BW PDF - Midnight Campaign

STRENGTH SKILLSWhether maneuvering through one’s environmentor engaging in combat, Strength is important tomost adventuring. Many physical contests dependon these skills to apply the brute force that resolvesmany encounters. More information on combatapplications can be found in Chapters 3, 4, and 7.AthleticsThe athletics skill is quite versatile. It can be used forbasic feats of physical prowess such as climbing andswimming, and is used to help determine bonuses tomovement, as well as reducing the movement penaltyassigned by armor.Mobility Bonus: A character who is very athletic can findit faster to move across rough terrain, to function wellin heavy armor, or to outright sprint across levelground. This is done through a mobility bonus,which is determined by the character’s Athletics score,as shown in the chart below. This can be recorded onthe character sheet.Mobility BonusAthletics Mobility Bonus Sprint Speed- None Very Slow5 1 Slow10 2 Average15 3 Fast20 4 Very FastMove Penalties: Many effects in the game, such asarmor and difficult terrain, can incur a move penalty,which directly decreases the distance a character canmove in a single action. For each point of move penalty,they move one meter fewer.A character moving through knee-deep snow might have a movepenalty of 2. When they would normally move 5 spaces, they couldinstead move only 3.Continuing the previous example, a warrior moving through heavysnow would move only 3 spaces. However, if they had a mobilitybonus of 1, they could off set that penalty, sot hat they insteadmove 4. If they had a mobility bonus of 2 or higher, they couldignore that move penalty completely.Sprinting: After mobility bonus points have been usedto reduce any move penalties, they can be applied tosprinting. For each point of mobility bonus they have leftover, they may reduce the action speed of their full moveby 1 speed, to a minimum of very fast.Other abilities, such as the Leeven’s run or the Ahrlen’sflight, can further improve sprinting speeds, and stackswith the Athletics Mobility Bonus.A character with a mobility bonus of 3 and no move penalty couldmake a full move as a fast action, an impressive feat. If the samecharacter had on armor with a move penalty of 1, they would needto apply their mobility bonus to off-set that first, which wouldonly leave them 2 left over for sprinting. This would still allow themto make a full move as an average action, much faster than normal.Either by fighting penalties or outright sprinting,a high athletics score can really help a character tomove around the battlefield. The chart below tracksthe athletics score required to gain a Mobility Bonus,and shows how fast that bonus will allow them to sprint,if unhampered.Swimming: When swimming, apply a -4 move penalty,which can be reduced by the Mobility Bonus listedpreviously. The character must also make an athleticscheck with a difficulty assigned by the Storyteller,based on the conditions, or they will begin to sink andpossibly drown. For this swim check, assign a penaltyequal to any other movement penalties that they mighthave. Such as those incurred from armor.A character swimming through a still pond might have aswim check difficulty of 5, but a character swimming in arushing river might have a difficulty closer to 15 or higher.A character wearing heavy armor, with a -3 move penalty, wouldsuffer -3 equipment penalty to this check.A character can use their mobility bonus to reduce thismovement penalty. For each point of mobility bonus,they can reduce the move penalty by 1.18