The passage of time in an AD&D® campaign can have relatively minor or extremely significant effects on the play of the game. The importance of time is decided almost entirely by the DM. Some DMs care very little about strict timekeeping; others track every moment of action, using a rigid calendar. Either method is acceptable and each has its advantages and disadvantages. The two can even be combined, as appropriate to the situation.
Regardless of how time is handled, some timekeeping is unavoidable: Combats must be fought in rounds; spells have specific durations which become important as characters explore caverns and ancient ruins; days are used to measure overland travel; characters must sleep sometime.
However, most passing time occurs within a single adventure: Spells rarely carry over from adventure to adventure (unless the session is stopped with the characters lost in winding caverns or the like); rounds of combat, while taking several game minutes, don’t affect or spill over into subsequent adventures; days of travel often have no effect other than healing and the consumption of supplies.
If the DM wants, this is the only sort of timekeeping required. Time passed in previous adventures has little or no effect on the current session – each session or adventure is distinct and separate. For example, in one adventure, the characters spend a few hours in the dungeon, get injured, have some success, and return wounded. The night’s game session ends with them returning to their home base. Next game session, the DM announces, “A week or so has passed since you last went out. Everybody is healed and rested. People with spells can pick new ones.” The DM has chosen not to worry about the passage of time in this instance. An entire campaign can be played this way.
Here’s another example: In one adventure, a group of characters travels for three weeks and has several encounters, ending camped outside some ruins. The next session starts after the characters have camped for five days, so they can heal their wounds. Several hours pass as they explore the ruins, but no one is particularly hurt when they return to camp, and the game session ends.
The next session starts the morning after their previous adventure, everyone having gotten a good rest. The characters set out again. They spend a week on the road and arrive at a village. Here, the mage insists everyone wait while he researches a vital spell. Again, the game session ends. The next session begins two months later, after the mage has learned his spell and continues from there. Throughout all this, the DM is more or less winging it, estimating the time required and time spent.
There is nothing wrong with this method, nor is it particularly unrealistic. Medieval travelers often stopped at friendly or safe havens for long periods while on their way to a final destination. There was little pressure to hurry.
Using this simple time-tracking approach frees the DM from many of the concerns of timekeeping and prevents some obstacles to the adventure from occurring. (“We can’t go on an adventure! We’re all hacked up and have to heal.”) Most of all, it is easy.
Detailed Timekeeping
As noted, however, there are disadvantages to such simple time-tracking. Problems become more pronounced as the characters advance in level, your campaign world becomes larger, and more players take part in your game.
At low levels, characters tend to go on short adventures. A few hours in the dungeon followed by a speedy return is about all they can survive. Therefore, it is easy to have a week’s interval within adventures, since the time passed does not impact on the characters’ activities. As characters reach higher levels, however, their ambitions grow and their adventures become longer. More precise time-tracking proves useful.
More precise methods can become unworkable, however, when player characters split into small groups, undertaking separate, simultaneous adventures. If one group sefs out on a long journey while the rest of the party stays in the city, their game sessions are going to be at very different time scales.
In their first session, the city dwellers may go on a short dungeon expedition. Several hours of game time (the amount of imaginary time spent on the adventure) pass. The DM then has a session with the travelers, and they spend three weeks of game time in the wilderness during their game. There is now a game time difference between the two groups of three weeks minus one day!
If the travelers return to the city at the end of their adventure, the group in town must suddenly be moved forward in time to catch up with them if both groups wish to adventure together. Fortunately, this is not a great problem. The DM can simply say, “Three weeks have passed and you are all reunited again.”
The city adventurers can spend those three weeks doing background work – training, researching spells, making a minor magic item, building a house, etc. This is a good use of free time. However, if one of the city characters decides to join the travellers (perhaps using a teleport spell to catch up with them suddenly), the three-week difference becomes a problem. Was that character actually with the traveling group for three weeks without doing anything? Must he wait for three weeks before he can join them? What if the other characters in town want to adventure more during that time? At this point, keeping track of time (or having the players do it) becomes pretty important.
