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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.
raggedhalo
I also thought about reducing the effectiveness of the Running + Strength Test to sprint and add to your movement rate. Here's my thought process and why I decided against it:

As for the Running + Strength Test to increase speed by sprinting, I think it needs to be less useful too. The street sam in SR4A has a Strength + Running pool of 10 and 3IP. Assuming it used all 6 Simple Actions to run, it'd on average (assuming 3 hits off the ten dice) do another 36m/Combat Turn under the current rules, making a total of 46 m/Combat Turn (55.2km/h or 34.5mph) -- if it got all 10 hits every time (unlikely, I know, but still...) then that rises to 130 m/Combat Turn (156 km/h, 97.5mph).

Changed to just 1m per hit, that goes down to 28 m/Combat Turn (33.6km/h or 21mph) for the average roll or 70m/Combat Turn (84kph, 52.5mph) for the ridiculous roll, which I guess I just about buy. In 1999, the Guiness World Record for running speed was 10.35m/s. That's 31m/Combat Turn (37.2km/h, 23.25mph). I can buy that an enhanced human could exceed that quite well on a very good day.

However, assuming world-class athletes might have an Exceptional Attribute and an Aptitude in the relevant skill, plus maxed-out Attributes and Skills and a specialisation, such a runner would throw 16 dice at the sprinting test (Strength 7 + Running 7 + specialisation). That's 5 hits on average, for each of the two Simple Actions per IP they get. Under the current rules for sprinting, that gives a speed of 30m/CT (36km/h or 22.5mph). Under 1m/hit, that comes down to 20m/CT (24km/h or 15mph). Even with Edge it seems unlikely to be achievable.

So, actually, 2m/hit on the sprinting test seems reasonable after all.
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