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Movement and Terrain

Movement and Terrain

Movement is a PER action like any other. Terrain is paid at the borders:

Phase Source of cost
Prep Departure difficulty of the tile you're on (getting off the log is hard)
Exec The transfer itself - physical or mental traits
Recover Arrival difficulty of the destination tile (landing on the log is hard)

Physical traits for exec: dex for balance, strength and encumbrance for load. Mental traits can make the same transfer harder too - fighting through an illusion, or opposing a strong will to continue.

Worked examples (log crossing)

  1. Grassy bank -> log: minimal prep (solid footing), traits-driven exec (simple step), significant recover (getting stable on the log).
  2. Log -> log: harder prep (concentrating on footing before shifting weight), same exec (physical or mental traits), same recover (log is still hard to settle on).
  3. Log -> bank: hard prep (leaving the log), same exec, easy recover.

Rules that fall out of this:

  • A multi-tile crossing (long bridge) pays at every edge - each tile-to-tile transition is its own PER cycle.
  • Difficult terrain can add to all three phases (departure and arrival both hard).
  • Reactions during movement follow the normal rules. Each movement action is a single tile-to-tile step (not a multi-tile path), so there is no special "mid-path" case - the reactor-side phase table applies exactly as with any other action.

Danger tiles and 3D

Proposed direction: tiles are 3D, so there are no "open" tiles. Stepping into a space that is open in the current level means you fall until you hit a solid tile, then you're on that level. With a fly or levitate effect (equipment or spell), you stay at your current height unless you take an action to ascend or descend.

Why this stays an open question: ASCII display. Possible techniques: shading on terrain tiles to indicate space above, blank tile to indicate space below.

Open decisions

  • Tile size: leaning toward 1 tile = 1 cubic foot. A typical human is then about two wide and one deep (footprint), which roughly matches the traditional roguelike glyph (taller than it is wide). Bigger creatures occupy multiple tiles - an ancient dragon should not be the same single character as a human.
  • Confirm the per-tile movement baseline at even terrain and the tick basis (see Open Questions).

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