Distance, Movement, and Time

Bleak Forest is about more than carrying out the will of the Fates and setting the cosmic cycle right. It’s also about the journey. Where the characters go, how long it takes them to get there, and how far they can push themselves all matter. Tracking time, movement, and distance gives those choices weight and gives the characters’ journey through the Forest a tangible structure.

Distance, Time, and the Hex Hierarchy

Bleak Forest uses a nested hex system that scales by a factor of four at each tier: 8 km, 2 km, 500 m, 125 m, and 31.25 m. Distance and time therefore share the same structure. A Leagueis a fixed distance of 4 km. The time required to travel one league depends on your Base Movement, load, terrain, and weather. Base Move 9 travels one League per hour before modifiers, providing the system’s central reference point, while the other movement rates scale cleanly above and below it.

Each tier contains four hex-widths of the tier below it. The 125 m Encounter tier preserves the exact 4:1 progression between the 500 m Exploration tier and the 31.25 m Combat tier.

The League and the Travel Budget

• League: A League is always 4 km, regardless of how long it takes to travel.
• Map translation: An Overland Hex is 2 Leagues, an Operational Hex is ½ League, an Exploration Hex is ⅛ League, an Encounter Hex is 1⁄32 League, and a Combat Hex is 1⁄128 League.
• Crossing time: Divide the distance by the party’s final trekking speed after applying load, terrain, weather, mounts, vehicles, and Fatigue.
• Modifiers: Difficult terrain and adverse weather modify movement rate; they never change the size of a League or hex.

The Eight-Hour Travel Day

A full day contains six 4-hour Watches, but a standard travel day allows only 8 hours of active movement: two Watches spent travelling. Before terrain and weather, an Encumbered character at Base 3 covers 16 km, a heavily loaded character at Base 6 covers 24 km, a medium-loaded character at Base 9 covers 32 km, and a lightly loaded character at Base 12 covers 40 km. Apply terrain and weather multipliers to these distances. Use the slowest traveller’s final rate for a group moving together. Travel beyond two Watches in the same day is a Forced March.

Operational Scouting and Exploration

When your party leaves a major route to look for a landmark, approach an encounter site, or find a way through a local hazard, use 2 km Operational Hexes. Before accounting for terrain and weather, crossing one takes 60 minutes at Base 3, 40 minutes at Base 6, 30 minutes at Base 9, or 24 minutes at Base 12.

From Encounter to Combat

When an encounter begins within an Exploration Hex, use 125 m Encounter Hexes to establish approach distance, pursuit, or long-range fire. Four Encounter Hexes span one Exploration Hex. Crossing an Encounter Hex uses the movement mode declared for that round. Tactical walking covers 2 m at Base 3, 4 m at Base 6, 6 m at Base 9, or 8 m at Base 12 per 6-second round; crossing 125 m therefore takes about 63, 32, 21, or 16 rounds respectively. Running covers 6, 12, 18, or 24 m per round. When precise positioning matters, shift to 31.25 m Combat Hexes and resolve movement round by round using the character’s combat movement rate.

Range Bands

• Self: The character and anything carried or worn.
• Close: Within 3 m; immediate reach and close melee.
• Near: More than 3 m and up to 25 m.
• Far: More than 25 m and up to 100 m.
• Distant: More than 100 m and up to 300 m.
• Span: More than 300 m and up to 500 m (one Exploration Hex).

Time Units

• Round: One exchange of actions in combat. A round lasts 6 seconds for all movement calculations.
• Tick: 10 minutes of exploration, recovery, or camp activity.
• Mark: 1 hour, equal to 6 Ticks. Before terrain and weather, a traveller covers 2 km at Base 3, 3 km at Base 6, 4 km at Base 9, or 5 km at Base 12 during one Mark.
• Watch: 4 hours, equal to 4 Marks. Distance covered equals the party’s final hourly trekking speed × 4.
• Day: 24 hours, divided into 6 Watches.
• Travel day: 8 hours of active movement in a single 24 hour period (does not need to be consecutive), equal to 2 Watches.

Movement

Humans and humanoids have a Base Movement set by how full their Inventory is. Base Movement governs walking, running, combat movement, trekking, climbing and swimming. A group travelling together uses the lowest current Base Movement among its members.

Tactical Movement

Strategic Movement

Trekking: Calculate trekking speed as Base Movement ÷ 3 + 1 kilometres per hour. Base 3 travels at 2 km/h, Base 6 at 3 km/h, Base 9 at 4 km/h, and Base 12 at 5 km/h. During one 4-hour Watch, these rates cover 8 km, 12 km, 16 km, and 20 km respectively; during the standard 8-hour travel day, they cover 16 km, 24 km, 32 km, and 40 km before terrain and weather. A standard day contains six Watches: up to two may be spent trekking, up to two resting, and the remainder on encounters, exploration, foraging, repairs, and other activities. To determine any map crossing time, divide the hex width by the modified trekking speed.

Forced March: Any travel on foot beyond two Watches in the same day is a Forced March. Make a Corpus save at the end of each additional hour travelled. On a success, that hour is completed at the current trekking rate. On a failure, add 1 Fatigue to Inventory; halve the character’s trekking speed from the beginning of the next hour until a Full Rest removes that Fatigue.

Special Movement

• Climbing: Make a Climb Activity Check against the specified BAM!, adding the Corpus modifier. Climbing movement is half the applicable walking or combat speed.
• Falling: Suffer 1d6 Vitality damage for every 3 m fallen. If the damage exceeds current Vitality, apply the excess to Corpus directly.
• Moving Through: Move freely through allies. Moving through an enemy requires a Corpus check (Difficult 16).
• Swimming: Swim at half the applicable walking or combat speed. Make a Corpus check in rough water. When holding breath, make a Corpus check as required; failure causes 1d6 damage per round until the character exits the hazard.