Standard Combat
In the Chronicles of Arylon. the combat is as follows. The scene is described by the G.M. and the attacker in the scene sets or starts the combat flow. After which initiative is based on the character's agility die and their athletics. (This may have a roll or simply checking the character sheet to see who would move faster in the scene.) The attacker grabs their die pool in their attack action is rolled. This is the challenge to the defender. Everyone gets a defense roll to the incoming attack.
Example: Lets image two player characters are in a fight for strange reason. like Corbynn played by Jennifer is attacking Faeleaf played by Michiel We have a bunch a spells and powers. In cortex you're rewarded for your imagination and creativity to think on your feet. So instead of referring to a lengthy list of spells, checking the level of those spells, making sure if the character has the components for that spell, what spell slot is required to even cast the spell or making sure you at the right caster level to do the spell. Jennifer just does the following.
"Corbynn pulls her rune blade out with her sword arm as her left with a stroke finger touches the blade the effect of magic is charged and swings it at Faeleaf. So, Jennifer grabs her Agility die d10 from her stat, then d8 from her distinction Queen's Guard and d10 from her profession skill with swords. (Three Dice.)
She gets the following 7, 8, 5. Now In D&D you would roll a d20 add your modifiers and see if you hit or not. This usually ends up being I got a 14 did I hit? no. dang it. next player.
In Cortex this make it more of a narrative fun for the player as well as the G.M. Now Jennifer is setting up the difficulty for Michille with her initiate attack against her. She could take the highest numbers. In this case being 7+8=15 making the difficulty for Michiel's character a 15 which does increase Corbynn's chance of hitting Faeleaf. But how does she know how hard the attack is or what complications can be applied to FaeLeaf? In Cortex you are weighing your attempt with the effectives of the attempt. Two of your dice are always going to be needed to see if you succeed.
or fail. Even if you have four or more dice you will always be adding two of those dice together as your attempt and the last die is your effect die. This can be the damage you're doing to a character.
If Jennifer took the 15 against Mich Jennifer can also take 8 and the 5 giving her 13. This means if Michiele has to beat 13. Jennifer can use the d10 effect against Michele's character
and give her that d10 in a complication and top of the 7 standard damage she would be doing to her character. Does Jennifer do that? She goes for the potential bigger effect and damage.
Michiel 's, turn she grabs her Agility die d10, her fight skill of only d6, and her Elysorri elf Distinction d8. She gets the following: 5, 1, 6. (In Cortex it is beat it the difficulty. not meet it.)
If the dice matches, then the initial attacker wins. Sine, they are the ones that set up the difficult if the first place. So, it's good to go first sometimes. That way you set up the challenge that HAS to be beaten not matched.
She takes the 5 and the 6 since in this contest the 1is thrown out. giving her a 11. Jennifer gains a +2 to her 7-standard damage.
Fayleaf takes 5 wounds and 4 stun damage to her life point threshold. Since Corbynn is using a sword. wounds count first.
Jenneifer can now say that spell effect of d10 blindness complication is now applied to Faeleaf. If Faeleaf attacks her in any way from this point on.
Jennifer gains the d10 bonus die to her defense roll. This gives her now 4 dice to play with. Lets say Michiel beats the 13. Let's say getting and 8 and the 6 giving her 14. Now Jennifer can do one of two things.
Accept the fact she failed and gain a plot point, doing so No damage would be given but Michielli can tell how she failed.
or Jennifer can roll again to start the next round.
Test- are the same way, sort of. The gm. describes the scene and then rolls a 2 of the same dice.
Complications:
Besides being unconscious or dead a character can be taken out of a scene through the complications they have received. From being tied up to being poisoned, paralyzed, bleeding, being blinded, burning, intoxicated, etc.
As a player would say as the character attacks, they are attempting to cause bleeding damage, or the character dips the dagger in the bottle of poison as they approach their target they strike.
Complications Levels
| levels | before | you | are | Taken | Out |
|---|
| D4 | D6 | D8 | D10 | D12 | Taken Out |
Complications can naturally heal or fade away, etc. per scene. If a character reaches d4 and does anything that can put stress on the situation they are in they gain a plot point. Some complications have to healed through the skill of medicine, combat medic, or healing skill, etc. Like poison and bleeding, these have to healed by another character that has the heal skill and any profession.
