Travel & Terrain

Travel & Terrain     In Lur-Asko, a distressingly vast portion of an adventurer's time is spent simply traveling from place to place. Of course, your time as a player is spent mostly on the more interesting challenges at the end of those trips. Still, it will be necessary to know how fast your party travels, at the very least to determine how long a trip will take. Well-equipped parties must also consider whether the terrain of their route will interfere with their choice of vehicle.
Terrain Ease        The favorability of terrain for speedy travel is categorized as terrain ease, or TE. TE5 allows maximum travel speed with no complications, while TE0 is extremely slow. TEs are used to determine characters' travel speed later in this chapter, and are also used in other chapters to give speeds of land vehicles.
Terrain Ease 5     TE5 refers to the major city-connecting roads on the map of Lur-Asko. It may also apply to paved and well-maintained minor roads, both in settled areas and in Alacrian ruins. Travelers in TE5 generally do not have to worry about any extra challenges to their trip from the terrain.
Terrain Ease 4     TE4 refers to minor unpaved roads, as well as wide-open fields and flatlands. It is not as perfect as TE5, but is still firm, flat terrain that presents little to no additional difficulty for characters on foot.
Terrain Ease 3     TE3 can refer to lightly wooded areas, slightly hilly terrain, wet or lush fields, or shrubland. This TE describes most of the plains and grasslands of Manusia and Macska, nearly all flatlands in Skreti, most of Cevelky, early-winter tundra in Hal'Tayat, and the shadowlands of I'Gremsul.
Terrain Ease 2     TE2 indicates moderate woods, hills and foothills, or a slightly swampy or otherwise "squishy" area. Sand dunes in Nani, most of any realm's forests or hilly areas, mountain valleys, and heavy snow are all described by this TE. It also describes the "borders" of I'Gremsul's biomes.
Terrain Ease 1     TE1 can refer to dense forest, mountainous terrain, swamps, and the like. All mountain ranges, the core forests of Manusia and Hal'Tayat, the jungle or swamps of I'Gremsul, and Hal'Tayat spring/summer tundra all fall under this TE.
Terrain Ease 0     TE0 indicates terrain that is impassable without enormous time and effort. It is usually used for more severe varieties of the terrain described by TE1.

Terrain, Challenges, & Zones Terrain Ease on its own does not automatically call for other challenges to face the party, such as Climbing or Falling. In specific situations, such a challenge might indeed provide some kind of shortcut or other benefit in mountainous areas, and might even be necessary to proceed at all. Climbing might be used to bypass a TE0 area of stark volcanic mountain peaks, but TE0 could just as easily be a deep swamp where an amphibious character could take a shortcut. No such challenge is mandated by TE; for example, swampy tundra in TE1 provides few opportunities for climbing, swimming, or really anything but miserable slogging.

Similarly, TE does not directly affect combat rules, or determine when a zone receives the Easy Terrain or Rough Terrain traits. TE describes the general experience of a lengthy trip, not the precise content of every single zone. You might encounter a clearing in a dense forest, after all, or a dry section of a swamp. A lower TE might indeed have a greater number of Rough Terrain, Confining Environment, or High Clutter zones, or it might just be a mountainous maze of normal zones separated by cliffs or chasms.

Character Travel Speed Travel speed is given in miles per hour, and refers to how quickly a character can make general progress along a route on the map. It does not mean that the character always travels at exactly X mph (lunch breaks are necessary, after all), nor is it used in combat. However, a character's travel speed is derived from their SPD stat, as well as the Terrain Ease of their route that hour:

Terrain Ease	TE5	TE4	TE3	TE2	TE1	TE0
Character travel speed (in mph)	1/3 SPD	1/3 SPD	1/4 SPD	1/8 SPD	1/16 SPD	1/50 SPD

Unlike most other math in Legends, do not round down a character's travel speed. For example, a character of 8 SPD in TE4 still travels at 2 ⅔ mph.

These rules apply to all characters, including pack animals and mounts; simply consider the mount's SPD instead of the rider's.

Travel of any meaningful distance is impossible if a character has 4 or more degrees of encumbrance.

Hurried Travel It is assumed that adventurers (even those without tiers in Athletics) are at least fit enough to walk at a normal pace without taking exhaustion. If they are willing to take exhaustion, though, a character can hurry their travel. Hurrying doubles one's travel speed in all terrain, but inflicts 6 exhaustion per hour. This exhaustion is reduced by Aerobics Focus (Athletics). Remember that exhaustion can inflict degrees of encumbrance that will eventually reduce SPD. Travel cannot be hurried if infiltration rules are also being used.

Terrain Ease	TE5	TE4	TE3	TE2	TE1	TE0
Character hurried travel speed (in mph)	2/3 SPD	2/3 SPD	1/2 SPD	1/4 SPD	1/8 SPD	1/25 SPD

Excessive Travel If a character travels for more than 8 hours per day, every additional hour of travel inflicts 3 exhaustion. Unlike exhaustion from hurried travel, this is inflicted upon a rider as well as their mount, and is not reduced by Aerobics Focus (Athletics). Travel can be both excessive and hurried.
Mixed-SPD Groups Obviously, a group that wishes to stick together must travel at the pace of their slowest member. Slower characters may hurry their travel to keep up with faster ones who are not hurrying. If the difference is close (i.e. the slow character does not need anything close to double travel speed to keep up), they may "half-hurry," taking hurried exhaustion every 2 hours instead of 1.

Travel With Mobility Injuries If a character has a 1st-degree Mobility Injury, consider only 50% of their bSPD for the purposes of travel rules. For a 2nd-degree Mobility Injury, consider only 25%. 3rd-degree Mobility Injuries prohibit travel.

Strong fellow travelers without a Mobility Injury can help an injured character along by accepting 25% of the injured characters weight (including their inventory weight) as extra carried weight. This reduces the effect of a Mobility Injury on travel by 1 degree. Only one character at a time may assist. Of course, if a character can be carried in their entirety by someone else (or by a mount or vehicle), their injuries will be fully irrelevant.

Travel With Flying SPD & Soaring Flight A character with a flying SPD may travel at at a mph speed equal to 1.5 times the value of their flying SPD stat. However, most sources of flying SPD are impractical for long travel, due to high fatigue or charge costs.

Some creatures have listed rules for soaring flight, which allows them to use a lesser speed for travel in exchange for a greatly reduced cost, as the creature makes use of thermals and wind layers to remain aloft. The exact speed varies with the creature. Soaring flight cannot be practically used in combat or bad weather.

Soaring flight is additionally affected by terrain, but not according to Terrain Ease. After obtaining the creature's normal soaring flight travel speed, increase that speed by 25% when flying over mountains, desert, plains, oceans, or large lakes. Reduce it to 75% when flying over forests or swamps.

For any type of flight, follow the rules above for Mobility Injury (or Wing Injury, if appropriate), as well as excessive travel, unless different rules are stated in the creature's description. Flying characters cannot hurry travel.