Throughout the course of most adventures combat is one of the most interesting and often pivotal challenges standing before the player. Since most players enjoy combat above almost all else in an adventure setting, it is important for combat to flow and to be intense. More realistic combat can also be more intense because it is easier to visualize and challenges players to make realistic choices. The following combat system is designed to maximize realism for intense, small scale combat while maintaining an effective flow to the game.
If possible the game should be played on a grid with miniatures or some other place keepers to indicate player positions. Each square or hex on the grid represents an area with a diameter of one meter such that a normal sized character takes up a one meter square. Miniatures are used not only to display location, but also to display facing, which is an important part of combat. Make sure that it is clear to the GM and other players which part of the miniature you are considering to be the front. Generally the direction the miniatures eyes or weapons are facing should be used as the front.
Whoever takes the first action is at the top of initiative. As each person becomes aware of or engages in combat, they enter initiative order. If two or more characters become aware of combat at the same time, they make opposed perception checks, and their order in initiative is determined by the result. If the perception checks are tied, then they attempt to enter combat at the same time according to the following rules. If two or more characters were already aware of combat and decide to enter it at the same time, they make opposed dexterity checks, and their order in initiative is determined by the result. Re-roll the dexterity checks in the case of a tie. Combat then progresses cyclically through the initiative order. While players do take turns, their characters perform many actions out of turn, responding to the actions of other characters.
There are two styles of play that can be employed with regard to player conversation and planning during combat, intense and strategic.
Intense play emphasizes realism and preparedness. If the players don't prepare in advance and coordinate their strategies ahead of time, it will show. This makes ambushes that much more deadly and guarantees that characters will take planning for an encounter seriously. With intense play characters cannot discuss their strategies or offer advice during combat. At the end of each round of combat the GM will set aside six seconds of real time during which the players can say anything they want, mirroring the six seconds of game time that have just elapsed. At all other times players can only exchange facial expressions or make a single one to three word comment during that round. Characters that talk more should be penalized with lost time. Obviously characters that are running or verbally occupied cannot speak at all and should be penalized with lost time or have their current verbal action interrupted if they do. Characters should also not be permitted time to think about what they do, if they are not immediately ready to act on their turn, their turn is skipped. Looking up rules or ability effects should not be counted against players for this purpose. The GM should be held to these rules as well, and while players should feel free to question what they see as undo coordination amongst enemies and NPCs they should not argue with the GM further after pointing it out, and they should assume that there is some in-game reason for the skillful coordination, whether prior planning or some form of telepathic bond.
Strategic play disregards realism but lets players take their time and plan out their actions in a meta-game fashion. A player has up to six seconds to decide what to do on their turn, not including time taken to look up rules, and may discuss their options as much as they want with the other players while they make their decision. Players can speak as much as they want regardless of whether they are sprinting or verbally occupied in some other way. Obviously an ambush is much less effective with these rules, and players need not spend as much time planning or designing combat maneuvers. Also if strategic play is employed the players may not in any way question the coordination of enemies and NPCs, as the strategic rules should also apply to the GM's characters.
If at the end of a character's turn they have used more than half of their physical energy, they suffer one physical fatigue. When a character has an amount of physical fatigue equal to or greater than their Constitution they become physically exhausted. A physically exhausted character no longer tracks their physical fatigue. Instead, when they gain additional physical fatigue it results in ability score fatigue for their Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.
Mental fatigue works the same as physical fatigue except substituting physical with mental, Strength with Focus, Dexterity with Awareness, and Constitution with Willpower. Physical and mental fatigue function separately.
One minute of rest for a non-exhausted character will restore one physical fatigue and one mental fatigue. One hour of rest will restore the exhausted state and all physical and mental fatigue, though not ability score fatigue. See Chapter 1: Abilities for more information on recovering from ability sore fatigue.
When the physical damage a character has received equals or exceeds their Constitution they become physically wounded. A physically wounded character no longer tracks their physical damage. Instead, when they gain additional physical damage it results in ability score damage for their Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.
Mental damage works the same as physical damage except substituting physical with mental, Strength with Focus, Dexterity with Awareness, and Constitution with Willpower. Physical and mental damage function separately. While sources of physical damage are somewhat obvious, sources of mental damage are less so. In many campaigns mental damage results from magical or psychic attacks, but there are more mundane sources. Examples include the loss of a friend or loved one, extremely low morale, extremely effective intimidation, severe pain or torture, and so on.
