Environment Basics

The easiest approach is to treat the entire battlefield environment as a single creature. For the most part, the environment is neutral, able to be used to the advantage of almost any characters fighting there. Admittedly, environments often "favor" NPC enemies, who are more likely to be able to choose the battlefields than the more reactive PC adventurers. However, whoever has “home field advantage” is more likely to count the environment as an ally.
A good rule of thumb is to make environments two full power levels weaker than the PCs. Use trade-offs to vary the effects of the different features in an environment. A huge boulder might hit hard, but it moves so slowly and is so large that it is easy to dodge. On the other hand, a set of light, automated guns might have sophisticated targeting programs, but don't do much damage. More dangerous environments might only be one PL lower than the PCs, and particularly deadly environments might be at or above the PCs' PL.
All of these environmental features are built using Equipment Points, like Structures. Indeed, many of the features described in this module can be used to define the area and defenses of a headquarters or base of operations, and can be bought as such. Larger environments tend to have more features, and thus have a higher EP cost. Like other NPCs, the GM should not feel beholden to maintain environments below a certain cost, but it is helpful for determining how appropriate an environment is.
Environmental features are by and large designed just like an FX is. Each feature can be thought of as an independent FX, which can interact with the characters in different ways. For each feature you create, you have some questions to answer:
==What Does it Do?==
Start with the basics, just like designing an FX. What is the environment going to do in this particular case? Are you going to fill the battlefield with blistering heat?
This module will present numerous toolkits of different environmental features which you can simply drop into an environment at a moment's notice.
==When Is it Active?==
What does it take for the Environment to take effect? Will the characters suffer its wrath continuously, or will it only be active every so often? Will it take one of the combatants acting to use the feature?
* Triggered: An Environmental Feature which is Triggered will only take effect if a certain action is taken. A simple example of this might be a chandelier, which normally sits inactive. But if a clever character leaps up to it and tries to swing with it, it can carry the character safely across the room. This could also describe a trap, like a floor that will collapse and fall away under a character's feet.
* Timed: An Environmental Feature which is Timed will go off only after a certain number of rounds. Applying the Unreliable flaw is an effective way to simulate a feature which goes off every other round (such as a blast of superheated steam while fighting on the slopes of an active volcano). Apply this flaw multiple times for increasing time between activations (so for two ranks of Unreliable, the feature triggers every 4 rounds, while at three ranks, it's every 8 rounds, etc.).
* Sustained: A Sustained Environmental Feature takes place every round. Most often, these take place once per turn at Initiative count 1. With more pervasive Climates (see below), characters must check to see whether or not they are afflicted once each round, or each minute.
* Active: Finally, an Environmental Feature may only be activated once per turn in a single effect. These active FX are about as close as the environment gets to "attacking".
==Who Does it Affect?==
All environmental features have a range, and many an area, which determine who will be affected. The range on an environmental feature is determined similarly to how normal attacks are resolved:
* Touch Range: For a character to be affected by a Touch Range environmental feature, he or she must either be within, on, touching, or within arm's reach of the feature. Characters who use a Move to move adjacent to an environmental feature are valid targets.
* Close Range: Close Range environmental features can target any character within the same zone.
* Long Range: Long Range environmental features can target any character within the same zone or any adjacent zone.
Environmental features can and often do also have areas, rather than targeting a single character:
* Narrow Area: An environmental feature that has a Narrow Area will affect all targets adjacent to one another, or all characters engaged in the same melee.
* Wide Area: An environmental feature with a Wide Area will affect all targets within the same zone.
==What Is It's Source?==
* Terrain: Terrain is a particular feature within a given zone. It occupies a place in the zone similar to what a character occupies. It's range is determined from this point.
* Climates: A climate, on the other hand, has no origin. It fills a number of zones, often a whole battlefield. This is usually made using the Environmental Control FX.
Category:Rulebook
Category:Action
Category:Environment