The Environment

This section details general natural events that characters will experience throughout their stories and adventures from the environments they are experiencing.

Difficult Terrain

The road to the enemy is not always clear.  Often your character will find themselves blocked from crossing directly to their target.  In combat, to move across difficult terrain like a slippery floor, or jagged rocks, two movement are required to move through each space with difficult terrain. This works the same for hexes and zones, 4 meters of movement is required per hex of difficult terrain, and two movement actions are required for each zone with difficult terrain. A character can attempt an Athletics Skill Check and spend 1 movement to move freely that turn. (Note: this is only if it narratively fits and the Dealer allows it.)

Environment Hazards

One time instances of damage and stress happen to all characters.  This can be falling rocks, or an electrical shock. The table below gives a few examples of hazards and their damage.

Extreme Temperatures

Exploration is a major part of storytelling and adventures, and sometimes this exploration leads to dangerous places with extreme temperatures.  For each hour a character spends in a significantly hot or significantly cold environment they must make an Environmental Resist Skill Check, either Cold or Heat. If they fail, they gain a Wound, taking 2 damage each time, they make another check as long as they remain out in the cold. If the temperature is extremely cold or extremely hot this interval of time should be reduced to every 10 minutes.

The Dealer should alter the time between checks to match the extremity of the conditions with the Wound effect stacking on failures. Being well prepared with equipment grants a +2 to the Skill Checks, while being significantly unprepared grants a -1 to the Skill Checks.

Falling

A fall from any significant height is just as deadly as a combat encounter. A creature takes 4 damage for every 3 meters or 10 feet they fall.  This is rounded down for the first meter of each interval and rounded up like normal after that. For example, a fall from 1 meter would result in 0 damage, a fall from 2 meters would result in 3 damage, and a fall from 4 meters would also result in 4 damage. An Avoidance Skill Check can be used to reduce this damage.

Fires and Radiation

Fires are a common danger that befalls characters. If something is on fire it will take continuous damage each turn, so treat the damage as a Wounded effect.

A creature on fire should be treated as having a Wounded 4 effect at the lowest, a creature engulfed in flames should be treated as having a Wounded 8. This Wounded effect cannot be removed by most Recovery actions and should have a narrative effect required to remove or the use of First Aid. 

Radiation is treated the same way, with exposure to light radiation applying Wounded 4 damage every minute. Heavy radiation would be upwards of Wounded 8.  If the radiation damage becomes permanent and requires healing, this damage will continue even after the creature leaves the source of the radiation.

Diseases

Disease and sickness are slow killers, biding their time as they tear characters apart one organ at a time.  Stories can lead to characters contracting diseases or sickness and although these do not act immediately, they can have lasting negative effects on a character.  To resist a disease, a character should make an Environmental Resilience – Disease Skill Check every so often when in a disease laden area.  Once a disease is contracted, a character needs someone to use the Health Skill – Medicine to cure the disease or some other narrative based solution set forth by your Dealer.

Mechanically, diseases can represent anything from a lasting reduction to passive stats, to less passive Avoidance, to lower resistances to certain effects.  This is covered in much more detail and examples are provided on a per setting basis.

Fatigue and Exhaustion

Exhaustion can come about from many sources as a character may not have the time to adequately rest between their adventures.  In all cases, the character should progress along the Weakened Effect. When a character progresses along the Weakened Effect, they increase the level of the effect by 1 permanently.  This cannot be recovered until a long rest or setting-specific rule.  If a character is not Weakened, they become weakened, if they are weakened, they become fatigued; if they are fatigued, they become exhausted and if they are exhausted, they fall unconscious.

Forced Marches

Pushing characters past their limits during travel or even just adventuring out too late can result in exhaustion. For each hour past 10 hours of travel, players need to make a Skill Check using the Environmental Resilience Skill – Travel.  On a failure, 5 or less, the character progresses along the Weakened effect.

Hunger and Thirst

Characters need to eat and drink to stay healthy.  If they find themselves unable to do either of these things for an extended period of time, they will progress along the Weakened effect.  If they are unconscious when they progress along the Weakened effect, the character dies instead.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep is just as important as food and water and lacking it can be equally detrimental to a character’s adventure.  For every 8 hours past 24 hours a character remains awake without a rest, they progress along the Weakened effect.

Light and Visibility

What a character can see plays a crucial role in any story.  A detective needs to be able to see the clues to be able to solve them, an adventurer can’t avoid a trap they cannot see is there, and what a person cannot see is more terrifying than what they can.

Light and visibility are divided into 5 rough categories that give a general idea of how it affects a what character can see.

Well Lit means that a character’s vision is not blocked in any way and they have sufficient light to see anything in their line of sight.

Low Light means that shadows are prominent and there is not sufficient light to see things clearly at a distance. All characters have a -1 to their passive Awareness and their Awareness Checks that rely on sight to see things outside of the light sources.

Darkness means that light is sparse at best and characters have difficulty seeing. All characters in Darkness have a -2 to their passive Awareness and their Awareness Checks that rely on sight. Characters also gain a +2 benefit to any Stealth Checks made in darkness.

Total Darkness means that no light is present, and the characters are effectively Blind. See the Effect Stunned – Blinded in Core Effects for more mechanics effects. All characters in Total Darkness have a -4 to their passive Awareness and their Awareness Checks that rely on sight. Characters also gain a +4 benefit to any Stealth Checks made in darkness.

Obscured is unrelated to the light levels listed above and ties closely to the Obscured Effect in Core Effects.  Obscured vision is when something partly translucent blocks the character’s vision.  This can be caused by fog or steam or frosted glass just to name a few examples. The Obscured creature cannot be clearly seen, but major features like their silhouette can still be made out.

Poisons and venom

Poisons and venom that are injected will be treated as a Poison effect from Core Effects .  Poisons and venom directly injected in a non-combat situation have their effectiveness reduced by the creature’s Resist Physical to Poison value but cannot have the effect be ignored completely. The strength of the poison is dependent on its potency.  Poisons and venom can carry additional effects that will be covered in setting specific books.

Suffocation

Space and water share one thing in common: neither has enough air for humans to breathe.  A character that finds themselves without air needs to succeed at an Environmental Resilience – Hold Breath Skill Check every minute or they take 4 damage. For each check they fail, this damage increases by 4 until either they get air or fall unconscious.  If they are unconscious when they need to breathe, they die instead.

Underwater

For those not native to the pressures and motions of the water, their movement and actions can be heavily hindered.  Creatures that do not have experience in water have a -2 to penalty to Accuracy and Influence and deal half damage. Water Magic is unaffected and Fire Magic cannot be cast.

Additionally, they move at half speed rounded up, unless otherwise stated.  Settings that have a heavy emphasis on the ocean will have their own underwater rules that will take precedent.