🛡️ Combat

How a fight is run: who goes first, what each attacker and defender rolls, how Stamina drains, and what happens when somebody hits the floor.

The round, at a glance

  1. Everyone rolls Initiative at the start of the encounter — that's the order of acting.
  2. Each round, every active character rolls Speed (1d6 + Speed stat); the result feeds the Speed Bank (see below).
  3. On your turn you pick an action: Hit, Parry, Dodge, Recovery, or something the GM rules on.
  4. When you're hit, the defender resolves it with the Take Hit dialog.
  5. If a character's Speed Bank ≥ 10, they get an extra action for 10 points.
  6. Fighting is tiring. Twelve rounds is hard work even for trained warriors — keep an eye on Stamina.

The combat panel in the app has a button for each roll, plus status bars for Stamina and Body so you can see at a glance who's about to drop out.

Initiative — who acts first

Roll 3d6 against your Initiative stat. Any weapon's Initiative modifier adjusts the target; if you're ambidextrous and have a weapon in each hand, the one with the better modifier is used.

The result is shown as Rank: X — the higher, the earlier you act. (Behind the scenes, X is the usual margin of success: target minus modified roll. A natural 3 wins ties.)

Once the order is set, it sticks for the rest of the encounter. Speed adds extra actions, not a new order.

Speed and the Speed Bank

Every round, each combatant rolls 1d6 and adds their Speed stat. The result drops into the character's Speed Bank. When the bank reaches 10 or more, the Use Extra Action button lights up; spending it costs 10 points and grants one additional action in the current round. Whatever's left over stays in the bank for next round.

Speed isn't a defence or an attack roll — it's purely the "do I get a bonus turn?" tally. The faster you are, the more often you'll trigger it.

The Hit roll

Attacking is a 3d6 check against Agility + weapon skill (or Agility + Unarmed Combat when you have no weapon equipped). Failing the roll is an automatic miss; you don't even bother rolling damage.

Hits cost Stamina:

  • Armed: max(1, weapon's required Strength ÷ 4).
  • Unarmed: max(1, your Strength ÷ 4).
  • Each level of Use extra strength adds +1 Stamina.

Many situational modifiers may apply to the Hit roll — Surprise Move, Shield Bash, Charge, Set weapon, Placed Shot, Extended Aim, Bracing, Throwing the weapon, swapping to the off-hand. They all live on the Combat moves page so this one stays readable.

The Parry roll

Defend with weapon or shield: 3d6 against (max of weapon skill or shield skill) + Agility. Available whenever you have a weapon or shield equipped and aren't fighting unarmed.

Your parry interacts with damage in two ways:

  • A successful parry reduces the attacker's effective hit score. Pass it to the GM during Take Hit.
  • If you carry a shield, its Resilience joins your armour only when the attacker's hit score is at most 2 above your parry score. A bigger margin overwhelms the shield — see Damage, armour & recovery.

A modest parry is still useful: it lets the shield do its job. A great parry can turn a lethal blow into a graze.

The Dodge roll

Defend without weapon or shield: 3d6 against Agility + Unarmed Combat.

The Armed Opponent (−2) modifier is pre-selected because that's the common case — clear it only when the attacker is unarmed. Optional additions:

  • Surprise Move (+1 to +3) — an unexpected evasion the attacker wasn't braced for.
  • Supporting Skill (+1 to +3) — Acrobatics, a trained roll, or similar.
  • GM modifier — terrain, lighting, surprise, anything situational.

Dodge needs room. If you can't move freely the GM will tell you to parry instead.

Damage and Take Hit

If the Hit succeeds (and the defender's Parry or Dodge didn't cancel it), the attacker rolls Damage: a number of d6 equal to the weapon's damage class, read against the Impact or Piercing table.

The defender then opens the Take Hit dialog with the attacker's hit score, the damage class, the damage type, and any flags (Ignore shield, Ignore armour). Enter the dice, and the app absorbs the resilience and applies the net damage to your character. Full mechanics — the tables, the alternating absorption order, the shield bypass rule — live on Damage, armour & recovery.

Stunned and Unconscious

The damage system never blocks Stamina or Body at zero — they're allowed to go negative, and the app flags the state on the combat panel:

  • Stamina < 0 → Stunned. You can attempt a Willpower roll to stay active; the GM may add a penalty equal to the negative Stamina value.
  • Body < 0 → Unconscious. You're out of the fight. Without help, this is a slow problem; with serious wounds it's a fast one.

Recovery (3d6 vs Constitution) is the in-fight way back from Stunned territory. Body damage needs rest and care — see the healing rates on Damage, armour & recovery.

Morale — do they stay in the fight?

Most opponents are not paid enough to die. When a sizeable chunk of their side is out of the fight, or they've taken serious wounds themselves, the GM calls for a Willpower roll to stay engaged. A failed roll doesn't mean panicked rout — it means the NPC starts looking for a way out: surrender, ransom, "he who runs away fights another day".

Players' morale isn't usually mechanical (you decide whether your character runs), but a brilliant soliloquy or a particularly horrific act may sway opponents sooner. The GM picks the modifier.

See also