Preparing a Calendar
One advantage of careful timekeeping is the detail and flavor it adds to the DM’s campaign. If a calendar is kept, the DM has a way of recording the passing seasons, holidays, months, cycles of the moon, or other details that give a world life.
Clerics have holy days to observe, werewolves become more prevalent near full moons, snows come, and birds fly south. All of these are events that happen during the course of a year and make a world seem more real. Without some type of calendar, the DM has nothing to base has campaign on. Take, for example, the following exchange between players:
Jon (Johan the Cleric’s player): “Say, you know I’m a member of this temple. Do I have to do anything, or what? Do I give a sermon every week or are there some days of fasting or anything?”
DM: “Well, uh, yeah – you’ve got holy days you’re supposed to spend in prayer.”
Jon: “Oh, when?”
DM (in desperation): “Well, uh – Thanksgiving’s coming.”
Jon: “Oh, but you said it’s the middle of summer. Doesn’t Thanksgiving come at harvest time?”
Louise (chiming in): “You know, it’s been summer ever since my character started playing!”
DM: “Well – it’s magic!”
Not exactly a lot of color or planning there. Now, if the DM had worked out a calendar, he could have answered those questions with a lot more confidence.
Preparing a calendar does take time. The easiest method is to buy a small pocket calendar for the current year. Start the campaign on the same date as the first adventure. Thus, if the first game is played on April 3rd, the campaign starts on that day. The real calendar and game calendar will get out of sync quickly, but at least there will be a record of seasons, moons, and important dates.
This is a good starting point, but a modern calendar is not the same as that used in medieval times and certainly not the same as one used for a fantasy world. You’ll want to customize your calendar with details from your game world. So, what types of details should be included?
The Basics have to be determined. Aside from recording the length of years, months, and weeks (which can be anything the DM decides), the calendar should also name them. You can use real names or you can be quite fanciful (the Winter of the Broken Moon or the Moon of Popping Trees, and so on). Have fun.
Physical Cycles can be worked out. When do the seasons fall? When are the phases of the moon? When do the equinoxes and solstices occur? Strange and magical events often happen at these times.
Religious Observances should be added. All major player character religions should be assigned holy days, so that player character-priests will have something to observe. There are normally a lot of these, and they will vary from region to region.
Medieval calendars observed over 100 different holy days for saints or special events. Create your own such calendar, being sure to add special observances particular to each kingdom, empire, or region. These might include the king’s birthday, the date of a titanic victory over the infidel, the opening of a market fair in a nearby city, or the annual harvest festival.
Fantastic Events are clearly an important part of a fantasy world’s calendar. These can be anything imaginable – the annual visitation of a ghostly castle, the bi-monthly tribute demanded by the evil wizard, the night-march of mysterious nomads, or the seasonal migration of the wyvems.
Special Events should be included, as well. The local princess may have an impending wedding. The army may prepare for the annual campaign against the orc hordes. The death of an important official may require a set period of mourning. All of these can be used to fill up a calendar.
Clearly, setting up a detailed calendar takes planning and time. Events must be created and assigned to specific dates. Furthermore, the DM must have some idea of what happens during each event, preferably something that makes it different from all others.
What happens when the evil wizard comes to collect his tribute? (All the townsfolk shutter their houses and hide from his vile horde.) When the king posts the bans for his daughter’s nuptials? (A largess of 1 cp is granted all the poor of the city.) During the Festival of Antherra? (Shrines are paraded through the streets and there is much merriment.) The answers created by the DM supply the ultimate detail needed to make a campaign come alive.
Time as a Game-Balancer
Finally, remember that time can be used quite effectively to balance a campaign. With it, a DM can prevent an adventuring party from achieving too wide a spread of character levels. If one character is advancing faster than the others, that person’s progress can be slowed a little by carefully enforcing the rules for researching, training, and healing. If several people are outpacing the rest of the group, they can be required to go on longer adventures, ones that take more game time (but not playing time) to complete.
At the same time, characters who are lagging in level can have time restrictions relaxed a little. The day-to-day drudgeries go a little quicker for these characters, and their adventures require shorter amounts of game time. This will allow them to undertake several adventures to the other group’s one or two, giving the lower level characters a chance to catch up.
