Combat
Combat in R.A.W is fast, loud, and fair: no initiative order, no waiting your turn. Everyone acts at once, and armor is what stands between you and the dice.
Hitting things
An attack is a normal roll: 2d6 + the stat your attack leans on, against your target's AC. Meet or beat the AC and the hit lands.
- Brawn in close — swings, shoves, grapples. Reflex at range — bows, thrown things, shots from cover. Wits when you have time to aim at a target that doesn't know it's coming.
- AC is worn, not innate — it comes from your armor. Check the AC on your armor item; unarmored, you count as AC 6. Standard armor runs light 8, medium 9, heavy 10.
- A hit deals your weapon's flat damage — 2, 4, or 6 — straight off the target's Health. Creatures deal their flat damage value (2 / 4 / 6) on a hit.
One action each, all at once
Combat runs in rounds, and each combatant gets exactly one action per round — one attack, one card, one meaningful act. There is no initiative order:
- Declare. Say your one action — out loud, specific, committed. The GM declares for every enemy at the same time, so you always know what's coming before anything resolves.
- Resolve. The GM sets the scene and narrates the whole round in one or two sentences per combatant, damage included — everything happens at once.
Simultaneity cuts both ways:
- If you're dropped this round, your declared action still happens — your arrow leaves the bow as you fall.
- Two fighters charging each other can drop each other in the same round. Aggression is not protection.
- If two people lunge for the same thing, both roll; higher total takes it. A tie means nobody gets it clean.
Talk during the declare phase. In simultaneous combat, the party's declarations are one plan — what each of you commits to should fit together.
Fleeing
Running is your one action, and it is a contest. Each fleeing character rolls their own chase roll every round — no group rolls: 2d6 + Reflex (or Brawn to bull through, Wits to pick clever ground) against your pursuer's 2d6 + the stat that fits their pursuit.
- Win and the gap widens (+1). Lose and they close in — the gap resets. Tie and it holds.
- Three lengths clear and you're gone. That's the escape ending.
- Your pursuer has a hard choice every round: chase you (contest the gap) or shoot you (a normal attack — sprinting doesn't make you harder to hit). While you flee you can't attack; your action is spent running.
- Enemies split their actions between runners and stayers — sometimes the bravest thing a party can do is split up.
How fights end
Fights have exactly three endings:
- One side perishes. Health hits 0, your character dies. Death is permanent and ends that character's story.
- One side escapes. A fleeing character gets three lengths clear and is gone.
- One side surrenders — and the other side accepts. Throwing down your weapon is an offer, not a guarantee: the victors decide whether to accept. If they refuse, the fight goes on.
There is no fourth ending. If you start a fight, be ready to finish it, outrun it, win it, or beg.
Your party
Who you run with is tracked in a Party — the roster your GM reads to run your side of a fight. Keep it current: who's in, who's down, who's out. Your cards and gear matter, but in a fight where everyone moves at once, the plan is the weapon.