The complete combat system occupies three chapters. This chapter contains the core combat rules. Chapter 12 adds rules for playing out combat using counters or figures on a hexagonal grid. Chapter 13 provides rules for a number of special combat situations. Like the character-creation system in Book 1, the combat system applies equally to PCs and NPCs.

The GM decides when to start using the combat rules. This will generally be when fighting seems likely and combatants begin maneuvering for tactical advantage. The GM may also use these rules to resolve “action” situations such as chases and tournaments.

Combat takes place second by second. Each character actively involved in the combat gets one opportunity to act per second, referred to as his “turn.” After everyone has taken his turn, one second has passed.

The GM shouldn’t feel constrained by the one-second time scale. This is just a way of breaking a battle into manageable chunks! He should feel free to drop out of combat time whenever dramatically appropriate, and to resume combat time when noncombat action gives way to more fighting. Consider a running gunfight in which the combatants leap across rooftops and chase each other up and down rickety fire escapes: the GM could resolve this through roleplaying and DX or skill rolls (against Jumping, etc.), interspersed with a few seconds of combat whenever he feels the opponents have a clear shot at each other.

An “active character” is involved in the combat and able to take action. A character who is knocked out, asleep, etc. is not active. But someone who chooses to do nothing is still active – “Do Nothing” is a valid combat maneuver (see p. 364).

The “turn sequence” is the order in which active characters take their turns. It is set at the start of the fight and does not change during combat. The combatant with the highest Basic Speed goes first and takes his turn, then the one with the next-highest Basic Speed, and so on, in descending order by Basic Speed. Once every active character has taken his turn, one second has passed and another second begins.

Tied Speeds: If multiple NPCs on the same side have the same Basic Speed, the GM simply decides who goes first – it isn’t really important. If PCs are involved, ties go to the highest DX. If there’s still a tie, GM should roll randomly at the start of the combat to determine who acts first, and use that order throughout the combat.

Sequence Chart: If a combat has many participants, the GM may find it useful to make a quick list of the order in which the combatants take their turns.

A given participant’s turn is the one-second period that stretches from when he chooses a maneuver until his next opportunity to select a maneuver. This overlaps the turns of other characters.

A “maneuver” is an action that you can take on your turn. Each turn, you must choose one of the following maneuvers: Aim, All-Out Attack, All-Out Defense, Attack, Change Posture, Concentrate, Do Nothing, Evaluate, Feint, Move, Move and Attack, Ready, or Wait. Your choice determines what you can do on your turn, and sets your options for active defense and movement.

Ordinary characters can only take a single maneuver when it is their turn to act, limiting them to one maneuver per second. However, a few traits allow you to act with superhuman speed and take multiple maneuvers per turn!

Some maneuvers are described as “full-turn” maneuvers. If you take one of these, it’s the only maneuver you can perform on your turn, regardless of how fast you can act. You are assumed to be performing that maneuver for an entire second.

The maneuver you choose affects your “active defenses” – your ability to dodge, parry, or block attacks (see Defending, p. 374). You only have to select an active defense if you are attacked. Your most recent maneuver governs the active defenses you can use.

For the purpose of active defenses, your maneuver is considered to be in effect until you select another maneuver on your next turn. For instance, if you chose All-Out Defense (which gives a defensive advantage), its benefits would apply if you were attacked after you took your turn, and would persist until it was your turn again and you took a different maneuver. If you’re attacked before you’ve had a chance to choose a maneuver – usually at the start of combat – you’re considered to be taking a Do Nothing maneuver (see p. 364).

Most maneuvers allow some form of movement. The Move and Move and Attack maneuvers allow you to move quickly, up to a number of yards equal to your full Move score. Other maneuvers, such as All-Out Attack, limit you to a fraction of your full Move.

Many maneuvers restrict movement to a “step.” This is movement up to 1/10 your Move, minimum 1 yard, in any direction, a change of facing (for instance, to turn around), or both. You can perform your step before or after the rest of the maneuver; for instance, you could step and attack or attack and step.

Some maneuvers allow no movement. In particular, you cannot move if you Change Posture or Do Nothing. For more on movement, see Move (p. 364) and Movement and Combat (p. 367).

“Free actions” are things you can do during any maneuver. Some examples:

Talk. You can always talk. If the GM wants to be realistic, he should allow only one sentence of communication per second… but it is usually more fun when you ignore this limitation!

Maintain spells or psi. As long as you remain active, you can maintain a spell or ongoing psi ability, no matter what else you do.

Drop an item. You can drop any “ready” item at any time during any maneuver. If you’re moving, you may drop it at any point within your reach during your movement.

Crouch. If standing, you may opt to crouch (to make yourself a smaller target for ranged attacks) at the beginning of your turn. This will usually slow your movement speed (see Movement, p. 367), and you cannot crouch and sprint. If you were already crouching, it is a free action to rise from a crouching position at any time.

Anyone who is just standing still is assumed to be doing nothing. In particular, when combat begins, anyone who has not yet taken a turn is treated as if he took this maneuver before entering combat.

Someone who is conscious but stunned or surprised must take this maneuver. On each turn of Do Nothing, he may attempt a HT roll to recover from physical stun or an IQ roll to recover from mental stun. On a success, he recovers at the end of his turn – that is, he Does Nothing this turn, but may act normally next turn.

Movement: None!
Active Defense: Any (unless you’re tied up, etc.). If you are stunned, however, your active defenses are at -4 until your next turn – even if you recover.

Move, but take no other action except those specified under Free Actions (p. 363). You may move any number of yards up to your full Move score. Most other maneuvers allow at least some movement on your turn; take this maneuver if all you want to do is move.

Players must tell the GM exactly where their PCs move to so that he can keep track of the combat. The GM decides where his NPCs move, and will inform any players whose PCs are in a position to witness the movement. If you are controlling a vehicle or riding a mount, take a Move maneuver to spend the turn actively controlling it. Instead of you moving, the vehicle or mount moves on your turn (carrying you and other occupants). See Mounted Combat (p. 396) and Vehicles (p. 462) for details.

Sprinting: If you run forward for two or more turns in a row, you get bonus movement on your second and later moves; see Sprinting (p. 354).

Movement: See above.
Active Defense: Any.

This maneuver lets you switch between any two “postures” (stances in which you can pose your body).

Valid postures are standing, sitting, kneeling, crawling, lying prone (face down), and lying face up. Any posture other than standing slows your movement and penalizes your attack and defense rolls, but also makes you a smaller target for ranged attacks.

You cannot stand up directly from a lying position. If you are lying (prone or face up), you must take a Change Posture maneuver to rise to a crawling, kneeling, or sitting posture first. A second Change Posture maneuver lets you stand from any of these postures. (Going from standing up to lying down, however, only takes one maneuver – or none at all, if the change was involuntary!)

You can switch between kneeling and standing (only) as the “step” portion of any maneuver that allows a step – you don’t need Change Posture for that. This is instead of using the step to move. Thus, you could go from prone to kneeling with a Change Posture maneuver on one turn, and then stand up in place on your next turn by taking a maneuver that allows a step.

Crouching does not require a Change Posture maneuver; see Free Actions (p. 363).

Movement: None. You remain in place as you change posture.
Active Defense: Any. Postures other than standing penalize your defense rolls, but also make you a smaller target for ranged attacks.

This is a full-turn maneuver used to aim a ranged weapon (or a device such as a camera or telescope). You must choose a specific target. You can’t aim at something that you can’t see or otherwise detect.

Specify the weapon you’re aiming with and your target. If you follow an Aim maneuver with an Attack or All- Out Attack with the same weapon against the same target, you get a bonus to hit. Add the weapon’s Accuracy (Acc) to your skill, plus any bonuses for targeting systems used: sights, targeting computers, etc. If you brace a firearm or crossbow, you get an extra +1 to Acc. A firearm or crossbow is braced if you can rest it on a sandbag, low wall, car, etc. A onehanded firearm (e.g., a pistol) is considered braced if used two-handed. A two-handed firearm (e.g., a rifle) is considered braced if you are prone and using a bipod.

If you Aim for more than one second, you receive an additional bonus: +1 for two seconds of Aim, or +2 for three or more seconds.

Your combined bonus from all targeting systems (scopes, sights, computers, etc.) cannot exceed the weapon’s base Accuracy. For instance, if you add a telescopic sight that gives +4 Acc to a pistol with Acc 2, the bonus is +2, not +4.

Movement: Step. Exception: You cannot step if using a braced, two-handed weapon.
Active Defense: Any, but you automatically spoil your aim and lose all accumulated benefits. If you are injured while aiming, you must make a Will roll or lose your aim.

This maneuver is the melee combat equivalent of Aim. It lets you take time to study an adversary in order to gain a combat bonus on a subsequent attack. You must specify one visible opponent who is close enough to attack unarmed or with a ready melee weapon, or whom you could reach with a single Move and Attack maneuver. You are sizing him up and looking for the right moment to strike.

An Evaluate maneuver gives you +1 to skill for the purpose of an Attack, Feint, All-Out Attack, or Move and Attack made against that opponent, on your next turn only. You may take multiple, consecutive Evaluate maneuvers before you strike, giving a cumulative +1 per turn, to a maximum of +3.

Movement: Step.
Active Defense: Any. This does not spoil your evaluation.

Use this maneuver to make an armed or unarmed attack in melee combat, or to use a thrown or missile weapon in ranged combat. To use a weapon to attack, it must be ready.

If you are using a melee weapon or unarmed attack, your target must be within reach. Resolve the attack as explained under Melee Attacks (pp. 369-372). If you took an Evaluate maneuver (above) last turn, you will have a bonus to hit. If you took a Feint (below), your opponent may have a penalty to defend.

If you are using a ranged weapon, your target must be within the weapon’s Max range. Resolve the attack according to Ranged Attacks (pp. 372-374). If you took an Aim maneuver (p. 364) last turn, you will have a bonus to hit.

Movement: Step. You may step and then attack or attack and then step – your choice. To move further and still attack, take All-Out Attack or Move and Attack.
Active Defense: Any.

“Fake” a melee attack. You cannot Feint someone unless you could have hit him with a melee attack – that is, your weapon is ready and your foe is within reach. This maneuver is not an attack, though, and does not make your weapon unready.

When you Feint, roll a Quick Contest of Melee Weapon skills with your foe; if either of you is unarmed, you may roll against an unarmed combat skill instead. Your opponent may opt to roll against Cloak or Shield skill, if he is suitably equipped and this would give him a better roll. If his DX is better than his combat skills, he may roll against DX instead.

If you fail your roll, your Feint is unsuccessful. Likewise, if you succeed, but your foe succeeds by as much as or more than you do, your Feint fails.

