I like the idea and think it fits the scope of Olympia nicely, but more
importantly, I think it allows ruins and quests to be more easily scattered
across the map without disturbing the existing status quo and by increasing
the number of regions significantly, makes mapping of the complete world
more difficult for the players, but by being on a grid makes it easier for
the great Ghod Skrenta.
A couple of extensions to Richard Peters' ideas.
The move command can be altered to (move direction days) where 'days' can
be left out, where it defaults to the normal length of the route, or may
be less than the normal time for the route, in which case the trip is
interrupted and the traveller finds themselves at the side of the route in
an un-named and undocumented region. From here they can continue in any
direction at the slower than normal rate as no trails exist.
If the grid used is octagonal, that allows people to travel in any of 8
normal directions, of which only a few will have the existance of the trail
marked, i.e. these are those currently shown and requires the existance of
a trail of some sort e.g. Road, River, or Wilderness which is assumed to
have a specifically marked trail.
Other directions can be travelled, but the lack of the trail makes travel
slower and less certain, as the destination is unknown until scouted.
Also, the stealth skill can be extended to allow an extra range of
subskills :- Hide house, Hide mine, hide tower etc. Using the subskill on
the building means that it is concealed at the skill level of the hider,
and can only be found by someone with observation skills greater than the
hiding person. These subskills should be gained at higher Stealth levels,
e.g. 'Hide Citadel', should be at Stealth level 9 or 10, but 'Hide Mine' might
be available at Stealth level 5.
The next extension needed is to the observation skill. This requires extra
Tracking capabilities to allow travellers to follow others to their hidden
regions. If people are able to travel out of the region, there also has to
be a way to follow them surreptiously and track them to their lair. This
can then also be used for tracking Savages, Trolls etc as they move around.
Forestry can also be extended to allow 'Make Trail' at a low level. These
trails can then become labelled on the normal map as Wilderness trails.
Kaspar [581]
Aka Rob McNeur
rob@ccc.govt.nz