Advanced Combat Rules

On this page, you can find some other short but important combat rules to keep in mind whenever characters are engaged in battle.

Temporary Conditions

A character may be affected by Temporary Conditions in and sometimes out of combat, you can use the following table to identify the effects of these conditions. More unique temporary conditions can also be inflicted by some equipment or abilities, the rules for which will be included in the corresponding piece of gear or ability.

Common Temporary Conditions

  • Every turn, or every 6 seconds, the character receives 1 points of Direct Damage per stack of Acid (up to 3), and the Acid expires 1 minute after the last point was received. A character affected by acid after a battle does not re-fill their hit points until the acid has expired.

  • A character that is afraid cannot move closer to the source of their fear and any tests against the source of their fear have Major Disadvantage. The character can attempt an Insight[Willpower 2] test at the end of each of their turns to remove the condition.

  • A Berserk character will attempt to use all their AP to attack the closest enemy as long as they are able to do so, in lieu of any other actions. The character can normally attempt an Insight[Willpower 2] test at the end of each of their turns to remove the condition.

  • A blinded character has Major Disadvantage on all tests that require sight and cannot use Ranged attacks or Line of Sight dependent abilities.

  • Any attacks against a Corroded character gain a +X damage modifier. Corrosion needs to be removed over one hour with an Intelligence[Crafting 2] test or a Strength[Crafting 2] test, or may be neutralized with Soothall.

  • A Distracted character has a Disadvantage on their next Skill Test.

  • An encouraged character can add an Advantage to one skill test of their choosing until the end of their next turn.

  • An exhausted character has X disadvantages on all Strength, Endurance and Dexterity tests. A character's exhaustion level is reduced by 1 over a one hour rest, or fully reset over an 8 hour rest.

  • A fatigued character has X disadvantages on all Insight, Intelligence and Charisma tests. A character's fatigue level is reduced by 1 over a one hour rest, or fully reset over an 8 hour rest.

  • A character is flanked when they are being attacked in melee by two or more enemy characters, attacked from behind or attacked by an enemy they are unaware of. Attacks against a character that is flanked have an advantage, some training, conditions and abilities require that characters are flanked in order to trigger.

  • A grappled character cannot use reactions nor any movement or free step actions and has Major Disadvantage on all Strength and Dexterity based skill tests - except those to break out of the grapple.

  • A hidden character has not been detected by enemies and cannot be directly targeted by attacks and abilities.

  • An immobilized character cannot use any movement or free move actions.

  • Character has a Strength, Endurance or Dexterity Injury. Each injury has a different effect, if this character takes another Injury of the same type they receive a wound instead.

  • A paralyzed character cannot use any actions or reactions whatsoever and their Passive Evasion becomes 1.

  • A poisoned character has disadvantage on all Skill tests. Poison can be treated over an hour with an Intelligence[Medicine 3] test or removed with a Detoxer. After 8 hours, a character may attempt an Endurance[Fortitude 2] test to shake off the poison and on a failure, the Poison becomes an Endurance Wound instead. Additionally, if a character receives further poisoned while already poisoned, the difficulty of this test increases by 1, to a maximum of 5.

  • A character is considered prone if they are laying on the ground or on their knees. Prone characters' cover is increased by one degree and they have an advantage on ranged attacks and disadvantage on melee attacks. Any melee attack against a Prone character gains Major Advantage. Prone characters are also considered Flanked, so flanking them provides no further benefits.

  • A slowed character has their movement speed halved (rounded up).

  • A stunned character loses 1 Action Point at the beginning of their next turn, after which they are no longer stunned

  • A surprised character can take no actions, has no reactions and their passive evasion is set to 1 until the end of their next turn.

  • A taunted character must direct any attack they make during their turn at the enemy that taunted them, as long as it is safe and possible for them to do so.

  • A character using a Sneak Attack or Take Your Time attack against a Vulnerable target can expend the quality to add +1D damage for each stack of Vulnerable on the target, up to +4D of damage.

    Vulnerable expires after 1 minute or when expended.

  • A character targeted by an attack can expend the quality as a reaction to reduce the damage from the attack by -1D for every stack of Ward expended, to a maximum of -4D.

    Warded expires after 1 minute or when expended.

  • A wounded character has Disadvantage on all tests using their wounded characteristic until the wound is treated. Penalties from several wounds on the same characteristic do not stack.

Stamina and Exertion

Stamina is a resource character have to use in combat to increase their effectiveness or perform special actions known as Combat Maneuvers.

Whenever a character uses an action in combat which requires a test using a Physical attribute, they can spend a point of Stamina to Exert, which mean they gain an advantage. If an action would require more than Physical test, characters can Exert in each test at the cost of one stamina per test. (This includes Damage tests that use a Physical attribute).

A character can recover Stamina using expendable items, abilities or Rest actions in combat - furthermore, much like Hit Points, a character recovers all their Stamina after being out of combat and out of danger for at least one minute.

Additionally, its possible for a Character to Exert or use a Combat Maneuver even without Stamina;

  • A character at 0 Stamina can Exert at any Physical tests during their turn, but gain the Exhausted(+1) condition at the end of their turn.

  • A character at 0 Stamina can use a Combat Maneuver but they must pass a Fortitude(Endurance) test where the difficulty is the Stamina cost of the maneuver. If successful, the character uses the Maneuver and gains the Exhausted(+1) condition immediately afterwards.

Out of combat a character can Exert to gain Major Advantage on one Physical test. They must declared they are Exerting before they roll the test and gain the Exhausted(+1) condition immediately afterwards.

