Distance and time between towns?

[moon]

I've been thinking about one thing since forever.

An OT fic as an example. The trainer travels afoot from Town A to Town B. He then travels by bike or other means from Town B to City C. He might then travel by using FLY from City C to City D, then by train, by boat, by teleporting, whatever...

But, how long does it take for a person to walk or otherwise travel from one city to another? Ash does so in the anime, but I don't remember how many episodes there are between different towns, and it's probably different from between different towns.

In the early PokéSupe manga, Red reaches new towns in each and every chapter, because what happens between the towns isn't really important. While in the anime, it's the adventures between the towns that build up the new excitement before the next Gym battle and so. The anime also adds new towns not included in the game.

Anyway, for example, walking from New Bark to Cherrygrove takes a couple of minutes in the game, at most. Would it take hours or days in a fanfic? And going between Violet and Azalea would take... a week? In our world, we can cross Europe in a day with a car... but kids (read: most pokémon fanfic protagonists) don't drive cars >.<

Should I simply skip telling how long time it takes going between towns and landmarks in a fic, to avoid the risk of being, well, unrealistic?

 

[JX Valentine]

Yeah, it tends to vary in the anime. From Pallet Town to Viridian City (early in the anime, anyway), it took Ash less than a single episode (which took place over a day), but in "The School of Hard Knocks," which took place between Cerulean City and Vermilion City, Ash states he'd been on his journey for a few months.

I'd say that for the sake of realism, go for days or weeks. Imagine walking from a real major city to another in a fairly compact area -- say, from Boston to Hartford, Connecticut, or Rome to Venice. You could do it if you're in shape, but it'll just take you a long, long time.

As for whether or not you should mention it, sometimes, readers like to see a figure only because it helps them keep track of the story. It's not necessary, however, and you can easily get away with not mentioning it if it's not important to keeping your timeline sane. (As in, you'd mention a time if something happens that couldn't possibly take place within the few days that your readers expect to lapse between subsequent chapters. Otherwise, I'm sure your fic would fly if you wanted to avoid it.)

 

[Astinus]

Couldn't there also be the factor of what the trainer is doing in between towns, to determine how long it would take for them to travel? Like, to take Xanthine's example of Ash getting from Pallet to Viridian, he took a day. In the dub, his mum says that it took Ash's father three days to get to Viridian. Then again, Ash was pedaling for his life, and his father might not have been in such a hurry. XD

So, maybe that would be something to think about. There might be a difference in traveling rates between trainers, if they either want to get to their destination as soon as possible, or if they wander off a bit to go exploring.

So, like the typical traveling time between, for example, Pallet and Viridian might be two days, but if you're in a hurry then it's one day, and if you want to train or catch a few Pokemon, or just take the time, it's three days.

I dunno. That's just one of the things I looked at when judging distance between towns for my OT fic.

 

[Scales]

I am guessing it just matters on how quickly the trainer gets there. For effect I normally have it take a few hours to a few days just so I can have a few misadventures along the way.

 

[Lash]

Aforementioned factors mentioned are other means of transportation (bike, train, etc.), and what the trainer does in between, but here is another factor I thought up of:

Making the places in between locations more realistic than they really are. Viridian Forest, for example, is the forest just a hop, skip, and a jump like it is in the games? I say not. If it is more realistic, then the Viridian Forest or Route 101 could seem way more like actual forests, twists and turns everywhere, an ease to get lost. Same goes with caves.

So, I say, the amount of time it takes the hero to get from point a to point b is dependent on how realistic the author makes it, whatever obstacles are in the way and what not.

 

[Orange_Flaaffy]

You could write it as taking nearly any amount of time to fit your plot really :). Of course, shorter routes would take less time, but I would think a whole journey could take years. After all, it is not a race where all you would worry about is getting from one place to the next...

 

[Satoshi_Red]

Different places would have different lengths between them. So the time between towns would never be the same. Crossing from, say, Pallet Town over to Goldenrod would take a different length of time than from Cerulean to Saffron, probably. Places with clear roads are generally quicker, since one get's lost less and can actually ride cars or bicycles if one has them, as opposed to the thick jungle where you have to hack every foot with bulbasaur's cut attack.

The actual length between places varies depending on your interpretation. Are there are lot of unvisited towns and villages between gyms, is Viridian the size of the Amazon, etc? If one goes purely by the game, then it would just take a few minutes/hours. But if one invents more features like increased more realistic space, then they'll add on to the time it takes.

It is only unrealistic if you contradict yourself or physics, I think. But people generally expect a few hours, days, maybe a few weeks, and such between towns.