Violence is ruinous. You can recover from wounds, but you cannot so easily recover lost peace, trust, or security. Don’t start fights you don’t think you can win and don’t willingly instigate a fight without some advantage at your side.
Violence is played in the peril timescale.
Violence is an exchange: An attack made using a combat skill and a defense made in response.
getting an edge
In combat, any edge you can get against an opponent is worth +2 to attack d12 rolls and +1 to damage. You get an edge if your target is:- Staggered
- Surprised
- Prone
- Sleeping
- Knocked out
- Grabbed
- Receiving your charge
- Facing away from you
- Attacking with a shorter weapon vs your block or counter
attacking
Roll a combat skill. Depending on your success and the outcome of your target’s defense roll, you damage them.
Attacking costs an action. You get 2 actions per turn.
chargingGet an edge on your melee attack roll if you move at least 6 m before attacking. You can do so as part of a sprint.
aimed attacksTargeting specific body areas incurs a penalty:
- melee attacks targeting a specific body area get -2 to attack.
- ranged attacks targeting a specific body area get -4 to attack.
- For either, if you target a minute area, get -6.
defending
Choose a defense: Roll Agility to dodge or Melee to block or counter.
Defending costs a reaction. You get 2 reactions per turn. You spend them when it’s not actively your turn. Use reactions to:
- Defend (attack, block, or counter)
- Turn and adjust you facing after a foe moves
- Permit an ally to move through your space
You can’t react if unconscious, surprised, blinded, or backstabbed.
getting-hit
A successful attack inflicts damage on a body area. Randomize a wound location, compare the damage to present armor, then apply a wound corresponding the damage if any remains.
Armor is expressed as Hardness|Reduction. For example, 7 hardness and 5 reduction (steel plate armor) is written 7|5.
If a hit body area is armored, compare the damage to hardness, then apply reduction:
combat throws
Optionally, for expedience, roll all the dice involved in an attack or defense simultaneously as a combat throw. An attack throw would comprise the attack d12, the hit location die (d20,) and the damage die. For defending: The defense d12 and the reduction die for your dodge/block (or your attack dice if you counter.)
cohesion
Starting your turn next to an ally means you’re in cohesion with them. You enjoy the benefits of fighting as a unit:
- You can move freely through each other’s spaces
- If you’re knocked down, an ally behind you can catch you as a reaction, preventing the fall
- You don’t risk missed shots hitting your allies
confines
To swing a weapon, you need space equal to its reach on one side of you. Stabbing and ranged weapons aren’t affected by this. Two-handed weapons require at least 1 meter between you and your target. With inadequate space, you suffer -4 to attack. You can always pummel while confined or too close.
cover
In these ballistic times, mere armor is not enough.
If your body is totally interposed by an object relative the angle of attack, you are in full cover. Attacks against full cover always hit the covering object and not the covered character (unless damage penetrates the cover.) Enfilading attacks hit as normal.
If half or more of your body is interposed by some surface relative to the angle of attack, you have half cover. Attacks against covered body areas hit the cover before they hit you.
The Bookkeeper determines what portion of you is covered—usually 50%. Waist-high cover, lying prone, or leaning to attack from true cover exposes 50% of your body to an attacker—left/right or front/back. If you’re prone and facing a ranged attacker, chest hits become back hits.
Standing characters leaning to attack from true cover have either all their left or right-side body areas shielded by the cover, depending on which side is their non-weapon arc.
Any damage that hits and penetrates cover may continue and hit a body location behind the cover.