Although on the surface such things look unfair, most players will realize the DM is doing this for the best of all players involved.
Movement
The Player’s Handbook gives rules for player character movement on foot. However, feet and walking are not the only ways a character can get around. In the AD&D game world, characters can ride horses, bounce along on camels, sail aboard ships, and even fly winged mounts. Clearly there are many different forms of conveyance, the most common of which are covered here.
In addition, there are hazards and risks that must be considered when traveling. Player characters can get lost in untracked wildernesses, capsize in cascading rapids, or run aground on hidden shoals. Getting around can be a risky business.
Mounted Overland Movement
Mounted movement cross-country is affected by a number of factors. The two principal ones are the movement rate of the mount and the type of terrain traversed. Under normal conditions, all mounts are able to move a number of miles per day equal to their movement rate. Terrain, such as roads or mountains, can alter trus rate.
Advantages of Mounted Movement
When determining overland movement rates, remember that most riders spend as much time walking their mounts as they do riding them. The real advantage of riding is in the extra gear the mount can carry and its usefulness in combat.
Thus, while an unencumbered man can go about the same distance as a heavy warhorse across clear terrain (24 miles as opposed to 30), the man must travel with virtually no gear to move at that rate. Were he to carry an assortment of arms, a suit of chain mail armor, and his personal items, he would find it impossible to keep up with a mounted man similarly encumbered.
Increasing Overland Speed
A mount can be pushed to double its normal daily movement rate, but only at the risk of lameness and exhaustion. Any creature moving overland at double speed (or any fraction thereof) must make a saving throw vs. death.
If the saving throw is successful, the creature is unaffected. If the saving throw is failed, the creature is lame or spent; it can’t travel any farther that day. Thereafter, it can move only at its normal movement rate until it is rested for at least one day. For each successive day a horse is ridden at double movement, a -1 penalty is applied to the
saving throw.
Overland movement can be increased to triple the normal rate, although the risks to the animal are even greater. When moving at triple the normal rate, a saving throw vs. death must be made with a -3 penalty applied to the die roll. If the saving throw is failed, the creature collapses from exhaustion and dies. If the saving throw succeeds, the creature is merely spent and must be rested –not ridden at all – for 1d3 days.
When a creature goes lame, exhausts itself, or is ridden too hard, there is no way of knowing just when the creature will collapse. Player characters can’t be certain of traveling the full double or triple distance. The DM should determine where and when the creature collapses. This can be a random place or at some point the DM thinks is best for the adventure.
Care of Animals
Although player characters should not be forced into the role of grooms, all animals do have some basic needs that must be provided for. However, each animal is different, so the requirements for each are listed separately.
Horses: While strong and fast, horses are not the hardiest creatures for traveling. Horses need around ten pounds of forage and fodder a day. Furthermore, good quality mounts should be fed grain, such as oats. A heavy war horse can’t survive the rigors of travel by grazing on grass. Characters who can’t provide enough food of high enough quality will watch their horses weaken and die. Horses must also have water every day. This can become particularly difficult in the desert.
During daily travel, horses must be allowed to stop and rest with regular frequency. During these stops the mount should be unsaddled or all packs removed. If this isn’t done, little profit is gained from the rest. At night horses should be hobbled or tethered on a long rope so they can graze. If one or two are tied, the others will generally not wander off. Horses need not be shod, unless they walk mostly on hard-surfaced roads or rocky ground. Horseshoes should be replaced about once a month.
Ponies, Donkeys, and Mules: These animals have much the same needs as the horse. One of their main advantages is their ability to survive by grazing. Well accustomed to grass, there is no need to provide them with separate fodder. Their hardiness is such that saving throws vs. death made for double movement gain a +2 bonus. This does not apply to triple movement.
The other great advantage of these creatures is their sure-footedness. They can travel through rugged terrain at one less than the normal movement cost. Thus, low mountains cost only three movement points.
Camels: Camels are either suited to sandy deserts (as in the case of the dromedary) or rocky deserts (the bactrian camel). It’s worth nothing that dromedaries are ill-suited to rocky deserts, and bactrian camels aren’t appropriate mounts in sandy deserts! Dromedary camels reduce the movement cost of sandy desert by 1 point. Bactrian camels have the same effect in rocky deserts.
