RPG/Combat

Combat

The time will come when your character will fight someone or something else. This is when things become a little more complex, and we’ll need to use a few more boxes on your character sheet. Combat is broken into rounds, each round being about ten seconds. Here’s an overview on combat:

1: Roll for initiative

Each character makes a non-skilled Accuracy roll, modified by the speed ratings on the weapons in their primary hand, their armor, and any special abilities or equipment powers they may have. The number they get represents their speed in noticing and taking part in the combat. While the characters are all technically acting simultaneously, characters are affected by the elements of combat in order of initiative, and a character that is knocked out before their turn comes up in a round may not act.

2: Take actions

Characters take actions in order from highest initiative rolled to lowest. Characters who roll particularly high on their initiative rolls may take extra actions, described below. Most characters have 4 types of actions they can use: Primary hand, Offhand, Speak, and Move. Some players cannot speak, some have extra arm actions, and other differences, and these work as described in the advantage or racial ability that gives them that difference. Large bold titles represent the different types of actions your character has, and small bold titles denote things that the character may use those actions for. At the beginning of the round, your character is given these actions(and any other hand, move, or speak actions granted to them by special abilities, spells, or other sources as designated), but they usually may not use them until it is their turn. The exception to this is any action which is noted as an Active Defense, which may be taken at any time during a round so long as the character has not used the actions for them, as a counter to an attack targeting them. A character's first turn in each round is referred to as their "full turn", to differentiate it from partial turns that they may earn through having a high initiative or from other sources.

Primary Hand: Many spells or operating most machines require one or more hand actions. If it requires more hand actions than the player has hands, the action may take more than one round. Drawing a weapon generally takes a hand action, though some artifacts or special weapons may state differently in their descriptions. You may also use your primary hand to attack, as described below.

Attack: Your character may attack using their primary hand if the enemy is within range of their weapon. Most weapons have a range of 5 feet, as do your bare fists if you’re unarmed, but certain weapons have longer ranges, as determined by their listing in the appropriate items sub-page. For Ranged weapons, there is no such thing as a target being out of range, but the target must be within your line of sight (meaning you can see him). If the target would normally be in your line of sight but your vision is blocked for another reason, like you’re being blinded by a spell or someone’s covering your eyes, your attack roll suffers a -6 penalty. When using a ranged weapon, if the target is beyond the range listed for the weapon, the attack roll is penalized -1 for every increment of the range the target is out of.

Example: A character is firing a gun with a range of 30 at a character 100 feet away. The firer suffers a penalty of -3 to the roll, because the target is over three times farther (but less than four) than the range of the gun.

The stat and skill used depend on the character’s weapon and stance. Your attack stance is chosen when you make an attack, and which stances you may use for a specific weapon is described in its listing in the item section. An attack roll is made as XdY, where X is the skill used and Y is the Stat used. Fists use the Gym or Martial Arts skill. A character in the Strong stance uses their Strength stat, a character in the Fast stance uses their Agility, and a character in the Precise stance uses their Accuracy stat. The skill they use is usually their choice of two or more skills listed in the weapon’s stats. A weapon with a skill reading –X subtracts X from their skill for the purposes of attacking with that weapon. If the target of your attack is taking an active defensive action against that attack, then the attacking player must hit the number rolled for that defensive action. It is important to note which type, if any, of defensive action is taken, as noted below in the defensive actions. If the defender has made multiple defensive rolls against a single attack, they must equal or beat the highest of these defensive rolls or the appropriate passive defense number, noted below. If the attacking character is attacking a target with that is not conscious, or is otherwise completely unable to move, they must roll a 5 or higher. This does not count characters who have had their movement drained or who have expended their movement, only characters who are rendered completely immobile through unconsciousness, petrification, tight binding, and so on. Attempting to hit a character otherwise requires your attack roll equals or beats a number that varies depending on which stance you are attacking from. These are referred to as "Passive Defenses". For strong attacks, the number to hit is 1+half the target's defense, rounded down, this number is referred to as "Passive Block". For fast attacks, the number to hit is 1+ half the target's agility, rounded down, this number is referred to as "Passive Dodge". For precise attacks, the number to hit is 1+ half the target's accuracy, rounded down, this number is referred to as "Passive Parry". The number you roll is also modified by the size difference between you and your target. See the Size section of the Other Rules page for details. Since attack rolls are usually made against another character, the GM may also grant a bonus or apply a penalty to your attack roll depending on the circumstances. Usually, this is a result of them taking terrain into account.

