Combat

• Initiative
• Attack
• Defence
• Damage
• Other Factors
• Critical Events

Although this section deals primarily with combat between armed and armoured opponents the basics of initiative also apply to spell combat and general actions.

The fight

For convenience fights are turn based, during each turn each party member gets to perform one action, these combat turns are called rounds and last 10 seconds. Combat with weapons is a series of manoeuvres, feints, thrusts and parries. The spectacle is very different depending upon whether the opponents are evenly matched or not.

Between two equal opponents the outcome will often be decided by who gets tired and makes the first slip allowing an effective strike in. During this period there will have been many strikes to the body which are only partially blocked or with little force due to the location or angle of strike sliding off the armour, these cause minor cuts and bruises which are accepted as part of battle and heal quickly. All these strikes fatigue the defender just a little bit more until eventually the parry is missed and a killing blow is made. Of course there is always the chance that a telling blow may be made before the combatants are fatigued due to a surprise move by the attacker or bad judgement by the defender.

With two unequal opponents the story is very different. It doesn't really matter how skilled each side is, the battle tends to be short and swift. Stamina plays little part in the outcome, instead the superior skill and greater aggressiveness finds, or more likely creates, an opening in the defences which provides the opportunity for a quick kill. This is as true for a 5th level attacking a 1st as it is for a 10th attacking a 5th.

Armour of course plays a part in this. A minor hit to an armoured person will not cause them any damage, in fact a heavily armoured person is likely to use their armour to block a blow in order to draw the opponent forward and open up holes in their defence for a killing blow. Armour absorbs damage from a hit, the better the armour the more it absorbs. A knight in full plate could safely ignore a knife wielding attacker unless he gave them enough time to slip the knife between the plates. This is unlikely to happen in a normal combat situation.

Generally a hit causes stamina loss only, however if a killing blow is made then wounds will be lost as well. Any hit where more than 10 damage is done after all absorbtion will cause wounds one tenth of the damage to be taken as wounds.

Initiative

Combat takes place over a number of rounds. each round is 10 seconds long, during which period each combatant gets the opportunity to make a strike, manoeuvre of perform some other action. At the beginning of each combat round an initiative die is rolled for each party character and one general roll for the opposition to determine the order of events each round. If individuals of the opposition have modifiers to their initiative they will apply those modifiers for themselves only.

The round is divided into 10 segments of 1 second long;

The initiative die roll is

This gives the segment in which the characters make their strike, low initiative going first. Anything lower than 1 counts as zero, anything higher than 20 counts as 11. All characters with the same initiative act simultaneously

The round will start after 2 minutes (real time) preparation time regardless of whether declarations have been made or not. The DM may delay this period if he has a number of creatures to dictate actions for, though this should not exceed 2 minutes per creature.

Attack

To Hit Roll

Combat is based on a single skill roll and a location roll. The amount of damage done is a function of the weapon used and the amount by which the to hit roll exceeded the defence of the opponent. In order to speed up combat in normal melee the attackers roll simulates the randomness of both the attack and defence roll. The parry roll is represented as a fixed number. (Dodge is different)

• Roll your skill +2d8
• Deduct their defence, this is your strike roll.
• Look down the weapon table at the strike number. This is the damage.
• Roll location (d10)

Alternative system

• Roll your attribute +2d8 +skill (Strength or Dexterity)
• If this is greater than their defence then you hit
• Damage = D(weapon) + D(skill level)
• Roll location (d10)

Obviously defence levels will need to be raised as the average damage has gone up.

Only certain levels up the D(skill) roll (basically those with available dice, e.g. D2/3/4/6/8/10/12). In between levels have no effect

Ranged weapons do not get the D(skill) damage bonus.

This has the disadvantage of meaning rolling an excellent to hit has no effect on the damage (back to old D&D) but does let weaker characters sometimes get a good hit in and more skillful characters hit harder.

Alternative system 2

• Roll your attribute +2d8 +skill (Strength or Dexterity)
• If this is greater than their defence then you hit
• Damage = 2d6 -3 lookup on weapon table (or 2d6 but put all weapons damage for 1-4 as zero)
• Roll location (d10)

This has the disadvantage of meaning rolling an excellent to hit has no effect on the damage (back to old D&D) but does let weaker characters sometimes get a good hit in.

Aiming

The attack system is designed to provide the best compromise between attack and defence. In some circumstances characters may be finding it difficult to hit in which case they may improve their chances by aiming equivalent to in melee setting up a position to attack in the next round.

