After describing the mechanics of
Combat,
Weapons and
Armour, you will want to understand
Injury Tracks and
Healing.
Other aspects important in combat are
Movement,
Initiative, and
Action Economy.
Combat
Combat works as a specific sitution for using contested skills that depends on weapons, armour and results in using up boxes of your injury tracks. When you attack with the relevant skill (fighting for melee, shooting for ranged), a basic success does damage as per the weapons table with each extra success increasing damage. When using the Use Ability skill for attackong with magic or psionics each success is an injury that typically byasses armor and parries. Advantages such as strong increase success (damage) by 1 whereas gear adds or removes dice from the players pool. Armour reduces the amount of damage taken though may itself be damaged in doing so. A
Who Rolls
Keeping in mind that the player always rolls this for their attack or defense.
Attacking
The player rolls their attacking dice pool of 1 dice + skill dice (
Fight for melee attacks,
Shoot for ranged attacks, or
Use Ability for magic or psionics) + any gear dice - any defending skill dice (such as
Athletics or
Dodge to avoid being hit, or
Fight to parry or shield block melee attacks, including and bonus dice for the defenders gear). So where the attacker and defender are equally matcher the attacker only rols one dice (unless they push)!
Example
Konan the strong (
Strong advantage adds one success to physical damage) attacks with his sharp (
Gear adds one dice to skill role using it) great sword (two handed weapon with a base damage is 4). Asterix the quick (
Advantage when using dodge to reduce inmjury by 1) is wearing chain armour and defends by
Dodging.
Konan has a
Fight skill of 3 and gets an extra dice for the sharp sword (
Gear) for an attacking dice pool of 5. Asterix has a
Dodge skills of 3.
So Konan roles and attacks with an effective dice pool of 5-3 = 2 dice (note you do not subtract a unskilled dice for the defender). He rolls a 5,8 for one success.
On a success Konan's great sword does 4 damage plus 1 for his
Strength. Asterix's dodge is already accounted for in Konan's attack roll so its only the armour (chain has a damage resistance or 2) and his quickness (
Advantage reducing damage by one) that reduces the injury. So Asterix takes 4+1-2-1=2 damage so marks off two physical
Injury tracks. Asterix's has 2 of their 3 moderate injury track marked.
Defending
If an npc attacker is persistent is will force the pc to make a defense role, otherwise the risk of injury comes from a failure with consequence in the attackers roll.
The defending PC rolls 1 dice (basic) + skill dice + any Gear dice - attacking NPCs skill and gear dice.
Example
Konan has a Fight of 3 and his Strong does not help nor does his Gear dice (the sharp sword does not help defend) and Asterix is less skilled with a Fight of 2.
Konan rolls 1 (base)+ 3 (Fight)- 2 (attackers Fight)= 2 dice to parry, though Asterix pushes the roll so Konan rolls 1 less dice to defend = 1 dice to defend against Asterix.
Konan rolls a 4 which is a failure. On a failure, either in defense or attack, the PC takes damage (wherease on a success the NPC does). Asterix does 2 damage and Konan is an unarmoured barbarian so takes all that damage as track to his physical Injury tract. So far tit for tat.
Complications in Combat
In combat complications are either loses of
Foci (things you can focus on doing in the heat of combat or under other stress) or injury. So if Konan had only gotten a 7 in his attack, a success with complication, the same damage would be done and Konan would have 1 less
Foci on their next turn due to the complication (sword twisted in his grip, was overextended trying to repsond to Asterix's dodge, or whatever Konan's player and the GM felt was reasonable). A complication generally applies to the PC who is rolling. A PC can reduce damage or the number of successes to impose a complication to an NPC.
- Minor. Off balance, over extended, costs 1 Foci to correct.
- Significant. Turned about, almost dropped weapon, rough hit disorients, costs 2 Foci to correct or recover.
- Critical. Disarmed, knocked to knees, stunned, costs 3 Foci (a whole turn to correct).
