Unstable Ground

Characters sometimes have to fight on unstable ground. Earthquakes happen. Giant monsters burrow their way up from the depths of the earth, shaking everything. Characters have naval battles where they fight on the decks of ships.

When such situations come up, the DM decides what the force of the ground-movement is. If it's sufficiently violent, characters will have to make d20 rolls against Dexterity at the beginning of each combat round to stay on their feet. Sometimes those Dexterity rolls will have bonuses, sometimes penalties. When they fail those rolls, they fall down.

The chart below shows several such situations and the types of Dexterity ability checks they require:

	Dexterity
	Check
Situation	Required?
Big Monster	Yes, at
Digging Up	Dexterity score
Minor Tremor	No
Major Tremor	Yes, at
	Dexterity +3
Minor	Yes, at
Earthquake	Dexterity score
Major	Yes, at
Earthquake	Dexterity –6
Ship's Deck,
Slightly Rolling	No
Ship's Deck,	Yes, at
Rolling	Dexterity +3
Ship's Deck,	Yes, at
Storm-Tossed	Dexterity –3

So, if a character with Dexterity 13 finds himself fighting on the deck of a storm-tossed ship, each turn he'll have to make his Dexterity check at a –3: He'll have to roll a 10 or less on 1d20 or fall down.

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