Speed

Speed

Your Speed represents the amount of Range you can move when using a standard move action. 

Most humans have a speed of 1, representing the ability to move roughly 30 feet, or 10 metres, in one action. A speed of 1 represents the base speed of all characters in Secret Wars, unless they're in a vehicle, riding a horse, using supernatural powers to increase their speed, or are especially swift (as represented by ranks in the Movement skill)

Other species have a higher speed. For example, wolves and deer have a base speed of 2, while horses and lions have a base speed of 3, and cheetahs have a base speed of 4. 

Difficult Terrain

Difficult terrain is any terrain that impedes your movement in some form, from unstable surfaces to thick brush. It takes two actions to use a move action across difficult terrain. You cannot use the run, charge, withdraw or guarded step actions in an area of difficult terrain.

Movement made while jumping, flying, shadowstepping or burrowing ignores any penalty from difficult terrain. Some other abilities or spells allow you to ignore difficult terrain on foot.

Hazardous Terrain

Hazardous terrain damages you whenever you move through it. An acid pool and a pit of burning embers are both examples of hazardous terrain. The amount and type of damage depend on the specific hazardous terrain. 

Narrow Surfaces

A narrow surface is so precariously thin that you need to make an Acrobatics Check or risk falling. Even on a success, you are flat-footed on a narrow surface. Each time you are hit by an attack, you must succeed at a Acrobatics check (with the same DC as the damage dealt) or fall.

Uneven Ground

Uneven ground is an area unsteady enough that you need to Acrobatics Check or risk falling prone and possibly injuring yourself, depending on the specifics of the uneven ground. You are flat-footed on uneven ground. Each time you are hit by an attack or fail a save on uneven ground, you must succeed at an Acrobatics check (with the same DC as the damage dealt) or fall prone.

Inclines

An incline is an area so steep that you need to Climb using the Athletics skill in order to progress upward. You’re flat-footed when Climbing an incline.

Movement Types

The type of movement you have determines how you can move, be it flying through the air, burrowing underground, or stepping through shadows. 

Every movement type has a Speed. If a movement type isn't listed, assume it's a land speed value, representing walking, running, or driving.

Land Speed

Most characters and monsters have a land speed statistic—also just called Speed—which indicates how quickly they can move across the ground. When you use the Move action, you move a Range equal to your Speed. Numerous other abilities also allow you to move, from Crawling to Leaping, and most of them are based on your Speed in some way. Whenever a rule mentions your Speed without specifying a type, it’s referring to your land Speed.

Burrow Speed

A burrow Speed lets you tunnel through the ground. You can use the Burrow action if you have a burrow Speed. Burrowing doesn’t normally leave behind a tunnel unless the ability specifically states that it does. Most creatures need to hold their breath when burrowing, and they may need tremorsense to navigate with any accuracy.

Climb Speed

A climb Speed allows you to move up or down inclines and vertical surfaces. Instead of needing to attempt Athletics checks to Climb, you automatically succeed and move up to your climb Speed instead of the listed distance. 

You might still have to attempt Athletics checks to Climb in hazardous conditions, to Climb extremely difficult surfaces, or to cross horizontal planes such as ceilings. You can also choose to roll an Athletics check to Climb rather than accept an automatic success in hopes of getting a critical success. Your climb Speed grants you a +4 circumstance bonus to Athletics checks to Climb. 

If you have a climb Speed, you’re not flat-footed while climbing.

Fly Speed

As long as you have a fly Speed, you can use the Fly and Arrest a Fall actions. You can also attempt to use Acrobatics to make Flight Checks.

Wind conditions can affect how you use the Fly action. In general, moving against the wind uses the same rules as moving through difficult terrain (or greater difficult terrain, if you’re also flying upward). Upward and downward movement are both relative to the gravity in your area; if you’re in a place with zero gravity, moving up or down is no different from moving horizontally.

Swim Speed

With a swim Speed, you can propel yourself through the water with little impediment. Instead of attempting Athletics checks to Swim, you automatically succeed and move up to your swim Speed instead of the listed distance. Moving up or down is still moving through difficult terrain.

You might still have to attempt checks to Swim in hazardous conditions or to cross turbulent water. You can also choose to roll an Athletics check to Swim rather than accept an automatic success in hopes of getting a critical success. Your swim Speed grants you a +4 circumstance bonus to Athletics checks to Swim. 

Having a swim Speed doesn’t necessarily mean you can breathe in water, so you might still have to hold your breath if you’re underwater to avoid drowning. 

Shadowstepping Speed

Shadowstepping represents one's ability to teleport through darkness. This is an innate ability for horrors, but many other supernatural creatures can also gain a shadowstepping speed through abilities or feats.

