How do mounts (horses) affect exploration rates listed in Stolen Lands (page 57)?
I am tempted to substitute the mounts movement rate (50 feet) for the party speed (this would reduce the exploration rates to 1 day for any terrain). But there several reasons I am hesitant to do so:
A) PCs will generally get horses right from the start (gaining the 6 horses from Happs and his bandits). If that was the intent, why even bother with the charts - just "say" 1 day to explore any hex...?
B) While mounts would be an obvious advantage for plains & hills, I'm not sure if you could explore a swamp or mountains or even a forest any faster on horse-back?
C) Mounts already offer a huge advantage on travel time (time to cross an explored hex), which I am not disputing. And my players have used them to run away from several day/non-camp random encounters - so they have a tactical edge as well (on top of any mounted combat feats).
How do mounts (horses) affect exploration rates listed in Stolen Lands (page 57)?
Faster exploration at the cost of:
a)you may get caught on horseback, when in fact you have no ride skill or feats, and become easier monster chow
b)you are brave and heroic , you horse isnt
c)survival DCs go up as horses like nice food
d) treat the horse like a pack animal, and it will stop thinking its a mighty destrier, and behave like a beast of burden
e)faster on rolling hills, roads, grasslands....troublesome in forests (they are just fey bait), steeper hills, stinky marshes, etc
f)despite all that, your party would very likely use them
I told my players that in some terrains the mounts will not be able to be ridden the whole day. I moved them down to 40 in woods and have not decided about mountain or swamp yet. This brings them back to 2 days for woods. I didn't want it too fast.
It has actually been mentioned I believe in one of the earlier threads that, yes, it is expected that horses will speed up travel. My players didn't bother, preferably taking it slower while "living off the land" or otherwise not wishing to overuse the horses unless they needed to.
Another neat horse trick? They're great for distracting hungry monsters when something bigger than the party can handle shows up a-wandering (such as those pernicious and pesky Trolls that crop up from time to time).
Actually, my group has already had a few encounters revolving around desperately trying to protect the horses from hungry monsters, usually attracted to them when they are picketed at night. The encounter with a hungry wolf pack was particularly difficult.
I also ruled that horses did not speed up forested hex exploration much, as galloping through the forest is a good way to lose your head.
All that said, the horses have been a major boon for them, particularly enabling them to get back and forth to Oleg's pretty quickly when they want to.
Something to remember is how much the horses are pulling/carrying. Encumbrance still slows down horses. My players have horses pulling a covered wagon and siege equipment so the they only move at 40ft through easy terrain. Anything that is difficult terrain (namely forests, mountains, and swamps)slows them down to 20 ft which slows down exploration.
A) PCs will generally get horses right from the start (gaining the 6 horses from Happs and his bandits). If that was the intent, why even bother with the charts - just "say" 1 day to explore any hex...?
In counterpoint, why do the charts go up to 50 feet traveling speed when raw racial numbers only go up to 30, unless the chart is, in effect, adding the "exploring by horse" rating?
Because there are characters out there with 50' move (without temporary boosting) - strange but true. I'd be surprised if a full party could pull it off without mounts, but creative players can do amazing things.
My experience with the higher levels is that the exploration-part gets phased out. My group's in Blood for Blood now. Our ranger-king and his paladin-general both have flying mounts (companion and mount) and the wizard made flying carpets for him and the rogue.
My opinion is that from Varnhold onward the players should just get information about interesting sites (from rumors and scouts), and then pick where to go (resolving that encounter as if they had explored the hex). It didn't make sense for my players not to send scouts or do aerial recon to map out the region before choosing where to go. After all, from that point they are rather important people, and having the king tediously mapping every acre of land seemed a waste (and something he would order others to do).
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We played for the first time this past Saturday and I found that since no one had any ranks in ride and they didn't bother to buy warhorses, just riding horses, combats got a little trickier since I can take an AoO when they dismount. Otherwise they are spending all of their actions trying to keep their horse in check. They still ride them, but they immediately dismount when a combat encounter begins. I have caught a couple of them still on their horse with a giant whiptail or two. The centipede is just hungry, but the player is in between them and the food. Good times. I also lowered movement for the horses to 40 feet in Forest terrain. They are lucky that one character is a Barbarian with Run and Handle Animal. He tracks down the horses after combat. I haven't had him run into a "Random Encounter" yet while doing this, but I plan on throwing it in there in our next session. Nothing too difficult, but something to make them think and maybe spend some money on trained horses. Or take time to train the horses they have.