How should I reconcile it when the campaign book for Rime of the Frostmaiden contradicts itself for travel times and distances? There are basically three sources of this information for any given pair of adjacent towns: each town lists how long it should take to get to some other towns, meaning for any travel between two adjacent towns, each town makes its own claim, and there's a scale map at the end of the book.
First issue: towns that contradict each other for distances.
Bremen says it's 2 hours to Targos; Targos says it's 3 hours to Bremen.
Based on the fact that Targos<->Bremen is not on a road, the scale map says this should be 3 hours, based on 1.5 miles at 0.5 mph (speed on foot with snowshoes). The scale map vs towns is its own issue, see below.
Caer-Dineval says it's 8 hours to Good Mead, and Good Mead says it's 8 hours to Caer-Dineval, but these travel times don't line up with the travel times connecting Bryn Shander and Easthaven, because the 4 locations are linked by a crossroads. If you take the various (and consistent) travel times between Bryn Shander and the other three towns, and Easthaven and the other three towns, and backsolve for Caer-Dineval to Good Mead, you get 7.5 hours.
Given a constant road speed of 1.5 mph (as alleged below), the scale map says Caer-Dineval to Good Mead should be 7.33 hours, which would round to 7.5 hours, as the book consistently portrays all travel times in multiples of half an hour.
Second issue: towns that contradict the scale map directly, due to quoting a distance, which is abnormal - usually only times are quoted.
Caer-Konig claims it's 3 miles from Caer-Dineval, but the scale map says 5 miles.
Dougan's Hole claims it's 6 miles from Good Mead; the scale map says 4 miles.
Lonelywood claims it's 3 miles from Termalaine, but the scale map says 1.5 miles.
Special note, as these are the only towns that allege distances: the town-claimed distances compared to their own time claims give a constant road speed of 1.5 mph.
Third issue: the times in the book don't map to a constant road speed, with no explanation given. If you assume a constant road speed of 1.5 mph (which Caer-Konig, Dougan's Hole, and Lonelywood all allege), you get different travel times based on apparent distance - or if you assume the travel times are correct, you get different road speeds, depending on which road you take. I don't know which is more narratively appropriate, and the book doesn't explain itself.
So I guess I'm asking which source I should trust more, the scale map or the town listings, and if the answer is the town listings, how do I reconcile them disagreeing with each other? If the answer is the scale map, should I assume the implicit claim of constant road speeds is correct, or the implicit claim of variable road speeds? What's the best call I can make, here?
It makes a lot of sense that travel times would be different depending on direction. It also makes sense that travel times wouldn’t necessarily be based on straight-line paths on the map. Icewind Dale has mountains and variations in elevation. Roads aren’t straight lines, and navigating around those hills and mountains can add significant distance to journeys.
My guess is that the travel times given by the book take this into account.
The author did not analyse the numbers in detail :)
OR :)
1) From Targos to Bremen could be uphill so it takes longer traveling to Bremen from Targos than it takes to travel to Targos from Bremen.
2) You are measuring straight line distances on the map. When do medieval roads EVER travel in a straight line? They go around hills, they go over hills, bypass marshes, avoid forests ... roads take the easiest route and never a straight line. As a result, the distances listed (when they are listed) are always longer than the distance you measure on the map.
In addition, in the case of inconsistent times, it could be due to some difference in the route, a mistake by the author or simply rounding off the time - especially for travel times significantly more than 4 hours that will have to be at least partially in conditions of darkness.
The bottom line is that I would just use the travel times listed on the town hand outs rather than trying to estimate from the map since the map and average travel time assumptions will always be wrong due to terrain and other factors.
How should I reconcile it when the campaign book for Rime of the Frostmaiden contradicts itself for travel times and distances? There are basically three sources of this information for any given pair of adjacent towns: each town lists how long it should take to get to some other towns, meaning for any travel between two adjacent towns, each town makes its own claim, and there's a scale map at the end of the book.
First issue: towns that contradict each other for distances.
Second issue: towns that contradict the scale map directly, due to quoting a distance, which is abnormal - usually only times are quoted.
Third issue: the times in the book don't map to a constant road speed, with no explanation given. If you assume a constant road speed of 1.5 mph (which Caer-Konig, Dougan's Hole, and Lonelywood all allege), you get different travel times based on apparent distance - or if you assume the travel times are correct, you get different road speeds, depending on which road you take. I don't know which is more narratively appropriate, and the book doesn't explain itself.
So I guess I'm asking which source I should trust more, the scale map or the town listings, and if the answer is the town listings, how do I reconcile them disagreeing with each other? If the answer is the scale map, should I assume the implicit claim of constant road speeds is correct, or the implicit claim of variable road speeds? What's the best call I can make, here?
Use the scale map, choose a road speed and an off-road speed and apply them and that's it.
Cool. I should feel comfortable overriding the RAW on travel distances between towns?
It makes a lot of sense that travel times would be different depending on direction. It also makes sense that travel times wouldn’t necessarily be based on straight-line paths on the map. Icewind Dale has mountains and variations in elevation. Roads aren’t straight lines, and navigating around those hills and mountains can add significant distance to journeys.
My guess is that the travel times given by the book take this into account.
You could treat the map as a rough representation of the relative location of each settlement rather than a precise GPS-style location.
There are several possibilities ...
The author did not analyse the numbers in detail :)
OR :)
1) From Targos to Bremen could be uphill so it takes longer traveling to Bremen from Targos than it takes to travel to Targos from Bremen.
2) You are measuring straight line distances on the map. When do medieval roads EVER travel in a straight line? They go around hills, they go over hills, bypass marshes, avoid forests ... roads take the easiest route and never a straight line. As a result, the distances listed (when they are listed) are always longer than the distance you measure on the map.
In addition, in the case of inconsistent times, it could be due to some difference in the route, a mistake by the author or simply rounding off the time - especially for travel times significantly more than 4 hours that will have to be at least partially in conditions of darkness.
The bottom line is that I would just use the travel times listed on the town hand outs rather than trying to estimate from the map since the map and average travel time assumptions will always be wrong due to terrain and other factors.