Chapter VIII: Environments
From D20advanced
Not all of the hazards characters face come from their enemies. Sometimes the environment itself can be a danger, particularly when foes try to use it to their advantage. Characters end up in a lot of dangerous places and deal with less than ideal conditions. This section details some of the hazards characters may face out in the world, how to create the different sorts of zones that characters might come across in their adventures.
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Zones
Zones allow you to create new choices and abilities for characters based on their physical location during an encounter. They can add new options to the standard tactical battle. When characters stand in a particular zone, the players find themselves looking at the combat environment in a whole new way—everything in it becomes an opportunity. A chandelier serves as a convenient swing. A teetering stone wall turns into an avalanche of bricks with a good stiff push.
Zones are powerful tools for creating interesting battlefields. A simple fight with a few thugs can be dull or difficult to spice up, but if you set the same battle in the midst of a sagging ruin during an earthquake, the action becomes far more intense and compelling. What was once a run-of-the-mill battle becomes a tense affair as walls crumble, the floor caves in, and chunks of rock fall from the ceiling.
The GM creates zones to make environments more interesting, and players should always be on the lookout for ways to use them to their advantage. Run along a tree branch with your Acrobatics skill. Jump from a balcony onto the back of the dragon that rampages in the courtyard below. Players never know if the GM has put specific terrain in an encounter area for them to use as a springboard to action. The more inventive they are in combat, the more success they’ll find.
Designing Zones
The easiest way to design zones 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.
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 zones in an environments. 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.
Zones are built using Equipment Points, like Structures. Indeed, many of the zones described in this chapter 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 zones, and thus have a higher EP cost. Like other NPCs, the GM should not feel beholden to maintain environments below a certain cost.
Types of Zones
Three types of zones exist: condition zones, event zones, and action zones. Each involves a different feature of a battlefield. A condition zone describes a specific effect that continuously functions within the battle area. While fighting in the arctic, the characters suffer damage from the frigid temperatures. The cold wears at them every round.
An event zone, in comparison, comes into play only when it activates. Event zones are tied to things in the environment that occur without the characters’ interference. For example, the PCs might battle a group of trolls in a ruined temple. The temple altar occasionally emits blasts of energy that target the characters and trolls at random. Traps also are event zones. They activate in response to an action, such as a character stepping on a pressure plate or walking through a tripwire.
An action zone is a fancy way of defining how a character can interact with the environment during a battle. Usually, these options are a lot like maneuvers that require you to use the environment in some way. Most action zones offer benefits that are greater than or different from those offered in d20 Advanced’s maneuver rules. For example, a massive boulder perched at the edge of a steep slope might inflict more damage against a greater number of targets than the typical area attack maneuver.
Zones are divided into three different types to make them easier to handle, but they use identical rules. In many cases, they draw on existing rules, such as the rules for weather, or the rules for various FX you’re already familiar with. The altar that blasts the characters with eldritch energy simply makes an attack roll or requires a saving throw to dodge its power.
Condition Zones
A condition zone starts with a name and zone type, followed by any FX that the zone uses, and the skill needed to resist it. As it rides the towering waves, characters aboard it must struggle to keep their footing. Other condition zones use an attack bonus to resolve their effects. A stat block for such a zone looks like this:
| FALLING ROCKS | Condition Zone, 11 EP |
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Damage 7 (Power Feats: Accurate 4)
In this case, the zone lists its attack bonus and the damage and other effects it inflicts on a successful hit.
Designing Condition Zones
Building a condition zone requires a careful eye for balance. Since the condition zone affects everyone who enters it and continues to work against them each round, it’s easy to create one that’s too powerful. With a few failed checks, a character may fall to an improperly balanced condition zone. In addition, the PCs still have to battle their foes while dealing with the zone. Thus, condition zones tend to rely on slowly wearing down their victims’ strength rather than a single, massive blow that knocks a character out of the fight.
A typical condition zone requires a save or check of some sort each round. Before a character or monster takes its action, it must attempt this save or check. Apply the results of this check, and then allow the creature to take its action as normal. In some cases, the result of this check determines the sort of actions that a creature can take.
Condition Zone Effects
A condition zone can inflict a variety of effects, from damage to knocking a character prone. The easiest way to determine how such a zone works is to picture it in your mind. Imagine how the battle might unfold and focus on how the zone affects the combatants. Does a ship rise and fall upon the waves, forcing its crew to keep their balance as they fight a swarm of pirates? Does the stifling heat of a volcano slowly sap a character's strength?
With that scene in mind, consider the skill or save needed to resist the zone. Then plot out its effects on both a failed check and a successful check.
Resistances and Skill Check DCs
A condition zone usually requires a character to make a skill check each round to avoid its effects. Before you can determine the Difficulty Class, think about the skill needed to resist the zone. Acrobatics is a good skill choice for any effect that involves a moving environment, such as tremors that can knock the characters prone. These are especially good for zones which will be constant.
