Adventuring

This section is designated as Open Content.

Movement

The Movement table shows how far characters with a variety of Movement scores can travel over various periods of time. Groups of characters travelling together will move at the speed of the slowest member.

Movement

Movement in combat assumes a character is moving as fast as possible given his particular Combat Action. Movement over any period other than combat (Minute or longer) assumes a character is walking at a sustainable rate, though it is possible to run instead. This sustainable walking is considered light activity, though a full day (12 hours) of walking will count as medium activity.

Running

Running is easy enough for short periods; a character can run for a number of minutes equal to his CON before suffering from any tiredness. Once this time period has elapsed, the running counts as medium activity.

Terrain & Weather

Movement rates can be hindered by terrain and other adverse conditions such as wind, rain and hail. These conditions are divided into three categories, Slight, Moderate and Great Adversity.

Slight Adversity: Reduce the character's distance moved by 25%.

Moderate Adversity: Reduce the character's distance moved by 50%.

Great Adversity: Reduce the character's distance moved by 75%.

Chases & Pursuits

If a character succeeds at a Difficult (-20%) Athletics test, they may treat their Movement as one higher than normal for a single Combat Action or minute.

Sprinting is very tiring when chasing and counts as heavy activity.

If mounts are being used by characters in a pursuit, then the Athletics skill of the mount should be used rather than that of the character.

Illumination & Darkness

Dark Sight

Allows the character to treat pitch black conditions as dark. Normally possessed by subterranean creatures and trolls.

Night Sight

Allows the character to treat partial darkness as illuminated and darkness as partial darkness. Normally possessed by nocturnal creatures.

Illuminating Items

Fatigue

Physical activity is divided into three categories; light, medium and heavy. The length of time a character can engage in physical activity without running the risk of becoming Exhausted is determined by his CON. Once this time has elapsed, a character must begin to make skill tests in order to resist the effects of exhaustion.

Light Activity: Characters never risk Fatigue while engaging in light activity.

Medium Activity: Includes running, fighting in combat, climbing or swimming at a rapid rate. A character can engage in medium activity for a number of minutes equal to his CON before risking Fatigue. Once this time has elapsed, the character must immediately make a Simple (+20%) Athletics test or begin suffering the effects of Fatigue. So long as the activity continues, he must make another Simple (+20%) Athletics test every time a number of minutes equal to the character's CON elapse.

Heavy Activity: Includes back-breaking manual labour, sprinting and climbing at a rapid rate. A character can engage in heavy activity for a number of Combat Actions equal to his CON score before risking Fatigue. Once this time has elapsed, the character must immediately make a Normal (+0%) Athletics test or begin suffering the effects of Fatigue. So long as the activity continues, he must make another Normal (+0%) Athletics test every time a number of Combat Actions equal to the character's CON elapse.

Effects of Fatigue

If a character fails a test while engaged in medium or heavy activity, he will begin to show Fatigue. Every time a Fatigue test is failed, the character will drop down one level of Fatigue, as shown on the Fatigue Levels table.

Fatigue Levels

Time and Fatigue

Once a character has been awake for 10+CON hours, they must make a Persistence test or drop one Fatigue level. This test must be repeated for every hour the character remains awake.

Recovering from Fatigue

A character will move up one level of Fatigue for every two hours of complete rest or four hours of light activity. A successful First Aid or Healing test can raise a character by one level of Fatigue once per day, but cannot raise a character above Winded.

Exposure, Starvation and Thirst

A character can normally survive for a number of hours equal to his CON before suffering from exposure.

A character can survive for a number of days equal to his CON before becoming starved, though after three days they will begin to suffer a -10% penalty to Fatigue tests.

A character can survive for a number of hours equal to his CON x 4 before becoming chronically thirsty, though particularly arid environments may reduce this to CON x 3 or even CON x 2.

