ENCOUNTERS
Encounters with other entities are an essential part of any story, game, or life. The world would be very dull without them.
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 Master, 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. Skill use 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 Master 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
Perception and Observation are important skills that deserve special mention.
Perception is used whenever The Master wants to see whether a character notices something, such as images, sounds, or smells that are hard to detect 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 Master.
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 Master 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.
Divination functions as supernatural awareness. The divination skill can be rolled to sense the presence of sorcery in the area. More on this later.
Conflict
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).
Each round of conflict has three distinct phases: Initiative, Action, and Recovery.
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.
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.
Characters engaging in physical actions use their Quickness skill for Initiative. Those performing mental actions use their Command skill. These skill checks do not count as actions. Players do not need to detail the exact actions of their characters during Initiative, but must decide whether the character will manuever (for physical actions) or concentrate (for mental actions), as this determines which skill to use for the Initiative roll.
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 Master.
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.
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 price - any skills used during a round suffer a cumulative -2 penalty for each major action taken that round. In addition, each action after the first happens at an Initiative two lower than the previous action.
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, he has a -2 penalty to both skills for the round - his Striking becomes 3, and his defense becomes 4. If Bob had wished to attack twice, his skills would have had a -4 penalty to become 1 and 2. If his Initiative roll was 12, then his Defense skill would happen at Initiative 12, his first attack at 10, and his second attack at 8.
Multiple minor actions do not cause a loss of skill. At most, they might give a penalty to the character's Initiative.
The Master has the final say over whether an action is major or minor.
When it is a character's turn to act, he may choose to act 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 penalize his skills.
If a character is attacked before his turn, he may choose to make a defensive action regardless of Initiative. This can have one of two effects: if the defensive action needed is the same type of action that the character decided on in the Initiative phase, the character must simply declare all of his actions for the round and then make his defensive skill roll with any appropriate penalties.
Example: Bob the Fighter and Fred the Fighter are fighting with swords. Both combatants choose to manuever, so both roll Quickness for Initiative.Bob wins the Initiative. He decides to strike Fred twice and defend himself at the same time. This gives him a -4 to all skill rolls.
Bob attacks Fred. Because Fred declared physical action during the Initiative phase, he may defend himself against Bob's physical assault without sacrificing his turn. He decides to Defend and to attack once. Assuming he survives Bob's two strikes, he will get to strike back on his Initiative.
If, on the other hand, the defensive action required is a different type of action than the character had planned, the character must abort the rest of his turn if he wants to make a defensive action. That, or take the hit and hope to survive to his Initiative.
Example: Bob the Fighter attacks Marcos the Mad. Bob is going to try and hit Marcos with his sword, while Marcos is going to try and strike Bob down with a psionic blast. Bob rolls Quickness for Initiative, Marcos rolls Command.Bob is more quick than Marcos is commanding, and so wins the Initiative and tries to swat Marcos with his sword. Marcos, fearing for his unarmored life, chooses to Defend. Because he had chosen to concentrate rather than manuever during the Initiative phase, he must abort his spell and any other actions for the turn.
If Marcos had won the Initiative, Bob might have had to abort his sword attack to defend himself from the psiblast.
How defensive actions are handled will have a dramatic effect on the flavor of the game. Whereas each attack is considered a major action for purposes of multiple action penalties, The Master may opt to handle defensive actions (the use of Defense and Defiance) differently.
If The Master 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 Master 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.
Some actions may require more than one round to complete. If the character is even slightly injured during this time, the action fails and must be attempted again.
Recovery
If a character has taken no actions during the round and is OK on both Health and Sanity, then the character may recover one hit at the end of the round. If a character is injured during the round (takes even 1 point of damage), the character gets no recovery. See the chapter on pain and suffering for more.
Range
The further away a target is, the harder it is for an attacker to hit. Ranged attacks have challenge numbers based on distance (zero at point blank range). Against an evading target, these numbers are added to the defensive roll.
Each ranged ability has an "increment" of a number of yards. The challenge is +1 for every increment between the attacker and the target.
