Chapter 13 — Hazards

A gun is not the most dangerous thing in the galaxy — the galaxy is. Vacuum, a foul atmosphere, a hard fall, a hot reactor, a plague world: the places Wanderers go are trying to kill them long before anyone draws a weapon. This chapter handles the environment itself. It adds no new tracks or numbers — every hazard resolves through the trauma you already have (Chapter 10), the armor and Radiation ratings already on your gear (Chapter 24), and the Survival skill.

Index§

• The hazard clock
• Breathing — suffocation & drowning
• Vacuum
• Atmosphere
• Temperature
• Falling
• Radiation
• Disease & infection
• Privation — hunger, thirst, exhaustion
• Quick reference

The hazard clock§

Most hazards work the same way: they threaten trauma on a clock.

• Interval. Each hazard ticks on a clock the GM sets to its severity — every round for the violent ones (suffocation, hard vacuum, a fierce radiation source), every few minutes for harsh exposure (killing cold, toxic gas), every hour or day for the slow ones (thirst, disease). Choosing the interval is how the GM dials a hazard from inconvenient to deadly.
• Resist, or simply suffer. Where a hazard can be weathered — cold, heat, bad air you're rationing, a creeping illness — make a Survival test (8+), rolled under Endurance, once per interval; a failure inflicts 1 trauma, a success buys you that interval. Where a hazard is pure physics — airlessness, radiation, the ground at the bottom of a fall — there is no test: it deals its trauma directly, and skill only helps you avoid being exposed in the first place.
• The track, and lasting harm. Environmental trauma marks the Physical track (Wounded → Maimed) unless noted. The worst hazards — radiation, severe decompression, a deep fall — inflict Maimed-grade harm: contamination and ruptures that ordinary rest won't mend, requiring a full recovery session exactly like the Radiation weapon trait (Chapter 24). Trauma fills nodes, overflows, and ultimately kills by the same rules as a wound taken in a fight (Chapter 10).
• Protection negates or delays. The right gear is the real defence. A piece of equipment or an armor trait either removes a hazard outright (a rebreather against bad air, Sealed armor against vacuum and toxins, a Radiation rating against rads) or buys you a measured duration before the clock even starts (an oxygen bottle's six hours). Hardened armor, proper shelter, or a fitting Boon (Chapter 9) can instead grant Advantage on the resist test.
• Momentum. Hazards feed the resource like any other adversity: a Disadvantaged resist roll earns 1 Momentum, and every point of environmental trauma earns 1 (Chapter 7). Grinding through a hostile place is exhausting — and it arms you for what's waiting at the end of it.

The rest of this chapter is just that clock, tuned to specific dangers.

Breathing — suffocation & drowning§

When the air runs out — a flooded compartment, a sealed vault, a hand around your throat — you can hold on briefly, then you start to drown on land.

You can hold your breath for a handful of rounds (more with an Endurance Advantage, or a relevant Boon). Once it's gone, you take 1 Physical trauma at the end of every round until you breathe again — no test; the body simply fails. This fills Wounded, then Maimed, then overflows to the Mental track and on to death within a few brutal rounds. The instant you get air, the clock stops; the Wounded and Shaken of it heal as normal, but a Maimed node forced by asphyxiation is a lasting injury.

Drowning is identical. Breathing gear — a rebreather mask, an oxygen bottle, a Sealed suit's air supply — removes the hazard entirely for as long as it has air.

Vacuum§

Hard vacuum is airlessness plus killing cold plus decompression, all at once. It demands vacuum-rated Sealed armor — a vacc suit or better. Anything less is fatal on a clock measured in seconds.

An unprotected body in vacuum cannot even hold its breath (the air is torn from the lungs): the suffocation clock starts at once, 1 Physical trauma per round. On the first round of exposure, also make an Endurance test (8+); on a failure the decompression does lasting damage — a Maimed-grade node from ruptured vessels and frostbite. A character is unconscious in a round or two and dead soon after.

A breached suit (a Corrosive hit, a bad tear, a failed seal) drops the wearer into vacuum exposure until it's resealed — a Significant Action with a vacc-suit patch kit. This is why patch kits ride on every hull.