Aiming / setting up position

• Miss a round
• +3 to attack

Touch attacks

Priests, wizards and monsters often make touch attacks either to implant a claw in someone's belly or to flow healing forces into a friend.

Touch attacks against an enemy

Multiple Attackers

If multiple creatures attack another one then they make life much simpler as the defender can't watch all of them all the time.

Each character gains +1 attack skill for each attacker (including himself).

Multiple Attacks

Remember that if you perform multiple actions you suffer a skill penalty and your parry skill is based on your attack skill so every extra attack not only suffers -3 to each attack but also -3 to your parry skill.

See the Using Skills section

Flying opponents

If your opponent is flying and capable of staying out of range then your only attack opportunity comes when they decide to close the range and attack you. If your initiative is within 1 point of theirs then you may attack as normal otherwise you fail to get an attack in.

Instead you have the option of attacking on the same segment as they do but suffer the penalty of rolling only 1d8. In this case you do not roll initiative.

Flying creatures use their ranged defence at all times.

Missiles

Missile accuracy

All missile weapons suffer a to hit penalty according to the distance but gain bonuses as defence and dexterity do not affect attacks which you probably don't see. Propelled, streamlined and oddity weapons ignore dexterity.

When firing at range the difficulty increases rapidly (by the inverse square law). This is modelled by incurring penalties to the skill roll. If a character is firing at a general group rather than an individual the modifier is reduced as you don't care which one you hit.

The difficulty to hit a 3' diameter circle is 3 at Point Blank range. Normal range modifiers apply

Missile fire into combat

Missile fire into combat is dangerous for both fighting parties . Friendly characters will only fire when the opponent is significantly taller than their friend. The opponent gains the cover bonus according to the percentage covered by the friend.

If the opponent is missed there is a 20% chance that that shot was low and hit the friend. The damage done is the number missed by using the same damage table

Misses

Missiles which miss their mark have to land somewhere. Missiles up to medium range are thrown with force and are travelling in more or less a horizontal direction, at long range however they are lobbed or arced and are travelling at about 45 degrees. Therefore if the missile misses, the final impact point will depend upon the flight arc.

Most missile misses are assumed to have gone sailing harmlessly overhead, stuck in a shield or bounced harmlessly away, however flasks of oil or gas have to land somewhere (though they may not break).

The distance missed by is the amount the skill check failed by multiplied by the miss distance.

The direction missed by is rolled randomly (d12 or arrow die).

Missiles lobbed at a character that miss will land 4' beyond the target + the miss distance (in a random direction)

Specific Hit Locations

In general combat between two humanoids fighting with weapons the natural target is the chest area so this is where most protection is generally worn, however some opportunties occur to strike other areas, this is reflected in the location roll on a strike.

It is possible to aim for specific locations and therefore attack weakly protected areas of the opponent. however a skill modifier is applied is dependent upon the area aimed at. The deductions may seem quite severe but then remember that you are opting to not attack a target which presents itself if it is the wrong location. This could well preclude 90% of the body.

Creatures other than standard humanoids may well always attack specific areas of the body according to the creature. Thus rats always attack the lower leg ; flying and tall creatures (>8 feet) tend to avoid the legs, small humanoids (<=4 feet) generally go for the upper legs. Any modifiers for attacking other areas will be dependent upon the specific creature. Only intelligent creatures will choose to attack specific areas, others will simply go for what is easiest to hit.

Defence

Defence Roll - Melee

In melee a character may either parry a blow, dodge it or be so aggressive that the other creature is always on the defensive. Parrying uses the weapon or shield to block the attacks as the character advances whereas dodging uses athletic ability to get out of the way and the character generally moves backwards. Creatures make opportunistic attacks or ignore the defenders parying either through lack of intelligence or in the belief that their attack is so devestating that the defender will be more concerned with their own safety than attacking.

Fighters will generally use the parry ability and rogues and mages the dodge ability. It is not possible to use both skills at the same time.

Parry

The best form af defence is attack. The stronger your attack the less chance the opponent has to create an opening of their own.

The parry skill is a combination of other skills which are learned as the character advances in weapon training. Parrying requires a weapon (or chair leg or something to put in the way of the swinging lump of steel coming towards your head).

A charater's parry skill is

Attack Weapon skill + shield + Dexterity + Alertness + size

Some weapons (mainly swords) are just better designed than others, those that are both substantial and can be manoeuvred quickly are more likely to block a blow, thus the weapons attack bonus also counts towards defence.

