Unfortunately FFG decided to give no concrete distances because you should be not buried by counting squares on a battle grid. That is a noble thought but unfortunately its an unnecessary complication for groups who love battle mats and grids.

But even if you are one of these Stortelling GM imagine a scene" You see 3 beastmen. The first thing that my player would ask" How far they are away" "A Bowshot" would be a lyrical answer but would be shattered by the question "how far I can shoot with my bow.

So i prepared some distances and i would ask you wether you think its a good transformation into the world of facts and figures.

close - up to 5 metres

medium up to 30 metres

long 100 metres

Extreme 500 metres

does that make sense for you?

Ribuk said:

So, if someone is 30 metres away, then it takes them two manoeuvres to get to you and attack (one to move from medium to close, then a secone to engage). They can do this in one turn (by taking a fatigue). So how long does it take for someone to run 30 metres? In other words, if you are going to put distances on ranges, you also need to decide how long a turn is going to be.

Also, maybe you should talk in yards, many of our American friends may not have heard of a metre - that's a joke!

extreme should be about twice what long is - based on the manoeuvre cost to move between range bands.

extreme should be about twice what long is - based on the manoeuvre cost to move between range bands

maybe that is a good calculation but guess then the description from Rulebook in incoherent, I love the game but really hate this distance topic

and yes you can replace metres with yard if you want - is more about the relations between the distance classes

i hesitate to assume a fixed time period for every "Round" guess the game tries more to represent cinematic events that are not cecesaarily connected to a fixed time

but as i told you before I found it very dissatifying

This really belongs in House Rules and not Rules Questions.

Oh well.

Sorry you don't approve of this question, you could always not read/reply?

Here's the correct way to handle the situation described in the OP. The characters come upon a group of Beastmen. If the GM describes the scene and says they are a bow shot away, the question isn't how far can my bow shoot; it's which bow, Long or Short? The players already know the range of their weapons, it's right there on their character sheet. Better to just say the Beastmen are at Long Range. so if they have a Longbow or Crossbow, they can fire. If they have something with shorter range, they must get closer first. They don't need to know how far a Longbow can shoot in yards or meters, it can shoot any target up to Long Range.

Also, range in the game seems to be based on hearing. At long range you have to yell to be heard; at extreme range you can't even hear the yelling. Taking their description of ranges as what they mean the ranges to be, then it changes based on terrain/weather/age.

Thought it would not be a houserole discussion because it more a a hole in the rule system. But if any admins want replace it to houserule it will be fine for me too.

Not answering your Player how far their bow is shooting or how far the beastman are away is not very helpful to create an picture in there mind. So avoiding distances at all is not a good Idea its artificial and without any benefits for Roleplay. For me its just a bad decisision to give not a distance and I see no win for roleplaying in it.

So im still looking for help how to fill that gap to help my player in their effeorts to imagine the scene and to play it on a grid because thats the Style my group prefer.

I think the point of the abstract range band is this:

• It should make sense to you and your players. Yes, every group is going to play it a little differently, but as long as you and your group understand what it means to be at Long Range as opposed to Extreme, then it's good. If that means you base it on auditory senses, fine. If you want to measure that out too, fine.
• You don't have to spend time in game/combat measuring out distances, counting squares or hexes, and worrying about exact movement patterns to engage or avoid some element.

I can see the desire to ascribe some abstract sense of distance to the ranges (i.e. long range is shooting something around 100 meters for example), but to be honest, I find it refreshing not spending the time on getting it exact.