If you make your roll, and your foe fails, subtract your margin of success from the foe’s active defense if you attack him with Attack, All-Out Attack, or Move and Attack on your next turn. For instance, if your skill is 15 and you roll a 12, your foe defends against you at -3 next turn.

If you and your foe both succeed, but you succeed by more, subtract your margin of victory from the foe’s defense. For instance, if your skill is 15 and you roll a 10 (success by 5), and your foe’s skill is 14 and he rolls 12 (success by 2), you win by 3, so he will defend at -3 if your next maneuver is to attack him.

You cannot Feint if your foe is unable to observe you! However, if your foe runs away, turns his back on you, or loses sight of you in some way after you successfully Feint, he will still suffer his defense penalty if you attack him on your next turn. If you lose track of the foe, or cannot attack him next turn, your foe’s defense penalty vanishes.

A Feint is good for one second! But if you Feint and then make an All-Out Attack (Double), the feint applies to both attacks.

In all cases, your allies cannot take advantage of your Feint. The defense penalty applies only to your next attack.

Shield Feints: After you have attacked your foe once by striking with your shield (see p. 406), you may also Feint with your shield, rolling against Shield skill.

Movement: Step.
Active Defense: Any. However, if you Feint and then parry with an unbalanced weapon, you cannot attack on your next turn, making your Feint pointless.

Attack any foe with a ready weapon, making no effort to defend against enemy attacks. If you are making a melee attack, you must specify one of these four options before you attack:

• Determined: Make a single attack at +4 to hit!

• Double: Make two attacks against the same foe, if you have two ready weapons or one weapon that does not have to be readied after use. Attacks with a second weapon held in the off hand are at the usual -4 (see Handedness, p. 14) unless you have Ambidexterity (p. 39).

• Feint: Make one Feint (see above) and then one attack against the same foe. The Feint applies to this attack instead of one you make on your next turn.

• Strong: Make a single attack, at normal skill. If you hit, you get +2 to damage – or +1 damage per die, if that would be better. This only applies to melee attacks doing ST-based thrust or swing damage, not to weapons such as force swords.

If you are making a ranged attack, you must specify one of these two options before you attack:

• Determined: Make a single attack at +1 to hit.

• Suppression Fire: Take the entire turn to spray an area with automatic fire. This is a full-turn maneuver, and you can only choose this option if your weapon has RoF 5+. See Suppression Fire (p. 409).

Movement: You may move up to half your Move, but you can only move forward.
Active Defense: You may make no active defenses at all from the point you take this maneuver until your next turn. If someone attacks you after you make an All-Out attack, all you can do is hope he misses – you can’t dodge, parry, or block!

Move as described for the Move maneuver (p. 364), but during or after your move, make a single, poorly aimed attack – either unarmed or with a ready weapon. You attack as described for the Attack maneuver (above), but at a penalty. If you are making a ranged attack, you have a penalty of -2 or the weapon’s Bulk rating, whichever is worse – and if you took an Aim, you lose all of its bonuses. If you are making a melee attack other than a slam (p. 371), you have a flat -4 to skill, and your adjusted skill cannot exceed 9.

Movement: As described under the Move maneuver – but since you are trying to do two things at once, you are -2 on any rolls the GM requires to avoid falling, tripping over obstacles, etc.
Active Defense: Dodge or block only. You cannot parry and you may not retreat (see Retreat, p. 377).

This is the maneuver to choose when you’re beset by foes – especially foes who like All-Out Attacks! You must specify one of the following two options: • Increased Defense: Add +2 to one active defense of your choice: Dodge, Parry, or Block. This bonus persists until your next turn.

• Double Defense: Apply two different active defenses against the same attack. If you fail your defense roll against an attack, you may try a second, different defense against that attack. For instance, if you fail a block, you may try a dodge or a parry. If you try a parry (armed or unarmed) with one hand and fail, a parry using the other hand does count as a “different defense.”

Movement: If you choose Increased Dodge, you may move up to half your Move. Otherwise, the only movement you may take is a step.
Active Defense: You may choose any legal active defense, with bonuses as described above.

You concentrate on one primarily mental task (even it has a minor physical component, like operating controls, gesturing, or speaking). This may be casting a magical spell, using a psi ability, making a Sense roll to spot an invisible warrior, making a Leadership roll to give orders, making an Electronics Operation roll to operate a sensor, or any similar action, including most IQ-based skill rolls. This is a full-turn maneuver.

Some activities (e.g., casting spells) require you to take the Concentrate maneuver for multiple seconds. If you are forced to use an active defense, knocked down, injured, or otherwise distracted before you finish, you must make a Will-3 roll. On a failure, you lose your concentration and must start over.

Movement: Step.
Active Defense: Any. However, it interferes with concentration as noted above.

Take a Ready maneuver to pick up or draw any item and prepare it for use; e.g., to pull a sword from its sheath or a gun from its holster, or to reload a firearm. In some cases, you may also need a Ready maneuver to regain control of an unwieldy weapon after a swing, or to adjust the reach of a long weapon – see the Melee Weapon Table (p. 271).

You can use a Ready maneuver to perform physical actions other than fighting: opening or closing a door, picking a lock, digging, lifting, etc. Continuing activities may require multiple, consecutive Ready maneuvers; see Other Actions in Combat (p. 382).

Finally, a Ready maneuver lets you switch an advantage “off” or “on” if it is not always on and does not require an Attack or Concentrate maneuver to use.

For more information, see Readying Weapons and Other Gear (p. 382) and When Is a Weapon Ready? (p. 382).

Movement: Step.
Active Defense: Any.

Do nothing unless a particular event you specified in advance occurs before your next turn; e.g., a foe moves into range. If that happens, you may transform your Wait into an Attack, Feint, All-Out Attack (you must specify the option before acting), or Ready maneuver. If you are reacting to someone else, this interrupts his turn, but he can resume it after you’ve acted.

You must specify exactly what your action will be when you take the Wait maneuver, and what will trigger it. For instance, “I’ll make an All-Out Attack (Determined) with my sword on the first orc to move toward me.”

You may take a Wait with a ready ranged weapon; this is known as “covering” a target or area. If so, you must specify the zone that you are covering with that weapon. There is no penalty to cover a one-yard area. For larger areas and additional rules, see Opportunity Fire (p. 390).

You can use the Wait maneuver for any “reflex action” you want to plan in advance, provided you specify both the response and the action that will trigger it. This can include holding a knife at a hostage’s throat, or even a noncombat action (e.g., “If Dora sees any orcs, she will pull this rope immediately – otherwise, she does nothing.”). An action only qualifies as a “reflex” if you could do it in a single motion. The GM’s decision is final.

Finally, you can use Wait to coordinate actions with slower friends.

Stop Thrust: If you have a ready thrusting weapon, you can use a Wait to brace your weapon to receive a possible enemy charge. Simply state, “I brace for a stop thrust.” You can convert your Wait into an Attack or All-Out Attack against any one foe that moves one or more yards toward you to make a melee attack (armed or unarmed, including a slam or a grapple) or evade (see Evading, p. 368). You strike first if you have the longer reach. If you hit and your foe fails to defend, add +1 to thrust damage for every two full yards your attacker moved toward you.

Movement: None until your Wait is triggered. At that point, you may move as allowed by the maneuver you specified (Attack, Feint, All-Out Attack, or Ready).
Active Defense: You may defend normally while you are waiting or after your Wait is triggered. But if you defend while taking a Wait, you may not transform your Wait into an All- Out Attack; you must convert your Wait into an Attack instead.

You take a Ready maneuver, making no effort to defend against enemy attacks. If the action in question requires a roll, such as a setup maneuver for a technique or readying an item while grappling, then you get +4 to DX-based rolls or +2 to ST-based rolls.

Movement: You may remain stationary, turn in place to face any hex, or run forward. If you turn or move forward, you may perform the desired action at any point during or after the move. If you move forward, you may move up to two hexes or expend movement points equal to half your Move (round up), whichever is more, and may not change facing at the end of your move.

Active Defense: None! You may make no active defenses between when you take this maneuver and your next turn.

Move as described for the Move maneuver, but also take one poorly coordinated action from ones listed under the Ready maneuver. This requires a DX-2 roll; failure means you fail to perform the Ready action, but still suffer the defensive penalties for this maneuver. Failure by 5+ or a critical failure means that you drop the object you were readying, spill the potion you were trying to drink, or fumble your action in a similar way. If the Ready action was to turn an ability on or off, then make a Will-2 roll instead.

Movement: You receive movement points equal to your current Move score – but trying to do two things at once gives you ‑2 on all rolls to avoid falling down, and to avoid obstacles or traps.

Active Defense: Any – but you cannot parry or block with the object you’ve just readied, and you cannot retreat.

Basic movement does not require a game board. Instead, the GM should have a general idea of the environment, and mentally keep track of relative distances between combatants or objects – possibly referring to maps, notes, or diagrams. Should the players ask about reach or distance (“I want to run up and swing at him… how far away is he?”), the GM’s judgment is final.

Since movement and facing issues are in the GM’s head, it’s up to the GM how much detail to give the players. The GM might carefully keep track of every yard of movement, taking notes on paper… or he might only worry about exact distances when they are of vital importance. Most GMs will want to adopt a middle ground. For example:

GM: “You see Indigo Joe 90 yards north of you. He’s at the edge of the cemetery, crouched behind a tombstone, aiming his laser rifle at Kim.”

Player: “Damn, he spotted us. Is there any cover nearby? I want to run toward it.”

GM: “An outcropping of rock starts 7 yards to your northwest, and there are some trees about 10 yards to the east. Your helicopter is parked 10 yards behind you, if you want to fall back.”

Player: “No way! Kim will use a Move and Attack. She runs her full Move toward the rocks, while firing at Indigo Joe with her Gauss rifle.”

GM: “Fine. You have Move 5? Okay, you’re now 2 yards from cover. Now it’s Joe’s turn. He fires an aimed shot . . .”

The GM should always provide enough detail to give the players tactical choices, but not so much as to overwhelm them. If things get confusing, a sketch map with a few notes can often help. Groups that desire more detail than that should consider using the tactical combat system in Chapter 12 – or at least adopting some of those rules to add extra detail to the guidelines given here.

Here are a few “rules of thumb” for movement and combat. See Mounted Combat (p. 396) and Vehicles (p. 462) for notes on mounted and vehicular combat, respectively.

A combatant can move a maximum number of yards equal to his full Move score if he took a Move or Move and Attack maneuver. He can move up to half his Move if he chose an All-Out Attack or All Out Defense (Increased Dodge) maneuver.

Obstacles and bad footing will generally slow movement. The GM decides how many yards of movement a fighter must give up to cover one yard of difficult terrain or to cross a given obstacle. For instance, tangled brush might cut Move in half, while climbing over a fallen body might cost an extra yard of movement.