Degrading Armor

Sometimes, characters will find themselves facing enemies that are extremely heavily armored, to the point where their weapons or attacks seem useless. Fortunately, no armor is impregnable and as armor takes more and more hits, it will start to degrade and lose its effectiveness. For every 10 points of damage armor absorbs from a single attack, its AV is reduced by 1, so the minimum armor a character can usually have is 9 AV.

For example, if a character has 21 points of armor and takes an attack that deals 30 points of damage. The armor would absorb 21 points of that damage, the remaining 9 would go through to DR or HP, and the armor would degrade by 2 points, down to 19 AV.

Armor damaged in such way can get properly repaired whenever the character visits a settlements, town or location with the facilities to do so. On the field or in the middle of a mission, degraded sets of Armor can receive some emergency repairs from a Mechacrafter equipped with a toolbox or smithing tools with an Intelligence[Crafting] test, with each success repairing 1 point of AV or DR, but each test to do so takes 1 hour. On the other hand, any AV or DR a character gains from gene mods, traits or training is instead recovered over a long rest.

Burst Attacks


Some weapons have a special quality called Burst. This means the weapon is able to fire a barrage of projectiles at the enemy. Since rolling a full attack for each shot would be too time consuming, you may use the following steps to resolve a Burst Attack;

  1. Create a pool of dice equal to the weapon's Burst Value plus the firing character's Aim Skill - any advantages the character might have on the attack or damage test add a die to this pool, while disadvantages remove dice.

  2. Roll the dice and compare the results to the target's passive evasion. Any die with a result greater than the target's passive evasion is a hit.

  3. Compare your hits with the ammunition left in the weapon, after all, you cannot deal damage with bullets you do not have. Discard any hits you do not have ammunition for.

  4. Multiply the number of hits by the Damage the weapon deals. For example, if you get 5 hits on a weapon with a damage value of 4 points, you deal a total a 20 points of damage.

  5. Apply the damage to the target as if it were a normal attack and subtract ammunition from the weapon for each shot.

  6. Just like a normal ranged attack, any shots that miss the target might hit adjacent targets, starting with the closest one.

If a burst attack possesses any special quality such as Shock, Knockdown, etc, these are applied once to each target struck by the attack.

Area of Effect Attacks

Some weapons, such as grenades, missiles, flamethrowers, etc., may affect a large area and every character within. These weapons will have either the Blast or Template quality.

Blast weapons affect an depending the type of blast they are, as shown in the graphic below. Blast (1) weapons affect everything within 5 feet of their point of impact whereas Blast (2) weapons have a radius of 10 feet, and so on.

When using a blast weapon, the central point of the blast (marked with a red dot in the example) must be within the range of the weapon. Once the central point is determined, the character must pass an Aim test against a GM determined difficulty (Usually between 2 and 4)). If the test fails, the blast will scatter in a random direction (decided by a d6) a number of feet equal to 5 times the amount of successes the character failed by. It is possible for a weapon to scatter out of range. If the weapon hits a wall or similar obstacle while scattering, it stops there.

Template weapons, on the other hand, work by drawing a single, straight line directly away from the shooter, in the direction they are facing. The starting point of the line can be anywhere up to the max range of the weapon and the length of the line is determined by the weapon quality. So, for example a Template (2) weapon would affect ten feet in a line, whereas a Template (5) weapon would affect 25 feet.

Physical objects that grant full cover interrupt Area of Effect attacks they are between a character and the source of the blast. Area of Effect attacks do not roll to hit, they automatically strike anyone within the line, however, characters that are not prone or paralyzed can attempt a Dexterity[Evasion 2] test to half the damage dealt by the attack, though the difficulty of the test may vary depending on the attack and the character using it.

Blast 1

Blast 2

Takedowns

It is entirely possible that a group might manage to kill an enemy, even a powerful one, with a single well-placed shot. If a party manages to sneak undetected past sleeping guards, kill the alarms and the lights, then move in and try to slit their throats they might be able to end the enemy group before there is even a need to call for Initiative. For situations such as these, it is recommended that GMs use Takedown rules.

Takedowns are one or more Skill Challenges or even Guile Encounters to represent the steps required to defeat or neutralize the enemy without engaging in combat or even having to kill them. A Takedown might be a single, medium difficulty skill challenge to restrain and tie-up a sleeping grunt, or several strung together to deal with a powerful or influential, well protected figure. You can use the following table for suggestions on how to determine how many skills challenges a take-down attempt might need and what the difficulty for them might be. It is also recommended that advantages are granted to the players for using their character’s backgrounds, contacts and specialties to gain an edge during the takedown attempt.

Remember that one failed skill challenge or guile encounter won't necessary ruin the takedown attempt, but may increase the difficulty of the final takedown itself. It is also entirely possible that the target might be entirely too powerful, resilient or skilled to be taken down in a single attempt.

GMs should reward a successful takedown attempt - while it might not be possible to defeat the big bad evil guy with a single skill challenge, if the group prepared properly and successful executed heir plans the GM can apply one of the following effects in the final confrontation;

  • The Target starts the encounter with an Injury.

  • The Target starts the encounter with a Wound.

  • The Target starts the encounter with fewer hit points.

  • The Target starts the encounter unarmed or missing some significant piece of gear.

  • The Target is Surprised for the first round of the encounter.

Combat Maneuvers

Combat Maneuvers are special actions characters can use in combat, though some are available to all characters, many require specialized training to perform. A character can normally use a single combat maneuver each turn.