Combat

Combat seems to be an inevitable thing in all RPGs, so we better have some rules for how it happens. The combat system used is aimed to be as stream-lined as possible, so one can get dramatic tension in the fights. Also note that combat in this system is geared towards being fast^5.1 and deadly, so one should (if at all possible) avoid ending up in a combat situation.

The round

Combat takes place in rounds. Each combat round (CR) is approximately 5 seconds long and consists of multiple attempts at attacking and defending, so all ``to hit'' rules govern a sequence of probes, feints and the like. For projectile and beam weapons, it is more a question of getting the correct aim and trying to predict how the target is moving.

At the very start of a combat, roll for initiative (PER+AGL+D20), highest score goes first (this can be crucial for ``one-hit fights''), after the first round treat all attacks as ``effectively simultaneous'', though as separate for determining damage to weapons (this means, decide on an order and any weapon that ends up taking enough damage to break will not be usable for attack).

Weapon skills

Weapon skills fall in one of multiple broad categories, there are also specific weapon skills. (let's say Emma's character Joanne has ``Point swords'' to 30% and further has ``Epée'' at +25%, giving her a total of 55% at using an epée).

Weapon skills are affected by encumbrance (see p. for exact details, in short anything up to STR x 2 is fine, anything above that gets an extra Hard modifier per started multiple of STR and an extra Fatigue loss per combat round).

Attacking and defending

With close-combat weapons (swords, knives, staves, body parts and similar), one has effectively three choices: all-out attack, attack and all-out defence. For an all-out attack, apply an Easy modifier (p. ) to the over-all modified result. For a normal attack, the character can parry one attack without penalty and for all-out defence the character can parry three attacks without penalty.

The character also has the option to dodge. Dodging means applying a Hard modifier when doing an all-out attack, but doesn't affect a normal attack or an all-out defence. Dodging is useful against projectile and beam weapons, whereas the normal parrying implied in a normal attack or all-out defence isn't.

Any successful parry means that the character doesn't take damage from the parried attack. However, to parry a special success, one needs to do a special or perfect parry and to defend against a perfect attack, one needs to do a perfect parry.

Attempting to parry more than the ``penalty-free'' amount (none, one or three parried attacks) gives an extra Hard modifier for each extra parry attempt, this doesn't affect parry attempts that have already been resolved.

Table 5.1: Attack and parry table

Attack Parry Result

Fumble Fumble Both parties take full damage from opponent's weapon

Fumble Fail Roll fumble for attacker as normal

Fumble Success Roll fumble for attacker, add normal damage from defender

Fumble Special Roll fumble for attacker, add full damage from defender

Fumble Perfect Roll fumble for attacker, add full damage from defender, attacker is disarmed

Fail Fumble Defender takes normal damage from attacker

Fail Fail No damage

Fail Success No damage

Fail Special No damage, attacker is disarmed

Fail Perfect Attacker takes normal damage from defender, attacker is disarmed

Success Fumble Defender takes full damage from attacker, defender is disarmed

Success Fail Defender takes normal damage from attacker

Success Success No damage

Success Special No damage

Success Perfect Attacker takes normal damage from defender, attacker is disarmed

Special Fumble Defender takes full damage, defender is disarmed

Special Fail Defender takes full damage

Special Success Defender takes normal damage

Special Special No damage

Special Perfect No damage

Perfect Fumble Defender is instantly killed

Perfect Fail Defender takes full damage, no armour

Perfect Success Defender takes full damage

Perfect Special Defender takes normal damage

Perfect Perfect No damage

Reloading

Reloading takes one round, but most weapons have speed-reloading available (some do not, they're marked as such in the weapons table). To speed-reload (having the weapon usable in the same round), all that's needed is a successful weapons skill check against the specific weapon skill plus half the group skill. The number of available uses (charges or projectiles) varies from weapon to weapon and is noted in the weapons table.

Damage and fatigue

For each three rounds of combat, deduct one fatigue point. When fatigue reaches 0, the character needs to rest for at least five minutes before doing anything else. Continuing fighting is done at two difficulty levels harder than it should've been (anything harder than ``Impossible'' is an automatic fail). Fatigue points are recovered at the rate of one every two CR. However, if they've reached 0, five minutes of complete rest is needed before any recovery can be made. At the end of the five minute period, fatigue is at half of normal max.

Damage from weapons are taken from hp and when hp reaches 0, the character falls unconscious. If hp falls below 0, the character starts losing hp at a rate of 1 hp every 4 rounds until a successful First aid has been done (equally good is being shuffled into an auto-doc). When hp reaches - mathend000#CON, the character dies.