You can move while in almost any posture, but you only get your full Move if standing. You have 1/3 your Move while crawling or kneeling – and you have a flat Move 1 while lying down (belly crawl or rolling). You cannot move at all while sitting!

Most maneuvers allow you to take a step, either before or after another action. You may step a distance equal to 1/10 your Move, but never less than one yard. Round all fractions up. Thus, Move 1-10 gives a one-yard step, Move 11-20 gives a two-yard step, and so on.

If you are capable of steps greater than one yard, you may break up your movement in a turn. For instance, if you had a two-yard step, you could move one yard, make an attack, and move another yard during an Attack maneuver.

You can use a step to go from a kneeling to a standing posture (or vice versa) instead of moving. This requires your entire step, no matter how far you could normally move.

You may always turn to face a different direction as part of any step (or as the step, if you just want to change your facing).

A human-sized fighter needs about one yard (3’) of space; thus, two warriors could move down a passage two yards wide shoulder-to-shoulder – or hold it against a foe. A doorway is about one yard wide, so a single person could hold it. All this assumes room to attack and defend. Noncombatants could be packed in much more tightly, but they would have no room to react.

You can always move through space occupied by your allies in combat, and you can run around an adversary who does not completely block your path (see Spacing, above). But if the GM rules that the only way past an opponent is through him, you must either bowl him over (see Slam, p. 371) or “evade” him.

“Evading” is moving through ground occupied by an opponent without trying to knock him down. You can attempt this as part of any maneuver that allows movement, provided you can move fast enough to go past your foe – not just up to him. First, ask if your foe is trying to stop you. If he chooses to let you past, you “evade” him automatically – no roll is needed. If your foe wants to stop you, roll a Quick Contest of DX.

Modify your DX as follows:

• -5 if your foe is standing up.
• -2 if your foe is kneeling.
• +2 if you are approaching your foe from his right or left side.
• +5 if you are approaching your foe from behind.
• +5 if your foe is lying down.

If you win, you evade him and are free to move on. If you lose or tie, he got in your way and stopped you.

You cannot evade anyone while you are being grappled (see Grappling, p. 370). You cannot evade a foe if there is no logical way you could avoid hitting him, either (GM’s decision)… but note that huge creatures can step over smaller ones, while small creatures can duck between the legs of larger ones!

On the other hand, if you can use an advantage such as Flight or Super Jump to move up and over the foe’s reach in the vertical plane, you can evade him automatically!

If you are in a standing position, you can elect to crouch at the beginning of your turn, as part of any maneuver. If you don’t move, or if you only step, you may also crouch after performing another action such as attacking or readying. However, you may not move more than a step and then crouch at the end of your movement to avoid attacks – not in one second! But if you are already crouching, you may leave your crouch at any time as a free action.

An “attack” is an attempt to hit a foe or other target. If you execute an Attack, All-Out Attack, or Move and Attack maneuver (or convert a Wait into any of these), you may try to hit a foe. You can only attack with a weapon if it’s ready (see Ready, p. 366). The GM always has the option of ruling, for any reason having to do with the situation, that some fighters cannot attack certain opponents. For instance, eight attackers could not hit one human-sized foe at the same time. (Even three or four attackers at once would be unlikely, unless their victim had no allies!)

There are two basic types of attacks: melee attacks (pp. 369-372) and ranged attacks (pp. 372-374). Your target must be within reach if you’re making a melee attack, or within range if you’re making a ranged attack. Resolving either type of attack takes three die rolls:

• First is your attack roll. If your roll is successful, your attack was a good one.
• Now your foe must make a defense roll to see if he can defend against your blow. If he makes this roll, he evaded or stopped the attack, and is not hit.
• If he misses his defense roll, your blow struck home and you roll for damage.

Some advantages (e.g., Extra Attack) and combat options (see All- Out Attack, p. 365, and Rapid Strike, p. 370) let you attack more than once. Resolve such attacks one at a time.

Your “attack roll” is a regular success roll – see Chapter 10. Figure your effective skill (base skill plus or minus any appropriate modifiers) with the weapon you are using.

If your roll is less than or equal to your “effective” skill, your attack will hit unless your foe successfully defends (see Defending, p. 374). If he fails to defend – or if he can’t – you’ve hit him.

If your roll is greater than your effective skill, you missed! No matter what your effective skill, a roll of 3 or 4 always hits, and is a “critical hit”; see Critical Hits (p. 381). A roll of 17 or 18 always misses.

When you take a maneuver that lets you make a melee attack, you must specify who you are attacking, and with what weapon. You can make a melee attack using any ready melee weapon (including a natural weapon such as a kick, bite, or punch) against any target that is within reach.

You can use some weapons in more than one way; e.g., you can swing or thrust with a shortsword. Such weapons have multiple lines on the Melee Weapon Table (p. 271). When you attack with a weapon like this, you must indicate how you are using it before you roll.

Figure your adjusted chance to hit by:

• 1. Taking your base skill with the weapon or unarmed attack you are using.
• 2. Applying all conditional modifiers for your maneuver, situation, posture, and the target’s visibility. A

detailed list appears under Melee Attack Modifiers (p. 547).

• The result is your effective skill. A roll of this number or less is a successful attack roll. It will hit, unless the target succeeds with an active defense.

A one-handed weapon is ready if it’s being held in your hand. A two-handed weapon is ready if you are gripping it with both hands. Some unwieldy weapons (e.g., the great axe) become unready after each attack unless you are extremely strong; see the Melee Weapon Table to learn which weapons are unwieldy, and their ST requirements (always marked ‡).

To draw a new weapon from a sheath, scabbard, or sling, or to ready an unwieldy weapon that became unready after an attack, you must take a Ready maneuver (p. 366).

A natural weapon (punch, kick, etc.) is always ready unless the body part in question is occupied or restrained; e.g., you can’t punch if you are holding a weapon with the same hand, or bite while wearing a full-face helmet or gripping something with your teeth.

A melee weapon can only attack a target that is within its reach (measured in yards), as given on the Melee Weapon Table. Most weapons have a reach of 1, which means you must be adjacent to your target (that is, within one yard of him). Reach plays a much larger role if using a game board; see Chapter 12.

Before making a melee attack, you may specify some additional options.

It is assumed that you are attacking the target’s center of mass (the torso, on a human), unless you specify otherwise. If you wish to target another body part (e.g., the head), see Hit Location (p. 398). If you choose to attack his weapon, see Striking at Weapons (p. 400).

You may designate any melee attack as “deceptive” before you roll to hit. A Deceptive Attack is intended to get past an opponent’s defenses through sheer skill. You can use this option to represent any number of advanced fighting techniques.

For every -2 you accept to your own skill, your foe suffers a -1 penalty on his active defenses against this attack. You may not reduce your final effective skill below 10 with a Deceptive Attack, which normally limits it to skilled fighters.

The GM may opt to speed play by limiting Deceptive Attacks to a flat -4 to skill, giving the target -2 on his active defenses.

A Rapid Strike is a melee attack executed swiftly enough that you get one extra attack. You must take an Attack or All-Out Attack maneuver, and you must use a ready weapon to make the extra attack. Make two attacks, both at -6 to skill. You can target multiple opponents this way. If you already have multiple attacks, for whatever reason, you can replace one of them (and only one!) with two attacks at -6.

Sometimes you have to fight without weapons, or with improvised weapons. This is unarmed combat. Anyone can engage in unarmed combat, but certain skills make you a more effective unarmed fighter. For this purpose:

• Striking skills are Boxing (p. 182), Brawling (p. 182), and Karate (p. 203).
• Grappling skills are Judo (p. 203), Sumo Wrestling (p. 223), and Wrestling (p. 228).

See the Melee Weapon Table (p. 271) for the reach, damage, etc., of punches, kicks, bites, and other unarmed strikes. For additional options, see Sample Combat Techniques (p. 230) and Special Unarmed Combat Techniques (p. 403). And see Hurting Yourself (p. 379) for the effects of striking an armored target barehanded…

You can grab something a foe is holding, like a weapon. To do so, you must have an empty hand (but some weapons, such as whips, can also grab). Make an attack using DX or a grappling skill, with the usual penalty to hit the hand (-4). Your opponent defends normally. If you hit, you’ve grabbed hold of your foe’s weapon. On subsequent turns, you may try to wrest it from him. Each attempt is a full-turn maneuver. Roll a Regular Contest of ST. If you win, you take his weapon away. If you lose, you lose your grip on his weapon.

“Grappling” is an attempt to grab your foe’s body. You must have at least one empty hand. On a game board, you must also move into your foe’s hex (“close combat”). Each attempt requires an Attack, All-Out Attack, or Move and Attack maneuver. Roll against basic DX or a grappling skill to hit. Your foe may defend normally – he can parry, dodge, or block. You may Evaluate or Feint beforehand to improve your odds of success.

Grappling does no damage, but if you successfully hit, the foe has -4 to DX as long as you’re holding on. He may not move away until he breaks free (see Actions After Being Grappled, p. 371) or you let go. Exception: If you grapple a foe of more than twice your ST, you do not prevent him from moving away – you’re just extra encumbrance for him!

You may grapple with any or all of your arms. If you grapple with more than two arms, each arm beyond the first two gives a bonus of +2 to hit. An arm committed to grappling cannot make unarmed parries until you let go. Letting go is a free action on your turn.

If you are holding onto your foe with all your arms, the only further attacks you can make are those listed under Actions After a Grapple, below.

Posture: To grapple a prone, kneeling, or sitting opponent, you must kneel or lie down yourself, unless his Size Modifier is two or more greater than yours. You may do this as part of the “step” component of an Attack maneuver.

Hit Location: The rules above assume that you are grappling the torso. To grab another body part, apply half the penalty given under Hit Location (p. 398) to your roll; see Grappling and Hit Location, p. 400. If you hit, your foe has -4 to DX only when using that body part. You could grab a weapon arm or hand (to disarm your victim), a leg (to trip him), or the neck (to strangle him). If you grab an arm or hand, you cannot snatch a weapon away, but you can force your foe to drop it by winning a Regular Contest of ST – roll once per turn, as explained under Grabbing (above). For a related technique, see Arm Lock (p. 230).

Once you have grappled a foe, you may attempt the following moves on subsequent turns (provided your opponent does not break free!). Each action requires an Attack or All-Out Attack maneuver.

This is an attempt to bear your opponent to the ground. You may only try this on a standing foe. Roll a Quick Contest, with each contestant using the highest of ST, DX, or his best grappling skill. If you are not standing, you have a penalty equal to the usual penalty to hit for your posture. If you win, your victim falls down next to you (on a game board, he falls in your hex and any adjacent hex of your choice). If he was grappling you, he loses his grip. If you lose, you suffer the same effects! On a tie, nothing happens.

