Every time I get a stupid comment on this blog, it inspires me to pick it back up and write again. Then I realize that discourse online is such a joke. Well, it is a joke face to face much of the time as well, but at least civility persists when you are within arm's length of your interlocutor.
Either way, I looked over the attrition spreadsheet and realized it has a logic error. It always assumes that the high is "hot" and the low is "cold". If you were adventuring in cold climates, the low and the high could very well be below freezing, but the calculation for the high temperature would return 0 damage since it is looking for high apparent temperature. That is fixed now and the link to the right is updated; each calculation will check to see if the apparent temperature is high or low and use the correction equation.
Showing posts with label Attrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Attrition. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
PDF
Monday, May 21, 2012
Attrition System Complete (For Now)
Attrition For Overland Travel
This system abstracts the rigors of travel by calculating an attrition value that is applied as hit point damage for characters traveling overland. The primary factor for determining attrition is climate data, namely, temperature, humidity, and wind speed. These numbers are used to derive a hit point value that roughly corresponds to the impact of weather on the human body (heat stress, core body temperature, etc).Climate Data
Apparent Temperature is a calculated value derived from temperature, humidity, and wind speed that is used to determine attrition. The best way to get good data is to use a historical database of weather (like this one). Use a city that your party is located near and a establish a base date from which to draw the data. For example, if my game session is May 1, 1618, I would map that date to weather data from May 1, 2010. Specifically, you will need the high and the low, average humidity, and average wind speed for the day.
Generating A Value
Use the attached spreadsheet and fill in the values that are shaded light blue. The attrition value in HP is the value highlighted in yellow. Use successive lines from the spreadsheet for successive days since attrition is cumulative.
Using The System During Play
The best way to use this sheet during play is to generate a month's worth of values. Whenever your party travels, delete all the prior days in that month and start counting forward from there. For example, if you populated the entire month of May 2010 as May 1618 and then your party traveled starting May 4th, delete the lines for the 1st through the 3rd.
The Mechanics
Attrition is calculated by using the Apparent Temperature in a correlation between temperature and mortality rate inspired by this reference. Apparent Temperature is a simplified Steadman equation. Two values are calculated, one based on the low temperature for the day and the other for the high temperature. They are then averaged as the day's attrition value.
Limitations And Common Sense
This system is only designed for creating a hit point effect for overland travel. It assumes people and draft animals are taking appropriate precautions against the weather, are fed and drinking, and traveling at a normal pace.
If these assumptions are not true, I don't change these mechanics. Rather, I increase travel time. For example, a heavy rain storm would slow the travel rate down by washing out roads, causing flash flooding, or washing out bridges or fords. So the damage calculation is the same, but the party is exposed to the elements for a longer period for time. If the party were eating only half rations, reduce their rate of travel as they can't keep a good pace up with an empty stomach. If they are under the effects of an Endure Weather spell, feel free to half the damage.
In the end, this calculation provides a realistic damage for travel; it is up to each DM to use common sense in integrating this into your game world. At least you have a strong foundation for adjudication.
The Importance of (Peer) Review
Did you look closely at the previous post's system for attrition? Did you plug in some numbers to test it out? Did you find out where the system works and fails? Did you notice how incomplete it is?
The post only details hot weather effects on attrition, what about cold weather? The heat index is only valid for temperatures above 80F and humidity above 40%, if you try to use the charts' equation for cold weather, you get nonsensical results.
What type of data we we plug in? High temperature, low temperature, average temperature? Desert travel can be brutally hot during the day and freezing cold at night, how does the above system take that into account?
So there's the direction for the next post, finding what the system is incomplete and making it more robust. Always push your design, always test the fringe cases, and always strive to make them better.
The post only details hot weather effects on attrition, what about cold weather? The heat index is only valid for temperatures above 80F and humidity above 40%, if you try to use the charts' equation for cold weather, you get nonsensical results.
What type of data we we plug in? High temperature, low temperature, average temperature? Desert travel can be brutally hot during the day and freezing cold at night, how does the above system take that into account?
So there's the direction for the next post, finding what the system is incomplete and making it more robust. Always push your design, always test the fringe cases, and always strive to make them better.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Attrition: New Design Ethos, or, Why Your Design Has Been Found Lacking
I've been kicking around the concept of attrition for overland travel for a while now. Let's re-establish the current foundation for this system.