Whenever a character is suffering from exposure, starvation or thirst, the Fatigue test penalty immediately doubles to -20%. In addition, the character will automatically suffer one point of damage to all locations every day, for every condition he is experiencing. Natural or magical healing will not heal this damage - only sufficient shelter, food or water can remedy the problem and allow natural or magical healing to take place.

Healing

Healing can be performed in one of three ways - using the First Aid skill, a magical spell, or through natural healing, resting while the injuries heal themselves.

Natural Healing

A character's injured locations (any location that has 0 hit points or more) regain one hit point per 24 hours, as long as the character does not engage in anything more than light activity.

A character's badly injured locations (any location that has -1 or fewer hit points or more) regain one hit point per location per day, as long as the character does not engage in anything more than light activity, and the character succeeds at a Resilience test.

Natural healing will not heal a Major Injury until that location has either been treated with a successful Healing test or magical healing has been applied.

Magical Healing

However magical healing is achieved, whether from a spell, prayer or potion, it has an instantaneous effect.

In addition to the restoration of hit points, any location suffering a Major Wound that receives even a single hit point's restorations through magical healing immediately stops bleeding and is healed sufficiently to benefit from natural healing.

If a character has been knocked unconscious due to a Serious or Major Wound, the restoration of a single hit point to the wounded location that caused the unconsciousness will revive the character.

Unless specifically stated, magical healing cannot re-attach severed limbs or revive the dead.

Encumbrance

Every piece of equipment in the Equipment chapter has an Encumbrance (ENC) score, though some items are too small or light to have an ENC score. Characters can usually ignore the effects on Encumbrance that these have unless they start carrying a lot of them - assume that an average of 20 such items will equal 1 ENC, so long as the character has a suitable means of carrying them, such as a sack or backpack.

A character can carry equipment whose total ENC is less than or equal to his STR+SIZ without penalty.

Overloading

A character carrying total ENC greater than his STR+SIZ is Overloaded.

Overloaded characters suffer a -20% penalty to all tests that require physical actions, including Weapon skill tests and most tests that have DEX or STR as a Characteristic.

Overloaded characters have their Movement halved. They also suffer a -20% penalty to all Fatigue tests.

A character cannot carry more than twice his STR+SIZ in ENC.

Falling

A character that takes damage from a fall ends up prone. Armour points do not reduce falling damage.

Falling Distance

As long as the character was not surprised, they may attempt an Acrobatics test to mitigate falling damage - a successful test allows the character to treat the fall as if it were two metres shorter than it actually is. In addition, as long as this test is a success and the character is not reduced to 0 hit points in a location due to the fall, the character lands safely and is not prone.

Characters falling onto soft surfaces may have the distance they fall effectively halved for the purposes of damage.

Characters falling onto damaging surfaces will suffer the effects of the surface to all locations that are damaged in the fall.

Suffocation

While performing medium activity, a character can hold his breath for a number of Combat Rounds equal to his CON. Characters engaging in light activity can double this time, while characters performing heavy activity will halve it.

Once a character has surpassed the time for which he can hold his breath, he must make a Resilience test every round with a cumulative -10% penalty. If he fails, he automatically starts inhaling the suffocating substance, which automatically damages his Chest location him every round.

Suffocating Substance

Armour points do not reduce suffocation damage. The damage will only cease once the character can draw breathable air once more. Even then, the character will require a Resilience test to be able to do anything other than wretch or gasp for breath for 1D4 Combat Rounds.

Fire, Heat and Freezing

A character will normally take damage from fire or heat to a specific hit location. However, if a character is immersed in the source of the damage, then all locations will suffer from the damage the fire causes. The amount of damage suffered from fire or heat will depend on its intensity, as shown on the Fire and Heat table.

Fire and Heat

Poison

Every type of poison has the following information detailed:

Name: The poison's name. Also, if the poison is magical in nature, it will be mentioned here.

Type: Lists whether the poison is ingested, used on a weapon or inhaled.

