Combat Rules

Running combat: This is built to be theatre-of-mind.

Initiative can be any of the following: Turn-based (as D&D, each creature takes a turn in a specific order), Instantaneous (each creature secretly choose an action, then actions are resolved instantaneously (requires each action having a 'speed' such that faster actions resolve sooner than slower ones)), Boomerang (roll for initiative. Slowest rollers declare actions first, fastest declare last. Actions are resolved in opposite direction - fastest rollers' actions are resolved first, slowest resolved last)

Phases of a combat round:

• Start of turn
• Declaration
• First Strike Resolution
• Action

Combat Stress: At the start of each belligerents' turn, they take 1 light injury from any of the following causes: Stress, exhaustion, fear, panic, terror, horror, depression, bloodlust, grief, apathy, neurosis, or any other combat-related injuries. This occurs regardless of their action and regardless of any other injuries they suffer. : Consider baking a removal of Combat Stress into the perk 'Combat Training'. While Combat Stress can be used to ensure that combat does not stall, it might cause undue paperwork.

Combat requires Concentration.

A character is considered to be “in combat” (a belligerent) if it attacks a target AND it is at risk of being attacked. A sniper lining up a killing shot from a one-mile distance to their target is not in combat - the sniper may enter combat if their shot is noticed and they are pursued.

Range: Targets are judged to be in range of each other if they could feasibly move to within range of each other in the same round.

Each combat round involves each belligerent choosing one of the following actions (they may pick twice, even the same action, if they have the “Hero” archetype.):

• Attack - Attack a target, attempting to deal injury to it - by default, 1 light injury. If you have a number of combat perks greater than your target, your attacks deal injuries that are one stop more severe. For example, if you have 3 combat perks and you attack a target with one combat perk, you deal a severe injury instead of a light injury. If one of those 3 perks you know are 'Severe Damage', then your attacks against that same target deal mortal injuries instead of severe injuries. You may only attack a target that is within range or that you could move to within range.
• Break Grapple - Cause a grapple to end prematurely.
• Defend - Gain resistance to attacks until the start of your next turn. This represents a character dodging out of reach, taking a blow on a shield, or ducking into cover.¹⁾
• Cast a Spell
• Flee - Attempt to flee the combat scene. May take multiple attempts.
• Help - Give combatant advantage - improving their effective combat rank in attack or defense.
• Hide
• Pursue - Causes a fleeing target to remain in the combat scene, but only if the pursuer can keep up.
• Surrender - Signal to the enemy that you wish to surrender.

How does 'Advantage' and 'Disadvantage' work here? Do they belong here? Do they even belong in the system anymore?

Free Perk (when you take your first perk in this group, you get this one for free): Combat Training: You are trained in combat such that concentration on other activities is not interrupted, if those activities are involved in one of the above combat actions. (Attack, Defend, Break Grapple, Flee, Pursue)

Surprise Attack - You are granted one preemptive round of combat activity before other belligerents attack. If multiple characters have this perk, they share in this preemptive combat round. Additionally, you are never surprised. I.E.: You always participate in the surprise round.

First Strike - You deal attacks before your target does.

Double Strike - When you take the 'Attack' action, you may attack twice.

Counterattack: When you use a damage negation against an attack, you may attack your attacker once.

Severe Damage - Your attacks deal severe injuries instead of light injuries.

Mortal Damage - prereq: 'Severe damage': Your attacks deal mortal injuries instead of severe injuries.

Battle-hardened - You are not affected by 'Combat Stress'. You do not suffer the 1 light injury that all combatants suffer each round while in combat.²⁾

Dauntless - You are immune to fear and intimidation. You do not suffer injuries caused by fear.

Rage - While you have at least one injury, your attacks deal an additional light injury.

Tough: When you use a Damage Negation, you may reduce the severity of the next injury you suffer by one step. : Note that damage negations are as-yet untested! Here's what we need to know about DN: How many do we need for balance? When do they refresh (every scene, every session, once per campaign)?

Armored - In a combat scene, you may negate damage from an attack, a number of times equal to the perks you have in combat (max 5 times). ³⁾⁴⁾

Armored upgrade

• Parry - when you negate damage, the attacker cannot use the defend action ⁵⁾ until the end of their next turn.
• Dodge - when you negate damage, you may do one of the following: Attempt to flee the combat scene; Move your character such that a target that is out of range is within range; Move your character such that you move out of range of a chosen attacker.
• Block - when you negate damage, the attacker may not attack you again until the end of their next turn. ⁶⁾
• Tough - when you negate damage, the next time you suffer an injury, it's severity is reduced by one step (death → mortal, mortal → severe, severe → light, light → none)
• Counter - When you negate damage, you may attack your attacker in response. (limit: once per round?)

Protector - Whenever another character suffers injury, you may choose to take that injury instead.

Grapple - You may choose to grapple a target instead of dealing an injury to it. When one of your attacks lands, you can choose to grapple that target by forgoing the injury that would have been dealt by your attack. The grapple ends if: Your character is incapacitated; Or an effect breaks the grapple (such as a creature using their action to break a grapple). Your grapple ends at the end of your next turn, unless you successfully grapple the target again. A grappled target cannot do the following: Flee the scene until the end of your next turn; attack a target if that target requires moving with range; pursue a target.