Shadowstepping takes a single movement action, and requires you to expend at least 1 anima or terror point to activate it. You need to be standing in an area of Dim Illumination, and you must target another area of Dim Illumination within both line of sight and range of your Shadowstepping Speed as an exit point. Moving with Shadowsteeping doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, and can be used to cross barriers such as locked doors or to jump from one vehicle to another.

Forced Movement

When an effect forces you to move, or if you start falling, the distance you move is defined by the effect that moved you, not by your Speed. Because you’re not acting to move, this doesn’t trigger reactions that are triggered by movement.

If forced movement would move you into a space you can’t occupy—because objects are in the way or because you lack the movement type needed to reach it, for example—you stop moving. Usually the creature or effect forcing the movement chooses the path the victim takes. If you’re pushed or pulled, you can usually be moved through hazardous terrain, pushed off a ledge, or the like. Abilities that reposition you in some other way can’t put you in such dangerous places unless they specify otherwise. In all cases, the GM makes the final call if there’s doubt on where forced movement can move a creature. 

Falling 

A creature that that falls takes 1d6 damage for every 3 metres fallen, up to 20d6 damage at a 60 metre fall. Falls greater than 60 metres are treated as if they were 60 metres, and as though the character is already falling at their terminal velocity. 

A creature falls 150 metres in the first round, and 300 metres in the following rounds. 

A character can’t use a supernatural ability or actiave an item while free-falling unless the fall is greater than 150 metres or the ability or item can be used as a reaction. Casting teleport or a similar spell while falling doesn’t end the character’s momentum; it just changes her location, meaning that she still takes falling damage, even if she arrives atop a solid surface. Shapeshifting into a form with a natural fly speed allows one to immediately make a DC 15 Acrobatics Check to arrest their fall. A character who arrests their fall takes minimal fall damage (as if each die rolled 1)

Reducing Falling Damage

Characters can reduce falling damage in the following manners. 

Acrobatics: You can attempt a DC 15 Acrobatics check to reduce this damage further. If you succeed, you reduce the total damage dice by 1d6. If you achieve a critical success, you reduce the total damage by 2 dice. 

Deliberate Fall: If a creature deliberately jumps, and braces for the fall, the first 1d6 damage is Nonlethal. 

Grab an Edge: If you have a reaction while falling, you can attempt to use a Grab and Edge action to make a Dodge check with the DC equal to the Athletics DC needed to climb the wall. If you succeed, you reduce the damage dice by 2 dice. 

Yielding Surface: If you fall onto a soft or yielding surface (such as a jumping cushion or mud), 1d6 damage is converted into nonlethal damage. This conversion is cumulative with damage reduced through deliberate jumps and successful Acrobatics checks.

For example, if you were to deliberately jump down 12 metres into a trash heap, and succeed on Athletics check to reduce the damage, you would reduce the regular damage of 4d6 to to 3d6, of which 1d6 will be non-lethal due to deliberately jumping, 1d6 will be nonlethal due to falling into a yielding surface, and 1d6 will be lethal. 

Falling Into Water

Falling into a body of water is considered to be equivalent to falling into a yielding surface, so long as the water is 3 metres deep. If the water is at least 6 metres deep, you may double the number of dice converted to non-lethal damage to 2. 

You can deliberately dive into the water to reduce falling damage. If you deliberately fall at most 9 metres into water that is at least 3 metres deep, you may make a DC 15 Acrobatics check. If you succeed, the damage die deals minimum damage (count all dice as having rolled 1s). For every additional 9 metres over the first 9 fallen, the water must be 3 additional metres deep, and the DC increases by 20 (so a 12-metre fall requires 6 metres of water, and a DC 20 check; a 30-metre fall requires 12 metres of water and is a DC 30 check). 

Falling on a Creature 

If you are falling on a target within Close Range (within 9 metres), you may choose to land on a single creature beneath you. 

Make an Acrobatics Check equal to the Dodge defence of the creature targeted. 

Falling Objects

A dropped object takes falling damage like a falling creature. If an object is falling on a creature, it makes a Flat Check against a DC equal to the creature's Dodge Defence; if it succeeds it deals damage as if it were a falling creature (see above). 

Hazards that involve falling objects, such as a rock slide, have their own rules about how they interact with creatures and the damage they deal.

Using a Parachute

The best way to make a long trip down is to use  a parachute, though there are still risks to such a fall. 

Making a parachute jump requires a DC 10 Acrobatics check, though in most cases you can take 10 on this check. Night jumps, cliff jumps, low-altitude jumps, and jumps made in high winds or bad weather all increase the DC of this check and may require you to make a roll.