Monday, April 28, 2014

Some Thoughts on Pavement

THERE WASN'T A WHOLE LOT. This may blow the minds of people who've been playing video games or watching movies wherein every other street is paved with cobblestones or flags. The Showtime show the Borgias actually does a good job of portraying Florence as a city without pavement, which is what most medieval cities would present. In the 10th Age, only the major urban centers like Miles, Bataille, and Tourons still have paved streets (with some exceptions, like elvish capitals).

As such, there are some things to keep in mind. Any time there's bad weather, the city streets will boil with mud or slush. The same goes for high roads that are not paved in the Roman style. Thus...

Weather Type         Initiative Penalty          To-hit Penalty
Light Rain                 +1                                   none
Moderate Rain          +2                                   -1
Heavy Rain               +4                                  -2
Snow (fresh)             +1*                                 none
Snow (deep)             +4*                                  -2
Ice                             +2*                                 -2**

*on a 10, the character must make a dex check or fall down
**on a 1, 2, or 3 the character must make a dex check or fall down

1 comment:

  1. Great post: it's little details like this that adds to the verisimilitude of a game setting. I once visited a town in Haida Gwai (Queen Charlotte Islands) off the north coast of British Columbia, which had no paved streets. The region is a boreal rain forest and it rains constantly. The streets were like gumbo and the thick, sticky mud clinging to your boots was very heavy and made walking slow and cumbersome.

    ReplyDelete