The Basics of Combat

On this page we will discuss the basics involving combat: supplies needed, determining battle, avoiding battle, participants and spectators, battle situations, active and defensive rounds, and end of combat. This page will only give the basics. For more in-depth coverage of the battle mechanics, you will want to check out the other pages in this section.

Supplies Needed

Below are a list of supplies you will need to properly carry out a full fledged battle. You should already have these supplies. If you do not have these supplies you may wish to get them before continuing any further.

  • You will need a battle map. You can use paper, poster board, cardboard, cereal boxes, or whatever you can draw on as long as it is flat. You do not have to have any terrain identifiers. If you wish to add terrain to your battle map, you can draw them out or make or use pre-made terrain sets.
  • You will need a ruler. Movement on a battle map as well as ranges and area of effect is determined by using a ruler. The standard space size is 1 inch.
  • You will need something to identify every participant on the battlefield. You can use coins, marbles, rocks, caps, or whatever as long as each one is somewhat unique to help identify the different participant. Each identifier needs to have a distinguishable front side as well. You also can use pewter figurines from other rpg's or combat games. You will want to make sure that you have enough identifiers to meet every battle situation need.
  • You will need a set of polygonal dice. You will primarily need a set of percentile dice and possibly a d20, however, it is a good idea to have all of the other dice as well.
  • You will want paper and a pencil to record stats and battle information. It is a good idea to let the players take care of their own character's stats while the GM takes care of any NPC's. At a minimum you will want to record Vitality, Soul, Endurance, and armor stats, as these stats will constantly be affected in battle.
  • It is a good idea to have a calculator. It will be even better if each player has his or her own calculator, but you will most likely want at least one calculator. You will be doing a lot quick math and a calculator will not only help to speed things up but will also help to ensure correct answers and preserve your sanity. Crafty players and GM's may also make spreadsheets that help with battle.

Determining Battle

It is important to understand why the battle is taking place. The most common cause for a battle is that it is story driven. That is the battle takes place because of an event in the story. However the battle may be an effect of your character’s actions. Perhaps you provoked another character. The other reason for a battle is that it is a random battle. A random battle is best described as a bad luck encounter. Basically, because of your bad luck, you accidentally got to close to a den of hungry beasts, who smelling you decided to attack you. Of course, a random battle is not really random, as in enemies appearing out of no where. Random battles are instead more like the battle that was not expected or the surprise encounter.

A GM may never decide to use a random encounter, or the GM may decide to use the random encounter constantly. The GM may also only decide to use a random encounter depending upon where your character is at. When determining a random battle, the GM will ask the players to make a luck check. If the player succeeds, then that means the player was lucky enough to escape being attacked by some beast that is nearby. If the player fails, a battle will start, and this will always be a full-fledged battle. If there are more than one players in a team, then it will be the greater which decides. Basically, everyone will make a luck check. If more players succeeds then those that fails, then there will be no battle. Otherwise if more players fail then those that succeed, there will be a battle.

Once a battle is determined, there are a few more situations to consider. Those would be the players trying to avoid a battle, who is participating, are their any spectators, and the different types of battle situations the players may find themselves in.
 

Avoiding Battle

It is possible that you may wish to avoid the battle, once it was determined that there would be a battle.

  • Story Driven Battle: Since this battle is completely driven by the story, you can use story and role play to try and get out of fighting. Keeping it all in character, you can try to reason with your opponent and work things out peacefully. It should be understood that it all depends on your opponent and who is playing your opponent. The GM may let you make an influence check here to help determine if you were successful.
  • Cause and Effect Battle: This battle is always an effect of something you did, so it will be harder to get out of. However, you can still try. You can try bribing the opponent, or reasoning with the opponent. The GM may let you make an influence check here.
  • Random Encounter Battle: There may not be a way out of this battle. Instead, you should confer with your GM to see what he or she will allow and what is possible.

Participants & Spectators

Participants and spectators are the characters that are involved, one way or another, with the battle.

Participants

Participants are the characters that are directly involved in the battle. They can be divided into two groups, attackers or defenders.

  • Attackers are who instigated the battle. In a random battle this will always be the creatures that attacked the unsuspecting party. The players will be the attackers if they started the battle by attacking the target first.
  • Defenders are the ones who initially are being attacked, causing the battle to start. In a random encounter, the players are always the defenders.

If you are part of the defending party, you are always a defender even when attacking.

Spectators

Spectators are any characters, be they players or NPC's or other creatures that are not in the battle but can see or effect the battle, and possibly can be seen by the participants of the battle.