If you hit your target and the attack roll is double or more than the target number to hit based on their appropriate passive defense and any active defenses they have made, you may score a “critical hit”, which grants additional effects depending on your stance. In order to score a critical hit, you must meet the difficulty requirement just described and have a currently active facet which has as either its specialty or one of its subjects the skill you rolled when making that attack. A strong critical will cause all the damage for the hit to be doubled, a fast critical will, once per turn, refund a single hand action to the character making the attack(of the character's choice from among the hands they used to perform the attack), and a precise critical will cause the opponent hit to lose one action of your choice from their next turn, meaning their speak action, one of their hand actions, or all of their remaining movement. In this case, the next time this action would be granted them, they immediately lose it. Alternately, a character making an accurate critical may choose to have their opponent fall (if hitting a move action) or drop their weapon or shield (if hitting a hand that is holding a weapon and the weapon isn't held by two hands or attached to the wielder somehow). A fallen opponent must spend at least 20 feet of movement to stand back up before they can use any of their move action for another purpose. It may take more than 20 feet of movement to rise if the terrain is difficult. While fallen, one takes a -2 penalty to their passive defenses and to all rolls made that use any of their hand actions. When a flying opponent is made to fall in this manner, they may not necessarily hit the ground. See the rules on flying in the advantage section for more information. When an opponent is forced to drop their weapon or shield, they have to spend a hand action to pick it up to use it again. At the GM's discretion, some circumstances (such as a high damage roll) may cause a dropped weapon to land far away from the wielder, requiring them to move as well to pick it up. An opponent won't drop their weapon it is held by two more hands unless all of those hands are disabled by precise criticals in a single round. An opponent also won't drop their weapon if its damage is based on the Fist, as such a weapon is considered worn, not held.

If you hit your target, you deal damage. Roll the damage listed on your weapon, and if they have not yet, the target rolls their soak roll for the turn. Bare hands normally deal 1dStr of damage, but this can be modified by abilities and equipment. Soak rolls can be modified by armor, but by default are a 0-skill defense roll(meaning roll defense twice and take the lower). If the character is wearing armor, roll the armor’s given number of dice instead and pick the highest result. If the character making the roll is holding a shield, they also roll the shield's soak die or dice and add it to their total. This soak roll is made once per turn, and represents the total amount of damage that their armor or natural ability to shrug off damage can soak in that turn. Damage dealt to a character first subtracts from this soak rating, and any left over after reducing damage applies to the next damage dealt to them, in order of the damage taken. When one character attacks another character with a melee or ranged weapon, the damage is also modified by the size difference between the characters. See the Size section of the Other Rules page for details.

Spot Block: Your character may use their primary hand to block against a single attack if that hand empty or holding a shield or a weapon that allows the bare fist to deal its damage. This can be declared before or after an attack roll is made, but will not work against an attack roll where the damage has already been dealt. Unless a special ability they are using states otherwise, a Spot Blocking character making their Spot Block with their bare hand or fist weapon makes a Gym or Martial Arts/Defense roll. A character attempting to hit someone who is blocking that attack must hit the higher of this number or their appropriate passive defense difficulty. If that character is attacking with a precise stance, you gain a +5 bonus to your Spot Block roll. A character can also use a shield to make a Spot Block. In this case, the shield has a skill or a choice of skills which they roll with the defense stat as their Spot Block roll. Spot Block rolls may be taken as a reaction, allowing you to spend the appropriate hand action to Spot Block before your turn comes up in initiative.

