How Combat Works Surprise Time Scale, Action Sequence and Initiative Turn Round Segment & Initiatives Sacrifice Focusing Movement & Attacks Guarding Regular Attack Controlled Attack Defense

 

How Combat Works

 

Combat is a series of specific actions taken by the various characters present in a combat situation. It begins when one character chooses to act in a direct hostile manner, and shifts the game in to combat action sequencing. All combat in this system is run as a series of sequential specific actions, there is no true simultaneous actions in the combat.

 

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Surprise

 

Generally surprise comes into play when a character who is unseen (hidden, distant, invisible, camouflaged, or who has stealthily come up behind a target successfully) attacks directly.

 

Sneaking up requires a specific stealth roll vs the target’s Fitness*5 as a percentile. Ambushing from a concealed position requires the ambush skill (against the target’s Ambush skill if they have it, otherwise just their Fitness*5).

 

A successful surprise attack means that no other character can act on the same round as the attacking character, and whichever target is attacked defends as if they had no defensive skill (the comparison roll is made on the first column of the action table.

 

You cannot use a surprise attack as a controlled attack, but can be made with either missile or non-missile weapons.

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Time Scale, Action Sequence and Initiative

 

Turn

 

A Turn is usually considered a minute in during a combat or time stressed situation.

 

Round

A combat round is the usual period of measure that is used for a time scale. Rounds are relatively short periods of time, lasting about 6 seconds. Ten rounds makes up a Turn. A character gets generally one combat action on each round, on their initiative.

 

Segment & Initiatives

 

The countdown is the GM's method to track which Initiative it is. The Countdown goes from 10 down to 1. Each step in the countdown is considered a 'segment'. Characters with the appropriate initiative equal to the segment act on that segment.

 

A character’s initiative is decided at the start of a full combat round (a combat that begins with a surprise attack does not take initiative into consideration until after the surprise attack is over, whether successful or not).

 

Initiative is the character's Dexterity, modified by any special traits that add to Dexterity for Initiative

 

If there are characters that have an initiative that is higher than 10, then they act in segment 10 but get extra actions based on their initiative. A character with initiative 11 will have one combat action. They can act on segments 10 and segment 1. A character with initiative 12 would be able to act on segments 10 and 2.

 

A character with Initiative 20 would get to act on segments 10 and segment 9 (same as Initiative 19) but would be ahead of an initiative 19 on their segments. A character with Initiative 21 would get to do things on segments 10, 9 and 1. No more than 3 segments of action can occur in one countdown.

 

Only one action of a countdown can be an offensive combat action. Extra actions on other segments can be used for non-attacks, such as changing weapons, reloading weapons, retreating with a half-move, performing a non-offensive spellcasting, etc. (Remember that the maximum a character can move in an action round is their MOVE value, no matter how many segments they get to do things in).

 

If two characters act on the same segment and one has a higher initiative (such as a 10 and an 11 going on segment 10) then the higher initiative actually goes first.

 

If two characters have the exact same initiative (and thus act on the same segments) then the GM compares their Fitness and the higher of the two goes first. If they are evenly matched for Fitness then their Spirit is compared, again with the higher going first. If there is still no difference the GM rolls a die and uses it to randomly determine which will go first on the round order.

 

Sacrifice

 

At the start of a Turn (not a round!) players may choose to improve their initiative by sacrificing one or more ranks of skill effectiveness overall to speed. This means that all rolls for skills that they will make in the turn will be at a reduced percentile of success by 5% for each rank of effectiveness they choose to sacrifice, but for each one they sacrifice at this stage increases their initiative by 1 for all the rounds of this turn.

 

Note that Sacrifice reduction only applies to actual rolls - skills that are applied passively by the GM (such as defense values) are not affected by this.

 

Thus, metaphorically, haste makes waste but the early bird might catch the worm rather than getting caught itself. Knowing how and when to make such a sacrifice can be a tricky thing tactically.

 

Focusing

 

Another combat tactical initiative choice, this is in some ways the opposite of a sacrifice. The player chooses for their character to not go on their initiative at all and instead wait to the next round in the turn sequence. So long as they are not knocked out, stunned or knocked prone during this passing time, they will get a bonus to the next action equal to 5 ranks (+25%) or to their initiative (+5). Focusing can be done for multiple rounds, but does not compound. If they are stunned, knocked prone or knocked out before they act then they lose their focus benefit.

 

In some ways many folks consider this to be like the careful aiming of a sniper, or the studying of opponents and battlefield positions of a classic Samurai to perceive vulnerabilities in style, armor or body language.

 

You need to declare on your initiative that you are focusing, but you do not need to declare if you are focusing for effectiveness or speed until the round you will be using the focus. (If focusing for speed you must declare such at the start of the usage round so the GM knows that you are in a different position in the countdown order of initiative).

