Post by Pie on Feb 24, 2013 19:59:30 GMT -5
Introduction
Ah yes, travelling. All of us have to do it sometime. Whether it's heading out to go accomplish a job, or simply heading to the nearest city to buy that new magical weapon. For some of us, perhaps it even involves making a journey out to visit your guild. There are plenty of reasons that one might need to travel, but first we should discuss the times that your character has no need to travel. For purely PvP threads that are not part of a job, you don't need to include travel. However, if the PvP is part of a job, then you are required to travel. So how exactly does travelling work? Do you remember the map? Under normal conditions, traveling 28 pixels on the map will require one day of time. The time will be relevant when we cover random encounters later.
Terrain and Methods of Travel
There are a number of ways that the time it will take you to travel can be modified. The base time of 28px per day assumes easy terrain such as flat grasslands or a road. More difficult terrain, such as a forest, mountains, desert, or icy tundra will reduce the amount of distance you can travel in a given day to 14px. Deserts will also require you to consume twice as much water compared to normal. These times all also assume that you are walking on foot, unaided. While you are walking, the traveler trait can reduce the amount of time it takes you to get places by extending the amount of time you can march in a given day.
You can speed up your travel time by using a method other than walking. Some large towns have railway stations, and cities will always have both a railway station as well as an airship station. Railways move at 500px per day, meaning they will arrive at most locations inside of a day. The downside of railways is that they can only go where the tracks have been laid, and the tickets cost 1,000 jewels per day of travel, and you have to buy a separate ticket each way.
Airships are far more versatile than trains, and can be used in several ways. First off, airships can go absolutely anywhere, but they usually just fly back and forth between major cities. Airships move at 2,000px per day, so it's almost impossible to find an overnight journey via airship, unless you're leaving Fiore. A city to city ticket will cost you a hefty 5,000 jewels each way, but you'll be wherever you need to be within a few hours. What makes airships so incredibly useful is that you can privately charter one for 500,000 jewels per flight. This allows the airship to take you anywhere you need to go, but it's generally a one way trip. Airships cannot land safely and take back off from any naturally occurring terrain except for perfectly even rocky ground. If you're going anywhere but that, you'll just have to jump out and hope the complimentary parachute works.
Travel Encounters
Aside from just remembering to eat and drink while you're on the road, there is also a possibility that you will have to defend yourself if you're travelling on foot. The likelihood of a travel encounter varies greatly based on the type of terrain you are traversing as well how long you spend there. When travelling through the wilderness, you will generally encounter a monster-variety enemy if you spend at least two days passing through a given area. If you spend at least four days on a side-road or a week on the main road, you will usually be accosted by a humanoid npc of some sort. It often possible to deal with these encounters without combat. For example, you may come across a man guarding a bridge that demands a toll. You could fight him, or just pay the toll.
What exactly you will encounter depends on what is appropriate for the story you're on, what type of character you are, and the difficulty of the thread. Evil characters may run into Rune Knights while on a main road, while good characters may run into brigands or dark guild members. Wilderness encounters are generally limited to whatever monsters are available in the area you are traversing. The number of encounters you will deal with at maximum is also dependent on the type of thread you are taking part in. Please consult the following table:
| Type of Threads | Maximum Travel Encounters |
| PvP | 0 |
D or C-class Jobs Social Threads Buying Items Travelling by Rail or Airship | 1 |
| B or A class Jobs | 2 |
| S-class or higher Jobs | 3 |
When travelling by rail or airship, there is still a chance that things can go horribly horribly wrong. Dark guilds and bandits have been known to try and commandeer these methods of transport by force, and a DM may use these elements at their discretion. A valid reason should be provided in these cases. Alternatively, those who choose to ignore the law may choose to try and stow away on a train or airship, but doing so will always involve an encounter of some sort. This may be a stealthy character sneaking on-board, or it may be a high-class mage simply killing anyone who objects to them boarding the transportation. It's also worth noting that the DM can either reduce or increase the number of travel encounters beyond the normal as they see fit.
Writing about Traveling
Because only the DM knows what will happen with travel encounters, writing about it can be somewhat tricky. The RPC should begin a travel sequence by detailing what his/her travel plan will be. This might be something akin to "I'll travel in a straight line through these types of terrain, bringing these supplies with me, and heading out there for this reason." The post should include good deal more detail than this, but that's the general idea. The DM should then respond with a quick overview of whether or not the plan works out. They should then introduce the first travel encounter as they would any other event in the thread.
Once a travel encounter has been introduced, the player should decided how (or if) they want to deal with it. In cases where combat isn't being forced on the player, they can choose to simply ignore the event and keep pressing on if it makes sense to do so. Evil characters probably won't stop for an old man who is asking for help plowing his field after all. Because of this, it is recommended that DMs tailor their encounters to be interesting to the character(s) who are taking part in the thread. These encounters can even be used to establish relationships between an RPC and an NPC. Someone might run into another mage who is also on a job, perhaps even the same one that the RPC is on. This can be used to foreshadow future events, or just to create a "Don't I know you from somewhere?" moment later on in that RPCs life. That moment doesn't even have to happen in the same thread!
Once an encounter has been successfully dealt with, the player should state whether or not any changes are being made to their plan. If there are changes being made, then they should be fully detailed. At this point, it's just rinse and repeat until the RPC arrives at their destination. It's also worth noting that sometimes the posts regarding introductions to a thread and travel may be shorter than normal, and that's okay.