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Surface Combat

Sequence Per Turn

  • Faction Initiative
  • Action Phase - each character takes up to two actions, in Initiative order.
  • Faction Morale - if two or more factions remain in combat, go to the next turn using the same Initiative order. When only one faction remains, combat is over.

When a combat ends, all Ammunition resources that were used during that combat must make a Usage roll.

Faction Initiative

Each Faction in the combat (for example, the players and the monsters), rolls a d20 for initiative, rolling off on ties, until all factions have a ranked Initiative order. Next, each faction goes through its Action Phase in order of Initiative from highest to lowest.

Action Phase

During the Action Phase, each character can make up to two actions. The order of character turns within a faction is freely determined each round by the members of that faction.

Unless otherwise specified, characters can only make one attack per turn.

1 Action 2 Actions
- Moving a distance up to a character's Encounter Range.-
  • Attacking in melee.\n- Firing a ranged weapon.\n-n
    • Common weapon actions: Switching weapons, switching weapon modes, reloading.\n-n
      • Deploying or packing a radiator.\n-n
        • Activating a known piece of technology like a door, switch, or computer. -|
          • Firing a Heavy weapon with a strength less than the weapon's.\n- Transformation of armor, vehicle, or person.\n-
          • Sprinting, moving up to twice the character's Encounter Range but doing nothing else. |

Movement

Out of Melee Characters can use one of their actions to move up to their Encounter Range. A character may also spend two actions to sprint, moving up to four times their Encounter Range.

A character can take or leave cover as part of their move.

In Melee A character may Retreat or Flee from melee.

A character is considered to be in melee if they are within melee range of at least one enemy.

Retreat Flee
A fighting withdrawal up to half a character's Encounter Range away from their enemy. Spend two actions to move up to twice a character's Encounter Range away from the enemy. In response, enemies within melee distance may use one of their actions to attack the fleeing character. These attacks are resolved immediately, regardless of Initiative order.

Ranged Attacks

Ranged Attacks can be made when the character is at least their target's Melee Range away from their target. Each weapon specifies its maximum range and any other range bands that may apply. For example, some weapons are more effective at shorter ranges.

Melee Attacks

Melee Attacks can be performed by any character within range of their target:

  • Scale 0: 2 Meters
  • Scale 1: 5 Meters
  • Scale 2: 50 Meters

All Factions Act

After the first Faction has resolved their actions, all other factions take turns in descending Initiative order.

Faction Morale

A Morale check is a 2d6 roll that succeeds if the result is under the factions' Morale. A faction that has taken casualties must pass a Morale check to stay in the fight. Factions that fail their Morale check may flee, try to bargain with the enemy, or be taken as prisoners.

Morale Scores of 2 or 12: Entities with a Morale of 2 will never fight unless they have no other choice. Entities with a Morale of 12 will fight to the death or until the Referee determines they decide to withdraw.

Attacking

  • 1. Roll To-Hit. To land a successful attack, characters must score 20 or higher using the following formula:
    • Attack Roll d20 + combat bonus + target vulnerability (VLN)
  • 2. Weapon Damage. If an attack hits, roll the attacking weapon's damage dice. If multiple shots were fired in the same attack, one extra shot hits for every point above 20 on the attack roll result. If the attack roll was 21 and the weapon fired 4 shots, only 2 would hit. If the result were 28 for a weapon firing 3 shots, all 3 shots would hit.
    • Defenses. If the target has any soak dice, they may be rolled now. If the target has any Armor HP, it should be reduced by the amount of remaining damage.
    • Hitpoint Reduction. Damage that has not been absorbed by defenses is removed from the target's current Hitpoints.
  • 3. Casualties. If the target reaches 0 HP, they have become a casualty. Refer to the Zero HP section under Damage and Death.

Tactical Issues

Zone Effects

Area Ray

A cylindrical beam with a large aperture rather than a pinpoint focus. Area Rays are handled exactly like a Blast of the same radius. While the Ray is active, it is handled as a new Blast during the firer's turn.

Sweeping a Ray Area Rays can be maintained from one turn to the next like Beam weapons. Whenever the Area Ray moves while being maintained, it loses 1 point of damage per Scaled Unit of movement during the firer's next action.

Blast

Effects any entities within the blast diameter. If an entity within the area makes a successful Save vs. Area Effects, they receive half damage.

Cone

Handled like Blasts, but with a specific shape. A cone may extend in any direction from the point of origin. At every point along the length of the cone, its width is half the distance of that point from the origin. So at 4 meters, a cone is 2 meters wide. At 20 meters away from the origin, a cone is 10 meters wide.

Cover

Cover makes it harder to hit targets.

