ENVIROMENTAL HAZZARDS

EARTHQUAKE

Everything shudders and shakes; huge rents and holes tear the ground wide open

EFFECT 1: Earthquakes don’t last long, but they don’t have to. DURING a quake the following difficulties apply.

DIFFICULTY MODIFERS :

All Dexterity based rolls are made at + 1 to + 5 difficulty depending on severity of quake.

EFFECT 2: With all the falling debris characters can find themselves assaileed

DAMAGE:

Characters take between 1 to 5 points of damage depending on severity of quake.
Make a Stamina + Athletics roll difficulty 12+ to Difficulty 17+ to avoid damage.

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Quakes are ranked 1 -5.

They last 5 turns per quake rank.

Quake rank 4-5 generally do not occur outside storyteller created scenes.

Player Characters cannot create earthquakes without supernatural powers.

BLIZZARD

Heavy snowfall carpets the ground and just keeps falling, whipped up by howling winds into a barrage of whirling white.

EFFECT 1: Blizzards make it very hard to see for any real distance.

DIFFICULTY MODIFERS :

Perception rolls + Ranged attack rolls are made at + 1 difficulty per 10 meters of distance between viewer and target.

EFFECT 2: Deep snow makes movement incrediblly difficult

DIFFICULTY MODIFIER:

Physical action rolls (including combat) are made at + 1 difficulty per 4 inches of snow depth.

Without supernatural powers, characters can’t “end” a blizzard. The best they can manage is to escape the weather or wait for it to stop. Proper equipment (such as goggles and snow boots) can add +1 to +3 to a roll, offsetting some of the penalties. If someone is causing a blizzard through a supernatural power, it’s possible that the characters could disrupt his concentration.

MOVEMENT PENALTY:

Movement is reduced by 1 meter per turn per 4 inches of snow depth.

ADDITIONAL HAZARDS:

Blizzards are usually accompanied by

High Winds
Extreme cold
Ice

These conditions may further add to difficulty to actions.

EXTREME COLD

Bone-chilling winds bite through the character, or trudging through knee-deep snow takes all of the sensation from his limbs. Any time the temperature gets down below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), a character can suffer from the cold’s effects.

EFFECT 1:

HEALING NEGATION :

When the temperature is below freezing, characters can’t heal damage — the extreme temperature deals damage at the same rate normal characters heal it (a cut might turn to frostbite, for instance).
Supernatural beings and characters who heal faster than normal instead halve their normal healing rate. This includes healing powers or spending of essences. (Rage,Gnosis,Glamour Etc)
UNDEAD ARE IMMUNE TO EXTREME COLD HEALING NEGATION : NOTE: THE UNDERWORLD (SHADOWLANDS) IS FREEZING.

NOTE:

Causes: A character can suffer extreme cold from being in a frozen environment — whether he’s outside in the Arctic tundra or in a walk-in freezer. Inflicting the condition is reasonably straightforward: throw the victim into a freezing lake or lock him in a freezer for long enough and he’ll develop hypothermia.

The best way to escape the freezing cold is to find a source of warmth — either a building with working heating, or warm bundled clothing. A character who has hypothermia requires medical attention.

EXTREME HEAT

The character might be stumbling through the desert with the sun beating down on him, or running through the steam-tunnels surrounding an old boiler room.

EFFECT 1:

HEALING NEGATION :

When the temperature is far above normal , characters can’t heal damage — the extreme temperature deals damage at the same rate normal characters heal it (a cut might heal, but its replaces by sunburn or sunstroke ).
Supernatural beings and characters who heal faster than normal instead halve their normal healing rate. This includes healing powers or spending of essences.(Rage, Gnosis, Glamour Etc)
UNDEAD ARE IMMUNE TO EXTREME HEAT HEALING NEGATION

NOTE:

Causes: being out at noon in the desert or spending too long in a sauna or forge. Even a fever is the result of an infection, rather than something that an opponent can force on a character. It’s possible to create this condition on a given character: securing someone to a chair right next to an old, inefficient boiler, or stranding them in the desert far from any shade.

The key to ending this state is simple: get out of the heat. In a desert or similar environment, finding shade is paramount. Elsewhere, the character needs to escape whatever is causing the abnormal temperatures.

NOTE II : Extreme heat is NOT fire or burn damage.

FLOODED

Some liquid — brackish water, mud, gore, or raw sewage — is high enough to impede the character’s progress.

EFFECT 1:

DIFFICULTY MODIFERS :

Each foot of liquid adds +2 to the difficulty of all physical actions.

EFFECT II

MOVEMENT PENALTY:

Movement is reduced by 1 meter per turn per 4 inches of water depth
If the water is so deep it goes over characters head, they will have to swim. (See Physical Feats)
Alternatively if the water is so deep it goes over characters head , they can attempt to hold their breath (see below)

HOLDING BREATH.

A character can hold her breath for a number of turns based on her Stamina dots, as per the table.

Stamina Time Turns *

1 30 seconds 10

2 One minute 20

3 Two minutes 40

4 Four minutes 80

5 Eight minutes 160

6 15 minutes 300

7 30 minutes 600

*If your character is in combat, she can hold her breath for one turn per Stamina dot.

If your character reaches their limit (as per table) they may attempt to hold their breath a little longer.

ACTION: Free Action

ROLL: Stamina

DIFFICULTY: 14+

SUCCESS: Each success grants 30 extra seconds/ 10 turns OR one extra turn per success if rolled in combat).

DROWNING:

When she can no longer hold her breath, she begins suffocating/drowning. She suffers one point of damage per turn.

