Overland Assessment Part 3: Let's Go For A Walk
MOVING
Terrain is broken down into three categories:
Normal terrain: Roads, plains, scrub, and deserts. Settled areas have enough roads that they count as "normal" terrain, as well.
Rugged terrain: Hills and forests.
Very Rugged terrain: Mountains, marshes, heavy forests.
Characters moving overland have a Base Speed, which is a movement rate in miles of normal terrain per day. Moving through Rugged terrain takes two miles of actual movement per mile travelled "as the crow flies" - moving through Very Rugged terrain takes four miles of movement per mile actually travelled "as the crow flies."
Mounted characters moving through Very Rugged terrain must abandon any carts or wagons, and can move only five miles per day. Horses don't like bogs or mountains. Ponies, dogs, and lizards move through Very Rugged terrain like people. Every 100 creatures in the party reduces the party's move speed by 1 mile per day (this probably won't come up.)
ENCOUNTERS
Each day of movement, there are 6 possible times at which an encounter could occur - morning, noon, evening, night, midnight, and pre-dawn. The type of terrain determines which of these times an encounter check should be made at. Parties of more than 100 creatures roll for encounters at every opportunity. Each encounter check has a 1 in 10 chance of producing an encounter in wilderness areas, 1 in 20 in populated areas, and 1 in 12 in those areas which are kind of in between.
When an encounter is generated, the first roll that's made is a check for surprise. Both sides roll, and the total number of surprise segments is recorded.
The second roll is for encounter distance - 6d4, minus the number of segments of surprise. A terrain adjustment is also made - I'm averaging these out, so:
Scrub: -3 Marsh: -4 Forest: -6
The third roll is then encounter reaction, to determine behavior. From then on, the encounter plays out according to the combat or pursuit rules.
GETTING LOST
Getting lost is mainly based on terrain. If the party is following a river, road, guide, or accurate map, there is no chance of surprise. Otherwise, before a day's movement begins, a roll for getting lost is made on a d10. The possible deviation is given by terrain, as well.
Plain: 1 in 10, 1 face Scrub: 3 in 10, 1 face Forest: 7 in 10, random face Rough: 3 in 10, 1 face Desert: 4 in 10, 1 face Hills: 2 in 10, 1 face Mountains: 5 in 10, 2 faces Marsh: 6 in 10, random face.
For most terrain, a die is rolled. An even result indicates a rightward deviation, while an odd result indicates a leftward one. For mountains, a d4 is rolled - a 1 or 3 indicates clockwise deviation (of 1 or 2 faces,) and a 2 or 4 indicates counterclockwise deviation (of 1 or 2 faces.) For marshes and forest, roll 1d6 for the number of faces of deviation, with a 6 indicating that the party spent the day moving in circles. This isn't the right procedure but I don't really care.
FORCED MOVEMENT You can increase the daily movement rate in 10% intervals by "borrowing" time from later. Once the party has made forced movement equal to a full day of normal movement, or ceases to make a forced march, they need additional rest equal to the additional movement they got if it was up to 30% of their normal movement, twice the additional movement they got if it was up to 60%, or three times the additional movement they got if it was up to 100%.
BOATS Are a way more complicated table. Next time.