Climbing Rules

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To climb anything more difficult than a ladder, roll against Climbing skill (p. 183). This defaults to DX-5. Modifiers to the roll depend on the dif- ficulty of the climb (see below). In all cases, subtract your encumbrance level from your roll as well. Climbing while heavily laden is a dangerous matter!

Make one roll to start the climb and another roll every five minutes. Any failure means you fall (see Falling, p. 431). If you secured yourself with a rope, you will fall only to the end of the rope unless you rolled a critical failure.

The table below gives skill modi- fiers and climbing speeds for some common climbs. In most cases, use the speeds in the “Regular” column. The “Combat” column is for climbs inspired by rage or terror, which always cost at least 1 FP – or double the FP cost given in an adventure or assessed by the GM. Climbs in combat require a Move maneuver.

Type of Climb Modifier Combat Regular
Ladder going up no roll 3 rungs/sec 1 rung/sec
Ladder going down no roll 2 rungs/sec 1 rung/sec
Ordinary tree +5 1 ft/sec 1 ft/3 sec
Ordinary mountain 0 1 ft/2 sec 10 ft/min
Vertical stone wall -3 1 ft/5 sec 4 ft/min
Modern building -3 1 ft/10 sec 2 ft/min
Rope-up -2 1 ft/sec 20 ft/min
Rope-down
(w/o equipment) -1 2 ft/sec 30 ft/min
(w/ equipment) -1 12 ft/sec 12 ft/sec