Movement rules

[Maouse]

Ironically enough this is something that I actually have first-hand
knowledge of.  When I was twelve my family and I walked from Binghamton NY
to Niaga Falls NY for our summer vacation.  There were seven (out of eight)
of us.  I was the youngest.  Now, what most people don't realize is that
that is a lot of walking!  265 miles to be pretty close.  It took three
weeks (and although three of those days were rest days it averages out at
about a MR of about 13).
   The reality of the situation is that you can't really AVERAGE faster
than this.  Between the blisters, the drink breaks (when you walk for 8-12
hours a day you DO NOT want to get dehydrated), and waiting for people who
"don't feel that well" that day who are in you party the rates in the book
are not that unreasonable.  Add to this the concept that OUR ADVENTURERS
are looking out for trouble... how much longer would it have been if we had
had to be careful? If we didn't have paved roads to walk on (ok, let me
just say that walking in grass is fun UNTIL you've done it for an hour
already!  give me pavement anyday!).  Overall, I think the AVERAGE rates
listed are good.
   The main thing I do as GM is state, "sure you can go faster".  It of
course means you're not looking out for danger or any of the other things
you might do as good adventurers.  This means to me that YOU (the player)
get NO NONE ZIP ZERO chance to surprise anything you happen on (and usually
means other things get twice the chance to ambush you).  Now, if you need
to be in another town in a day and you have a road this may be a good
option.  But do you want to take the chance of running through the woods
and see if anything nasty notices you?  You wouldn't want to do it for very
long in MY campaign let me tell you!
   As far as horses and gallops go - sure you can go full speed (I would
figure out how fast they actually are running in PMR for the MPH they can
run full out).  No problem.  But I may occasionally (like after 15 min) ask
you to make a dex or agi roll.  If you fail you take 10' + PRM damage,
simple enough.  Full out this can be deadly. (45mph * 528 = 27760"/h, /1200
("/phase (12 sec)) = about 23" per phase (or you could just multiply by the
.57 or so you had)).  How much damage does a 200 pound projectile take at
45 miles per hour when it hits a hard surface?  This is a good enough
reason to keep sane men from galloping through the forest (not to mention
the wolves who've been following him waiting for him to fall off so they
could eat him!).
   Generally I let my players do anything stupid they want to.  I don't
mind killing paper (and with the DB I wrote I don't even need to do that).
But realistically speaking the movements in the book aren't that far off
for AVERAGE travel (ps. if you have  a flying faerry to watch your butt
this can be a good thing when going full out!).  For needing to get from
point a to point b I USUALLY use the real speeds and roll once or twice
with the better encounter and ambush chances.  This seems more realistic
than restricting "chase" encounters right out of the game.  This would also
allow for road encounters where runners could be used, and if you weren't
dressed like one the guards just might want to know where you are in a
hurry to...

-there's my two cents... cha ching.

-maouse