Resistances, on the other hand, are more appropriate for zones which more directly "attack" characters. A storm-tossed ship is a general, widespread chance to make characters fall prone, but a geyser of toxic vapors is usually more limited and could severely incapacitate a character. You can also treat normally active skills as Resistances for the purpose of condition zones if you wish to speed up gameplay, where the zone must roll its effect modifier against 10 + the skill modifier for the characters in the zone.
A zone's effect modifiers should be based on the zone's power level.
Attack
In some cases, a condition zone uses an attack bonus rather than requiring a resistance or skill check. Any zone that relies on a physical attack that a character could dodge or deflect with a shield likely falls into this category. If a character can take cover against a condition zone, it probably uses an attack against him. The average attack bonus for the zone depends on its power level. You can adjust the bonus up or down to represent a deadlier or less threatening attack.
A zone that uses an attack bonus might cause additional effects on a successful hit. For example, debris that falls from a cavern’s ceiling might knock its target prone. These additional effects can allow characters resistances or attempt skill checks to avoid them. In the example of the falling debris, a Might check (DC 10) allows a character to remain on his feet.
Damage
A condition zone’s damage should be tied to its power level. This damage assumes that you use the typical resistance or skill check Difficulty Class. For higher DCs, you might want to decrease the damage slightly, following the trade-off rules normally.
This assumes that the characters suffer half damage on a successful resistance, as if it were an area attack. If they suffer no damage on a resistance (such as if they have the Evasion feat), you can increase the effect modifier of the zone.
Other FX
You can use almost any FX imaginable with a condition zone, as long as it makes sense within the context of the game. A volcanic tremor might knock the characters prone, while gouts of hot steam could cause temporary blindness. The table below lists some common FX aside from damage and sources that could deliver them.
| TABLE 8.1: ZONE FX | |
| Zone FX | Sample Source |
| Dazzle (Blindness) | Dense fog, steam, flashing lights, illusions |
| Dazzle (Deafness) | Loud noises, a piercing shriek, other FX |
| Inflict (Strength and Constitution) | Intense heat, a life-draining magical effect |
| Inflict (Attack and Fortitude) | Noxious gas, a magical effect |
| Inflict (Attack and Movement) | Strange plant creatures, thick mud |
| Move Object | A powerful wind |
| Inflict (Movement and Combat Advantage) | Tremors, any effect that causes the ground to move |
Try to avoid FX, such as Inflict (Action), that leave a character unable to act. Otherwise, a character with a poor resistance or skill bonus might be unable to take any actions during a battle as the zone overcomes his resistances round after round. Condition zones should present the characters with a barrier to victory, not an FX that ties their hands.
The list of FX is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you some ideas of how to use condition zones for things other than damage.
Terrain
Technically, you could consider terrain a condition zone. An icy coating on a set of stairs causes anyone who walks on it to slip and fall. This sounds like a zone, but the key difference is that the condition zone requires a save or skill check at the start of a character’s action, regardless of what he then does on that action, while a terrain effect does not. A character doesn’t have to make an Acrobatics check to avoid slipping on ice until he walks on it. On the other hand, a noxious gas that fills a cavern attempts to overcome resistances each round. Some terrain effects have associated zones.
Event Zones
Event zones can be triggered (activated by a character’s action) or timed (activated according to a schedule or by chance). Here are sample stat blocks for a timed event zone and a triggered event zone.
| OBELISK OF DESPAIR | Timed Event Zone, 4 EP |
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Inflict (Attack and Will) 6 (Extras: Burst Area; Flaws: Action; Drawbacks: Action 2 (5 rounds))
| CAVE-IN | Triggered Event Zone, 5 EP |
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Damage 8 (Extras: Burst Area; Flaws: Unreliable 2 (One Use); FX Feats: Triggered (when a character steps on a pressure plate in the cave floor))
An event zone stat block starts with a name and zone type in bold, followed by how frequently it activates (for timed event zones) or what causes it to activate (for triggered event zones). Next comes the skill or resistance needed to avoid it, its Difficulty Class, and the effects of failure.
Triggered or Timed
The stat block notes the zone’s type in parenthesis next to its name. Mark the zone’s location or area of effect on your map of the encounter area.
Effect Modifier
An event zone either requires a resistance or skill check to avoid its effects, or it uses an attack to determine whether it strikes a character. The relevant Difficulty Classes or attack bonuses are listed next.
FX
Event zones inflict damage or other special states on the characters or cause other effects that require explanation. A flash flood pushes the party along each round, while a rolling boulder needs rules to track its movement.
Area
An event zone affects an area or a single target. If it affects an area, the stat block notes the radius or otherwise describes how it targets the characters.
Special Notes
Some zones have additional special rules or effects.