This game uses the Stun and Wound mod to calculate the Life Pool of the characters and monsters in the game. The value of life pool is mentioned in the life pool and mana pool section. If the accumulated wounds and stuns, added together, exceed the life point score the P.C. is taken out. Either unconscious or dead.
Recover Life Pool:
To recover from lost Life pool, must make a recovery test of 3d6 test if standard with no complications. If complications are present those have to be recovered first to prevent more lost to life pool. Wounds should be recovered first before stuns are recovered. if P.C. has d8 bleeding complication to the wounds, then the recovering has to deal with the bleeding before wounds can heal. this may have a 3d8 test. Example of healing another character:
in Arylon. Corbyn is seriously injured and has d12 bleeding complication. So, if she receives another one, she taken out of combat. More than like falls unconscious from the lack of blood. Fayleaf has the heal skill of d6, which means she is trained and has a specialty of combat medic at d8. She grabs the d8 and adds her intelligence of d10, her discipline of d8, and her asset of shamanic healing bag of d10 for a total of four dice. The test the G.M. grabs is 2d12 plus adds another d12 because they are still in a dangerous area. The G.M rolls 8,6,5 making the total a 19 for Fayleaf to heal Corbyn. She rolls 8,9,5,10. She puts 8 and 9 together giving her a 17 and puts the asset die (d10) as her effect. But she realizes it's not enough to beat the difficulty. So, she pays the Game Master a plot point and pulls the 5 from her bank and adds that dice to her total making it now a total of 22, putting her three over the test. Otherwise, Corbyn must be rushed to the temple to be resurrected within 12 hours. heals her LifePoint threshold 13 and steps her complication down 1 step. If Faeleaf would have gotten a Heroic success the complication would have been steps 2 down.
Dice Effect & Conditions
The Characters/NPC can affect the world around them or others in the game. Not just in combat, which is the most common thing that is done. But a character can tie up another character and that character will now have to get passed the condition they are now under; in this case the character is tied up. Let's say another character tied up your character with a d10 condition affect. So, now you the player, have your dice lowered by two.
(No lower than 3 d6.) and have to beat 10. Once you pass the first 10 now the condition is a d8 and will continue to lower for every success, until it reaches d4 and then you the player gets the full dice level of your character. This is just one example of how dice effect and conditions are applied in the game to the scene that is works for.
In combat Dice effect can affect and area or a single target. For example, a fireball spell can be a d12 effect. This would mean a large explosion, which could cause a massive fire in a wooded area. The damage number on the effect dice can be the amount of starting damage. Another example is two great swordman are fighting each other. The dual sword wielding fighter stabs the sword and shield fighter through his stomach. He quickly pulls it out aggressively. The shield and swordman now has bleeding damage. The player playing the dual swordman has a d10 as his effect die and the damage on it is 7. Thus, the shield and swordman is now taking 7 bleeding damage.
Assets:
These can step up a die level in an area of the character sheet. Like a stat step up or a skill step up or a talent.
In combat Assets tend to step up fight or status to get a higher chance to beat the challenge. High risk high reward style of play. Assets can also give you an extra die to throw into your pool. Some require a plot point to use. these usually do something cool in the scene. if they pass the test or contest.
Signature Assets:
Signature Assets can be uses as a special weapon or item, like the Turtle Dagger. You can also use style of magic such as Arcane is he style of magic your character uses. Example is a Lurken who has the queens operative background d8, agility of d10, has a signature assets turtle dagger d8, stealth skill specialty d8, has a talent hide in shadows d10. (Five dice to do a sneak attack.) The signature assets
turtle dagger causes slow effect when ever makes a successful hit in a contest. The standard damage is applied as usual. In casting magic if you're a heavy caster your style of magic can be your signature asset. Signature can only level from d4- d12. Five levels only.
Range weapons:
Range weapons go past 1 increment. Most characters who use range weapons in combat tend to use piercing ammunitions to take out their targets. Though, blunt or alchemical ammo is in the realm of Arylon.
Melee Weapons:
this personal and close combat, usually within 1 increment only. Unlike the range weapons it does not matter the requirements to use these weapons. Your all strength or all Agility that is completely okay within melee weapon fighting.
