ENCOUNTERS
Encounters are an essential part of any story. The world would be dull without them.
Challenge Levels
The following table should give The Master some guidance on assigning challenge levels.
| Task Difficulty | Challenge Level |
|---|---|
| Trivial | 6 |
| Fair | 9 |
| Moderate | 12 |
| Great | 15 |
| Incredible | 18 |
| Inconceivable | 21 |
The numbers above assume that the character has the necessary tools for the job in question - i.e., if a thief is trying to pick a lock, then he is using a standard lockpick. If the thief was trying to pick a lock with something nonstandard, like a dagger, then The Master should make the challenge level higher. If the character has an exceptional set of tools at his disposal, The Master should lower the challenge level a notch or two.
The numbers also assume that the character is taking a normal amount of time to perform the task. What this amount is depends upon the task - perhaps six seconds for picking a lock or six days for smithing a weapon. Characters can obtain bonuses for extra time taken or penalties for rushed work. If the character takes more time than is necessary, he gets +2 to the trait roll for each doubling of the required time. If the character tries to rush, The Master should increase the challenge level by 2 for for each halving of the required time. The maximum bonus or penalty for time is 10.
Perception
Perception is an important trait.
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 can hamper vision. Loud noise can hamper hearing. The challenge level for any situation is up to The Master.
Unconscious characters get no perception rolls - they are senseless. Being asleep is not the same as being knocked out, however; sleeping characters get normal hearing perception rolls when unusual noises occur in their presense. If successful, they awaken. If the noises are very soft, such as someone sneaking toward the sleeper, the perception rolls are more difficult.
Perception is also 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. Anything that distracts the character from paying careful attention to detail could cause a penalty (a higher challenge roll).
Intuition functions as supernatural perception. A person with this gift can roll Perception to sense the presence of sorcery. More on this later.
Conflict
Conflict is handled by dividing time and space into discrete units.
Time is measured in rounds; each round is six seconds in duration.
Space is measured in spaces; each space is an area two yards/meters across.
Combat Values
Characters have a number of combat values based on their traits.
Initiative
At the beginning of each round, characters roll initiative to determine who acts first. High initiatives act before low ones.
Environmental factors (such as surprise) or minor actions (such as darting a single space or drawing a weapon) may give bonuses or penalties to initiative.
Any trait bonuses or penalties that result from a character's actions last until the character's next turn - i.e., the character's initiative on the next round.
Action
The next step is the action phase. Characters take their turns in order of initiative. A character disabled before his turn gets no actions.
Some actions are free. Drawing a weapon, shouting to a comrade, moving a single space, and the like; these take little time and require no trait roll. If such actions must be done before more important ones, the character might have a penalty to Initiative (-2 or so per minor act).
Other actions do require a trait roll or take significant time; these are important. Characters may take two important actions per round of conflict. A character can move and attack, attack and move, move twice, attack twice, pick a lock and move through the door, jump off a ledge and tackle someone, move and cast a spell, cast two spells, etc. They may even sacrifice one or both of their actions to attempt to recover stuns. See Pain and Suffering for details.
Some actions may require more than one round to complete.
Round Zero
Round zero marks the beginning of any conflict. Whoever acts first automatically gets the initiative. 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.
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 ambushes or knives thrown by hidden assassins.
Surprised characters get no trait added to their defense. The challenge level to hit a surprised character is a flat 6 plus any range modifiers. Sneak attacks can be deadly - the only defense is a good Perception.
Movement
A characters may move a single space per round without using an action. He may move a number of spaces equal to his Movement (10 + Athlete - armor) by expending an action.
Other moves - standing from a prone position, mounting an animal, making a leap, etc - take one action.
A mounted character uses the mount's movement in place of his own. Horses and such generally have twice the movement of a humanoid, or even more.
Falling prone is a free action.
If the ground is not level, The Master may give a character bonuses or penalties to his movement. If the terrain is treacherous, The Master may require an Athlete roll (on foot) or a Rider roll (mounted).
Individuals may sometimes need to jump over things. The Master should require an Athlete roll based on the distance - two challenge levels per space on average.
Charging characters may add their momentum 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. Momentum gives (and takes) +1 damage for every four spaces of movement.
Example: A brave knight charges a line of soldiers atop his mount. His lance does 10 damage (6 for the lance + 4 for Strength). The knight has moved 28 spaces on horseback, however, so adds 7 for a total of 17.Unfortunately, the knight is hit by one of the braced spearmen, whose weapon gives him a damage of 9 (1 for Strength, 8 for the pike). Adding the knight's momentum to this to gives a total of 16. Good thing the knight is wearing his shining armor.
Combat movement is automatic. When finer detail is required - for races or chases - participants should roll Athlete. Each level of dx gains the victor one space of distance.
Range
The further away a target is, the harder it is to hit. Ranged attacks have challenge numbers based on distance (zero at point-blank range). These numbers are added to the Defense of the target.
Each ranged ability has an "increment" of a number of spaces. The challenge is +1 for every increment between the attacker and the target.
Example: bows have a range increment of 5. If a target is within five spaces, the challenge number is 0. If a target is between five and ten spaces, the challenge number is 1. Between ten and and fifteen spaces, it is 2. Targets will have these numbers added to their Defense (four for fixed objects).
A range increment of zero means that the attacker must be within touching distance of the target.
| attack type | range increment |
|---|---|
| melee weapon | 0 |
| thrown weapon | 1 |
| missile weapon | 5 |
| sorcery type | range increment |
|---|---|
| Amelatu | 0 |
| Talamu | 0 |
| Nekelmu | 1 |
| Mahasu | 5 |
| Sabatu | 5 |
| Seheru | 5 |
Senses are also limited in range.
| sense | range increment |
|---|---|
| smell | 1 |
| hearing | 5 |
| vision | 10 |
| intuition | 1000 * |
* The range limitation on intuition is used to determine whether the mystic notices the use of sorcery in his immediate area. The prophetic aspects of intuition know no limit.
Advanced Options
The following rules exist for those who want more tactical flavor in combat.
Extra Time
A character can sacrifice an action for a +2 bonus to one thing for the round.
This leads to a number of combat maneuvers.
One action:
Et cetera.
The Master may allow players to divide their bonus among multiple traits. A character facing both swords and sorcery may want +1 Defense and +1 Defiance instead of +2 to one or the other.
A character attacked before his initiative may sacrifice actions for bonuses in response to the attack. This intent must be declared before the dice are rolled.
Wait
A character is not required to act on his initiative. He can wait to see what others with lower initiatives will do.
A waiting character may take its action at any time, even within the action of another character.
Example: Juk the Barbarian sees Mace the Ugly on a hilltop across the battlefield. Juk wins initiative, but waits to see what Mace will do.Mace charges. Juk won the initiative, however, so he may choose to attack first 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 hold action until the next round, in which case that character gets +10 to initiative for that round. He 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, 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 the action passes to the next round. This can even involve more than two characters. Each character is treated as if he had spent the round resting.
All characters involved in the waiting game get the initiative bonus over characters who acted in the previous round.
Haste
A character may choose to sacrifice accuracy for speed. A character who is determined to go first may add up to +3 to his initiative roll, but that same number must be subtracted from all trait rolls that round. The decision to haste must be made before anyone rolls initiative.
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 initiative is paramount.One of the swordsmen chooses to haste to insure that he gets to strike first. He adds a +2 bonus to his initiative roll. All other trait rolls suffer a -2 penalty for the round.