You may only attempt a pin if your foe is on the ground and you are grappling his torso. Roll a Regular Contest of Strength. The larger fighter gets +3 for every point by which his Size Modifier exceeds that of his foe. The fighter with the most free hands gets +3. If you win, your foe is pinned and helpless. You must stay there to hold him down, but you can free one of your hands for other actions. If you lose or tie, nothing happens.

You must have grappled your foe by the neck. You must normally use your hands, and can’t do anything else with them (e.g., parry) while holding on – but if you have the Constriction Attack advantage (p. 43), you can use your body instead. Roll a Quick Contest: your ST vs. the higher of your foe’s ST or HT. You are at -5 if you use only one hand, but at +2 per hand after the first two. If your Size Modifier exceeds your foe’s, you can grapple and squeeze his torso instead, in which case you roll at -5 unless you have Constriction Attack. If you win, your foe takes crushing damage equal to your margin of victory. DR protects normally. Multiply injury to the neck by 1.5. If any damage – even blunt trauma (p. 379) – penetrates the victim’s DR, you also start to suffocate him! On his next turn and every subsequent turn until he escapes, he loses 1 FP; see Suffocation (p. 436).

If you have Judo or Wrestling skill, you may try to apply a hold that can incapacitate without crushing the throat or torso. See Choke Hold (p. 404).

If you have Judo or Wrestling skill, you may try to apply a lock to restrain or cripple your opponent’s arm. See Arm Lock (p. 403).

If you grappled your foe’s neck or skull, or a limb or other extremity, you can twist. See Neck Snap or Wrench Limb (p. 404).

You can bite or use a Striker (provided it has reach C) even if all your hands are busy. If you’re not using a hand to grapple your foe, you can use it to Attack or All-Out Attack (either unarmed or with a reach C weapon), or to take a Ready maneuver. You cannot Aim, Feint, Concentrate, Wait, or make ranged attacks unless you’ve pinned your foe. You may also perform the following free actions:

• Release your grip. Let go of the foe, if you are grappling or pinning him. Or you can release just one hand

– but this makes it easier for him to escape.

• Throw away a ready weapon. This automatically succeeds and takes no time. You may do this to get a useless weapon out of your way, or to deprive the foe of a chance to grab a useful weapon (e.g., a blackjack) from you.
• Drag or carry your victim. If you’ve pinned your foe, you can move or step normally, dragging or carrying him; see Lifting and Moving Things (p. 353) for how much you can lift or drag. He counts as encumbrance, reducing your Move. If you haven’t pinned him, moving away from him means you automatically release your grip unless you have at least twice his ST. If you’re that strong, you can pull or carry him with you!

If you have been grappled, you cannot take a Move maneuver unless you have at least twice your foe’s ST. Aim, Feint, Concentrate, and Wait maneuvers – and ranged attacks – are completely impossible. If you are pinned, you can’t take any maneuver that requires physical movement! Otherwise, you can do the following:

You can take either maneuver, with certain limitations. You cannot use any limb that has been grappled – or bite, if your neck or head was grappled. You’re limited to unarmed attacks (striking or grappling) or attacks using weapons with reach C. You can stab with a dagger, but not swing a sword!

You can Ready an item if you have a hand free, but you must make a DX roll. Failure means you drop the item. Ready maneuvers to switch advantages off and on succeed automatically.

If you are grappled, you cannot move away until you break free by winning a Quick Contest of ST. Your foe has +5 if he is grappling you with two hands. If he has you pinned, he rolls at +10 if using two hands or at +5 if using only one, and you may only attempt to break free once every 10 seconds. If either of you has three or more arms, each arm beyond the first two gives +2. If your foe is stunned, he rolls at -4; if he falls unconscious, you are automatically free! If you successfully break free, you may immediately move one yard in any direction.

You can deliberately collide with an opponent. This requires an Attack, All-Out Attack, or Move and Attack maneuver. Roll against DX, Brawling, or Sumo Wrestling to hit. Note that the -4 to hit and effective skill cap of 9 for a Move and Attack do not apply to slams.

Your foe may block, dodge, or parry (but your body counts as a heavy weapon; see Parrying Heavy Weapons, p. 376). If your foe dodges, you must move at least two yards past him if you have enough movement. If you would hit someone else, see Hitting the Wrong Target (p. 389). If you hit, you and your foe each inflict dice of crushing damage on the other equal to (HP ¥ velocity)/100. “Velocity” is usually just the number of yards you moved this turn – but in a head-on collision, add the distance your foe moved toward you on his last turn (that is, use relative velocity). If damage is less than 1d, treat fractions up to 0.25 as 1d-3, fractions up to 0.5 as 1d-2, and any larger fraction as 1d-1. Otherwise, round fractions of 0.5 or more up to a full die. You can use All-Out Attack (Strong) to increase your damage! If your damage roll equals or exceeds that of your foe, he must make a DX roll or fall down. You knock him down automatically if you roll twice his damage or more. If he rolls twice your damage or more, though, you fall down instead! If your opponent dodged and you went past him and hit a solid obstacle, apply your damage roll to yourself (and to the obstacle, if it matters). You can also slam with a vehicle or mount. Roll against your vehicle-operation skill to hit with a vehicle, or Riding skill to hit with a mount. Figure damage based on the HP of your vehicle or mount. For additional rules and special cases, see Collisions and Falls (p. 430).

Flying Tackle: As slam, but you must have at least two legs and one arm free – most animals and vehicles can’t do this! A flying tackle gives you +4 to hit and an extra yard of reach, and you may opt to roll against Jumping skill to hit. However, whether you succeed or fail, you end up lying down (in the same hex as your foe, if you are using a combat map). Pounce: As flying tackle, but you must have four or more legs. After you attack, make a DX, Acrobatics, or Jumping roll. On a success, you stay on your feet! This is how some animals attack, especially cats: they knock down their foe and then claw or bite. If a mount tries this, the rider must roll vs. Riding-4 or fall off! Shield Rush: As slam, but you must have a shield. Roll against Shield skill to hit, and add your shield’s Defense Bonus to your damage roll. Your shield takes damage instead of you, but you still fall down if your opponent rolls twice your basic damage or more. Shove You can shove a foe with one or both arms. Roll against DX or Sumo Wrestling to hit. Your foe may block, dodge, or parry. If you hit, roll thrust/crushing damage – at -1 per die, if you used only one hand – and double it. This inflicts knockback (see Knockback, p. 378), but never actual physical injury.

RANGED ATTACKS

A “ranged attack” is any attack with a weapon used at a distance, from a thrown rock to a laser rifle. This includes Missile spells and the Affliction, Binding, and Innate Attack advantages (unless given the Aura, Malediction, or Melee Attack modifiers). Most other spells and advantages are not considered ranged attacks. Range You can only make a ranged attack on a target that falls within your weapon’s range. To find this, see the relevant weapon table or advantage or spell description. Most ranged attacks list Half Damage (1/2D) range and Maximum (Max) range, in yards. Your target must be no farther away than Max range; 1/2D range only affects damage. A few weapons have a minimum range, as they lob projectiles in a high arc, or have fusing or guidance limits. When using a weapon like this, your target can’t be any closer than the minimum range. To Hit Figure your adjusted chance to hit by: 1. Taking your base skill with your ranged weapon. 2. Adding your weapon’s Accuracy (Acc) if you preceded your attack with an Aim maneuver. 3. Applying the target’s Size Modifier (SM). See Size Modifier (p. 19). 4. Modifying for the target’s range and speed (done as a single modifier), from the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. 550). 5. Modifying for circumstances (rapid fire, movement, darkness, cover, etc.), including any special conditions determined by the GM. See Ranged Attack Modifiers (p. 548) for a summary. The result is your effective skill. A roll of this number or less is a successful attack roll. It will hit, unless the target succeeds with an active defense. Accuracy and Aimed Fire All ranged weapons have an Accuracy (Acc) statistic. This is the bonus you get if you take one or more Aim maneuvers immediately before you attack. When you Aim, you can receive other bonuses for extra seconds of aim, bracing your weapon, or using a scope or a laser sight. These benefits are discussed under Aim (p. 364) and summarized under Ranged Combat Modifiers (p. 548). The sum of Acc and all extra aimed-fire bonuses can never exceed twice the base Acc of the attack. Size Modifier A human-sized target has a Size Modifier (SM) of 0; there is no bonus or penalty to hit. Larger targets have a positive SM, while smaller targets have a negative SM. Add SM to your skill. The SM of a character or a vehicle appears on its character sheet or vehicle description. For other objects, use the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. 550). Target’s Range and Speed A distant target is harder to hit. As a rule of thumb, a target up to 2 yards away is close enough that there’s no penalty to hit. At 3 yards, you have -1 to hit; at up to 5 yards, -2; at up to 7 yards, -3; at up to 10 yards, -4; and so on, with each approximately 50% increase in range giving a further -1 to hit. Consult the Speed/Range column of the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. 550) to find the exact penalty. For ranges that fall between two values on the table, use the larger penalty. For very distant targets, the table also provides the equivalent range in miles. Example: Infinity Patrol agent Jenny Atkins is shooting on the firing range. The target is 17 yards (50’) away. This rounds up to 20 yards, for -6 to hit. A fast-moving target is also harder to hit. Consult the same column of the table, but use speed in yards per second (2 mph = 1 yard/second) instead of range in yards to find the penalty. If the target is both distant and fast moving, add range (in yards) to speed (in yards per second), and look up the total in the Speed/Range column to find the penalty to hit. (Do not look up the range and speed penalties separately and add them together! Great range mitigates the effects of speed, and vice versa.) Examples: Agent Atkins fires her pistol at a Centrum spy who is making a getaway on a speeding motorcycle. Her target is 50 yards away and

