2.2. Exploration Box

While exploring and interacting with the world around you, look to the Exploration Box on Page 1 of your Character Sheet. The Exploration Box lists your Exploration Stats, Exploration Skills, and helpful References of your character's capabilities and limits.

Exploration Stats

Each character has a different balance of Exploration Stats that help you navigate the world and interact with it.

The Exploration Stats are:

Might

The front-line force of the group. Favored stat of skilled strikers, bulky athletes, and seasoned warriors.

Artifice

The back-line specialist of the group. Favored stat of dexterous fighters, skillful snipers, and nimble-handed craftsmen.

Tuning

The magical conduit of the group. Favored stat of Dark mages and enlightened sages.

Starting Exploration Stats

Ask your GM how they want to generate stats. There are two primary methods:

Exploration Skills

The Exploration Skills are divided up on the Character Sheet into a grid. In each column, you can see how the Exploration Stats relate to each of the 4 Exploration Stats. The first row of Exploration Skills are the Perception Skills. The next row contains the Covert Skills, and the final two rows contain the Knowledge Skills. (You do not need to memorize these categories, they are mainly there to help you find the skills more quickly.)

Perception Skills

The Perception Skills help you learn more about new locations you explore and can help you detect and avoid danger before it happens.

The Perception Skills are most often used with the the Investigate ability:
(This ability can also be found on the Player Cheat Sheet.)

Investigate

Note that each Skill has a different set of questions that can be asked. In this way, each character's own perceptions may reveal different information about the current location.

Aside from the Investigate ability, the GM may have you make Tests using the various Perception Skills while you are diving deeper into what you have found in the world.

Below are the three core Perception Skills and examples of the Tests a GM may call for:

Recon

• Secure a campsite.
• Determine the weak and strong points of security. Predict security features, protocols, spells, etc.
• Keep watch or scout ahead to detect sights and sounds of nearby living things that may be using Stealth.
• Identify leadership and hierarchies. Identify lower members of a group that may be more susceptible to attacks, be that physical or rhetorical.
• Gather details that may help determine a character's rank or threat level (though a creature's magical or unseen capabilities may require a Conjuring or Enchanting Tests.)

Analysis

• Track an enemy. While in an encounter against a Stealthy enemy, determine the route that an enemy traveled.
• Look over specific objects or phenomena to quickly and safely gather clues. Determine how a non-magical mechanism or trap works.
• Search for info or a specific item quickly or while under pressure.
• Generally, this skill will not involve altering the subject in any way. For alterations, dissection, or dismantling, use Sleight Skill instead.

Sensing

• Sense the presence of Invisible beings, magical auras, or magical effects in the area (though you will not learn their exact location.)
• With a High Score you may be able to see auras. You may also be able to see the afterimage of magic cast within the last hour and gain clues as to what spell was cast (Though further rolls of the Conjuring Skill or Enchanting Skill may be needed for full identification.) It is also worth noting that some magic can be altered or hidden from your senses through abilities like Cryptoarcanology.
• With a Mixed Score you may only feel a general presence with no clear location or direction. You may also miss dormant magic items or dormant magical effects.
• On a Low Score you may miss magic that is there or get incorrect information about the magic in the area, though the GM could also tell you the truth. Be careful, as this could lead you into a magical trap!

While the Perception Skills can be used for the usual Skill Tests a GM may implore, they are most often used by players performing the Investigate Ability upon entering a new area or room.

Covert Skills

Below are the three core Covert Skills that help you avoid detection. The GM may occasionally use these Skills in other ways, but you will generally only roll them during 1.6. Covert Operations. (See that chapter for a more complete guide on the stealth system.)

Stealth

• Use Movement without being heard or seen.

Sleight

• Use Abilities or take improvised actions without being heard or seen.
• Pickpocket or perform up-close magic

Hiding

• Hide or camouflage yourself or other people or objects from view.
• Bend awareness away from yourself so as to avoid unwanted attention.

Knowledge Skills

Knowledge Skills are representative of what a character knows. Often, these skills will determine how much you "recall" about a given subject or topic. Knowledge Skills are used a bit less often than other Skills, but you are required to put at least half of your Skill Improvements into your Knowledge Skills.

