House rules to govern overland and marathon foot-speeds in Scion:In an hour, a character who is jogging or walking briskly can cover a distance in miles equal to the lesser of their (Stamina) or (2 x (Dexterity)). That figure assumes overland / uneven ground.
You keep full speed for hours equal to your (0.5x(Stamina+Fortitude)), then speed goes down by 1 mph, and a further 1 mph per two additional hours until you get some sleep. If your Stamina is 1 and you have no Fortitude, you won't even get the first mile, because the rules for Fatigue will make you stop for a break after 30 minutes.
Therefore, a typical mortal with all Attributes at 2 covers just 2 miles in an hour. This matches Tommy Lee Jones assertion in The Fugitive, which is as close to real-world accuracy as I feel compelled to strive. The most infirm human moves 1/2 a mile and stops, but the best Athelete (5's in both Attributes) moves 5 miles per hour overland.
On a closed professional track or flat stretch of road it becomes easier to sustain running speed and thereby derive benefit from training. In that case, use the lesser of (Stamina + Fortitude) or (2 x (Dexterity + Athletics)) in miles per hour. This formula generates real-world marathon times.
In all the above cases, I'd allow Epic Attributes to count as though their automatic successes were extra dots of the Attribute. So, a Legend 4 Scion with maximum traits can move 9 miles in an hour over broken ground or 14 miles an hour marathoning. Also, as per page 129 of Scion: Hero, a character with Epic Stamina can keep up the overland or marathon pace for a number of consecutive DAYS equal to their Stamina+Fortitude.
Clock speed for short bursts are determined by your Move and Dash rates in combat. Each yard per tick works out to roughly 2 mph. So the slowest PC can hit 14mph for short stretches.
The math used to determine these formulas will be located in the comments on this post, where it can be found by those who are interested, but doesn't make the main post run interminably long.
7 comments:
Supporting Math, part 1:
The 1 mph penalty is linked to the -1 die penalty given by the Fatiguing Activity rules on page 182 of Scion: Hero.
Supporting Math, part 2:
Marathon runners average 4.5 to 5 hours to cover those 26 miles. That's the people who actually finish a marathon, so we assume they've trained and are 3's in both relevant stats. Only 1.6% of all marathoners make it in under 3 hours, so we can assume that's the humans with 5's in both traits. Most marathons close the tracks after 7 hours, resulting in many racers who never finish the course.
(Stamina+Fortitude) or (2 x Dex + Athletics) would allow a normal person (atts 2, abil 1) to Marathon at 3 mph, and an athelete (atts 3, abil 3) to Marathon at 6mph. That grants finishing times of 8.5 hours for couch potatoes and 4.3 hours for atheletes. And it makes the top human in the world (att 5, abil 5) score 10 mph, for a 2.6 hour finish-time. Those numbers almost perfectly match reality.
Supporting Math, part 3:
Speeds in Scion are measured in yards per tick. A tick is defined as roughly one second. So each yard traveled in a tick roughly equals 2 mph. Moving 5 yards per tick roughly equals moving at 10mph.
Th math behind that computation is as follows: 1 mile is 5280 feet, aka 1760 yards. There are 60 ticks in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour. 60 x 60 = 3600. So, there are 3,600 ticks per hour. 1760/3600 = 0.48. So traveling 1 mile in an hour (aka 1mph) would result in traveling just under half a yard per tick. 1 yard per tick becomes 2 mph.
Foot-based movement occurs via two actions in Scion. There's Move, which has no associated penalties and is free with nearly any other action in combat . The other option is Dash, which represents all-out running, and inflicts serious penalties in exchange for that speed.
Move rate is (Dexterity) in yards per tick. That crunches out to (2 x Dexterity) in MPH. A mortal has a Move speed of 2 to 10 mph. Scions with Epic Dex can exceed this, traveling 2 to 16 mph before ascension to Demigodhood. This is the equivalent of a good jog, or the sort of movement one can do in the midst of a firefight: dodging and jumping around while sometimes firing back.
Dash rate is (6 + Dexterity) yards per tick. That is (2 x (6+Dex)) mph. A mortal has a Dash speed of 14 to 22 mph. Again, Scions can exceed this with Epic Dex, moving 14 to 46 mph at pre-Demigodness. Dash is an all-out run, that's why it gives -2DV and -2 dice to your other actions.
How does this compare to reality?
The world record for the 100m dash (as of 2003) came out to an average speed of 23 mph. Professional sprinters can hit 27mph for short bursts. This is several mph faster than a mortal can run in Scion rules. That's okay, we just assume that world records are set by Scions, who intentionally curbed their own speeds to win the race without revealing their super-human nature.
A typical human can run about 15mph for short stretches in the real world. So, Scion's system has a mortal going a couple mph faster than they would in reality.
References:
My source for most of the above real-world human ground-speed numbers is http://dml.cmnh.org/2003Apr/msg00103.html. Admittedly, I don't know a darned thing about the veracity or reputation of that site. It was top of my Google search, looks professional, hails from a scientific body as opposed to some random dude's website, and jives with anecdotal common sense.
The marathon-runner stats were from http://www.marathonguide.com/features/Articles/2005RecapOverview.cfm. Same caveats and summary as I applied to the first site.
References, part 2:
In "The Fugitive", the US Marshall played by Tommy Lee Jones asserts that average human landspeed is between 2 and 3 miles per hour. He also recommends searching in hen-houses, so you know he does thorough research. :)
References, part 3:
And I suppose I should mention Scion: Hero, the book that inspired all this math and computation in the first place. It's an awesome RPG.
After posting this here, I also put it up on the Scion Wiki at White Wolf's website.
http://wiki.white-wolf.com/whitewolf/index.php/Overland_movement_rates_in_Scion#Epic_Attributes
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