traveling at 60 mph, or Move 30. This is a speed/range of 50 + 30 = 80. Per the Size and Speed/Range Table, this gives -10 to hit. Ranged Attacks on Human Targets When using a ranged weapon against a target moving at human speeds – anything up to Move 10 – you may simplify the calculation by using just a range modifier and neglecting speed (unless the target is flying, sprinting, or something similar). Assume that the target’s ability to take a dodge defense adequately represents the effects of movement. THROWN WEAPON ATTACKS “Thrown weapons” are weapons you must physically hurl at the target: rocks, hand grenades, ninja stars (shuriken), etc. You can also throw certain melee weapons, such as hatchets, knives, and spears. See the Muscle-Powered Ranged Weapon Table (p. 275) for statistics and skills required. See Chapter 13 for the effects of grenades and incendiaries. Treat a thrown weapon just like any other ranged attack, with a few special rules: • Once you throw a weapon, it’s no longer ready! Hit or miss, your weapon is now somewhere else. If you want to attack again, you’ll have to go fetch your weapon (from the ground . . . or your foe’s body) or ready a new one. • The range of a thrown weapon is usually a multiple of your ST; e.g., “ST¥2.” This is given on the Muscle- Powered Ranged Weapon Table for many common thrown weapons. To determine range (and damage) for anything not listed there, see Throwing (p. 355). • A thrown weapon travels fairly slowly. Your target has the option of using a block or a parry active defense instead of a dodge. Success by 5+ (or critical success) with an unarmed parry means your target has caught the weapon! MISSILE WEAPON ATTACKS “Missile weapons” are ranged attacks other than thrown weapons: bows, firearms, Missile spells, ranged Innate Attacks, and so on. They fall into two broad categories. Muscle-Powered Missile Weapons: These include bows, slings, and crossbows. As with thrown weapons, your range and damage are determined by your ST – or in the case of a bow or a crossbow, by the weapon’s ST. See the Muscle-Powered Ranged Weapon Table (p. 275) for details. Firearms: These include guns, beam weapons, and self-propelled projectiles. See the Firearms Table (pp. 278-280) for statistics and special rules for all types of high-tech missile weapons – from black-powder weapons through contemporary guns and on to science-fiction weapons such as lasers. Rate of Fire All missile weapons have a Rate of Fire (RoF) statistic. If RoF is 1, the weapon can fire one shot per attack. If RoF is 2 or more, the weapon is capable of firing more than one shot per attack; see Rapid Fire (below). Examples: A bow has RoF 1; it can fire one shot per attack. A .38 revolver has RoF 3; it can fire up to three shots per attack. A machine gun has RoF 10; it can fire up to 10 shots per attack . . . but this is still one attack roll, not 10 separate attacks! Reloading and Shots Missile weapons also have a Shots statistic. Once you have fired this many shots, you must reload before you can fire the weapon again. Reloading requires a number of Ready maneuvers; see Readying Weapons and Other Gear (p. 382). The time required to reload appears in parentheses after the weapon’s Shots entry in the weapon tables. Reloading restores the weapon’s full number of shots. If a weapon has only one shot, this represents loading a new one. If it has multiple shots, this represents changing the magazine, belt, etc. The exception to this is multishot weapons that have cylinders, hoppers, or internal magazines. Their loading time is designated “i” (for “individually loaded”), and is per shot (unless sped up by some mechanism, such as a speed loader). Examples: A bow has Shots 1(2); it can fire one arrow, after which it takes the archer two seconds to prepare another. A .38 revolver has Shots 6(3i); it can fire six shots, after which each shot takes 3 seconds to reload. A machine gun has Shots 200(5); it can fire 200 shots, after which it takes 5 seconds to change the belt. Rapid Fire Some missile weapons have RoF 2 or more. This means they can fire multiple shots per attack, up to a maximum equal to their RoF. For example, a .38 revolver with RoF 3 could fire 1, 2, or 3 shots per attack. Of course, you can never fire more shots than your weapon currently has remaining, regardless of its RoF. Rapid-fire weapons use the Recoil (Rcl) statistic, which measures how controllable the weapon is when firing multiple shots. Rcl helps determine the number of hits a rapid-fire attack can inflict. The lower the Rcl, the easier the weapon is to control. Rcl 1 means the weapon is recoilless, like most beam weapons. If a weapon has RoF 2 or more, you must decide how many shots (up to RoF) you wish to fire before you make your attack roll. Firearms fired at RoF 1-3 are firing one shot per trigger pull; those fired at RoF 4+ are usually firing “full auto” like a machine gun – either in short bursts or continuously. Firing a large number of shots per attack gives a bonus to hit, as shown on this table: Shots Bonus to Hit 2-4 +0 5-8 +1 9-12 +2 13-16 +3 17-24 +4 25-49 +5 50-99 +6 each ¥2 +1 to hit

Rapid fire may score multiple hits from a single attack. A successful attack means you scored at least one hit – and possibly a number of extra hits, up to a maximum equal to the number of shots you fired. To find the number of hits you scored, compare your margin of success on the attack roll to your weapon’s Recoil. An attack scores one extra hit for every full multiple of Recoil by which you make your attack roll. The total number of hits cannot exceed shots fired. For instance, if your attack had Rcl 2, success by 0-1 would mean one hit; success by 2-3, one extra hit; success by 4-5, two extra hits; success by 6-7, three extra hits; and so on. High-RoF weapons (those with RoF 5+) can also spread fire among multiple targets (see Spraying Fire, p. 409) or fire lots of shots to “suppress” an area (see Suppression Fire, p. 409). Other special rules apply to rapid fire with certain weapons – see Special Rules for Rapid Fire (p. 408).

DEFENDING

If you make your attack roll, you have not (yet) actually struck your foe, unless you rolled a critical hit. Your attack is good enough to hit him – if he fails to defend. There are three “active defenses” that a fighter can use to evade or ward off an attack: Dodge (see Dodging, below), Parry (see Parrying, p. 376), and Block (see Blocking, p. 375). You should calculate these active defense scores in advance and record them on your character sheet. An active defense is a deliberate attempt to avoid a particular attack. It’s only possible if the defender is aware of the possibility of an attack from his assailant and is free to react . . . by moving out of the way of the attack (a dodge), deflecting the attack with a weapon or empty hand (a parry), or interposing a shield (a block). If a foe makes a successful attack roll against you, you may choose one active defense and attempt a “defense roll” against it. Exception: The All-Out Defense (Double Defense) maneuver lets you attempt a second defense against a particular attack if your first defense fails. The active defense you choose depends on your situation – especially the maneuver you chose last turn. Some maneuvers restrict the active defenses you can make. Notably, if you made an All-Out Attack, you have no active defense. You also get no active defense if you’re unaware of the attack. Examples of situations in which no active defense is possible include a stab in the back from a “friend,” a surprise sniper’s shot, and a totally unexpected booby trap. And you get no active defense if you are unconscious, immobilized, or otherwise unable to react. ACTIVE DEFENSE ROLLS The defender rolls 3d against his active defense score. If his roll is less than or equal to his effective defense, he dodged, parried, or blocked the attack. Otherwise, his active defense was ineffective and the attack struck home. If this occurs, roll for damage. An active defense roll of 3 or 4 is always successful – even if your effective defense score was only 1 or 2! A roll of 17 or 18 always fails. Your foe does not get to attempt a defense roll if you rolled a critical hit against him. Several modifiers apply to active defense rolls; see below for explanations of a few of these. For a complete list of modifiers, see Active Defense Modifiers (p. 548). Injury and Active Defenses If you are stunned, any active defense is at -4. Active defenses never take a penalty for shock, however. For more on stunning and shock, see Effects of Injury (p. 380). Shields and Defense Bonus If you have a ready shield, add its Defense Bonus (DB) to any Dodge, Parry, or Block roll against an attack that came from in front of you or from your shield side. Defense Bonus is 1 for a small shield, light cloak, and most improvised shields; 2 for a medium shield or heavy cloak; and 3 for a large shield or force shield. The Shield spell (p. 252) gives a DB of 1-4. A shield’s DB adds to active defense rolls against melee attacks, thrown weapons, and muscle-powered missile weapons – not against firearms (unless the GM wishes to use the optional Damage to Shields rules, p. 484). Retreating and Dropping Prone In some situations, you may give ground or drop prone for a bonus to your Dodge, Parry, or Block score. See Active Defense Options (p. 377). DODGING A “dodge” is an active attempt to move out of the perceived path of an attack. This is often the best defense when you’re not skilled with your weapon and you have no shield, when you’re attacked multiple times, or when your foe has such a powerful weapon that you fear parrying or blocking it may destroy your weapon or shield. Dodge is normally the only active defense you can take against firearms. This does not mean you can actually dodge bullets! A dodge against this kind of attack represents an attempt not to be where you think your opponent will shoot, by weaving or ducking at the right moment. Your Dodge active defense is Basic Speed + 3, dropping all fractions, less a penalty equal to your encumbrance level (see Encumbrance and Move, p. 17). List Dodge on your character sheet for quick reference. You may dodge any attack except one that you did not know about! You only get one Dodge roll against a given attack.

If a single rapid-fire attack scores multiple hits, a successful Dodge roll lets you avoid one hit, plus additional hits equal to your margin of success. A critical success lets you dodge all hits you took from that attack. Example: A machine gun gets four hits against you. Your Dodge is 10. You roll an 8, succeeding by 2. You dodge three of the hits; only one bullet strikes you. You only get one active defense against each attack, unless you use All- Out Defense (Double Defense), but there is no limit to the number of times you may dodge different attacks during your turn. Acrobatic Dodge If you have put at least one point into the Acrobatics skill, you can try a “fancy” dodge once during your turn. You may define this as jumping over a sword blow, cartwheeling away, or whatever else you like. Make an Acrobatics roll before you attempt your Dodge roll. (If flying, roll against Aerobatics instead.) On a success, you get +2 to that Dodge roll. On a failure, you get -2. You can combine this option with a retreat (see Retreat, p. 377). Sacrificial Dodge You can defend a friend by throwing yourself into the path of an attack against him. To do so, you must be close enough to interpose yourself between your friend and his attacker by taking a step (see Step, p. 368). Announce this after the enemy makes his attack roll but before your friend attempts his defense roll. Use the ordinary rules for a dodge, except that you cannot combine this with a retreat (see Retreat, p. 377). If you succeed, you are hit by the attack. If you fail, you didn’t move in time, but your friend still gets his normal defense roll. In either case, since you moved, you cannot retreat if you are attacked before your next turn. Vehicular Dodge An evasively maneuvering vehicle gets a Dodge roll. Instead of Basic Speed + 3, use half the operator’s skill (Driving, Piloting, etc.), rounded down, modified by the vehicle’s Handling statistic. For example, a biker with Driving (Motorcycle)-14 on a motorcycle with Handling +1 would have a Dodge of 8. BLOCKING A “block” is an attempt to interpose a shield, cloak, or similar large object between yourself and an attack. This requires a ready shield or cloak. (If you’re strong enough to grab and lift someone, you can block with his body!) Your Block active defense is 3 + half your Shield or Cloak skill, dropping all fractions. For instance, Shield-11 would give a Block of 3 + (11/2) = 8.5, which rounds down to 8. In general, you can block any melee attack, thrown weapon, projected liquid, or muscle-powered missile weapon. You cannot block bullets or beam weapons . . . these come too fast to be stopped this way. You may attempt to block only one attack per turn.