All camels march better by night, when it is cooler. Dromedary camels are able to withstand a few days of cold weather (the temperature drops drastically in the desert at night); and some bactrian camels actually live in freezing and mountainous deserts.
Although camels can manage for long periods of time without water, they must be fed every day. They do not need special fodder so long as grazing is possible. On the average they should have water at least every four days, although they can be trained to do without for longer periods, even up to several months if green grass or leaves are available for grazing. Like horses, camels should be hobbled or tethered to prevent them from wandering off.
Dogs: Particularly tough breeds can be used to pull sleds and sledges. Some are suited to cold weather and will withstand a great deal of hardship. They require at least a pound of meat a day, so characters should pack dried meat for the dogs. If necessary, one dog can be killed to feed the others, but this is not recommended. Beyond the needs of feeding, sled dogs tend to care for themselves fairly well, although the characters may have to keep certain animals separated to prevent fighting.
Elephants: As can be expected, elephants eat a prodigious amount of fodder every day. In thickly forested areas, this can be supplied without reducing the beasts’ already slow speed. Elephants can also be found in sparsely forested plains, though. Here, if left to graze for itself, the beast will move at ¼ its normal movement rate. Except for the carrying capacity of the beast, the characters might as well walk at these speeds! Elephants should bathe (or be bathed) every day and will avail themselves of dust baths to keep biting flies away.
It should also come as no surprise that elephants can’t negotiate cliffs. They can bound down steep slopes – indeed, it is the only time they go fast – but only at great peril to themselves and their riders. If the beast fails a saving throw vs. breath weapon (used for general tests of dexterity), it stumbles, falls, and rolls the rest of the way down the slope. The fall may kill or severely injure the elephant; the choice is left to the DM. Elephants are affected only by the deepest mud, so the movement penalty for mud is ignored.
Yaks: Yaks are suited to the cold regions of high mountains. While slow, they are sturdy, unaffected by the cold. Their sure footing allows them to reduce all mountain movement rates by one. They can survive by grazing on a meagre amount of grass. Yaks also provide meat and milk for travellers. They live in cool regions and cannot survive long in warmer climates since they are prone to collapse from heat exhaustion.
Vehicles
While animals are useful for getting around in the wilderness, they are seriously limited by the size of the load they can carry. Peasants and merchants often use wagons and carts for trade in civilized areas. Chariots are favored by the wealthy and in times of war, but are not normally used for long-distance travel. Sledges and dog sleds are handy in snow and ice-bound regions. Player characters may find all these vehicles necessary during the course of their adventures.
Carts are small two-wheeled affairs. They can be pulled by one or two animals, but no more than this. Wagons are four-wheeled and can hitch anywhere from two to 12 (or even more!).
The movement rate of a horse or other animal is automatically reduced by half when hitched. Additional animals do not increase the speed. However, the standard load the beast can carry is tripled. The weight of the cart or wagon and driver is not considered for this, only the cargo. Each additional animal adds its tripled capacity to the total load hauled. Thus, a wagon pulled by eight draft horses could carry 6,240 lbs., or slightly over three tons, worth of cargo (260 x 3 x 8). Of course, traveling will be slow – only 12 miles a day on a level road.
Chariots are intended more for speed, comfort, and their usefulness in warfare than for their ability to haul loads. Chariots can hitch one to four horses (or other creatures), but no more than this. A horse can pull its normal load (the weight of the chariot not included) at ⅔ its normal movement rate.
Each additional horse in the hitch either increases the cargo limit by the horse’s standard load or increases the movement rate by a factor of 1. The chariot can’t have more movement points than the creatures pulling it would normally have. A chariot pulled by four medium war horses could have a movement rate of 15 or pull 880 lbs., enough for four large or armored men. It could also have some combination of the two (movement rate of 13 and a cargo of 660 in the above example).
Terrain and Vehicles
The greatest limitation on all these vehicles is terrain. Wagons, carts, and chariots are restricted to level or open ground unless traveling on a road or the best trails. While a wagon can cross a mountain range by staying to the open valleys and passes, it just can’t make good progress in a thick forest. This problem generally restricts wagons to travel between settlements, where roads and paths are common.
