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Distance and Movement

Distance and movement in WISH is abstracted. Though there are some Stunts that describe how much area they cover or affect, generally speaking resolutions in WISH don't worry about exact distance, number of squares or hexes on a grid map, or other specifics.

Instead, WISH considers distance from the perspective of how many maneuvers it takes a character to travel from where they are to someplace else, and groups set numbers of maneuvers into range categories.

In practical usage distances between places are abstractly measured as a number of maneuvers. Thus rather than stating that the distance between point A and point B is 100 yards or meters, it would instead be tracked as Extreme range, and movement between these points would be handled by a character taking 7 maneuvers.

Traditional Tracking

The intent of abstract movement tracking is primarily to simplify combat, and require substantially less table space to manage. It is a bit unusual, and may seem unnatural to those familiar with more traditional approaches. However it can work very well if given a chance, and should soon feel natural and easy.

If after an initial "figuring it out" period maneuver tracking is more cumbersome than tracking exact distances with a measuring tape on a battle map, something has gone wrong along the way; it should be simpler and easier, not more complex and harder.

If it's just not working out for a group, or if a group wants to stick to more familiar mechanisms of "battlemapping", it's actually pretty easy to ignore the abstract Maneuver system and go with concrete exactitude. Simply treat the distance approximations given as exact distance thresholds and use a measuring tape. Any map scale works but 1 inch = 10 feet is a very common ratio that works well with most role playing game miniatures and battlemap products. You can use the approximations provided for each range category for distance.

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Combat Mode

WISH really doesn't want to track the exact position of each character with absolute precision. Hex or grid maps are not used by default in combat to keep track of who is where, and how many "steps" or squares need to be traversed to move around.

Using this mechanism encounters can be easily tracked with abstract representations of characters and locations, with markers, tokens, or stones placed between them to indicate the number of maneuvers between them. Thus if two locations are 5 maneuvers apart, then a representation of each can be placed with five maneuver tokens between them with slight gaps; as characters move between these locations, the representations of those characters can simply be placed in a gap between the maneuver markers indicating where they are at.

The distance between characters in an encounter is tracked the same way; if two characters are at Close range to each other, place markers, models, or standups representing the two characters with a single maneuver marker between them, as they are one maneuver apart. If they move further apart, place more maneuver markers.

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Close and Engaged

When a group of characters are near each other, within 10 feet, they are considered to be within Close range. Two particular characters might be side by side or 10 feet apart; the distinction of the actual distance is not important. To attack another character in melee, grab, or even be considered to be touching, a character must take a maneuver to move from Close to Engaged range.

Two or more characters engaged with each other are collectively referred to as an Engagement.

A character that is Engaged with one or more other characters must take a maneuver to disengage and move to Close range. Edit

Travel Skills

In combat mode characters can use their Travel skills passively when taking movement maneuvers without requiring a check, benefiting from the secondary characteristics of their mode of travel circumstantially.

Thus a character with some form of Superflight using a standard maneuver to move can choose to be considered flying, and can maneuver to a position not reachable otherwise, such as to the top of a tree or a single story rooftop, or even just to go straight up and hover in place one maneuver off the ground. Under normal circumstances there is no real chance of failure for this sort of casual usage of Travel skills and thus a check is not required. However if something unusual is occurring, there are interfering circumstances, or there is some risk of failure the GM can require a check with the applicable Travel skill at their discretion.

Reposition Action and Travel Skills

A character can also make a Travel skill check when using the Reposition action to gain multiple movment maneuvers; if the character is engaged they add to this check. The number of successes rolled on the check determines the number of movement maneuvers the character may travel; however even if the check fails the character moves 1 movement maneuver. Thus if a character with Superrunning used the Reposition action and rolled 3 successes on their check, they would move 3 movement maneuvers away from their current location rather than the 1 movement maneuver normally allowed by Reposition.

This can allow a character to move beyond Extreme range and leave the Scene of a Combat encounter altogether.

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Approximate Distances

Distances as rated in maneuvers are vague and approximate; the approximate distances are not precise, and there is intentionally discretionary grey areas between them. Medium(2) does not start exactly at 100 feet and end at 149 feet; it starts in some ill-defined place around 65 feet and ends in an equally fuzzy place around 125 feet.

It is not considered important to differentiate if something is 25 feet away or 35 feet away; the difference isn't important enough to bother keeping track of. The GM just decides if something is at Medium (1) or Medium (2) distance, or more loosely if its 2 or 3 maneuvers away from something else, and moves on.

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Situational Modifiers and Maneuvers

Further, situational modifiers can and should apply to how many maneuvers are considered to be between two points, particularly for distances that are in the grey area between to range categories.

For instance, if a particular point is 3 maneuvers away but to get there crosses rough ground the GM might tell ground-based characters it's going to take 4 maneuvers for them to move there. Similarly if there were strong winds or obstructions like power cables or trees along the route the GM might tell fliers it will take 4 maneuvers.

Similarly, when determining ranges for attacks, even though a target might technically be 3 maneuvers away and thus within Medium range, the GM might decide to treat the distance as 4 maneuvers due to obstructed visibility, lay of the land, or other situational modifiers. A more typical way to deal with this would be to add or to any checks where these conditions could affect the outcome, but simply deciding that the target is in the next range category can be an expedient approach.

The number of maneuvers it takes to get between two points is not necessarily symmetrical. If point A is at the top of a steep grade and point B is at the bottom, even though the distance is technically the same it may take more maneuvers to move from B to A than it does to travel from A to B. Depending on the scale it might also impose fatigue penalties, require a Resilience or Athletics check to go upwards, and so forth; and an Athletics or Coordination check to go downward (to avoid tripping or sliding). It all depends only on how significant of a factor a GM wants such a situation to be.

