Environmental Rules

Primer
There are many situations where the environment affects the difficulty of checks or
affects your movement. These can roughly be categorized as Darkness, Terrain, and
Weather.

Environment can also have specific hazards, such as suffocation or falling.

Darkness
Unless a character can see in the dark, their activities in the dark will be done almost
blind. An area is dark if the environment has no Light Sources or they're away from the
Light Sources.

Actions targeting something in Darkness have a -4 circumstance penalty, the equivalent

of being Blinded. This doesn't apply to effects that don't require a line of sight, such as
Intimidation.

Light Sources
Light Sources are objects or environmental aspects that give off light. Each of them has
an area in which they provide light. Under normal circumstances, an area lit by a light
source provides no benefits or detriments, except to Stealth.

If you try to Stealth while in the area of a Light Source, you gain a -4 circumstance
penalty to the check.

Dim Lighting
Beyond the immediate light, areas immediately next to a lit area are dimly lit. Actions
targeting something in Dim Lighting have a -2 circumstance penalty to them. This
doesn't apply to effects that don't require a line of sight, such as Intimidation.

Darkvision
Some Abilities or Items can grant the user Darkvision. When a target has Darkvision,
they treat Darkness as Dim Lighting and Dim Lighting as fully lit.

Terrain
Most of the time, terrain is just standard. However, different Traits can be applied to
Terrain. These can be natural landforms, built traps and hazards, or simply aftereffects
of items and abilities used.

There are three tags that can be added to terrain: Hazardous, Slippery, Slowing, or
Zero-G. Together, they are called Difficult Terrain.
Hazardous
Hazardous Terrain causes damage to anyone who Moves through it and at Round Start.
Choose a fitting damage type. Normal hazards (acid, fire, smoke) cause 2d6 P1
damage, and dire hazards (lava, plasma, high-voltage electricity) cause 3d6 P2
damage.

Slippery
Slippery terrain is difficult to move on without falling. If you Move across slippery terrain,
you must make a Difficult (15) Movement check. On a failure, you fall Prone, and if it's
sloped, you slide down. You can Step on Slippery terrain without making this check.

Slowing
Slowing terrain is difficult to move through, as it's either uneven, filled with shrubs, or
forces you to wade in it. When in Slowing terrain, you cannot Step, and every foot
moved counts as 2 feet moved, halving your overall Speed.

Zero-G
Zero-G terrain is generally applied to all terrain in a location. When in Zero-G, you
cannot Move by walking. Instead, you must either climb or Jump.

When you Jump, instead of falling down, you keep moving in the direction of your Jump
until you Stop (1) by grabbing something. Otherwise, you will continue movement up to
your speed automatically each turn.

Weather
Weather is an omnipresent force that controls our lives more than we think, and in
game, it should also feature heavily, even just for the sake of ambience. Environments
become more vivid when enhanced with fitting weather.

Weather Roll
Whenever a new Horizon or Exploration Round begins, you can roll a Weather roll on a
d6. Rolling isn't always necessary, and you can either decide for the previous weather to
continue or just decide a fitting weather pattern.
1: Severe: A hailstorm, thunder, heavy rain, extreme heat or cold. Choose one of the
Weather Effects.

2-4: Moderate: Light rain, cloudy, slightly cold or hot.

5-6: Pleasant: Gentle, sunny, "perfect" weather.

Use these examples to determine the kind of weather that fits the season and climate of
the location. If it's summer in a temperate environment, severe weather could be
abnormally hot temperatures or a storm. In the winter, moderate weather could be
snowfall rather than rain.

Weather Effects
Weather can cause many sorts of effects, which can be detrimental to characters.
Sometimes, these effects can just be tied to the environment (such as Exposure being a
constant in the Antarctic).

Exposure: Players must make a Difficult (15) Toughness check for each Exploration
action they make outside. On a Failure, they become Exhausted.

Flooded: Makes the lowest points in the map into Slowing Terrain.

Fog: Choose a distance between 20 and 200 feet. Everything beyond that distance
becomes obscured, and targeting them has a Detriment (+5 Difficulty).

Rain and Snow: Makes sloped surfaces Slippery terrain.

Storm: A sandstorm, rainstorm, or a blizzard has the effects of both Fog and Strong
Wind.

Strong Wind: Strong winds have a direction. If you go downwind, you gain a +5-foot
circumstance bonus to your Speed. If you go headwind, you suffer a -10-foot
circumstance penalty to your Speed.

Hazards
Hazards are specific hazardous things in the environment. They can sometimes overlap
with Hazardous Terrain, but they can also often be one-time problems.

There are five primary hazards: Gas, Explosions, Falling, Submersion, and Traps.
Gas
Gasses are hazards that are inhaled. You must make a Daunting (20) Toughness check.
On a failure, you gain the penalty from the gas. Gasses vary from detrimental to deadly.

Explosions
If you are in an Explosion’s area, you must make a Toughness Check. The difficulty
depends on the distance from the explosion. Cover or Shield benefits are applied.
Explosions always deal 4 Dice and Potency 3 of damage.

●​ 1st Increment: Daunting (20)

●​ 2nd Increment: Difficult (15)

Critical Success: The character takes no damage.

Success: After the damage calculation, reduce the highest damage die from the result.

Failure: Take the normal damage.

Critical Failure: After the damage calculation, add the highest damage die a second
time to the result.

The explosion increment and damage of the explosion are defined by the source of the
explosion. If you improvise an explosive device, it deals 4d6 P3 of Bludgeoning, Slash,
or Fire damage with a 5-foot increment.

Falling
Whenever you fall from a great height for any reason, you take Strike damage equal to
the distance you fell. You can reduce Falling damage with Break Landing (R) action.

You can also take Falling damage if you're sent flying by a strong force, applying the
same principle to the damage and distance. If you don't hit a standing object or
structure, but rather slide along the ground, you take half of the distance as Slash
damage instead.

Submersion and Suffocation

When submersed in liquid or otherwise unable to breathe, your character must either
Hold their Breath or start Suffocating ([Link]).
While Holding your Breath, you reduce your Strain by 2 at the beginning of each round.
If you suffer a Strain Break, you become Exhausted and start Suffocating.

If you are still submerged or out of air when you run out of Hit Points, You get Knocked
Out, and possibly die.

Traps
Traps are generally one-use features that must be disarmed or triggered. Traps have
different purposes, and can vary from pit traps to security systems.

Whenever you encounter a Trap, you must first detect it. Whenever you Seek in an
area, you automatically also detect traps. Traps should also be tied to relevant elements
(like doors) in a way that players can predict whether there are traps, even if they don't
detect them.

Whenever a player would trigger a trap, they make a Daunting (20) Perception Check.
On a success, they don't trigger the trap, noticing it at the last second.