Movement and Bulk

Your Base Move is your character's normal walking speed in (h/t). This value determines how far your character can move with each of your actions. Base move is equal to your Adaptability attribute, adjusted for your species or any other bonuses or penalties, then multiplied by 0.44 and rounded to the nearest whole number.

Base move is calculated using the following equation:

Base Move = (Adaptability + Adjustments) * 0.44

Bulk Factor

Everything your character is carrying, from the clothes on their back to their weapons, armour, packs and potions, has a certain amount of bulk. You can carry up to Physical stat worth of bulk before suffering any penalties to your movement.

For each additional increment of your Physcial stat that you are carrying above the first, your Bulk Factor increases by 1 and your Base Move is reduced by 10% (rounded up). Once you are carrying more than 10x your Physical stat worth of bulk, your Bulk Factor is 10 and your Base Move is necessarily zero.

Bulk and Movement

Because your Base Move is impaired by bulk, and because all of your other movement rates are derived from your Base Move, it is critical that you always know how much bulk your character is carrying, and what your Bulk Factor is.

Bulk and Combat

In combat, you will probably want to be able to move as freely as possible. Therefore you should keep track of how all of your gear and equipment is packed, and what you need to drop when combat begins in order to free yourself for battle. The Mythmaster Character Tool supports sections for personal items, weapons and armour, as well as backpacks, satchels, scroll tubes, potion belts, quivers, and a money belt, making it easy for you to keep track of what you're carrying and what you've dropped.

Bulk and Skills

In addition to impacting your Base Move, a large number of skills are also affected by your Bulk Factor. For skills that are so affected, you always roll them at a penalty equal to your Bulk Factor, which is a significant limitation. Skills affected by bulk include: Acrobatics, Athletics, Climbing, Dancing, Distance Running, Escape, Legerdemain, Pickpocket, Reposition, Sneaking, Sport, Swimming, Vanish and Wall Run.

Bulk and Bodies

Unconscious or dead bodies - whether allies to be rescued, or evidence to be disposed of - are not easy to carry. The bulk of a person is equal to their weight in kilograms plus the bulk of anything they are wearing or carrying. This makes it very difficult for any but the strongest of individuals to carry someone at all. However, if multiple people work together to carry a body, the bulk of the body is divided by the number of people doing the work, to a maximum of four, which will often make the load manageable. Thus four characters working together to carry a wounded 80kg ally off the battlefield are each considered to be carrying 20 bulk. Movement speed while carrying a body is that of the slowest person.

Additionally, if a stretcher is used, the weight of the person (but not their equipment) is halved for purposes of determining their bulk, and again, up to four people can work together to carry a stretcher. In this case, four characters with a stretcher could carry the same wounded ally off the battlefield while only needing to carry 10 bulk each.

A stretcher can be constructed in 1 hour by rolling a 21 Challenge using the basketry, carpentry, climbing, first aid, mechanics, medicine, survival, or thatcher skill.

Other Movement Rates

While your Base Move is the your character's normal walking speed, there are many other ways to move, and many other factors that determine your movement speed in a given context. Movement speed will change if you are running, sprinting, climbing, swimming or crawling, and will also vary based on how much you are carrying. How all of these factors affect your movement is defined below.

Run Move

Your run move is your character's running speed in (h/t). Any character who uses two of their actions in a given turn to move is considered to be running, meaning they move at 2x their Base Move. The Dash perk (normally reserved only for certain creatures) allows the possibility to double movement speed.

Sprint Move

Your sprint move is your character's fastest possible speed in (h/t). A character who uses all three of their actions in a given turn to move is considered to be sprinting, meaning they move at 3x their Base Move. The Dash perk (normally reserved only for certain creatures) allows the possibility to double movement speed.

Sneak Move

To move while using the Sneaking skill, you must expend two actions to move your Base Move, this means the furthest your can move while sneaking in a single turn is your Base Move - though you will still have an action remaining when done.

Down Move

Your down move is your character's movement speed while in the down state. This includes all movement while crawling on your hands and knees, while prone on your belly, or while rolling. Your Base Move while down is equal to 1/6 of your standing Base Move. This means you can move 1/3 of our Base Move while crawling using two actions, or 1/2 your Base Move while crawling if you use all three actions.

Climb Move

Base Move while climbing a ladder, or any structure specifically designed to facilitate climbing is at 1/6 your Base Move. If you use two or three actions to move, that speed increases to 1/3 or 1/2 Base Move, respectively. Speed of movement while using the Climbing skill is based on the difficulty of the climb, starting at 1/10 Base Move for Normal Difficulty, 1/20 Base Move for Unfavorable, 1/30 for Somewhat Difficult and continuing up to 1/80 Base Move for an Impossible diffculty climb. Using the climbing skill to move uses all of your actions for the turn, so you cannot sprint or perform any other action if you move while using the climbing skill.

Note also that this is the rate of movement per turn when you succeed your 21C using Climbing Skill - if you fail the roll you don't move at all. Critical failure leads to a slip and a regression, requiring another Climbing roll to avoid a fall, and potential falling damage.