Sledges and dog sleds can be used only in snow-covered or ice-coated lands. Sledges (pulled by horses or the like) are roughly equivalent to carts. No more than two horses can be hooked to a sledge. Horse-drawn sledges are effective only on hard-packed snows and ice and can ignore the penalties for these. Deep snow merely causes the horse to flounder and the runners of the sledge to sink, so no benefit is gained in these conditions.
Dog sleds are normally pulled by seven to 11 dogs. When hitched, a sled dog’s movement is reduced by ½. However each additional dog adds one movement factor to the sledge, up to the maximum of movement of the animal. Thus a dog sled with seven dogs would have a movement of 14½. Each dog can pull 50 lbs., not including the weight of the sledge. Due to their lighter weight and the sledge design, dog sleds can cross all types of snow and ice without penalty.
Terrain Effects on Movement (Optional Rule)
Terrain, or the nature of the ground, has little effect on short-term movement. A character running pell-mell across a meadow can do about the same speed in the desert, or on a sandy beach. Only the most extreme terrain hinders short term movement.
These extreme conditions are listed given on Table 73 as reductions of movement rate. The reduction applies to all movement for a single round. When a character is in two different types of terrain during the same round, use the worst (i.e., most difficult) adjustment.
*Faster movement is possible.
Darkness and Ice
The movement adjustments given for both darkness and ice assume reasonable safety for the characters. At these speeds characters will have no more than normal chances of slipping or falling. However, characters can move at faster than safe speeds under these conditions.
If characters choose to move more quickly (up to their normal movement rate), they must roll a Dexterity check each round. If the check is passed, nothing happens. If the check is failed, the character has tripped over some unseen obstacle or sprawled out from an unexpected slide.
In perfect darkness the character can’t be certain that he is walking in the right direction unless he has spells or other assistance. Assuming the character is on his own, the DM can choose what happens or he can determine randomly by rolling 1d12. On a 1-4 the character maintains the desired course. On a 5-8 he veers to the right and on a 9-12 he goes to the left. The consequences of such course changes depends entirely on the DM and his map.
Terrain Modifiers in Overland Movement
Overland movement is much more affected by terrain than single-round movement. Thus, a wide variety of terrain types slow or, on very rare occasions, increase the character’s rate of movement.
Overland movement is measured in miles. It is possible for characters to cross several different types of terrain in a single day. To say that characters must take the worst terrain modifier for all movement is ridiculous. Imagine telling players they have to travel at the mountain movement rate when they are crossing the plains just because they spent their first hour in the mountains!
Furthermore, in round movement the DM can see where a character will be at the end of the round and what terrain he had to cross to get there. In overland movement, it is very hard to predict all the different terrain types characters will enter during the course of a day.
Table 74 lists the effects of different terrain. These are listed as points of movement spent per mile of travel through that terrain type. When a character or creature moves through the listed terrain, that number is subtracted from the total movement available to the character or creature that day.
Roads and Trails
The main purpose of roads and trails is to provide a clear route for wagons, carts, and other forms of heavy transport. It is impossible for such vehicles to cross any terrain that has a movement point cost greater than 1 unless they are following a road or trail. In addition, roads and trails normally go somewhere, so it is hard (but not impossible) for characters to get lost while following them.
Trails are by far the most common cleared track found in AD&D® game worlds. Often little more than narrow game trails, they are the natural result of traffic moving from one point to another. Though not roads (in that they are not maintained), they tend to be fairly open pathways. Still, characters may have to see to the removal of fallen trees and stones or the clearing of brush – all things that can be accomplished by the occasional traveler.
Trails normally follow the path of least resistance, avoiding difficult obstacles such as chasms, cliffs, and unfordable rivers. While this may increase the distance characters must travel, it usually results in an overall saving of time and effort.
When traveling along a trail, the movement point cost is half normal for the terrain type traversed by the trail. Following a trail through the heavy forest, for example, (movement cost of three) costs only 1½ movement points per mile. An unencumbered man on foot would be able to march eight miles through such terrain without exerting himself. Trails through settled farmland offer no improvement, since these areas are easy to travel through already.
