V. ENCOUNTERS

All encounters in the game are resolved in a similar, simple manner. Conflict is resolved in one of two ways: roleplaying... or dice.

Depending on the game and the Bastard, some or all of the encounters in the story may be resolved without picking up a single die. Players simply interact with npcs and with each other to determine the outcome. Negotiations and conversations should always be handled through roleplaying rather than with dice. Combat can be handled with roleplaying as well if the players wish to sacrifice the tactical elements of the game for the sake of plot, continuity, or time.

A few notable exceptions aside, no roleplaying game is really complete without a few rolls of the dice. Ideally, dice should only be used when roleplaying is unable to solve conflicts to the satisfaction of the players. The use of any skill (including combat skills) is the prime example of this.

How often dice are used compared to roleplaying is more a matter of personal preference than exact science. The rules are not designed to decide this to a great extent - this decision is up to the consensus of the players. Players and the Bastard should use roleplaying as much as possible - if conflict can be resolved through roleplaying alone, then it probably should be. Negotiation and conversation were mentioned above as areas where dice should never be used. Logic and reasoning are normally in this category as well, though exceptions could be made if the intelligence of a character is supposed to far exceed the intelligence of its player. Conflicts almost always resort to dice, though dice can be skipped on occasions when the odds are incredibly uneven and the outcome blindingly obvious to all involved.

In general, dice need only be used when a character is using a skill in opposition to some other force. Specific rules are laid out for these cases in the following sections.

Perception and Observation are important skills that deserve special mention in this section.

Perception is used whenever the Bastard wants to see whether a character notices something, such as images, sounds, or smells that are hard to notice because they are small, faint, or far away. It is not used to determine whether a character notices the obvious, such as a person standing directly in front of him and speaking. It is used to determine whether a character will notice subtle sensory input, like someone sneaking up behind him.

Various factors can affect a perception check. Bright light or pitch darkness could hamper vision, loud noise could hamper hearing. The challenge level for any given situation is up to the Bastard.

Unconscious characters get no perception rolls for anything -- they are senseless. Being asleep is not the same as being knocked out, however; sleeping characters get normal Perception rolls for hearing to see if they wake up if any unusual noises occur in their sleeping presence. If the noises are very soft, such as someone sneaking toward the sleeper, the Perception roll is far more difficult.

Observation is used when the Bastard wants to see whether a character notices something subtle that is right in front of them, such as an enemy wearing a disguise or someone following them through a crowd. Factors that can affect an Observation roll are similar to (but not identical to) those that affect Perception rolls. Anything that distracts the character from paying careful attention to detail could cause a penalty (a higher challenge roll).

Shadowing is to Observation what Stealth is to Perception.

Nabu functions as supernatural awareness.

Special attention needs to be given to those times when characters are using skills in competition.

Conflict is handled by dividing time and space into discrete units. Time is measured in rounds, with each round being equal to about six seconds. Space is measured in yards (distance), square yards (area), or cubic yards (volume).

There are two types of actions in combat: major and minor. Major actions are things that can have a great effect on the outcome of a conflict, such as attacking a foe, picking a lock, running across a battlefield, or casting a spell. Minor actions, on the other hand, are actions that are incidental to the situation, such as moving a few paces or drawing a weapon.

Normally, characters can perform only one major action per round. A character may perform multiple major actions, but at a penalty - any skills used during a combat round must be divided by the number of major actions taken that round. Fractions are rounded down.

Example: Bob the Fighter has a Striking skill of 5 and a Defense skill of 6. He wishes to attack this round, but also to defend. For performing two actions, his skills are halved for the round - his Striking becomes 2, and his defense becomes 3. If Bob had wished to run 15 yards as well, his skills would have been divided by three to become 1 and 2.

Characters are limited in the number of major actions they may perform in a single round. If the actions are physical, characters are limited to a number equal to their Dex. If the actions are mental, characters are limited to a number equal to their Int.

Minor actions, on the other hand, do not cause a loss of skill. At most, they might give a penalty to the character's initiative.

The Bastard has the final say over whether an action is major or minor.

Defensive actions are a special case. How they are handled will have a dramatic effect on the flavor of the game. Whereas each attack is considered a major action for purposes of skill loss, the Bastard may handle defensive actions (the use of Defense and Resistance) differently.

