Recently I was putting together a campaign for players that want to get into kingdom building. One thing that they expressed a great deal of interest in was the creation and maintanence of a paved road system for their main thoroughfares between large trading cities. They want these highways to be guarded by forts and essentially be safe passage for trade and military use. This was inspired by reading about the Incan Road System as well as the Aztecs and their roads with rest stops on them. I figured the watch towers were easily covered by the rules, but what about having maintained roads and rest stops? How much could that reaslistically cost?
Thanks for that. This will be really helpful for what I have planned for the players.
So the roads and pitstops I've got down for the players. For the rules, I'm making it to where dirt roads and trails will automatically appear between trade routes between your city and surrounding cities after a month of making the urban settlement. They always try and pick the easiest and shortest route. So these trails will make travel through terrain easier, making it like walking through plains (x1). If they want the x1.5 from actual roads, then they can buy a road like in that forum post you linked. I figured leveled earth makes everyone go x1.5, graveled does the same but wagons don't get bogged down during rains, and paved roads do all of those and allow carts and wagons to go faster (maybe x2?).
The rest stops would be simple towers that offered lodging and food.
A lot of this was inspired by Civ 5 and 6 as well as Endless Legend and their upgraded road system. How does that sound?
1) I like the idea that dirt roads/trailers automatically appear between trade routes.
2) I like the idea that you have different tiers of roads, with the higher tier helping carts/wagons go faster but not horses. I've always been slightly annoyed that I wrote the rules such that carts and wagons always go slower than a walking man in ACKS. On a good road they should be at least as fast.
Thanks! It was something that was inspired by watching Civilization 6 as well as playing Endless Legend a lot. Both have roads that will naturally choose the shortest/easiest route and automatically appear once you set up trade routes (or the Caravan upgrade in EL). I like that aspect and makes a great deal of sense. I figure people will first choose the safest way (sticking to plains and scrub), while only going through forests and hills if it would be much shorter overall. From there, the players can just pave roads how they see fit. I think it works out pretty well.