Spot Parry: Your character may use their primary hand to parry a single attack if they are carrying a weapon or shield which allows them to use the Precise attack style. This can be declared before or after an attack roll is made, but will not work against an attack roll where the damage has already been dealt. Unless a special ability they are using states otherwise, the Spot Parrying character makes an accuracy roll, using their choice of the weapon or shield's usable skills. A character attempting to hit someone who is making a Spot Parry must hit the higher of this number or their appropriate passive defense difficulty. If that character is attacking with a fast stance, you gain a +5 to your Spot Parry roll. Spot Parry rolls may be taken as a reaction, allowing you to spend the appropriate hand action to Spot Parry before your turn comes up in initiative.

Active Block: Your character may use their primary hand action to actively raise their blocking defenses, making all incoming Strong Attacks less likely to hit for a time, by spending their primary hand action when that hand is empty or holding a shield or weapon that allows the bare fist to deal damage. The Active Blocking character rolls their Gym or Martial arts with their Defense stat if they are using a bare first or a weapon that allows the bare fist to deal damage, or they roll one of the skills listed on their shield's description with their Defense stat if they are using a shield. You may choose to have the results of this roll become your new passive block score until the beginning of your next full turn. Active Block rolls may be taken as a reaction, allowing you to spend the appropriate hand action to Active Block before your turn comes up in initiative, but doing so causes the benefits of the Active Block to expire when your turn arrives in the initiative order.

Active Parry: Your character may use their primary hand action to actively raise their parrying defenses, making all incoming Precise Attacks less likely to hit for a time, by spending their primary hand action when that holding a shield or a weapon which allows the Precise attack stance. The Active Parrying character rolls one of the skills listed on their shield's or weapon's description with their Accuracy stat. You may choose to have the results of this roll become your new passive parry score until the beginning of your next full turn. Active Parry rolls may be taken as a reaction, allowing you to spend the appropriate hand action to Active Parry before your turn comes up in initiative, but doing so causes the benefits of the Active Parry to expire when your turn arrives in the initiative order.

Offhand: You may take any actions with your offhand that you would normally be able to take with your primary hand, but all skills are considered one point lower for the purposes of any rolls made for offhand actions.

This offhand penalty only applies when performing an action that only uses offhand actions. By default, a character gets only one primary hand action per turn, and every hand action following that one on the same turn is considered offhand. If a character attacks with one hand, then casts a spell with the offhand and a speak action, the offhand penalty is not applied. However, if a character casts two spells in a turn, each using a different hand action, then one of the spells will have the offhand penalty.

There is no need to distinguish hand dominance in this game. The first hand action performed in a turn is always considered the primary unless the player specifies using an offhand first. Generally, it's a good idea to reserve your offhand for actions that don't require skill rolls to succeed.

Both Hands: Some actions require both hands to perform. If your character has extra hands, one of the hands used must be primary, or the action suffers a penalty of -1 to the skill. There is no bonus granted for using extra primary hands.