Example: a strong climber and a difficult climb

A character with a 15 Climbing skill and zero Bulk is attempting a Somewhat Difficult (-2) climb.
The character has a Base Move of 6, so each success moves them 1/30 x 6 = 0.2 hexes.
Each turn, the player needs to roll 8 or higher on 2d10 to succeed their 21C and progress.
On average, the player will succeed their roll about 80% of the time.
On average, it will take 20 turns for the character to climb 4 hexes in this context.

Swim Move

In order to move at all while swimming you must have the Swimming skill. If you have the swimming skill, your movement while swimming is equal to 1/6 of your Base Move. If you use two or three of your actions to move, you will move at 1/3 or 1/2 of your Base Move, respectively. Uniquely, merfolk and lizari use their unadjusted Base Move while swimming.

Flying Move

Some creatures and animals can fly. Flight is an extremely fast form of travel that must be considered somewhat differently from other movement. While flying, the maximum speed a creature (or character using the Fly spell) can achieve is equal to 18x their Base Move.

Movement while flying is handled differently than other forms of movement. While flying, move Actions are spent to take off and to land, and to accelerate, decelerate, maintain speed, or to change direction as defined below:

Take off and land: A flying character must spend an Action to take off or to land. If the flying character can also move on the ground, they can take off after spending Actions moving on the ground. If taking off following a turn in which the last Action spent was to move, their initial flying speed is equal to the movement speed from the previous turn. If a flying character attempts to land while moving at a speed that is higher than their fastest movement on the ground, they will suffer a collision.

Maintain current speed: A flying character can spend 1 Action to maintain their current flying speed regardless of how fast they are currently moving. If the character spends zero Actions maintaining speed or accelerating (see below), they automatically decelerate by their Base Move. For example, a flying character that spends all three Actions to cast a spell will automatically decelerate by their Base Move that turn.

Accelerate: If a flying character wants to accelerate, each Action they spend will increase their current speed by Base Move. In other words, a character can spend 1 Action to increase their current speed by Base Move, 2 Actions to increase their current speed by Run Move and all three Actions to increase their current speed by Sprint Move.

Decelerate: If a flying character wants to decelerate, expending no Actions to maintain speed or accelerate will automatically reduce their current speed by Base Move, and each additional Action they spend will decrease their current speed by Base Move. In other words, a character can spend 1 Action to decrease their current speed by 2x Base Move, 2 Actions to decrease their current speed by 3x Base Move and all three Actions to decrease their current speed by 4x Base Move.

Turning: If a flying character wants to turn, they may turn 30 degrees (1/2 a hex facing) for no action cost, beyond 30 degrees, each additional 30 degrees turned costs 1 Action. In other words, turning 60 degrees (1 hex facing) costs 1 Action, turning 90 degrees (2 hex facings) costs 2 Actions and turning 120 degrees costs 3 Actions. Moving at high speeds in confined spaces is very likely to result in collisions as the flying character runs out of Actions to turn or decelerate.

Collisions at high speed are dangerous, and will do damage to the the flying person or creature, and anyone or anything they hit based on the relative speed at the moment of impact. If subjected to the trip effect or put in the down state while flying the character or creature is subjected to a forced deceleration equal to their Sprint Move and continues moving in a straight line until they are able to spend 2 Actions to 'get up' from the down state.

Flying creatures or characters can attack while flying, but this uses Actions normally and reducing the number of Actions they have available for manuevering.

Travel Distance

Your travel distance is your character's average daily on-foot travel distance in kilometers (km). To calculate travel distance, multiply your character's Base Move by 5. The daily travel distance assumes 8 hours of foot travel over even terrain, with no breaks, and leaves the traveller's Stamina reduced by 8 points. Travellers may choose to cover the same distance in 10 hours to allow for for regular stops to rest and hydrate, arriving with no lost Stamina.

For those in a hurry, daily travel distance can be extended by 5% for each hour and each point of Stamina invested. Thus, 24 continuous hours of travel without meaningful breaks would all someone to travel 1.8x their travel distance for 24 points of Stamina. Most people don't have this much Stamina, of course.

Actual Speed

Because Base Move is given in (h/t), with a hex representing 2 meters, and a turn being 5 seconds in length, you can calculate your character's speed in m/s simply by dividing their movement rate by 2.5.

Movement Versus Detection

Provided your character is not doing something that makes detection automatic (such as walking in the open through a lit area, casting a normal or overt spell, attacking, etc) you can attempt to remain undetected as you perform your actions.

If you have the Sneaking skill, simply roll a 21C using that skill adjusted by the difficulty of the context. If successful, you are undetected.

If you do not have the Sneaking skill (or if you failed your Sneaking skill roll), roll a Versus Challenge of your Adaptability (or use your failed roll) against the Alertness of any individual whose detection you want to avoid. Your Adaptability roll is reduced by your Bulk Factor, adjusted for the difficulty of the context, and is at a further penalty of -1 for every Action you take.