SWORDS
This chapter describes the rules for physical combat.
Damage
The rules in this chapter will sometimes call for a player to roll damage. This is rolled much like a skill roll, only based on the Strength and/or weapon of the attacker rather than Dexterity and skill.
Punches, kicks, and grabs use base Strength for damage:
Damage = 2d6 + Strength
Melee weapons, thrown weapons, and bows use Strength and weapon for damage:
Damage = 2d6 + Strength + weapon
Mechanical weapons, such as crossbows, ballista, and catapults do not benefit from strength:
Damage = 2d6 + weapon
After the attacker rolls damage, the victim gets to roll to endure the attack:
Endurance = 2d6 + Strength + armor
This endurance roll is subtracted from the damage of the attack.
Every character in the game has a number of "hits" of Stamina. Player characters have 10. NPC monsters may have more or less than this.
Each point of damage that gets past a character's endurance roll subtracts one hit of Stamina. When a character's Stamina reaches zero, he falls.
In addition, every five points of damage done by a single attack moves the character down one Health level. This damage is not cumulative - a character's Health level is affected only by the largest attack to hit that character.
| Max Damage taken from a single hit | Health Level |
|---|---|
| 0 - 4 | OK |
| 5 - 9 | Hurt |
| 10 - 14 | Wounded |
| 15 - 19 | Crippled |
| 20+ | Dead |
So, ten attacks that each do 1 point of damage will knock a character out, but not hurt him very much. One attack that does 6 points of damage will not knock him out, but will make him Hurt. Two attacks that do 6 points of damage each will knock him out, but will not make him more than Hurt. A single attack that does 11 points of damage will knock him out and make him Wounded.
Effects of the various Health levels are explained in the chapter on Pain and Suffering.
Combat Maneuvers
There are a number of combative actions that a character may perform during a round.
To determine whether an attack hits, the attacker rolls his effective skill level with whatever attack he is using. The skill to be used for the attack is simple to determine (a fist or sword uses Striking, a bow uses Archery, etc).
If the character is attacking a stationary person or object, the Master should assign an appropriate challenge level based on the range, plus or minus any random environmental factors (favorable wind, cover, etc). If aiming at a living target, this same challenge level should be added to the defensive roll before it is compared to the attacker's skill roll.
To avoid an attack, the target must make a Defense skill roll. A character who is attacked automatically gets the chance to defend, even if he has not yet reached his Initiative. If the character has already acted, however, and one of his actions was not to use Defense, then the character gets no chance to evade. If the attacker rolls well enough to hit at the range, the attack hits.
If the adjusted roll of the defender is equal to or higher than that of the attacker, then the attack is unsuccessful and the defender takes no damage.
If the attacker rolls higher than the defender, then the attack hit home.
The effect of the attack depends upon the skill used. Below is the list of combat maneuvers.
| Maneuver | Description |
|---|---|
| Strike | Attack another character with force |
| Grapple | Grab and hold a foe, initiate close combat |
| Defend | Evade an attack by blocking or dodging |
| Augment | Sacrifice skill for extra damage |
Strike
A strike is a direct attack. It can be done with melee weapons, thrown weapons, missile weapons, or bare hands.
If the strike is successful, then the attacker gets to roll damage.
Thrown weapons and melee attacks use the strength of the attacker plus the power of the weapon. The simplest thrown attack is a good-sized rock, which does the base Strength damage of the attacker (like a punch, only farther). Larger rocks will add more damage, but have less range.
Strength may not be a factor if all of the power comes from machinery, as with crossbows. Bows may or may not take the Strength of the user into account, depending on their craftsmanship.
Any object may be thrown, but most are not designed for that purpose and thus have limited range and penalties to hit. Those that are designed to be thrown, such as knives, spears, hand axes, and warhammers, have a normal chance to hit and do the same damage as they would in melee.
A strike can also be used to disarm an opponent. The attacker makes a normal attack roll, but directed at the object in his opponent's hand rather than at the opponent's body. This attack can be defended against as normal. If the attacker's roll is higher, the defender is disarmed and the object is knocked a few yards away. If the defender rolls equal to or higher than the attacker, he keeps the object. Note that an object may be destroyed by this action.
If one of the characters in melee is far stronger than the other (like an ordinary man fighting a giant monster), The Master may rule that certain methods are not useful. It may not be physically possible for the weaker combatant to disarm the iron grip of his foe, to to block an earth-shattering attack with his shield.
Ideally, The Master should assign an appropriately difficult challenge level rather than rule out the action altogether.