If the Bastard considers each defensive action to be a major action, then both heroes and villains will have a very difficult time defending themselves against more than one attacker. While this is somewhat realistic, a more cinematic game might be desired. To this end, the Bastard may wish to rule that the use of a defensive skill is only one major action per round, regardless of how many attacks are evaded.

If a character is performing some engrossing action, such as balancing a pot on his head or lifting something really heavy, he may get no no defensive actions at all.

A character cannot use both Dex and Int skills during the same round - he must concentrate on one or the other. One side effect of this is that individuals engaged in physical combat will not have the concentration necessary to resist sorcerous attacks, and individuals concentrating on sorcery will not be able to evade physical attacks.

Some actions may require more than one round to complete. If the character is even slightly injured during this time (1 point of stamina or health), the action fails and must be attempted again.

Initiative

The first step in any round is to roll Initiative. This roll determines order of action that the combatants follow. Whoever rolls the highest Initiative gets to go first on this round, followed by the person with the second highest Initiative roll, then the third, and so on.

2d6 * Initiative

Environmental factors (such as surprise) or minor actions (such as darting a few yards or drawing a weapon) may give bonuses or penalties to Initiative, at the whim of the Bastard.

Action

The next step is the action phase. Participants carry out their movement, attacks, or other actions in the order of their initiative rolls. If a character is knocked out or killed before his turn, he gets no action.

A character does not have to decide whether to use physical or mental skills on any given round until it is his turn to act. A character could, for example, be planning to cast a spell, only to decide to Defend instead when he sees an arrow flying toward him.

When it is a character's turn to act, he may choose to move or to wait with no penalty. Once a character is required to make a skill roll, however, he must then declare all of his actions for the round so that he knows how much to divide his skills by.

Whenever a character is attacked, he may choose to take a defensive action. This is true even if the character is attacked before his initiative. He simply declares all of his actions for the round, which will then be binding upon him when it becomes his turn to act.

Recovery

Any character who has taken no actions during the round may recover some Stamina at the end of the round. If a character is injured during the round (takes even 1 point of Stamina or Health), the character gets no recovery. See the chapter on pain and suffering for more.

The further away a target is from an attacker, the harder it is to hit. The following table gives a list of ranges and the suggested challenge numbers for each range. If the attack is against a living target, these challenge numbers will be added to the defensive roll.

point blank     10
short           20
medium          40
long            80
extreme         160

The meanings of each range differ depending upon what weapon or sorcery the attacker is using. The following table gives a basic guideline, showing the range increments for a number of weapons and spells (in yards). Each full range increment increases the range by one level.

Range penalties do not figure into melee combat.

attack type             range increment

thrown weapons          strength
short bow               20 + strength
light crossbow          25
long bow                30 + strength
heavy crossbow          40

sorcery type            range increment

Talamu                  1
Amelatu                 1
Nekelmu                 10 + will
Mahasu                  30 + will
Sabatu                  30 + will
Seheru                  60

For example, a heavy crossbow has a range increment of 40 yards. Less than 40 yards from a target is point blank range, from 40 to 79 yards is short range, from 80 to 119 yards is medium range, from 120 to 159 yards is long range, and 160 yards and beyond is extreme range.

Senses are also limited in range.

sense                   range increment

smell                   1
hearing                 10
vision                  100
Nabu                    1000 *

* The range limitation on Nabu is for determining whether the diviner notices the use of sorcery in his immediate area.

Each of the following movements are considered major actions:

Standing from a prone position
Moving ten yards on foot
Mounting or dismounting a horse
Riding a horse up to its full movement *
Leaping

Example: Fred the Swift is lying prone on a battlefield. He wishes to stand up, run sixteen yards, jump a trench, and attack a foe on the other side. The first action (in this case, standing up) is free. Running sixteen yards counts as two major actions (one for every ten yards or fraction thereof), and jumping is one more major action. The attack at the end brings his total to four major actions for the round, the maximum possible for his Dex of 4. His Striking skill will be divided by four (his number of actions) for this attack.

Falling to a prone position on the ground is a free action.

If the ground is not level, the game master may give a character bonuses or penalties to his movement, depending on whether the character is going uphill or downhill. If the terrain is especially treacherous, the master may require an Acrobatics roll (base Dex for those without the skill).

The above assumes that the character is relatively unencumbered (carrying less than 10% of his maximum weight). The rate of movement for a character is inversely proportional to the amount of weight the character is hauling (see Encumbrance in the previous chapter).

