Exploration is the descriptor we apply to everything that does not fall within the confines of Combat, or Downtime, though there are certainly some overlaps between Exploration and Downtime.
We present some Exploration Actions, as prompts for your interactions with the world around you, but these are not exhaustive and are intended mostly as guidelines for providing structure to your gameplay, rather than a strict process.
Exploration actions are highly context sensitive, in that an exploration of a Mystery Dungeon will look very different to trainers traversing a well-known route, or a Pokemon Concierge heading into town to buy supplies for their clients or even a Pokemon Detective headed out into the streets to try uncovering crime.
These actions are commonly resolved through forms of skill challenges - either specific stipulated ones that the GM has pre-planned, or impromptu ones from the players seeking interesting ways to resolve an obstacle.
Beyond that, another key element of Exploration is the Exposure mechanic, which represents the inherent dangers of more extreme environments.
Still under development. Further Actions and examples are to be added.
The Development Team are accepting ideas, proposals, etc.!
Cartography is the act of mapping out the lands you travel. Making Navigation rolls appropriate to the environment, you can spend time (typically in the form of spans of the day clock) to familiarise yourself with the environment and potentially gain bonuses on future Exploration or even some Downtime Actions there.
In the case of a Mystery Dungeon, Cartography may be unhelpful as these strange domains rearrange themselves whenever Pokemon enter them.
With this Exploration Action, you may survey your surroundings. Generally, it's a case of looking for something in particular. What that "something in particular" is will determine the Skill Rolled and particular other circumstances.
Using Track, you can hunt for a Pokemon that may be found in the environment.
Failure on this check may still result in you locating Pokemon as you hoped, but most likely not in the advantageous circumstances you might have hoped for (such as the Luxray now stalking you, rather than you stalking the Luxray.)
The difficulty of the Track check should be modified in accordance with how rare the creature you've chosen to look for is in the environment, and GMs may wish to further modify this based on other factors they believe appropriate.
Naturally, this cannot find Pokemon that do not live in the environment you have chosen to search. Fishing is a specialised example of this action.
Typically, looking for Materials to harvest, or Items to get, takes the form of either a Natural World or Survival check. Which is more fitting depends on what you are trying to search for - Natural World or even a Science (Geology) roll might fit best for Tumblestone, whereas Survival or Natural World fit better to forage for berries or edible mushrooms. Or even in an urban environment, getting to food-dense areas might require Navigate.
Some specialized uses, like prospecting for Fossils, may require a specific specialty skill roll, like Science (Palaeontology).
Whilst the steps that come after tracking a Pokemon that resides in the air or on the land are a bit more nebulous, fishing is a bit more structured. After using the Track skill (or Survival may also be used in the example of Fishing), the next phase becomes a Racing Clock, wherein you and the opposing aquatic pokemon must roll against one another to try and fill your clocks first - you via the use of the Lift skill, and the Pokemon via the use of the Swimming skill.
Exposure is a highly situational mechanic but its function is consistent regardless of it's cause.
A creature becomes Exposed due to extremes of it's environment or situation that will lead to harm if allowed to continue for longer. For example, a Pokemon that is poorly adapted to an arctic environment will begin to suffer from Cold Exposure if the GM deems it has been long enough in the harsh environment. This Exposed affliction persists until the cause of the exposure is considered to have been escaped from.
So, what does Exposure do?
Initially, Exposure prevents you from recovering stacks of Weary. On its own, this is not too dangerous but it does make recovering from combats in that environment more difficult to do. If it persists for long enough (that length determined as appropriate by the GM and dependent on the severity of conditions), it would be appropriate to begin a Clock, counting down to when the Exposure begins to worsen. Once this Clock fills, inflict another stack of Weary on the creature, and begin a new clock for the next stack of Weary.
Aside from the crippling nature of the Weary condition, GMs may wish to decide that if Weary stacks climb as high as 5 due to Exposure, that the extreme environment has led the creature to perish. Consider if this mechanic is appropriate to your own campaign world.
Drowning is ultimately a specific form of Exposure that should have a significantly shorter activation time and clock to tick toward. Weary stacks should accrue quickly once a creature enters the Drowning state. Playtesting should reveal the optimal timespan for Drowning, we can't reasonably say at this time.
In the course of running your PTR: Evolved game, you may encounter a number of hazardous terrain tiles/environments. Here you can find some information on how to handle these;
Lava tiles are typically only found in volcanic habitats, and are highly difficult to traverse. Even creatures that are able to do so safely must still do so slowly due to the dense material in which they must wade. Non-Fire Type creatures, unless they have the Magma Wader trait, suffer a tick of damage for every tile of Lava they wade through, with an additional tick of damage if they end their activation. Traversing lava is exceptionally difficult, and so any creature wading through it consumes 2m of their Overland Movement Allowance for every 1m of movement.
These tiles have specifically been reinforced to prevent Pokemon from burrowing into an area where they are not welcome. It is not uncommon for fortified tiles to have some manner of tick-damage trap for intruders to run into.
More tiles and difficult environments will be added here as rules are concocted for them.