Combat

Combat here will be resolved using 3rd Edition rules then modified by house rules.

Each turn of combat consists of three steps:

  1. Initiative, where everyone rolls to see what order actions will go in.
  2. Actions of the turn take place in the order determined by initiative.
  3. Resolution of actions.

Initiative

Initiative is the determination of what actions occur in what order. Each player and NPC will have an Initiative rating, which is simply Dexterity + Wits. When the roll for initiative is called, each player/NPC will then roll 1 die and add their rating to the roll.

Once the order is determined, players and NPC's will declare their turns actions starting with the lowest Init score and moving up. This gives faster players the chance to see what the others are doing. Actions are taken however in the order of highest to lowest. Reserving your action, using powers or disciplines, doing multiple actions must be declared now.

Actions

During this phase, the Judge will have the players roll dice to complete their actions. The action order is again starting with the highest Init score and moving down the list. If a player had reserved an action, they may break into the order at any point UNDER their own Init score.

The most basic actions are those of attacking and dodging. Powers and other supernatural gifts will be dealt with as per their own sphere rules. Combat basically devolves into 2 categories: Close combat or ranged Combat. Difficulty for any attack roll has a base difficulty of 6. This will then be modified by factors such as long range, point blank range, weapon scopes, etc. The Judge is final arbiter of what modifiers will apply to a roll.

Unarmed Combat Attacks will roll Dexterity + Brawl. Armed combat will use Dexterity + Melee. For ranged Combat, the rolls are Dexterity + Firearms for guns, Dexterity + Athletics for thrown weapons and Dexterity + Archery for bows and crossbows. Dodging also takes place during this phase. A dodge can be planned by being declared during Init phase or if the PC has an action left, that action may be aborted in favor of a dodge.

Resolution

A single success designates a hit and any successes beyond the first are added to the damage roll. Damage comes in three flavors, bashing, lethal and aggravated. Mortals can soak bashing damage and bashing covers any sort of blunt force trauma. Gunfire, edged weapons, claws, basically anything that pierces the skin does lethal damage, which is soakable only by supernaturals such as Weres, Vampires and others. Aggravated damage refers to magical damage or damage from things like fire, acid and other exceeding nasty things. A soak roll is made to absorb damage, typically using Stamina at Diff 6. If the PC has armor, this may be added to the roll.

Once the determination of damage levels is complete from damage roll to soak, it is then applied to the character and penalties should be reaffirmed by the Judge to each injured player.

Note, Multiple actions from celerity or other types of powers take place after the initial run through. Everyone does their first action, the actions are resolved and then those with second actions would go just as if it's a normal round. This will continue until all actions are expended. (This includes those performing multiple actions without powers.) Defensive actions take place at the same time as the attack they are to affect.

Multiple actions

If a person declares multiple actions (These are non magical/power driven actions, ie someone without celerity/rage) then you subtract the total number of actions from the first actions dice pool. Each additional action loses another die. So if Joe Mortal wants to fire 3 shots from his trusty .45, he would take his dice pool of 6 and subtract 3 dice from it for the first shot. The Second shot he would subtract 4 dice and from the third it would be 5 dice. This means shot #1 gets to use 3 dice, shot #2 uses 2, and the third shot uses a single die. These shots are made at the normal difficulty with standard modifiers. If the actions are different, the dice pool of that action is used. If you are shooting and dodging, the shot would be rolled at Firearms+Dexterity-2, and the dodge would be at Dexterity+Dodge-3.

Defensive actions

Each success on a defensive action negates 1 success of an offensive one. If the attacker rolls 3 successes then the defender needs to score 3 or more successes to totally evade the attack.

  • Blocking is trying to stop a non lethal/agg damage attack with your own body. The roll is made at Diff 6 and uses Dexterity + Brawl. Lethal and Agg attacks may not be blocked unless you have armor or Fortitude.
  • Dodging attempts to evade an attack entirely. The roll is made using Dexterity + Dodge at Diff 6. If a full dodge is declared, the PC dodging may use their entire dice pool for the first attack, and -1 die for each additional attack. Attack #1 they get full dice. Attack #2 they would use full dice -1, third would be full dice -2, etc.
  • Parry uses a weapon to block or deflect an incoming brawl or melee attack. The roll is made with Dexterity + Melee at Diff 6. If used to parry an incoming brawl attack and the PC parrying rolls more successes than the attacker, the defending PC then rolls their weapons normal damage as if the parry was an attack.

Cheat sheet

Step Notes
Initiative Init rating (Dexterity + Wits) + 1d10
Actions
Resolution damage
Attack Roll Damage
Brawl Dexterity + Brawl Strength
Melee Dexterity + Melee depends on weapon
Firearms Dexterity + Firearms depends on weapon
Thrown Dexterity + Athletics (throwing) depends on weapon
Bite Dexterity + Brawl Strength + 1
Claw Dexterity + Brawl Strength + 1
Kick Dexterity + Brawl Strength
Defense Roll
Block Dexterity + Brawl
Parry Dexterity + Melee
Dodge Dexterity + Dodge
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