Exploration

Many adventures in Forge of legends will take place in wild and dangerous landscapes. You might need to hack their way through a tangled jungle, spelunk to the bottom of a dark cave, or climb to the top of a snowy mountain. At other times, the you might need to jump, climb, swim, or sneak, or smash their way into a particular location. All these locales can pose serious challenges for unprepared adventurers.

Jumping

You can easily jump a number of paces horizontally equal to one plus your brawn with a running start, or half that distance if you don’t have a running start. Your can jump vertically a number of feet equal to your brawn, or about 1/3rd that many meters. If a you want to jump farther or higher, the GM will call for a brawn roll to see if you succeed.

You can jump as part of any movement skill, and paces moved while jumping count against the total number of paces you may move. If you run out of movement in the middle of your jump, you end your turn suspended in the air. On your next turn, you must either use more movement to complete the jump, or you begin falling.

Climbing

Climbing up an easy structure like a ladder typically doesn’t require a roll. However, the GM will usually call for a brawn roll to climb up a rope, tree, or cliff or other surface. You can use a movement skill to climb, but you must spend an extra point of movement for every pace you climb. In general, you can’t use actions while climbing, although the GM may make exceptions. You can’t defend against attacks while you’re climbing; you must yield to any attack.

Flying

Some majestic creatures possess the power of flight. A flying creature must spend two movement points for ever pace it ascends, but may move two paces downward for each point of movement. A flying creature ignores most special terrain.

A flying creature that becomes kneeling immediately falls five paces, and a creature that becomes knocked-down falls ten paces. They fall that same distance at the end of each of their turns as long as the conditions persist. Any flying creature without the hover skill must use a movement skill each turn, or it falls five paces. However, all flying creatures can partially control their fall. If they hit the ground, they treat the fall as if it were half the distance.

Falling

When you are shoved off a ledge or fail at jumping or climbing, you begin falling. However, if you are near a ledge, rope, or other grabbable surface when you begin to fall, you may immediately grab that surface and be dangling from it instead. Dangling is still an extremely dangerous position to be in. You’re considered knocked-down, you can’t defend against attacks, and you suffer a bane on brawn rolls to climb back up.

When you fall from a height, you suffer stress based on how far you fell. You can safely jump down two paces, or fall accidentally one pace, with no consequence. If you fall farther than that the GM will call for an agility roll. Each success lets your treat the fall as if it was two paces shorter. For each excess pace fallen, you suffer 1d6 stress.

Swimming

Deep water is considered wet terrain, so you must spend two points of movement to move each pace. The GM won’t usually call for a roll for swimming across placid water. But swimming against turbulent water, while carrying a lot of gear, or while under attack will usually take a brawn roll. If you fail this roll, you might be carried away by the current or even sink. Several rules apply to fighting in or under water.

Breath Holding

Your can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to six plus three times your brawn, plus an additional 6 rounds if you intentionally hold your breath on your turn. However, any round in which you use an action or two maneuvers counts as three rounds of holding your breath instead of one. When your breath runs out, you suffer 1d4 stress each round until you take a breath.

If you are unexpectedly plunged under water, you suffer the choking condition, and that condition is persistent while you remain under water. You will also become choking if you are unexpectedly buried or immersed in a toxic cloud. However, if you intentionally hold your breath on your turn, you are immune to the choking condition, but you lose -2 momentum and -2 focus at the end of your turn.

Sight & Darkness

The GM will describe the amount of light in each area as either bright, dim, or dark.

• Daylight, torches, and campfires all cast bright light, which imposes no penalties or modifications. On a clear day with no obstructions, you can see out to 3 miles or 5km away.

• An starry night in an open field or the border of a fire may be dim light. All skills suffer a bane when targeting a character in dim light.

• A dark area, such as a the depths of a cave or a midnight forest, is devoid of light. Most characters can’t see in darkness, meaning you can’t even target other characters with skills. If you move more than one pace in a turn without being able to see where you are going, you risk bumping into something, making noise, generating doom, and suffering stress.