Atmosphere§

Not every world offers air you can use. Two different problems hide under "bad atmosphere":

Thin or unbreathable air — too little oxygen, or none — is a suffocation clock on a longer fuse: the GM sets how many rounds or minutes of effort you get before it bites, and exertion shortens it. A rebreather, oxygen bottle, or Sealed suit removes it.

Toxic or corrosive air — chlorine, smoke, spores, industrial fume — is weathered like a poison: a Survival test (8+) each interval, 1 trauma on a failure (Physical for most; the GM may mark Mental for a hallucinogen or a neurotoxin). A rebreather or filter mask, or Sealed armor, negates it; Hardened armor against corrosion grants Advantage. Foul water and tainted food work the same way on an hourly clock — a filter canteen or a ration pack is the answer.

Temperature§

Killing heat and deep cold both wear a body down over time. Each interval — minutes in an extreme, hours in merely harsh conditions — make a Survival test (8+); a failure is 1 Physical trauma (exhaustion, frostbite, heatstroke), and a sustained extreme may impose Disadvantage as it grinds on.

The environment is beaten with preparation, not endurance alone. A thermal cloak against cold, Hardened armor built for the heat or the cold, shelter, fire, shade, or a Survival test to pace the group and ration water can negate the hazard outright or grant Advantage on the rolls. A character with no protection in a true extreme is on the fastest interval the GM is willing to set.

Falling§

A fall deals damage by its height, rolled against the victim's armor (base 3 plus anything worn) like any other hit.

An Athletics (Dexterity) test (8+) to catch yourself, roll with the impact, or snag a handhold drops the fall one band. Landing on something yielding — water, deep snow, a market awning — drops another; landing on something worse adds one. Low gravity softens a fall and high gravity sharpens it, a band each way at the GM's call. At the lethal heights, this is a story beat more than a dice roll: the rules above tell you how much trouble a Wanderer is in, not that they are guaranteed to die.

Radiation§

A reactor breach, a stellar flare, the hot heart of a derelict ark — ambient radiation is the environmental face of the Radiation weapon trait (Chapter 24), and it uses the same mechanic. The source has an intensity (a damage value the GM sets to its fierceness), compared each interval not to your armor but to your Radiation rating — 0 for an unprotected body, raised only by armor that lists a Rad rating, and claimed in full only inside a Sealed suit. Intensity ≥ your Radiation rating is 1 trauma; ≥ twice it is 2.

Radiation trauma is contamination: it lands as Maimed-grade harm that ordinary rest will never clear, only a full session of proper treatment. Ordinary armor does nothing — rads pass straight through plate that would stop a bullet. A dosimeter doesn't protect, but it warns: it grants Advantage on tests to notice a hot zone and to get clear before the next tick.

Disease & infection§

Some places, wounds, and meals carry sickness. On meaningful exposure — a filthy wound, contaminated food, a plague ward, a thing's bite — make an Endurance test (8+); failure means the illness takes hold. A disease then runs on a slow clock (often daily): each interval, a Survival or Endurance test (8+) — a failure marks 1 trauma (Physical for most; Mental for fever-dreams and delirium), a success fights it back. The GM sets how it ends: a number of successes in a row, the run of its course, or treatment. A virulent strain can leave a Maimed-grade node behind even once it breaks.

Medicine shortens it. A first-aid kit and a Survival medic (Chapter 10), or better a Medic's Biology and Chemistry, can grant Advantage on the fight-it-back rolls or cut the clock short with the right drugs. Antitoxins and antivirals are exactly what the gear catalog's (Chapter 24) med-kit and field stims are for.

Privation — hunger, thirst, exhaustion§

The quiet hazards. Going without water (about a day), food (several days), or sleep (a hard day or two of exertion) starts a slow clock: a Survival test (8+) each interval, a failure bringing Disadvantage on strenuous tasks first and 1 Physical trauma as it deepens. None of it is dramatic in the moment, and all of it is deadly given time. A filter canteen, a ration pack, and the discipline to actually rest are the whole defence — which is why a Wanderer who travels light still never travels without them.

Quick reference§