One day of rest for a non-wounded character will restore one physical damage and one mental damage. A full week of rest will restore the wounded state and all physical and mental damage, though not ability score damage. A character cannot recover from ability score damage as long as they are still wounded. See Chapter 1: Abilities for more information on recovering from ability sore damage.
Pain and Fear are more immediate and less permanent than fatigue or damage. Pain and Fear also do not generally stack, the greatest fear or pain you feel generally overshadows the others. Pain and Fear are most important for the effect they have on your concentration. If you loose concentration you suffer penalties to your actions and may even loose the ability to act altogether. Pain is gained both from sustaining damaging blows in combat, but also from receive wounds that are less life threatening but still painful. Torture is all about targeting areas of the body that maximize pain but minimize real damage, or threat to the life of the subject. Fear is gained from being intimidated or from facing some great or unknown risk to one's life. Fear and pain usually start with an immediate shock to the system that may disrupt whatever actions the character is taking at the moment unless they can succeed in a concentration check. If they fail the concentration check they are immobilized by the pain or fear and cannot act, otherwise they can act but usually with penalties until they either regain their courage or the pain is somehow dulled.
Note that physical rest just requires sitting or laying relatively still. Mental rest, on the other hand, requires sleep or meditation. For periods of mental rest longer than a day, only 8 hours of sleep are required, though there cannot be significant mental or emotional strain during the waking hours or that day does not count toward rest.
A character suffers a -5 penalty to hit a target half their size but does double damage. This penalty is cumulative for even smaller characters each time the size is halved again. A character gets a +5 bonus to hit a target twice their size but does only half damage. This bonus is cumulative for even larger characters each time the size is doubled again. A difference in size also affects strength contests. A character that is double the size of another character should be considered to have effectively double their listed strength score. This effect is cumulative for even larger characters each time he size is doubled again.
A character behind cover has less of their body open to attack. This effectively reduces their size for the purposes of being targeted by attacks. So if a character has half cover then they are considered to be half their size and if they have three quarters cover they are considered to be a quarter their size, and attackers receive penalties against them appropriately. If a character has full cover, they cannot be attacked. A character can duck behind half cover to gain total cover. In combat this costs one square of walking movement, so they must have walking movement remaining in order to do this.
Movement is in terms of 1 meter squares
A character can spend their turn running. They move a distance equal to their walking speed multiplied by the difference between their strength and encumbrance. A character can also choose to sprint. A sprinting character can move twice as far in a round and can add the result of an athletics check to the distance traveled, but each round spent sprinting results in one physical fatigue. Each time a character moves a distance equal to their walking speed while running, or twice that while sprinting, they can choose to change directions by 45 degrees, but otherwise a running or sprinting character must move straight. A character can subtract an amount of movement equal to their walking speed if they are running, or twice that if sprinting, to make an additional 45 degree turn at any point during the movement.
Unless a character's action for a turn is a movement action or requires them to stand still, they can automatically move a total distance during their turn equal to their walking speed.
An engagement can occur between characters in melee combat, grappling, or in a shootout.
A character's defense determines how hard they are to hit. Outside of engagement a character's defense is just the value you need to get with your skill check to determine if you hit. In engagement, defense is the value by which you need to win the skill check in order to hit.
When you declare that you want to attack an opponent that has the capacity to defend himself against your attacks you and your target become engaged. Your turn ends and you move to initiative order just after that combatant.
If an opponent is unable to respond to your attacks then it is not an engagement, you are attacking a helpless opponent. If this is the case then just make an unopposed skill check during your turn, you are not engaged. All conscious and moving characters have a base defense of 10 when not engaged. A running character has a base defense of 20 when not engaged unless they are running directly toward you, in which case they just have the normal defense of 10.
When you are engaged you can choose to fight aggressively, normally, or defensively. Fighting aggressively gives you a +5 bonus to your skill check but a -10 penalty to your defense. Fighting defensively gives you a -5 penalty to your skill check but a +10 bonus to your defense.
When an engaged character's turn comes up in initiative, each member of the engagement chooses a primary action. They might want to just attack, try to shift their position, try to press their enemy forward, provide cover fire for an ally, withdraw, or so on. The action must be relevant, a character with a dagger fighting an enemy with a spear cannot make a melee attack without first closing the gap. As the primary actions are selected, the GM may decide they deserve penalties or bonuses, either to the skill checks or the defenses. The GM should give the players some idea of whether it is a penalty or bonus but need not give exact values until after the dice have been rolled. After the primary actions have been determined, the participants roll skill checks. If they win then their primary action generally succeeds. If they beat an opponent by more than that opponent's defense, they actually land a blow against that opponent.
