Initiative, Attacking, and Defending
Combat is quite simple, compared to most other systems.
First: Roll initiative. Just follow this formula. (Dexterity x .5 + Perception + Bonuses, Rounded Down)
Then: Each player takes his action in initiative order. All characters get 1 attack and 1 defense action free. Characters with higher dexterity get more actions. Each extra action receives a cumulative -2 penalty and can be used to either attack or defend.
Dexterity | Extra Actions |
---|---|
5-6 | 1 |
7-8 | 2 |
9-10 | 3 |
11-12 | 4 |
13-14 | 5 |
15 + | 6 |
You usually attack with an appropriate combat maneuver and whichever weapon you're using.
Typically, you'll be rolling Dexterity with Kung Fu, Getting Medieval, or Gun Fu. The defender will either Dodge or Parry using a similiar roll in order to defend. The character with the higher roll wins. Ties go to the defender.
The defender takes damage, appropriate to the attacker's weapon.
Ranged weapons are often given penalties or bonuses at the discretion of the GM.
Complications
Badly Injured
You've been ripped up and as such, your performance isn't so hot. Once you get below a certain number of Life Points you start feeling the toll.
10 or fewer Life Points: You're bleeding, and suffer -2 to attack and defense rolls.
5 or fewer Life Points: You're taking some pretty major hits, so -4 to attack and defense rolls.
Blind
Whether you just got bear-maced by a bounty hunter or are stuck in a subterranean bunker without a light source, you're blinded. You take a penalty of -5 to all actions as long as you're sightless.
In order to attack, you need to make a Perception/Notice check. If you succeed, you may attack with the -5 penalty.
Characters with the Echolocation quality are unaffected.
Bound
If your arms are bound in front of you, you take a -2 to punches with no penalties to kicks. If you're completely tied up, you cannot attack or defend until you free yourself, with a Dexterity/Acrobatics or Crime roll.
Consciousness
If you get to 0 Life Points, you've got to make a Constitution/Willpower check in order to keep your lights on. Oh, and you get a penalty of -1 for every number below zero. This means that if Bernie has -5 LP, he's got to make a Constitution/Willpower/-5 roll. Resistance (Pain) would be helpful here (you'd subtract one point per level of Resistance (Pain)).
Knocked Down
You defend with a -4 penalty when knocked down. After that, you suffer a -4 to defense and attack rolls until you manage to get off the floor. Standing requires a full round unless the character gets two successes on a Dexterity/Acrobatics roll to kiyup, in which case they get their normal actions for the round (the kiyup does not count as an action), and look like someone from Smash Bros. Cool story, bro.
Outnumbered
When you or an enemy are outnumbered, attack rolls on the outnumbered character have a +2 per person attacking (up to 5 people, or a +10).This also means only five people may attack a person per round (though if they have extra actions, they can use as many as they want on them).
Size
You will suffer minuses to a dodge maneuver or stealth check if you are too large. This only takes effect if you are somehow larger than your normal size, as with Size Shifting or some kind of Animal Transformation.
Survival Test
Life points represent the physical measurement of vitality and how close you're coming to death. If you've hit -10 LP or lower, there's a chance you will die. You try and stay alive by making a Constitution/Willpower test with a penalty of -1 per every 10 points below zero. So, if your character has -56 life points he or she must succeed on a Con/Will/-5 roll or die. Levels of Hard to Kill aid in survival tests. Without some paramedic attending, though, your character is still dying. He must make a new survival test anytime he takes additional damage and once per minute after the initial wound at an additional -1 penalty per minute that has passed.
Options
Attacking from behind
If Johnny Badboy doesn't know you're there or at least have a basic idea of where you are, he cannot defend against your attack. With Situational Awareness, he may defend himself even when caught unaware.
Full Defense
At the beginning of a combat round you may decide to go Full Defense. This gives you an extra defense action during the round, at no penalty. It also gives you a +3 bonus to all defense actions during the round. On the downside, you cannot attack during the round. Alert the PGM to your intentions at the top of the round if you wish to do this.
Full Offense
Should decide to be a crazed berserker, you may go Full Offense at the beginning of a combat round. This gives you a +2 bonus to all attack actions during the round. However, you cannot perform defense actions during the round. Alert the PGM to your intentions at the top of the round if you wish to do this.
Firearms
Gunfire is treated in two ways:
Firing at a specific enemy:
You could make a single shot1 per action per turn with usual bonuses and penalties and could even apply a maneuver according to the standard rules. If you're quick enough to have multiple actions, you can fire as many shots as you have actions.
Firing at an enemy's location:
You can also, regardless of actions per round, empty up to a small clip in the 5 second span of a round (6 shots). Why? Because firing a gun is as easy as moving your fingers. Literally. Sadly, you're nowhere near as accurate, and must make a single roll at a penalty equal to the number of bullets fired.
You cannot apply any combat maneuvers to it. All bullets from this barrage are dodged with a single roll. This takes into consideration that when firing rapidly you are firing at an "area" rather than something specific; so a player can get out of the line of fire with one movement. Note, this will also mean a player may need to reload far more often if they go about firing 6 bullets per turn.