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Distance (Combat Mode)

The following table is provided for convenience.

Combat Mode Distance
# of Maneuvers	Range Category	Approximate Distance
0	Engaged	long stride, approximately 5 feet / 1.5 meters
1	Close	a few paces, approximately 10 feet / 3 meters
2	Medium (1)	approximately 10 paces, 30 feet, 10 meters
3	Medium (2)	approximately 30 paces, 100 feet, 30 meters
4	Long (1)	approximately 150 feet, 45 meters
5	Long (2)	approximately 250 feet, 75 meters
6	Long (3)	approximately 500 feet, 150 meters
7	Extreme (1)	approximately 1000 feet, 300 meters
8	Extreme (2)	approximately 2500 feet, 750 meters
9	Extreme (3)	approximately 1 mile, 1.5 kilometers
10	Extreme (4)	approximately 2 miles, 3 kilometers
11+	Plot	whatever distance; GM's discretion

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Story Mode

WISH takes the perspective that movement during Story Mode generally moves at the speed of plot and is a matter of pacing and story telling more than the result of a mechanical resolution or ability. Even if a character can travel to the other side of the world in the blink of an eye (which some superheroes can do), if the GM isn't prepared to run a scenario in that location or the ability to do such a thing has no impact to the collective story of the group as a whole, it makes little practical difference.

Consequently, WISH tends to be very permissive with distances during Story Mode, allowing characters with Travel skills to traverse large distances with a single check, should the GM even bother to require a check. In many cases, Story Mode travel tends to be largely narrative and left to the GM's discretion as to when speed or the chance of failure is dramatically appropriate.

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Distance (Story Mode)

In Story Mode Travel skills allow characters to move from one scene to the next. As distance and scale are abstract in WISH, it's all a bit of a handwave, but Travel skills expedite the process and grants some control to the characters rather than relying on the GM to dictate distances and time spans.

Distance by Athletics Skill Check

Assuming that a character is not encumbered or impeded and can traverse the intervening terrain, they can opt to make a distance check using their Athletics (Str) skill, and consult the following resolution table.

Story Mode Distance Check (Athletics)
Successes	Outcome
-1 or less	Something inconvenient or detrimental occurs. At best you are delayed, at worst you might have been involved in an accident.
0	You move from where you are now to someplace else within Close range.
1	You move from where you are now to someplace else within Medium range.
3	You move from where you are now to someplace else within Long range.
5	You move from where you are now to someplace else within Extreme range.

Distance by Travel Skill Check

Assuming that a character is not encumbered or impeded and can traverse the intervening terrain, they can opt to make a distance check using their Travel skill, and consult the following resolution table.

Story Mode Distance Check (Travel skill)
Successes	Outcome
-1 or less	Something inconvenient or detrimental occurs. At best you are delayed, at worst you might have been involved in an accident.
0	You are delayed for some reason and make little or no progress towards your goal; at best you move from where you are now to someplace else within Medium range.
1	You move from where you are now to someplace else within Long range.
2	You move from where you are now to someplace else within Extreme range.
3	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a few city blocks.
4	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a downtown area or suburb.
5	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a greater metropolitan area.
6	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a large region.
7	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a geographical region, such as a reasonably sized state or province.
8	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a time zone.
9	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a several time zones.
10	You move from where you are now to someplace else within a hemisphere.
11+	You move from where you are now to someplace else on the same planet; perhaps beyond.

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Movement Factor

As an optional rule, GM's can allow characters to use an approximation of a character's ability to move Story Mode distances.

It this is allowed, characters that have a Travel skill calculate a Movement Factor based upon the dice pool they would have to make a distance check with under normal circumstances.

Unless the GM requires a check, a character can opt to not make a Travel skill check for distance and instead use their Movement Factor for an equal number of automatic successes. Thus a character with Movement Factor: 6 would be considered to have 6 automatic successes, while a character with Movement Factor: 9 would be considered to have 9 automatic successes.

A character that does not have a Travel skill acquired has Movement Factor: 0.

A character that does have a Travel skill acquired but not trained determines their Movement Factor normally but subtracts one from the total, to a minimum of Movement Factor: 1.

Movement Factor
Dice Pool Contains	Movement Factor
1-2	1
3-4	2
5-6	3
7-8	4
9-10	5
Modifications
each	+1
each	+1
each	-1
each	-1
Travel skill only acquired	-1

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Velocity

Velocity is an optional rule provided for players and GM's who don't mind some extra bookkeeping to make travel powers a little more "realistic". Some Stunts interact with Velocity; if Velocity is not used the GM can disallow affected Stunts or make some mechanical allowance or substitution for them.

When characters use Travel skills for movement they gain Velocity, which is equal to the number of movement maneuvers they actually took in their Turn. Thus if a character takes 5 movement maneuvers in their Turn, they have Velocity (5). In their next Turn a character must either take an equal number of movement maneuvers or more or in their End of Turn phase suffer a number of points of fatigue equal to the difference between the Velocity they started their Turn with and the Velocity they ended their Turn with, minus the character's Toughness.

For instance, if a character with Toughness 3 started their Turn with Velocity (5) and took no movement maneuvers at all they would end with Velocity (0) and suffer 5-0 = 5-3 = 2 fatigue.

As a maneuver or as part of a movement maneuver a character may make a Travel skill or Athletics skill check to decelerate, reducing their Velocity by 1 per success.