Travel

[Valenae]

Is there rules about travel? Maybe in Вook II:Travels?
What is content of Book II?

[Iris]

Hello,

I don't know what you are exactly looking for when you mention "rules about travel" ? ... Most of the people ask the varigals to guide them and very few try to go on the sea or above the Asgeamar mountains...

The content of the french Livre 2 - Travel printed in 2010 :

• Presentation of some mysterious places
• 5 short stories (three directly liked to the theme of a travel), from 2 hours to 6 hours to play
• 12 figures of characters you may meet, as allied or foes, every one having dark secrets
• about the powers of tarish & morcails (3 pages)
• creatures : some animals and "common" feondas

For the moment I can't tell you more about the english version. We are working hard in order that all the books can be translated as soon as possible, but have also to prepare new books in french !... Nelyhann is the only one who can give you precise answers on the related questions,


I hope I could help you,


Iris

[JohnK]

Hullo, Iris,

I don't know what you are exactly looking for when you mention "rules about travel" ? ... Most of the people ask the varigals to guide them and very few try to go on the sea or above the Asgeamar mountains...

In terms of the original poser's question, I think he was asking about rules for travel, as in how much time it takes to travel over terrain, the travel time on average per day, that sort of thing. I have some ideas on this subject, but am trying to run the game this weekend, so have not replied to the post directly.

However, that said...

Walking time under ideal conditions is about 3 miles per hour. If going up a hill, climbing time is around 1 minute for every 30 feet. Descending time for going downhill is roughly 1 minute for every 60 feet. That said, walking in difficult conditions (such as boggy ground, dense undergrowth, etc.) varies somewhat more, but the walking under less than ideal conditions is around 2.5 miles per hour.

Insofar as riding times go, the rates for the various riding animals that exist in Esteren will vary. Does the Livres 2 - Voyages cover any information on travel time and the like?

If not, perhaps this is some detail that we can develop for the game, n'est pas?

[Iris]

Insofar as riding times go, the rates for the various riding animals that exist in Esteren will vary. Does the Livres 2 - Voyages cover any information on travel time and the like?

There is presently no such information... and there are so many things that could happen and force people to go slower : accident, moutains, rain, fog, destruction of the road... it could of course be done, giving the theorical duration of a travel when everything goes well ... it is not very complicated ! ...

... well... I mean in Kilometers per hour !... I'm not able to calculate in miles per hour ! ...

[Dragoslav]

If people are interested, we can brainstorm some optional rules for travel here on this board. Here are some ideas:

1) Random encounter table - Every day of travel, the party runs the risk of encountering something from the table
2) General rules for overland travel. For example, the GL could call for players to make a roll in the Travel Domain to see whether they are able to make normal progress during a day; a failure means they can't travel as far, while a critical success could mean they find a forgotten shortcut that cuts their travel time.
3) Rules for maintenance of traveling animals and owned vehicles (carts, wagons, etc.)

And so on.

[Iris]

Dragoslav, I think it's a good idea, and maybe there will be several version of travel rules, expressing the different vision of it !

I especially like the Travel Domain, but many player don't take it for their characters, arguing something like "my warrior does have the perception domain so he can travel because he see where he is..." ... Well, I would like to make them feel "perception" is not "travel"

[JohnK]

Hullo, Iris,

Insofar as riding times go, the rates for the various riding animals that exist in Esteren will vary. Does the Livres 2 - Voyages cover any information on travel time and the like?

There is presently no such information... and there are so many things that could happen and force people to go slower : accident, moutains, rain, fog, destruction of the road... it could of course be done, giving the theorical duration of a travel when everything goes well ... it is not very complicated ! ...

I find it a bit strange, but not unexpected, that Livres 2 - Voyages doesn't have some sort of guidelines on travel times for various animals, given that the book is about travel.

While there are lots of conditions, both environmental and others, that can cause movement rates to be reduced, a set of basic guidelines for movement rates until ideal conditions will give at least a guideline of how things are normally, allowing Game Leaders to extrapolate when conditions are not good.

... well... I mean in Kilometers per hour !... I'm not able to calculate in miles per hour ! ...

