[High-Tech] Hiking Rules clarification

[Pseudonym]

Hi, I'm helping with the development of the hiking calculator for GCalc, and wanted something clarified.

The way hiking rules are specified in High-Tech, I am not sure if I am misinterpreting or meshing things together the wrong way.

So hiking, to be more realistic is much slower than in Basic Set, but then it also talks about fatigue and the like, which also occurs in the Basic Set rules.

My confusion is: do characters accrue fatigue every hour at the much slower pace? As in, the average lightly encumbered hiker accrues 32 FP damage in a day? Or does the much slower pace kinda account for realistic breaks and only the last hour of fatigue accrued is counted when a hiking interruption occurs like in the basic set?

Thanks.

[Ulzgoroth]

The rule expressly tells you to apply those FP costs.

In the quite likely event that you can't keep walking through 32 FP of continuous exhaustion, you'll have to take rest breaks or a much shorter walking day. Taking a lunch break is highly advisable, and you'll probably need more than that unless you're Very Fit or not trying to walk for 16 hours in a day.

This is also why it makes reference to Fit, which is helpful because it allows for shorter breaks.


On the other hand a Very Fit, unencumbered walker with a few extra FP can put in a full 16-hour walking day...

[Varyon]

High Tech just changes things to an hourly rather than (16-hour) daily rate. You lose FP each hour, following the guidelines for Fighting a Battle (1 FP for most, with extra FP for high temperatures and/or encumbrance).

If you're expecting danger, arguably the best way to go about things is to take a rest every time you suffer FP loss (while Medium Encumbrance is technically 3 FP at the end of an hour, 1 FP every 20 minutes might be more appropriate), to insure you stay at full FP. At worst, you'll get attacked during a rest period, and be down 1 FP for the fight. If you're expecting no trouble at all (or are desperate and want to make as much haste as possible), arguably the best way to do it is to hike until you drop below 1/3 FP, then rest (and eat) until you're either back up to full or have enough that you'll next hit the 1/3 FP limit around the time to set up camp, whichever needs a shorter rest. For cases in between, you'll adjust things appropriately - for example, in a dangerous area you want to get through quickly, you may want to hike until your FP is low enough that it'll get exactly filled by taking a lunch break (30 minutes, healing 4 FP for most, IIRC).

[Pseudonym]

Ok, that's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure because even at full tilt, assuming it were possible, that means Basic Set is much faster than High Tech - I personally don't think that means better or worse, just different.

[Ulzgoroth]

I'm not sure there's any advantage of fewer long breaks over more short ones in terms of pushing the pace (aside from allowing enough time to eat a meal in as many of them as you have in-the-day meals). 6 10-minute breaks take the same time and have the same recovery effect as one 1-hour break.

On the other hand, if you're concerned about being attacked, you might want fewer longer breaks so that you don't lose too much time to overhead costs to choose a good spot and maybe make some preparations or keep watch in shifts. If you're not too worried, you can just flop down anywhere halfway comfortable when it's break time.

You also might need longer breaks if you have mounts or draft or pack animals that need to be cared for before they can rest.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Pseudonym

Ok, that's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure because even at full tilt, assuming it were possible, that means Basic Set is much faster than High Tech - I personally don't think that means better or worse, just different.

Yeah, HT strains honesty trying to make an excuse for Basic (which obviously does not assume more-ideal conditions considering the exact same condition modifiers apply), but really it is outright reducing speed on grounds of realism.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I'm not sure there's any advantage of fewer long breaks over more short ones in terms of pushing the pace (aside from allowing enough time to eat a meal in as many of them as you have in-the-day meals). 6 10-minute breaks take the same time and have the same recovery effect as one 1-hour break.

There are two advantages - being able to work meals in during the hike (taking advantage of the +1 FP recovered by eating during a rest), and ending the day exhausted, recovering the rest when you aren't in hiking mode. If you've got everyone carrying Light Encumbrance (2 FP per hour), you can start the day by hiking for 2 hours (lose 4 FP), spend 30 minutes resting and eating to recover all of that (you regain an extra FP by eating while resting), then hike for 4 hours (lose 8 FP, Move likely drops to 1/3), take a 20 minute break with another meal to recover 3 FP, and finally hike another hour and 10 minutes before making camp, assuming you're only willing to spend 8 hours a day on hiking. Go-rest-go-rest-go would mean 30 minutes hiking, 10 resting, 30 walking, 10 resting, and so forth, with the occasional 60 minute walk followed by a 10 minute rest while eating. The first scheme, out of 8 hours, has you hiking for 7 hours and 10 minutes, while the latter scheme only has you hiking for about 6 hours and 20 minutes.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

On the other hand, if you're concerned about being attacked, you might want fewer longer breaks so that you don't lose too much time to overhead costs to choose a good spot and maybe make some preparations or keep watch in shifts. If you're not too worried, you can just flop down anywhere halfway comfortable when it's break time.

You'd probably have your scouts keeping an eye out for locations that will work well for rests, preventing you from losing time picking one out. If whoever is keeping watch doesn't count as resting, then you simply alternate who has the watch at each stop, with whoever had to do watch last time eating this time (to recover the FP he didn't regain at the previous stop).

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

You also might need longer breaks if you have mounts or draft or pack animals that need to be cared for before they can rest.

Fair enough, and not something I had considered.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Varyon

If you've got everyone carrying Light Encumbrance (2 FP per hour), you can start the day by hiking for 2 hours (lose 4 FP), spend 30 minutes resting and eating to recover all of that (you regain an extra FP by eating while resting), then hike for 4 hours (lose 8 FP, Move likely drops to 1/3), take a 20 minute break with another meal to recover 3 FP, and finally hike another hour and 10 minutes before making camp, assuming you're only willing to spend 8 hours a day on hiking. Go-rest-go-rest-go would mean 30 minutes hiking, 10 resting, 30 walking, 10 resting, and so forth, with the occasional 60 minute walk followed by a 10 minute rest while eating. The first scheme, out of 8 hours, has you hiking for 7 hours and 10 minutes, while the latter scheme only has you hiking for about 6 hours and 20 minutes.

...Or, if you know when you're going to stop your hike, you could trivially arrange for the final leg to be the efficient length rather than mindlessly following a strict cyclic schedule. Regardless of whether you're using long or short rests.

(Provided, of course, that you want the efficiency more than you want to have FP in hand to handle problems near the end of the day.)

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by Pseudonym

Ok, that's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure because even at full tilt, assuming it were possible, that means Basic Set is much faster than High Tech - I personally don't think that means better or worse, just different.

As far as I can remember what we wrote in the very long (but very interesting) threads about hiking speed, the daily rate of Basic Set does correspond to Move x 0.8 miles per hour (while High-Tech speed is Move x 0.5).

So, yes, there is a difference. It all depends whether you want a simple and heroic system or a more realistic one.

Edit:
I did not remember well. It is Move x 0.625 (x 10/16 hours)