Attrition accumulates per day, according to a base value added to a temperature/humidity factor. The next day, the base value is the previous day's final value, which is then added to the current day's temp/humidity factor. Rinse, repeat. Here's another way of looking at it:
Attrition(0) = Base damage + Climate factor
Attrition(i) = Attrition(i-1) + Climate Factor
Now the whole concept has been simplified to a single factor, that is temperature and humidity. Those two variables, also called the heat index, should cover the vast majority of the effects of weather on the human body. Precipitation will be factored indirectly, namely, heavy rainfall washes out (or covers with snow) paths and roads, which lengthens travel time, allowing for more attrition to take place.
Now here we are at a crossroads, what numbers do we use? D&D was built on pulling numbers out of assholes in order to answer this question. This is where your design fails too, you do not have to guess at any of these numbers at all. Thanks to the information age, you can find peer-reviewed research on pretty much any topic you want. There is no reason to be building systems out of fairy tale numbers of useless heuristics you just made up.
Ok, so where do we find this information? A quick google search lands me at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, and a handy research article called "Climate Effects On Human Health". Why, there is even a section of predictive equations! Who would have thought of this, there already IS a system for determining how your environment affects you. All we have to do is translate it into hit points and we are off to the races.
So stop pulling numbers out of your ass for your designs and put in the same amount of time into basic research.
Ok ok, back to this system. Let's see what we can use: TMR = cycle + 0.10e[0.2(F[1] - 90)] This looks extremely similar to what I want, a "temperature-specific mortality ratio" expressed as a base value added to a function of temperature. But I want heat index, or a value that combines temperature AND humidity. Thank you NOAA:
We have all of our pieces now. Stick our predictive equation into a spreadsheet along with inputs for temperature and humidity. Input the above chart into the spreadsheet and perform a look-up to pull a heat index value to stick into the predictive equation. Then, tune the factors around the exponential term in the equation as well as the output so it translates into usable hit point numbers (nothing too small or too big).
Once the sheet is set up, it takes less than 1 minute to generate an attrition value for the day's adventuring or travel. In the end, you have a system that gives you an answer as fast as you can open a spreadsheet and the answer is based on our shared reality and science.
Oh, need to find climate data for input? You have a few resources from which to work.
Attrition accumulates per day, according to a base value added to a temperature/humidity factor. The next day, the base value is the previous day's final value, which is then added to the current day's temp/humidity factor. Rinse, repeat. Here's another way of looking at it:
Attrition(0) = Base damage + Climate factor
Attrition(i) = Attrition(i-1) + Climate Factor
Now the whole concept has been simplified to a single factor, that is temperature and humidity. Those two variables, also called the heat index, should cover the vast majority of the effects of weather on the human body. Precipitation will be factored indirectly, namely, heavy rainfall washes out (or covers with snow) paths and roads, which lengthens travel time, allowing for more attrition to take place.
Now here we are at a crossroads, what numbers do we use? D&D was built on pulling numbers out of assholes in order to answer this question. This is where your design fails too, you do not have to guess at any of these numbers at all. Thanks to the information age, you can find peer-reviewed research on pretty much any topic you want. There is no reason to be building systems out of fairy tale numbers of useless heuristics you just made up.
Ok, so where do we find this information? A quick google search lands me at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, and a handy research article called "Climate Effects On Human Health". Why, there is even a section of predictive equations! Who would have thought of this, there already IS a system for determining how your environment affects you. All we have to do is translate it into hit points and we are off to the races.
So stop pulling numbers out of your ass for your designs and put in the same amount of time into basic research.
Ok ok, back to this system. Let's see what we can use: TMR = cycle + 0.10e[0.2(F[1] - 90)] This looks extremely similar to what I want, a "temperature-specific mortality ratio" expressed as a base value added to a function of temperature. But I want heat index, or a value that combines temperature AND humidity. Thank you NOAA:
 |
| http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/heat/heatindex.shtml |
We have all of our pieces now. Stick our predictive equation into a spreadsheet along with inputs for temperature and humidity. Input the above chart into the spreadsheet and perform a look-up to pull a heat index value to stick into the predictive equation. Then, tune the factors around the exponential term in the equation as well as the output so it translates into usable hit point numbers (nothing too small or too big).
