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Combat

Simplified Tactical Resolution System for Waylights

by: Dee, Riley, Kay

Relevant stats:

• Any form of melee combat; Relevant skill is added, applying appropriate stat (usually strength or speed).
• Any form of ranged combat; Relevant skill is added, applying appropriate stat (usually instinct or focus).
• Threshold; Determines when a character starts taking penalties from their wounds.
• Hits; Applies as a reduction to damage taken.
• Weapon power; Determines attack range, as well as provides other effects (such as armor piercing, or bonuses to skills). Applies bonus damage based on type and number of attack dice used. Conversely, shields apply a bonus to defense rolls that is ignored during the damage calculations.
• Timing; Decides the order of non-simultaneous action.

Two temporary stats must be tracked during a combat scene:

• Wounds; The total damage taken by a character, and
• Injury; The penalty to rolls taken by a character, which is equal to the amount of wounds taken divided by the character's threshold, discarding any remainder.

Sequence:

• Whoever has the best timing goes first. If it's a tie, whoever had an intention of catching the other group by surprise goes first. If it's a tie, the PCs go first. This is followed throughout.
• A character can perform TWO actions during their turn. Valid actions are Move, Split Move, Fight, Change weapon, Use an item, and Use a skill (mundane or psi). If the Move or Split Move action is not used, a character can move by 1 without consuming an action.
  • MOVE: A character moves up to their movement value.
  • SPLIT MOVE: A character moves up to half their movement value (round down). They may then perform another action and then move 1 space afterward..
  • FIGHT: Engage an enemy, shoot a launcher, or dodge, take cover or assume a defensive stance.
  • USE AN ITEM: Reload a launcher, Replace the clip on a launcher, Get something out of a backpack, etc. Note that changing weapons is a single action if both weapons are accessible.
  • USE A SKILL: Activate a psi ability, trigger a trap, jump over an obstacle, glance at a map to figure out where to run towards, etc.

For example, moving twice represents dashing forward; replacing the clip or refilling the hopper of a pneumatic launcher requires a full turn (Replace clip and Reload launcher); the vast majority of launchers can be fired on the move, or fired and reloaded, but not both; and so on. Obviously, the action should be described with a minimum of narrative!

For example, moving twice represents dashing forward; replacing the clip or refilling the hopper of a pneumatic launcher requires a full turn (Replace clip and Reload launcher); the vast majority of launchers can be fired on the move, or fired and reloaded, but not both; and so on. Obviously, the action should be described with a minimum of narrative!

Attack and Defense:

Combat is simultaneous, subject to timing: both attackers and defenders decide how many dice to allocate to attack and defense. This can represent aggressive vs. defensive fighting stance, time spent aiming vs. time spent hunkering down, and so on. When defending against a ranged attack, the defender may also forgo rolling a die to move by 1, to represent diving for cover or even countercharging.

• The initiator declares a target and their dice allocation;
• the target declares their dice allocation;
• dice are rolled. Bonuses from skills and effects are added to each die, and likewise penalties are subtracted from each die.

Damage resolution:

Whoever has the best timing has their attack (or move) resolved first. If it's a tie, the actions are exactly simultaneous, resolving defenses first.

The first character's attack roll has the opponent's defense roll subtracted from it; if defense is higher than the attack, nothing happens. If the attack beats defense, the remainder is given as damage to the defender, subtracting hits first. If damage is 0 or less after hits are subtracted, the attack failed; otherwise, apply the weapon bonus to final damage. A weapon with the armor piercing trait ignores a certain number of hits, noted in its description.

The total damage accrued by the defender is divided by the defender's threshold. The defender has a global penalty to all dice matching the result.

This process is repeated in simultaneously for the defending character; if the characters' timing is different, it is possible that one character's rolls are revised downwards due to the global penalty caused by damage inflicted by the faster character, even if they defender is the faster! Even if the defender is dropped by an attack, their counter resolves as normal before they fall.

Endgame:

Fights to the death in Waylights are comparatively rare: a character will "take a dive", or simply be knocked out, when their wounds reach a certain value.In general, civilians will stop fighting at 3, trained fighters will stop at 4, fanatics will stop at 5 and completely fearless beings will stop at 6. Lasting wounds are resolved narratively, but it's a safe bet that anything above p3 will require medical attention beyond healing crystals. On the other hand, healing crystals or healing psi is just the thing to reduce the effect of wounds -- on the flip side, some military or mercenary outfits will use psi to dampen pain response before a fight, effectively granting higher threshold.

A character that is KO may be killed as a full-turn action; this requires a carefully aimed shot to a vital area, or a coup de grace.

Tension:

When a roll succeeds or fails by SMALL measure (+/- 3 of the target), it means that the character has experienced a moment of flow -- facing a challenging situation and yet overcoming it, or just barely missing by chance. This generates tension, which can be used to power psi abilities, get a second wind, or other effects. If a roll succeeds by 3 or less, the difference between 3 and the success value is added to the character's tension -- if a defense attempt just succeeds, the defender gains 3 tension; if an attack attempt succeeds by 1, the attacker gains 2 tension; and so on. (Defending oneself is instinctively more rewarding than striking a blow).

Equipment:

The intention is to keep equipment stats simple.

• Weapons grant a bonus to damage dealt; they may give a bonus to attack rolls. Launchers or thrown items allow for ranged combat; some melee weapons may grant reach; some weapons may have armor piercing capability, negating all or part of the armor bonus. Weapons such as sprayers or blasters may also cause various effects to the target.
• Armor gives additional hits, and may give a bonus to defense rolls against melee or ranged attacks.
• Shields give a bonus to defense rolls, but in case of a hit, that bonus is removed from the defense result.
• Healing crystals or healing psi can be used to reduce the effect of wounds -- this reduction is, however, temporary in nature and does not provide a substitute for after-action medical care (whether traditional or psionic).