[DF] 40 Days Travel Time?

[RyanW]

One thing overlooked so far is the farrier and his kit. If you're taking horses, and the trip is 80 days total (40 there, 40 back), you should really plan on reshoeing the horses just to deal with normal hoof growth. Plus any damage that requires an "unscheduled" reshoe.

If it's 40 total (20 each way), you probably still need one to handle damage, but if the horses had fresh shoes when you set out, they might be okay for the trip.

[dripton]

Originally Posted by malloyd

even London to Edinburgh is a 3 week trip.

The time limit for London-Edinburgh-London (a bicycle ride) is 116 hours 40 minutes. Round trip. And the fastest riders finish in about half the time limit. So, it's possible to do it twenty times as quickly, without needing to resort to powered vehicles. But that's with bicycles (TL6), paved roads (TL6), nicely-placed stops for provisions so you don't have to carry too much, and no need to worry about orc attacks. Not DF's "TL Ye Olden Days", unless you have particularly talented gnomish artisans in your game.

The Pony Express could get letters from Missouri to California (~1800 miles) in 10 days in 1860, using horses, through rough unsettled territory. So, 180 miles per day on rough dirt trails. But they did it by swapping horses every 10 miles. Once you have stables placed every 10 miles, you can't really call it wilderness. (Though it was wild enough that the riders carried a pistol in case of human or animal attack.) This was accomplished in TL5, but could have been done in TL1. Definitely possible in DF. But not in the wilderness, unless you're using magic to summon fresh horses or remove fatigue.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Ransom

I think that is the main source of the disconnect in the OP: they want their party's travel to have the feel of fast couriers who ride out to respond to adventure hooks scattered across the countryside, but their campaign setting has the conditions that create a feel of a self-contained expedition.

That's not the impression I got.

Or rather his complaint was that (due to daily random encounters) it took more than one session for the travel time alone.


To be fair though, 40 days of travel should either be an adventure in itself or glossed over, which is what DF 2 suggests.

Originally Posted by JMason

Because I was trying out running DF "by the book"...

I'm a comin back to this. i think you're misinterpreting the 'rules'.

Those are suggestions, and in particular suggestions on Random Encounters during the adventure. Again, if you don;t want to set the travel as an adventure in itself, don't. Just say "It takes 40 days, you lost one horse to misadventure along the way and are down 3 fatigue from not sleeping well". Or whatever.

Daily (twice daily if you hit them every time they camp as well) for Encounters is unnecessary. Unless you and your group like that type thing, then go for it. Honestly, I really prefer the "Only Three Random Encounters"... unless it's meant to be a grueling trek through the wilderness aimed at testing the very limits of the Players patience.


Also take a page from some OSR guys (Peter Del'Orto's Felltower in particular):

Don't always make it Wandering Monsters. Make it hazards like "bad weather" (which costs FP), or pestering bugs (like mosquito, which also reduce FP from poor resting or prompt Ht rolls to avoid illness), or rolls against Survival to avoid poison oak or food spoilage from improper storage, or the road being washed out which increases the travel time, etc.

Not every "problem" needs to one that requires the combat map. Indeed, the worst problems tend to not involve combat at all.

[Edges]

This begs the question:
Losses during travel (to FP, HP, etc.) would likely be trivially recovered on a long journey by DF characters. And for that matter, so are such losses in town. How do you make those losses meaningful to the dungeon crawl? Do you just rule that you can't recover for some meta-reason or do you just let them easily recover and treat those encounters as minor speed bumps?

[adm]

Edge;

Per DF 16 pgs 23-25, FP lost due to poor food, or sleep, can only be recovered by sufficient good sleep/food.

[(E)]

Leg injuries would heal well while walking.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by (E)

Leg injuries would heal well while walking.

"Just walk it off." - Every P.E. teacher that ever lived.

I've found that in some cases, that douchey expression is actually true. But only for "minor" injuries, cramps, sores, etc. Nothing DF adventurers would even notice.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Ransom

How many places are 40 days out into the wilderness period?

Siberia. :o)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by (E)

Leg injuries would heal well while walking.

Go sprain your ankle for real[1] and tell me that. That's a crippling injury that requires six to eight weeks of healing, and won't bear weight unaided during that (crutches first, then canes). Or dislocate your kneecap. Or break something.

[1] Theres a "twisted" ankle that stings and makes you limp for a while. They're not fun. A sprained ankle turns your foot a spectacular puffy black and blue and it swells up too big to fit in your boot. If you don't keep it elevated above your heart and alternate heat and ice the first day or so, it swells even worse for even longer.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Go sprain your ankle for real[1] and tell me that. That's a crippling injury that requires six to eight weeks of healing, and won't bear weight unaided during that (crutches first, then canes). Or dislocate your kneecap. Or break something.

[1] Theres a "twisted" ankle that stings and makes you limp for a while. They're not fun. A sprained ankle turns your foot a spectacular puffy black and blue and it swells up too big to fit in your boot. If you don't keep it elevated above your heart and alternate heat and ice the first day or so, it swells even worse for even longer.

And trust me, a bacon grease burn on your foot ain't no picnic, either, even after the blistering stops.