(Werewolves and other living supernatural creatures cannot regenerate this damage until they can breathe again. Since vampires and the walking dead don't breathe, they cannot suffocate or drown.)

ELECTROCUTION

Lightning strikes, a live wire hits your character or he touches a conducting item. Some supernatural beings even possess mastery over electricity and can direct it at your character.

EFFECT:

SINGLE STRIKE

Electrocution automatically causes the amount of damage caused by the electricty attack rating.Most Supernatural species capable of throwing lighting will have a rating for it.

EFFECT:

SUSTAINED:

Electrocution automatically causes damage per turn of exposure based on the rating of the electricity attack if there’s a constant flow such as through power cables — a victim may not be able to escape. His muscles contract, which can prevent him from pulling away.

ROLL : STRENGTH once per turn at Difficulty 12+ Electricity rating

Failure means your character is still connected to the source and suffers its damage each turn until a successful roll is made.

ELECTRICITY RATING SOURCES DAMAGE

1 Minor wall socket 2

2 Major protective fence 4

3 Severe junction box 6

4 Fatal main line feed/subway rail 8

Worn armor provides no protection against electrocution.

A magical kind conjured up by supernatural beings might at the Storyteller’s discretion.

NOTE: Circuit breakers do not kick in until the circuit is broken. If a character is unable to release themselves from the grip it will not shut down automatically, Another character is required to manually find the breaker and activate it.

HEAVY RAIN

Torrential rain lashes down in knives, bouncing high off the sidewalk. The sound of rain on the ground is a constant hammering rumble that goes on without end, like dropping ball bearings on a tin roof. Thick gray curtains of water obscure vision.
EFFECT:

Heavy rains — approaching tropical storm levels or worse — cause a Perception penalty of −3 to both vision and hearing.
Rain’s hard to see through, but it’s also loud. If the rains carry on for an hour or more, the Flooded conditional will soon follow.
This condition is often accompanied by Heavy Winds.
A character trapped out in Heavy Rains might come under the effects of Extreme Cold.
HEAVY WINDS

Howling winds buffet at the characters, whipping street furniture into the air, tearing the roofs from buildings. Powerful winds can toss cars around like toys. Anyone out in the winds feels like they’re taking a beating just for walking down the street.
EFFECT:

Heavy winds are loud, so characters suffer a −3 modifier to aural Perception rolls. Also the wind inflicts a penalty to all Physical rolls when out in the winds — including Drive rolls.

WIND RATING 1-5 (Dictated by storyteller or effect of power/discipline.)

one is tropical storm level (around 40 MPH)
two is a big tropical storm level (around 60 MPH)
three is hurricane Category 1 - 2 (around 80 MPH)
four is hurricane Category 3 - 4 (around 120 MPH)
five is tornado level (150+ MPH).

The penalty applied to Physical rolls is equal to the wind rating

EFFECT 2:

Characters outside in the maelstrom take damage from flying debris, taking bashing damage each turn equal to the wind’s rating.

Characters can made a "Dexterity +Athletics + Armor Def (Max 2) OR a Stamina + Armor Def roll difficulty =12+ Wind Rating.

The ground’s covered in a mirror-smooth layer of ice that sends wheels spinning and people’s feet flying out from under them. The ice could be so thin as to be nearly invisible or a thick layer that’s the only thing keeping the characters from sinking into a frozen lake.

EFFECT:
When a character can’t trust her footing, divide her Speed in half and all Physical rolls (and Defense) suffer a −2 penalty. Attempting to move at full Speed increases the Physical penalty to −4. Any botch on a Physical roll inflicts the Knocked Down condition. Driving on ice is a real pain — halve Acceleration and characters suffer a −5 penalty to Drive rolls.

NOTE:
This doesn’t just apply to icy conditions, but to any surface that’s slick and slippery, including a spill of industrial lubricant or just a really well polished wooden or linoleum floor. Characters can (so long as the appropriate materials are availing ) use a Dexterity + Crafts difficulty 12+ roll to cover an area in industrial cleaner or mix up cleaning chemicals into a lubricant. If Extreme Cold is in effect, even covering the area with water would do the trick.

FIRE:

Fire can kill in any number of ways, from smoke inhalation to sheer shock to secondary infections after the fact. The burns themselves, however, are a more immediate concern, with searing pain and crisping skin the first signs. Fire always inflicts lethal damage, (aggravated for undead, we've accounted for the one automatic success with aggro damage in the chart so you don't have to) NOTE: This applies to characters on fire, not characters attacked with flame weapons, it might apply if they catch fire from the attack, which is always a possibility.

Stamina roll. The difficulty varies according to the intensity of the flame, and the levels of damage done by the fire varies according
to the size — see the Fire Damage chart for details. Success means that, though the character is probably a little singed, she hasn’t taken any real damage. Failure, of course, means she has suffered harm from the flames, and a botch indicates a major injury. This may be flash-blindness, a major third-degree burn, or anything else that fits the fiction, A roll must be made each turn that the character is directly exposed to fire.

FALL DAMAGE:

A character or object falls at a rate of 15 meters per turn

falling causes 1 point of bashing damage for falling 15 meters. 30 meters or greater is 1 point of lethal damage per 15 meters fallen. (15 meters is 1 bashing, 30 meters would be 2 lethal, 45 meters would be 3 lethal,60 meters would be 4 lethal, 75 meters would be 5 lethal etc, etc)

FALLING OBJECT DAMAGE

Falling object damage is calculated exactly the same as fall damage, the height from which the object falls causes damage to those it falls on exactly as if the person had fallen from the height. (It's the speed that does the damage)