Combat

Combat occurs when characters engage creatures or non-player characters in battle. There are three phases of combat.

Phases

1. initiative - determines awareness and who goes first
2. action - participants perform non-combat and combat actions; repeats until disengage phase
3. disengage - combat is over when enemies are dead, have given up or fled, or the players die, give up, or flee.

Post-combat returns to normal gameplay and players may capture or loot enemies, etc.

Initiative Phase

Players roll two d10 dice and compare the roll to their Reflex score. Those who rolled under reflex are aware of what's happening. Those who fail this roll are caught off-guard (and take damage if the attack was successful). From here, participants go in order from lowest roll to highest.

Dealing Damage

Everything is determined from a single dice roll. If an attack is successful, the off-colored die determines hit placement. Damage is then dealt to that location by multiplying the weapon damage by the Increment of Success and adding in any damage bonuses afterward (see Damage for a full breakdown).

Increment of Success

The increment of success details how successful an action is. This is how you calculate damage as well. A simple example: if a player needs to get 3 dice rolls under a 7 to be successful, rolling exactly 3 right is equal to 1 increment of success. The IoS goes up from there for every 1 die that's successful. So rolling 5 good dice would then be an IoS of 3 (1 for the match of 3, and 1 for each subsequent successful die thereafter). Thus, the damage dealt by the weapon would be multiplied by 3.

Hit Placement

Where a character gets hit by an attack is important, not only for providing greater story-telling latitude, but also when it comes to Armor & Apparel condition. In some cases, it may make more sense to simply determine the hit placement based on what a character was aiming at, however, sometimes a random place might serve better. An example might be shooting into a fray, or aiming at quickly moving enemies.

• 0 - left foot
• 9 - right foot
• 8 - left hand, weapon if present
• 7 - right hand, weapon if present
• 6 - left leg
• 5 - right leg
• 4 - left arm
• 3 - right arm
• 2 - torso or body
• 1 - head

Gamemaster Tip

Dealing with multiple players with multiple Character Difficulty Ratings may become cumbersome, especially if you're rolling for NPCs. To simplify things, it may be helpful to roll 1 die and pit the result against a player character's DR. For example, if a PC has a DR of 4, simply roll a d10 and a number greater than 4 is a success. This can make combat more streamlined, allowing for faster calculations and fewer dice rolls.