Each round of combat is 6 seconds of in-game time, so a minute of in-game time is 10 rounds of combat.
Each round of combat a character has an amount of physical energy equal to their Strength and an amount of mental energy equal to their Focus. A character cannot spend more of a type of energy than they have.
Each round of combat a character has a time limit equal to either their Strength or their Focus, whichever is greater. Many non-strenuous actions just require time, they don't require physical or mental energy. The total amount of physical energy, mental energy, and time a character spends in a round cannot exceed their time limit. This means that a character generally has to choose whether they act or think, they can't always do both at full capacity.
The moment a character is aware of combat they gain access to all of their time and energy for the round. At the end of their turn in the order of initiative they regain all of their time and energy for the next combat round.
Combined actions are actions that one character takes at the same time. If these actions are easy to combine, then the character suffers a -5 penalty for each extra action taken. Actions that are not easily combined and require split attention result in a -5 penalty and a penalty of 1 less die for each extra action taken. The character receives a time bonus equal to the less strenuous or less time consuming of the actions. This time bonus just represents the fact that the character has saved time by combining actions.
Simultaneous actions are actions that are choreographed between two or more characters to occur at the same time. Simultaneous actions are more difficult to react to, because it is hard for one person to focus on two things at a time. They can sometimes be reacted to with a combined action or by multiple characters reacting at the same time.
Of course choreographing simultaneous actions requires some form of communication. If that communication is straightforward enough, or if an observer is cunning enough to decipher the meaning of coded messages, then that observer may be able to see the simultaneous actions coming and can take steps to effectively respond to the simultaneous actions. An observer could try to avoid the simultaneous actions by moving out of the way, or coordinate a response of his own with his allies.
A character can automatically move a distance equal to their walking speed each round. This movement need not be used all at once but can be spread out throughout the round. This movement can be in any direction, though moving backward may be hazardous. A character can spend 1 m of this movement to change directions up to 90 degrees.
A run action requires an amount of physical energy equal to half the character's encumbrance. A run action allows the character to move a distance equal to their walking speed. This movement must be taken immediately. A character can spend 1 m of this movement to change directions by up to 45 degrees as many times as they want during the movement.
A sprint action requires an amount of physical energy equal to the character's encumbrance and allows the character to move a distance equal to twice their walking speed. A character can make an athletics check and add one fifth of the result to the distance. This movement must be taken immediately. A character can spend 1 m of this movement to change directions by up to 45 degrees, but they can only do this once per an amount of distance equal to their walking speed.
If you want to attack a character with a melee weapon as they are running or sprinting past you, you have to declare the attack at the beginning of their movement. As soon as they enter a square you can target, you can make your attack. If they see you preparing to attack and are able to change directions then your attack fails, but you still put in the effort for the attack. A generous GM may allow you to substitute some of the physical energy cost for just time cost.
Attacking a moving character is more difficult than attacking a stationary one, and the quicker and more erratically a character moves the harder they are to hit. The following table describes the attack penalties for attacking a moving character.
|
-0 |
Unconscious or immobilized |
|
-10 |
Conscious and moving |
|
-15 |
Running* |
|
-20 |
Sprinting* |
*Unless they are moving in a straight line toward you, in which case just -10.
Attacks with melee and thrown weapons following the same rules with two obvious distinctions: Thrown weapons have a higher effective range and you no longer possess them when you are done attacking. Use the following steps when making a melee or thrown weapon attack:
Declare your attack. The attack costs an amount of physical energy equal to the power of the attack.
Wait for the other players to declare reactions.
Roll your attack. Make an attack role using the appropriate skill and modifiers.
Resolve reactions. Any reactions declared by other players are resolved. If the reactions fail to disrupt the attack then continue with the melee attack.
Deal damage to the target, taking into account armor. If the target is not wearing armor then you deal damage directly. If they are wearing armor then first subtract the hardness of the armor from the sharpness of the weapon. Then subtract the sharpness of the weapon from the padding of the armor. Then subtract the padding of the armor from the power of the weapon. The remaining power is damage to the target.
Ranged attacks have three phases, ready, aim, and fire.