Stealth

When you try to hide from or sneak past enemies, the GM will call for an opposed agility roll. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the highest cunning of any enemy you try to avoid. The GM may further adjust the difficulty based on factors such as your distance, the amount of cover you have, and the amount of light in the area. Using two maneuvers in a turn, using the Sprint skill, or otherwise moving quickly imposes a bane on the agility roll. Hiding from sight without any cover is usually impossible. The GM might decide that each roll represents one round of movement, but a roll might also use one roll to describe several rounds, minutes, or hours.

A complete failure on this roll will mean your enemies have noticed you. A mixed roll will usually mean that your enemies haven’t noticed you yet, but have noticed that something is amiss. They won’t be surprised if you attack and might begin searching for you.

If you successfully hide from an enemy, they do not know where you are and can’t target you with skills. If you spring from hiding to attack an enemy who couldn’t see you, then you gain a boon on the attack. If your enemies weren’t even aware that something was amiss, they become surprised as well!

Skills are assumed to make a significant amount of noise, whether it’s the clatter of footfalls, grunts of exertion, the clang of steel on steel, the thrum of a bowstring, or arcane words of power. The exception to this rule is a skill that has the stealthy tag, which can be used without making a commotion.

Damaging Objects

The GM will call for a brawn roll to damage or destroy an object. Most object are impossible to damage without the right tools; most people can’t chop through a door or cut a rope with their bare hands.

Many effects of a damaged object are obvious; a damaged door no longer blocks passage, a damaged wagon can’t roll, and so on. Equipment can also be damaged in which case it suffers the damaged condition. Damaged equipment can usually be repaired in town. In extreme cases, like a blade snapped entirely in half, the object may be considered destroyed beyond repair.

A damaged weapon suffers a bane on all attacks. Damaged armor provides no armor. Other damaged equipment can’t be used and doesn’t provide any of its benefits or skills. Legendary items are no exception and may become damaged or even destroyed as well. However, even if a legendary symbol is broken, the legend itself will likely remain and find a new symbol in time.

Doom

Time is not on the side of the heroes. The longer you take to complete an adventure, the more your enemies will be prepared and the greater the chance for disaster. The GM gains doom when players dawdle in dangerous locations or attract unwanted attention. Doom is a resource that the GM will spend to cause problems for the players, the more doom the GM gets, the tougher things will be.

The GM will describe each location that you visit as safe, wild, dangerous, or deadly.

• A safe location, such as a respectable city, a well-traveled road, or a peaceful grassland, does not accumulate doom.

• A wild location, such as a spooky forest, craggy hills, or the untamed slums, gives the GM one point of doom for each day spent mostly in such a location.

• A dangerous location might be a cursed swamp, a haunted graveyard, or a forgotten ruin. The GM gains one point of doom for every hour of time spend in a dangerous location.

• Finally, a deadly location, such as an enemy encampment or an evil wizard’s tower, will give the GM doom for every 10 minutes passed. Heroes should spend no longer than necessary in such locations and return to safety whenever possible.

When time is critical, such as right before a villain’s plans comes to completion, the GM may increase the doom pool even faster, such as every minute or even every round. Attracting unwanted attention will also generate doom as well, such as letting an enemy escape to warn its allies or making a loud commotion.

Resting

Characters need about eight hours of sleep each night. If you and your group take turns keeping watch, the whole rest lasts 10 hours, or 12 if you also make and break camp in the wilderness. You also expend one of your supplies each day away from comfort, representing the food and other consumables you used. You will suffer stress if you get significantly less sleep or run out of supplies.

After a supper and a night’s sleep, you recover from one point of stress. Staying in a cozy but modest dwelling might relieve an additional point of stress, while sleeping in a warm soft inn might relieve three in total. However, sleeping in a cold dank cave might cause as much stress as it relieves, and trying to sleep outside in a storm may cause even more.