seasonal squalls or otherwise rough terrain.

Extreme: x1/2 base movement. Mounts or wheeled vehicles at x0 base movement, but this can be improved with modifiers. Walking a mount brings a traveler to x1/4 base movement which is matched by mount. Includes marshes, mountains, dense forests, whitewater rapids or otherwise normally impassible terrain.

Terrain Modifiers

Total all positive and negative modifiers, then apply. They can never increase movement above x1 or below x0 base movement. Trails: +1/8 movement. Includes any common throughways, river routes or beaten paths through an area. Found in any terrain type.

Highways: +1/8 movement (add to Trails bonus). Includes any form of well-maintained road system, such as that on the Blessed Isle. Found in open or difficult terrain. Storyteller may rule it is found in extreme terrain, but this is rare. Highways don't always go to your specific destination, but they can get you to the vicinity where you can take local trails. Land-based only.

Long Distance: -1/4 movement. Apply to any travel lasting more than a day. This accounts for natural and political borders, skirting around impassible terrain, et cetera.

Political Upheaval: -1/8 movement. General political unrest makes travel difficult. Times of great strife can cause delays, with roads being clogged with refugees, bridges being defunct or secret police running “security” checkpoints.

Warzone: -1/4 movement. Armies are on the march or fighting throughout this area, and neutral travelers must take care to provide proper authorization for travel or avoid troop movements. Reduce to -1/8 if an army sanctions the travel, and ignore if travelers are visibly members of a friendly army. However, there is a -3/4 movement penalty for traveling behind the lines of an enemy army, and doing so almost always ensures martial confl ict. Getting through the lines in the first place should be no easy task.

As the Crow Flies: Ignore long distance terrain modifier, if applicable. Travel occurs in roughly a straight line and assumes the terrain type is open unless otherwise stated.

Travel Qualities

Unlike terrain modifiers, these qualities can increase movement above x1, but cannot reduce it below x0.

Exceptional: +1/8 movement. Applies to methods of conveyance only: mounts, vehicles and vessels. A fast or well-crewed form of travel. Resources are often one or two dots more expensive. Cannot be included with "substandard."

Enduring: +1/8 movement. Applies only to mounts. The mount has particularly great endurance and can travel farther than most creatures before needing rest.

Accurate Maps: +1/8 movement. Resources requirements are usually one dot for Open, two dots for Difficult and three dots for Extreme. Allows travelers to avoid known hazards. The Storyteller deems whether maps are “accurate.” Travelers without at least Survival 1 do not get this bonus.

Make Haste: +1/4 movement (daily), +1/2 movement (hourly). Only applicable for land-based travel. For hourly distances, see page 130 regarding strenuous activity. For daily distances, replace "hours" with "days" to determine how long travelers can make haste and how many days of rest they require after doing so. Any penalty negates this quality. Armies performing forced marches are limited by their weakest members.

Substandard: -1/4 movement. Applies to methods of conveyance only: mounts, vehicles and vessels. A sluggish or unreliable form of travel. Resources are often one dot less expensive to purchase or rent. Cannot be included with "exceptional."

Hunted/Hunting: -1/4 movement. Travelers are actively hunted and are attempting to evade capture or are themselves hunters actively seeking a target over long distances.

Large Group: -1/4 movement. Guild caravans, armies, naval squadrons and other large groups traveling together have a difficult time coordinating their movement. Any amount of travelers larger than 500, mounted travelers greater than 200 or ships of more than 20 are considered to constitute a large group. Rapid communication capabilities through artifacts or sorcery reduce this factor by 1/8, and groups with extensive training on coordinated movement (i.e., elite troops or well-seasoned caravans) reduce it by 1/8. Both reductions stack.

Unfamiliar Land: -1/8 movement. Apply penalty if none of the travelers have ever been through this region. Ignore after three months' travel in the region, if travelers take a previously traveled route, if travelers have a local guide or if any traveler possesses Survival ••••+.

Example: Dave's character Golden-Eyed Vengeance wants to travel from his river village to Nexus, 1,500 miles downstream. Dave's Storyteller determines that roughly 1/4 of it (375 miles) is considered difficult terrain due to a sluggish rainy season, but the other 3/4 of the journey (1,125 miles) is considered open.

The terrain modifiers include +1/8 for trails (a well-traveled waterway) and -1/4 for long distance (far longer than a day's travel), for a total of -1/8. The leg through difficult terrain will be 5/8 movement, while the leg through open will be 7/8 movement.

As for travel qualities, Golden-Eyed Vengeance hires an exceptional boat for +1/8 movement, and the Storyteller decides such a boat would have accurate maps for another +1/8, for a total of +1/4. The difficult leg is now 7/8 movement, while the open leg is 9/8 movement.

Looking at the distances for downstream river travel, the difficult leg of 375 miles uses weekly travel: (200 miles * 7/8) is 175 miles per week. Two weeks of travel is 350 miles, with 25 miles remainder. A day's travel is normally 50 miles, and even with the 7/8 movement factored in it will come out to just over half a day's travel.

The open leg of 1,125 miles uses monthly travel: (600 miles * 9/8) is 675 miles per month. One month of travel leaves 450 miles to go, so Dave switches to Weekly travel: (200 miles * 9/8) is 225 miles per week. This remaining 450 miles is exactly two weeks of open travel. Totaling everything together, Golden-Eyed Vengeance reaches Nexus in two months and a little more than half a day.