The 1984 Basic Set abstracts space into areas — roughly room-sized chunks of map. Each map shows areas as bounded regions; you don't measure in feet. A hero is either IN an area or NOT, and movement between areas is the unit of action.
An area is roughly the size of an average room or a section of street. Adjacent areas share a boundary. Hex maps or grid maps from earlier games translate to area maps loosely — what matters is "could a person walk across this in one breath?" If yes, it's one area.
How far you can move per round depends on Endurance:
| Endurance | Areas / round |
|---|---|
| Feeble | 1 |
| Poor → Excellent | 2 |
| Remarkable or better | 3 |
Powers like Lightning Speed or Flight bypass this — see the power description for movement rate.
A hero can move AND attack in the same round, but the attack ability column is shifted ONE TO THE LEFT for that attack. To attack without penalty, stand still.
Each story of a building is 10 feet tall, counted as one area for climbing purposes.
Heroes without a jumping power must make an Agility FEAT roll to jump between buildings or across gaps. The roll can't cross more than one area per attempt.
Heroes with Lightning Speed or similar may jump or leap entire blocks — see the power description for specifics.
A falling hero loses 10 Health per story (10 feet) of fall. After taking damage, they make an Endurance FEAT roll:
Karma can reduce falling damage — each Karma point spent removes 1 damage. A person in free fall falls 10 stories (100 feet) per round, so falling from skyscrapers takes a few rounds.
A hero can throw something one area, plus one additional area for each rank that their Strength is above Typical. So a Monstrous Strength hero (six ranks above Typical) can throw something seven areas.
Missile weapons (guns, bows) have their own range listed in Table 4: Weapons (see Combat).
An area filled with bystanders, furniture, or debris counts as crowded/cluttered: