Movement · Narateer

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Speed changes position. Position changes what happens next.

Movement determines how far you can deliberately reposition during a scene. Every character has a Base Movement, measured in metres. During your Activation, choose whether to Walk, Run, or Sprint, then use the current Scene Mode to represent that movement.

Most movement does not require a roll.

Movement is normally automatic. Roll when an obstacle, hazard, or opponent makes the route meaningfully uncertain—not to discover whether your character remembered how to run.

Base Movement

Your Base Movement (BM) represents your normal movement in metres.

BM = 8 + Strength + Agility

Record BM on your Character Sheet. If Strength or Agility changes, recalculate BM.

Example: Base Movement

Kael has Strength 2 and Agility 4.

BM = 8 + 2 + 4 = 14 m

Kael can Walk up to 14 m during his Activation before terrain, Conditions, or other effects change that movement.

Movement Modes

During your Activation, choose one movement mode for your normal movement that turn.

Mode	Cost	Movement	Skill	Roll
Walk	0 AD	BM	—	None
Run	1 AD	BM × 2	—	None
Sprint	2 AD	(BM × 3) + 2 m per Sprint Skill Level	Athletics or Acrobatics	None

Pay the movement mode's cost once, even if you divide your movement around other Actions.

You may move less than your full allowance.

Walk

Walking is ordinary controlled movement.

Walk costs no AD and allows movement up to your BM.

Walking is normally available whenever you are capable of moving unless another rule says otherwise.

Run

Running is fast, reliable movement.

Spend 1 Ready AD to Run. Move up to twice your BM.

Run Distance = BM × 2

Running does not require a Skill Check and does not use Athletics or Acrobatics.

Sprint

Sprinting is an all-out burst of trained movement.

Spend 2 Ready AD and choose Athletics or Acrobatics as the Skill governing the Sprint.

Sprint Distance = (BM × 3) + (Sprint Skill Level × 2 m)

Sprint is a Major Action, but it does not require a Skill Check and cannot be Boosted normally because no roll is being made.

A Sprint counts as one proactive use of the Skill governing it.

Because Narateer uses Action costs rather than fixed Action slots, Sprinting does not prevent you from taking other legal Actions during the same Activation if you still have the resources and opportunity to do so.

Choosing the Sprint Skill

Choose the Skill that matches how the character is moving.

Athletics normally governs direct, forceful, sustained, or straightforward sprinting.
Acrobatics governs sprinting where balance, rapid redirection, vaulting, tumbling, unstable footing, or similar agile control defines the movement.

Do not choose between Athletics and Acrobatics only because one Skill Level is higher. The declared method and route determine which Skill applies.

A specific rule or Class Power may require an Athletics Sprint or an Acrobatics Sprint. In that case, use the named Skill.

Example: Sprinting straight across an open courtyard normally uses Athletics. Sprinting along a narrow wall, bounding between market stalls, or moving through an acrobatic route may use Acrobatics.

Example: Sprinting

Arlen has Strength 4 and Agility 3.

BM = 8 + 4 + 3 = 15 m

Arlen has Athletics SL 4 and sprints directly across open ground.

Sprint Distance = (15 × 3) + (4 × 2) Sprint Distance = 45 + 8 = 53 m

Arlen spends 2 AD and may move up to 53 m.

No Sprint roll is required.

Movement Sequence

Resolve normal movement in this order:

Determine BM. Apply other explicit effects that modify Base Movement, then apply your current Encumbrance state. Keep fractional metres until the completed allowance is converted through Distance & Range.
Choose your movement mode. Walk, Run, or Sprint.
Pay its cost.
If Sprinting, choose the governing Sprint Skill and calculate the Skill bonus.
Determine your legal route and any increased movement costs caused by terrain or other effects.
Resolve any genuinely uncertain obstacle or hazard encountered along that route.
Move up to your available allowance.
Represent the movement through the current Scene Mode using Distance & Range.

You choose only one normal movement mode during your Activation.

Dividing Movement

You may divide your normal movement around your other Actions if the fiction and route allow it.

For example, you might:

Run 8 m, attack, then use your remaining Run movement;
Sprint to cover, interact with an object, then continue moving;
Walk around an obstacle, act, then reposition again.

You do not pay the movement mode's cost again when continuing the same movement allowance.

Your total normal movement during the Activation cannot exceed the allowance produced by your chosen movement mode.

Opportunity Attacks

Moving from one Space within an opponent’s melee reach to another Space within their reach can trigger an Opportunity Attack. Complete the step, then resolve the Reaction before continuing. Entering or leaving their reach does not trigger this Reaction. See Combat — Opportunity Attacks.

Additional Movement

Some Class Powers, spells, Reactions, equipment, or other rules grant additional movement.

Additional movement is separate from your normal movement allowance unless the rule explicitly says otherwise.

It does not inherit your Walk, Run, or Sprint multiplier.

If a rule tells you to continue your Sprint, use whatever Sprint movement remains.

If a rule instead grants a specific amount of additional movement, use that amount exactly as written.

Rule Principle: A movement mode determines your normal movement. A specific rule determines its own additional movement.

Skill Checks During Movement

Walking, Running, and Sprinting do not normally require Skill Checks.

A Skill Check may still be required when something about the route is risky, contested, or meaningfully uncertain.

Examples include:

leaping a dangerous gap;
balancing across a collapsing beam;
climbing an unstable wall under pressure;
swimming through violent water;
vaulting a hazardous obstacle;
maintaining footing on shifting ground;
forcing through physical resistance;
escaping something that is actively contesting your movement.

Resolve that challenge using the Skill that matches the method.

Athletics usually covers force, endurance, climbing, swimming, powerful leaps, and overcoming physical resistance.

Acrobatics usually covers balance, tumbling, agile traversal, controlled landings, rapid redirection, and similar precision movement.

Failure affects the obstacle or route, not whether the character was capable of Running or Sprinting in the first place.

The Guide establishes the stakes before dice are committed.

Possible consequences might include:

movement stopping at the obstacle;
losing part or all of the remaining movement;
falling Prone;
ending in a worse position;
suffering Harm;
being forced onto another route.

Follow the normal Skill Check procedure.

Example: Sprinting Through a Hazard

Mira has BM 14 and Acrobatics SL 4. She sprints through a collapsing market route where rapid vaults and changes of direction define her movement.

Sprint Distance = (14 × 3) + (4 × 2) = 50 m

Mira spends 2 AD and begins an Acrobatics Sprint with 50 m of movement.

Partway through the route, a falling stall blocks the street. Clearing it safely is genuinely uncertain, so the Guide calls for an Acrobatics Skill Check and establishes the consequence of failure.

The check resolves whether Mira clears the obstacle.

It does not determine her Sprint distance and cannot turn her Sprint into a Run.

If she succeeds, she continues with whatever Sprint movement remains. If she fails, resolve the established consequence.

Terrain and Route Costs

Terrain changes how quickly movement allowance is spent.

Difficult Terrain

Moving through Difficult terrain costs twice as much movement.

1 m travelled through Difficult terrain costs 2 m of movement allowance.

Several ordinary reasons for terrain being difficult do not multiply the cost repeatedly. Apply the Difficult terrain cost once unless a specific rule explicitly creates an additional or stacking cost.

Examples may include:

dense rubble;
deep mud;
thick undergrowth;
steep unstable ground;
crowded spaces where speed is restricted;
waist-deep water;
other terrain that materially slows progress.

Terrain is Difficult because of what the route demands, not merely because it is unfamiliar.

Moving While Hidden

Hide allows concealed Walk or Run movement at twice its normal movement cost. Apply terrain costs too: 1 m through Difficult terrain costs 4 m of movement while hidden. Ordinary Sprint movement cannot preserve hiding.

Climbing and Swimming

Climbing or swimming does not automatically require a Skill Check.

If the movement is possible and no meaningful uncertainty exists, resolve it normally and apply an appropriate movement cost if the route is slower than ordinary ground.

If danger, pressure, instability, exhaustion, or another meaningful risk makes success uncertain, call for the appropriate Skill Check.

Athletics normally governs swimming and forceful climbing. Acrobatics may govern routes where balance, precision, agile traversal, or controlled movement is the defining challenge.

Obstacles

An ordinary obstacle that does not meaningfully threaten success simply changes the route or movement cost.

Call for a Skill Check only when both success and failure would materially change the scene.

Conditions and Movement

Conditions are defined in Combat. Apply their written effects before calculating or resolving movement.

Movement does not redefine those Conditions.

