Pedestrian Movement Speeds, Couldn't find another topic on this Options

[raggedhalo]

Hi folks,

Like many other people, I think that movement in Shadowrun is way faster than it ought to be. For example, it puts normal human walking speed at 12km/h* (7.5mph), which seems a little steep. I was a bit sad that it wasn't fixed in SR4A, so I thought I'd generate a houserule. What do you think?

Working backwards from current average walking speeds seemed quite sensible. I've heard a figure of 3mph (4.8km/h) used before, and Wikipedia gives a figure of 4-5km/h, which fits. I'll use the figure of 4.8km/h because it makes certain other parts of the maths easier.

4.8km/h translates to 4m/Combat Turn*. This is 40% of the published walking speed (SR4A, pg.149), so we can use that conversion for most other speeds:

Human/elf/ork: 4m walking, 12m running
Dwarf: 3m walking, 10m running
Troll: 6m walking, 18m running

This to me solves a lot of problems about movement in combat and stuff. Obviously critter speeds and stuff would need reducing to 40% of their existing rate, too. Vehicle Speed rating don't need this, I don't think -- a van with a top speed of 108 km/h (67.5mph) seems reasonable, even a little slow! Similarly, a high-end sports car with a top speed of 288 km/h (180mph) hardly seems unreasonable. Vehicle acceleration ratings would likewise be unaffected: Currently, the Eurocar Westwind 3k can get up to 90mph in 6 seconds (2 Combat Turns) flat. My feeling is that that's reasonable.

*: calculated using the conversion of speed in km/h = 1.2 x speed in m/Combat Turn. This is derived from a 3 second Combat Turn, meaning 20 Combat Turns per minute or 1,200 Combat Turns per hour.

Edit: Upped running speeds to half their published level to reflect average human running speed of 10mph.