Combat

Combat occurs when characters engage creatures or non-player characters in battle. There are three phases of combat.

Phases

initiative - determines awareness and who goes first
action - participants perform non-combat and combat actions; repeats until disengage phase
disengage - combat is over when enemies are dead, have given up or fled, or the players die, give up, or flee.

Post-combat returns to normal gameplay and players may capture or loot enemies, etc.

Initiative Phase

Players roll two d10 dice and compare the roll to their Reflex score. Those who rolled under reflex are aware of what's happening. Those who fail this roll are caught off-guard (and take damage if the attack was successful). From here, participants go in order from lowest roll to highest.

Dealing Damage

Everything is determined from a single dice roll. If an attack is successful, the off-colored die determines hit placement. Damage is then dealt to that location by multiplying the weapon damage by the Increment of Success and adding in any damage bonuses afterward (see Damage for a full breakdown).

Increment of Success

The increment of success details how successful an action is. This is how you calculate damage as well. A simple example: if a player needs to get 3 dice rolls under a 7 to be successful, rolling exactly 3 right is equal to 1 increment of success. The IoS goes up from there for every 1 die that's successful. So rolling 5 good dice would then be an IoS of 3 (1 for the match of 3, and 1 for each subsequent successful die thereafter). Thus, the damage dealt by the weapon would be multiplied by 3.

Hit Placement

Where a character gets hit by an attack is important, not only for providing greater story-telling latitude, but also when it comes to Armor & Apparel condition. In some cases, it may make more sense to simply determine the hit placement based on what a character was aiming at, however, sometimes a random place might serve better. An example might be shooting into a fray, or aiming at quickly moving enemies.

0 - left foot
9 - right foot
8 - left hand, weapon if present
7 - right hand, weapon if present
6 - left leg
5 - right leg
4 - left arm
3 - right arm
2 - torso or body
1 - head

Swift Edition Rules

If you're using swift rules, use the same method as skills checks. Add Trait and Skill points, then roll 2xd10 (roll under). For example, if DEX score is 6 and Edged score is 6, a player needs to roll a 12 or less on 2 dice to stab a baddie in the guts. Add or subtract from the score to account for difficulty level. Using this same example, assume that it is a smoke-filled room and the attacking character has a difficult time seeing the target. Subtract 1 or 2 from their score and now they need to roll 10 or 11 to succeed. Off-colored or percentile die determines hit placement if random placement is desired.