Bleak Forest

Terrain & Weather

© Johnathan L. Bingham & Ostensible Cat Design

Terrain

Terrain modifies your trekking speed, foraging difficulty, Danger Die, and available cover. First determine the slowest traveller’s trekking speed from Base Movement, then apply the terrain multiplier from the Terrain table below followed by the weather effects. Once you’ve worked out your final travel speed in kilometres per hour, divide 8 by that speed to find how many hours it takes to cross an Overland Hex. To find how far you can travel in kilometres, multiply that speed by 4 for one Watch, or by 8 for a full travel day.

Example: A traveller with a base 9 movement rate moves at 4 km/h, slowing to 3 km/h in Rolling Hills. Before weather effects, that’s 12 km per Watch or 2 hours 40 minutes to cross an Overland Hex. Don’t round until you’ve applied all modifiers, then round crossing times to the nearest 5 minutes and distances to the nearest 0.5 km. Use the Road row for roads and established trails unless weather or local hazards make travel harder.

Terrain	Trekking Multiplier	Forage BAM!	Danger	Cover and Notes
Road or Maintained Trail	×1	Terrain-dependent	−1, minimum 1	Little natural cover; use the surrounding terrain for visibility and foraging.
Grassland or Open Plains	×1	Average (13)	+0	Minimal cover; long sightlines. Tall grass may grant partial cover at Near range.
Rolling Hills	×¾	Average (13)	+1	Ridges break sightlines and provide partial cover.
Steep Hills or Broken Highlands	×½	Difficult (16)	+1	Rock, gullies, and elevation provide strong cover; mounts and carts may be restricted.
Mountains	×¼	Challenging (19)	+2	Abundant hard cover; exposed routes suffer strongly from wind, snow, and poor visibility.
Light Forest	×1	Average (13)	+0	Moderate Disadvantage to attacks beyond Distant range.
Forest	×¾	Difficult (16)	+1	Major Disadvantage to attacks beyond Far range.
Dense Forest or Jungle	×½	Challenging (19)	+2	Extreme Disadvantage to attacks beyond Near range; navigation checks may be required.
Bleak Forest	×½	Formidable (22)	+3	Extreme Disadvantage to attacks beyond Near range; its oppressive effects may prevent safe rest.
Dead Forest	×1	No foraging	+2	Moderate Disadvantage to attacks beyond Distant range; little concealment at close range.
Scrub, Heath, or Badlands	×¾	Difficult (16)	+1	Scattered partial cover; thorns, loose stone, or gullies may create local hazards.
Swamp, Bog, or Marsh	×½	Difficult (16)	+2	Major Disadvantage to attacks beyond Far range; carts cannot travel without a causeway.
Desert or Salt Flat	×¾	Challenging (19)	+1	Little cover or water; extreme heat may require Corpus saves.
Tundra, Snowfield, or Ice	×½	Challenging (19)	+1	Little cover; cold exposure and unstable ice may create hazards.
Coast, Beach, or Shingle	×¾	Difficult (16)	+1	Open sightlines; tides, cliffs, and river mouths can block routes.
Ruins or Urban Rubble	×½	Difficult (16)	+2	Abundant hard cover and concealment; collapse, dead ends, and ambushes are common.

Weather

Roll weather once per 4-hour Watch. Determine movement in this order: Start with the slowest traveller’s trekking speed, multiply it by the terrain multiplier, then multiply the result by the weather multiplier. Retain fractions until all modifiers are applied. If an effect causes time to be lost during the Watch, subtract that time before calculating distance; for example, losing 1 hour leaves 3 hours of movement. Round Watch distance to the nearest 0.5 km and crossing time to the nearest 5 minutes. If a weather result lists a special multiplier for the current terrain, use that multiplier instead of the weather’s general multiplier; do not apply both. Visibility limits the maximum range at which creatures, landmarks, and ranged targets can be clearly perceived. If terrain and weather impose the same kind of visibility or cover penalty, use only the worse result. Danger Die modifiers stack to the normal maximum of 4 dice.

Weather terrain categories: For weather effects, open terrain means Roads, Grasslands, Desert, Tundra, and exposed Coast. Hills includes Rolling Hills and Steep Hills. Mountains refers only to the Mountains terrain row. Forest includes Light Forest, Forest, Dense Forest, and Bleak Forest. When terrain appears in both a general and a specific weather category, use the more restrictive listed multiplier once; never apply both multipliers.

Combined example: A heavily loaded traveller has Base Movement 6 and treks at 3 km/h. In Forest terrain, the ×¾ terrain multiplier reduces this to 2.25 km/h. Rain applies a further ×¾ weather multiplier, producing a final speed of 1.6875 km/h. The traveller covers 6.75 km during the Watch, rounded to 7 km, and requires about 4 hours 44 minutes to cross one 8 km Overland Hex, rounded to 4 hours 45 minutes.

Fog example: A heavily loaded traveller has Base Movement 6 and treks at 3 km/h. In Forest terrain, the ×¾ terrain multiplier reduces this to 2.25 km/h. Fog applies a further ×¾ weather multiplier, producing a final speed of 1.6875 km/h. If the Wits check succeeds, the traveller moves for the full 4-hour Watch and covers 6.75 km, rounded to 7 km. If the check fails, 1 hour is lost correcting course, leaving 3 hours of movement; the traveller covers 5.0625 km, rounded to 5 km. The lost hour reduces movement time but does not apply another speed multiplier. If the Fog persists without change, an 8 km Overland Hex takes about 5 hours 44 minutes to cross after one failed navigation check, rounded to 5 hours 45 minutes.

2d6	Weather	Travel and Watch Effect	Visibility, Foraging, and Danger
2	Downpour	Half the terrain-modified trekking speed. Watch distance and hex crossing time are recalculated from that reduced rate. No exposed fire or safe rest.	Visibility limited to Far. Foraging at Moderate Disadvantage. Danger Die −1, minimum 1.
3–4	Fog	Three-quarter terrain pace. If travelling off a road or known trail, make a Wits check (Average 13) each Watch or lose 1 hour correcting course.	Visibility limited to Near. Danger Die +1.
5–8	Clear	No change to terrain pace or Watch distance.	No additional effect.
9	Snow	Three-quarter terrain pace; half pace in mountains, tundra, or existing snowfields. If the temperature is severe, make a Corpus save at the end of the Watch or gain 1 Fatigue.	Visibility limited to Far. Tracking gains Major Advantage; foraging suffers Moderate Disadvantage.
10–11	Rain	Three-quarter terrain pace on roads, grasslands, hills, forest, coast, and ruins; half pace in swamp, marsh, or steep mountains.	Visibility limited to Far. Foraging suffers Moderate Disadvantage in open terrain.
12	High Winds	Three-quarter terrain pace in open terrain; half pace in hills, mountains, desert, tundra, or along exposed coasts. No exposed fire or safe rest.	Ranged attacks beyond Near suffer Major Disadvantage. Foraging at Moderate Disadvantage. Danger Die −1, minimum 1.