They are needed to transfer certain values from the adventure map to any battle. You can't simply see a variable like test=1, initialized in the adventure map scripts, in battle, but if you set it using SetGameVar("test", 1), then GetGameVar("test") will return "1" in any battle (important: as a string; to make it a number, add zero). This allows you to pass the hero's level or some coefficient.
What should I do about the bridge I mentioned in the message above?