| MOVING Heroes move around a lot, especially when the action gets going. The Narrator moderates the pace of a game session, and so determines when movement is important enough to be worth measuring. During casual scenes, you usually won’t have to worry about movement rates. If a character arrives somewhere and takes a stroll around to get a feel for the place, there’s no need to know exactly how fast the character goes; it just happens. During action scenes, however, it may be important to have an idea how fast and how far a hero can move. MOVEMENT PACE Characters generally move at a normal, accelerated, or all-out pace. Most characters’ base speed is 30 feet, meaning a character can walk 30 feet as a move action every round. The following movement paces modify base speed: • Normal: A normal pace represents the unhurried but purposeful movement at the character’s normal speed, which is usually 30 feet per round (about 3 miles per hour). This is the equivalent of walking for a normal unencumbered human. • Accelerated: An accelerated pace, sometimes called a hustle or double move, is twice the character’s normal speed, usually 60 feet per round (about 6 miles per hour). This is the equivalent of jogging for a normal unencumbered human. Taking two move actions in a round is accelerated movement. • All Out: Moving four times your base speed is an all-out pace, the equivalent of running or sprinting, usually 120 feet per round (about 12 miles per hour). All-out movement is a full-round action, and you lose any dodge bonus to Defense since you’re not easily able to avoid attacks. You can move all out for 10 rounds, plus your CON SCORE. After that, you must succeed at a Constitution check (Difficulty 10) to continue moving at this pace. You must check again each round you continue to move all out, and the Difficulty of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail a check, you become fatigued and must drop to an accelerated or normal pace. HAMPERED MOVEMENT Obstructions, bad surface conditions, and poor visibility can hamper movement. The Narrator determines the category into which a specific condition falls (see the Hampered Movement table). When movement is hampered, multiply the standard distance by the movement penalty (a fraction) to determine the distance covered. For example, a character who normally could cover 60 feet with a double move can cover only 30 feet if moving through thick undergrowth. If more than one condition applies, multiply the normal distance covered by all movement penalty fractions that apply. For instance, a character who normally could cover 60 feet with a double move could cover only 15 feet moving through thick undergrowth in heavy fog (one-quarter his double move).
CARRYING Carrying capacity determines how much weight heroes can lift and how much any additional encumbrance slows them down. See the Carrying Capacity table for how much characters can lift based on their Strength score. (The figures in the Carrying Capacity table are for Medium creatures. Larger and smaller creatures can carry more or less depending on their size category. See Size, page 183, for details.) Carrying more than a light load imposes penalties to Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Sleight of Hand, Sneak, and Swim checks, like an armor check penalty (see Armor Qualities, page 137). The penalty is doubled for Swim checks. • Light Load: Characters can lift and carry up to a light load without any penalties or difficulties. • Medium Load: Characters carrying a medium load have a maximum dodge bonus of +3 and a -3pt armor check penalty. They move at 2/3 normal speed. • Heavy Load: Characters can lift up to a heavy load overhead. They have a maximum dodge bonus of +1 and a -6pt armor check penalty. They move at 2/3 normal speed. • Maximum Load: Characters can lift up to the maximum load off the ground, but can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, characters lose any dodge bonus to Defense and can move only 5 feet per round as a full-round action. You cannot take any other actions while supporting a maximum load. • Push/Drag: Characters can push or drag up to five times their heavy load weight, moving at 1/2 normal speed. Favorable conditions (smooth ground, dragging a slick object) double these numbers, and bad circumstances (broken ground, pushing an object that snags) can reduce them to one-half or less.
THROW Characters can throw any object they can lift, up to a heavy load. (Characters cannot throw their maximum load, only drop it adjacent to themselves.) Picking up an object is a move action while throwing something is a standard action, so it’s possible to pick up and throw an object in one round. The distance you can throw an object is based on its weight and your Strength. You can throw your heavy load 5 feet. For every 2 points of Strength, you have over the minimum required to lift an object as a heavy load, double the distance you can throw it. This means a Strength +5 character has 5 points more Strength than needed to lift 100 pounds as a heavy load and can, therefore, throw a 100-pound object up to 20 feet (5 feet x 2 x 2). |
GM Manual