Grapple: This counts as an attack from the stance of your choice, which means the opponent may choose to use active or spot defenses to counter it. The grappler and their target must be within 5 feet of each other. The grappler makes the attack with their Gym or Martial Arts skill, and must be unarmed or only using weapons which allow their bare hand to deal damage. Strong grapples are subject to modification based on size. Precise grapples are not subject to size modifiers. Fast grapples are subject to the reverse of their normal modifiers for size. The grappler gains a +2 bonus if the target has exhausted their hand actions, and another +2 if the if the target has exhausted their movement actions. If the grappler beats their opponent’s defensive roll, they have grappled their opponent, though there is no additional effect if the grapple attack succeeded critically. The result rolled on a successful grapple becomes that grapple's Hold Difficulty, and determines the difficulty of breaking out of that grapple. If a grappled character had any actions remaining, all but one type of that character's actions are converted into a single escape action, with the exception depending on the grapple's stance. Characters grappled with a strong grapple retain their speak actions. Characters grappled with a fast grapple retain their move actions. Characters grappled with a precise grapple retain their offhand actions. If a grappled character chooses to regain an action that they would normally lose due to the grapple, they instead gain an Escape action. A grapple's Hold Difficulty drops by 2 each time an escape action is spent on trying to escape that grapple. The grappling character must use at least one hand action on each of their turns to keep the grapple up, but may spend a single primary hand action along with it to make a new grapple roll to reinforce their hold. If this roll is higher than the current Hold Difficulty, it becomes the grapple's new Hold Difficulty. While grappling an opponent, a character gets +4 on all their attack rolls on that opponent. A grappled character who attempts to hit their grappler and misses by 5 or more hits themselves instead. Hits landed this way cannot have the special effect of the stance(no double damage, no attacking again, no precise hit), even if they technically roll a critical hit on themselves when they weren’t trying to guard against their own attack. A character who is grappling may use their move actions to move their victim around, providing they have the strength to push or drag them, including moving them into hazards or even jumping with them into the ground. Most of this can be represented with kicks, though they may spend their primary hand action to do other special actions, listed below.

A grappler may spend their hand action to pin their grappled foe. When they do so, they must either go prone with the target or release the hold.

A grappler who can push their grappled target may also slam them into a hazard, spending a hand action to double the damage the grappled character takes from the hazard. The grappling character must choose to either release the hold when they do this or take half the damage from the hazard. This could be used to increase fall damage, though a character who could halt their fall in some manner would need to release the hold to prevent themselves from taking the fall damage.

A grappler may spend their hand action to attempt to throw the grappled target. Doing so requires a Str check with Gym or Mar, modified for size. If the target resists being thrown, the difficulty of the check is the target's Def score, modified for size. Failure means the target cannot be thrown, and the target gains a +5 bonus on their next check to escape the grapple. Success allows the grappler to throw the target by up to 10 feet, with every 5 over the difficulty adding an additional 10 feet to the maximum distance. If the grappler attempts to throw upward, the maximum distance is halved, rounded down. If the grappler attempts to throw downward, the maximum distance is increased by 50%, rounded down. If the thrown target collides with an object of at least their own size, then it takes damage as if it had fallen the distance the grappler threw them. Throwing the target at something specific will require a Acc check with Gym or Mar, and aiming at another character is considered a precise attack. When the thrown target lands, they are considered prone.

A grappling character may spend their primary hand action to attempt to pull something off a character. Again, this is a Gym or Martial Arts attack made with the Strength, Agility, or Accuracy stat against their opponent's appropriate defense roll or passive defense. The character attempting to grapple should have a penalty that reflects how tightly the item is secured onto the target. Something loose could have no penalty to snatch, while a tightly secured item could have a penalty as high as -10. Weapons and other items held in hands have a penalty applied equal to -5 for each hand securing the targeted item. If the targeted character has a free hand action and a free hand(or is willing to drop the item to free up that hand), they can use that hand action to grab on and add to the penalty.

Armor pieces that cover more than one section of the body are harder to remove in a grapple. The piece covering the torso is always +3 harder to pull off, but any piece that covers multiple body parts is +2 harder to remove for each additional part past the first. Grappling to remove pieces is usually the grappler's strength against the target's defense. Pulling off a crafted piece of armor adds +3 to the difficulty, and pulling off natural armor or weapons(described in their advantages, or when a character is made of armor) adds +20 to the difficulty.

