Expanded Combat
Combat uses the same dice pools and success rules as the rest of the game, but turns, damage, armor, weapons, and conditions become more concrete. Keep the scene moving with clear stakes, fast questions, and visible costs.
Initiative and rounds
Roll initiative at the start of the fight: Dexterity + Wits. Highest total acts first. Keep the order for the round. On a tie, the higher Dexterity acts first; if still tied, resolve the order in the fiction.
A round is a shared interval in which every character acts once. The Storyteller may begin a new round when the fiction demands it or when the spotlight moves back to the fastest participant.
Actions on your turn
On your turn you may take one major action and one free action or brief movement. You may also take a quick action before or after your major action if it is small and immediate. Common actions include:
- Attack
- Grapple or break free
- Aim
- Dodge
- Use a Discipline power
- Interact with an object or environment
- Feed or drink blood
- Command, persuade, or demoralize an opponent
If an action clearly needs more than one step, split it across rounds or ask for a second roll.
Attacks
Choose the attack pool from the fiction:
- Close combat: Strength + Brawl or Strength + Melee
- Ranged combat: Dexterity + Firearms
- Ambush: Dexterity + Stealth
- Improvised or creative attacks: Storyteller-assigned Attribute + Skill
Difficulty
Set difficulty from 1 to 5 based on the target, range, cover, visibility, lighting, stress, and armor.
- 1 – easy but dangerous
- 2 – standard fight
- 3 – difficult, armored, or obscured
- 4 – severe
- 5 – extraordinary
When an attacker wants to actively avoid retaliation, or when the defender chooses to fight back rather than just absorb the blow, both roll. The higher total wins.
Defense
Defense is not a separate number. It comes from the action taken and the pool chosen. Common defensive pools include:
- Evasion: Dexterity + Athletics
- Fighting back: Strength + Brawl or Strength + Melee
- Resisting social pressure: Composure + Resolve, Charisma + Persuasion, or another appropriate pool
Dodging is a turn commitment. If a character chooses to actively dodge on their turn, they gain a bonus to defense but do not make another major action that round.
Damage and the Health track
On a successful attack, deal weapon damage + extra successes above the difficulty. Unarmed attacks deal 1 superficial damage before modifiers. Bites, claws, fire, sunlight, and other severe threats can deal aggravated damage directly.
Record damage as superficial (S) or aggravated (A) on the Health track:
- Fill the leftmost empty box first.
- When a track is full, the character is impaired and cannot act normally.
- Further harm converts an existing superficial mark to aggravated before adding new aggravated marks.
- A completely aggravated track leaves the character incapacitated.
Armor
Armor does not add Health boxes. Instead it reduces danger by one of the following, chosen by the Storyteller based on the situation:
- Reduce incoming damage by its rating
- Raise the attack difficulty against the character
- Soak a fixed amount of damage after the roll
Record Armor on the character sheet. Light armor may reduce 1 damage, medium 2, heavy 3. Supernatural or improvised protection may use another benefit instead.
Cover and terrain
Cover raises difficulty and may block attacks entirely. Movement, environment, concealment, and lighting should matter more than a fixed defensive number. Examples:
- Concealment adds 1–2 to difficulty
- Partial cover adds 1 difficulty or removes 1 die
- Heavy cover blocks attacks unless the attacker repositions
- Difficult terrain costs extra movement or adds 1–2 to relevant Athletics checks
Aiming and decisive attacks
Spend your major action to aim and add one die to your next attack this round. The bonus increases to two dice if you aim across two rounds before firing or striking. Aiming does not stack with rapid attacks.
A character may choose a decisive attack against a vulnerable or incapacitated foe. This is not a normal contested roll. Choose the outcome: capture, unconsciousness, a lasting injury, or death, and describe the cost and consequences of that choice.
Feeding in combat
Feeding during a fight is possible but risky. Make a Brawl or Stealth attack at +1 difficulty, and resolve the feeding as a dramatic scene. Afterward, make a Rouse check, reduce Hunger according to the Storyteller, and deal with the victim's condition. A messy critical or bestial failure while feeding in combat should create a major complication such as frenzy, witnesses, or a ruined Masquerade.
Frenzy
When a vampire's rage, terror, or hunger becomes overwhelming, call for a Resolve + Composure roll at difficulty 2–5. On a success, the character holds on but suffers a condition such as Shaken, Fixated, or Withdrawn. On a failure, the Beast drives the next action: fight, flee, feed, or protect the immediate trigger. A bestial failure makes the result public, violent, or costly.
Combat conditions
Conditions during a fight should be recorded in the new Conditions section of the character sheet. Common examples:
- Blinded – +2 difficulty to ranged attacks, –1 to melee
- Stunned – cannot use a major action next turn
- Pinned – cannot move, –2 to resist
- Grappling – locked in close combat; use Strength + Brawl to control
- Disarmed – must retrieve the weapon or fight unarmed
Combat rhythm
Every turn, ask three questions:
- What do you want?
- What stands in the way?
- What will it cost?
Resolve the action, update Health, Hunger, Willpower, conditions, or the fiction, then pass the spotlight. A clean combat scene moves fast and forces hard choices.