If Konan only had a 3 that would be a failure with consequence, in this case the consequence is that not only did Konan fail (no damage) he also had a consequence allowing Asterix to hurt him (basic weapon damage + and advantage but no gear).
Weapons
Melee weapons use the fight skill to attack or defend. The effort to use and damage done with a weapon is listed in the table below. A damage of 0.5 means it has a 50% or being 0 or 1. Light weapons, like a fist or small knife, don’t meaningfully damage armor or a shield. Two handed weapons do not allow using a shield. An unbalanced weapon uses a foci to ready and cannot parry (use fight skill to defend) unless you spend a foci to recover.
Ranged weapons use the shoot skill and cannot be parried or blocked, though a shield will still add its DR if you are hit. It takes time to reload a missile weapon, ranging from 2 to 10 rounds (6 to 30 foci). Other people may help relooad (spend some or all of their foci helping).
List of Weapons
| Weapon |
Damage |
Notes |
| Fist, foot |
0.5* |
Does not damage armor |
| Small knife, brass knuckles |
1 |
Does not damage armor |
| Small sword, long dagger |
2 |
One handed light |
| Axe, club, light unbalanced |
3 |
Takes a foci to ready or parry |
| Sword, medium |
3 |
Cutlass, rapier, broadsword |
| Axe, medium unbalanced |
4 |
Takes a foci to ready or parry |
| Sword, two handed |
4 |
Can't use a shield |
| Pole arm, heavy unbalanced |
5 |
Two handed, takes a foci to ready or parry |
| Bow, light crossbow |
3 |
Ranged, Reload is 6 foci |
| Heavy crossbow |
5 |
Ranges, Reload is 12 foci |
| Light Pistol |
3 |
Ranger, reload 6 foci |
| Heavy pistol |
4 |
Ranged, reload 6 foci |
| Musket |
6 |
Ranged, reload 12 foci |
| Light artillery |
8 |
Ranged, reload 30 foci |
* 50% chance of causing 1 damage.
Armour
When you are wearing armor or a shield it is assumed to reduce the damage from any successful attack. It will therefore take several attacks to wear down your shield or damage your armor to be able to get through to hurt you, or a sufficiently powerful attack (one benefit from using a unbalanced weapon) to bash past the shield and get through your armor, or a sufficiently skilled attack to do additional damage.
Armor and shields have a damage track so that once it is full he armor no longer protects or the shield is a useless mess. For convience it is either usable or not.
| Armor |
Damage Reduction |
Damage Track |
Slowness |
| Leather |
1 |
4 |
|
| Chain |
2 |
6 |
|
| Banded, scale |
3 |
8 |
5 |
| Plate |
4 |
10 |
10 |
| Shield, light |
1 (must raise) |
4 |
5 |
| Shield, heavy |
2 (must raise) |
6 |
10 |
Damage Reduction
Damage reduction (DR) is the amount of damage armour or shield will reduce an injury by.
Damaging Armor
Each time armor reduces a hit by half or more of its DR rating you mark an armor track. When all tracks are used it no longer gives any significant protection (DR is 0). Note shield DR is used before armor DR.
Shields
Shields must be raised or positioned to provide protection which takes a foci.
Repairing Armor
Armour takes damage resistance successes per track repaired.
Injury Tracks
Injury may be either physical (combat, falling or tripping) or mental (psionics, taunting) and each has its own injury tract. There are three injury boxes per level of Injury tract (moderate, serious, incapacitated). When all the boxes in a level of the Injury tract are filled you take the consequence (moderte drops a dice for actions, serious two die, and when all tracts in incapacitated are filled you die). Advantages (tough, strong will) add one extra box to the relevant Injury track while Disadvantages reduce the relevsnt tract.