Restrain - prereq: 'Grapple': You may choose to grapple a target instead of dealing an injury to it. When one of your attacks lands, you can choose to prevent that target from fleeing the scene until the end of your next turn by forgoing the injury that would have been dealt by your attack. This effect is ended under the same conditions as 'Grapple'.

Slippery - Your attempts to flee always succeed, even on their first try. No character can use the 'Pursue' action to prevent you from fleeing combat. When you use Damage Negation, you may Dodge, allowing you to relocate or flee.

Siege - Your attacks destroy cover, structures, and fortifications.

Smite - Choose an anathema (someone or something that your character feels must be destroyed). When you injure something that your character considers anathema, you deal one additional light injury to it.

Savage - If a target suffers at least one injury from your attacks, they will develop one scar from the event. Limit 1 scar per combat scene.

• Belligerent (noun): A character that is involved in a combat scene.
• In Combat (adj.): A condition of being a belligerent; of being involved in a combat scene.
• Out of Combat (adj.): A condition of not being involved in a combat scene.
• Attack (verb, noun): An attempt to cause a target to suffer an injury.
• Target (verb, noun): n. A thing or character that is intended by an attacker to suffer an injury or other effect. v. The act of choosing a target.
• Range (noun): The area in which attacks are effective. A target that is “out of range” is very unlikely to suffer an injury from an attack.
• Injury (noun): A negative condition in which a thing's existence or character's survival is put at risk.
• Suffer (verb): To inflict an injury

1. Combat rounds run as D&D.
2. Each player builds a character:
   1. Each player gets a budget of inspiration points ranging from 0-5 (1d6-1?)
   2. Each player gets a budget of damage negations ranging from 0-5 (1d6-1?)
   3. Each player gets a number of ranks in combat ranging from 1-5 (1d6, reroll 6?)
   4. Or, each player has a budget of ten character building points, where each inspiration point or damage negation costs 1 point, and each rank in combat costs thusly: r1 = 1, r2 = 3, r3 = 5, r4 = 7, r5 = 9.
3. A character is “downed” or “vulnerable” when they suffer three injuries, which means their ranks in combat are treated as if they were zero. (What about movement?)
4. Do not worry about:
   1. Fighting styles - assume all are using one straight sword.
   2. Attacks of opportunity - ignore these for now, but note where they might have been useful.
   3. Types of damage negations used. Whether they negated an injury because of block/dodge/parry/etc. doesn't matter right now, just make sure the economy of combat works.
5. Use the combat quick guide.
   1. Create a combat quick guide for the players and give it to them prior to game?
      1. Things to do in combat
         1. Move (Movement)
         2. Attack (Action)
         3. Cast a spell? (Action)
         4. Defend (Action)
         5. Sprint (Action)
         6. Use inspiration point
         7. Push (take on an injury to gain an inspiration point, or gain an injury to gain advantage. Same thing?)
         8. Gain advantage
         9. Suffer disadvantage
         10. Suffer injury
         11. Negate injury
6. Roll for initiative and begin.
7. After combat, resolve injuries as if they are without medical attention.

REQUIRES PLAYTESTING

1. Assessment phase:
   1. Each duelist is allowed the option to read the opponent. If both decide to read, they can discover one of the following facts about their opponent. This continues until all facts are known or until at least one duelist decides to move onto the next phase.
      1. Number of ranks in relevant Combat ability (R)
      2. Number of Inspiration points held.
      3. Number of injuries.
      4. Number of Injury Negations?
2. Additional phase? Option to concede / surrender / withdraw?
3. Bid phase
   1. How many inspiration points (I) the duelist is willing to use. This is one of the very few opportunities in which using more than one inspiration point at a time is allowed.
   2. How severe an injury the duelist is willing to suffer (S).
   3. How severe an injury the duelist wishes to inflict (D)?
4. Resolution phase
   1. Compare duelists' sums of: Duel Score = (R + I + S + (4 - D))
   2. Example:
      1. Me:
         1. R: My Combat ranks are 3.
         2. I: I have 1 inspiration point. I am spending them all.
         3. S: I am willing to suffer death (S = 4) in this duel. Even if I do not lose, I suffer this injury.
         4. D: I intend to kill my opponent. Dealing a Deathblow means D = 4.
         5. My Duel Score is (3 + 1 + 4 + (4 - 4)) = 8
      2. My opponent:
         1. R: Their Combat rank is 5.
         2. I: They have 1 inspiration point. They are not spending any.
         3. S: They are willing to suffer a severe injury (S = 3) in this duel. Even if they do not lose, they suffer this injury.
         4. D: They intend to kill me. Dealing a Deathblow means D = 4.
         5. Their Duel Score is (5 + 1 + 3 + (4 - 4)) = 9
      3. Opponent wins, 9 to 8. Dealing a deathblow to me, and themselves suffering a Severe injury.

