Combat

Combat is more structured than standard narrative time, since it is also more high stakes. Combat will still naturally flow between the players and the GM performing actions; however, there are some structures on Action Order during combat to keep things fair.

Action Order

During combat, though many events happen simultaneously in a game, we need to do them in a sequence. This sequence is concerned with two primary issues, Who Goes First and Who Goes Next?

Who Goes First

The first Character to act in combat is always the first Character to perform a hostile action.

If someone wants to perform something hostile and someone else is aware and able to stop them, the player does a Reflexes Opposed Difficulty(Reflexes) test. If they succeed, they act first, otherwise the target does.

Who Goes Next

After any action in combat, the next character to act should be from the other group of Player Characters and the Game Master.

So if a GM controlled soldier attacks a player’s character, the next character to act should be player controlled.

Guidelines

  • If possible, a single Character cannot take repeat turns for their team.
  • A player who was just the Opponent of an Action should get the first opportunity to perform an Action if they have something in mind.

Followers

If a character has Follower they may be selected to act instead of a Player Character.

Overwhelming Odds

If the players or the non-players meaningfully outnumber each other one way or another, then the side with the larger numbers can take two actions in a row before the other team gets to respond to represent the swarm of people.

Threat

A measure of how dangerous and threatening a person is. Used to weight who unintelligent monsters target at random as well as makes it harder to fight with ranged weapons when In Melee.

  • A character that is unarmed still has a base threat of 1.
  • A character that is unconscious or otherwise detained should have a threat of 0.

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