May 22, 2024 3:02 pm
Movement
There are three movement scales, as follows.
- Tactical, for combat, measured in feet (or squares) per round.
- Local, for running and exploring an area, measured in feet per minute.
- Overland, for getting from place to place, measured in miles per hour or miles per day.
While moving at the different movement scales, creatures generally walk, hustle, or run.
Walk
A walk represents unhurried but purposeful movement at 3 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.
Hustle
A hustle is a jog at about 6 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.
Run / Sprint
Footspeed, or sprint speed, is the maximum speed at which a creature can run. That is about 14 miles per hour for an untrained unencumbered player character.
Tactical
We use tactical movement for combat. Characters generally don’t walk during combat—they hustle or run. A character who moves his or her speed and takes some action is hustling for about half the round and doing something else the other half.
Difficult terrain, obstacles, or poor visibility can hamper movement. When movement is hampered, each square moved into usually counts as two squares, effectively reducing the distance that a character can cover in a move.
Local
Characters exploring an area can use local movement, measured in feet per minute. A character can walk and hustle, without a problem, for up to an hour.
A PC can also run for a couple of minutes before having to rest. This effectively amounts to a sprint and represents about 14 miles per hour for an untrained unencumbered human.
With an Str/Exert check*, the PC can try to increase that speed, following the table below:
Overland
Characters covering long distances cross-country use overland movement. Overland movement is measured in miles per hour or miles per day. A day represents 8 hours of actual travel time.
Walk
A character can walk 8 hours in a day of travel without a problem. Walking for longer than that can wear him or her out (see Forced March, below).
Hustle
A character can hustle for 1 hour without a problem. Hustling for a second hour in between sleep cycles needs a successful Con/Exert check* with DC according to the table below:
Forced March
On a day of normal traveling, a character walks for 8 hours. The rest of the daylight time is spent making and breaking camp, resting, and eating.
A character can walk for more than 8 hours in a day by making a forced march. For each hour of marching beyond 8 hours, a successful Con/Exert check* is required with the following DCs:
A character that hustled cannot force march in the same day.
* Exert checks
A PC that succeeds in their Exert check achieves the desired result. They can run, hustle or force march.
A PC that fails in their Exert check, though, doesn’t achieve the desired result and instead becomes fatigued. A fatigued character can’t run and takes a penalty of -2 to all skill checks that use Strength, Constitution or Dexterity as its attribute modifier. If the character was trying to hustle or force march, they can either give up and stop to rest or try the skill check again, albeit with this new penalty. The character recovers from its fatigued condition after a night of good rest.
A PC that is already fatigued and fails in their Exert check takes 1 System Strain. They can give up and stop to rest, or continue trying until their System Strain equals their Constitution score. If the PC hits their maximum System Strain, they cannot handle the additional stress and can't run, hustle or force march anymore.
As usual, System Strain decreases automatically by one point after each night of rest, provided the organism is well-fed and not compromised by sickness or privation.
There are three movement scales, as follows.
- Tactical, for combat, measured in feet (or squares) per round.
- Local, for running and exploring an area, measured in feet per minute.
- Overland, for getting from place to place, measured in miles per hour or miles per day.
While moving at the different movement scales, creatures generally walk, hustle, or run.
Walk
A walk represents unhurried but purposeful movement at 3 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.
Hustle
A hustle is a jog at about 6 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.
Run / Sprint
Footspeed, or sprint speed, is the maximum speed at which a creature can run. That is about 14 miles per hour for an untrained unencumbered player character.
Tactical
We use tactical movement for combat. Characters generally don’t walk during combat—they hustle or run. A character who moves his or her speed and takes some action is hustling for about half the round and doing something else the other half.
Difficult terrain, obstacles, or poor visibility can hamper movement. When movement is hampered, each square moved into usually counts as two squares, effectively reducing the distance that a character can cover in a move.
| One Round | Unencumbered (10m) | Lightly Encumbered (7m) | Heavily Encumbered (5m) |
| One move action | 6 squares (30ft) | 4 squares (20ft) | 3 squares (15ft) |
Local
Characters exploring an area can use local movement, measured in feet per minute. A character can walk and hustle, without a problem, for up to an hour.
A PC can also run for a couple of minutes before having to rest. This effectively amounts to a sprint and represents about 14 miles per hour for an untrained unencumbered human.
With an Str/Exert check*, the PC can try to increase that speed, following the table below:
| Exert check DC | Unencumbered (10m) | Lightly Encumbered (7m) | Heavily Encumbered (5m) |
| 6 | 1200 feet per minute (14 mph) | 840 (10 mph) | 600 (7 mph) |
| 8 | 1500 (17 mph) | 1050 (12 mph) | 750 (9 mph) |
| 10 | 1800 (20 mph) | 1260 (14 mph) | 900 (10 mph) |
| 12 | 2100 (24 mph) | 1470 (17 mph) | 1050 (12 mph) |
| 14 | 2400 (27 mph) | 1680 (19 mph) | 1200 (14 mph) |
Overland
Characters covering long distances cross-country use overland movement. Overland movement is measured in miles per hour or miles per day. A day represents 8 hours of actual travel time.
| Movement | Unencumbered (10m) | Lightly Encumbered (7m) | Heavily Encumbered (5m) |
| One hour walking | 3 miles | 2 miles | 1.5 miles |
| One hour hustling | 6 miles | 4 miles | 3 miles |
| One day traveling | 24 miles | 16 miles | 12 miles |
Walk
A character can walk 8 hours in a day of travel without a problem. Walking for longer than that can wear him or her out (see Forced March, below).
Hustle
A character can hustle for 1 hour without a problem. Hustling for a second hour in between sleep cycles needs a successful Con/Exert check* with DC according to the table below:
| Hours hustling (total) | DC |
| 1 | None |
| 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 10 |
| 4 | 12 |
| 5+ | 14 |
Forced March
On a day of normal traveling, a character walks for 8 hours. The rest of the daylight time is spent making and breaking camp, resting, and eating.
A character can walk for more than 8 hours in a day by making a forced march. For each hour of marching beyond 8 hours, a successful Con/Exert check* is required with the following DCs:
| Hours walking (total) | DC |
| 8 or less | None |
| 9 | 6 |
| 10 | 8 |
| 11 | 9 |
| 12 | 10 |
| 13 | 11 |
| 14 | 12 |
| 15+ | 14 |
A character that hustled cannot force march in the same day.
* Exert checks
A PC that succeeds in their Exert check achieves the desired result. They can run, hustle or force march.
A PC that fails in their Exert check, though, doesn’t achieve the desired result and instead becomes fatigued. A fatigued character can’t run and takes a penalty of -2 to all skill checks that use Strength, Constitution or Dexterity as its attribute modifier. If the character was trying to hustle or force march, they can either give up and stop to rest or try the skill check again, albeit with this new penalty. The character recovers from its fatigued condition after a night of good rest.
A PC that is already fatigued and fails in their Exert check takes 1 System Strain. They can give up and stop to rest, or continue trying until their System Strain equals their Constitution score. If the PC hits their maximum System Strain, they cannot handle the additional stress and can't run, hustle or force march anymore.
As usual, System Strain decreases automatically by one point after each night of rest, provided the organism is well-fed and not compromised by sickness or privation.