Once the sheet is set up, it takes less than 1 minute to generate an attrition value for the day's adventuring or travel. In the end, you have a system that gives you an answer as fast as you can open a spreadsheet and the answer is based on our shared reality and science.
Oh, need to find climate data for input? You have a few resources from which to work.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Building A Model For Attrition
Round 3. Let's determine what factors we want to use to build a better model for attrition. This third approach will use actual climatic values for a given day to calculate attrition rather than arbitrary designations for season or region. Values will be randomly determined using bounds from the Köppen-Geiger climate classification and/or world climate data.
Attrition will be broken into two components, climate and route conditions. Within each component, smaller cumulative elements will sum to a total factor, then each factor will be multiplied by a baseline value (yesterday's attrition value). I'll get into the math in a following post.
Climatic Factors
Humidity - Low humidity (especially combined with cold air) will dry out the throat and lungs, causing respiratory stress and increasing susceptibility to disease. High humidity reduces the body's ability to cool, compounding heat stress.
Temperature - As a body heats up, it suffers from a multitude of debilitating and progressively fatal symptoms related to heat stress. Lower temperatures are dangerous to a lesser degree than higher temperatures, but will eventually lead to death all the same.
Storms and Frontal Changes as represented by Precipitation - This will be a catch all for storm activity in general, from a hailstorm to snow accumulation and sudden changes in weather conditions.
Major climatic factors sourced from Climate effects on human health, Kalkstein, L. S., and K. M. Valimont, EPA Science and Advisory Committee Monograph no. 25389, 122-52. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Pardon the horrible citation, I can get away without using MLA or APA style here :D
Attrition will be broken into two components, climate and route conditions. Within each component, smaller cumulative elements will sum to a total factor, then each factor will be multiplied by a baseline value (yesterday's attrition value). I'll get into the math in a following post.
Climatic Factors
Humidity - Low humidity (especially combined with cold air) will dry out the throat and lungs, causing respiratory stress and increasing susceptibility to disease. High humidity reduces the body's ability to cool, compounding heat stress.
Temperature - As a body heats up, it suffers from a multitude of debilitating and progressively fatal symptoms related to heat stress. Lower temperatures are dangerous to a lesser degree than higher temperatures, but will eventually lead to death all the same.
Storms and Frontal Changes as represented by Precipitation - This will be a catch all for storm activity in general, from a hailstorm to snow accumulation and sudden changes in weather conditions.
Major climatic factors sourced from Climate effects on human health, Kalkstein, L. S., and K. M. Valimont, EPA Science and Advisory Committee Monograph no. 25389, 122-52. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Pardon the horrible citation, I can get away without using MLA or APA style here :D
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Attrition By The Numbers
Ok, let's see how these factors for attrition play out. You might want to keep that post open in another window to follow along with the modifiers. I am going to present this as a narrative, but I can post raw numbers for those so inclined.
Our first case will be your average peasant who wants to move some excess flour from the quaint plot of land he works on his lord's manor to market. Let's assume Forest, Cold, Fall, Trail, Sufficient provisions. He suffers no HP loss until day 5. This fits well with our implied world, a farmer would not live more than 2 days travel from a market to sell/barter his extra goods, so he can make a 4 day round trip with no harm done.
What if the same person struck out under the same conditions, but decided to not follow any trail? He would take his first hit point loss on day 4, and suffer death (to negative constitution) from accumulated damage on day 7. Does this sound reasonable? Assuming you had food and water, I believe I could survive 7 days wandering in the woods. Well, if it is a fantasy world, maybe HP loss can also abstract the fantastic dangers that lurk beyond civilization... Or maybe this is where sheltering down comes into play; parties stranded in the wilderness typically sit tight for most of their ordeal.
This time, a merchant sets out from market to move some goods a few towns away for a tidy sum. Same climate conditions, but now he is on an established dirt road. His wagon and oxen suffer no damage until day 6, or a journey of roughly 150 miles. This makes sense, 6 days of travel and 1 day of rest and no harm done. Maybe instead of traveling between markets, this is a pilgrim on a good portion of the Via Francigena (paved) heading to Rome. He can go 9 days without ill effect.
So this creates our lower boundary. For a party who treks out during the right time of year in mild conditions (total modifiers: three at 1.1, one at 1.2) can go off the beaten path for 3 days before harm occurs and if they stick to a road, this can be as long as 6 or 9.
