|
You can enhance a presence attack by taking appropriate actions. For example, making a good speech or engaging in some suitably impressive action. A presence attack requires an action in combat. Presence attacks can also be used to gain the respect of friendly individuals.
Sometimes the worst violence is not physical, but verbal. Repartee is the skill of attacking and defending against verbal assaults. A successful attack can ruin your opponent’s confidence, damage their reputation, or goad them into anger… or it can score brownie points for the attacker. In Repartee, information is a weapon worth +0 to +3 damage, and it may also sometimes act as armor. Friends may sometimes assist as well. In combat, Repartee requires an action.
The attacker must state his intention when engaging in repartee:
To make an attack, roll an opposed contest using Repartee skill (defaults to poor if your opponent doesn’t have it). If you win, you may apply any knowledge and Communication as damage; your opponent can use Mettle as defense. For now, results are interpreted by the GM.
Combat is divided into 6-second rounds. Each round you may take up to six one-second actions, including a maximum of one attack. For instance you may decide to run 15 yards (3 sec), draw a sword (1 sec), attack (1 sec), and save 1 sec for a defense action. Note that each defense requires an action; if you’ve used all your actions, you cannot defend yourself!
You have several combat statistics that should be computed in advance:
When combat begins, each combatant needs to make a Quickness roll (re-roll any ties). The winner gets the initiative and may act first in a given round. This first action may be a strike, move, or something else. Whoever has the initiative retains it until someone else wins it away. To win initiative, you must score higher on an attack roll in a given round. If you retain initiative in a round you may force your opponent back one pace, possibly to his disadvantage.
Melee combat is pretty simple. Whoever has initiative goes first. Compare the skills of attacker and defender; the higher wins. Melee attacks may be parried with a weapon, blocked with a shield, or dodged. Damage is based on relative degree + ST.
Ranged weapons may not be parried, but may be blocked with a shield or dodged. Standard difficulties:
|
You may dodge one attack per round, but may parry any number of attacks. You cannot parry missiles however, except using a shield.
To figure damage from a successful attack, take the relative degree of the attack and add your damage value. The amount by which this exceeds your opponents armor value is the damage taken. Each 2 points of damage taken (rounded up) reduce 1 body level. Each body level lost gives you a -1 to all rolls. When you've lost all your body, you must make Mettle roll to remain conscious. If body is negative, you automatically lose one level each round until –5, at which point you die. This loss can be stopped by a Fair healing roll.
Fatigue is another thing you must deal with in combat. At the end of each round, all combatants must make an Mettle check. A poor result indicates the loss of a stamina point.
|