Additional Rules

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Narrative Action versus Action Rounds

In Adventure’s Edge, everything that goes on during a game happens either through narrative action or in action rounds.

One of the strengths of table-top roleplaying is its use of narrative action. Narrative action occurs when the Gamemaster uses unstructured time, meaning time can be sped up or slowed down to fit the story telling. Players can perform long actions that can take hours, days, weeks or even years, and the Gamemaster can resolve those actions fluidly, passing time as needed.

An example of narrative action is when the party returns to the city after an adventure and they want to sell their loot, gather information, or rest and recuperate. Players can tell the Gamemaster what they want their characters to do. If the situation warrants roleplaying, the Gamemaster can roleplay out important interactions. If any checks are required, such as to gather information, players can roll those, and the Gamemaster can resolve each character’s actions in any order through dialogue. The Gamemaster can then summarize the actions of the day and move time to the next day to continue on with the story.

Action rounds occur when the situation requires structured time. Action rounds are used when the characters are performing simultaneous actions that can be resolved in a very short time, from seconds to minutes, and when tracking the passing of time is important. Action rounds are useful for certain actions such as investigation, infiltration, or exploration sequences, and most notably in combat sequences. The primary purpose of action rounds is to manage what characters can accomplish when time is a critical factor. Action rounds can be performed one turn at a time by each character, which is necessary in combat rounds. They can also be done in short sequences in non-combat situations

Action rounds are three seconds in length.

Combat rounds are action rounds that are resolved round by round sequentially. Each character only gets one round at a time due to the fast-paced and dynamic nature of battle. Combat rounds are detailed further in the Combat section.

Movement Rates

A bipedal creature’s movement rate has two numbers, its Stride, and its Combat Move. Stride comes into play when creatures are engaged in a travel or a chase. Combat Move is used when creatures are engaged in turn-by-turn movements on a battle map using action rounds.

A character’s stride is calculated by adding his dexterity score + a pace modifier (see Table: Size Modifiers). When consulting the Size Modifier table, round up at the 6" mark, and down when below 6".

Here are a few examples:

Laurel the elf is 5’ 10” tall with a dexterity of 14. Her stride is base 14 dex+4 because she is closer to 6’, which comes out to 18.

Squee the Goblin is 3’ 3”, with a dexterity of 18. His stride is 20-4, for a total of 14.

Burley the Hill Giant is 12’ 2” tall, with a dexterity of 8. His stride is 8+28, or 36.

Once a character calculates their stride, they then calculate their combat move by dividing by 5 and rounding up. In the examples above, Laurel’s combat move is 5, Squee’s is 4 and Burley’s is 8. This is the number of spaces a combatant can move on their turn.

There are five paces that a character can move at. Their stride as calculated above; jogging, which is 1.5x a character’s stride, running which is 2x their stride, sprinting which is 3x their stride, and a dash, which is 4x their stride. Each movement rate costs Stamina points as shown on the table. Characters can regain Stamina by resting. For each 15 minutes of rest (no activity), regain 1 point of Stamina. A character cannot gain more than their starting Stamina.

Chase sequences

Chases occur when one or more characters begin chasing after one or more other characters. While chases could be resolved on a battle map, most chases cover more distance than a reasonable sized map could handle. Chases are still managed with action rounds, but instead of using a character’s combat move, they instead use their running speed.

When a chase begins, roll initiative as if it were a combat and switch to action rounds. Determine the starting positions and relative distances between all the characters involved in the chase. Calculate how far each person involved in the chase can move at their stated speed.

More description needed with examples, including athletics checks and applying the use of free-running, sprinting and other proficiencies.

Overland Movement

Exploration

More description needed with example

Getting Lost

More description needed with example

Weather

More description needed with example

Outdoor Survival

More description needed with example

Exposure

More description needed with example

Vision and Light

A common question in running encounters or exploration scenarios has to do with how far a character can see. Sighting distance is affected by three factors, elevation, light, and visibility conditions. No number of charts can replicate all of the real-world situations but having some structure to use will aid Gamemasters in running a consistent game.

On a clear, bright day you can use the Table: Sighting Distance to determine how far a character can see based upon their elevation. Assume that all characters are at ground level; while technically variations in character height affect the ground distance, at this degree of variation we are rounding to the 3-mile mark for all characters. The sighting distance can then be modified based upon the visibility conditions. These visibility terms are descriptive, and Gamemasters should use them as a guide and not a hard and fast rule. This type of chart is designed to be an aid to approximate real world conditions and to provide enough information to describe a situation involving visibility.

The third factor to affect visibility is light level. For each drop in light level from bright, you can reduce the visibility distance by one. For example, if a character is looking down a road on a hazy day, they can see about 8000 feet. Muted lighting would drop that down a category to 2000 feet. Dim would drop that down to 125 feet.