I prefer my fantasy rpgs to have feet and miles, and my science fiction rpgs to have kilometres. So, for me, Shadows of Esteren should be feet and miles.

[JohnK]

Hullo, Dragoslav,

If people are interested, we can brainstorm some optional rules for travel here on this board. Here are some ideas:

Sounds like a good idea.

1) Random encounter table - Every day of travel, the party runs the risk of encountering something from the table

To be honest, I want to discourage this idea, simply because it's very old school and old-fashioned. Encounters should never be random, simply because a) we don't know enough about the beasties in Tri-Kazel; and b) one should never encounter Feondas at random.

2) General rules for overland travel. For example, the GL could call for players to make a roll in the Travel Domain to see whether they are able to make normal progress during a day; a failure means they can't travel as far, while a critical success could mean they find a forgotten shortcut that cuts their travel time.

I'm not so sure that a Travel roll is appropriate for this sort of thing. The Skill has a lot of use already as it is, but I'm open to seeing what you folks would come up with in this regard.

3) Rules for maintenance of traveling animals and owned vehicles (carts, wagons, etc.)

Excellent idea, this one.

[JohnK]

Hullo, Iris,

I especially like the Travel Domain, but many player don't take it for their characters, arguing something like "my warrior does have the perception domain so he can travel because he see where he is..." ... Well, I would like to make them feel "perception" is not "travel"

I know exactly what you mean here, since I feel the same way. And oddly enough, most of the players in my gaming groups took Travel as part of their characters. Part of the problem is that both Perception and Travel have the Orientation/Orienteering Discipline in them, and that's what leads to this attitude. Perception is about the senses, whereas Travel is about, well... travel. Not the same thing at all, and the two Disciplines are used differently.

[Daïn]

Hi guys,

I'm currently working on this for my ongoing game mainly because a friend of mine plays a varigal.
As mentioned in the books, some varigals are able to decipher ancient symbols carved on stone and wood alike to find shortcuts.

As you said JohnK, there's nothing about time rates by foot/ horse/ caernide or else.
Using rates from other rpgs must be done with precautions as Tri-Kazel is supposed to be mountainous.

I also try to bear in mind that merchants try to stay on paved roads when possible, and travels are overall something left to a bunch of crazy guys. This is why varigals are so welcomed. Countryside is very dangerous, mostly unknown and holds dark secrets that nobody wants to know anything about.

Like in medieval time, I see villages having about 20-30 families. None ever travel farther than a half-day (a whole day for there-return).

Ok, now, what do I do with this:
- I use the map I've drawn to see where the players can go, see if there is a valley, a known road, hills, rocky slopes and so forth.
-I then adjust the time depending of the relief.
- The player rolls a travel check or the appropriate roll for deciphering the symbols found on standing stones, for instance and adjust the result.
Th difficulty threshold is usually between 14-17. Every point above the DT saves 30min/ 10min depending of the length of the travel.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to make travels different whether you would use a horse or a caernide, so common in Tri-Kazel.
I use the following rates, based on other rpg datas and on the ratio 1/2, 3/4 for the medium/ hard terrains.

By foot:
Paved road/ Easy ways: up to 24km
Hills/ forests/ Medium difficulty: up to 16km
Mountains/ Hard: up to 8km
Peaks/ Crests/ Rock climbing: up to 1km

Horse:
paved road/ Easy ways: up to 50km
Hills/ forests/ Medium difficulty: up to 20km
Mountains/ Hard: up to 3km
Peaks/ Crests/ Rock climbing: Are you serious?

Caernide:
paved road/ Easy ways: up to 40km
Hills/ forests/ Medium difficulty: up to 25km
Mountains/ Hard: up to 8km
Peaks/ Crests/ Rock climbing: Up to 1km

Horses are better on open roads but whenever hills/ mountains are involved, caernides are better. Across mountains, traveling by foot or by caernide is the same. More, using a mounts implies halving bonuses for shortcuts/ varigals symbols (this is why varigals prefer walking mostly).

Here is an example of a map I use:
big size: Close-up Map