Talk: Your character may speak for up to ten seconds during their turn. Some special abilities require the use of some of this time. Any character may attempt a distraction attempt, which uses their talk action for the turn and may lower the enemy’s rolls. Depending on how you attempt to distract your opponent, the GM may choose one of the following distraction attempts to roll. In general, if a GM thinks that a distraction attempt may qualify as one of the three non-general types, they should choose that and only choose general if it does not fall under any of the other three types. A single character only takes the highest penalty of any distractions they have suffered, and you should always keep note of who the originator of the highest distraction type that is currently affecting the character is, as a character can only have their attention drawn to one character at a time in this manner. A character who is distracted by any means loses their analyze action for the round, but may gain subsequent ones through high initiative, and the distractor may refund a lost analyze action to the distractee by spending a speak action to direct their attention, though this analyze action may only be spent as the distractor dictates.

General: By pointing out something, making a witty joke, throwing out a disarming non sequitur, or otherwise attempting to redirect your opponent's attention, you may try to temporarily distract an opponent. This roll is made as the distractor's Personality stat rolled against the distractee's Intelligence stat, with the distractor taking a -2 penalty to the roll. If the distractor's roll is higher than the distractee's roll, the distractee takes a penalty to all skill rolls made until the end of their next full turn equal to the difference. Each time in an encounter past the first that a single character is targeted with a general distraction roll, the distractor takes a cumulative -1 penalty to their personality roll.

Infatuate: Get someone's attention and distract them with your sexy body by using a talk action to make an infatuate attempt. First, tell the GM who you're trying to attract, generally by describing what you say to get their attention (The GM may deem that you get the attention of multiple characters if you say something like "Hey, cutie" or "Oh, Ladies"). You then make a nonskilled personality roll, adding in any bonuses you may have to infatuate attempts. Subtract 4 from this roll. This number is the Distraction rating. Anyone who is targeted by the distraction and has a preference indicating that they are attracted to your character's sex makes a nonskilled intelligence roll. If their roll is less than the distraction rating, they suffer a penalty to all skill rolls that turn equal to the difference, then a penalty of two less the next round, and so on until the penalty drops to 0. If the character is distracted successfully and the difference is 10 or more, the distractee is smitten with the distractor, and will act accordingly, oftentimes switching sides to help the distractor out. The distracted character remains smitten until the penalty is reduced to 0 or a different non-general distraction against the character succeeds with a higher penalty. A smitten character must make an intelligence roll equal to the penalty to perform any action contrary to what they believe to be the distractor's wishes, though if these wishes are verbalized the GM can assign a bonus or penalty to that roll based on how congruent the distractor's wishes are with the character's own desires. The distractee does not suffer any penalties to actions made that directly conform to verbalized wishes from the distractor. Any attempts to infatuate after the first time, whether it's the same character you're doing it to or not, in the same encounter suffer a cumulative -2 penalty to the Distraction rating. Be careful with this if you've got friends who find you attractive.

Infuriate: You can also use your talk action to say all the wrong things. This distracts an enemy pretty well, too, but comes at more of a risk to you. Once again, you must use a talk action getting their attention with a rude comment about their mother or their martial arts style. Then you make a nonskilled personality roll, adding in any modifiers, and subtracting 4 to determine the Distraction rating. As before, anyone who is potentially distracted(though this time it's not biased by sexual preference) must make a nonskilled Intelligence roll. If their roll is less than the Distraction roll, they suffer a penalty to their skill rolls for that turn equal to the difference, then a penalty of two less the next round, and so on until the penalty drops to 0. If the character is distracted successfully and the difference is 10 or more, the distractee is enraged with the distractor, and will act accordingly, usually changing the target of their spells or attacks to the distractor. The distracted character remains enraged until the penalty is reduced to 0 or a different non-general distraction against the character succeeds with a higher penalty. An enraged character must make an intelligence roll equal to the penalty to perform any action not taken to get to or attack the distractor via any means. The distractee does not suffer any penalties to actions taken to reach or attack the distractor, though the distractor may spend their speak action to bait them into attacking in a specific way, such as by casting spells or attacking from a particular stance. If the distractor spends their speak action in such a way, assuming the character can attack in the way the distractor baits them, they take the penalty as normal for any actions other than doing what the distractor has baited them into doing. Infuriation attempts made after the first time, even if they're directed at someone else, in the same encounter suffer a cumulative -2 penalty to the Distraction rating.

