Combat
Combat is theater of the mind with a turn-based, JRPG-style flow. There is no grid and no measuring: positions and ranges are narrative facts — in reach, across the fire, at the barricade, out of sight. What you can do is limited by the scene, not by a map.
Starting combat
When a fight breaks out, set the scene: who is where, what is between you, and what everyone wants. Whoever has the drop acts first. Otherwise the heroes act first. Enemies never roll initiative — after your actions are over, one enemy takes one action (see The enemy phase below).
Your turn
On your turn you take two actions. After each action you may take another, keep an action in reserve, or end your turn early. Your turn also ends immediately if you fail a roll.
Combat actions
Every action on your turn is one of the five below — or an improvised stunt the fiction supports, which the GM resolves as a check with the same consequences.
Fight — attack with a weapon. Roll Reflexes for quick or ranged work — a dagger, a rapier, a bow — or Strength for heavy work — a maul, an axe, a hand cannon. Your weapon's category sets the stat and its damage band (see Damage is static). On a hit you deal the weapon's static damage, and the roll resolves normally: success effect, mixed trade, or failure.
Flee — get out of the fight. Roll Reflexes to slip away or Charm to talk your way out. Fleeing is all-or-nothing: a mixed success counts as failure. Only a full success gets you clear — on anything less, your turn ends, you take the enemy's damage, and the GM chooses a worse-position effect.
Use ability — use an ability granted by your profession or equipment: a spell, a gadget, a trick. The stat is the ability's — most spells and rites roll Wits, most social abilities roll Charm — and the ability does exactly what its rules say: static damage, a ward, a reposition, an effect.
Command ally — direct an ally (a fellow hero or a friendly NPC) to attack. Roll Charm — you are the one calling the shot. If the ally is summoned (a familiar, a spirit, a summoned beast) or constructed (an automaton, a golem, a machine you direct), roll Wits instead: you are steering the thing, not inspiring a person. The ally deals their static damage, and they are the one exposed: on a mixed success or failure the ally takes the damage instead of you. On a failure the GM still chooses a worse-position effect, and it may come for you rather than your ally when the fiction says so. Commanding is how you fight through someone else's hands — useful when you are bloodied, holding a position, or keeping out of reach.
Respond — answer the scene rather than drive it: throw yourself over an ally, kick a brazier into the enemy's path, grab the prize mid-scramble, block a door, shout a warning, improvise a trick. This is the catch-all action for anything that isn't attacking, fleeing, casting, or commanding. Roll the stat your approach uses — usually Reflexes to react fast, Wits to improvise or work out the angle, Charm to talk someone down. Resolve it like any other action: a success gets what you wanted (and you may take a fitting effect), a mixed result gets it with a cost, a failure lets the enemy in as usual.
Rolling in combat
Combat uses the same check as everything else (Rolling the Dice): roll d6s equal to the stat your action calls for — see Combat actions above for which stat each action uses. Every die that shows 5 or 6 is a hit. Count your hits and read the result:
| Hits | Result | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Failure | Your turn ends. The enemy deals its damage to you now, and the GM chooses a worse-position effect (below). The enemy still acts in the enemy phase — a failed roll lets an enemy act twice in one round. |
| 1 | Mixed success | You deal your damage now; the enemy will deal its damage in the enemy phase — the trade. Your turn continues if you have actions left. |
| 2+ | Success | You deal your damage and choose one additional effect (below). The enemy you struck is suppressed — it cannot act in the enemy phase. |
Success — you choose an effect
On a success, pick one:
- Better position — +1 die on your rolls next turn.
- Additional action — +1 action this turn.
- Additional damage — deal +2 damage with the hit.
Failure — the GM chooses a worse position
On a failure, your turn ends and the GM picks one:
- Bad situation — −1 die on your rolls next turn.
- Enemy ability — the enemy uses a special move from its stat block.
- Extra damage — you take +2 on top of the enemy's hit.
- Lost tool — something breaks or is knocked away: a weapon, a shield, a gadget.
Ranged weapons
Ranged weapons — the Ranged and Heavy Ranged categories — strike from reach. A mixed success does not put you in harm's way: you deal your damage and the enemy does not hit you back. Instead it closes the distance — you are now in melee reach, and your next ranged attack rolls one fewer die unless you spend an action to back away (a Respond or Flee). On a failure the enemy is already on you and acts as usual.
The enemy phase
After your actions are over — you end your turn or run out of actions — one enemy takes one action: it deals its static damage or uses one ability from its stat block, never both. A successful Flee gets you clear before the phase; the enemy does not follow. The enemy you fought normally acts; if it was suppressed by a success or is down, another enemy in the fight acts instead. If every enemy is suppressed or down, the phase is empty.
A failure does not spend the phase — the enemy that hit you acts here too. Failing a roll is the only way an enemy gets two actions in one round.
In a group fight, that single action is the whole group's: pick the opponent who matters most in the moment — the archer lining up a shot, the shaman muttering a hex, the brute closing in.
Damage is static
Damage never rolls. Weapons deal the fixed damage on their equipment file; abilities deal the damage written in their rules; enemies deal the damage on their stat block. Unarmed strikes deal 1.
Weapons come in four categories. The category sets the stat for the Fight action and the damage band; each weapon's file carries its exact static damage:
| Category | Example weapons | Damage | Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranged | shortbow, sling, longbow | 1–2 | Reflexes |
| Heavy Ranged | heavy crossbow, arbalest, hand cannon | 2–4 | Strength |
| Light Melee | dagger, whip, rapier | 2–4 | Reflexes |
| Heavy Melee | maul, axe, greatsword | 4–6 | Strength |
Armor
Armor works like a weapon in reverse: it never deals damage, it soaks it. If you wear armor, its armor reduction comes off every hit that reaches you — the flat number on the armor's file. It does not make you harder to hit; it makes hits hurt less.
| Armor | Reduction |
|---|---|
| Light | −1 |
| Medium | −2 |
| Heavy | −3 |
Subtract the reduction from any damage that reaches you — from a weapon, an ability, or an enemy's stat block. A hit that would deal 4 to an unarmored fighter deals 3 to someone in light armor and 1 to someone in plate. Damage can never be reduced below 0 — armor stops the blow outright; it never heals you.
Armor soaks physical hits. A fall, a fire, poison, or a curse can pass straight through it when the fiction says the armor plainly cannot stop such a thing — the GM rules on that, and can let clever armor (or a clever wearer) matter in ways the number cannot capture.
Health and bloodied
Heroes have 10 health. When you drop to 3 or fewer, you are bloodied: roll one fewer die on all checks until you recover above 3. At 0 you are down and in the fiction's hands — see Health and Status.
Enemies
Enemies and allies who fight use NPC stat blocks: variable HP, static damage, goals, abilities, and loot. They never act on their own initiative — the round's enemy action comes after your turn, and a failed roll adds an immediate action on top. A mixed success is a trade; a success suppresses the enemy you struck; a failure lets the enemy act right now, with a worse-position effect — and it still takes its phase action afterward. When an NPC's HP reaches 0, it is defeated, captured, or fled, depending on the fiction.
Ending the fight
Combat ends when one side is down, fled, or surrendered. Survivors recover with rest per Health and Status. Loot is whatever the fiction says — check stat blocks for what defeated enemies carry.