^5.2 Fatigue and hp can be regenerated. For each minute of not working hard (combat, running, carrying heavy loads and the like), a character regains one fatigue. Alas, hp regenerate more slowly, at 1 hp per day of taking it easy (if completely at rest, the character regenerates 2 hp per day).

Fumbling

When a character fumbles with weapons, something bad happens. As a GM, feel free to improvise fumbling result or consult the handy weapons fumble table.

Table 5.2: Weapons fumble table

Roll Result

26-40 Attacker drops weapon, flies off D6+6 metres

41-50 Attacker stumbles over own feet, defenceless in next round

51-60 Attacker stumbles over own feet, falls over. Defenceless in next round and takes D4-1 damage

61-70 Attacker hits herself, take normal weapons damage (for projectile weapons, see 26-40).

71-80 Attacker hits friend (if fighting alone, see 61-70) for normal damage

81-90 Attacker armour malfunctions. If she is wearing tech armour, the power starts glitching (-15 mathend000#% to all attacks), if non-tech armour it starts loosening (-1 mathend000# to protection).

91-95 Attacker falls over and hits herself with her own weapon (even with projectile weapons). D4-1 from fall damage, normal weapons damage.

96-99 Attacker weapon malfunctions. If it is a projectile or beam weapon, there is a 15% chance that the weapon explodes, imparting normal damage. If it's a knife, sword, spear or the like, the weapon simply breaks apart and cannot be repaired.

00 Attacker weapon malfunctions as per 96-99, attacker falls falls over (taking D4-1 fall damage) and attacker's armour malfunctions as per 81-90

Armour

Armour comes in many variations, starting from the old classics like boiled leather, on to modern armour like powered combat suits. Obviously, the protection they offer from various types of damages varies, but we shall gloss that over, for the sake of simplicity^5.3.

Each armour absorbs a number of points of damage, this is called the armour's absorption ( ABS).

Armour comes in basically two versions, powered and unpowered. Powered armour uses energy cells (see p. for details).

Table 5.3: Armour list

Armour ABS Weight E-cell size

Heavy cloth 1 3-7 kg N/A

Boiled leather 2 4-8 kg N/A

Studded leather 3 6-10 kg N/A

Ribbed leather 4 8-12 kg N/A

Band mail 4 9 kg N/A

Chain mail 5 15 kg N/A

Plate mail 6 20 kg N/A

Impact-resistant vest 6 kg N/A

As above, with trauma plates 8 12 kg N/A

Chameleon suit 2 5 kg C

Light power armour 5 25 kg C

Infantry armour 10 150 kg D

Scout armour 9 170 kg D

Command armour 12 200 kg D

Against projectile weapons only

Powered armour

Chameleon suits and the three types of infantry battle-suits (infantry, scout and command armour) are all powered and the infantry, scout and command suits require power to even move.

A chameleon suit has multiple cameras and colour-changing pixels on it and an on-board computer to mimic and meld into the surroundings as well as possible. It makes hiding two levels easier (makes an ``impossible'' modifier into a ``Hard'', a ``normal'' into ``very easy'' and makes for an automatic success for both ``easy'' and ``very easy''). When un-powered, a chameleon suit is light-grey in colour and slightly sparkling and shows up quite well.

The light powered armour also doubles as an environmental suit and has a small level of power amplification, so as to increase the movement speed and physical strength of the wearer. It has no built-in weaponry, but for the purpose of lifting and carrying, add 5 to the wearer's STR.

The battle-suits are worn completely around the user and have compartments for storing concentrated food, water and air (water and air can be topped up from the outside, the food supplies cannot). They also have waste collection units that can be changed externally. They're usable as vacuum suits. They have built-in weaponry (they all have a plasma rifle built-in (continously charged from the combat suit) and the infantry suit also has grenade launchers built into the back of the suit, shooting grenades forward over the head; some modified models also have anti-personnel mine dispensers), the main difference is that a scout suit is slightly lighter and has a higher top speed than the others and has replaced some of the weaponry with sensors and processing capacity. The command suit has full weaponry, slightly heavier armour (it's also slightly larger than the two others) and is jammed full with positioning gear, a tactical computer and radio equipment.

None of the battle-suits is really ``mobile'' without a power source, due to their weight.

Weapons

Weapons come in two major variations, close-combat weapons and distance weapons.

Break value

Close-combat weapons are often used to parry or block and may take damage from it. Given enough damage, the weapon will break. This will be simulated in the game by the abstract ``break value'' (BV, a number assigned to each weapon).

