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Combat

This version was saved 13 years, 11 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Bruce Mason
on April 28, 2010 at 3:38:09 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

Charging

This is pretty messy in RQ. If someone charges you then you have one of two choices:

 

  1. Try to Evade
  2. Attack.

Evade: pit your evade against the attack skill being used against you. If you win, you evade the attack as normal. If the charger wins, you take damage.

Attack: this is an out of turn action and the person with the longest weapon goes first. Note that if you choose this option neither you nor the charger gets a defence. This may generate Combat Manoeuvres. If you have used the Ready an Attack Combat Action to brace an impaling weapon then your Damage Modifier gets increased by 1 or 2 steps as if you were charging. Using a weapon in this way requires both hands.

 

How many CAs does a charge take? A charge requires you to run which means that you must be unengaged when you start a charge and must have enough room to reach running speed. If the target is within the charger's sprinting distance then the charge takes up all of the charger's remaining CAs. Otherwise the charger must take the whole CR sprinting and then continue the charge on future CRs. 

 

Engaged

A character is either engaged in close combat, engaged in grapple combat or is unengaged. 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.

 

Grapple combat and combat range

Any time a character is gripped or otherwise seized in combat this is the equivalent of closing with the exception that only weapons with a reach of Touch and natural weapons can be used normally. Any other weapon could be used to bash or otherwise hurt an enemy but are reduced to D4 damage and don't have any weapon-specific Combat Manoeuvres. Other than that grappling works just as stated in the RQII rulebook. 

 

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 delayed 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. Fahir wishes to shoot the broo before it can attack. To interrupt successfully, both characters make their skill rolls simultaneously but the person who does best gets to resolve the effects of their action first. To determine who "does best" compare the two rolls as if they were an opposed contest.  If anyone involved was not planning to use a skill as such (e.g. shouting a warning or turning around) then the GM or player needs to choose an appropriate skill; usually athletics or evade for physical actions, sometimes Influence or Perception for other types of activities. As with any opposed test, it is possible for all parties to fail.

 

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 Cycle so he declares  that he wishes to fire the arrow at the broo in order to disable it before it can attack his friend. Fahir makes his bow attack roll and gets 32. The broo is unaware of the threat and rolls 21 for its unarmed attack. Both make their rolls but Fahir rolled higher so he resolves the effect of his attack first. The broo doesn't have a CA left or else it might have been able to abort its current action and try an evade. As it is, Fahir hits and, because the broo offered no defense, he gets a manoeuvre as well. Aiming at the head is never wise with broos so he chooses impale, hoping the damage is enough to prevent the broo from being able to make the attack. Sure enough he rolls 7 damage in total and hits the broo in the right leg. That's enough to cause it to fall over. Even though the broo would have made its attack roll normally, falling over causes the attack to be aborted.

 

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 will become "unsurprised" on its turn. 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 on its turn 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.

 

Combat Actions

In addition to those in the book, I have introduced the following Combat Action.

Ready an Attack: This action is used when a character wishes to delay an attack until there is an appropriate target. Unlike the Delay action, this attack can be taken at any time up to the character's next turn; it does not expire at the end of a cycle. However, if the character makes any out of turn actions such as Evading then the action is immediately aborted. This action allows a character to, for instance, guard a door or to knock an arrow in order to shoot the first goblin that runs out of the undergrowth. 

 

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 turn 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.

 

Miniatures combat

Specific changes to combat and movement to facilitate playing with miniatures on a battle grid. Coming soon, maybe. Biggest issue is integrating movement with CAs and that will have knock-on effects on the Armour Penalty.

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