If the character is mounted, then using any amount of movement that the mount is capable of requires only one major action, and possibly a riding roll.

Characters may sometimes need to jump over things. A character can perform a standing long jump for a number of yards equal to his Strength. This is doubled after a running start.

The Bastard may, as an optional rule, allow a character to add his momentum from a charge to the damage of an attack. This works both ways, however -- a charging character will take the same additional damage from any enemy melee weapon that hits him on that round.

Example: A knight charges a line of soldiers atop his mount. His lance does 11 damage (7 for the lance + 4 for Strength). He rolls a 6, giving him a damage of 66. The knight has moved 40 yards on horseback, , however, and so adds his movement to the damage roll for a total of 106.

Unfortunately, the knight is hit by one of the braced pikemen, whose pike gives him a damage of 12 (2 for Strength, 10 for the pike). He rolls a 5, giving him a damage roll of 60, then adds the knight's momentum to this to get a final damage of 100.

* A good horse can move sixty to ninety yards per round. An amazing horse can move one hundred and twenty yards in a round.

A character who is still unsure of what to do upon reaching his Initiative may wait to see what others are doing before declaring any action. He may choose to take his actions after the action of any individual whose initiative roll was lower than his own.

A waiting character may take his action at any time, even within the action of another character. Take the following example: Chuck the Barbarian sees Mace the Ugly on a hilltop across the battlefield. Chuck wins initiative for the combat round, but decides to wait and see what Mace will do before he acts. Mace chooses to charge at Chuck and attack. Chuck, however, won the initiative, so he may choose to attack first, even after Mace has covered the distance between them - he was only waiting for his enemy to get close enough to strike. If Mace survives the attack, he may then take the rest of his action.

A waiting character may also choose to hold his action over into the next round, in which case he automatically gets the Initiative for that round without needing to roll.

This rule simulates scenes in books and movies in which two opponents stop and stare one another down, taking no actions, right in the middle of a fight.

If two characters both decide to wait for the other to act and there are no other characters with actions left, then both waiting characters get a recovery and the action passes to the next round. This can even involve more than two characters, so long as everyone decides to wait at once.

All characters involved in the waiting game get the initiative over characters who acted in the previous round. The relative initiatives of the waiting characters remain as they were until someone finally decides to act.

Round zero marks the beginning of any conflict. Whoever acts first automatically gets the initiative, regardless of his speed or the speed of his opponents. This usually applies to a single individual, but can apply to a group if the action is set to occur on a prearranged signal. After the initial round zero activity, conflict progresses to round 1, and participants roll initiative as normal.

If the initiating individual or group has taken their opponents completely by surprise, then the opponents may take no actions at all on round zero - not even defensive ones. This simulates situations such as a knife thrown by a hidden assassin, or an ambush where the attackers were lying in wait. The only defense against such sneak attacks is to not be caught off-guard.

Characters lose small amounts of stamina when they exert themselves. This means that characters who run, fight, or cast spells for very long will get tired, rather than being able to keep up the effort all day. The amount of stamina lost to exertion is not huge - 1 stamina per round in most cases, perhaps 2 if the character is heavily encumbered.

This rule can be safely ignored most of the time. It should only be used when characters are forced by circumstances to exert effort for long periods of time.

A character may choose to sacrifice Stamina for a temporary boost of Strength or Willpower. Each point of Stamina expended will give the character one extra point of Strength or Willpower for a single round. The maximum amount that a character can push his Strength or Willpower to is double the normal level.

Thus, a character with a strength of four could push his strength to eight for four points of stamina, but could not push his strength to nine or ten.

Example: A mighty warrior with a strength of 5 is trying to keep open a massive door while his weaker friends slip through. He trades 5 points of stamina for 5 extra points of strength, giving him a total strength of 10 for the round. At the end of four rounds of exertion, he is down 20 Stamina. He can continue this exertion from round to round until his stamina reaches zero, at which point he will collapse from exhaustion.

Example: An insane wizard with a willpower of 5 is trying to keep open a massive portal to The Abyss so that one of the Great Old Ones can travel through. He trades 5 points of stamina for 5 extra points of willpower, giving him a total will of 10 for the round. At the end of four rounds of exertion, he is down 20 Stamina. He can continue this exertion from round to round until his stamina reaches zero, at which point he will collapse from exhaustion.