Below are the Knowledge Skills and example use cases for each:

Athletics Skill (Might)

Raw might can only get you so far, you also need athletic knowledge.

• Perform more demanding or hazardous feat of sport, like acrobatics, climbing, swimming, wrestling, etc.
• Climb or hold on to a slippery, unstable, or hazardous surface while something is trying to knock you off.
• Say afloat in difficult waters or while something is trying to interfere with your swimming.
• Lift or carry heavy objects. You can freely lift and carry objects that are your same size and weight or less. If the object is up to double your size and weight, you will need to perform a Test to try to lift and carry it. Anything larger or heavier and you will not be able to lift it without help that, with combined weight and size, can once again beat the object's own weight and size.

History Skill (Might)

• Recall oral stories, legends, customs, religions, or other historical info that existed or occurred more than 5 years ago. This knowledge can include battles, heroes, politics, etc.
• Recall beliefs of religions more than 5 years old.
• Recall and perform traditions or traditional ceremonies with accuracy and the acceptance of those familiar with such rites.

Rumor Skill (Artifice)

• Recall current events (within the last 5 years.) Recall modern prominent figures. Recall modern customs, conspiracies, secrets, and the inner workings of governments, factions, and new-age religions.
• Blend in with the locals or conform to etiquette. When interacting with a class of society with which your character has little experience, you may need to roll with Disadvantage.
• Search a town for trustworthy merchants, local establishments, or leads on info about a subject. Find a fence or secret group located in the area.

Tinkering Skill (Artifice)

• Craft, alter, dissect, or dismantle things at a physical level.
• Disarm or alter a trap or mechanism.
• Craft small, crude constructions from raw materials or perform unskilled or crude surgeries. (More complex tinkering in these areas may require specific tools and supplies or multiple Tests in a row.)

Conjuring Skill (Tuning)

• Recall information about magic that involves conjuring. This includes spells that call forth the elements out of thin air, summon entities from beyond, and bring forth images in the mind.
• Recall information about animals, plants, and other living things and their innate, natural or magical abilities. This includes gods and primordial beings, such as elementals, demons, fiends, celestials, and arch-fey, provided that they did not rise to their position.
• When inspecting an active magical effect or the afterimage of a Spell that was cast in the last hour, you may learn what cast the Spell or what last used a magic item.

Enchanting Skill (Tuning)

• Recall information about magic that involves enchanting creatures and objects. This includes spells that buff or debuff existing objects and creatures. It also includes charms and the creation of magic items.
• Recall information about unnatural creatures, such as aberrations, cursed beings, and unnaturally ascended beings. This includes gods and other entities that have been warped or modified from their natural state.
• When inspecting an active magical effect or the afterimage of a Spell that was cast in the last hour, you may learn what the Spell or magic item last targeted.

Archetype Stats

Below all of your Exploration Skills, you will find your three Archetype Stats: Fighter, Rogue, and Mage.

These three stats are used most often when performing Abilities and will even be copied directly over onto the second page of your Character Sheet, the 2.7. Abilities Page.

Each Archetype Stat starts equal to the Exploration Stat in its same column (Fighter equal to Might, Rogue equal to Artifice, and Mage equal to Tuning.)

References

It is helpful to know more concrete limits and capabilities of your character. The References section lists pre-calculated values of what your character can and cannot achieve.

Size

Your Size affects how you will interact with several mechanics of the game. There are 6 core Sizes. Below is a table of each Size along with examples and a unit reference of how big of an area they can block, in-case you are not playing with Theater of the Mind:

Walk Range

The Distance you can walk on one Turn if an Encounter. Your starting Walk is Spitting Distance (or 4 units. See 1.4. Phases of Play > Movement and the appendix entry for Walk.)

Jump Range

The Distance you can jump on one Turn if an Encounter. Your starting Jump is Swinging Distance (or 1 units. See 1.4. Phases of Play > Movement and the appendix entry for Jump.)

Other References

A blank spot is provided alongside the other references to list other Movement Limits from the Movement Range List appendix that you may pick up through gaining various Abilities. If you do not need this blank spot for an extra Movement Range, feel free to use it for other reference values you may have a hard time remembering.

Next Up: 2.3. Inventory Box