Hiking: Further, yes, but also faster?

[Cheomesh]

Title is awkward.

Anyways, RAW Hiking gives you a 20% bonus to your distance hiked that day if you roll against it successfully and don't have group members holding you back.

Thus, if I could normally hike 10 miles, a success means 12 miles.

This implies I am moving faster.

Should I apply this same rationale to a timed march? That is, the distance per day will always be fixed, and going beyond it isn't really allowed. In these instances should I consider a successful Hiking roll to be adding 20% to my walking speed (IIRC 1/2 of my Basic Move)?

Thus, a Basic Move of (FREX) 3 becomes 3.6 on a successful Hiking roll.

Good use or not so much?

M.

[whswhs]

Well, a Basic Move of 3 would get you a daily march of 30 miles. I think that's assumed to be 10 hours, so 3 mph. But 3 mph is roughly 5400 yards per hour, or 1.5 yards per second, which is Move 1.5.

So I don't think your Basic Move is really increasing. Rather, you're coming closer to making full use of it over long distances.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

As a hiker, I think it makes sense. When you know how to do it better, you are not getting faster, you simply get more "miles per gallon".

If you want more realism, you should take at look at page 55 in High Tech.

[Bruno]

I'm going to give an example from my life in video gaming but.

No Hiking is seeing the top of the hill and going in a straight line to the top of the hill, up the 30 degree slope, which is practically a Climbing roll.

Hiking is seeing the top of the hill, and taking a second to notice that actually if you go around the hill a bit the slope to the top is much easier.

In Skyrim, I'm the first person, not the second :P "Why, this is an impassable cliff! I guess its a jumping puzzle. *grunt huff puff arrives at top of hill* ... there's a lovely path up here on the other side of the hill. With butterflies and flowers and sunshine. Damnit."

Other little things: Knowing how to pace yourself. Packing your equipment and dressing such that you don't get as many sore spots so you don't need as many little breaks to fuss with your gear.

[RyanW]

Experienced hikers may not be moving substantially faster, but they are moving more steadily. For example, one thing you learn over time is how to pack things to minimize stops for gear: rain protection, food and water, and other items you are likely to need on the trail placed so that you can get at them without taking your pack off.

So you may not moving more yards per second, but you will be spending more seconds on the move per hour.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Experienced hikers may not be moving substantially faster, but they are moving more steadily.

Yes. The Hiking bonus increases your average rate of travel. The Move stat is one of those "during desperate adventuring situations like combat" kind of things. You don't walk at your full Move for ten hours a day straight, second after second. And being able to maintain a faster pace for a long period of time is about endurance, not max speed.

So, for situations where it mattered, I'd think it reasonable to use the bonus to calculate the distance moved in a fixed time, but only when that fixed time is substantial -- at least a couple of hours. You can't use a Hiking bonus in a timed interval like the 100m sprint.

[roguebfl]

The Hiking rules are not about constant movement, the assume things like rest stops, most of the 20% comes from more efficient rest stops, and better pacing on the move, so that spend lest unnecessary time stopped. and not being slowed down due to trying to keep moving at the 1/3 FP threshold etc

Also remember most people don't hike unencumbered, as it exposes them to all the problems of getting lost and exposure/survival hardships

[Flyndaran]

I only run a mile back from the store, but it's very often that I have to stop and take a minute readjusting whatever the heck is jamming me in the back. And I buy almost the same things each time, so you'd think it would eventually become trivial.
If I tried hiking all day over natural terrain, I can only imagine the frustrating delays I'd cause. Until I put a point or two in Hiking. Then my average speed would jump despite not walking faster when actually walking.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by Cheomesh

Should I apply this same rationale to a timed march? That is, the distance per day will always be fixed, and going beyond it isn't really allowed. In these instances should I consider a successful Hiking roll to be adding 20% to my walking speed (IIRC 1/2 of my Basic Move)?

Thus, a Basic Move of (FREX) 3 becomes 3.6 on a successful Hiking roll.

Good use or not so much?

This is exactly how I interpret the rules. If hiking doesn't improve Hiking speed in miles per hour, then it becomes a worthless skill as soon as you use the High-Tech speed (move/2 miles per hour). So, since I exclusively use that speed rather than 10 x move per day (that I find unrealistic), I apply the +20% to move/2 miles per hour.

Some people walks faster than others. And well trained hikers tend to walk faster than untrained people.

[Flyndaran]

How fast it's physically possible to walk depends entirely on gravity and inseam length. But what speed people prefer is more dependent on fitness and comfort level.
I walk much faster than my girlfriend despite having almost identical leg lengths.
I think that normal human lengths mean that 4.25 to 4.5 mph is the maximum before you switch to running or fall over.