1.6. Locations

Some Abilities, like the Investigate Basic Ability, will refer to a Location as a target. A Location is a portion of your surroundings that is somewhat distinct from other parts of the area, such as a room, a clearing, or the depths of a large pond, etc. When you enter a new Location, the GM will perform a few tasks to signify it.

Namely, the GM will:

Draw Location Cards from the Location Deck.
Introduce the Location, describing its features.

After the GM has finished introducing a Location, you have a chance to use the Investigate Reaction to ask questions and gather more info about the new Location.

Location Deck

The Location Deck consists of a regular deck of playing cards. Any 'Ace' card is treated as a 1, Jacks count as an 11, Queens count as a 12, and Kings count as a 13.

Each suit correlates with one or two of the Damage Types:

Clubs - Blunt Damage.
Diamonds - Ice Damage and Shock Damage.
Hearts - Fire Damage and Caustic Damage.
Spades - Sharp Damage.

All face cards correlate with Planar Damage.

Lastly, the two Jokers in the deck are wilds with the Player currently using the Location Card choosing how to resolve it.

Location Card Setup

When you arrive at a brand new area and Location, the GM will draw and place, for all to see, two Location Cards. These two cards represent how connected the current Location is to the five elements. The numbers on the cards also represent an abstraction for the ways that the features of the room can lend strategic advantages.

Whenever you move from one Location to a new, adjacent Location, instead of drawing two cards, the GM will draw a single new Location Card, whichever Location Card they choose that was in-play.

Using Location Cards

Depending on which Class you choose, you may be able to use the Location Cards in play to empower your Abilities. That said, both Player Characters and Non-Player Characters alike will share the same set of active Location Cards, so they can be difficult to rely on and could quickly cause a situation to swing in or out of your favor.

Whenever an Ability lets you "use" a Location Card, you can choose one of the two Location Cards and the GM will place that Location Card into the discard pile. The GM will then draw a new card, placing it for all to see. The card used and sometimes the new card drawn will then change the effects of your Ability. For some Abilities, the new card has a chance of causing you harm, so be sure to read the Ability thoroughly and know the risks of using a Location Card to try to strengthen your Ability.

Note: Less than half the Classes utilize Location Cards, all others can generally ignore the mechanic.

Fixed Location Cards

For most Locations, the new Location Card(s) will be randomized. In rare cases, however, a Location may be closely and prominently tied to a particular element. This often comes from a feature in that Location that correlate with one of the elements. When such a Location is encountered, the GM may set one of the Location Cards to be an unchanging, hand-picked "Fixed Location Card".

Only Locations heavily dominated by an element will have a Fixed Location Card.

Examples: Fixed Location Cards

AFixed Location Card is meant to be an abstraction of the environment in which you are fighting. Below are some examples of Locations that may have a Fixed Location Card, though even the ones listed below could be different, depending on its exact setup:

Clubs. An area with crushing gravity. The depths of a lake or the ocean. The heart of a fort run by Orcs or Goblins. A cave rich in pure minerals or ore.
Diamonds. A frigid mountaintop. Outside during an intense storm. The plunges of a large pond or river.
Hearts. A house or forest on fire. The lip of a volcano. An area with toxic vats or fauna.
Spades. The heart of a sandstorm. Inside an armory or an arena. The jagged ruins of a building. A thorny ticket or dense forest.
Faces. Near a planar anomaly. The halls of an insane asylum. Deep in a cloud of thick fog.

Overall, there is no right or wrong choice. That said, a chosen Location Card should still be tied to the world in some way, just in-case players want to get creative and alter the playing field. You never know if they will open a portal to try to dump the ocean into a volcano (though that would probably take a while.)

Whenever you use a Fixed Location Card to empower an Ability, a new card will be drawn that would replace the Fixed Location Card, but immediately after the Abilities are resolved, the new card is discarded and the Fixed Location Card remains. When you encounter powerful foes, they will often make use of the Fixed Location Card to unleash powerful attacks. If, somehow, you can interrupt or destroy the feature behind a Fixed Location Card, the GM may discard the Fixed Location Card, cutting off the enemy's strength.

GM Note: Optional Rule: Fixed Location Cards

The Player Fixed Location Card

In the rare event that a Player create a prominent feature, like by catching the forest on fire or flooding the cavern, the GM may introduce a Fixed Location Card to represent the feature.

For Player-induced Fixed Location Cards, the GM will generally draw random cards until the desired element is found. This effectively randomizes the number on the card rather than making the GM choose one.

The Investigate Reaction

When you enter a new Location, the GM will (after updating the Location Card(s)) describe the general features and ongoing events of the Location, setting the scene for you.

The Investigate Reaction is Triggered whenever the GM has finished their introduction of the Location. The Reaction can only be used once per Location per Episode. Using the Investigate Reaction gives you a chance to ask important questions about the new Location, depending on what Investigate Score you get.

When you ask a question through the Investigate Ability, you will never be put at risk of harm or drawing unwanted attention. You can also hold on to your questions, instead asking them after doing other things in the new Location. It is also worth noting that you are not barred from asking other questions beyond those granted by your Investigate Ability. That said, any extra questions may require you to actually touch and move around the new Location, putting you at risk of running into traps or drawing unwanted attention. The GM may also simply refuse to answer extra questions, particularly if they don't feel you have taken enough action to uncover the information requested.

A more thorough overview of the Investigate Ability will be provided in 1.8. Basic Abilities.