Attacking

Attack Roll

When you want to attack a bad guy, make a Combat roll (Hero Dice + dCombat) against your opponent's CD. If the roll succeeds, you hit! If the roll fails, you miss and the opponent may be able to take defensive actions (see Defending). If you hit, you'll need to determine damage and bonus effects. If the character has any successes left at the end of the attack, they may spend them on other things.

Raising the Stakes

The most common example of raising the stakes in a combat roll is a "called shot," where the player attacks with the intention of causing a specific injury or effect to the defender. Many of the most common called shot effects are described in the "Spending Successes" section.

Damage

If you're fighting mooks (aka combat extras), you don't have to worry about damage. Instead, you can spend 1 success to lower a mook's CD rating by 1. When their CD rating falls to zero, they're out of the fight. If you roll enough successes to completely eliminate your current target, you can use them to cause damage to any nearby mook with an equal or lower CDR without having to make another attack roll.
Otherwise, damage is the number of HP that your opponent loses. Your starting damage is based on your weapon (see Weapons) and is usually a die type. For example, your sword may have a damage of 1d10. You can add dice to the damage roll by spending successes Before applying damage, subtract the target's Armor Class (AC) (see Armor, Shields, & Cover ) from the total.

Using Successes

Increase Damage

You can add dice to your damage roll by spending successes before the damage roll is made, but each die you add is one step smaller than the last. In the case of 1d10 sword, you could spend 1 success to raise the damage to 1d10+1d8 (2-18), 2 successes to raise the damage to 1d10+1d8+1d6 (3-24), or 3 successes to roll 1d10+1d8+1d6+1d4 (4-28). After 1d4, each success adds +1 to the damage, so spending 5 successes for your 1d10 sword would give you a roll of 1d10+1d8+1d6+1d4+2 (6-30).
After making the damage roll, spending success to increase damage adds 1HP to the damage per success spent.

Penalize Your Opponent

Your attack does something that temporarily distracts your opponent, causing them to suffer a temporary penalty to rolls due to pain, disorientation, or having the wind knocked out of them. 1 success gives adds 3 Challenge Dice to the opponent's rolls for the next round. Spending two successes gives the opponent a Fleeting Penalty that starts at +3 Challenge Dice. Three successes results in a +2 CD penalty for the remainder of the scene. You can spend additional successes to increase the penalty (which also extends the duration for a Fleeting Penalty).

Traumatize Your Opponent

In addition to the physical damage it causes, your attack messes with the victim's mind; it might make them question their combat abilities, worry that the would will cause permanent damge, or simply embarrass them. Spending 1 success inflicts 1d4 Trauma Points on your oppoenent. Each additional success increases the die type by one step: 1d6 for 2 successes, 1d8 for 3, etc. Spending additional successes after the die reaches d12 (5 successes) adds +1TP to the total.

Cause A Dramatic Injury

A dramatic injury robs the victim of the use of a limb, sense, or some other faculty. This includes things like blinding an opponent or breaking their arm, but can also include attacks meant to impede or eliminate an opponent's ability to use a particular trait or attack form--chopping off a scorpion's stinger or dislocating a wizard's jaw so he has a hard time pronouncing Latin correctly, for example. For Extras, a Dramatic Injury costs 4 successes. For Bit Player and Supporting Characters, the cost depends on the permanency of the injury: Injuries that can be patched up at the end of the scene cost 5 successes, those will require time to heal after the adventure (like a broken leg) cost 6 successes, and permanent injuries cost 7 successes. 
PCs only suffer dramatic injuries if the player decides to take an injury to avoid losing a health level (see Damage). 

Instant Kill

Instantly Killing an opponent depends on what kind of character they are:

• Spending a number of successes equal to an Extra's CDR instantly kills them.
• It costs CDR + 3 successes to instantly kill a bit player.
• For PCs and supporting cast, the cost for an instant kill is Hero Factor + 5 successes, but the attacker can (and probably should) spend more. The victim of the instant kill can spend a Luck point to roll 1d6. If the result is a 5, the attacker's success total drops by 1. The victim can continue roll d6s until they run out of Luck or the attacker's success total drops below (Hero Factor +5). In the latter case, the victim lives but is incapacitated for the rest of the adventure and gets a new Hook describing how they were maimed by the near-fatal attack.
  
  • Recover lost HP or TP for current Health/Nerve level: 1 success per HP/TP. The character may not raise their Health/Nerve level by spending successes.
  • Add 1 die to their recovery pool: 5 successes
  • Gain an additional action this round: 10 successes