Delay: The time between the poison's introduction to a character, to the time its effect takes hold.

Potency: This is a number between 10 and 100 that measures the strength of a poison. Some magical poisons, like basilisk venom, have even higher Potencies. A character must make an opposed Resilience test versus the poison's Potency test in order to avoid or mitigate the damage of the poison.

Effect: Usually hit point damage that affects all locations of the victim, though this is not universal. Some poisons cause a character to sleep for a period of time. More exotic poisons may cause hallucinogenic effects, paralysis or a combination of effects. These take place after the delay noted above.

Duration: How long the poison, if effective, will affect the victim. The effects of the poison cannot be removed or healed until the poison itself has been neutralised or has dissipated in the victim's system. Hit point damage caused by poison will not automatically heal - it must be healed through magical or natural healing.

Poison Succeeds, Character Fails

If the poison succeeds its Potency test and the character fails his Resilience test, the poison has its full effect.

Character Succeeds, Poison Fails

If the character succeeds his Resilience test and the poison fails its Potency test, the poison has no effect.

Both Poison and Character Succeed

Whoever rolled the highest in their test wins.

Both Poison and Character Fail

Whoever rolled the lowest in their test wins.

Disease

Every type of disease has the following information detailed:

Name: The disease's name. Also, if the disease is magical in nature, it will be mentioned here.

Type: Lists whether the disease is spread through contamination, touch or is airborne.

Delay: The time between the disease's introduction to a character, to the time its effect takes hold. It is also the time following disease contraction that a victim will be forced to make follow-up opposed disease tests.

Potency: This is a number between 10 and 100 that measures the strength of a disease. Some magical diseases, like the shining plague, have even higher Potencies. A character must make an opposed Resilience test versus the disease's Potency test in order to avoid or mitigate the damage of the disease.

Effect: Usually hit point damage that affects all locations of the victim, though this is not universal. Many diseases will apply a penalty to Characteristics or skills. More exotic diseases may cause hallucinogenic effects, paralysis or a combination of effects. These take place after the delay noted above.

The effects of the disease cannot be removed or healed until the disease itself has been neutralised or has dissipated in the victim's system. Hit point damage caused by disease will not automatically heal - it must be healed through magical or natural healing.

Disease Succeeds, Character Fails

If the disease succeeds its Potency test and the character fails his Resilience test, the disease has its full effect.

Character Succeeds, Disease Fails

If the character succeeds his Resilience test and the disease fails its Potency test, the disease has no effect.

Both Disease and Character Succeed

Whoever rolled the highest in their test wins.

Both Disease and Character Fail

Whoever rolled the lowest in their test wins.

Unlike a poison, diseases will progress if a character does not resist its effects. Once the first opposed test is failed by the victim, they will have to make an additional opposed test (after an amount of time determined by the disease's delay statistic).

If the victim succeeds this second opposed test, he has overcome the worst of the disease and will no longer suffer its effects (other than remaining hit point damage) after while (use the disease's delay statistic to determine how long this takes).

If the victim fails this second opposed test, he falls deeper into the disease. Apply all of the disease's effects again to the character. Once the delay period has elapsed once more, the victim will have to make a third opposed disease test, and so on.

Inanimate Objects

All inanimate objects have armour points and hit points. Except for the most unusual of circumstances, attacks on inanimate objects will automatically hit - characters simply need to work out how much damage they deal.

The object's armour points will be deducted from any damage dealt as normal, with the remainder being applied to its hit points. Once an object's hit points have been reduced to zero, it is smashed and useless.

Inanimate objects likely to block or restrain characters, such as doors or ropes, have Strength scores. To break down a door, or burst one's bonds, a character must succeed at a brute force Athletics test. This automatically reduces the object's hit points to 0.

Inanimate Objects

Inanimate Objects & Weapons

Using a weapon on an inanimate object with armour points equal to or greater than that of the weapon deals damage on both the object and the weapon.