For example a Knight's sword is very good for parrying and the parry skill has a +1 bonus but a battle-axe is not so effective suffers a -1 penanlty.

Parring one attacker may be performed as part of your attack so does not incur the multiple action penalty, where there are multiple attackers they each gain a bonus as you find it difficult to parry two at the same time. (This is instead of using an additional action as parrying doesn't count as a seperate action.)

Parrying without attempting to strike grants +4 bonus.

Dodge

When you don't have a weapon to threaten the opponent with you dodge instead, avoiding blows by twisting and turning . It is based on atheltics and shields however note that armour and shields often reduce the characters dexterity.

Dodge skill + Dexterity + size +7

Dodging assumes that you are not trying to close to melee combat range to attack but trying to stay out of harms way, this is the +7 bonus. If you do attempt to close, perhaps to deliver a touch attack, the +7 bonus is reduced to +3. In addition as dodging is a seperate action to attacking you incur the normal multiple action penalty if you are also trying to attack.

If you do not have the freedom to move all around the opponent then you will be forced to give 10' of ground per round.

Defence Roll - Ranged

Against ranged weapons the characters only defence is size, movement and hiding behind stuff (such as shields). Otherwise the chance to hit depends upon their distance. Most propelled weapons have a natural bonus due to the speed and ability to hold and aim, this is taken into account in the weapons bonus to hit.

Defence = shield + size +5

Characters may dodge instead however against propelled weapons (bows and crossbows) dodge may only be used if declared in advance as an action for the round, it's too late if you wait to see if someone is shooting at you to dodge. Against thrown weapons dodge may only be used if you are aware of the attacker.

Note that shields use the ranged shield modifier, not the melee modifier. This is purely dependent upon shield size (i.e. whether you can fit behind it) and not any training.

It is assumed that the target is not standing still

Size Effects

Small creatures although naturally harder to hit have to come into your reach before you come into theirs and thus open theselves up to attack large creatures are conversely harder to hit as their reach is greater so you try to stay out of their way. Of course under a certain size little creatures scurry around nimbly and become harder to hit again.

To avoid overcomplication the defence of all creatures is based on a 6' attacker which is calculated into their defence ability. The defending character gains a defence adjustment based upon their size.

Damage

When a hit is scored the damage a location roll is made to determine if they are wearing armour where you hit. The armour absorbs an initial amount of the damage and any excess is subtracted from the targets stamina and wound points.

After all damage absorbtion and other effects are calculated every tenth point is taken as a wound point not a stamina point.

Other factors

Movement

During combat characters are assumed to be moving as quick as reasonable possible whilst keeping a look out for what is happening on the battlefield, which results in a speed of approximately 5' per second (or sepment). When moving into battle the strike will occur on the segment given by the initiative roll + the time taken to move into melee If the total is greater than 10, no attack occurs that round.

e.g. A character moves 20 feet into melee taking 4 segments to do so. They roll a 6 initiative: Their attack will therefore be on the

If they had rolled a 7 then they would hit in the 11th segment. This means they do not get an attack this round and roll normal initiative next round.

Overruns

It is possible for creatures to force themselves past others by charging at them. The chance depends upon the mass ratio of the creatures. Generally the creatures with the largest momentum will survive the encounter. In the case of many smaller creatures the mass of half the group is used; imagine a pack of dogs pouring down a corridor. It is highly unlikely that even a hero would still be standing at the end.

To stay standing the defender must make a strength roll against the attackers momentum. The attacker modifies this by their momentum calculated as . Each mph or 1 foot height advantage (50% mass advantage) increases the difficulty by 2. The defender bracing decreases the chance by 3.

Creatures lower than knee height cannot overrun a braced character; however they may swarm past.

Knockouts and stunning

Stunning

Any strike to the head causing 1 or more SP requires a Endurance check with difficulty of 10+SP suffered. Failure causes stunning for 1 round.

Stunned creatures lose their next action (plus any remaining parts of a multi-action).

Characters attacking a stunned creature gain a bonus temporary hero point for the attack.

Knock Outs

Any stun save which is Dreadful means that the character has been knocked out.

A sword pommel is too unwieldy to knock out a person.

Forcing opponents back

Creatures are only forced back during melee when it is deliberately attempted. The attacker makes a manoeuvre roll against the opponents attack level, for every point over the defender is forced back by 1', for every failure level the attacker loses one from their armour class.

