Distances and Areas
The field of combat has three main areas – theater, arena, and stage. These areas are fluid and can be created and abandoned as a battle moves and the focus of combat shifts. Additionally, a stage might have specific terrain features – called loci – which grant bonuses or penalties to those occupying them.
The smallest area is the stage (approximately 30 ft. in radius), which is where melee combat takes place. Whenever a creature leaves a stage, he can either enter another stage, or an arena.
Next largest is the arena (approximately 150 ft. in radius), which is where ranged combat can occur, and creatures can try to close with each other to enter melee. Whenever a creature leaves an arena, he can enter a stage, another arena, or a theater.
The largest standard area is the theater (approximately 800 ft. in radius), which is used for broad strategic maneuvering and distant ranged combat. Whenever a creature leaves a theater, he can enter an arena or an another theater, or he can move outside combat into the field.
The field is the terrain surrounding a battle, and generally plays no role in combat except on the grand strategic scales of armies. It is about a mile in radius. A locus (plural loci) is very small area within a stage, and is usually an area combatants either want to stay in (for cover and defense) or avoid (because of danger).
As stated above, theaters, arenas, and stages are simply terms to describe areas being used in combat. They help transform descriptions of terrain into game mechanics, but it is not necessary to specify the features of these areas if they aren’t currently in use. The game master should describe prominent areas in a scene, but needs not specify exactly what is a theater, stage, or arena until it becomes important for the combat.
Example Three: Trin and an orc scout spot each other across a wide prairie as they are approaching the same small ruined temple. They are the only creatures present, so right now they’re occupying the same theater. For a few rounds the two keep mobile while exchanging arrows, but to little effect, so the orc begins to run to try to enter melee combat. Trin continues to shoot at him and miss, while he runs and spends two actions to move into the same arena as Trin. Though there previously was no arena, the battle now necessitates one, so it is created. The GM decides that, based on earlier descriptions, the arena is just an open field.
Now less than 300 ft. from the massive orc, Trin realizes she needs to take cover. She spends one action to move to the temple ruins, which becomes a stage since its traits are distinct from those of the surrounding field. She uses her second action to hide, hoping to lose the orc, or possibly ambush him.
On the orc’s turn it spends a move action to enter the same stage as Trin, and he starts to look for her, hungry for melee combat. Note that if Trin had stayed put and let the orc close with her on the prairie, that section of prairie would have become a stage. The temple would have been unimportant.
