Combat is divided into combat rounds. These are three-second periods in which every character who is still conscious gets to act. In a combat round every character has an action phase. Action phases occur in a strict order. The character whose action phase it is, must finish it before other characters get to act.
To find out who gets to act, and when, you roll for initiative at the start of every combat round. Every character rolls the dice and adds his DX. The Narrator normally makes one roll for all the characters he controls. The character with the highest total gets to take his action phase first, then the character with the next highest total goes, and so on until every conscious character has taken an action phase. Once this has happened the combat round is over and you must roll for initiative again and begin a new combat round. This continues until all the characters on one side are dead, have surrendered, or run away, or until both sides agree to a halt.
In your action phase your character may choose to take any of the following actions.
Attack: your character can attack with any weapon he holds ready in his hand.
Charge: if your character is not already in close combat, he can run up to 6 times his MR in meters and attack with any ready close combat weapon or with his bare hands. The momentum of your charge gives you a +4 bonus to any close combat attack you make.
Draw Weapon: if your character has no ready weapon, he can draw one from its scabbard or holster if he has one available.
Move and Attack: Your character can move up to his MR and still attack with a ranged weapon he has ready. There is a 2 penalty to your attack roll (see below) if you choose to do this.
Reload: your character can reload any weapon that is out of ammo and for which he has the appropriate ammunition.
Run: your character can move up to 6 times his MR.
Other: you can make any other action your Narrator deems will take 3 seconds or less.
Regardless of whether you are in close combat or firing a ranged weapon all attacks follow the same pattern. You roll the dice and add your DX and skill with the weapon you are using. Any negative modifiers are applied. You subtract ten. If the result is zero or less, your attack has missed. If your total is positive these are the numbers of successes you have. You have hit and may well do damage.
Even if you are hit you may well still take no damage. If you are aware of an attack, you always get a defense roll. There are several ways in which you can defend.
Dodge: You roll the dice and add your DX and dodge skill if you have it and choose to dodge. You can dodge either ranged or close combat attacks.
Parry: You roll and add your DX and your weapon skill if you choose to parry. You can only parry in close combat. If you are parrying a weapon with your bare hands, you only get to add half your skill in unarmed combat if you have it. Any successes you get when defending are subtracted from your foe’s successes. If this reduces his total to zero or less you take no damage. If your foe’s total is still positive, he has landed a solid hit. You’d better hope your armor is good enough!
All weapons have a damage characteristic. This tells you how much damage they do. This can be written 1M or 1M+2. The number before the M is the damage multiplier. If the number is greater than 1, you multiply your successes by the damage multiplier before adding the damage modifier. For example, a power gauntlet has a damage multiplier of 2. If you got 5 successes with it when hitting, you would multiply them by 2 for a total of 10 successes before adding the damage modifier. The number after the plus sign is known as the damage modifier. This added to your successes to tell you how much damage you have done. When this calculation is made this is your damage total. It is possible that you still may do no damage because your foe may have armor. In close combat your ST is added to your damage modifier, if you successfully hit.
If your foe has armor, that armor will have an Armor Rating (AR). This tells you the stopping power of that armor. The AR is subtracted from your damage total. If the result is zero or less, your foe’s armor has stopped all the damage and he is unharmed. If your damage total is still positive, it is subtracted from your foe’s LF.
One particularly important concept is armor rating. This tells you how well protected your character is against damage. To find out your armor total armor rating, add the armor rating you get from any equipment such as ceramic armor to the armor rating you get from any special abilities such as armor. Not everybody will have the armor special ability but almost every character will have some form of armor in their equipment.
Damage is subtracted from your LF. When your LF reaches zero or less you are badly hurt and out of a fight. You can do nothing for the rest of the battle except lie on the ground unconscious. You cannot make any defense actions and if anyone makes a successful attack on you, you are dead. After the battle is over, you must make a ST roll. If the result is 10 or less you are dead. If the result is 11 or more you heal LF equal to your successes on the ST roll. This is known as the death roll. If someone has the healing skill and uses it successfully, you will recover LF equal to the number of successes he scores on his healing roll. You can never regain more LF than you have originally possessed through healing or from your death roll. Assuming you survive, you regain lost LF at the rate of one LF per point of ST over zero per hour. For example, if you have ST +1 you will regain 2 LF each hour after a combat.
There are certain factors that affect your chances of hitting in ranged combat. All of these factors are cumulative. They are:
Cover: If your target is in soft cover such as behind a hedge there is a 2 penalty to hit. If your target is in hard cover such as behind a wall there is a 4 penalty to hit.
Long Range: If your target is over half your weapon’s range characteristic away, then there is a 4 penalty to hit.
Bad Light: If you are shooting in bad light such as a dimly lit place or at twilight then there is a 2 penalty to hit. If it is night time or if it is misty the penalty is 4.
Off hand: If you are firing a weapon with your off hand there is a 4 penalty. If you are right handed your left hand is the off hand and vice versa. You should decide before play begins which is your off hand.
There are also certain modifiers to your die roll when you are in close combat.
Charge: If you charged into combat this action phase, you get +4 to your to hit roll.
Multiple Attackers: If your foe is being attacked by more than one assailant, you get +1 to your to hit roll for each additional assailant.