What about sheltering down? So our party is traveling in the above climate, but they have been off any sort of trail and into deep wilderness for 6 days now. They've suffered 7 damage total (1 on day 4, 2 on day 5, 4 on day 6) over the last 3 days, but they have been able to keep up with healing. However, day 7 will inflict 6 damage to everyone, more than they can safely cope with. Instead, they hunker down in their tents to rest and heal. One day in camp will reduce attrition to 2, two days back down to 1, and four days to get it back to 0. Even just 1 day of sheltering down replenishes healing spells and gets their attrition back to a manageable level for a few more days. If they have the provisions to last and feel safe risking the potential encounters, it is a way to trek through the wilderness.
Of course, the best way to shelter down would be in a wayside inn or some other structure, which would reduce an attrition of 4 down to 1 in a day and 0 in two days.
Ok, what about a gonzo example? Parties are pretty safe while traveling during the right time of year and avoiding difficult terrain. But what happens when they need to cross an expanse of desert, or need to make a quick move during the dead of winter?
Let's take a perilous trek across Russia in the winter shall we? Forest, Cold, Winter, No Roads. First hit point loss on day 3, 4 hit points by day 5 (total of 7). Our land war in Asia is going well so far because this is a high level party that can drop tons of healing per day. Okay, 9 damage on day 6 (16 total) then 18 on day 7 (32 total) and even a high level party isn't going to be able to cope once day 8 drops a 34 hitpoint bomb.
Pretty brutal, huh? Well, sheltering down periodically can mitigate this damage, but how long will food last in this harsh winter? What if we take the same situation and throw in a PC Ranger or Druid to help? Instead of 66 damage after 8 days, the party only takes 18. So there is plenty of room for a party to conquer the elements as they reach high level and stay prepared.
Overall, the numbers fit well enough for my liking at the moment. Reasonable travel conditions permit safety up to a 75 mile round trip and judicious use of stops along the way in an inn or even a camp make long distance traveling feasible. Yet, the truly daunting terrains pack quite a punch even for high level parties. Just for fun, what happens when traveling across the Sahara in summer? Well, by day 3 they are doing ok and have only taken 2 damage. After 5 days of baking in the sun, they just took 15 damage (23 total) and a fool who wants to spend a week takes a hit of 94 damage. Realistic? Well, deadly for sure...
Feel free to let me know what you think in this post or the previous one.
Our first case will be your average peasant who wants to move some excess flour from the quaint plot of land he works on his lord's manor to market. Let's assume Forest, Cold, Fall, Trail, Sufficient provisions. He suffers no HP loss until day 5. This fits well with our implied world, a farmer would not live more than 2 days travel from a market to sell/barter his extra goods, so he can make a 4 day round trip with no harm done.
What if the same person struck out under the same conditions, but decided to not follow any trail? He would take his first hit point loss on day 4, and suffer death (to negative constitution) from accumulated damage on day 7. Does this sound reasonable? Assuming you had food and water, I believe I could survive 7 days wandering in the woods. Well, if it is a fantasy world, maybe HP loss can also abstract the fantastic dangers that lurk beyond civilization... Or maybe this is where sheltering down comes into play; parties stranded in the wilderness typically sit tight for most of their ordeal.
This time, a merchant sets out from market to move some goods a few towns away for a tidy sum. Same climate conditions, but now he is on an established dirt road. His wagon and oxen suffer no damage until day 6, or a journey of roughly 150 miles. This makes sense, 6 days of travel and 1 day of rest and no harm done. Maybe instead of traveling between markets, this is a pilgrim on a good portion of the Via Francigena (paved) heading to Rome. He can go 9 days without ill effect.
So this creates our lower boundary. For a party who treks out during the right time of year in mild conditions (total modifiers: three at 1.1, one at 1.2) can go off the beaten path for 3 days before harm occurs and if they stick to a road, this can be as long as 6 or 9.
What about sheltering down? So our party is traveling in the above climate, but they have been off any sort of trail and into deep wilderness for 6 days now. They've suffered 7 damage total (1 on day 4, 2 on day 5, 4 on day 6) over the last 3 days, but they have been able to keep up with healing. However, day 7 will inflict 6 damage to everyone, more than they can safely cope with. Instead, they hunker down in their tents to rest and heal. One day in camp will reduce attrition to 2, two days back down to 1, and four days to get it back to 0. Even just 1 day of sheltering down replenishes healing spells and gets their attrition back to a manageable level for a few more days. If they have the provisions to last and feel safe risking the potential encounters, it is a way to trek through the wilderness.
