GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting: Caverntown

[Kromm]

This is heroic fantasy, not real life. Heroes just about always have enough HT and FP that, were we caring about them getting tired, they could run 1,400 to 1,500 yards.

That makes the base time 1,400/Move to 1,500/Move seconds, which is 23/Move to 25/Move minutes. But: stairs. You move up by moving forward, and even the rules in full-on GURPS ignore Pythagoras; per p. B387, it's "Stairs (up or down): +1 movement point per hex." That doubles the time to 46/Move to 50/Move minutes . . . assuming no breaks. That's where 50/Move comes from.

Is that plausible? Well, a Move 5 runner (average person, or fast adventurer in armor) could do it at a Move 6 sprint (33 HT rolls) or Move 3 paced run (16 HT rolls). Even wheezy heroes have HT 11 (costs 12 FP or 6 FP), and most have HT 12+ (costs 8 or fewer FP or 4 or fewer FP), so rather than require lots of rolls, I assumed something between those paces and decided not to worry about HT rolls or FP costs.

As for a walk, GURPS assumes a slow walk is Move 1 and a brisk walk but not a run is Move 2, so the 25-minute figure is just 50/2 = 25 in the above formula.

Note that GURPS doesn't assess special FP costs for stair-climbing at any pace. The "extra cost" comes in through the extra distance (doubled!) and thus extra time (also doubled!). Hiking costs a few FP per hour, so fatigue just won't be an issue here.

[Evil Roy Slade]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Note that GURPS doesn't assess special FP costs for stair-climbing at any pace. The "extra cost" comes in through the extra distance (doubled!) and thus extra time (also doubled!). Hiking costs a few FP per hour, so fatigue just won't be an issue here.

This is, I suppose, the heart of it: though GURPS is plenty robust, I am not sure anyone at any stage from 1986 onward has given much thought to how well the mechanics capture the situation when a character is running up essentially a mile of vertical staircase. With all due respect to your calculations, I think I will go for something more plausible, heroic fantasy or no.