Most of witchgates is played without explicit mapping of characters within a scene, played in theater-of-the-mind style whereby players only have their language to describe and loosely track the abstracted space whereby all characters reside. However, even within abstract space common terminology helps define consistent boundaries and positioning. This section provides those common definitions and tools for to help players and the GM.
Zones
Zones detail specific locations within a scene that encompass a nearby area centered around at least one point of interest and scene aspect. Zones show who is where; who’s in the same area with each other, as well as what might be an immediate threat to a character. Within a fast-paced encounter, there will often be multiple zones next to each other, sectioning off where specific events are occurring. Examples may include:
- A single room in a house, such as the kitchen
- Inside a vehicle
- The road
- The playground in a park
- A hallway between offices
- A cave entrance
Distances
Distance is generally tracked in one of four main categories: adjacent, nearby, far away, and off the map.
- Adjacent
Anything that is within 5 ft or touch distance of a character, including themselves. Also known as melee distance for close combat fighting- You yourself, or anything on your person
- The person standing beside you
- The chair you are sitting on
- A sword pressed against your held shield
- Nearby
Anything roughly within 30ft of you, generally within the same zone as you or an adjacent zone.- The size of a medium/small room
- Something you can walk/run to within a couple seconds
- Far Away
Any range beyond nearby but still within a visible distance. Many basic actions may require a cut to perform at far ranges, but ranged attacks should only need to cut for precision or for extreme ranges beyond. Most ranged attacks in-story can be confidently performed up to 160 feet (~50 meters) without taking cut for the distance. - Off the Map
Any range beyond the visible distance – such as the other side of the planet.
For players that wish to use a gridded map, consider each cell 5ft and give all characters a base speed of 30 feet they can traverse during an action, increased or decreased by 5ft per special circumstances.