Combat

Time is tracked using rounds during combat. A round is divided in the following phases:

During their turn characters can move by 2 zones, perform a bonus action, and perform a main action or a second bonus action, in any order. It is possible to split movement before and after taking actions.

Alternatively, characters can take their turn outside of the normal order to perform a reaction in response to a specific trigger.

Attacking an enemy is a main action. In normal situations, attacks hit and inflict damage to the target automatically. Attacks made in challenging circumstances require passing a WIT save to hit.

Unarmed attacks inflict d4 impaired damage. Armed attacks inflict damage depending on the weapon used. The attacker may choose to voluntarily hold back an attack to inflict impaired damage. If the attacker targets a nearby incapacitated character, they may choose to deliver a final blow and kill them.

Targets of an attack may attempt to dodge, counter, or hide behind a nearby character as a reaction. The choice must be made before rolling for damage but after the WIT save to hit, if required. Targets who are unaware of their attacker can’t react.

A character who is nearby the target of an attack can react by guarding them. They become the new target of the attack. Since they have spent their reaction to guard, they can’t normally counter or dodge.

Characters can make an opportunity attack as a reaction against nearby enemies moving out of their position. The target’s movement is interrupted and the attack is resolved, after which their turn resumes.

It isn’t normally possible to react to an opportunity attack, since the target is already spending the turn to act, but some skills might give an opportunity to do so.

Blast attacks hit a zone and target all characters in it and on its borders.

Melee blast attacks hit the attacker’s zone and don’t target the attacker themselves. They can’t miss.

Ranged blast attacks hit any zone within range and target the attacker as well if directed at their own zone. If they miss, they are deviated and hit a random neighbouring zone. You can assign a number to each neighbouring zone and roll a die to determine which one.

The attacker can propose an alternative effect to the target instead of inflicting damage (cutting a limb, forcing a surrender, etc.). This must be done before the target decides whether to react but after the WIT save to hit, and the alternative effect must make sense and be approved by the GM. The target can either accept the proposed effect or resolve the attack as normal. It isn’t possible to react if the effect is accepted.

Non-lethal attacks don’t inflict damage but instead force the target to pass a save or suffer negative consequences. They can be dodged and countered and can be used to counter. Since they inflict no damage they are always resolved last in case of a counter.

Characters who launch an ambush are concealed at the start of the fight. Hiding later during the fight requires being out of sight for a while or a major distraction. The GM should keep the position of concealed characters hidden from the Players, and should control their characters so that they realistically ignore concealed Player characters.

Concealed characters are revealed when they make noise or become visible to the enemy. Actions which might reveal a character include: attacking, invoking a power, talking, moving without sneaking, walking right in front of the enemy, etc. Concealed characters who want to sneak around during a fight follow the rules detailed in the Sneaking section: they halve their speed, must have the opportunity to move silently and out of sight, and must pass an AGI save to avoid detection.

Characters who are concealed at the start of the fight can take a bonus turn before the others. Follow the normal round procedure, but characters who aren’t concealed and are unaware of the concealed characters can’t take their turn. Characters attacked by concealed enemies are taken by surprise and can’t react.

Groups must make a morale check after being reduced to half or less their original number during a fight. Characters fighting alone must do so after taking damage reducing their health to half or less the maximum. Morale checks are made at the end of the round, during the morale phase.

Make a group WIT save: those who fail must surrender or retreat, but those who pass aren’t subject to morale for the remainder of the stretch. Characters who are immune to fear are also immune to morale.

Characters can spend their turn to surrender, throwing their weapons away, putting their hands up, etc. Their turn is wasted, but they might be spared by the enemy. Surrendering characters who are harmed by the enemy can resume fighting normally even if they previously failed a morale check.

Short chases can be played out using the combat rules. Chases over long distances can be resolved with the fleeing character making a group AGI save: those who pass escape, those who fail are reached by the pursuers. If the fleeing characters can move faster or keep the speed for longer, the save is not required. If the opposite is true, escaping is impossible.

You can use this optional rule if you would like WIT to influence the order in which characters act during the round and you don’t mind a little bit of extra complexity.

At the beginning of each round, right after the initiative phase, the GM openly rolls a d20. The result is the fast action threshold. You can leave the d20 on the table as a reminder of this value.

The action phase is divided in two sub-phases: fast and slow. Each sub-phase follows the normal action phase rules, with the following additions:

Characters can always react in any sub-phase, no matter what their WIT score is.

This is an optional rule you can use to represent the chaotic nature of combat and to reduce the amount of time spent to resolve fights if the Players like to strategise and think a lot. If you prefer a more ‘relaxed’ and tactical experience, feel free to ignore them.