Spectators are able to affect the battle just as if they were participants. They can target the participants with any number of long range skills, spells, or weapons and their yelling and taunts can distracted the participants. Spectators do have to be careful though, because they can be drawn into the battle, and thus becoming participants, if they are seen and attacked by the participants.
 

 

The Flow of Battle: Active and Defensive Rounds

Now that everything is set up for battle, it is time to actually begin the fight! But how do we know who's turn it is, what we can do, and when we can do it?

The way battle works is really pretty simple. Battle turns take place in what are called rounds. A round is a time frame that takes up 10 seconds of game time in which everyone from both the defending party and the attacking party have all had a turn. Once everyone has had their turn, a new round starts. This continues until the battle is finished.

Each round is further divided into Active and Defense Rounds. The active round is the part of the round in which your character can act, move about, attack, and so on. The defensive round is the part of the round in which your character can only defend. Active and Defense Rounds are further explained on their own pages.

Before the battle can even begin though, we have to decide who goes when. 

Determining Initiative

Determining initiative, or turn order, is simple. Everyone simply rolls a 1d20 and adds their Initiative stat to what is rolled. The person with the highest number goes first. That person is followed by who ever has the next highest initiative, who is followed by the person with the next highest initiative, and so forth, until everyone has gotten a chance to go. So if your Initiative is 4 and you rolled a 10, you'd have an initiative of 14. If the enemy had a total initiative of 10, you would go before that enemy in battle. If the enemy's total initiative was 15, the enemy would get to go before you would.

Now if any two or more characters have the same total initiative, they would do a second initiative roll to determine who gets to go before who. The highest roll would get to go first, followed by the second highest roll. If the same number is rolled, the two players would have to roll again.

Familiars, pets, and livestock all use the initiative of their owner, even if that familiar or pet has an initiative stat.

Once you have determined the turn order, or the initiative, of each participant, the battle begins.

End of Combat

Eventually the battle will end with hopefully you on the winning side of it. Should you be defeated in a duel, you will have no rewards, except for anything you stole from your opponent or any skill points earned. A battle is over when either you kill your opponent, you are killed, the enemy surrenders and you accept, or you surrender and your enemy accepts. There is no retreat from a duel. Once the battle is over you or your GM will need to determine the Spoils of Battle. You should also understand the many faces of defeat that do not end in death. 

If you are in a duel, the battle can end with you defeating the enemy, the enemy surrendering and you accepting it, the enemy defeating you, or you surrendering and the enemy accepting it. The duel can also end and become a normal battle if more participants join the fight.

Victory

Victory for you is if you are on the winning side when the battle ends. This could mean that you and your allies have defeated all of the enemy targets, or that the enemies have fled, or that they have surrendered. Should you be victorious, you will get to partake in the spoils of battle.

There are many different spoils that can be won during and at the end of battle.

  • Character Points: You will gain character points anytime you use a skill. If you use a skill successfully you will get character points at your character point rate. You will keep these character points whether or not you win the battle.
  • Money: Some enemy targets will carry money. Once you kill the target you can search the body for any money that character may have and take that money for your reward. You do not have to wait until the end of battle to loot bodies. You can loot any body you are standing no more than one hex or square from as long as the body is dead. You can also use a stealing skill to attempt to steal money from living targets. It takes a full round to loot a body and can only be done in the active round or at the end of battle.
  • Treasure or Equipment: Like money, some enemy targets will have other treasures or equipment for you to loot. You do not have to wait until the end of battle to loot a dead body, you just have to be within one hex or square of the target. You can use a stealing skill to attempt to pick off some loot from a living target as well. Some treasure may not be able to be obtained from the target until it is dead. Some treasure may even be parts of the target, such as a rare shell or a certain rare alchemical ingredient. It takes a full round to loot a body and can only be done in the active round or at the end of battle.

Defeat

Defeat does not always mean death. There are other forms of defeat where you can still live. You just won’t get the glory of a victorious battle. The other ways you can suffer defeat are if you retreat from battle or if you surrender and your enemy accepts.

  • Retreat From Battle: To escape a battle, simply move to the edge of the battlefield and announce that you are escaping. If any enemy targets try to pursue you, you would need to make a speed check to see if you can escape, otherwise you simply escape and become a spectator.
  • Surrender: You can only surrender when facing an intelligent opponent, usually the case in a cause and effect or story driven battle. You can plead and even offer up some money or other valuables to surrender. It will then be up to your GM or the player playing your opponent to accept or deny your surrender. If the opponent denies your surrender, the battle will continue. If the opponent accepts your surrender, the battle ends.

Of course the battle ends in defeat if you and your allies are all killed.

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