  • Light Cover: -2 to-hit.
  • Heavy Cover: -4 to-hit.
  • Concealed: -10 to-hit, can only target if the enemy location is known by other means.

Multiple Weapons

Characters can attack with however many weapons as they have hands. When attacking with more than one weapon, the to-hit roll should be modified by the character's Multiple Weapon Penalty as specified in their Species (or sometimes in a Minor Arcana) per weapon after the first. Using a second weapon earns 1x penalty, using three weapons earns 2x penalty, and so on.

Stealth

Stealth acts like Cover. Some Stealth technologies force the opposition to make a roll to Search.

Stealth Level

Stealth Level is determined by:

Stealth Tech Level - Sensor Level

Stealth Levels correspond to Light, Heavy, and Concealed Cover. With a Stealth Level of 4 or higher, the entity cannot be targeted without sensors even if they are in the open.

Subdual (Stunning)

Characters may attempt to subdue an opponent rather than injure them. If so, they must declare their intent to cause nonlethal damage when they attack. Nonlethal damage can only be caused by nonlethal weapons, blunt weapons, or by using other weapons as clubs. If using a lethal weapon as a club, the attack will be at a -4 penalty to-hit.

Nonlethal damage is recorded separately from HP damage. If the target's nonlethal damage reaches their maximum number of hitpoints, they are subdued and/or stunned. A Save vs. Stun is taken, and if failed the target is Stunned (unconscious). Otherwise, the target has been subdued, and can be abandoned, restrained, taken as a prisoner, or whatever else.

Unarmed Attacks

Unarmed attacks are treated as normal melee attacks. Their damage roll is:

1d2 + attacker's Combat Bonus

Martial Arts

Martial arts allow a character to make a tradeoff between attack and defense. Characters can split a dice chain between them (like d6 damage, d4 defense out of a d10 pool, or d10 spent entirely to avoid enemy attacks).

Weapons

Weapons have a profile as well as one or more tags. Such a weapon will be designated like "Heavy Beam" or "Compact Assault" or "Long Melee".

  • Name
  • Tags
  • Range
  • Damage (plus Damage Type)
  • Cost (ammo, energy draw, etc)
  • Hands
  • Scale
  • Weapon Tags

    • Melee: can only be used in melee. Strength bonus added to damage.

    • Thrown: Strength bonus added to damage. Range decided by Strength.

    • Handheld: may be concealed under normal clothing and fired in melee.

    • Assault: can fired on a turn where the character moves.

    • Long: a melee weapon with double the range.

    • Steady: +1 to-hit when still.

    • Heavy x: takes two actions to fire for characters with strength < x.

    • Beam: instead of a to-hit roll, the target takes a Save vs. Beams.

    • Continuous x: if the character continues firing on the same target, the weapon gains +x damage and uses +x ammunition/energy for every turn it remains focused.

    • Blast: uses Area Effect rules when firing.

    • Cone: uses Area Effect rules for cones when firing.

    • Homing: Instead of a to-hit roll, the target takes a Save vs. Homing. Some Homing weapons have a minimum range until their attacks lock on. In this case, a normal to-hit roll is made when the target is closer than the minimum range. For a Homing Beam weapon, the effects of the Beam tag apply when the target is closer than the minimum range.

    • Quench: an optional alternate profile when the user has Intershields. Typically adds a small number of Heat Points when used in this way!

Defenses

Defenses are a combination of armor, shields, and other equipment and techniques used to reduce incoming damage. All of a character's defenses provide some of the below qualities. They are meant to be added together and used together rather than tracked separately.

Stealth Level

All worn defenses' stealth levels are added together.

Armor

Most armor provides its own hitpoints. Armor Hitpoints are expended before character hitpoints.

Soak Dice

Dice that can be thrown to reduce incoming damage by the result of the roll.

  • Die size and count
  • Cost (Heat per die thrown)
  • Soak Die Regeneration. The number of Soak Dice that will be readied every turn.

Vent

The number of heat points that are passively reduced every turn.

Special Rules

  • Intershield linking
  • Structural bonuses, e.g. from Subshields

Examples

Defenses stealth: +1, vent: 2,**** armor: 4hp, soak dice: 2d6 plasma shield, 1d8 friction shield (+1)

Heat

Heat is an increasing pool of Heat Points. Heat Points are accumulated when:

  • Being hit by Energy weapons.
  • Firing a weapon that generates Heat.
  • When shields absorb damage.

At the end of a character's turn, reduce their accumulated heat by their Vent score. If they have heat points left over, roll a d6 for each point. Any dice that land on 1 or 2 damage the character for that many hitpoints. For any dice that land on 6, remove a heat point from the character.

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