Combat is divided into rounds, little five-second parcels of time that make it easier for everyone to keep track of what's going on. Each round everyone gets an action - this can be something like opening or closing a door, retrieving something from a pocket, or trying to beat the tar out of an opponent. Everyone gets an action every round (unless constrained by something), and once everyone's taken an action a new round begins.
Combat Resolution
Alright, what do we need to know so that characters can hit each other until someone loses?
- Who goes first?
- How hard is it to hit the target?
- How much damage does a successful blow inflict?
- How much damage can a character sustain?
Who goes first?
At the start of each combat, roll a d20 and add your character's WILY and DEFT modifiers to represent (a) how quickly they decide what to do and (b) how quickly they can act on it. This is their Initiative. Character actions are processed from highest Initiative to lowest. Once everyone's acted, a new round begins.
How hard is it to hit the target?
By "hit" we mean a blow which connects well enough to do damage; in any individual combat round there's likely to be a back-and-forth exchange of blows, most of which miss or are intercepted or glance off without inflicting any appreciable harm.
Using the target numbers from Design Diary #7 we'll say that trying to hit someone in a combat situation is Taxing - you're trying to land a blow on them without getting hit yourself - so you need to roll higher than 15 to hit. Additionally, characters who are more agile will generally be harder to hit in the first place as they dodge around, and clumsy or sluggish characters will be easier. To reflect that, let's apply the defending character's DEFT modifier to the target number.
At the GM's option, characters who engage in tactics which give them an edge (attacking from ambush, taking the high ground, throwing dust in their opponent's eyes) might be granted bonuses to hit their target. Generally this should be on the order of a +1 per modifying factor, up to a maximum total of +3 if they really pile on the dirty tricks.
How much damage does a successful blow inflict? Damage is based on the attacker's weapon, adjusted by their BRUTE modifier, and reduced by the defender's armour. Heavier armour provides greater protection from blows, but also reduces the defender's maximum DEFT modifier accordingly.
So, roll dice (based on weapon type), add the attacker's BRUTE modifier and deduct the defender's armour rating; reduce the defender's Vigour by the result.
How much damage can a character sustain?
Vigour? What's that? Oh yes, that. As characters progress in experience they become better able to survive fights, which we'll represent with a stat called Vigour. This is something of an abstraction, representing their overall ability to keep fighting - a combination of stamina, pain threshold, physical resilience and raw determination. When a character runs out of Vigour they are out of the fight - unconscious or worse.
Vigour increases by a moderate amount as the character gains levels to represent characters becoming better at resisting exhaustion, enduring pain, and fighting on in spite of injury. Fighty classes will tend to gain Vigour at a faster rate than less-fighty classes. Whoever runs out of Vigour first is out of the fight - exhausted, unconscious, cowed, or otherwise incapacitated. Alternatively they could keep on fighting anyway - but this runs the risk of character death, and there's no coming back from that.
Summary
Combat is generally a matter of attrition. Some character classes (the Jinx in particular) will have abilities they can throw into the mix to make things more interesting, but at its heart it's a matter of characters hitting one another until someone falls over.
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