Roads are costly to build and maintain, so they were very rare in the Middle Ages (the general time period of the AD&D game). Only the largest and best organized empires can undertake such ambitious construction programs.
In areas of level or rolling ground, such as forests and plains, roads reduce the movement cost to one-half point per mile. In areas of mountainous ground, roads are no better than trails and reduce movement costs accordingly. A road traveling through high mountains is only four movement points per mile.
Terrain Obstacles and Hindrances
The movement point costs given above assume the best of conditions even in the worst of terrain. The mountains are assumed to be free of cliffs; the woods have no high-banked streams; rains haven’t turned the plains to mud; the tundra hasn’t been blanketed in snow. However, poor traveling conditions do occur, and when they do travel is slowed. Table 75 lists common obstacles and situations that slow movement. The modifiers for these are listed as either additional movement point costs or multipliers.
When additional movement costs are listed, these are added to the cost of the surrounding terrain. Thus, crossing a ridge in the high mountains costs nine movement points for that mile instead of the normal eight.
Multipliers increase the movement cost by the amount listed. Snow, for example, doubles the cost of crossing the plains. Indeed, severe weather conditions – blinding snowstorms or torrential rains – can actually bring all travel to a halt.
* These assume the player characters find a route around the obstacle. Alternatively, the DM can require the characters to scale or span the obstacle, playing out this encounter.
** These extremes must be in excess of the norm expected of the character or creature. Thus, a camel is relatively unaffected by the scorching heat of a desert and a yak barely notices the cold of high mountains.
*** This cost is negated by the presence of a bridge or ford.
Movement on Water
One of the fastest and easiest ways to get somewhere is to travel on a river. It’s hard to get lost; a large amount of equipment can be easily carried; it is faster and easier than walking; characters can even do other things (mend clothes, learn spells, cook meals) while traveling on smooth waters.
River travel is not without its risks, however. Eddies, snags, sandbars, rapids, and dangerous waterfalls can make a journey quite exciting. Fortunately, most of these hazards can be avoided by knowledgeable characters.
The rate of movement on a river is determined by two factors: the type of boat and the flow of the current. If the boat is traveling downstream (in the direction of the current), add the speed of the current to the speed of the boat. If the boat is traveling against the current, subtract this amount from the boat’s speed. Table 76 lists rates in both feet/round and miles/hour for the common types of riverboats.
When sailing downstream, characters must be wary of unexpected hazards. While a good map can show the location of waterfalls and rapids, only a knowledgeable guide or pilot knows the location of hidden sandbars, snags, and dangerous eddies. While these are easy to avoid when traveling upstream (all one need do is stop paddling), unprepared boaters can quickly be swept into them going downstream.
Once characters find themselves in a dangerous situation, they must make a Wisdom check (modified for seamanship proficiency, if this is used) to prevent capsizing. Capsized boats and goods are swept downstream, although hazards like waterfalls and particularly strong rapids will smash most craft.
*These vessels can triple their hourly movement when the sail is raised (provided the wind has the right heading).
Ocean Voyaging
Ocean journeys are a dangerous business, especially in a fantasy world. Sea serpents, incredible maelstroms, and other imaginary horrors that filled the maps of medieval navigators really can lurk in the deeps of the AD&D® game’s oceans. Not that they are really necessary – pirates, storms, hidden shoals, and primitive navigational techniques leave the typical sea captain with more than enough danger to cope with.
Deep-sea sailing is pretty much unknown in the AD&D game world. The majority of captains prefer to stay close to known coasts. Without navigation equipment only a few ships venture into open water beyond the sight of land. Ship-building skills are not fully up to the needs of deep-sea sailing. Most ships are easily swamped by the stormy waters of major oceans, while their small size prevents crews from carrying adequate supplies for long voyages. Even the skills of sail-handling are in their rudimentary stages.
However, these limitations are not serious in a fantasy world. Those with wealth can cross oceans by other, more practical, means: flying mounts, undersea dwellers, and teleportation are all available, at least to the rich and powerful. (The vast majority of the population does not have access to these forms of travel.) Also, magical transport is impractical for moving large cargoes. The need to move goods and the scarcity of magical transport make sailing a valuable and necessary art.