Surprise

If characters are surprised the opponent automatically gains a free attack at +2 per level of surprise. Each character rolls individually. A surprise attack occupies one standard round so if one character is surprised and another not then the unsuprised character may engage the enemy preventing them from getting the free attack on the surprised one.

When attempting to surprise via an ambush a stealth roll used and a bonus generated to find the final ambush factor. The other party then generate perception rolls with a difficulty of your ambush factor.

Bonuses are cranted according to the general level of alertness of the party

Cavalry

Cavalry gain +3 to hit

Those attacking cavalry suffer a -1 to hit penalty

Unarmed Combat

See Brawling and Unarmed combat skills.

Evading

Evading a foe by moving past requires a manouver check of 10. Get + 2 if you are running from at least twice your height away.

Pop-up missile shots

If popping up from cover to take a shot this is two actions, manouver and shoot. Manouver difficulty is an 9, failure indicates there was no foe close enough to where you were looking for you to react to. The advantage is that only enemies waiting for you to pop up may target you.

Sleep

When waking characters from sleep to fight it requires 1/2 round of shaking or a loud noise. At the end of the 1st round they are able to roll to dodge (AC 7 + agility). The next round they may defend properly and the round after that attack.

1. Round 1
   1. Seg 1 - 5 Noise or shaken
   2. Seg 6 - 10 Roll to defend
2. Round 2 Defend normally
3. Round 3+ Attack

Spoiling attacks

Most actions require only a single segment to complete. however some such as spells or prayers last for several segments. If a character is in the midst of a multi segment action they may be interrupted and the action spoiled by a successful strike.

Single segment actions may not be normally interrupted as the action will be completed before the attacker could react. This is true even if the character was waiting for a spell, as the total time for of recognition, reaction and flight will always be over 1 second. The only way to spoil a single segment attack is for your initiatives to occur on the same segment. (For simplicity we ignore any flight times here)

Multi segment actions may be spoilt depending upon the distance and readiness of the attacker. The attacker may either be concentrating upon and waiting for the target to start something or has not acted yet during the round. In either case the action must be long enough for a missile to reach them. (We do not ignore flight time here).

If you are not concentrating then a perception roll must be made to notice the movements of the caster. For each segment that the action is performed the perception roll difficulty reduces by one. The perception takes one segment to perform and may be performed each segment until the action is over. Attacks which take a considerable amount of time, such as loading and drawing a bow delay the time of impact accordingly.

Whatever the missile used the flight time takes 1 segment per range unit ignoring point blank

Morale

All NPCs and creatures have morale. Characters determine their own morale, they generally know when to run (that the ones which are still alive). Morale is rolled on 2d10. Each NPC will have their own morale however if their master or leader is present it will be modified by their leadership ability.

Morale will only fail when it looks like the characters side may lose the battle. Morale checks are made in the following circumstances.

• Obviously heavily outgunned after an initial clash
• 50% casualties
• 75% casualties
• Leader killed (-3 on die roll)

Critical events

Critical events are random events that occur due to the fog of battle. Each round a critical event will may happen when a character has the same initiative as the opposition. The effects are applied to one side the other (rolled randomly ) or both.

The events are (d30):

Armour trouble

Battlefield damage

A window , cask, table, chair.... gets broken

Battlefield shifts

The battlefield shifts 1-10 feet in a random direction. This affects a local area (5-15') so the combatents on either side may be affected.

Close quarters

Two enemies find themselves within grappling distance

Switch Positions

The feints and blows caused two combatants to end up on the other side of each other but still facing each other.

Item dropped

A single combatant drops an item or has it cut free by a weapon.

Item damaged

A single combatant has an item damaged by a weapon. wild swing. Roll a saving throw against crushing blow. Items will be on the outside of the body such as on a belt or in a pouch.

Knock down

A random combatant is knocked down by a collision. No damage is suffered but the character must spend the next round rising to their feet.

Lucky break

A random combatant gains +d6 to his AC and saving throws.

Lucky opening

A random combatant sees his chance and gets a plus d6 to their to hit roll.

Mount trouble

Reinforcements

Unexpected reinforcements arrive for 1 party.

Retreat

1 party retreats 10'

Weapon trouble

Ether flow

Vagaries in the ether flow cause magic to act abnormally. All magic attempts will be at +/-4 randomly for each character.

Stymied

No hero points may be used this round

Hero point

A free additional hero point is given to all combatants of one side this round. The HP can only be used during the current round.