Of course, the best way to shelter down would be in a wayside inn or some other structure, which would reduce an attrition of 4 down to 1 in a day and 0 in two days.
Ok, what about a gonzo example? Parties are pretty safe while traveling during the right time of year and avoiding difficult terrain. But what happens when they need to cross an expanse of desert, or need to make a quick move during the dead of winter?
Let's take a perilous trek across Russia in the winter shall we? Forest, Cold, Winter, No Roads. First hit point loss on day 3, 4 hit points by day 5 (total of 7). Our land war in Asia is going well so far because this is a high level party that can drop tons of healing per day. Okay, 9 damage on day 6 (16 total) then 18 on day 7 (32 total) and even a high level party isn't going to be able to cope once day 8 drops a 34 hitpoint bomb.
Pretty brutal, huh? Well, sheltering down periodically can mitigate this damage, but how long will food last in this harsh winter? What if we take the same situation and throw in a PC Ranger or Druid to help? Instead of 66 damage after 8 days, the party only takes 18. So there is plenty of room for a party to conquer the elements as they reach high level and stay prepared.
Overall, the numbers fit well enough for my liking at the moment. Reasonable travel conditions permit safety up to a 75 mile round trip and judicious use of stops along the way in an inn or even a camp make long distance traveling feasible. Yet, the truly daunting terrains pack quite a punch even for high level parties. Just for fun, what happens when traveling across the Sahara in summer? Well, by day 3 they are doing ok and have only taken 2 damage. After 5 days of baking in the sun, they just took 15 damage (23 total) and a fool who wants to spend a week takes a hit of 94 damage. Realistic? Well, deadly for sure...
Feel free to let me know what you think in this post or the previous one.
Attrition - A Better Overland Travel System
Okay, Alexis blew my overland travel system out of the water with his improvement. Using this idea, let's rethink the damage caused by travel.
This system focuses on accumulation of damage, so that short trips are very safe for our precious 1HD characters but longer journeys will eventually tax even high level characters. Here's some pseudo code to represent what I am talking about.
Base damage = 0.1
Attrition(0) = Base damage
i = 1
Attrition(i) = Attrition(i-1) * Topography * Climate * Season * Road * Situation * Provisions + Base Damage
i++
The Attrition value represents Hp damage taken. I would truncate the value and take its integer so anything <1 would be 0 damage. Then, all these modifiers act as a factor as follows:
Definitions remain the same as in the previous post. Here's a quick list of situational modifiers; there is plenty of room here to incorporate spells, non weapon proficiencies and skills, class abilities, hirelings/guides, etc etc. Feel free to tinker to your hearts content.
Sheltering down is a way to reduce the attrition rate currently being suffered. In order to shelter down, no travel may be undertaken for an entire day. Travelers are free to act without restriction so long as they refrain from strenuous activity outside of maintaining camp. Sheltering down works as follows:
Attrition(i) = Attrition(i-1) * Shelter
Shelter values are:
Structures would be buildings and permanent shelters that provide protection from the elements and a warm hearth (wayside inn, homestead, monastery). Natural shelter would be a cave or enclosed canyon that protects against all but the worst weather and temperature extremes. Camps consist of tents and other temporary shelters.
Next post, I'll tease out the numbers and demonstrate some examples. I'm sure these numbers will shift and change over time. Feel free to make them more forgiving or brutal as desired.
This system focuses on accumulation of damage, so that short trips are very safe for our precious 1HD characters but longer journeys will eventually tax even high level characters. Here's some pseudo code to represent what I am talking about.
Base damage = 0.1
Attrition(0) = Base damage
i = 1
Attrition(i) = Attrition(i-1) * Topography * Climate * Season * Road * Situation * Provisions + Base Damage
i++
The Attrition value represents Hp damage taken. I would truncate the value and take its integer so anything <1 would be 0 damage. Then, all these modifiers act as a factor as follows:
Definitions remain the same as in the previous post. Here's a quick list of situational modifiers; there is plenty of room here to incorporate spells, non weapon proficiencies and skills, class abilities, hirelings/guides, etc etc. Feel free to tinker to your hearts content.
