The Fog of War - World

Design Constraints
This post outlines the procedure by which the world will be defined as the game progresses. In a realistic medieval setting, a traveler would not have access to a map to find his/her bearing. Instead, the world is represented by a mental representation of a number of landmarks and how they relate to each other. The notion of dimensions and scale is approximative and subject to the personal experience of individuals. In this game, it will not be possible for a player to know France better than the actor do by simply consulting Google Earth.

World abstraction
The world in the Chevauchee is abstracted as a collection of landmarks. A landmark is either a natural feature, a major town or river. For practical reasons, the entire area covered by one day's march is considered together. Each landmark is abstracted as one area, and connected by an abstract path which may have any number of attributes. The minimal description must contain the following:

1. Intervening terrain : what kind of terrain exists between two landmarks.
2. Distance estimate : Either an estimate of the number of days of march, or the label "near", "far" or "very far". The three labels respectively means that the likelihood to get any closer on the following days is "somewhat likely" (10), "unlikely" (8) and "very unlikely" (6). Getting closer to "near" means that the next day's march lead directly to the destination.

From the starting point, the GM first determine whether the next day's walk gets the march any closer to destination. If the next day's march is NOT the destination, a new area is created and populated with random data:

1. Distance to destination.
2. Is there a path going forward? 
3. Is it possible to go left, right?
4. What is the terrain in this area (population, settlement, wealth, food and fodder, etc). 

The use of scouts allow to determine the properties to all adjacent areas prior to selecting the destination of the next day's march. A move to the left or right will not alter the distance estimate: only a move forward can do this.

As a consequence, it is not possible to know what is the shortest path between point A and B ahead of the march because the path doesn't exist yet (but is almost guaranteed to occur at some point). Opponents may even seek each other without even knowing that they are close to each other (although this is a more complicated story).

Terrain definition


Countryside (rural areas, small unwalled villages and farmlands)

1. Odds of a left/right path : Somewhat likely
2. Odds of a path going forward : likely
3. Population size category (3D6 + 1)
4. Fortifications (size above 12) : likely
5. Intervening river: unlikely

Mountain (Broken terrain, low population)

1. Odds of a left/right path : unlikely
2. Odds of a path going forward : likely
3. Population size category (3D6 - 1)
4. Fortifications (size above 10) : likely
5. Intervening river: very unlikely

Forest (Broken terrain, low population)

1. Odds of a left/right path : unlikely
2. Odds of a path going forward : somewhat likely
3. Population size category (3D6)
4. Fortifications (size above 10) : likely
5. Intervening river : unlikely

A river forces is unlikely to be forded in one area, but all area with a "fortification" has a bridge, which requires access to the fortification to be crossed. When there is an intervening river, only left and right areas are accessible.

to be continued.