Hello Mike. I had the pleasure of meeting you at Gen Con. Thanks again for taking your time then and now to answer questions.
Travel Pace (pg 182): Is this a blanket table regardless of the speed of the creatures involved? I know the rules list exceptions for flying creatures and the like, but the table seems to be based on creatures with speed 30. I also note the line about horses going faster over short distances. I’m just having trouble seeing a horse with speed 60, a wagon drawn by draft horses and a dwarf all travelling at the same pace if they are travelling separtely. Is this something that will be more detailed in the DMG?
This is an area where we erred on the side of ease of use. Someone (maybe Crawford?) did some research on travel times of mounts vs. people on foot, and came to the conclusion that it was pretty exceptional and required a lot of support for mounts to provide a significant, long-term speed boost.
IIRC, the Pony Express required riders to swap out horses several times per day, and the animals themselves had serious risks of injury.
So, for that reason and to keep things simple, we standardized travel times.Comment from discussion AMA: Mike Mearls, Co-Designer of D&D 5, Head of D&D R&D.
Travel Pace (pg 182): Is this a blanket table regardless of the speed of the creatures involved? I know the rules list exceptions for flying creatures and the like, but the table seems to be based on creatures with speed 30. I also note the line about horses going faster over short distances. I’m just having trouble seeing a horse with speed 60, a wagon drawn by draft horses and a dwarf all travelling at the same pace if they are travelling separtely. Is this something that will be more detailed in the DMG?
This is an area where we erred on the side of ease of use. Someone (maybe Crawford?) did some research on travel times of mounts vs. people on foot, and came to the conclusion that it was pretty exceptional and required a lot of support for mounts to provide a significant, long-term speed boost.
IIRC, the Pony Express required riders to swap out horses several times per day, and the animals themselves had serious risks of injury.
So, for that reason and to keep things simple, we standardized travel times.Comment from discussion AMA: Mike Mearls, Co-Designer of D&D 5, Head of D&D R&D.