Shallows

The water from the low tide line out to the shelf break, which a diver can reach without decompression. Light reaches the bottom, so reef, kelp, seagrass and the food chain that depends on them grow here. Wrecks, ruins and moorings also lie here, because this is where traffic has always been.

Regional environment Aquatic (water)

Tropical Dry Temperate Continental Polar

Lowland

Crossing it

Navigate: DC 10
Forage: DC 8
Notice: DC 12

Bottom in sight throughout. Working depth for anything without a pressure hull.

In play

Lit bottom

Sunlight reaches the floor. No lamp is needed by day, and a lamp at night is visible for 300 feet.
Cover

Reef, kelp and wreckage give half cover throughout and break line of sight at 30 feet. An encounter here is fought at Close range.
Working depth

No pressure rules apply above 130 feet. Below that, a diver is on a clock the GM tracks.
Surge

In weather, a creature in the top 20 feet is pushed 1d4 x 5 feet in a random direction at the start of its turn.

Variations

Reef

Tropical. The densest cover and the densest population in any water on the world.
Kelp forest

Temperate and cold. Vertical cover from floor to surface, and difficult terrain to swim through.
Seagrass meadow

Shallow, soft-bottomed and open. Cover only for what is small enough to lie in it.
Shelf floor

Open bottom out to the break. Wrecks and ruins are found here because this is where they were lost.

Worlds it occurs on

Aquan A world that is liquid down to the core, with no land, no shelf and no solid surface to stand on.
Terran (Oceanic) A world of ocean from pole to pole, with land only where a volcano has kept up.
Terran (Verdant) A rocky world with liquid water, breathable air and a magnetic field to protect them, rare and the cause of most wars.

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