Designing Event Zones
Event zones can be triggered events or timed events. Triggered events activate in response to an action, such as a character pushing a button, and have the Triggered FX feat. Timed events happen on a schedule or in response to an event that the characters don’t control. These events are usually separated by an increased action (usually multiple rounds) with the Action drawback.
A triggered event zone is basically a trap in the way it functions in the game. When a character steps into a square with a trap’s trigger mechanism, the trap activates and either attacks him, such as by firing a crossbow bolt into his square, or causes an effect that requires a saving throw to resist, such by as releasing a cloud of poisonous gas into the room.
Event zones have the same basic traits. When a character or creature enters the zone’s area, the zone activates and attacks or causes an effect. A timed event zone activates according to a schedule or by random chance. For example, every few rounds, a channel opens and floods the combat area with water. While an earthquake wracks a ruined city, there’s a chance each round that the crumbling pillars within a temple crash to the ground, crushing anyone unfortunate enough to be standing next to them. These event zones occur independently of the character’s actions.
The first step in creating an event zone is to decide which kind to use. As with condition zones, picture the zone and its effect in your mind. Focus on how the zone interacts with the characters and the encounter. If the characters must take a specific action that causes the zone to activate, it’s a triggered event zone. Otherwise, it’s a timed event zone.
Event Zone Effects
Like a condition zone, an event zone can inflict damage, knock a character prone, blind him, and so forth. But because event zones are usually one-shot effects (rather than continuous), they often inflict more damage and can also cause temporary ability score damage. The characters can avoid the spot or action that activates a triggered zone, while a timed zone should activate only once or, if it repeats, every other round at most.
Resistance and Skill DCs
Event zones have higher Difficulty Classes than condition zones, since they might occur only once during an encounter. The single resistance or skill check determines whether the zone has any effect on the character for the encounter, though timed zones might require multiple checks or resistances. The more often an event zone "goes off", the less powerful its effect modifiers should be.
Attacks
Just as some traps resolve an attack to determine whether they strike a character, some event zones make the equivalent of an attack. As a rule, if the zone’s effect is a physical attack that a character could deflect with a shield or dodge completely, you should probably resolve it with an attack roll rather than a resistance or skill check. A zone’s attack bonus depends on its power level. You can trade-off the bonus up or down for a deadlier or less threatening zone. Note that the attack bonus for an event zone is usually higher than that for a condition zone. Because an event zone usually has fewer chances to strike a character, it needs a better bonus to ensure that its attack poses a threat.
Skills
Almost any skill might prove useful in avoiding an event zone. A Survival check allows a hunter to notice that a patch of bushes has sharp, poisoned thorns. A Perception check lets a character uncover the pressure plate before he steps on it and activates a trap. When you create an event zone, determine whether a skill check replaces a resistance for avoiding its effects, or if a check allows a character to spot the danger before he stumbles into it. Perception fill this role in most cases, as they cover a character’s environmental awareness. Knowledge and Survival can also prove useful, as they indicate that a character has the training needed to realize he’s near an event zone.
If you allow a skill check to notice an event zone, its Difficulty Class should be from 3 to 10 points higher than the effect modifier or check DC needed to avoid its effects. This ensures that only characters who put ranks into the skill can spot the danger. In addition, the DC is higher because the characters gain a greater advantage from a success. Not only do they spot the zone before it can affect them, but they can use the zone to their advantage during the encounter.
Damage
An event zone’s typical damage depends on how often it activates. The more often it activates, the lower its damage should be.
Other Effects
The advice for designing condition zones covers a few effects other than damage that you can throw at the party. In addition, event zones can inflict temporary ability score damage. Such damage is usually too harsh to use in a condition zone, but it represents a fair threat for an event zone. A triggered event zone can inflict ability score damage equal to half the damage dice balanced for the party’s level.
Area
When you design an event zone, you must decide on its area of effect. In general, a zone that affects a broader area should have an effect that is weaker or easier to resist than a zone that attacks only one person. For example:
- A dam gate opens, filling a passage with a flash flood. In this case, the event zone targets everyone within the passage.
- A mechanical crossbow fires at the explorer who stepped on its trigger plate. In this case, the event zone attacks a single person.
If a zone targets only a single character or an area with a 10-foot radius, use the standard damage given above. Decrease the damage by about two ranks if you choose to give it the area extra..
Traps
The quintessential event zones, traps are useful in encounters because they force the characters to proceed with more caution than normal. They also encourage creativity and tactics, since a smart group can attempt to use a trap against its enemies. In general, traps provided in other roleplaying game sources are designed for use in noncombat situations.
On the other hand, the guidelines given above assume that you want to use an event zone as part of an encounter, which means the characters must deal with the zone and with the monsters that threaten them.