Grapple
A grab is used to initiate close combat. To make a grab, the attacker must roll his Grappling skill versus the defensive skill of the target. If the grab succeeds, the attacker can restrain the target, preventing him from performing any actions, and may choose to do some damage as well. This damage can be either base Strength, or damage from a small weapon such as a blackjack or dagger. Larger weapons are useless in close combat.
Skills that can be used to defend against a grab are Defense and Grappling. If the target successfully defends Grappling, close combat is still initiated. If the character defends with Defense, the attacker has been warded off and melee combat continues.
Once opponents are locked in close combat, Grappling skills are all that matter. Grappling is used for both offense and defense. Upon reaching his Initiative while engaged in close combat, a character can attempt to either gain control of an opponent or to escape from the grapple. Either case is handled by rolling Grappling vs. Grappling.
To attempt an escape does no damage to an opponent. If successful, the character has escaped the fracas and melee combat resumes.
If a character has successfully grabbed an opponent or gained control over him in close combat, he may attempt to use elements of the surroundings as weapons. Slamming an opponent into a solid floor or wall can be worth anywhere from +1 to +8, depending on just how solid the material is (a wooden floor should hurt less than a stone one). Slamming an opponent into a sharp corner could give an extra +1 to +4 on top of this. The exact bonuses for any situation are up to The Master. Throwing an opponent off of a high cliff or structure is a good way to end a fight.
A grab can also be used to disarm an opponent, rather than harm. If this type of grab is successful, the attacker manages to wrench an object out of an opponent's grasp. This action does not initiate close combat.
Optional rule: The Master may wish to give bonuses to a grappler if his mass if greater than his opponents. The more massive combatant should receive a +2 to all Grappling rolls for each doubling of mass between he and his opponent, with an additional +1 if the more massive character is approximately halfway to the next doubling.
Example: A 200 pound man is wrestling an 800 pound gorilla. The gorilla is four times as massive as the man. This is two doublings, so the gorilla gets a +4 to all grappling rolls.Example: The same 200 pound man tries to wrestle a 2400 pound giant. The giant is twelve times the mass of the man, which is in between three and four doublings. The giant gets +7 to all grappling rolls.
Logic trumps game mechanics, of course. Even if a character is a master wrestler and able to out-wrangle a giant monster despite the mass bonuses, he is still not going to be able to move the thing very far. He will not be able to slam it into the ground for damage bonuses or toss it off a cliff. At best, he can cling to it as it moves around, ignoring him.
The extra mass rule can also be used when multiple characters are trying to work together to pin a single character. Simply add all of the masses together and give the bonus to the character with the best Grappling skill.
Defend
This maneuver uses the Defense skill to avoid harm in combat. There are two ways to defend: blocking, or dodging.
To block is to stop an attack with force.
Not every attack can be blocked. Melee attacks can be blocked by most other melee equipment, though The Master may assign a penalty to a warrior who tries to block a sword with his bare hands. The Master may also assign bonuses or penalties if the weapon of one fighter has a significantly longer reach, depending on the flavor of the game.
One can not generally block thrown weapons, arrows, or crossbow bolts without a shield. This, again, depends on the flavor of the game. Shields can be used to block almost any attack, save those that are just too huge to be withstood. If facing siege engines or an axe-wielding giant, characters are advised to dodge instead.
Characters can also choose to block attacks aimed at a friend, so long as that friend is not more than a few steps away. Each one of these "assisted blocks" count as a major action, however, penalizing all furthur actions during that round.
To dodge is to evade an attack with speed (by moving out of the way).
Dodging requires no particular equipment and is useful against any attack, so has less limitations than blocking. The only requirement for a dodge is that there is actually room to move out of harm's way. There may be rare occasions where a character could use a block to evade harm, but not a dodge (a hail of arrows, perhaps).
Whether a character is blocking or dodging is usually not important, in game terms - the character simply rolls his Defense skill. It only matters when one type of defense is possible, and not the other.
Augment
A character may opt to increase the damage dealt by an attack by using an extra action. Each action used in this way counts toward the total for purposes of skill penalties. Each Augment action gives +2 damage to a single attack.
This extra force can be rationalized however the player likes - it can come from a carefully placed shot or a powerful haymaker.
Example: Jot is fast, but weak. He gets into a scrap with Mung, who is strong, but slow. Jot has no trouble landing or dodging punches, but finds that his jabs do little harm. He decides to Augment his next punch twice, costing him two extra actions. This gives him +4 damage, but costs an extra -4 to all skill rolls for the round. If Jot both attacks and defends, this comes to a total penalty of -6 to both skills.
Area attacks
Most attacks are directed at a single individual. The attacker aims, fires, and hits or misses based on rolling his offensive skill versus the defensive skill of his target. Some attacks, however, are not directed at any person in particular, but at a certain place. Attacks such as these are called area attacks.
