Greater difficult terrain which can be partly mitigated with Lore: Piloting, Athletics, Nature, or Survival checks. Throw in a specific challenge once or twice for fording a river, clearing trees, getting stuck in mud, etc.
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You can always rule the terrain is just too rough for the vehicle in question, if you feel it appropiate as GM.
The Travel Speed rules (Player Core, page 438) say if you're travelling through difficult terrain, you halve your speed (round down) and if you're in greater difficult terrain, it's reduced to one third of its normal amount. With a vehicle this would represent the characters having to stop to clear stuff out of the way or cut a path through, or just having to be careful in narrow mountain trails.
And you can of course say that travelling through a forest would be normal speed for people on foot or on horse, but difficult terrain for a wagon. Though if time isn't of the essence there's not much reason to rule this way unless it leads to a more fun experience in and of itself.
You can always just say "You cannot do it" but the Oregon Trail happened in the real world, and we're talking people who can throw balls of fire and conjure angels, so a little off-roading isn't absurd as long as they put work into it and they have a few levels to work with. Last year, the world record for getting a vehicle to drive up a mountain was porsche driven up the Ojos del Salado volcano, up to 22,093 feet, so over four miles above sea level.
You can always just say "You cannot do it" but the Oregon Trail happened in the real world, and we're talking people who can throw balls of fire and conjure angels, so a little off-roading isn't absurd as long as they put work into it and they have a few levels to work with.
I know, but if the GM wants to say no, they can say no. Being real, by 5th level this becomes a complete non-issue if you have an Arcane Caster because you can cast Shrink Item on your vehicle and transport it as a coin wherever you need to.
Last year, the world record for getting a vehicle to drive up a mountain was porsche driven up the Ojos del Salado volcano, up to 22,093 feet, so over four miles above sea level.
That was really impressive but also not even close to what we're talking about. It was a question of horsepower and traction. Going up the Ojos del Salado is like climbing a series of very big, rocky slopes. And I should note, they didn't make it to the summit proper either, even though it has been reached on foot.
