Legends of Tolria The Galactic Game

Environments · Planetary environment

Zephyr

A planet massive enough to have kept the light gases it formed with. There is no ground: pressure and temperature climb until hydrogen stops behaving like a gas, and no vessel that has gone down that far has returned. The colder ones hold a mass of volatile ice under the gas envelope and have a magnetic field offset from the axis of rotation, so compasses are unreliable near one. Skimmers work the upper bands for fuel, and the Echelon Corporation owns most of the well-known ones.

Planetary environment

Crossing it

Navigate
DC 16
Forage
DC 15
Notice
DC 18

Foraging means scooping volatiles. Visibility ends at the next band.

Exposure

  • Magnetic Disturbance

    A world's or star's magnetic field in upheaval, so that instruments give false readings and comms fail.

    • Instruments

      Navigation and comms fail beyond Long range. Any check made with electronic assistance has disadvantage.

    • Powered gear

      Powered weapons and cybernetics stutter: a natural 1 on an attack or a check using them means the item is unusable until the end of the next turn.

    • Induced current

      Long conductors take on induced current. Unshielded power and data runs fail, and a creature in contact with one takes 2d6 lightning damage.

    • Channeling

      On a world with an active Rift tether, a natural 1 on a spell attack roll, or a target's natural 20 on a saving throw against a spell, rolls on the Surge Table.

  • Contaminated Atmosphere

    Air that can be breathed and should not be: spore, ash, chlorine, coolant or fallout.

    CON save, DC 12. End of each minute. The Poisoned condition until an hour after leaving the atmosphere.

    • Filtration

      A rebreather or sealed suit removes the check. A filter mask gives advantage on it.

    • Visibility

      Ash and dense spore make the area heavily obscured beyond Close range, in addition to their other effects.

    • Radiological

      Where the contaminant is radiological, a failed save also inflicts a level of exhaustion that a long rest will not clear. It is removed by a Medicine check against the same DC, a restorative spell or a course of antiradiation drugs.

    • Conversion

      A failure in Bloom atmosphere also counts as one day of exposure toward conversion.

  • Extreme Cold

    Temperatures below about zero degrees Fahrenheit, or any water near freezing, made worse by wind.

    CON save, DC 10, rising by 1 for each hour after the first. End of each hour. One level of exhaustion.

    • Cold-weather gear

      Proper layers, a sealed suit or a heated shelter removes the save. Wet layers give disadvantage on it instead.

    • Immersion

      A creature in near-freezing water makes the save each minute instead of each hour, and is Incapacitated at three levels of exhaustion.

    • Gear

      Unheated power cells lose half their charge, and any check made with bare hands after an hour of exposure has disadvantage.

    • Adapted

      A creature native to a cold world, or with resistance to cold damage, ignores the save.

In play

  • Depth

    A vessel states the band it is rated to. Below it, Crush Pressure applies and there is no bottom to reach.

  • Bands

    Winds between bands run at hundreds of miles an hour in opposite directions. Crossing one is a DC 15 Piloting check, and failing moves the vessel a band deeper.

  • Offset field

    The magnetosphere is the largest structure in the system and is offset from the axis. Magnetic Storm applies throughout, and instrument headings drift on the rotation period.

  • Supersonic winds

    The fastest winds measured anywhere. Ranged fire and unpowered flight are impossible in the open.

  • Pressure

    Below a hull's rated depth in the envelope, a vessel or creature takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage per minute. Resistance and immunity to bludgeoning do not apply; only a pressure rating does.

Regions on it

  • Aurora The rings where a world's magnetic field funnels the star's wind into the upper air.
  • Cloud Deck The banded weather of a Zephyr, with no surface beneath it and winds running opposite ways a mile apart.
  • Jet Stream A narrow band of air moving two hundred knots in one direction at the top of the weather.
  • Lower Atmosphere The layer of a world's atmosphere where weather occurs: breathable, turbulent and home to flying creatures and vessels.
  • Near Space The last of the atmosphere, thin enough to count as vacuum for every purpose except drag.
  • Storm Front Organized violent weather on the move, with high wind, whiteout and a visible advancing wall.
  • Upper Atmosphere The stratosphere and mesosphere, above the weather and below space, with no breathable air and little lift.
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