Ground Travel

A ground vehicle moves on wheels,
runners, tracks, or legs, as indicated
by the notation in its Locations entry.
The average speed it can sustain on a
journey depends on the terrain and
the weather. See Hiking (p. 351) for
definitions of terrain and weather
conditions.
Terrain: Figure cruising speed in
mph from Top Speed in yards/second
as follows:
• Very Bad (deep snow, swamp):
Top Speed ¥ 0.1 mph on wheels or
runners, Top Speed ¥ 0.15 mph on
tracks, Top Speed ¥ 0.2 mph on legs.
• Bad (hills, woods): Top Speed ¥
0.25 mph on wheels, Top Speed ¥ 0.5
mph otherwise.
• Average (dirt road, plains): Top
Speed ¥ 0.5 mph on wheels, Top Speed
¥ 1 mph otherwise.
•Good (paved road, salt flats): Top
Speed ¥ 1.25 mph.
For a road-bound vehicle (e.g., a
normal car), use Top Speed only when
traveling on a road. Off road, use the
lower
of Top Speed and 4 ¥
Acceleration in these formulas.
Example: A luxury car with Move
3/57 gets an average travel speed of 57
¥ 1.25 = 71 mph on a paved road
(Good). On a dirt road (Average), it
could manage 57 ¥ 0.5 = 28 mph. But
off road in Average terrain, it would
drop to 3 ¥ 4 ¥ 0.5 = 6 mph!
For a vehicle that follows rails (e.g.,
a locomotive), treat the rails as Good
terrain. However, the vehicle cannot
move at all off the rails!
These rates assume sustained trav-
el at a safe cruising speed. A vehicle
going flat out can move up to 60%
faster (e.g., Top Speed ¥ 2 mph over
Good terrain, like a road), but the GM
may require hourly control rolls to
avoid a mishap, such as a collision.
Weather: This affects ground vehi-
cles just as it does hikers. Treat sleds
and snowmobiles as skates on ice and
as skis on snow.