# Obsidian auto calculate travel times ![[images/Obsidian-auto-calculate-travel-times.webp]] [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxLlzTDzKx8) · 2:57 · Josh Plunkett · 2023-06-28 > [!info] YouTube Short (2:57), uploaded June 28, 2023. Written from the video's full English automatic captions (en-orig track, fetched from YouTube's timedtext caption URL after the direct yt-dlp subtitle download was rate-limited) plus video frames. The video has no description. YouTube lists chapters (Intro, ObsidianMD Vault, Joining Towns, Party Configuration, Warhorse Configuration, Results), and the outline follows them. It's a vertical phone recording of his monitor with a TikTok watermark (@obsidian.md.ttrpg) and a "www.obsidianttrpgtutorials.com" caption. Place names are taken from the screen where the auto-captions garble them (e.g. "halloufa"/"Luther" = Hluthvar, "Al's brand" = Asbravn, "school" = Scornubel). ## Outline ### 0:00 - Intro - **0:01 - The DM's travel problem.** "As a dungeon master, I'm not a fan of travel." Working out how far it is from point A to point B, how long that will take, and how many encounters to put along the way is "a pain in the ass, let's be honest." But he's found a way to do it. ### 0:16 - ObsidianMD Vault - **0:21 - His vault.** This is his **Obsidian.md** vault, "a free note-taking tool." - **0:27 - A pinned map of Faerûn.** He opens his map of **Faerûn**, "a fully pinned map in here with all sorts of stuff going on": a "Faerun World Map" covered in red location pins. ![[images/Obsidian-auto-calculate-travel-times-t0036.webp]] *The "Faerun World Map" note: a pinned map of the Western Heartlands region (Reaching Woods, Sunset Mountains, Far Hills, Storm Horns, Elturgard) with Asbravn's label showing.* - **0:37 - The Hluthvar note.** He opens the note on the town of **Hluthvar**. Its sidebar shows a stat-style info box: **Geography** (Type: Small City; Region: Western Heathlands [sic]), **Politics** (Govt Type: City-states with various governments), and **Organizations** (Church of the Helm, Harpers, Zhentarim). Several fields still say "Testing." - **0:46 - Joining towns.** There's a section on the **joining towns**. ### 0:53 - Joining Towns - **0:54 - Travel days to each town.** Did you notice the joining towns show how long it takes to get from one town to the next? The table, headed **"Travel (Riding Horse / 8 hrs per day)"** with a **"Party Configuration / Exhaustion: 0"** line, lists: | Destination | Travel days (riding horse) | |---|---| | Aris | 4 | | Asbravn | 2.8 | | Scornubel | 3.7 | ![[images/Obsidian-auto-calculate-travel-times-t0103.webp]] *Hluthvar's "Travel (Riding Horse / 8 hrs per day)" table with travel days to Aris (4), Asbravn (2.8) and Scornubel (3.7), above the Politics block.* - **1:07 - Not typed by hand.** "That is really handy, but I haven't manually typed that in. That's automatically calculating." ### 1:11 - Party Configuration - **1:19 - The party configuration note.** He opens his **Party Configuration** note. It covers different methods of travel and how fast each one is, plus: - **Travel Speed**: Travel Method (currently a **riding horse**), Current Minutes Per Mile, Travel Hours Per Day, and Current Speed Bonuses. - **Speed Bonuses**: Using Horseshoes of Speed, Encumbered and Exhaustion Level. The on-screen instructions say to add the current speed bonus to the table and evaluate the formula with **Advanced Tables**. - **Minutes Per Mile Table**: a table of travel methods (walking, riding horse, warhorse and others) with their minutes per mile. The instructions say to update the "MinutesPerMile" variable in the note's frontmatter to match. ### 1:42 - Warhorse Configuration - **1:43 - The point.** "That's right, I have a configuration page to show how the party is traveling." That page is pulled into all of his location notes, and they use it to work out how long it takes to get between towns. - **1:57 - Switching to a warhorse.** He changes the travel method to a **warhorse**, which covers "one mile per 10 minutes." The config now reads Travel Method: Warhorse, Current Minutes Per Mile: 10, Travel Hours Per Day: 8, Current Speed Bonuses: 0. ![[images/Obsidian-auto-calculate-travel-times-t0206.webp]] *The Party Configuration note after the change: Travel Method Warhorse, 10 minutes per mile, 8 travel hours per day, with the Speed Bonuses and Minutes Per Mile Table sections below.* - **2:10 - Recalculated.** Back in Hluthvar, the table header now reads **"Travel (Warhorse / 8 hrs per day)"**, and the trips have shrunk to **2.6 days** to Aris, **1.9** to Asbravn and **2.4** to Scornubel. ![[images/Obsidian-auto-calculate-travel-times-t0213.webp]] *The same Hluthvar table after the switch: Aris 2.6, Asbravn 1.9, Scornubel 2.4 travel days.