Hi everybody,
I'm about to begin DMing Slumbering Tsar and I'd like some clarifications.
The book states that the Desolation spans 50 miles north-soouth and 70 miles east-west (pag. 35)... but looking at the overall map of the Desolation it seems exactly the opposite (the esat-west span seems shorter than the north-south span). Also, the maps of the single quadrants are roughly 15 miles north-south and 12 miles or so East-West. I really cannot measure distances and time traveling. Are the distances at page 35 (50x70 miles) the right ones or I should just look the quadrants scale?
Also in the arsh environment of the Desolation, what's the travelling rate? 12 miles a day for a band of adventurers with 30' mv.? Less? And on the main road? If I take the quadrant indication right, a party could traverse a quadrant in only two days, maybe three... Am I getting this right?
Thanks and sorry for the rant.
I'm basically saying 12 squares/day on the road and 6 squares/day off the road. It may not be entirely accurate, but it works well for my game.
A square? You mean the 2000 feet Squares? Just 3 Kilometers and a half a day?
Yes. The road is certainly not maintained (and subject to the various storms, etc.) and the areas off the road are treacherous (quicksand, bad footing, etc.)
This also presumes a pace whereby they are keeping vigilant and not simply trying to move quickly.
thanks for the advice... but for me 3,5 km a day is too little a distance... also, this way, the number of random encounters is destined to grow a lot and the the exploration of just a quadrant would take weeks, crawling six squares in a day... uhmm I need to think it over a little more.
Ah, what you think about horse survivability? Seems to me a horse cannot survive a Bone Storm cause suffocation. How could a party keep alive a horse each and themselves? (without counting the damage from the storm and the acid rains...)
Horses likely won't last long - just too many dangers (although they could bolt at the first sign of trouble and go back to the Camp, of course).
My group doesn't use them.
As for the time it takes to explore, I let the rangers from the Camp take them directly to the features of the Ashen Waste so there wasn't much free exploring. Later, the rangers gave them the Player's map of the Chaos rift. (The rangers will no longer guide the PCs after what has occurred in my game - but a couple remain friendly to the PCs.)