Movement Rate and Its Implications

Reading Between the Lines

In the original edition of the world's most popular game there is often as much left unsaid as is written in the small journal-size little brown books. For me and many others who enjoy making our own content this is a boon. It provides space for us to customize the game relying on our own creativity and common sense to adjust our play just as we like it. 

In Volume 3, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures we are told that a turn segment equals 10 minutes and that an adventurer may move 120' during this time. "Thus it takes ten minutes to make about two moves - 120 feet for a fully armored character." (Vol. 1 lists movement rates as Light Foot Movement 12", Heavy Foot Movement 9" and Armored Foot Movement 6" and the use of inches is a reference to tabletop figure movement distances.) 

Applying a bit of logic, I ask myself why does the character only advance 120 feet in ten minutes? The obvious conclusion is that our fantasy heroes are not sprinting down the underground corridor. Rather, they are obviously moving cautiously in a hostile environment, listening for danger and scanning all surfaces for clues. I think this cautious movement can be assumed to take time and results in the slow game rate of advance. 

Volume 3 also details locating secret passages, which requires the character(s) stopping and searching and takes an entire (ten minute) turn. An elf who can search like any other character additionally has a reduced chance to spot or sense the presence of a secret door due to some irregularity in the surface indicating a secret passage while simply moving or passing by the location. Obviously this assumes that said elf is taking a careful look around while passing by (at the normal movement rate) and not rushing blindly ahead. 

The brevity of the original three little brown books, and their reliance upon concepts borrowed from Chainmail and other wargames, begs that the players bring in additional resources and knowledge and upon occasion, to make stuff up, for no game rules, even later editions containing hundreds of pages and multiple supplemental volumes can foresee every possible eventuality and need for rules to cover them. And why would we desire such?

Yes, I am delving rather deeply into speculation with my "reading between the lines", but for me (and for many others) this is part of the fun I have with the game and why I prefer a rules lite approach in my favorite RPG systems. I enjoy using my imagination. I enjoy figuring things out in a game context and I enjoy improvising and discovering what surprises may come out of playing the game with friends. After all, it's just a game of make-believe that we play for our own entertainment.