Combat

Speed of Action (Initiative Rolls)

Combat takes place in turns of 10 seconds. During this time the characters can decide on several actions. They can move from one location to another, attack an opponent, cast a spell, or simply wait. The speed of a character’s action depends on the action they intend to take and the result of an initiative roll (See Below). The target number for this roll is 4. A character may go a second time if they have more success then the Ready time of the weapon.

Attacks with …	Initiative Roll	Bonus Dice	Ready Time
Unarmed Combat	Reaction + Skill/2	Skill	Maneuver Specific
a melee weapon	Reaction + Skill/2	Weapon Length	Weapon Length
a ranged weapon	Reaction + Skill/2	Skill	Rate of Fire
magic	2xQuickness	Skill	Not Applicable
nothing, just moves	Movement Rate	Not Applicable	Not Applicable

Example: William and Jennings square off in the ring. They are equipped as follows:

	William	Jennings
Weapon	Long Sword	Battle Axe
Ready/Length	4	5
Skill	8	6
Reaction	8	6
Base Initiative	8+8/2=12	6+6/2=9
Bonus Dice	4	5

Since they are in the ring, neither needs to move toward the other in any significant way. They both rol initiative, with William rolling 12+4 dice and Jennings 9+5. William rolls 14 successes (Wow!) and Jennings 9 successes.

William will be able to attack on 14, 10, 6, and 2. Jennings will be able to attack on 9, and 4. William has a significant advantage.

The Attack

When a character’s turn comes to act, they have various decisions to make. They may choose to defer their action to a later round or act on that round. If they chose to defer, they’re character will be pausing (perhaps to talk) until the player announces that they are now using their move. All following actions are also pushed back the same amount of time. For example, William decides on 14 that he will tell Jennings to drop his weapon. He waits two heartbeats before renewing the attack. His attacka are now 12, 8, and 4. By waiting those two heartbeats, he has sacrificed an attack.

The basic attack has three subtypes;

• Attacking the defender,
• Attacking the weapon, and
• Disarming the defender

In all cases, the character will roll their weapon skill and count the successes. The results of the attack can be found in the following chart:

Character Attacks …	Results
Defender	Damage = Successes X (Weapon Damage + Extra Damage)
Weapon	Weapon Breaking attacks match the attacker’s successes against the armor point rating of the weapon. For each armor point the weapon has it must roll a die, with a target number of 4. If the attacker wins, the defender’s weapon is broken.
Disarming	In a disarming attack, the number of successes is matched against the defender’s strength. As with all ability rolls, the defender has a target number of 4. If the attacker wins the contest, each unopposed success sends the weapon 1/2 meter away from the battle.

The Block

Blocks, occur any time after the character declares that their character will parry. For example, if the character’s action is on segment 12, and they choose one attack and one parry, then they will block the next attack after round 12. When a character blocks, they roll their weapon skill with a target number of 4. Each success reduces the amount of damage that the attacker inflicts on the defender. Multiply the number of successes by the blocking weapon’s armor points plus the half the blocker’s SXD (i.e. (SXD/2 + AP)X Successes). Any damage from the attack that succeeds in getting past the block is then compared against the Armor value of the armor.

If a character tries to block an opponent with a weapon when s/he does not have a weapon themselves, then the attacker gets 1 automatic success. This simulates the difficulty in parrying the arm and not the weapon.

If the amount of damage blocked is greater than the damage taken, then the armor points of the attacking weapon will be reduced by 1 point for every 5 points of greater blocking damage. For example, if the attacker scores damage of 30 points, while the defender parries for 40 points, then the attacking weapon takes 2 point of damage.

The Dodge

To dodge, a character rolls a number of dice equal to their reaction (or their dodge skill) with a target number of 4 if they are dodging a melee weapon, 5 if they are dodging a projectile weapon like a bow or crossbow, and a 6 if they are dodging a firearm. Dodging explosives makes little sense (though obtaining cover does). Each success, reduces the attacker’s successes by one. Each extra success gains the dodging player a bonus die on their next initiative roll.

The Effects of Damage

Characters have hit points equal to 2X(Con+Wgt). When characters are damaged the following rules apply:

Hit Points Left	Effects
Con	Chracter falls to the ground in pain unless the character makes a herosim roll1
0	Character falls unconscious1 unless a heroism roll is made.
Con-1	Character dies.

¹A heroism roll is a resisted Will test, with the number of hit points below their Con as the number of successes needed.

Concussive Damage

When a character is hit with a relatively soft object (Fist, un-booted foot, blackjack for example) then the attacker splits his/her damage. The first three successes go to concussive damage. If the sum of the concussive damage and real damage equal your hit points then you are knocked out. You will still loose 1 HP from bleeding per turn until first aided. You will gain your Con in concussive damage every minute.

Two Weapon Use

At the beginning of the turn the character must decide what combat actions they will perform with each weapon:

• Attack/Attack
• Attack/Defence, or
• Defence/Defence.

If the characters chooses either the all-out attack (A/A) or all-out defense (D/D), then they suffer 1 penalty dice their on-hand weapon roll, and 3 penalty dice to their off-hand weapon roll. Please note that this includes character's using shields. In addition larger shields carry an additional penalty.

Magic during Combat

The character’s speed signifies when the character starts to cast the spell. The spell will take place on the Character’s speed-the Spell points put into Area of Effect and Radius. For example, if a character has a magic speed of 23, and casts a spell that has 20 spell points in it, the caster will start to cast at 23, and the spell will become active at 3. If the spell takes longer to cast then the character’s speed (e.g. a spell with 40 spell points in the above example), then the spell will take multiple rounds. Just subtract off the time that the character has already spent casting. With our above example, the character will start casting at 23 in round 1. At the end of round one they have 17 left. At 6 of round two the spell will go off (23-17).