CONCEALMENT (DARKNESS, SMOKE, AND
INTERVENING TERRAIN).
Concealment is a situation that occurs when a character
is harder to spot because of environmental effects such
as darkness, smoke, tall grass, or mist. Concealment im-
poses penalties on ranged attacks and sight-based skill
checks such as Perception. Conversely, it can provide
bonuses for other skill checks, such as Stealth.
The exact bonuses and penalties can be modified
by the CM if needed. However, in general, conceal-
ment can be divided into levels based on how obscur-
ing the concealment is. See Table 6-7: Concealment
for examples of different types of concealment. In
each case, the type of concealment adds a number of
- equal to the "dice added" entry to any Ranged
(Light), Ranged (Heavy), Gunnery, and Perception
checks against targets with concealment. Alternative-
ly, it adds a number of • equal to the "dice added"
entry to any Stealth checks made by a character with
concealment. These bonuses or setbacks may also be
added to other skills if the GM feels it's appropriate.
TABLE 6-7: CONCEALMENT
Dice Added Examples
+ 1 Mist, shadow, waist-high grass.
- (^2) evening, thick, shoulder-high grass. Fog, the darkness of early morning or late
- 3
Heavy fog, thick and choking smoke,
the darkness of night, dense, head-high
underbrush and thick grass.
COVER
When the blasters start firing, most characters dive for
cover. To keep things simple, being behind some sort of
cover—a rock, crate, wall, or vehicle, for example—in-
creases the character's ranged defense by 1 and can
add • to certain skill checks, such as Perception. A sin-
gle • is sufficient for most situations, although the GM
may add additional • if the target is particularly well
covered, such as a target firing from within a trench, in-
side a blockhouse, or any other prepared position. The
same holds true for the increase in ranged defense.
DIFFICULT AND IMPASSABLE TERRAIN
Difficult terrain is a catch-all description of terrain that is
hard to move through or over. It can include tight pas-
sageways, slippery ice, thick undergrowth, loose rubble,
shifting sand, or waist-deep water (or any number of
other circumstances). Essentially, it's terrain that char-
acters move through with difficulty. Characters entering
or moving through difficult terrain must perform twice as
many maneuvers to move the same distance they would
in normal terrain.
Impassable terrain is a description of terrain that is
simply impossible to move through via maneuvers. This
includes sheer cliffs, walls higher than a character can
reach through jumping, or deep pits. Impassable terrain
is not always an insurmountable obstacle, but it is an
obstacle that requires special skills to circumvent. De-
pending on the impassable terrain in question and the
resources at the character's disposal, the GM may allow
the character to overcome impassable terrain by using
a skill, probably the Athletics or Coordination skill (see
Chapter III: Skills). During an encounter, this means
the character must spend at least one action (and pos-
sibly give up one or more maneuvers) to accomplish this.
GRAVITY
Although antigravity has existed in the galaxy for
thousands of years, characters might still find them-
selves in a situation where they are away from an anti-
grav device, floating in open space, or walking in the
crushing gravity of a supergiant planet.
Normal gravity is the default and does not affect
any skill checks, attacks, and the like. Most habitable
planets possess gravity close enough to normal as to
be unnoticeable. Starships and space stations also
possess devices that provide normal gravity. However,
sometimes the characters end up in an environment
without normal gravity.
Heavier than normal gravity adds up to • • • to
any Brawn-based skill checks (except Resilience) and
the Coordination skill, depending on how heavy the
gravity is. Lighter than normal gravity adds up to •
- • to any Brawn-based skill checks (except Resil-
ience) and the Coordination skill, depending on how
light the gravity is.
Zero gravity, on the other hand, does not grant any •
or • to Brawn or Agility-based checks, because moving
in zero gravity is completely different than moving in a
gravity field. Characters can move in three dimensions in
zero gravity, but they count all movement as through dif-
ficult terrain, due to having to constantly grab handholds,
evaluate angles, and so-forth.
A character's encumbrance threshold does not
change due to different gravity, and items still main-
tain their usual encumbrance. This is because an
item's weight may change, but its size and mass (and
therefore its inertia) do not. Those pesky details can
prove an unpleasant surprise to inexperienced spac-
ers who attempt to shift something large and heavy
while in zero gravity.
WATER AND SWIMMING
Bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, oceans, or
swamps are types of terrain encountered on most
planets in the galaxy, and sometimes characters
must cross them. Most species have some ability
CONFLICT AND COMBAT
EDGE OF THE EMPIRE