To hit a particular area, an attacker need only roll greater than the range level (plus any random bonuses or penalties) to hit.
If a character is hit by an area attack that covers more than one square yard, one of two events can occur: If there is an area adjacent to the character that is not hit by the attack, then the character may attempt a Defense roll to dodge out of the way and avoid damage. The challenge of the roll is 5 for every yard that must be dived in order to avoid the attack (6 yards maximum).
This assumes that the attack was directed at the general area, not the individual - area attacks directed at an individual are resolved as normal attacks, but with bonuses to the attack roll for the size of the area.
A character who is entirely surrounded by an area attack (greater than six yards on all sides) gets no chance to dodge -- there is simply nowhere to go. The attack hits him, and damage is rolled.
Note that, while normal land-based creatures can be engulfed by any attack that affects a wide enough area, creatures with three dimensional movement (flying, swimming) would be able to dodge an attack unless the areas above and below it were hit as well.
Animals and Mounted Combat
Animals are characters just like any other. They have stats, maybe skills, and natural weapons. They often have better movement rates than humans.
Animals are controlled by The Master, even those that are on the side of the player. If a character with the Animals skill has spent time training an animal, then it should obey his commands in most cases. Combat, however, is a chaotic environment, and it may be necessary to make Animals skill rolls in order to get the animals to do what you would like. It helps if the animal has been specifically trained for fighting.
Mounts, namely horses, allow characters to move much faster than they could on their own two feet. Movement rules are the same for mounted characters as running characters, except that horses can move twice as fast as human beings, and can haul much more gear without being slowed.
If a horse is spooked or otherwise reluctant to obey, The Master may require an Animals roll to be made.
The Riding skill is equally important, but for different reasons. Whereas the Animals skill lets the character persuade his mount to do what he wants, Riding allows a character to stay on his mount in difficult circumstances (leaping, bucking, being attacked).
If a character is hit by an attack while mounted, he must make a Riding roll to keep his seat. The challenge level should be equal to the amount of damage done by the attack (before defenses are applied).
Note that it is very difficult for a mounted person to perform any acts that require whole-body agility. This makes dodging impossible unless the character wishes to dive out of the saddle. If the character is unable to block an attack, he may opt to use Riding as a substitute for dodging, but should have a substantial penalty based upon the room to maneuver and the contrariness of the animal.
Note also that a mount can be attacked as easily as the rider. This is a useful tactic for foot soldiers facing mounted opponents. For this reason, riders often purchase armor for their horses.
Tactical Combat
When two generals square off, it is tactics and numbers that matter.
Rounds do not necessarily last six seconds in tactical combat. The length of a round depends largely upon the sizes of the armies involved. When two armies of 100 face off, a round might be a full minute; when two armies of 1000 face off, a round might be six or ten minutes; two armies of 10000 might take an hour to fight a full round. Exact timekeeping is left to The Master.
The first step on any round of tactical combat is to decide on the relative strength of the armies. The most obvious metric for this is numbers - if one side has three times the soldiers as the other, it will be three times as strong. There are other factors, however.
The power of the opposing sides is determined as follows:
Set the power of the smallest army equal to 0.
Set the power of larger armies relative to the smaller one: +2 power for each doubling in size. If the larger army is halfway in between a doubling, give it an extra plus one.
Example: two forces of equal training and equipment are facing off. One side has 120 soldiers, the other has 350.The power of the side with 120 soldiers is set to 0. The larger army is approximately 2.9 times the size of the smaller, so is assigned a power of 3 (+2 for being twice the size of the smaller, and +1 for being halfway between double and quadruple the size).
If one side has superior equipment, training, or morale, this should be reflected. The Master may rule that, though an undiciplined barbarian horde is five times the size of a group of diciplined, armored, and mounted knights, it has only twice the power when all variables are accounted for.
After power ratings are decided upon, the Intelligence and Tactics of each general are added to the power rating of their armies.
To determine damage, each side rolls 2d6 + power + skill. The result is the points of damage done to the enemy. Each army has 100 "hits" - when these are gone, the army has been routed.
The battle is over when one or both armies have been beaten down to a strength of zero. This does not necessarily mean that the losing generals are killed or captured, however. Once their army has been defeated, the action returns to a more personal level of roleplaying and combat. Individual characters may still have the opportunity to fight or flee.
If multiple tacticians are cooperating, all of them may make tactics rolls each round. Whoever is in charge can then choose which roll to use. Obviously, the wisest choice would be to use the tactics roll that is highest, but this may not always happen - personal pride (if the leader is one of the tacticians) or favoritism may lead the commander to make foolish decisions.