By: Jared Biti
I do not think I have gone into detail about how I handle moving terrain-type combat maps. What I mean by “moving terrain” in this case is where the combat setting is quickly moving in a given direction. This can be going down streets in a city, through the woods, or even over the clouds. I call this battle map method “the treadmill”. Hopefully, that name will make more sense once I explain how this works.
The reason I call it “The Treadmill” is because of how it functions. There is a prescribed “rectangle” area that the GM sets as the edge of the Treadmill area. Inside this area is where the combat zone is; everything outside is the moving part of the terrain. So the general environment of the setting will “pass by” this rectangle while those inside the rectangle appear to be sitting still.
Mechanically, how this works: The GM will dictate the direction the treadmill is travelling and what speed. This is typically the average speed of those engaged in combat, but can be simplified to 30ft/round if using D&D 5e. What this does to the beings on the treadmill is that they have to spend the amount of their movement equal to the speed of the treadmill to stay in the space in which they are. If they do not, they move backward on the treadmill, opposite the described direction of the treadmill’s travel, however much they do not use to “keep up” with the treadmill.
Let’s use an example here. Say a couple of PCs, a Human Ranger (Dave), and an Elf Monk (Dillion), are chasing a group of 3 goblins through a city. The treadmill is laid out as an area 15 feet (3 squares) wide, because that is the width of the street in this case, and 60 feet or 12 squares long. This allows for some movement dynamics while still having restraint on the size of the combat zone that is practical for the setting. In this case, a city street. The Speed of the treadmill is 30 feet per round. So the Ranger and goblins will have to work to maintain their positions, but the monk will actually have 10 extra feet to play with. (Img 1.1)
A note here: if you choose a speed that is too low, then the characters will overrun it or have a tremendous amount of flexibility within the treadmill. This is ok, but something to be aware of. If the Treadmill is too fast, however, they will fall behind easily and “fall off” the active area. Generally, you will want to lean towards the treadmill being the same as your slowest character. The worst thing it will cause is that your faster characters will have more freedom of movement in the combat encounter.
To continue the example. On their turns, Dave and Dillion burn 30 feet to stay basically where they are on the treadmill map. Dave will use his action to fire his bow at the goblins, but that is all he can do. Dillion, however, has some extra movement. Using his remaining 10 feet of available movement, he starts to advance on goblins.(Img 1.2) On their turn, one of the goblins chooses to move sideways(Img 1.3), thus falling behind by the amount of movement they took sideways. (Img 1.4) This is because they only moved with the Treadmill for 20 feet of their movement, so they could move sideways 10 feet. The Treadmill moved “forward” a total of 30 feet, so they were forced to move backwards in the Treadmill area, the 10 feet they failed to use to “keep up” with the Treadmill.
This can be used tactically, of course, to move yourself away from an enemy if you are behind them or towards an enemy if you are in front of them. Whether leaving an enemy’s threat range would trigger an attack of opportunity(AToP) would be up to the GM. I personally have run it, and it does trigger an AToP.
Places I have used or plan to use this type of moving terrain? Well, I have used it for a chase scene in a western-themed oneshot. So all the participants were mounted, so the speeds were based on the mounts. All the mounts had the same speed, so it became more of a trade-off of lateral movement for lead placement on the Treadmill.
Another place I have used it was with the PCs running from wave after wave of skeletons. Every round, they got closer to the shelter of a temple, but in the meantime, they had to keep their lead position on the Treadmill while fending off attacks from skeletons. I believe I had the skeletons have enough movement speed to actually be gaining on the party throughout the encounter.
It can also be used in any type of interactive vehicle race. Once again, you have to base it on the slowest vehicle’s speed, so the faster vehicles have more movement for maneuvering. This can give the feeling of fast-paced movement without actually having a really long battle map with which to interact.
I am sure there are a myriad other little instances where something like this can be used. Basically, any setting where there is going to be a lot of ground movement in a singular direction. I hope this way of organizing a battlefield map is helpful and makes all your fast traveling encounters feel fast and fluid as they fly through your settings! Game on!
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