A person has three boxes for each injury track (moderate, serious, incappacitated). After your moderate injury track is full you have suffered a moderate injury; likewise a full serious track means oyu have a serious injury, and a full incapacitated track means you are unconcious or otherwise incapacitated. When you are incapacitated any additional injury means you are dying and will die in 3 rounds unless something is done.
| Injury Level |
Track |
Consequence when full |
| Moderate |
3 |
You drop 1 die for all rolls |
| Serious |
3 |
You drop a second die from all rolls |
| Incapacitated |
3 |
You can't take any actions. |
Healing
You must heal you more significant injuries first, ie you must clear your serious track before you can start healing your moderate track. Natural healing restores one injury box per 8 hours or rest (not doing anything physically or mentally regardless of the tract being healed) per level of injury track (per 8 hrs for moderte, 16hrs for serious and 24 hours for incapacitated). If you are hurt enough to need healing it's assumed you can choose to rest as long as needed. So at death's door (three boxes in the incapacitation injury track) would require 6 days to fully heal (3 days for incapacitated, 3x16=48 or 2 days for serious, and 3x8=24 or a day for moderate). While this is unrealistic it’s intended to be a balance for fun gameplay!
Attended Healing
If you are being looked after by someone practicing first aid with suitable equipment (basic items like disinfectant and bandages are needed for moderate injury, a good first aid kit with needles and thread is needed for serious injury, and speciaized supplies to bleed and set are needed for an inncapaciting injury), one roll can be made each period of time that a person provides diligent attention to you (are near your side yet may also do other activities). The difficulty increases with injury severity and each success means an track is healed.
Magical Healing
Using magic (Body domain at the level one control is sufficient) simply heals one level per success at a difficulty for the track severity. If someone tries to heal someone magically more than once in a day (regardless who did the first healing) the healer drops a die for each subsequent healing.
| Healing |
Moderate |
Serious |
Incapacitated |
| Natural |
8 hrs per track |
16 hrs per track |
a day per track |
| Attended |
Average, 4 hrs |
Difficult, 8 hrs |
Hard, 12 hours |
| Magic |
Easy |
Average |
Difficult |
Movement
A round is 6 seconds so if you spend a foci you can move 30’ (less slow), and typically allows 2 additional foci for actions. You may move an additional 15' per additional foci used (run, dash). If you are slowed by armor or equipment then your additional speed is reduced by half of your slow per 15 feet of extra movement. For example if Elizabeth the Knigh is wearing plate armour and a heavy shield, for 10+10=20 feet of slowing, she would need to use all 3 of her foci to move 30-20=10 feet for her first foci, 15-10=5 for her second, and 15-10=5 feet for her third in order to move 20 feet. If she dropped the heavy shield (or even slung it on her back) she would go an extra 20 feet!
Initiative
Initiative is used to determine who acts first where the order is important. Each player rolls their relevant dice pool: fight (melee), shoot (ranged), use ability, or athletics (moving or doing anything else). The total os the roll is the result and the highest total goes first. This is also a rare case where the opponents (NPCs) also roll to see where they go in the order.
Action economy
You have 3 foci (f, things you can concentrate on doing in a 6 second round). This is a list of how many foci different acions take.
| Foci |
Action |
| 0 |
Speak a scentence, drop an item, draw a small prepared item (sheathed dagger, open pouch) |
| 1 |
Passive notice around you (if you choose to focus on using all foci to do other things then you loose you general awareness) |
| 1 |
Move and extra 15 Ft. May be done twice. |
| 1 |
Wait for something to happen before acting, speak several scentences. |
| 1 |
Draw a accessibly stowed item (sheather sword, slung over shoulder, item in a pocket), raise a shield |
| 1 |
Attack once, use a quick skill (notice, use ability, rapport, knowledge, etc) or recover from a minor complication |
| 2 |
Attack a second time (unless you need to reload), do a more involved action, recover from a serious complication |
| 3 |
Attack a third time, do a complex action (pick pocket), recover from an extreme complication |
| 3 |
Aim (reduce difficulty by 1 down to average) |
Examples of Longer Actions
Burglary (lockpicking)
Contacts (meet and get infomration)
Investigate (sift through items, consider meaning)
A complicated Knowledge check (which ships were sunk in the battle of Manila)
Profession (craft and item)
Survival (follow tracks, set a trap, build a shelter)