Vision Acuity

Just because you can see a long distance at altitude does not mean you can make out details. The farther away objects get, the less you can determine about them. In general, you can make out major details of humanoid-sized objects at about half as far as you can see them (such as how many there are, large defining colorations). You can make out smaller details (clothing, armor) half again closer (about ¼ the normal visibility distance). You cannot make out facial features in order to recognize a person until about 150’ with human vision.

Enhanced Vision

Many creatures have better visual acuity than humans. Certain predators, such as eagles, have at least four times better vision. Creatures with uniquely powerful vision will have this detailed in their entry in the bestiary. Certain humanoid races also have heightened vision, but not to such an extent.

Creatures with enhanced vision have twice the visual acuity as their humanoid counterparts. This means that all environmental factors being equal, they can make out details twice as well, but they do not see any further. Using the above example, an elf with enhanced vision could make out the number of riders and the color of the horse at the 3-mile mark, identify that they are soldiers at the mile and a half mark, identify the race and flag details at 4000 feet and make out individual faces at 300 feet.

Night vision

Many creatures are nocturnal and function quite well at night. There are varying degrees of night vision, and any creature with unique night vision properties will have this detailed in their creature description.

Humanoid creatures with night vision are able to see better than their counterparts by a full degree of brightness as long as there is some ambient light. Night vision does not grant the ability to see in pitch black.

Night vision with a light source in pitch black works differently. If there is not ambient light, and a creature with night vision has a light source, the light source is one degree more effective for them.

For example, if someone is holding a lantern, there is a 10’ radius of muted light emanating from the lantern, with another 10’ radius of dull light, 10’ of dim light and then 10’ of dark. For the night vision character, there is 10’ radius of bright light, 10’ radius of muted light, 10’ radius of dull, 10’ dim, then 10’ dark.

Thermal vision

Some creatures are not restricted to using light to “see”, but instead they are able to see heat in the form of infrared radiation. Creatures with thermal vision are usually natives of the subterranean world, and almost invariably they are cold-blooded.

Thermal vision allows a creature to see radiating heat in a spectrum of color, with hot creatures or objects being brighter, and cool objects being darker. Thermal vision is not affected by light, but it is by heat, rendering it useless in daylight. Creatures or objects bathed in a heat source much hotter than them would be rendered invisible, such as a small creature next to a campfire. Other creatures, such as constructs that have been immobile long enough to become the exact temperature as the room around them would not be discernable as separate objects, but even modest amounts of movement would generate heat.

Thermal vision only works at close ranges and has other limitations. For example, it cannot discern writing on a flat surface unless the medium used absorbed heat differently than the surface. The effective range of thermal vision is fifty feet.

Dark vision

Dark vision does not exist in nature. It is a special vision granted through the use of magic. It functions effectively like magic sonar, in that the creature with a dark vision spell is radiating out magic waves which detect the world around him and return that information, forming the image in his mind. Dark vision shows the world in gray scale and can only discern solid objects. Characters are not able to read or make out patterns on a surface unless the patterns are raised. Fine edges appear blurred. Creatures under the effect of a dark vision spell do not see with their regular vision, and thusly do not benefit from any light sources, nor can they see light. Dark vision automatically penetrates lesser illusions that do not have a touch property. Darkvision does not penetrate invisibility spells.

Invisibility

Invisibility is a magical effect that renders objects or creature’s invisible to creatures that rely on natural sight. It works by creating a field around the target that allows visible light to pass through it unobstructed. Invisibility magic also lets dark vision magic pass through it, but invisibility does not prevent the target from radiating heat or sound, making them detectable by thermal vision (without another means to block thermal vision) and also detectable by sonar or echolocation. See Invisibility is a counter to Invisibility and works similar in nature to Darkvision in that it uses magical waves to detect objects, but these waves do not get bypassed by invisibility magic. See Invisibility, like Darkvision, reveals invisible objects as distinct, greyscale objects that make the target appear as if they were animated without color.

Underwater Movement & Combat

Holding breath

Characters can hold their breath for 5 seconds per point in their Constitution stat. Characters with the breath control proficiency can add their ranks in conditioning to their constitution for calculating the duration. If a character is injured while holding their breath, they must make a discipline check with a DL of 10 plus the damage taken, modified by any edge related to wounds. For each point of failure, the character loses an equivalent number of rounds of holding their breath.

Drowning

Once a character runs out of oxygen, they begin to drown. A character will stay conscious for a number of seconds equal to their constitution stat. On the first round they must make a DL10 discipline check to act; failure results in panic and flailing, unless there is a clear path to air, in which case they will desperately head towards it. Any desire to take another action requires a discipline check. For each round after the first round of drowning, the difficulty increases by one. While drowning, all actions are at minus one edge (except the discipline check). Once a character reaches a number of seconds without air equal to their constitution, they asphyxiate and die.

