Move Rate Underground

It seems like you could go quite fast through a dungeon. This is true, you could, except that it is completely dark, full of monsters and traps, and miles beneath sweet, clean, precious open air. 

Therefore the party actually travels at a very slow rate. They are sneaking, hiding, probing, being very quiet, and, importantly, mapping. 

So the actual speed the party moves through a space is is equal to double the base scale inches of its slowest member per Turn (10 minutes.)

If your slowest man moves at 9”, you’re going to make 18” in ten minutes. This is common: 9” move rate. As soon as you have one dwarf or someone becomes encumbered, you go to 9”. 

A scale inch is 10’ underground and 10 yds above ground. For now, let’s just talk underground. So in the dungeon, you’re moving 180’, 18 squares, in ten minutes. Five such moves are all you can manage in an hour because you have to stop to rest. That’s 1/6th of a mile per hour, much slower than even a casual walking pace. 

Let’s keep that 9” in mind. An adventuring day of 8 hours permits 8/6 of a mile of movement - presuming the figures don’t stop to search or fight. 

That’s 4/6 mile in and then 4/6 mile out again. About 353 squares each way. (Again this presumes 8 hours and absolutely no other activity besides moving and resting.)

In that time, each character will empty two water skins and consume a day of rations. There will be approximately 8 torches or 8 pints of oil used per instance of light. Even the best nonmagical light sources only shed enough light for three people so you’re going to be going through two, three, four instances at once. That’s a lot of fire. Did I mention you’re miles away from fresh air?

In that time, just from wandering monsters alone, you will have approximately 8 encounters. That doesn’t include traps or doors or any other weirdness. Just from being in there, 8 chances to fight to the death. 

Encumbrance, supplies, hit points. 

This is why you bring henchmen. This is why you bring porters. Why you bring an elf or dwarf. This is why you use flaming oil and holy water and by God someone play the cleric please. 

This is why it’s a thrill. It’s why we do it. 

The clock is always ticking and the torch is always burning down. Where will you be when the oil runs out?