Generally a trap is a good addition to an encounter if the group's power level is 2 or more higher than the trap’s. Otherwise, the trap might prove too deadly within the context of the encounter. For example, a pit trap not only injures a character but also removes her from the fight until she can climb out. During that time, the adventurers must try to fend off their enemies while down one person. That might prove too much if the pit is deep and it takes the trapped character a while to climb out.
Action Zones
Action zones encourage GMs to design interesting battle sites. Rather than simply running a fight in a tavern where the tables, chairs, bar, and beer kegs block movement, you can create zones around each of those features that define how the player characters (and their enemies) can use them.
Instead of standing in one place trading blows with their foes, the adventurers can try a wide variety of actions. When a character stands in an action zone, she gains the ability to select a special combat action that can be completed only in that location. Sometimes, taking that action makes it impossible for others to attempt the same thing for the rest of the encounter. Think of an action zone as an object waiting for a character to come along and do something interesting with it. It’s like a boulder resting at the top of a hill. On its own, the boulder provides cover. With a stiff push, it becomes a rumbling, unstoppable force of destruction. Here’s a sample action zone stat block:
| ROLLING BOULDER | Action Zone, 2 EP |
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Damage 8 (Extras: Line Area; Flaws: Two Actions, Might Check Required, Unreliable 2 (One Use))
With a Might check at a cost of two actions, you can send a boulder rolling down a slope to smash into your enemies. Make a Might check. Creatures suffer half damage from the stone if they make Reflex saves.
An action zone’s stat block covers the following attributes:
Name
The action zone’s name should be something descriptive, like “barroom stool” or “weak supporting beam.”
Reusable or Nonreusable
Some action zones can be used only once before they’re exhausted. A character might smash a brute over the head with a bench, but it shatters into pieces from the blow. After someone successfully uses an action zone, it disappears from the battlefield if it’s nonreusable.
Actions
The stat block lists different actions available in the zone. Each action includes a skill or base attack check Difficulty Class that a character must make as a standard action. If the check fails, she spends her action but gains no benefit from the zone. However, she can try again.
Designing Action Zones
Action zones are simultaneously the easiest and most difficult zones to create. They’re easy because you simply need to come up with the effects of the action offered by the zone.
They’re hard because they’re the most likely to involve special cases that fall outside of the rules. Unlike condition zones and event zones, they lack a clear method of design scaled by level. They’re more freeform in nature, but because you can easily design them for purposes other than directly injuring the enemy, they’re easier to balance. Thus, the advice in this section focuses more on creating interesting action zones rather than ones that are balanced against the party’s resources.
A good action zone offers an exciting, fun action that the characters can’t normally complete. An action zone is also a handy way to encourage a particular kind of maneuvers, especially if the players are not yet comfortable with using the maneuver rules to produce various effects. Some players prefer options that are more concrete and obvious. The maneuver rules might seem vague to the players, or they might have trouble mapping the effects they can choose to the situation in the game. Action zones help you avoid that pitfall, especially at low levels or with new players.
When creating an action zone, first picture the consequences of the zone in combat, and then write up rules that reflect the possible events leading up to the consequences.
Find FX that closely model the results and use them to guide you.
The description should specify the zone’s number of targets or area of effect. This area should correspond to the area that the object could physically cover. For example, a thrown bench might land in any three adjacent squares, inflicting damage on any creatures standing there.
If an action zone requires an attack of any sort, you need to hit your targets before the action can take effect. In many cases, a touch-range attack works best for thrown objects and other large, bulky items. Use these rules of thumb:
- An item small enough to wield as a normal weapon requires a normal attack roll.
- An item larger than the character wielding it is unwieldy, granting a bonus to damage but a penalty to attack.
In addition to making attacks, an object in a zone might help the party members move from one point to another or let them interact with the environment in an interesting way. For example, an action zone might allow them to hack down the wooden poles on which a small building stands. When the poles fall, the building collapses into debris that fills the battlefield, and anyone inside the structure suffers damage.
If an action zone is available in an encounter area, the GM should summarize its effects before the battle begins. This information allows the players to make use of the zone if they wish, and it helps emphasize its presence in the encounter. Keep in mind that even if a piece of terrain isn’t a zone, the characters still can use maneuvers to simulate the different stunts they can complete with it.
Remember, an action zone simply lets the characters use their environment in new, exciting ways. When you create encounters, use action zones to turn mundane pieces of terrain into fun tools that encourage the adventurers and their enemies to employ interesting tactics.
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| Chapter VII: Combat | Combat Sequence | Combat Statistics | Actions | Action Descriptions | Damage | Tactical Movement and Options | Maneuvers | |
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| Chapter VIII: Environments | Zones | Terrain Effects | Climate Effects | Conditions | |
| Chapter IX: Dramatic Interactions | Dramatic Interaction | Interaction Types | Reputation | Mental Strain | Taint | Examples of Taint | |
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