PARRYING A “parry” is an attempt to deflect a blow using a weapon or your bare hands. You cannot parry unless your weapon is ready – or, if you are unarmed, you have an empty hand. You can use most melee weapons to parry; see the Parry column of the Melee Weapon Table (p. 271) for special restrictions and modifiers. Some hefty weapons (e.g., axes) are unbalanced: you cannot use them to parry if you’ve already used them to attack on your turn. (You can still parry with a weapon in your other hand, if you have one.) A few long, well-balanced weapons (e.g., the quarterstaff) get a +1 or +2 bonus to parry due to their ability to keep a foe at bay. Your Parry active defense with a given weapon is 3 + half your skill with that weapon, dropping all fractions. For instance, Broadsword-13 would give a Parry of 9. A parry won’t stop anything except melee attacks or thrown weapons, unless you have special skills. Exception: If a foe attacks you with a missile weapon and he is within reach of your melee weapon, you may parry. You’re parrying the weapon, not the projectile! For example, if an attacker fired a pistol at you from only one yard away, you could attempt to parry barehanded. Success would mean that you slapped his arm or gun aside, causing him to fire wide of your body. Number of Parries: Once you have attempted a parry with a particular weapon or bare hand, further attempts to parry with that weapon or hand are at a cumulative -4 per parry after the first. Reduce this to -2 per parry if you are using a fencing weapon or have the Trained By A Master or Weapon Master advantage – or to -1 per parry if both conditions are true. This penalty only applies to multiple parries on the same turn; it does not carry over between turns. Parrying with the Off Hand: You parry with your “off” hand (your left or “shield” hand if right handed; see Handedness, p. 17), or with a weapon held in it, at -4 to skill. Since Parry is calculated off half skill, this gives -2 to Parry. You may ignore this penalty if you have the Ambidexterity advantage (p. 39). Parrying Thrown Weapons: You can parry thrown weapons, but at a penalty: -1 for most thrown weapons, or -2 for small ones such as knives, shuriken, and other weapons that weigh 1 lb. or less. Parrying Unarmed Attacks: If you successfully parry an unarmed attack (bite, punch, etc.) with a weapon, you may injure your attacker. Immediately roll against your skill with the weapon you used to parry. This roll is at -4 if your attacker used Judo or Karate. If you succeed, your parry struck the attacker’s limb squarely. He gets no defense roll against this! Roll damage normally.

Parrying Heavy Weapons

You cannot use a flimsy rapier to parry a titan’s treesized club, the slam of a charging linebacker, or the sword of a giant robot! Heavy weapons are liable to knock your weapon away – or even break it. The same is true for unarmed attacks from high-ST creatures. For the purpose of these rules, treat a punch, kick, bite, etc. as a weapon with an effective weight of 1/10 the attacker’s ST. Use his full ST if he made a slam, flying tackle, pounce, or shield rush! Your weapon may break if it parries anything three or more times its own weight. (This does not apply to barehanded parries; for damage to limbs when parrying unarmed, see Parrying Unarmed.) A weapon parrying three times its own weight has a 2 in 6 chance of breaking: it breaks on a roll of 1 or 2 on 1d. Add +1 to these odds per whole-numbered multiple past 3 (a 3 in 6 chance at 4 times weapon weight, a 4 in 6 chance at 5 times, and so on). Weapon quality modifies these odds: +2 if the parrying weapon is cheap, -1 if fine, or -2 if very fine. If your weapon breaks, the parry still counts unless the odds of breakage exceeded 6 in 6. If so, your weapon offered so little resistance that the parry does not count! Regardless of the weight of your weapon, if you are parrying unarmed or using a one-handed weapon, you cannot parry a weapon heavier than your Basic Lift – or twice BL, if using a two-handed weapon. Attempts to parry anything heavier fail automatically; whether or not your weapon breaks, the attack sweeps it aside and damages you normally. If your weapon does not break, you drop it; if you are unarmed, you are knocked back one yard (make a DX roll to avoid falling over). An attacker can also deliberately break or knock away weapons; see Striking at Weapons (p. 400).

Parrying With Improvised Weapons You can parry with anything of suitable size and shape, using the closest weapon skill. A pole or rifle could parry like a staff, a bow like a light club. However, parrying just once with a bow will ruin it as a bow – although it may survive for a few seconds longer as a club! Other fragile objects may be similarly ruined. Most improvised weapons count as “cheap” for breakage; see Parrying Heavy Weapons (box) for what this implies. Parrying Unarmed If you are fighting without weapons, or with at least one hand free, you may choose to parry barehanded. Beings that lack hands (like most animals) can’t parry unarmed – they can only dodge. You can use Boxing, Brawling, Judo, or Karate skill – or DX, if higher – to parry with one hand. You can also parry with Sumo Wrestling or

Wrestling skill, but this requires both hands. Your Parry active defense is 3 + half your skill or DX, dropping all fractions. There’s no penalty to parry another unarmed attack. You are at -3 to parry weapons, unless the attack is a thrust or you are using Judo or Karate (in either case, use your full parry). See individual unarmed-combat skill descriptions for other limitations. A failed parry means you are hit. If you are using hit locations, a failed parry against a weapon means your attacker may choose to hit his original target or the arm you parried with! If your arm suffers more than half your Hit Points in injury, it is automatically crippled (see Crippling Injury, p. 420). Some unarmed skills (e.g., Judo) give you special options after a successful parry. See individual skill descriptions for details. ACTIVE DEFENSE OPTIONS You can improve your odds of success with an active defense by choosing one of these options to go along with it. Retreat “Retreat” is not a separate defense, but an option you may add to any active defense against a melee attack. To exercise this option, you must move away from your attacker: at least one yard, but not more than 1/10 your Move – exactly as for a step (see Step, p. 368). Retreating gives +3 to Dodge, or +1 to Block or Parry. Exception: If you parry using Boxing, Judo, Karate, or any fencing skill (Main-Gauche, Rapier, Saber, or Smallsword), a retreat gives +3 to Parry, as these forms make superior use of mobility. Your step back takes place immediately. It is assumed to occur as your foe is striking. If it would take you out of your attacker’s reach, he still gets his attack. If he has multiple attacks (e.g., from an Extra Attack, All-Out Attack, or Rapid Strike), your retreat does not put you beyond the reach of his remaining attacks. However, you get your retreating bonus on all active defense rolls against all of his attacks until your next turn. If your opponent attacked you with a maneuver that allows a step, but has not yet taken his step, he can choose to follow you by taking his unused step. In effect, he is forcing you back! You can retreat only once during your turn. In other words, once you retreat, you may not retreat again until after your next turn. You cannot retreat while in a sitting or kneeling posture, or while stunned. You also cannot retreat if you moved faster than your Basic Move on your last turn (that is, if you were sprinting or using Enhanced Move). You can retreat (by rolling) if you are lying down. Dodge and Drop When under fire, hit the dirt! You may drop to the ground while dodging, earning a +3 bonus to Dodge. This is a “dodge and drop.” It is similar to a retreat, but only effective against ranged attacks. It also has a drawback: it leaves you prone on the ground. Like a retreat, a dodge and drop applies to all of your defenses against one foe for one turn. Any cover you drop behind does not count against the initial attack that inspired the dodge and drop, but is effective against subsequent attacks directed at you. Sacrificial Dodge and Drop: You can use dodge and drop in conjunction with sacrificial dodge (p. 375) to protect a friend who is no more than a step away from you. If you succeed, you both fall prone and you take the hit . . . unless you succeed by 3 or more, in which case neither of you is hit! You can also use a sacrificial dodge and drop to throw yourself on an explosive (e.g., a hand grenade). If you succeed, treat the blast as a contact explosion (see p. 415). Diving for Cover: You may also attempt a dodge and drop if you are within the area of effect of an explosion, cone, or area-effect attack and there is cover (such as a trench) only a step away. Success means you reach it in time; failure means you don’t. Even if there is no cover handy, an extra yard or two of distance from a blast can still help, since explosive damage declines with distance. If you succeed, you are a step farther away; if you fail, you suffer the effect before you make your step. Flying or Swimming: Dodge and drop is possible only if a step would take you below concealing terrain (e.g., a flyer dropping below a hillcrest). You don’t end up prone. You can still dive for cover to increase your distance from an explosion, etc.

DAMAGE AND INJURY

If your attack roll succeeds and your target fails his defense roll (if any), you hit him! If your attack is one that can do damage, you must now make a “damage roll.” This tells you how much basic damage you deal to your target. Your weapon (and, for musclepowered weapons, your ST), or your natural or Innate Attack, determines the number of dice you roll for damage. If your target has any Damage Resistance (DR) – from armor, the Damage Resistance advantage (p. 46), protective magic spells, etc. – he subtracts this from your damage roll. If your attack has an armor divisor (see pp. 102, 110), this modifies your target’s DR. If your damage roll is less than or equal to your target’s effective DR, your attack failed to penetrate – it bounced off or was absorbed. A cutting, crushing, impaling, or piercing attack can sometimes cause damage without penetrating, however; see Flexible Armor and Blunt Trauma (p. 379). If your damage roll exceeds your target’s DR, the excess is the penetrating damage. If your foe has no DR, the entire damage roll is penetrating damage. Once you know the penetrating damage of your attack, apply the wounding modifier for damage type (this matters only for cutting, impaling, and certain types of piercing damage; see p. 379). This gives the injury the foe suffers, which is subtracted from his Hit Points.

Example: Your “basic damage” with your sword is 2d+1 cutting. You roll 2 dice, add 1, and do 8 points of basic damage. Your foe has DR 3, so your penetrating damage is 5 points. You then apply the ¥1.5 wounding modifier for cutting attacks, resulting in 7 points of injury (always round down). Your foe loses 7 HP. DAMAGE ROLL You usually make your own damage rolls, and the GM rolls for NPCs. Damage rolls are expressed as a number of dice, sometimes with a modifier; e.g., “6d-1” or “1d+2.” A negative modifier can’t reduce damage below 0 if the attack does crushing damage, or below 1 if it does any other type of damage. High-damage attacks may express damage as a number of dice with a multiplier. For instance, “6d¥3” means “roll 6d and multiply the total by 3.” If those six dice came up 21, you would do 63 points of damage. This is just a quick way to roll lots of dice. The result of the damage roll (after any additive or multiplicative modifiers, as explained above) is the hit’s “basic damage.” Half Damage (1/2D) for Ranged Weapons If a ranged weapon has two range statistics, the first is its Half Damage (1/2D) range, in yards. If the target is at or beyond 1/2D range, divide basic damage by 2, rounding down. (This is a simplification! Realistically, most weapons lose striking power gradually as air resistance slows them down, but a detailed calculation would be unplayable.) Some ranged weapons (e.g., grenades) do not suffer a reduction in damage; these do not list a 1/2D range. The damage of an attack modified with Follow-Up (p. 105) is never halved, either – although its “carrier” attack is subject to 1/2D effects as usual. Finally, if an attack has a 1/2D range but requires a resistance roll to avoid an affliction of some sort, add +3 to the resistance roll instead of halving damage (if any).

