Continuing from yesterday's post on
Desert and Heat in a D&D campaign, here are the rules for traveling in the wilderness.
Again, I found the d20 system had some excellent suggestions but found it just
too much for me to manage as is. I also find that when you're looking at rules that include traveling across desert, forest, arctic, water and by every means of travel imaginable it's quite inclusive... but not very evocative of a particular location. By condensing it down to just the rules that are relevant to this campaign, they help create a sense of place.
By only listing the types of terrain that will commonly be found in the campaign, and sharing these rules with the players there's already a feeling for the world.
The campaign map is 5 miles per hex.
Daily Travel (8 hours)
| Regular Clothing or Light Armour | 5 hexes |
| Medium or Heavy Armour | 3 hexes |
| Horse & Rider | 7 hexes |
| Mule | 5 hexes |
| Cart | 3 hexes |
Additional Forced Marching (per Hex)
| Regular Clothing or Light Armour | 2 hours |
| Medium or Heavy Armour | 3 hours |
| Horse & Rider | 1/2 hour |
Make a CON check (d4/6/8 vs 4) each hour of Forced Marching or take d4 Fatigue points. Reduce the CON dice (d4/6/8) by one step per hour to a minimum of d4. Horses do not make CON checks and take damage against their hit points instead.
Hurried Movement (per Hex)
| Regular Clothing or Light Armour | 1 hour |
| Medium or Heavy Armour | 2 hours |
| Horse & Rider | 1/3 hour |
Make a CON check (d4/6/8 vs 4) each hour or take d6 Fatigue points. Reduce the CON dice (d4/6/8) by one step per hour to a minimum of d4. Horses do not make CON checks and take damage against their hit points instead.
Difficult Terrain
Some types of terrain is more difficult to traverse than others. When moving through a hex it may count as multiple hexes for determining travel speeds.
| Plains, Light Scrub and Cactus | 1 hex |
| Heavy Cactus, Hills, Petrified Forest, Desert | 2 hexes |
| Badlands, Mountains | 3 hexes |
Note: See yesterday's post for details on
Fatigue Points, Heat, Unconciousness and CON Checks.
I've seen a few other bloggers write about how to encourage a more swashbuckling campaign where characters choose to wear less armour. While this wasn't my goal from the beginning I think the effects of wearing heavy armour in the hot sun, plus the slower movement rates (and further exposure to the sun!) caused by their armour will factor into what gear players choose to equip themselves with.
