babyblueavenger
Me trying to figure out the distance between places and how long it’ll take a character to get there in a society that travels mostly on foot:
Relatable…
Good roads, fairly level (or at least gently graded) terrain, reasonably fit human (most in a walking society would be accustomed to all that walking)… If they’re walking mostly in daylight hours with regular rest breaks, plenty of food, a good night’s sleep, all in good weather and with only a mild burden…an adult can do about 30 miles (approximately 48km) in a day.
But if all their transport is done on foot and they have no pack animals, yet are hauling a lot of gear on their back, slow it down to 20mi (32km). If they’re pulling a travois (pole drag) or maneuvering a push-cart, slow it down further.
If they’re traveling at night, it will depend on their night vision and their light source; a mostly foot-based society probably won’t have high-powered thousand-lumens flashlights or headlamps to see by, so slow it waaay down.
If they’re traveling unfamiliar territory, slow it down a little…but on the converse side, if it’s familiat terrain, give them a familiarity bonus and speed up how far they can travel in a given timeframe. (Unless they’re being called home to be yelled at by their parental figures, lol, then slow it waaay down, lol.)
If the road is rough or the terrain steep, slow it down. If the weather is harsh, slow it down. If there is no road where they are going, cut the speed according to the terrain. LIght forest or grasslands, 75%. Modest forests 50%. Thick hack-your-way underbrush/jungle, slow it to 25% speed…and these calculations are after discerning elevation changes and weather conditions and burden management. However, slow it to 10% if you have a frikkin’ cart you’re trying to get somewhere, or any other Wide Load. A travois might be acceptable if it’s narrow.
If you’re traveling with another person and using shoulder carry poles with gear dangling, slow it to about 75% to 50%, depending on their strength and burden weight. (And terrain, weather, etc.)
Also footwear can make a difference. If it’s rough or thorny terrain and the characters are walking barefoot, they’re definitely going to go slower, or if they’re walking with open sandals. Boots don’t always guarantee great traction, however.
If it’s pre-rubber-availability, boots and other leather but non-moccassin shoes are usually either hobnailed or not. If hobnailed, they’re used on muddy terrain, and they can be painful to walk upon over long distances (metal lumps, only a few layers of leather to cut down on construction cost, in most cases). But walking on cobblestones, flagstones, brick roads, etc, means that the metal studs on the bottoms of your shoes run the risk of slipping. (You’ll gain back some traction on icy paved streets, but not on rain-wet paved streets.)
If they’re meant for walking on paved roads, shoes & boots tend not to be hobnailed, but they lack traction and you’ll slip on wet surfaces, and definitely slip on any muddy or icy slopes. If your character can afford it, they could have two kinds of footwear…but even so, they’d still have to carry the weight of that second pair of shoes. People who travel on foot tend to either have lots of servants (often slaves, in historical accounts) to carry extra gear, or they pare down their own gear when traveling.
One way around the different types of terrain traction issue is to make rope sandals, by stitching coils of braided rope in place (think braided rug construction style, not woven like cloth). The coils can provide “grip” or traction–more than smooth leather in mud, more than hobnail studs on paving–and if you make them thick, they can be remarkably comfortable. But it’s not always feasible in wet climates because water will soak into the rope, saturate it, and give it mold or mildew problems over time.
Either way, if you’re wearing the wrong soles for the type of surfaces you’re traveling, that will cause problems, too.
Also, people who travel almost entirely by foot do not wear high heels.
I gotta repeat this one:
People who travel almost entirely by foot DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.
(thank you for comng to my TED talk)
Also, chopping the heels off of high heels does not suddenly make them practical walking wear.
@kirschteins-delivery-service a version with rough terrain adjustments!
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