Knockback When you hit someone very hard, you may knock him away from you! This is called “knockback.” Only crushing and cutting attacks can cause knockback. A crushing attack can cause knockback regardless of whether it penetrates DR. A cutting attack can cause knockback only if it fails to penetrate DR. Knockback depends on basic damage rolled before subtracting DR. For every full multiple of the target’s ST-2 rolled, move the target one yard away from the attacker. For instance, a man with ST 10 would be knocked back one yard per full 8 points of basic damage. If the target has ST 3 or less, knockback is one yard per point of basic damage! If the target has no ST score at all (like a wall), or is not resisting, use its HP instead. Anyone who suffers knockback must attempt a roll against the highest of DX, Acrobatics, or Judo. If he is knocked back more than one yard, he rolls at -1 per yard after the first. Perfect Balance (p. 74) gives +4 to this roll. On a failure, he falls down. If you knock your foe into something solid, the result – including damage to him and whatever he hit – is as if he had collided with it at a speed equal to the yards of knockback. See Collisions and Falls (p. 430). “Knockback Only”: Some attacks – a jet of water, a shove (p. 372), etc. – do knockback but no damage. Roll the listed damage and work out knockback as usual, but no actual injury occurs (unless the target collides with something!).

DAMAGE RESISTANCE AND PENETRATION Damage Resistance (DR) rates the degree of protection that natural or worn armor, a force field, tough skin, etc. affords against damage. Objects and vehicles have their own DR values that protect against any damage they suffer – and if you take cover behind or inside them, their DR also protects you. Subtract DR from basic damage. The result is the “penetrating damage” that punched through or deformed the armor enough to cause a significant injury. For instance, if you are hit by an attack that inflicts 6 points of basic damage and you’re wearing mail with DR 4, you take 2 points of penetrating damage. In general, DR from multiple sources is additive; e.g., if you have a natural DR of 2 and put on a tactical vest with DR 15, your total DR is 17. Exceptions will always be noted. The DR of armor often varies by body part. If you are not using the hit location rules (see Hit Location, p. 398), just assume that any hit strikes the torso, and apply its DR. Finally, note that DR from certain sources may provide differing degrees of protection against different damage types. For more on DR, see Damage Resistance (p. 46) and Armor (p. 282).

An “armor divisor” indicates that an attack is especially good (or bad) at penetrating Damage Resistance. Armor divisors appear on weapon tables as numbers in parentheses after damage dice; e.g., “3d(2) pi” means 3d piercing damage with a (2) armor divisor.

A divisor of (2) or more means that DR protects at reduced value against the attack. Divide the target’s DR by the number in parentheses before subtracting it from basic damage; e.g., (2) means DR protects at half value. Round DR down. Minimum DR is 0.

Some divisors are fractions, such as (0.5), (0.2), or (0.1). DR is increased against such attacks: multiply DR by 2 for (0.5), by 5 for (0.2), and by 10 for (0.1). In addition, treat DR 0 (e.g., bare skin) as if it were DR 1 against any fractional armor divisor!

There are several other “penetration modifiers” that affect the protection required to stop a given attack – see Blood Agent (p. 110), Contact Agent (p. 111), Follow-Up (p. 105), Respiratory Agent (p. 108), and Sense- Based (pp. 109, 115). These are often found on Afflictions and toxic attacks. See Special Penetration Modifiers (p. 416) for details.

Flexible armor such as a leather jacket, mail hauberk, or a modern ballistic vest is much lighter than rigid armor, but it doesn’t absorb the full force of the blows it stops. An attack that does crushing (cr), cutting (cut), impaling (imp), or piercing (pi-, pi, pi+, pi++) damage may inflict “blunt trauma” if it fails to penetrate flexible DR. For every full 10 points of cutting, impaling, or piercing damage or 5 points of crushing damage stopped by your DR, you suffer 1 HP of injury due to blunt trauma. This is actual injury, not basic damage. There is no wounding multiplier.

If even one point of damage penetrates your flexible DR, however, you do not suffer blunt trauma. If you layer other DR over flexible DR, only damage that penetrates the outer layer can inflict blunt trauma.

An attack that inflicts corrosion (cor) damage – acids, disintegration beams, etc. – destroys one point of the target’s DR per 5 points of basic damage rolled. This affects armor first, then natural DR. This reduces DR against future attacks, not against the attack that burned off the DR! Natural DR lost by living beings heals at the same rate as lost HP.

Some attacks are powerful enough to pass right through cover, a shield, or a victim, and damage someone on the other side. It’s usually too much trouble to worry about this, but if it becomes important (e.g., shooting through a door, or a bystander behind your target), see Overpenetration (p. 408).

Any time you strike unarmed (with bare hands, feet, fangs, etc.) and hit a target with DR 3+, you may hurt yourself! For every 5 points of basic damage you roll, you take one point of crushing damage, up to a maximum equal to the DR of the target you hit. Apply this damage to the body part you used to attack, if you are using hit locations. Your own DR protects against this damage. Exception: This rule does not apply if the target’s DR has the Tough Skin limitation (see Damage Resistance, p. 46).

If a rapid-fire attack scores multiple hits, you can speed play as follows: instead of rolling damage per hit, determine damage for one hit, subtract DR, and multiply the resulting penetrating damage (or blunt trauma) by the number of hits.

Any damage left over after subtracting DR from basic damage is “penetrating damage.” If there is any penetrating damage, multiply it by the attack’s “wounding modifier.” This is a multiplier that depends on damage type:

• Small piercing (pi-): x0.5.
• Burning (burn), corrosion (cor),

crushing (cr), fatigue (fat), piercing (pi), and toxic (tox): x1 (damage is unchanged).

• Cutting (cut) and large piercing

(pi+): x1.5.

• Impaling (imp) and huge piercing

(pi++): x2.

The damage after this multiplier determines the injury: the HP lost by the target. Round fractions down, but the minimum injury is 1 HP for any attack that penetrates DR at all. Reduce the victim’s current HP total by the injury sustained.

Example: Filthy Pierre is struck by an axe, which does cutting damage. His attacker’s basic damage roll is 7, but Pierre is wearing DR 2 leather armor, so he suffers 5 points of penetrating damage. Multiplying by 1.5 for cutting damage, Pierre ends up losing 7.5 HP, which rounds to 7 HP – a nasty wound!

Note that blunt trauma injury has no wounding modifier. Where you were hit may further affect the wounding modifier; see Hit Location (p. 398). The rules above assume a hit to the torso or face.

The Wounding Modifiers and Injury rules assume a human, animal, or other ordinary living being. Machines, corporeal undead, swarms, and other unusual entities are much less vulnerable to certain damage types:

Unliving: Machines and anyone with Injury Tolerance (Unliving) (p. 60), such as most corporeal undead, are less vulnerable to impaling and piercing damage. This gives impaling and huge piercing a wounding modifier of x1; large piercing, x1/2; piercing, x1/3; and small piercing, x1/5.

Homogenous: Things that lack vulnerable internal parts or mechanisms – such as uniformly solid or hollow objects (e.g., melee weapons, shields, and furniture), unpowered vehicles, trees, and walls – are even less vulnerable! This includes animated statues, blobs, and anything else with Injury Tolerance (Homogenous). Impaling and huge piercing have a wounding modifier of x1/2; large piercing, x1/3; piercing, x1/5; and small piercing, x1/10.

Diffuse: A target with Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) is even harder to damage! This includes swarms, air elementals, nets, etc. Impaling and piercing attacks (of any size) never do more than 1 HP of injury, regardless of penetrating damage! Other attacks can never do more than 2 HP of injury. Exception: Area-effect, cone, and explosion attacks cause normal injury.

Example: Edmund Zhang empties his 9mm machine pistol (2d+2 pi damage) at an approaching zombie. He hits three times. After subtracting the zombie’s DR 1, he scores 8 points of penetrating damage with the first bullet, 7 with the second, and 10 with the third. The zombie has Injury Tolerance (Unliving), so the usual x1 wounding modifier for piercing damage drops to x1/3. Rounding down, the three bullets inflict 2 HP, 2 HP, and 3 HP of injury. The zombie had 24 HP, so it has 17 HP left. Undaunted, it shambles forward. Edmund should have brought an axe or a flamethrower!

If you are injured, subtract the points of injury from your Hit Points. Usually, you are still in the fight as long as you have positive HP; see General Injury: Lost Hit Points (p. 419) for details. The most important effects are:

• If you have less than 1/3 of your HP remaining, you are reeling from your wounds. Halve your Basic Speed

and Move (round up), which also reduces your Dodge.

• If you have zero or fewer HP left, you are hanging onto consciousness through sheer willpower and adrenaline

– or are barely holding together, if you’re a machine. You must roll vs. HT each turn to avoid falling unconscious. If you pass out, see Recovering from Unconsciousness (p. 423) for how long it will take to recover.

• If you go to fully negative HP (for

instance, -10 if you have 10 HP), you risk death! You must make an immediate HT roll to avoid dying. You must make another HT roll to avoid death each time you lose an extra multiple of your HP – that is, at -2xHP, -3xHP, and so on. If you reach -5xHP, you die automatically. See Death (p. 423).

The sudden loss of HP can have additional effects:

Shock: Any injury that causes a loss of HP also causes “shock.” Shock is a penalty to DX, IQ, and skills based on those attributes on your next turn (only). This is -1 per HP lost unless you have 20 or more HP, in which case it is -1 per (HP/10) lost, rounded down. The shock penalty cannot exceed -4, no matter how much injury you suffer.

Major Wounds: Any single injury that inflicts a wound in excess of 1/2 your HP is a major wound. For a major wound to the torso, you must make a HT roll. Failure means you’re stunned and knocked down; failure by 5+ means you pass out. For details, see Major Wounds (p. 420) and Knockdown and Stunning (p. 420).

Stunning: If you’re stunned, you are -4 to active defenses and cannot retreat, and must Do Nothing on your next turn. At the end of your turn, attempt a HT roll to recover. If you fail, you’re still stunned and must Do Nothing for another turn. And so on. For more about injuries – and how to recover from them! – see Injuries (p. 418).

Certain attacks have “special effects”: poison, electrical shocks, stunning, setting the victim on fire, etc. See the weapon tables, specific attack enhancements in Chapter 2, and the relevant sections of Chapters 13 and 14 for details.

