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Combat

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Saved by Bruce Mason
on April 26, 2010 at 2:03:55 pm
 

 

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Combat has been heavily revised in RQII. This page will introduce a small number of House Rules and tweaks.

 

The Combat Round

Combat is divided into "combat rounds" and happens in "Action Time". There are 12 combat rounds in every minute; a single round translates to five seconds of time, during which a character can perform one or more actions. Each round is broken into two steps: the Action Step and the Wrap-Up Step.

 

Action Step

Each action step consists of 1 or more Strike Rank Cycles. During a Cycle, each character with at least one combat action remaining may perform one Combat Action action on their SR: this is known as their "Turn". Characters only get one turn per Cycle but can also use Combat Actions to defend themselves even when it is not their turn. During a Cycle the character with the highest Strike Rank acts first, followed by the character with the second-highest Strike Rank, and so on until the character with the lowest Strike Ranks acts. Defensive actions such as parries or attempts to evade are made during this process as appropriate. There is no limit to the number of defensive actions that a character may take during cycle providing that character has enough Combat Actions to spend. If two characters with the same SR wish to act at the same time, the character with the highest DEX acts first. If they both have the same DEX then the actions occur simultaneously.

 

Strike Rank Cycle(s)

Characters take one action: Each character involved in the combat performs one combat Action on their turn in Strike Rank order.

Once all characters have taken a turn, If there are any characters combat actions left, start another Strike Rank Cycle.

If there are no more characters with remaining actions, move to the Wrap-up step.

 

Wrap-up Step.

Fatigue is determined now as are all rolls that are made at the “end of the round”. If there are characters still engaged in combat with enemies, or one or more characters is involved in some activity that requires the game to continue on "Action Time", another combat round begins.

 

Main terms and concepts

Engaged

A character is either engaged in close combat, engaged in grapple combat or is unengaged. While a character is engaged in any type of combat, its potential actions are reduced because it must spend so much attention on any foes it is engaged with. A character that is engaged must "change range" in order to disengage from combat.

 

A character may find itself surrounded by multiple foes all of whom are engaging it in close combat. If the character has no cover, up to 6 foes of roughly its size may engage it at once.

 

Grounded, mounted & flying

A character is:

  • grounded if it is fighting on foot.
  • mounted if it is riding a mount.
  • flying if it is airborne.

A character riding a flying mount is considered to be both flying and mounted.

  • A flying character can always breakaway from non-flying foes.
  • A mounted character can always breakaway from grounded foes.

 

Strike Ranks

SR minimum. A character's Strike Rank can never be reduced below 0. If modifiers would reduce a SR to below 0 then it is set to 0.

 

Interrupting Actions

If a character has waited to a later SR to take an action and still has an action left then it may choose to try to interrupt an opponent's action. Example: As above, Fahir has an arrow ready and can act on SR14 but has chosen to wait and see what happens. On SR4 a Broo leaps out of a bush behind a friend in a bid to attack. Seeing this Fahir wishes to shoot the broo before it can attack. To interrupt successfully, the character must beat the target in a skill contest of the skill they wish to use versus the skill the target is planning to use. If the character succeeds their action is resolved before the target's action, if not, it is resolved immediately afterwards. If anyone involved was not planning to use a skill as such (e.g. shouting a warning, turning around) then the GM or player needs to choose an appropriate skill; usually athletics or acrobatics for physical actions, sometimes Influence or Perception for other types of activities.

 

Example: Fahir bow 78%. Broo Unarmed attack 45%. On SR4 the broo wishes to make an attack. Fahir has an arrow knocked and still has an action available during this Action Phase so he declares an attempt to interrupt. This requires an opposed roll of Fahir's bow skill (78%) vs the Broo's attack (45%). If Fahir wins the contest, he now makes a bow attack against the broo before the broo can attack Fahir's friend. If the broo wins, the broo's attack is resolved first and then Fahir's attack is resolved straight afterwards. If Fahir fails he is still committed to take the action. Fahir can abort the action but that still counts as taking an action for the turn. The rationale for this is that he tried to fire and realised it was too late and aborted before he did more harm than good. The distraction of doing this however has used his action for the phase.

 

Surprise (HR)

A surprised character suffers a –10 penalty to his Strike Rank until the end of the Combat round. While surprised, a character cannot take any actions including defensive actions, so, if a character is surprised it cannot evade or parry. A character can become "unsurprised" as a trivial action when it performs a combat action. Such a character can now take defensive actions as well as normal actions but still suffers a -10SR penalty until the end of the round. Normally Initiative is re-rolled after a round in which someone was surprised.

 

Dazed/stunned (HR)

A character usually becomes dazed as the result of a serious damage. A dazed character can take no actions except to move at up to 1/2 its normal rate or to change position. It can take defensive actions such as Evade and Parry. A dazed character recovers from being dazed at the end of the combat round after the one in which it became dazed.

 

Overextended/ unbalanced (HR)

Certain combat situations leave a character "overextended" or "unbalanced." Such a character is off-balance. While a character is overextended, other characters get +20% in skills to attack it. A character automatically recovers from being unbalanced at the end of the round after the one in which it became unbalanced.

 

Vulnerable (HR)

Certain combat situations can make a character "vulnerable". Such a character is badly off balance. While a character is vulnerable other characters get +20% in skills to attack it and inflict 2 additional damage whenever they hit. A character automatically recovers from being vulnerable at the end of the round after the one in which it became vulnerable.

 

Flanking and surrounding

  • Flanking. A character is flanked if at least two foes are engaging it, no friendly character is adjacent, no friendly character is engaging the flanking characters and the foes state that they wish to flank. There needs to be room in front of and to the side of the flanked character. There is no need for a specific bonus for flanking because in RQ the flanked character will soon run out of actions with which to defend themselves.

 

  • Surrounded. A character is surrounded if at least 3 foes are engaging it, there are no friendly adjacent characters, there are no other characters engaging the surrounding characters and there is room for all the surrounding characters. To surround a character the surrounding characters need to be fairly evenly spaced around the target.  There is no need for a specific bonus for surrounding because in RQ the surrounded character will soon run out of actions. There may often be character who is behind the surrounded character and that character will get the usual modifier for attacking from behind.

 

There is no specific move or manoeuvre to flank or surround: use normal moves or manoeuvres to position yourself in order to create a flanking/surrounding manoeuvre, or to try to prevent one from forming, or to try to get out of one.

 

Aborting Actions

Sometimes plans go horribly wrong and you wish to abort an action. If the GM allows it, the action can be aborted but still counts as the character's action for that cycle. The GM may require a skill check in order to abort an action or impose a penalty. Example: Fahir swings at an enemy with an axe only to realise at the last second that it is actually his friend Mikolos. His player asks the GM if he can abort. The GM says that if Fahir can successfully make a sword skill test that he can abort. If he fails, he must carry on with the attack as normal.

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