 

You can only focus for a full round - you can't, if you have a high initiative, focus for just a segment.

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Movement & Attacks

On a character’s round of action in combat, they may make a half movement and attack, make a full movement and not attack, make an attack and then make a half movement if their attack was successful and not a controlled attack. (If they attack and fail their attack roll or their target avoids based on the action table then they cannot move afterwards).

 

(If they have more than 1 segment of action in the round, then they could, if they have not yet used their full MOVE, use the other segment to take another half movement. If they have not moved at all, but simply attacked, then they can use their extra segment to also take a half move, and if they have 3 segments of action they could conceivably both take two half moves and make an attack all in the same action round).

 

They may also, of course, choose to focus, delay acting until later in the round (but cannot interrupt another character’s action), or take a non-movement non-combat action.

 

Guarding

 

A player may choose for their character to stand guard, if they are equipped with a shield or a weapon capable of blocking attacks.

 

If using this option they cannot attack, though they can use it while making a half-distance move in retreat from possible opponents (but not advance).

 

Standing guard gives them an extra 5 Ranks to their own defense, or they can also choose to stand guard for another character that is within arms reach of them (1 Meter) substituting their own defense for that of the other character.

 

There is no bonus to defense for standing guard over another character but it means that an unconscious, wounded, spell casting or otherwise defensively limited character will be protected by the guarding character and have a better defense.

 

If using guard to guard another character they cannot attack, or move out of reach of the character they are guarding (though in the process of defending them they may move as needed around that character to block attacks.

 

Regular Attack

 

A regular attack is any attack with a weapon (or with the body, such as a punch or kick), ranged or in hand to hand melee, which is intended to do damage and simply works with whatever target of opportunity occurs on the body of what is being attacked.

 

Regular attacks are considered specific actions, but are defended against by the target with natural dexterity, acrobatics skill, shield, or a weapon capable of parrying or blocking (this last does not work against missile attacks).

 

A regular attack occurs on a character’s initiative, or after making a half movement towards an opponent to close or to reduce range to reach them.

 

Controlled Attack

 

A controlled attack allows a player to declare a desired strike effect rather than any random one with a non-missile weapon. It is generally performed by characters who have an above average rating in a skill, as there are some performance risks involved in doing so.

 

The player, before making an attack roll, declares which effect they want, which can be one of the standard options (Limb/Joint strike, Disarm, Knock Prone, slip past armor) or one of their own design that would make sense in the circumstance (ex: a temporary blinding attack, breaking/knocking away a specific non-weapon item etc.)

 

They then make an attack roll as usual. If they make their skill roll, then when consulting the action table they must score a result of H, X or C. If they do not, then they have missed their intended target as if they had scored an ‘A’ result.

 

If they do then they ignore any strike effect listed on the action table and instead get their previously chosen effect applied. They also score Light Damage (rather than the Damage that their result would normally do by the action table.)

 

Defense

 

The defense value of a character defines the column in the action table that an attack is compared to. There are usually no rolls made to defend against an attack, it is simply the challenge bar that the attacker's successful roll is compared to.

 

Unless they are Stunned, Unconscious, Successfully Surprised or Ambushed, or incapable of seeing where an attack comes from (ex: via invisible opponents) a Character gets at minimum their Dexterity ranks as a defense against most physcial attacks.

 

If they have in their hand a weapon capable of Blocking, or a shield, then they can use the appropriate skill as their defense (except if they are a spellcasting character engaged in spellcasting during that action round). A Weapon or a Shield can only be used to block one attack in a combat round. If a character has both a Blocking Weapon and a Shield in hand then they can block one attack with each.

 

A character that has Acrobatics skill can use that as a defense instead. You cannot use acrobatics while using a two handed weapon, while spellcasting or with both a one handed weapon and a shield. If an acrobatic character gets a successful wound against them in a round then they cannot continue to use acrobatics as their defense in that combat round against additional attacks.

 

Acrobatics can only be applied as a defense against a single attack in a combat round.

 

Area Effect Weapons (AEW) such as Grenades do not get any skills applied to their defense, just raw Dexterity and traits that specifically apply to defense (such as Combat Luck).

 

Armor of a Physical Nature (non-Magical and not natural to their body) reduces the effectiveness of Acrobatics or base Dexterity as a defense. For every 2 points of absorbtion of damage that the armor gives there is a -1 rank to a character's use of the acrobatics skill or Dexterity.

 

Note that Bullets and other high speed projectiles, as well as purely energy based attacks like fire, cannot be blocked with a weapon or a shield. Shields can block arrows and thrown weapons, blocking weapons usually cannot.

 

In an area with lots of physical cover, a character can use the cover as a passive defense. Cowering behind cover that's sufficient to hide 80% or more of their body adds +4 ranks to their Defense against firearm and missile attacks. You cannot use a Blocking weapon or shield or acrobatics in combination with hiding behind cover.