While I like the idea of including willingness to suffer injury (S) and intended injury (D) in the equation, the degenerate case of wishing to inflict no injury and willing to suffer no injury acts weird - it might allow someone to 'tank' through a duel using this strategy with no risk. Maybe there's a floor() or ceiling() function that can resolve this issue?

…consider instead bidding the number and/severity of injuries one is willing to take.

number of injuries + inspiration + ranks = total dueling power

difference in total dueling power

When making an attack outside of one's fighting style, use the following guidelines.

If Armor/Block/Dodge/Parry/Toughness simply negates hits, then how many rounds is combat balanced for?

• Arguably, one could have Heavy Armor (3 negations), plus one each of Block/Dodge/Parry/Toughness (4 negations, total). Which would be 7 negations as the low ceiling.
  • Would this per day (long rest)?
  • Per combat scene?
  • Per rest (short or long rest)?
• Should there be a maximum cap on total negations allowed, even if one has perks that grant more than this maximum cap?
  • How do the number of negations affect the duration of combat?

How should combat be run?

• Should combat be run on a sequential-turn basis, like D&D?
• Or should it be run as an all-declare/simultaneous resolution style like Star Wars d6?
• Could there be a 1-round-to-resolution version for groups that dislike combat - where each person declares their intent, then given ranks + negations, combat resolves after all intents have been declared?
• See the bullet in this list regarding the 'Downed' or 'Vulnerable' condition - in short: Maybe after three injuries a combatant is downed/vulnerable/forced to surrender/etc.

For defeating combatants, consider the following:

• The 'Downed' condition in D&D is very useful, because it signals that the downed combatant is no longer an immediate threat to anyone, and is (defenders not withstanding) entirely vulnerable. To replicate this condition, maybe once three injuries has been suffered by a combatant, they suffer a condition that is equivalent to being downed? I don't want to call it downed because three light injuries wouldn't “down” a combatant, and I want to keep combat as simple as possible, so I don't want to discriminate between the severity of injuries (I.E.: Downed if three severe or worse injuries have been suffered is more complicated than I want). So maybe: “If the combatant has suffered three injuries, they gain the 'Vulnerable' condition, which means their combat ranks for the purposes of defense are considered to be zero (0).” This is useful, because it does the following:
  • Sets an upper limit on how many rounds combat can last for.
  • Forces players to take combat seriously.
  • Adds tension to suffering each injury outside the treatment/resolution phase.
  • Holds GMs accountable by forcing them to admit when enemy combatants have been defeated.
  • Adds an ebb-and-flow to combat, where combatants nearing the Vulnerable condition are incentivized to either withdraw or act out of desperation.
  • Adds a mechanical space for in-combat recovery, like healing potions, D&D5e Fighters' 'Second Wind', D&D5e 'Orcish Resilience' trait, etc.

• Should negations from Block/Dodge/Parry/Toughness be able to negate ANY damage source? I feel like maybe they should only be able to negate different sets of damage sources. For example:
  • You can't (weapon)parry a dragon's breath, but you could (shield)block, dodge, or toughness through it.
  • You can't block, dodge, parry, or take cover from drinking/eating poison, but you could toughness through it.
  • PROBLEM: But what can't Toughness negate?
  • PROBLEM: Is it actually worthwhile to ask the players to choose WHICH negations to invest in? Maybe they only get a maximum of 3 negations from armor, and 1 negation from each of the other. (Full Cover grants infinite negations until the target moves out of it or until it is destroyed.)
  • PROBLEM: What is the perk budget for these? Maybe they are automatically granted?
    • Armor: Up to 3 negations per combat scene, depending on the class of the armor - Light = 1, Medium = 2, Heavy = 3.
    • Block: 1 negation per combat scene if you are wearing a shield.
    • Cover: 1 negation per combat scene if you are under partial cover.
    • Dodge: 1 negation per combat scene unless you are wearing armor with which you are not proficient.
    • Parry: 1 negation per combat scene if you are wielding a weapon.
      • Or 1 per weapon? this makes Improvised Weapon fighting style very powerful. It means natural weapons/unarmed can Parry twice?
    • Tough: 1 negation per combat scene if _ ? _.
    • Maximum of 10 negations total regardless

Since I intend for injuries to represent ANY kind of injury, not just physical injuries, should there be more than one type of combat? Such as:

NOTE: Waiting on figuring out how armor works.

Easy rules: Adjudicate the outcome of combat in the same way that one would adjudicate the outcome of a debate, or a professional job, and move on.

COMBAT BALANCING PARAMETERS

• Hits to kill
• Hit rate (complement of Miss rate where Miss rate = 1-Hit_rate)
• Miss rate (complement of Hit rate where Hit rate = 1-Miss_rate)
• Attacks per turn
• Attacks per round
• Turns per round
• Rounds to kill

Combat is balanced such that it takes around 5 turns to kill the average PC that is skilled in combat.

Combat should usually last at least 1 round.

Combat should not last more than 8 rounds.

Combat that lasts less than one round can happen, but when it does it implicitly at least one of the following:

• One side is overwhelmingly more owerful than the other
• That neither side wants to fight
• That the fight was broken up