Intimidate: The final distracting talk action, scaring your opponents witless, requires a bit more finesse to do properly, but gives a more preferable result. By now you know the drill: Spend a talk action to talk some smack at one or more opponents (Determined by the GM) and make a nonskilled personality roll. Add your modifiers and subtract 4 to get the Distraction rating. Everyone affected makes a nonskilled intelligence check, and if they don't meet the distraction rating they suffer a penalty equal to the difference to all skill rolls that round, then a penalty of two less the next round, and so on until the penalty drops to 0. If the character is distracted successfully and the difference is 10 or more, the distractee is terrified of the distractor, and will act accordingly, refusing to engage if at all possible or complying if they're trapped. The distracted character remains terrified until the penalty is reduced to 0 or a different non-general distraction against the character succeeds with a higher penalty. A terrified character must make an intelligence roll equal to the penalty to perform any action not taken to get away from or obey the distractor. The distractee does not suffer any penalties to actions taken to escape or obey the distractor, though the distractor may spend their speak action to make specific demands, narrowing the scope of actions the distractee may take without penalty. Intimidation attempts made in the same encounter after the first one, even if they're at different characters, have a cumulative -2 penalty to the Distraction rating.

Move: Moving counts as an action, and depending on their method of movement, they might even be able to fly. Unless you character has a special way of moving, assume that they can simply walk or run across ground. A character gains a number of movement actions equal to their agility score.

Standard Moving: Normally, a character may use a single move action to move up to 5 feet. This can be modified by certain effects and abilities, including the character's size. For example, a medium-sized character with 8 Agility would be able to move 40 feet in their turn assuming nothing else was altering their movement speed. If a character has other means of movement, such as flying, unless specified otherwise or altered by an effect or ability a single move action would allow the character to move 5 feet.

Jumping: Characters may spend 4 movement actions to leap up to their Strength score in feet from a standing jump horizontally and one half their Strength score vertically in a single jump. This distance is modified by the character's size, which is described in the Size rules. If the character spends at least 2 movement actions running in the direction of their jump and has the room to do so before they make the jump, the distance increases to up to double their strength score horizontally and up to their Strength score vertically, again modified by size. A character spending at least 4 Movement actions running in a straight line and making an 11 Martial Arts or Gym roll on Agility may leap twice their full Strength score in feet horizontally and up to half of their Strength score vertically, modified by size. On a failure, the character instead rolls Strength (non-exploding) and subtracts 1. Double that result is the horizontal distance possible and half it is the vertical distance possible, but a failed Agility roll on a long jump check always causes the jumper to land fallen. Assuming the character hasn't fallen, they may continue to make jumps as long as they have the movement for it. If your Agility is less than 4, you cannot jump.

Other Movement (Flying, Teleportation, etc.): Other modes of movement are described in the spells, advantages, and other abilities that represent them.

Spot Dodge: Your character may spend 4 or more of their move actions each turn to dodge a single incoming attack. To Spot Dodge, declare how much of your movement you wish to spend on dodging, with a single Spot Dodge attempt costing 4 movement actions. This can be declared before or after an attack roll is made, but will not work against an attack roll where the damage has already been dealt. A Spot Dodging character makes a non-skilled agility roll for each 4 movement actions they spend, unless a special ability they are using says otherwise, and take the highest of these rolls. A character attempting to hit someone who is Spot Dodging that attack must hit the higher of this number and the appropriate passive defense difficulty to hit them. If the attacker is making a Strong attack, add +5 to the active dodge roll. Spot Dodge rolls may be taken as a reaction, allowing you to spend the appropriate hand action to Spot Dodge before your turn comes up in initiative