Table 77 lists ships that could commonly be found in a medieval world. The table lists basic game information about each ship: base speed, emergency speed, and seaworthiness. More information about each ship is given in the chapter on Money & Equipment in the Player’s Handbook.
Base move per hour is the average speed of the vessel under good conditions. Where two numbers are separated by a slash, the first is the speed under sail and the second is the rowing speed.
To determine the movement of a ship per round (in rare occasions where this is necessary), multiply the current speed times 30. This is the yards traveled per round.
Emergency move is the top speed of the vessel in emergency or combat situations. For sailing ships, emergency speed is gained by putting on every yard of sail possible. Galleys and other oared ships rely on the strength of their rowers. This speed can only be maintained for short periods of time. Too long and rowers will collapse; masts, yards, and sails will break.
Seaworthiness rates the vessel’s ability to remain afloat in dangerous situations, notably storms, hidden shoals, extended voyages, huge monster attacks, and rams. Any time the DM rules that there is a chance of sinking, he rolls percentile dice. If the roll is equal to or less than the seaworthiness rating of the ship, it remains afloat, though bailing or repairs may be necessary. If the roll is higher than the seaworthiness rating, the ship sinks.
Ports and anchorages give a seaworthiness bonus of +50%. Thus, vessels at anchor are in little or no danger from a normal storm.
Weather and Ship Travel
More than other methods of travel, ships (especially sailing ships) are subject to the whims of wind and weather. While it can be assumed that sailing weather is normally good, there are times when storms, favorable winds, or freak currents can increase or decrease a ship’s speed. The effects of different weather conditions are listed on Table 78.
| Table 78: SAILING MOVEMENT MODIFIERS | ||
| Weather Condition |
Sailing Modifier |
Rowing Modifier |
| Adverse | ×½ | ×1 |
| Becalmed | NA | ×1 |
| Favorable (average) | ×2 | ×1 |
| Favorable (strong) | ×3 | ×1* |
| Gale | ×4* | ×½* |
| Hurricane | ×5** | ×½** |
| Light breeze | ×1 | ×1 |
| Storm | ×3* | ×½* |
* A seaworthiness check is required.
** A seaworthiness check with a -45% penalty is required.
Weather conditions are generally fairly consistent within a single day. (This is an obvious simplification to keep the game moving.) The exact conditions for a given day can be chosen by the DM (perhaps by using the weather outside) or it can be determined randomly. To do the latter, roll 2d6 and find the result on Table 79.
*Hurricanes occur only if the previous day’s weather was gale. If not, treat the result as a gale.
Adverse winds are determined by rolling 1d6. On a 5 or 6, the winds are unfavorable. When adverse winds are storm strength or greater, the ship will be blown off-course by at least half its movement under those conditions, regardless of whether it is a sailing ship or galley.
Aerial Movement
Aerial movement rates are handled according to the normal movement rules, with clear sky being treated as clear terrain. A detailed system of aerial movement during the round can be found in Chapter 9: Combat. The only special consideration that must be given to aerial movement is the weather condition. Weather is, for all practical purposes, the terrain of the sky.
As with sea movement, the weather for any particular occasion can be chosen by the DM or determined randomly. If determined randomly, the DM should first roll a wind condition (as found on Table 79, above).
Next, the DM rolls 1d6 to determine precipitation (although storms and hurricanes have automatic precipitation). During summer and winter, a 6 on the die indicates rain or snow. In spring and fall, a 5 or 6 is rain. Clearly the DM must adjust this according to the terrain of the region. There is little need to make precipitation checks when flying over a desert, for example.
Be aware that this is only a very simple method for determining the weather, and judgment should still be used. The effects of weather on aerial movement can be found on Table 80.
| Table 80: AERIAL MOVEMENT MODIFIERS | |
| Condition | Modifier |
| Hurricane | Not possible |
| Gale | ¼ |
| Storm | ×¼ |
| Rain or snow | ×½ |
| Strong winds | ×½ |
These modifiers are cumulative. Thus strong winds and rain are the equivalent of a storm, while a gale with rain is worse than a storm. Flight during a hurricane is just about impossible with some type of magical protection.