In particular:

a Condition that reduces Base Movement changes BM before applying a movement mode;
a Condition that prevents movement prevents normal movement;
a Condition that prevents Sprinting prevents Sprint;
a Condition that restricts direction or positioning still applies while moving;
standing from Prone costs the AD stated by that Condition before movement continues.

Follow the Condition itself whenever its wording is more specific than the general movement rules.

Encumbrance and Movement

Carried Bulk can reduce or prevent movement.

Apply the character's current Encumbrance state through Bulk & Encumbrance to Base Movement, after other BM modifiers and before calculating Walk, Run, or Sprint. Add the governing Skill bonus after tripling the reduced BM for Sprint.

Encumbrance owns its movement penalties. Do not apply a second separate penalty from this chapter.

A character who cannot Sprint because of their Encumbrance state cannot choose Sprint as their movement mode.

Movement and Class Powers

Class Powers may refer directly to a movement mode.

For example, a Power may require:

a Sprint;
an Athletics Sprint;
an Acrobatics Sprint;
moving a minimum distance;
remaining Sprint movement;
a particular route;
additional AD committed to that Power.

A Sprint requirement means the character must have chosen Sprint and paid its normal cost.

An Athletics Sprint or Acrobatics Sprint means that Skill is governing the Sprint.

A Power may require the player to spend additional AD when declaring it. Those AD belong to the Power and do not increase Sprint distance unless the Power explicitly says they do.

A Power may also create its own Skill Check when something exceptional or contested occurs during the Sprint.

Core Principle: Sprint supplies reliable movement. The Power supplies the exceptional mechanic.

Work With Scene Modes

Movement is calculated in metres first, then represented through concrete relationships in Story Mode, Zones in Cinematic Mode, or Spaces in Tactical Mode.

Distance & Range owns those conversions. For example, its Tactical conversion makes a 25 m allowance 12 Spaces; Movement does not introduce a second conversion rule.

Story Mode

Track meaningful spatial relationships rather than counting exact units.

Movement allowance determines how ambitious a reposition can reasonably be. A faster character or a Sprint should permit materially greater repositioning than a Walk or Run.

Preserve established terrain, barriers, routes, cover, elevation, and other important relationships.

Cinematic Mode

Convert movement through the normal Zone rules in Distance & Range.

Calculate the complete movement allowance before applying Zone conversion.

Terrain and required routes still matter. Being able to cross enough metres does not allow movement through a disconnected or illegal route.

Tactical Mode

Convert movement to 2 m Spaces through the normal Tactical Mode rules.

Movement follows a legal route through the map. Terrain costs movement according to the Spaces actually crossed.

A character cannot enter or cross a blocked or otherwise illegal Space unless a rule permits it.

Example: Difficult Terrain

Dorn has BM 13 and Runs.

Run Distance = 13 × 2 = 26 m

A pillar is 16 m away.

The route contains:

9 m of Difficult rubble;
7 m of ordinary ground.

The rubble costs:

9 m × 2 = 18 m of movement

The ordinary ground costs another 7 m.

Total route cost = 18 + 7 = 25 m

Dorn has 26 m of Run movement, so he can reach the pillar with 1 m of movement remaining.

No Athletics or Acrobatics check is required unless something about crossing the rubble makes success meaningfully uncertain.

Summary

Base Movement = 8 + Strength + Agility.
Movement is measured in metres before being represented through the current Scene Mode.
Choose one normal movement mode during your Activation.
Walk: 0 AD, move BM.
Run: 1 AD, move BM × 2.
Sprint: 2 AD, move (BM × 3) + 2 m per Sprint Skill Level.
Sprint uses Athletics or Acrobatics according to the declared method and route.
Sprint is a Major Action and one proactive use of its governing Skill, but does not require a Skill Check.
Do not roll merely to determine normal movement speed.
Roll only when an obstacle, hazard, contest, or other meaningful uncertainty makes the route itself uncertain.
Difficult terrain costs 2 m of movement allowance per 1 m travelled.
You may divide normal movement around other Actions without paying its movement cost again.
Additional movement from Powers and other rules is separate unless the rule says otherwise.
Conditions are governed by Combat. Encumbrance is governed by Bulk & Encumbrance.
Class Powers may require a particular Sprint and may introduce their own additional AD costs or Skill Checks.
Distance & Range owns Story, Cinematic, and Tactical representation and conversion.