The ready phase is when the projectile is loaded. For some weapons, like modern guns, the ready process is automatic and can be ignored unless the weapon is out of ammunition and needs to be reloaded.
Time and Energy Cost: Almost all ranged weapons have a time or energy cost to load. It takes a certain amount of time to load a clip into a gun, to nock an arrow in a bow, to place a bolt in the crossbow, or to put a bullet into a sling, although some high skill rank tricks may reduce these time costs. In addition to time costs, there are physical energy costs for many less advanced weapons where the strength of the user is required to power the weapon.
Range Penalties: All ranged weapons suffer a penalty of -2 to attack for every 10 meters the target is away from the attacker. This represents the fact that distant targets are effectively smaller for the purposes of aiming at them and has nothing to do with any properties of the weapon itself. Scopes or other means of enhancing vision over distances can increase the distance increment at which penalties accrue. Poor vision can reduce the distance increment. Most vision enhancement tools require a spot check to find the target in the zoom window before the attack can be taken.
Target Profile: The size of the target for a ranged attack is based on the visible profile of the target. A kneeling target is half the size of a standing target. If you are on the same plane as the target and further than 10 meters away a laying target is a quarter the size of a standing target. If you have a vantage point at greater than a 45 degree angle then a laying target is actually normal size, but a standing target is one quarter the size.
Observing Aim: Characters capable of observing the aiming character can make perception checks to determine the target of the attack. They can use this information to attempt to block the attack or to hide behind cover, if they have enough time. Extremely high perception check results can allow a character to estimate a projected path of the projectile, allowing them to actually attempt to dodge before the shot is even fired, but this requires nearly supernatural reflexes and perceptive skills.
Maintaining: Some weapons, like primitive bows, require that the force stored in the weapon be maintained by the wielder while aiming. In these cases the wielder must spend an amount of physical energy equal to the mental energy they spend aiming, though they get a time bonus equal to that amount as well to represent the fact that maintaining and aiming are combined actions.
When the weapon is fired make a ranged skill check then treat the projectile as a melee or thrown weapon.
Control Limit: Ranged weapons with some kind of natural inaccuracy, like muskets or arrows with poor fletching, have a control limit. After the control limit treat the attack as a narrow cone with a source at the attacker and the first expansion two control limits away from the attacker. This is assuming the weapon is fired at an angle less than 45 degrees. At fire angles higher than 45 degrees, like when you want to fire over an obstacle, the attack is always an area attack of radius equal to the range limit divided by the control limit in meters.
Height Advantage: Weapons have an increased range limit if they are fired from higher than the target and a reduced range limit if they are fired from lower than the target. Add the height difference to the maximum range if you are higher, and subtract the height difference from the maximum range if you are lower. This is not how projectiles actually function in reality, but the true path of projectiles requires calculations based on parabolic curves, which are slightly too complicated for a paper and pencil roleplaying game.
You can attempt to block an incoming attack with either a weapon or a shield. Make a melee skill check adding the cover of the shield if you are using a shield, 10 if you are using a weapon with a reach of 1 or more, or 5 if you are using a weapon with a reach of 0. If your skill check exceeds the attacker's skill check, you have blocked the attack. You cannot block an attack that you are unaware of or that is traveling faster than you can respond to (like most ranged attacks). Blocking costs 1 physical energy less than the power of the weapon you are using, if you are using a weapon, and nothing for a shield or a weapon with a power of 1.
When you block with a shield you get cover equal to the cover of your shield against all attacks coming from the direction you are blocking, even attacks that you are unaware of or that you are not specifically attempting to block. This cover remains until you take a different action.
You can dodge an attack by moving out of range of the attack. You can only move one square in response to an attack, so if the attack has a long reach and you are too close, dodging may not be an option. This movement is part of your walking movement for the turn, so you must have walking movement left in order to dodge. You cannot dodge an attack that you are unaware of or that is traveling faster than you can respond to (like most ranged attacks). You also cannot generally dodge an attack by moving toward the enemy as that would be stepping directly into the attack, particularly if it is a thrusting attack. A character can duck behind cover that is in their square or between them and an attack as a dodge.
Deception can be used in combat to trick an opponent into believing that you are attacking them in a different way than you actually intend on attacking them. Make a deception check opposed by your intended target's insight check. A feint may have multiple successes. For every success you get a +5 bonus to your attack, but for every failure you get -5 penalty to your attack.