If in any attack, a weapon is inflicted with more damage than its BV, it will lose 1 from it. If in any attack, a weapon is inflicted with more than 6 damage than its BV, it will break.

Distance weapons

All distance weapons share some characteristics, they have a maximum effective range, they have a rate of fire and they can be fired a given number of times before needing a reload.

Name Type Damage Weight BV

Dagger K D4+1 0.5 kg 6

Epée PS 2D6 1 kg 10

Foil PS 2D6-1 0.7 kg 8

Gladius ES D6+2 1.5 kg 10

Katana ES 2D6+3 1.5 kg 10

Machete K D6+2 0.7 kg 10

Rapier PS 4D4 1.5 kg 11

Sabre ES 2D6 1 kg 12

Spiked mace C D6+2 1 kg 6

Wakizashi ES D6+2 1.0 kg 7

PS - pointed sword ES - edged sword K - knife C - club

Name Type Damage Weight Rounds Calibre Range Rate

charges E-cell

Glock 17 P 2D6 0.625 kg 16 + 1 9 mm 30 m 8

Laser pistol BP 2D6 1 kg 30 B 30 m 6

Laser rifle BR 3D6 3 kg 20 C 250 m 6

Plasma pistol BP 2D6 0.5 kg 20 A 20 m 3

Plasma rifle BR 3D6 2 kg 20 B 90 m 3

Mauser rifle R 3D6 4.5 kg 6 6.5 mm 450 m 3

Sniper rifle R 3D6 5.3 kg 6 6.5 mm 3000 m 2

Assault Rifle (light) R 2D6 4.5 kg 30 5.56 mm 450 m 30

Assault Rifle (heavy) R 3D6+1 5.3 kg 20 7.62 mm 450 m 20

BP - Beam pistol BR - Beam rifle P - Pistol R - Rifle per CR

Example combat

Joanne is in a bad situation^5.4, she is being cornered by Ondkille, a local thug. Ondkille is waving a knife and threatening to kill her, unless she hands over not only all her weapons and cash, but also the package Joanne is couriering (containing a vaccine for space plague, to be shipped to the planet Borta later the same evening).

Joanne is wearing her re-inforced leather jacket (treat as studded leather) and her trusty epée. She frees her weapon and prepares to attack (she decides not to do an all-out attack, since knives are nasty things).

Ondkille, meanwhile, wears boiled leather (2 ABS) and a dagger (40%, D4+1). His relevant stats are STR: 8, CON: 8, AGL: 10, PER: 13, Fatigue: 16, hp: 16.

As they both prepare to fight, Emma and the GM checks for initiative (5+AGL+PER for Joanne, 19+AGL+PER for Ondkille). With a total of 36 for Joanne and 42 for Ondkille, he goes first. He does a full-out attack, for a to-hit chance of 60% and the GM rolls 17, a successful attack. Joanne tries to parry (point sword 30% and epée at 37% for a total of 67%), and Emma rolls 62, a success. Joanne then attacks back (roll is 97, a possible fumble, a second roll is 5, giving just a fail).

In the next round, Ondkille goes back to just attacking. At a rolled 85, he misses. Joanne, at a rolled 9, hits and Ondkille (rolling 25) parries. Following round sees Ondkille miss (at 83), Joanne hit (11) and Ondkille miss his parry (58). This means he takes damage. Emma rolls 2D6 to see what damage Joanne's sword does and rolls a 9. Deducting the 2 ABS from that lands 7 damage on Ondkille who is now down to 9 hp.

The following round, Ondkille misses his attack (84), Joanne lands her (55) and Ondkille just barely misses his parry with a rolled 41. Alas, the damage this time is only 6, landing Ondkille with a total of 5 hp.

We see similar things in the fifth round, with Ondkille missing (86), Joanne hitting (23) and Ondkille missing his parry (61). This time, Joanne delivers 8 damage, thus bringing Ondkille down to - mathend000#1 hp. He slowly crumples to the ground and Joanne cleans and sheathes her epée, before moving onwards to the spaceport, carrying her valuable package. Joanne is now at a fatigue of 23.

Footnotes

... fast^5.1

``Fast'' both in game terms and in actual playing; as stream-lined mechanics as we can make them.

...healing ^5.2

``Taking it easy'' means no running, no combat and no heavy carrying; likewise, no long-distance walks.

... simplicity^5.3

A more detailed damage system may be offered in a future supplement, but nothing will require using it

... situation^5.4

Joanne's relevant stats are STR: 13, CON: 15, AGL: 15, PER: 16, Fatigue: 28, hp: 28