Characters who die from drowning can be revived with a successful Second Aid check. The DL to revive a drowned character is 30 minus their constitution score. This check can be made each round; a failure of 5 or more inflicts 1 point of damage and a mishap inflicts 1d6 damage. A character that is revived within a number of minutes after drowning equal to their constitution are revived but exhausted.

For each minute beyond their constitution score, the DL increases by 1, and the character suffers a permanent reduction to their intelligence.

Movement

Creatures without a swim speed that have the swimming proficiency are able to move at ½ their normal movement rates for walking and running. Creatures without the swimming proficiency must make athletics checks each round and are limited to a max of ¼ their normal movement rates.

Melee attacks

Attacking with a slashing or crushing weapon is very difficult. Creatures standing on firm ground or holding on to a stabilizing object (one large enough that does not move in response to their actions) can attack at minus one edge. Creatures free-floating do not have any leverage to push against and are at minus two edge to their attacks.

Creatures with a swim speed are treated as if they have a stabilizing object but will always be at minus one edge.

Piercing weapons, such as spears, are only at minus one edge for free-floating attacks, but attacks with stabilization are made normally.

Ranged attacks

Ranged attacks with bows are made normally, except range increments are reduced by ½.

Thrown weapons are ineffective underwater.

Spell attacks

There are a couple of key differences to using magic underwater. Verbal components cannot be used unless the spell caster can breathe water (either naturally or with a spell). If a spell has a required verbal component, and the caster cannot breathe water, he cannot cast the spell.

Any spell that has a fire attribute cannot be cast underwater. If a caster attempts to cast such a spell, it fizzles immediately upon casting.

Any spell that has a range increment based upon visibility is limited to the available visibility of the water, regardless of the range of the spell.

Any spell that is a directed spell, other than spells with a water attribute, has the range of the spell reduced by one category.

Any spell that causes a physical attack, or conjures a weapon to perform physical attacks, suffers the same penalties as melee attacks. If the summoned weapon is slashing or crushing, it is treated as a stabilized attack, so it is at minus one edge.

Visibility, lighting, and depth

Visibility underwater is affected by lighting and by clarity of the water. In bright light at the surface, visibility is categorized into murky, low, medium, high, clear, and perfect. Murky visibility restricts vision to 5 feet, or adjacent spaces. Low visibility restricts vision to 10 feet. Medium visibility restricts visibility to twenty-five feet, high restricts to fifty feet, clear restricts to one-hundred feet and perfect visibility is one-hundred fifty feet.

For each increment of two-hundred feet below the surface of the water, decrease the visibility by one increment. Once visibility is decreased below murky, assume the lighting is pitch black and creatures are unable to see without a light source.

For each increment of outdoor lighting that decreases, also decrease the underwater visibility by two increments. Lighting and depth penalties stack with each other.

Aerial Combat

In a world of magic, the option for characters to both fly, and engage in aerial combat, are real. Characters without a natural ability to fly will find that swinging weapons in the air without leverage to push against reduces their effectiveness. Any slashing and bludgeoning attacks are at minus one edge unless the character has firm footing on a flying device capable of providing resistance, such as a flying carpet or similar magic item.

Characters that have the ability to fly for at least an hour a day for thirty days can learn the flying proficiency, where they train to use their own inertia to provide enough resistance to make solid strikes.

Aerial combat and facing

Combat in 3-dimensions can be complicated. It is up to the Gamemaster to represent the action as best as possible. To keep things simpler, characters can attack straight up and straight down with their reach. Attacks from above are at plus one edge, and threatened attacks from the flank and rear can be made at an angle, extending the flanking spaces vertically one space up and down.

Morale

Morale is the mood, confidence, and discipline of an individual or group. Through the course of play, morale will affect NPC’s, such as hirelings traveling with the characters or allies fighting alongside the characters. Morale will never dictate a character’s actions; the GM can tell a player that their character feels miserable, or is afraid, but a character’s morale will never break. The only time a player will lose autonomy over their character is due to a spell effect.

The most common time for morale to come into play is in combat.

Morale checks are Discipline checks. The standard DL for an injured combatant is DL10. For each ally that breaks morale, increase the DL by 1. For each ally dead or dying within close range increases the DL by 2.

If a combatant is faced with an overwhelming force, major ally casualties, or other significant threat they will need to make a morale check.

Creatures that are wounded or take 50% of their Health Points must make a morale check or flee. Creature’s defending their young or their lairs, or otherwise have a significant reason to stand their ground gain an Edge on their check.

Morale checks are modified by negative Edge due to fatigue or injury.

Ally leaders can make Leadership checks to bolster their allies. The leadership DL is equal to the morale check DL. If successful, their allies will hold for a number of rounds that the leader beat the DL by, but if the leader is downed or another event occurs, at the GM’s discretion, NPC’s may need to make a morale check sooner.

Leadership

Characters that take the Leadership proficiency unlock their Leadership score. See Skills.

This section needs to be detailed.