: How to travel in a government restricted setting? So my fantasy story starts out with two characters travelling by foot through endless woods. They can't take the roads because of an oppressive

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No I think you're over thinking it. Why would the regime need to secure every last patch of land when they could just secure their own buildings and actual assets? Maybe they have scouts which could add an element of suspense, but in a vast forest there's no guarantee they'd always be effective in spotting intruders.

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Mostly for the same reason real life law enforcement agencies patrol mainly the roads.

More difficult to navigate: Roads are purposely made for travel to be easier. Patrols can cover a wide range easily. Woods on the other hand, would restrict movements, and make patrols more difficult.
More dangerous: If all the bandits or rebels hide in the forests, this is not the best place to be as a government agent.
Nobody important to protect anyway: Good citizens walk the roads. Bandits hide in the woods. Patrols want to protect the citizens, so they protect the roads.

Note however that there could be a specialized unit tasked with patrolling the woods. But they would most likely be smaller and easier to avoid.

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What are the roads like (maintained / protected by govt. troops? Paved?) What are the woods like - wild animals that most people try to avoid? Muddy / slow travel? Lots of reasons that woods would not be patrolled except for when hunting major fugitives. Also, even if woods are generally patrolled, how well? Maybe easy to avoid patrols? Average patroller is probably not happy to be traipsing thru the woods, would make noise, not be well trained, etc.

How badly are your characters wanted in the first 1/5 of book? That drives the answer to a lot of the above. A sentence or two of handwaving are all that are needed unless they have a huge bounty on their heads or something.

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