Example: bows have a range increment of 10. If a target is within ten yards, the challenge number is zero. If a target is between ten and twenty yards, the challenge number is 1. Between twenty and thirty yards, it is 2. Targets will have these numbers added to their Defense scores (which are zero for fixed objects).
| attack type | range increment |
|---|---|
| thrown weapon | 2 |
| missile weapon | 10 |
| sorcery type | range increment |
|---|---|
| Talamu | 1 |
| Amelatu | 1 |
| Nekelmu | 2 |
| Mahasu | 10 |
| Sabatu | 10 |
| Seheru | 10 |
Senses are also limited in range.
| sense | range increment |
|---|---|
| smell | 1 |
| hearing | 10 |
| vision | 100 |
| divination | 1000 * |
* The range limitation on divination is for determining whether the diviner notices the use of sorcery in his immediate area.
Movement
The following are movement actions:
Standing from a prone position
Moving ten yards on foot
Mounting or dismounting a horse
Riding a horse twenty to forty yards *
Making a leap
A character may perform up to four of these during a single round.
Movement is not considered an action for purposes of skill penalties. However, each movement action reduces a character's Initiative for any actions performed after the movement. This just means that movement takes time - someone with an equal initiative roll will get to act before you if you have to move before you can act. The penalty is a cumulative -2 to Initiative for each movement action taken before other actions.
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. Standing up counts as one movement action. Running sixteen yards counts as two movement actions (one for every ten yards or fraction thereof), and jumping is one more. These four movement actions combine to give Fred a -8 penalty to the Initiative of his attack. Because he has moved/defended and attacked (two major actions), he will have a -2 to all Strike and Defend rolls.
Falling to a prone position on the ground is a free action and gives no penalties.
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 a character were carrying 50% of his maximum lift, for example, he would move 5 yards per movement action rather than 10.
If the character is mounted, use the movement rate of the mount. Otherwise, the rules are the same, except that a Riding roll may be necessary in difficult circumstances.
Characters may sometimes need to jump over things. A character can perform a standing long jump for a number of yards equal to his Maximum lift / 50. A running start doubles the distance. Encumbrance lowers it at the same rate that it lowers running speed.
The Master 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. The character does (and takes) and additional +1 damage for every ten yards of movement.
Example: A knight charges a line of soldiers atop his mount. His lance does 14 damage (10 for the lance + 4 for Strength). He rolls a 6, giving him a damage of 20. The knight has moved 40 yards on horseback, however, and so adds his movement to the damage roll for a total of 24.Unfortunately, the knight is hit by one of the braced spearmen, whose weapon gives him a damage of 11 (1 for Strength, 10 for the pike). He rolls a 5, giving him a damage roll of 16, then adds the knight's momentum to this to get a final damage of 20. Good thing the knight is wearing his shining armor.
Combat movement is considered to be the same for each participant (absent alien biology). For situations when more fine detail is required, such as a race or one character chasing after another, participants should roll their Quickness each round. For every point by which one character's roll beats another's, that character gains one yard of distance.
* Depending on the quality of the horse.
Waiting
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. The character gets no extra actions, however.
The Waiting Game
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, the action passes to the next round. Characters who are OK will recover a hit of Stamina. 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.
Round Zero
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.
Haste
A character may choose to sacrifice accuracy for speed. A character who is determined to go first may spend an action to get a +2 to his Initiative. This action counts toward the total for purposes of skill penalties.
A character may spend multiple actions in this way.
Example: Two swordsmen are facing off in an honorable duel. Both come from a school that emphasizes aggressive attack at the expense of defense. Winning the Initiative is paramount.One of the swordsmen chooses to use three actions for Haste to insure that he gets to strike first. With his attack, this brings his total actions for the round to four, giving him a -6 to his Striking skill roll. If he chose to defend as well, he would have had a -8 to both Striking and Defense. On the other hand, he gets a +6 to his Initiative.
Pushing Power
A character may choose to sacrifice a hit of Stamina for a temporary boost of Strength and Willpower. Each hit expended will give the character +1 Strength and Willpower for a single round.
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 2 hits for 2 extra points of strength, giving him a total strength of 7 for the round. At the end of four rounds of exertion, he is down 8 Stamina. He can continue this exertion until his stamina reaches zero, at which point he will collapse from exhaustion.Example: An insane wizard with a Willpower of 4 is trying to keep open a massive portal to The Abyss so that one of the Great Old Ones can travel through. He trades 6 points of Stamina for 6 extra points of Willpower, giving him a total will of 10 for the round. At the end of the first round, he is down 6 hits. After two rounds of exertion, he is down 12 hits and falls to the ground unconscious.