* ### 2:20 - Results - **2:20 - Why he likes it.** "That has made my life a lot easier. I like that sort of automation." - **2:28 - Where to learn it.** Go to **ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com**, open **Plugin Tutorials**, and scroll to the bottom for the **Dataview** tutorials. One of them covers exactly how to **auto-calculate the party's travel time between towns**. ![[images/Obsidian-auto-calculate-travel-times-t0240.webp]] *The Plugin Tutorials page on ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com: the "Dataview and Other Advanced Plugins" table with the "Auto Calculate Party Travel Time Between Towns" row (tutorial: "Dataview - Travel Calculation", plugin: Dataview), under the Data Entry Tutorials and Published Player Notes sections.* - **2:46 - Sign-off.** With this you get the same automation in your own game and "don't have to go away and calculate how long it takes to get between towns." ## Things mentioned ### Obsidian plugins and features - **Dataview** (community plugin, free) by Michael Brenan: the query plugin behind the automation. His tutorial for it is listed under "Dataview and Other Advanced Plugins." Judging from the setup shown, each town note uses Dataview to read the party configuration note's values (travel method, minutes per mile, hours per day) and works out travel days to each joining town. The exact formula and distance fields aren't shown in the Short; that's in the linked tutorial. - **Frontmatter variables**: the Minutes Per Mile Table tells you to update a "MinutesPerMile" value in the configuration note's frontmatter. That one value is what all the location notes read. - **Advanced Tables** (community plugin, free) by Tony Grosinger: named in the on-screen instructions for evaluating the speed-bonus formula in a table. He doesn't mention it aloud. - **Pinned map**: the Faerûn world map with red pins. He doesn't name the plugin, but this is the **Obsidian Leaflet** (javalent) pin-map setup he shows in his other Shorts. - **Party Configuration note**: a single note holding the party's travel method, speed and modifiers (horseshoes of speed, encumbrance, exhaustion) that every location note links to. - **Town info box**: the Geography / Politics / Organizations stat-style sidebar on the town note (from his town template). ### Tools and websites - **Obsidian.md** (free app): "a free note-taking tool." - [ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com) (free): Josh's tutorial site. **Plugin Tutorials** → **Dataview and Other Advanced Plugins** → "Auto Calculate Party Travel Time Between Towns" ("Dataview - Travel Calculation"). The same page also lists Getting Started with Dataview, Dataview Examples, Add Buttons that Trigger Templates, and the Data Entry Tutorials (Text Format, Realm Works Output Formatter, JSON CSV Importer, Sublime Text). - **TikTok**: the clip is a repost of his TikTok upload (@obsidian.md.ttrpg watermark). ### TTRPG systems and content - **Dungeons & Dragons 5e / Forgotten Realms**: the vault is set in **Faerûn**. The system isn't named aloud, but the travel-pace and exhaustion mechanics match D&D. - **Overland travel and random encounters**: the problem he opens with is working out distance, travel time and how many encounters to place between towns. - **Hluthvar**: the Western Heartlands town whose note he demonstrates. - **Aris, Asbravn, Scornubel**: the joining towns in Hluthvar's travel table. Asbravn and Scornubel are Western Heartlands towns; "Aris" is as it appears on screen. - **Riding horse vs. warhorse**: the two travel methods he compares (the warhorse covers a mile every 10 minutes). - **Horseshoes of Speed**: the magic item listed as a speed bonus in the configuration note. - **Church of the Helm, Harpers, Zhentarim**: organizations listed in the Hluthvar info box. ## Bios - **Josh Plunkett**: Australian game master and YouTuber who makes Obsidian TTRPG tutorials, runs ObsidianTTRPGTutorials.com and offers a ready-made Obsidian TTRPG vault through Patreon. - **Michael Brenan (blacksmithgu)**: developer of the Dataview plugin, which turns an Obsidian vault into a queryable database and powers this travel-time automation. - **Tony Grosinger**: developer of the Advanced Tables plugin, which adds table editing and spreadsheet-style formulas to Obsidian's Markdown tables. - **Jeremy Valentine (javalent)**: Obsidian community developer behind Obsidian Leaflet (the pin-map plugin his Faerûn map appears to use), Initiative Tracker and Fantasy Statblocks.