Traveling - Around the World

My favorite novel of all times is Around the World in 80 Days or The Tour of the World in 80 Days as my first edition shows.  Yep - no kidding, that’s a first edition - I have the coolest wife!

Most of you know the story - Set in 1872, Phileas Fogg bets that he can get all the way around the world in 80 days.  His “friends” are mocking him, because in order to do that he would have to catch every train on time, every ship, etc. without missing one “appointment”.  But that’s what Phileas Fogg is - punctual.  He’s a planner.  He knows he can do this.

I think this is the point that we forget about “the olden days”.  Ships and trains didn’t run on time.  If it took a ship three weeks to cross the Atlantic, the ship might come in after 18-27 days depending on the weather.  They didn’t have watches and didn’t need them, because no one was expected to be that “on time”.  (OK, they had them in 1872, but not the olden days.)

Now to be fair, a lot of them were better at telling time than we are.  The farmers could look at the sky and know whether it was roughly 10:30 or roughly 1:30.  I’ve spent my life as a Boy Scout and probably couldn’t do that.  They also had other ways of telling the time - like church bells, or instead chimes from the “public” clock.  But the point is - they didn’t make plans to meet each other at 4:15.  They didn’t make plans to leave on a sailing ship at 10:55 in order to avoid clustering in the port.

So what did they do?  Well, ships typically sailed on the morning or evening tides.  I’ve never quite figured out how tides work in the real world, and Fletnern has three moons, so for me this gets really complicated!  But it is not unreasonable to assume that people who live in a port town and either expect to be on ships or meet ships, would have an understanding of what the right times would be.

But, I think this gives us one more insight into jobs in the fantasy world that we don’t consider.  If it matters to a merchant when his cargo ship comes in - He’s going to pay some kid to sit at the dock all day and when the ship with the green striped sails and the orange flag is coming into port, the kid is going to run and tell the merchant.  It’s probably less of a “kid - sit here and wait” and more of a “the first kid who tells me about the ship gets three silvers”.  But in any case - this now adds kids to the docks.

Why?  Why do you care?  Well, who’s at the dock when ships come in?  Do your PCs just take a ship to the new city they’ve never seen and you tell them, “OK, so you’re there”.  OK - That is one way of setting the scene, and admittedly, I have absolutely done that before.  But what happens if you were planning to have the port authority accuse the PCs of being pirates as soon as they landed?  There is probably going to be a fight, hopefully not to the death, but a fight.  Who’s in the way?  Is your port a bustling place with porters, stevedores, spotter kids, beggars, sailors looking for work, the harbor master and his guys, the city guards, piles of crates and pyramids of barrels?  Or is it a flat wooden structure perfectly clear if someone were to cast a fireball?  See, you gold farmers out there thought it didn’t matter, but even if these people and supplies are simply cover or potential hostages, knowing who they are and why they are there is important.

The real point of this is that business in a fantasy era cannot move at the pace that ours does, no matter what magical technology you use.  Even simply meeting someone for lunch at 11:30 has to give both parties a ±20 minutes.  While this doesn’t affect combat, it does affect how the bars and restaurants treat their patrons, because they have to be ready to entertain lone diners for some time while they wait for their friend(s).  So while we still today have taverns attached to restaurants, this “lounge” area just became a whole lot more important.

While trying to figure out how it affects After Hours is important right now, it also affects normal life.  You are summoned to see the king.  At what time?  Well, now!  You get to the palace, and what?  Well, the king has people in front of you in “line”.  They probably want to stash you somewhere, but where?  Palaces, mansions, and now business offices have sitting rooms and other forms of lounges where they can stash people for short periods while they wait.  Without precise time keeping, this is a requirement.  Plus, the host probably does not want various guests speaking with each other.  “Why are you here?”  “Oh, I believe the king is hiring me to go and kill some ambassador who is in town.”  “Gulp!” says the ambassador.

This is just a different way of thinking about your world and the people in it!  Fantasy life is different from modern life, and utilizing some of these mechanisms may be a good way to stimulate some role-playing amongst your players.