Striking From Behind: +4
Off hand: If you are striking with your off hand there is a 4 penalty. If you are right handed your left hand is the off hand and vice versa. You should decide before play begins which is your off hand.
Close combat weapons can only be used in close combat and only have one characteristic-Damage (D). All ranged weapons have the following characteristics:
Close Range (CR): This tells you what is the most effective range, in meters, of the weapon. Anything beyond this distance is long range.
Range(R): This tells you the weapon’s maximum effective range. Beyond this range they will have no affect.
Damage (D): This tells you the amount of damage the weapon can do.
Type (T): This tells you the type of weapon, you are carrying. These are:
Single Shot (S): This weapon fires only a single shot each turn.
Semi-automatic (X): This weapon is capable of semi automatic fire and can squeeze off one shot every time you pull the trigger. They can either fire a single shot or use a burst dice (see below).
Full Autofire (F): This weapon has a much higher rate of fire than single shot or automatic weapons. They can either fire a single shot or use a burst dice (see below).
Full Burst Only (O): These powerful weapons have such a high rate of fire that they send out a stream of bullets each time you pull the trigger. They can only be fired using a burst dice (see below).
When using autofire or semi automatic fire, you use a burst dice. This is a normal d6 rolled at the same time as you make your to hit roll with a d20. You need only make one to hit roll for all attacks in the burst. The result of the d20 will tell you the number of successes you get with all your attacks this action phase. If you hit, the burst dice tells you how many of the shots you fired have hit. It also tells you when you’ve run out of ammo. When using the burst dice you use it, instead of the d20, to tell you when you’re out of ammo. If you miss, the number on the burst dice is meaningless except when it tells you that you’ve run out of ammo. Burst dice work as follows:
Semi Automatic Fire A result of 1 or 2 on the burst fire dice means that one shot has hit. A roll of 3 or 4 means that two shots have hit. A roll of 5 or 6 means that 3 of your shots have hit. In addition, if a 1 comes up on the burst fire dice you are out of ammo. You still score one hit though.
Full Auto Fire The number that comes up on the burst fire dice is the number of shots that hit your targets. If a 1 comes up, you score one hit but are out of ammo.
Full Burst Only Weapons When firing a full burst only weapon, the number on the burst dice tells you the number of your shots that have hit. You run out of ammo only if a 1 comes up on the burst fire dice and you fumble your to hit roll. In addition, if you have hit and a 6 comes up on the burst fire dice, you can roll the burst fire dice again and add it to the number of hits you have scored. You can keep rolling and adding for as long as you keep getting sixes on the burst dice.
OK you’ve scored five successes when firing your assault rifle and a five comes up on the burst dice. What does that mean? It means that you’ve scored five separate hits each doing five successes on whatever you were aiming at. What if you want to split attacks between targets? You can divide up your hits between targets. You must state exactly who you are aiming at before you roll the dice. The hits are split between your chosen targets. You allocate hits one at a time, starting with the nearest target and working along to the next closest. If you’ve scored more hits than there are targets you were aiming at, you return to the closest target and repeat the procedure until all your hits are used up.
For example, you tell the Narrator that you are shooting at three Skavengers and then get five hits. This means you inflict two hits each on the two nearest Skavengers and one hit on the one furthest away. If you had only scored two hits then you would have hit the two nearest. If there had been four Skavengers, the nearest one would have taken two hits and all the rest would have taken one hit. If there had been five Skavengers each would take one hit. If you had been firing at six then only the nearest five would have taken a bullet. If there is more than two meters between targets you must burn some hits bridging the gap between targets. One hit bridges two meters of distance. What if one target is in cover and the next target is not? Roll to hit, using the modifiers for the easiest target to hit. Then apply the negative modifiers for the target in cover to the successes you’ve scored. If this reduces the success for the attack to zero or less then you’ve failed to hit that target.
For example, you fire your blaster at a group of three enemies. One of them is in hard cover, one of them is in soft cover and the last and nearest is on open ground. You roll to hit against the guy in the open and with four successes. The burst dice gives you three hits. That’s one hit against each of your chosen targets. The guy in the open takes one four success hit. You subtract four from your successes against the guy whose in hard cover which means you have missed. You subtract two from your successes against the Skavenger in soft cover. This means you’ve hit with two successes.
Simply make one dodge roll against an entire burst from an automatic weapon. You apply your successes with that dodge roll to all hits from that burst. Of course, if you fail your dodge roll, all of them might do you damage.
If you fumble while firing a ranged weapon, you are out of ammo and must spend a turn reloading. We assume everybody carries enough spare ammo to keep them going for a while. However, after the first time you reload you need to make an ammo roll. Roll the dice if the result is 10 or less you are out of ammo until you can buy more or strip it from the bodies of the dead. You can only do this if the person from whose corpse you are scavenging was carrying a weapon of the same type as your own.
You can throw grenades up to 30 meters +10 meters for every point of ST you have over zero. When they explode they usually affect everything within three meters of the point of impact.
Sometimes two forces will encounter each other and the Narrator will have no idea how much distance separates them. Under such circumstances we roll 2d6 and multiply. When the encounter occurs indoors or in city streets where there is a lot of cover, we multiply the result by 10 meters. In the great outdoors and on the wide open spaces we multiply the result by 100 meters or more.
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