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Fantasy Distances for Horse Girls at Heart
Apr. 2nd, 2024 08:10 amPreindustrial travel, and long explanations on why different distances are like that
https://grison-in-space.tumblr.com/post/739237414569164800/all-of-this-with-one-additional-nudge-even-the
The general rule of thumb for preindustrial times is that a healthy and prime-aged adult on foot, or a rider/horse pair of fit and prime-aged adults, can usually make 20-30 miles per day, in fair weather and on good terrain.
Twenty miles a day on foot sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I think maybe the lived experience of American and Canadian suburban sprawl makes it seem like twenty miles isn't a great distance, but it's fairly substantial. If you live in a place that retains traces of its preindustrial society, like England or Japan, it's a comfortable half-day's walk from one town to another. Unless we're talking about one of the major citystates on the Silk Road, one "domain" or "kingdom" is going to be relatively small by modern standards. Obviously nobody's going to live out in the middle of the woods or the mountains, but there are plenty of places for a traveler to eat and rest.
I mean, I love continent-spanning RPGs as much as anyone else, but a territory the size of New Jersey is plenty epic and has a good diversity of biomes. In the novel I'm currently writing, a remote ruined kingdom is maybe, like, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from where the characters start.
... ... ...damn I just got misty-eyed thinking about a world where we didn't have to own cars. It's okay. I'm fine.
https://grison-in-space.tumblr.com/post/739237414569164800/all-of-this-with-one-additional-nudge-even-the
The general rule of thumb for preindustrial times is that a healthy and prime-aged adult on foot, or a rider/horse pair of fit and prime-aged adults, can usually make 20-30 miles per day, in fair weather and on good terrain.
Twenty miles a day on foot sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I think maybe the lived experience of American and Canadian suburban sprawl makes it seem like twenty miles isn't a great distance, but it's fairly substantial. If you live in a place that retains traces of its preindustrial society, like England or Japan, it's a comfortable half-day's walk from one town to another. Unless we're talking about one of the major citystates on the Silk Road, one "domain" or "kingdom" is going to be relatively small by modern standards. Obviously nobody's going to live out in the middle of the woods or the mountains, but there are plenty of places for a traveler to eat and rest.
I mean, I love continent-spanning RPGs as much as anyone else, but a territory the size of New Jersey is plenty epic and has a good diversity of biomes. In the novel I'm currently writing, a remote ruined kingdom is maybe, like, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from where the characters start.
... ... ...damn I just got misty-eyed thinking about a world where we didn't have to own cars. It's okay. I'm fine.
