Do we need movement rates in the player facing rules at all? I got a question via email about movement rates being 120ft while fighting where as B/X and LL just use a third of that. And I started wondering.
I guess at one point I decided that it wasn’t important anyway. Perhaps I should just remove “or fighting” from the text and write something about movement in general since the actual movement rates never quite come up in my game?
Does it ever come up in your game? Do you use a battle-map?
#RPG #Old School #Halberds and Helmets
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We use movement rate when we are using minis/mat for combat (sometimes not every combat). It never comes up when exploring though. There’s always something that stops the movement before the party would even get 120’. They find a door, an option to move a different direction, or a trap or similar object, so then the turn is up as they make a decision or take a non-moving action.
– Derik Badman 2019-02-25 13:40 UTC
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i use move die usually. armor subtracts from the move die and high agility adds. small races (like hobbits) have lower move die and elves have greater one. we use move die for almost all move-related feats in game. like: can i reach that ogre? throw d6. close: 2+; not really close:4+; really far: 6+; someone is blocking your path? add +1 to the DC; and so on and on...
– catseye yellow 2019-02-25 14:04 UTC
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I like the movement die, catseye!
I usually maintain movement as ref-facing, i.e. the players don’t engage with it directly. Wilderness travel is abstract enough that it’s basically 1 hex or 2 hexes per turn (day). In the dungeon, I judge when I need to make a random encounter check (or a turn-based hazard die check) based on a lot of factors: how far have they come, how quickly are they moving, what actions have they taken. None of this is spelled out for the players, the only real measure of time that they have is the inexorable steady rhythm of the random encounter die being thrown when I judge “a turn” to have passed.
And in combat (I usually play OD&Dish) I don’t use minis or mat, so it’s abstract: are you in melee, or not, long/medium/short range for missiles, are the enemy near/far/very far (for closing to melee), etc.
– acodispo 2019-02-25 15:53 UTC
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Yeah, even though I have played with sketches on paper for combat, using dice is probably faster and doesn’t invite all the discussions about where you were “really” standing and all of that!
– Alex Schroeder 2019-02-25 16:17 UTC
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I read the following (written for Pits & Perils) some time ago:
“If there is a pursuit, divide speed of all participants by 10, and add it to 2d6. If your movement is 40′, 2d6+4. The higher roll wins the pursuit. If one side has an overall slower speed, I may give an initiative advantage to the faster side.”
Simple and elegant.
– Michael Julius 2019-02-26 00:49 UTC
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Hm, so effectively, a step up in armor, which reduces your speed by 30, or by 10 in a fight, is the equivalent of a -1 on a 2d6 roll. Hm, interesting. Then again, I did get rid of my chase rule because we never used it. The rule you quoted is simple and elegant: but have you used it a few times at the table?
– Alex Schroeder 2019-02-26 06:25 UTC
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Sadly, no. In the current season of my life (ruled by babies), my game is largely hypothetical. The rule is copied into a small file of houserules on my list of must try.
– Michael Julius 2019-02-26 16:17 UTC
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I loved the way @frotz put it: “I love my complicated and intricate rules but for the most part no one else does.”
– Alex Schroeder 2019-02-26 18:10 UTC