Getting Lost
Monsters, bandits, evil wizards, and villainous knights can all make travel in the wilderness dangerous. But none of these is the greatest hazard characters will have to face. Getting lost is equally dangerous and far more common. Once characters are lost, almost anything can happen.
There are two ways of getting lost: There’s just lost and then there’s hopelessly lost. Each is quite different from the other.
Just Lost
Sometimes, characters are lost because they do not know how to get to a specific place. They know where they have been (and how to get back there), but they don’t know the correct route to reach their goal. This occurs most often when following a road, a trail, a map, a river, or a set of directions.
Under these circumstances, there is a reasonable certainty that the player characters will wind up somewhere. After all, roads go from place to place and rivers start and end somewhere. Whether this is where the player characters want to go is another matter entirely. No particular rules are needed to handle these situations, only some confusing forks in the road and the wit (or lack thereof) of the players.
For example, imagine the characters following a well-marked trail. Rounding the corner, they find the trail splits into two equally used trails. The directions they got in the last village said nothing about the trail branching. They must guess which way is the right way to go. In a sense, they are now lost. Once they choose a trail, they do not know if their guess was correct until they get to the end. But, they can always find their way back to the last village. So they are not hopelessly lost. This can also happen when following rivers, roads, or blaze markings.
Hopelessly Lost
Hopelessly lost is another matter altogether. This happens when player characters have no idea where they are, how exactly to get back to where they were, or which way to go to get to where they want to be.
Although it can happen, player characters seldom get hopelessly lost when following some obvious route (a road or river). Trails do not guarantee safety since they have a maddening habit of disappearing, branching, and crossing over things that look like they should be trails (but aren’t).
The chance of getting hopelessly lost can be reduced by sighting on a landmark and keeping a bearing on it, or by hiring a guide. Darkness, overcast days, thick forests, and featureless wastes or plains all increase the chance of getting lost.
Checks for getting hopelessly lost should only be made when the player characters are not following a clear road, river, or trail. Checks should be made when following a little-used trail or when a river empties into a swamp, estuary, or delta. Checks should also be made when moving cross-country without the aid of a trail, river, or road. One check should be made per day.
To make the check, find the entry on Table 81 that best matches the type of terrain the characters are in. This will give a percentage chance to become lost. From this, add or subtract any modifiers found on Table 82. Roll percentile dice. If the die roll is less than the percentage, the characters are lost.
* This would apply, for example, when the characters are sailing out of sight of land.
** The usefulness of directions and the knowledge of a guide are entirely up to the DM. Sometimes these are very helpful but at other times only manage to make things worse.
Dealing With Lost Characters
Once a group is lost, no further checks need be made – they’re lost until they get themselves back in familiar territory (or until they get lucky and happen upon someone who can help them out.
Don’t tell players when their characters are lost! Let them continue to think they are headed in the right direction. Gradually veer them away from their true direction. Player characters should realize for themselves that they’re no longer heading in the right direction. This generally comes when they don’t get to whatever point they hoped to reach.
For example, a group of player characters is following a poor trail through lightly wooded hills on their way to a village three days’ march due west. On the first day, they sensibly set their sights on a large rock to the west as their landmark.
Their chance of getting lost is 15% – 40 for being in wooded hills minus 15 because they’ve got a landmark minus 10 because they’re on a trail (40 – 15 – 10 = 15). The DM checks to see if they become lost and rolls a 07, They’re lost, but they don’t know it!
The players announce that their characters are marching to the west (to follow the landmark), but, unknown to them, the path takes them somewhat southwest. As the characters get close to their landmark, they sight a new one in a straight line beyond it. They think they are still headed west, but their new course is now northwest.
The player characters are likely to realize that they are off course only when they don’t find the village at the end of three days’ marching. At that point, they don’t know just when they got off course and so they are hopelessly lost.
Remember that the best defense against getting lost is not to try to go anywhere in particular. There is little point in checking to see if characters get lost if they don’t have a goal. It is perfectly possible for characters just to strike out “to see what can be seen.” If one has no place to be and no concern about ever getting back, one cannot get lost.