Sheltering down is a way to reduce the attrition rate currently being suffered. In order to shelter down, no travel may be undertaken for an entire day. Travelers are free to act without restriction so long as they refrain from strenuous activity outside of maintaining camp. Sheltering down works as follows:
Attrition(i) = Attrition(i-1) * Shelter
Shelter values are:
Structures would be buildings and permanent shelters that provide protection from the elements and a warm hearth (wayside inn, homestead, monastery). Natural shelter would be a cave or enclosed canyon that protects against all but the worst weather and temperature extremes. Camps consist of tents and other temporary shelters.
Next post, I'll tease out the numbers and demonstrate some examples. I'm sure these numbers will shift and change over time. Feel free to make them more forgiving or brutal as desired.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Roughing It - Wilderness Travel System
Ninja Edit: Download the Attrition Calculator spreadsheet from the side bar to the right and look at this post for the system in it's final/current form.
Zzarchov has a great house rule for handling the rigors of wilderness travel:
Essentially, every hex of wilderness (at the macro scale, roughly speaking 1 hex = 1 league = 1 day's travel on foot) will deal X hp of damage per day as it is traversed. Roads, settlements, proper provisions, the right clothing, and such will all reduce the damage taken. This damage is applied to everyone traveling, including animals. The damage abstracts all negative aspects of travel, such as animals foundering and an increased chance of disease.
Tally the following adjustments to find the total damage taken per hex traveled. Select one value from each column of the following table:
Terrain type is highly abstracted and can be expanded to fit more thorough hex maps. Climate uses the five main definitions of climate according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Season is a temporal factor, so after every hex has been populated by terrain and climate type, the DM will have to throw in season as well. Likewise with roads; roads could also be defined as major roads (such as Imperial highways or Reichsstraße), maintained roads between towns, and trails that are only maintained by foot traffic. However, the road modifier would not apply to the entire hex, rather only if the party was traveling along it.
The following situational modifiers are applied on the fly and are not part of a hex's intrinsic HP penalty.
This provides a backbone for an abstraction to cover overland travel. An enterprising DM can calculate the HP loss value for each hex on their map and have a valuable resource for gameplay. More situational modifiers can make the calculations more robust if needed. Feel free to chime in with any suggestions on adding more entries to either table.
Zzarchov has a great house rule for handling the rigors of wilderness travel:
"I use more abstracted rules than this, basically boiling down to you take damage as you travel and heal slowly while going through the wilderness without creature comforts ... as well as different terrain types having different "Miles per day" ratings. This leads to two things: 1) an increase in taking the longer route if it passed through civilization, roads and inns; 2) No more 'rushing through the wilderness', the bean counters came out and 'frontier living' was replaced with carefully planned expeditions."Let's shamelessly steal the idea. It feels like the perfect abstraction that highlights the contrast between traveling through civilization and wilderness without bogging down into a level of detail that would detract from the evening's fun.
Essentially, every hex of wilderness (at the macro scale, roughly speaking 1 hex = 1 league = 1 day's travel on foot) will deal X hp of damage per day as it is traversed. Roads, settlements, proper provisions, the right clothing, and such will all reduce the damage taken. This damage is applied to everyone traveling, including animals. The damage abstracts all negative aspects of travel, such as animals foundering and an increased chance of disease.
Tally the following adjustments to find the total damage taken per hex traveled. Select one value from each column of the following table:
Terrain type is highly abstracted and can be expanded to fit more thorough hex maps. Climate uses the five main definitions of climate according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Season is a temporal factor, so after every hex has been populated by terrain and climate type, the DM will have to throw in season as well. Likewise with roads; roads could also be defined as major roads (such as Imperial highways or Reichsstraße), maintained roads between towns, and trails that are only maintained by foot traffic. However, the road modifier would not apply to the entire hex, rather only if the party was traveling along it.
The following situational modifiers are applied on the fly and are not part of a hex's intrinsic HP penalty.
This provides a backbone for an abstraction to cover overland travel. An enterprising DM can calculate the HP loss value for each hex on their map and have a valuable resource for gameplay. More situational modifiers can make the calculations more robust if needed. Feel free to chime in with any suggestions on adding more entries to either table.
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