Some attacks, such as poison darts and exploding bullets, have “followup” damage: a second type of damage that occurs an instant after the primary effect. The primary effect is always ordinary damage of some type – piercing, impaling, etc. If the primary damage penetrates the target’s DR, the follow-up effect occurs inside the target. DR has no effect! Follow-up effects that occur internally never inflict knockback or blunt trauma – even if their damage type usually does.

If the primary damage fails to penetrate DR, the follow-up effect occurs outside the target, if appropriate, as if the target had been touched – just like a linked effect (see below). Thus, poison that must enter the bloodstream would have no effect if the arrow that carried it failed to penetrate. On the other hand, an explosive projectile would still do damage… but the DR that stopped the primary damage would protect against it.

Some attacks have a linked effect. This is a second type of damage or other effect that occurs simultaneously with the primary effect. Make one roll to hit, but resolve all damage and resistance rolls separately for the primary effect and the linked effect. An example of a linked effect is a grenade that inflicts both a crushing explosion and a blinding flash of light on detonation. A person in armor might be blinded but unhurt, while an unarmored person with eye protection might be wounded but not blinded.

Not all attacks inflict damage. Some – stun rays, drugs, etc. – offer a modified HT roll to resist (e.g., HT-2). If the victim is hit and fails his HT roll, he’s affected; see Affliction (p. 35) for details. Other attacks restrain the victim, requiring ST rolls to break free; see Binding (p. 40).

“Critical hits” and “critical misses” are critical successes and failures (see Degree of Success or Failure, p. 347) on rolls to attack or defend in combat.

A “critical hit” is an especially lucky or good blow. It automatically hits home – your foe does not get an active defense roll!

Whenever you roll a natural 3 or 4 when attacking, you get a critical hit and you roll on the Critical Hit Table (p. 556). If you have high skill or a particularly good shot at your foe, you will get critical hits more often. With an effective skill of 15+, any roll of 5 or less is a critical hit; with an effective skill of 16+, any roll of 6 or less is a critical hit. Bonuses to hit (e.g., for All- Out Attack or a large target) do make critical hits more likely, while penalties (e.g., for a difficult target) make critical hits less likely.

Example: Louis LeBlanc needs to roll 15 or less to hit Filthy Pierre. He rolls a 5. That’s a critical hit for him! (A 3 or 4 would be a critical hit for anyone!) Because this is a critical hit, Pierre gets no defense roll. The blow automatically hits!

A critical hit is often the only way for an unskilled character to injure a superior opponent in a fair fight or get through heavy armor with a light weapon. Once in a while, everybody gets a lucky shot. But note that the most likely result on the table is “no extra damage.” Even if you get lucky and hit a superior foe, your blow might not be especially hard…

If you get a critical success on a defense roll against a melee attack, then your foe goes immediately to the Critical Miss Table (p. 556). You “faked him out,” knocked his weapon from his hand, or otherwise defended very well!

A critical success on a defense roll against a ranged attack has no special effect, with one exception: if the attack was a thrown weapon, a critical success on a bare-handed parry lets you catch the incoming weapon without hurting yourself, if you so desire.

The opposite of a “critical hit” is a “critical miss.” You suffer a critical miss when you fail badly on an attack or defense roll. You might break your weapon, throw it away, or even hit yourself!

A roll of 18 is always a critical miss. A roll of 17 is a critical miss unless your effective skill is 16 or better; in that case, it is an ordinary miss. A melee attack (but not a ranged attack) or defense roll that fails by 10 or more is also a critical miss.

If you get a critical miss on an attack or a parry, roll on the appropriate Critical Miss Table (p. 556). Apply the result immediately. If you critically miss a dodge, you lose your footing and fall prone (no effect if already prone). If you tried to block, you lose your grip on your shield and must take a turn to ready it before you can use it to block again.

A firearm may also malfunction on a bad roll; see Malfunctions (p. 407). A malfunction has “priority” over a critical miss: if both would occur, only the malfunction takes place.

Louis LeBlanc’s weapon is a shortsword. He is standing two yards from his foe, Filthy Pierre. On his turn, Louis takes the Attack maneuver, steps one yard toward Pierre, and strikes!

Louis has Shortsword-15, and there are no adverse conditions that would give him a skill penalty; therefore, he needs to roll 15 or less to hit. He swings and rolls a 13, so he hits.

Pierre has a Dodge of 8, Shield-12 (giving him a Block of 9), and Shortsword-11 (giving him a Parry of 8). His Block is his best defense, so he’ll use it whenever he can. Pierre’s small shield gives a +1 Defense Bonus (see Shields, p. 287); this increases all of his defenses by 1.

Pierre’s Block defense is therefore 9 + 1, for a total of 10 . . . or 11, if he retreats. If he blocks and retreats, and rolls 11 or less, he can defend against the accurate blow that Louis just threw. But he gets a 12. Too bad! He’s hit.

Although the combat calculations may seem complex at first, they are simple in play! The attacker rolls against his skill, as shown on his character sheet. The defender adds up his defenses, as shown on his character sheet, and rolls against the total. That’s it! To continue the example: Louis is attacking Pierre. His blow was good, and Pierre failed to defend. So the blow got through.

Now Louis rolls for damage. Louis’ player has already figured how much damage he does with a shortsword and written it on his character sheet. He has ST 11, so his swing does 1d+1 damage. He rolls one die and gets a 4. Adding one point yields a 5, so Pierre takes 5 points of basic damage.

However, Pierre is wearing cloth armor, which has DR 1. This subtracts a point from Louis’ damage roll – only 4 points of damage penetrate Pierre’s armor. A shortsword is a cutting weapon, with a x1.5 wounding modifier. This multiplies the penetrating damage . . . so Pierre takes a 6 HP wound! That blow could knock a lesser man down. Sad but true . . . one good sword blow can settle a fight.

The GM subtracts 6 from Pierre’s HP. Luckily for Pierre, this is not more than half of his original 12 HP, so he does not have to roll to see if he is knocked down or stunned. However, if he attacks on his next turn, he will have a shock penalty equal to the HP he lost or -4, whichever is the lower penalty. Since he lost 6 HP, he’s at -4 to skill.

And the fight continues.

Combatants can perform actions other than attacking and moving. Physical actions usually require Ready maneuvers, while mental ones call for Concentrate maneuvers.

A “ready” item is one that is in hand, ready for action. A weapon or other device is unready if in a holster, scabbard, pocket, belt, or pack; on the floor or a table; etc.

It generally takes a single Ready maneuver to ready an item that is on your belt, in a pocket, in a scabbard or holster, or slung over your back. If you stand still, a single Ready maneuver also lets you ready an item from a table, wall rack, etc., provided it is within your reach (normally one yard).

A single Ready maneuver lets you accept one item that another person is holding out to you. He must be close enough to reach you (one yard, for a human), and he must have taken a Ready maneuver on his turn in order to hold out the item for you. You must both stand still. Note that you cannot exchange two items simultaneously. Each object exchanged requires a separate Ready maneuver on the part of each person involved. (Recall that these rules are for combat; obviously two people walking down the street can hand things back and forth at will.)

Some additional rules:

Picking something up from the ground. You must be kneeling, crawling, sitting, or lying down to do so, unless you have arms with a two-yard reach! If you are standing, you must first take a Change Posture maneuver to kneel, sit, etc.

Readying a weapon. You can only attack or parry with a weapon that is in your hand and ready to use. You must “ready” some weapons again after each attack! For instance, you must ready a poleaxe after each swing, because its momentum carries it away. See the weapon tables in Chapter 8 to learn which weapons require readying after use.

Reloading a weapon. This requires several consecutive Ready maneuvers. The number of Ready maneuvers required appears in parentheses after the weapon’s Shots statistic. For example, a longbow requires two Ready maneuvers: one to ready the arrow by removing it from your quiver, and one to ready the bow by placing the arrow to the string and drawing it. That takes two turns. On the third turn, you can Aim or Attack.

Readying a shield or cloak. If a shield or cloak is on the ground, or slung on your back, it takes a number of Ready maneuvers equal to its Defense Bonus to prepare it for combat. It takes the same amount of time to don your cloak or sling your shield again – but you can drop it on the ground with a single Ready maneuver (not a free action!). For the purpose of readying, treat a buckler as a weapon, not as a shield.

Long actions. Many physical actions take more than one second to complete. In combat, choose the Ready maneuver each turn until you are finished. This is not a specific maneuver, but a “generic” choice that lets you do one second’s worth of any multi-second action. The GM decides how many turns each action takes; see Typical Long Actions (p. 383) for examples. Some things (like piling up rocks to stand on) can be interrupted in the middle if necessary, to take any necessary maneuver or other action. Other things (like ritual magic) can’t be interrupted; if you stop in the middle, you must start over.

If an action takes a long time, you can help the GM keep track of events by counting the seconds each time you announce the maneuver. For instance, to reload a weapon, you would say, “Reloading my gun – one second” on your first turn, and, “Reloading my gun – two seconds and finished” on your second turn.

A weapon is “ready” if it is in your hand and ready to attack. It takes one turn to ready a weapon from its scabbard (but see Fast-Draw, p. 194). A few special rules:

Changing Grips: Some long weapons require one extra turn of readying to go from a one-yard to a two-yard reach, or from a two-yard to a three-yard reach, or vice versa. An unready weapon may be re-readied to any legal reach, regardless of how you used it before; this is just part of the Ready maneuver.

Unbalanced Weapons: A few large and unwieldy weapons are carried out of line by their momentum when you attack. Unless your ST is at least 1.5 times that required to wield the weapon, they become unready after you attack with them; to use them again, take a Ready maneuver. If you fall down, lose your balance, or are stunned, and your weapon is one that requires readying after each use, it becomes unready!

Holstering: It takes one second to return a pistol to a holster.

Scabbarding: It takes two seconds to return a weapon to a scabbard or belt-loop.

See the table above for the duration of typical long actions. You must take a Ready maneuver each second. The times required for long actions are realistic, but they can also sideline a player – for instance, if his character rummages through his backpack. If the GM deems it dramatically appropriate, he may let PCs shave off a few seconds by making a successful DX or IQ roll, at the cost of failure having other problems (e.g., dropping the backpack and spilling its contents).

This completes the combat system. Get out there and fight! When you are comfortable with these rules, you can proceed to Chapter 12, Tactical Combat, if you wish to use a hex grid for more precise resolution of battles. GMs may also consult Chapter 13 for advanced rules concerning factors that might not come into play in every battle: hit locations, mounted opponents, surprise attacks, and various exotic weapons. See also pp. 462-470 for rules for vehicles, pp. 455-461 for rules for animals, and p. 547-559 for the collected combat tables.

This is the end of the file.