Active Dodge: Your character may raise their mobility, making all incoming Fast Attacks less likely to hit for a time, by spending a number of movement actions equal to their agility score. The Active Dodging character rolls either their Gym or Martial Arts skill with their Agility stat. You may choose to have the results of this roll become your new passive dodge score until the beginning of your next full turn. Active Dodge rolls may be taken as a reaction, allowing you to spend the appropriate move actions to Active Dodge before your turn comes up in initiative, but doing so causes the benefits of the Active Dodge to expire when your turn arrives in the initiative order.

Kick: Your character may spend all of their movement, so long as they spend at least 4 movement actions, to make a kicking attack. Kicking uses either Gym or Martial Arts with the Agility or Strength stat and its stance is considered Strong if Strength is used and Fast if Agility is used. Kicking is special in that it does not gain any of the bonuses normally granted to attacks unless it specifically states that it grants bonuses to kicking, though you still gain the skill bonus from your facets. If a kick connects, it deals 1dStr damage.

Hold: Your character may choose to hold any of these actions for later. If they do this, they may choose at any time before their next full turn to use their held actions. This is useful if your character is being attacked by someone who moves in and out too fast for them to approach or if you wish to perform more complex actions during an additional action phase(see below). A character can choose to use a held action at the beginning of a turn before their initiative comes up even if their full turn comes up first.

Escape: A character whose actions are denied to them due to a grapple or otherwise being bound often has one or more of their actions converted into Escape actions. To make an Escape action, the character makes their choice of a Strength, Agility, or Intelligence roll with their Martial Arts or Home Ec skill against the Hold Difficulty of a single hold affecting them. If they are successful, they break the hold and are refunded a single action of their choice, in the same manner as gaining a partial turn through high initiative as described below. A character who makes a successful escape roll against a grapple and beats that roll by 5 or more can instead of being refunded choose to instead get a free grapple roll against the one who was grappling them, with the grapple roll replaced by the escape roll. A character who makes a successful escape roll against a weapon's bind attack when the weapon used to bind them is still being held by the attacker may instead choose to make an instant grapple roll to disarm the character that bound them with that roll being replaced with the result of the escape roll.

Magic: Casting spells is an important part of battle, and uses one or more actions just like attacking with a weapon or moving. Using magic is different depending on what facet you use to cast that magic, and its use is explained in that facet’s description.

3: Check for Additional Actions Once all of the characters have declared their actions, subtract 10 from each character's initiative. If any characters have an initiative of 1 or higher at this point, they may take an additional partial turn in order from highest to lowest initiative, where they do not get to use all of their actions. Instead, they can choose to have their speak action, one of their hand actions, or up to their agility in movement actions “refunded”, and may perform any actions they would normally be able to as if it were their turn. A character who has held an action from earlier in the round may use those held actions as well, though a character cannot have more than their base actions available after a refund. For example, if a character was holding one of their hand actions and chose to refund that hand action, they could not use that hand twice. After all characters who had an extra action take their turns in order again, subtract 10 from their initiative again, granting extra partial turns again and going through initiative in order, repeating until there are no characters remaining with positive initiative.

4: Resolve non-character actions

After all characters have taken their actions in turn, the GM resolves any other events or effects that were not caused by the characters. Lightning in a rainstorm, rain putting out a fire, and so on. After this, the process restarts at #1. Combat ends when everyone’s done fighting.

Cover

If, during combat, you manage to dive behind something when you’re getting shot or stabbed at, the GM may add a cover bonus based on how well you’re protected. If you’re behind a stop sign, you may get a +1. If you’re hiding behind a wall, the GM may say that you’re out of sight range and they cannot directly attack you until they move around to get to you. A cover bonus is applied to all your passive, active, and spot defenses, but particularly extensive coverage may also confer penalties to your own attacks.