Hi everyone, in the Speed Table it says a company traveling on foot can travel 20 miles per day and a company using boats on a river can travel 20 miles downstream day. Isn't there something wrong? I'm not sure I understand this mechanic right. A party on foot and a party sailing downstream travels the same amount per day? Or is there something missing here?

ps. I don't understand much about sailing and traveling long distances so please don't be too harsh if I asked something stupid lol.

I agree when I first read it that it seemed a bit wonky myself. And as we sit today I don't have any further food for thought on the issue.

I can understand beast of burden travel equating to sailing perhaps - but not on foot.

Also later on in the adventure part of the book the same distance covered on foot is given as 8 days and with boat it's 4 days. So this one makes a lot more sense.

BUT if a party can travel the same amount of distance by walking or sailing per day then shouldn't the journey also be the same lenght?

Twenty miles a day on foot is a pretty fast rate of march. When hiking I usually figure on about fifteen to twenty miles per day with time for braking camp, pitching camp, cooking, eating, etc. That is on a marked trail. Hunting, scouting, watching for orcs, etc would of course slow this rate down.

The big advantage of pack animals is not so much that they allow you to travel faster as it is that they can carry the load and make travel less tiring. Riding animals of course will allow faster travel, but carts and wagons are slower.

Sailing with a favorable wind or boating downstream would I think give a faster rate of travel than walking.

Not a stupid question at all, but in my experience, 20 miles per day down river sounds about right. Remember too that medieval river boats aren't the swift canoes or the sleek keel sailboats we have today.

Basically, a river is like a road; it will allow you to do good speed regardless of terrain, but it doesn't go much faster. The time you gain in fast rivers; you usually lose it in portage and analyzing rapids.

Rivers are swifter in spring however

A lot really depends on the terrain and obstacles. Steep mountains, dense woods, rapids in streams, a strong. Urgent to fight against, contrary winds all will make the trip much slower.

A good road or path, flat open country, a smooth stream, a swift current in the direction you want to go, favorable winds and you will be able to go a lot faster.

Of course going faster is not much of an advantage if you are going in the wrong direction...

in this situation the company are in a "hard difficulty terrain", the Long Marsches. Going on foot will double the "effective" mileage.

But if you take a boat and use it ON the Running River(or whatever river) then the modifier is the one for "Easy terrain" (x1, or none).

Look page 32: Terrain Difficulty.

Some boats, especially those made for the transport of goods in a river or a canal, where actually pulled by horses on the riverside (I think 'towing' is the right word).
It was quite slow, slower than most people on foot.

I don't think there was a lot of wind-propelled boats on river, at least not efficient ones.
Fast, big ships will more likely be found on the sea or on the mouths of the Aduin and the Lhun. So outside the scope of Adventures over the Edge of the Wild.

Ah I was also multiplying the river journey too but it does not count as a hard journey I think. Thanks for all the posts.