Playing

Travel and time

Roads and terrain, the clock, sea passage and sailing into the unknown.

A map that exists

Every world's map is generated from its builder's design, then kept: coastlines, rivers, terrain, roads and towns. The storyteller can only send you to places that are on it. You pick a destination on the map, and the party walks there across real terrain while you watch. Engine

The whole map shows by default, every town named. For fog of war, switch on the Fog layer: land you haven't travelled through goes dark and clears around the party as it moves. Places you've actually played in are pinned either way.

How fast you go

A party on foot covers about 32 km a day on open, level ground. Everything else multiplies that:

	Effect
Road	×1.85
Trail	×1.3
Grassland	×1.12, the fastest ground there is
Forest	×0.55 to ×0.78, depending on the kind
Marsh	×0.5
Glacier	×0.35
Steep ground	×0.78, or ×0.55 in the high mountains
Dawn and dusk	×0.85
Night	×0.68

Terrain and slope multiply: a glacier high in the mountains is 0.35 × 0.55, about a fifth of walking pace. Land scarred in play (floods, craters, ash) is slower still, and floodwater can't be crossed at all.

The server hears from your journey when you set out and when you arrive; the days on the road are added to your clock on arrival. A journey of a day or more rests the party fully (a world rule). You can't set off while downed.

The clock

Time runs in six parts: dawn, morning, afternoon, evening, night, midnight. It moves on every few turns you play, and jumps with travel, rest and crossings. Each character keeps their own clock, so two players in the same town may be on different days. Engine

A long rest can be taken once a day.
When a day turns over, the world catches up: word of your deeds may have spread, and people who left may come back.

Crossing the sea

Booked passage

From a harbour you can buy passage to another. Ships sail about 96 km a day, through the night. The fare depends on the distance and on how safely you want to go: Engine

Berth	Fare	Trouble on the way
Cutthroat run	cheapest	At least one; up to three on a long voyage
Standard berth	twice that	About an even chance of one
Escorted convoy	five times that	None

Encounters at sea include storms, pirates, sea monsters, the drowned dead, merchants, ghost ships, survivors of a wreck, and the occasional flat calm. They're fixed when you book, not rolled as you go.

If something happens mid-crossing, you're put aboard the ship as a scene of its own; when it's resolved, the voyage carries on.

Sailing into the unknown

You can also set out with no destination at all: choose how many days (one to fourteen) and how well you're outfitted. Better provisions cost more and keep you safer; longer voyages are riskier and likelier to find land. It's all decided when you launch, and you watch it unfold. Turn back early and you get the unused days' money back. Engine

Towns, and a map that changes

Towns are laid out with districts, streets and landmarks: the square, the harbour, the temple, the tavern. Go into one and it becomes a room of its own, shared with anyone else there. Towns fill with people the first time someone arrives, drawn from the peoples who live in that region. Engine

The map can change. A great enough power can scorch a forest, raze a town or found a new one, if the world allows it, and the change stays on everyone's map. See World rules.