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CombatNewer

Further Simplified Tactical Resolution System for Waylights

by: Dee, Riley, Kay

Relevant stats:

• Timing, to decide the order of non-simultaneous actions. Timing is added to initiative rolls.
• Combat skill bonus. This has three elements, which are summed together:
  • The skill in use, including martial arts, brawling, and proficiency with a weapon (combat skill for ranged weapons is assumed to include dodging and using cover competently). If there is no applicable skill, this is assumed to be -1.
  • The base stat (ordinarily Strength, Speed or Focus) for the skill used.
  • The bonus conferred by any weapon or implement.
• Threshold. This represents a character's toughness and effectively acts as a divider for the damage.
• Wounds, to represent how likely the character is to be able and willing to keep fighting.

Sequence:

• Whoever had an intention of catching the other group by surprise goes first. If it's a tie (both groups are alert, or neither is), whoever has the best timing goes first. If it's a tie, the PCs go first. After the first round, whoever has the best timing goes first.
• A character can perform TWO actions during their turn. Valid actions are Move, Split Move, Fight, Change weapon, Use an item, Use a skill (mundane or psi). If the Move action is not used for this round, a character can still take a single step, moving by 1 while performing other actions. Turning around is free.
  • MOVE: A character moves up to their move value. If using a square grid, diagonal moves cost 2.
  • SPLIT MOVE: A character moves up to half their move value (round down). This leaves them able to take the step.
  • FIGHT: Engage an enemy, shoot a launcher, or dodge, take cover or assume a defensive stance. Melee attacks that have a range of 1 cannot reach diagonally.
  • USE AN ITEM: Ready a launcher for firing, replace the clip on a launcher, Get something out of a backpack, etc. Note that "swapping weapons", such as dropping an empty launcher and unsheathing a blade, is a single action if both weapons are readily 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!

Attack and Defense:

Characters have to decide how many dice to allocate to attack and defense. Attacks happen during their turn; counterattacks may happen as reaction shots or as countering blows.

• A character has 4 dice to roll per turn, and declares their allocation (attack/defense) at the earliest time in the round where this becomes necessary, whether because it's their turn or because they are attacked.
  • A character can attack twice during their turn by using both actions to attack; this uses the attack dice pool as normal -- if the allocation is 3/1, both attacks happen with three dice.
  • A character may not normally attack two different targets in a turn. However, a character may attack one target and counterattack a different target.
  • A character can only change their dice allocation when it's their turn; they have to do so at the beginning of it.
• A character may counterattack instead of defending, and uses defense dice to do so -- this prevents them from defending! A counterattack is always resolved after its triggering attack.
  • Only one counterattack can be done between character turns.
  • Countering an attack may not happen if the attacker is out of range, there is no ammo, the launcher is not primed, etc. (So, with standard launchers, only one counterattack is possible).
  • Countering a counterattack is not allowed.

• The initiator declares a target and their own dice allocation;
• The target declares their allocation if they haven't had a turn yet, or uses the dice allocation they declared during their last turn;
• Dice are rolled.
• If a counterattack can happen and the defender chooses to counterattack, the defender is counted as using 0 dice for defense.
• The character's combat skill is added to their roll.
• Wounds are directly subtracted from the roll.
• The character's bonuses from weapons (on attack) or shields/armor (on defense) are added to the score.
• The defense score is subtracted from the attack score.
• If a counterattack is scheduled, resolve it now. The defender in this case uses their previously allocated dice for defense.

Damage resolution:

• If the result is a negative number nothing happens (the attack has been defended against).
• If the result is lower or the same as the defender's Threshold, a glancing hit has been scored - this has no immediate effect, but it may be useful to keep track of these if a fight is to exhaustion or if it's a formal duel in which finesse is important.
• If the result is higher than the defender's Threshold, the defender takes one wound.
• If the result is higher than twice the defender's Threshold, the defender takes one more wound.
• If the result is higher than thrice the defender's Threshold, the defender takes yet one more wound, and so on.

In case of a melee fight, whoever has the best timing has their attack (or move) resolved first. If it's a tie, the actions are exactly simultaneous, meaning that any wounds get calculated at the same time.

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. A character that is KO may be killed as a full turn action, used to deliver a coup de grace or a carefully aimed shot in an exposed vital spot. Lasting wounds are resolved narratively, but it's a safe bet that anything serious will require medical attention beyond healing crystals.

On that note, a healing crystal or healing psi ability is just the thing to reduce the effect of wounds for the duration of a fight -- on the flip side, some military or mercenary outfits will use psi to dampen pain response before a fight or enhance armors, effectively granting higher threshold.

Wounds are directly subtracted from fighting ability, to represent fatigue and in the worst cases, blood loss.

Optional: Psi Tension

When a roll succeeds by SMALL measure, it means that the character has experienced a moment of flow -- facing a challenging situation and yet overcoming it. This generates psionic "voltage", or tension, which can be used to power psi abilities, get a second wind, or other effects.

• While defending, tension is gained by barely deflecting a glancing hit (low negative numbers on a result).
• While attacking, tension is gained by barely causing a significant hit (numbers barely exceeding the defender's Threshold on a result).
• Tension can be gained either way and both kinds of tension go into the same pool.

Tension can be stored between fights or challenges, up to a character's Attunement. Stored tension dissipates at a rate of 1 per day. However, there is no limit to how much tension can be held during a fight, and no backlash for exceeding Attunement.

• 1 point of tension can be used to raise (not lower!) one's attack or defense result by 1.
• 3 points of tension can be used, upon a valid hit (even glancing) to damage an opponent's item enough that it is unusable for the rest of the fight -- this represent a disarm, or the smashing of a shield, or armor damage.
• 5 points of tension can be used to boost a skill or an attribute by 1 until the character rests. This can only be used once per attribute.
• 7 points of tension can take the place of a refined crystal for the purpose of activating a psi power (if any are available). Psi-null characters, and only they, may not use this option, but may instead cause another character's psi power to fizzle (regardless of how it is activated).
• 9 points of tension can be used to ignore a KO, and fight on until wounded again. This essentially gives an extra wound to the character.

Optional: Alternate damage

Rather than inflicting a wound, a character who scores a hit can cause a number of things to happen to their target. This represents causing a weapon to drop, damaging armor, grappling, using another character as a shield, and other similar situations.

In general, an action which does not put the target in immediate harm's way "costs" 1 wound, an action which does "costs" two, and an action which would put someone out of a fight immediately "costs" 3. The action should make sense, for example executing a grapple with most range weapons is absurd.

Equipment and environment:

The intention is to keep equipment stats simple.

• Weapons grant a bonus to weapon power on offense. 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.
• Shields grant a bonus to weapon power on defense: a shield works exactly like a weapon. More, some weapons may function as shields, and grant a bonus to weapon power on defense as well.
• Armor grants additional threshold, and may grant a bonus to weapon power on defense like a shield does.
• 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).
• In a firefight, light cover grants a 1/3 chance of avoiding a hit from a direct-fire ranged attack. Medium cover grants a 2/3 chance of avoiding a hit from a direct-fire ranged attack. Full cover prevents direct fire from hitting at all. In order to simplify fights, it's recommended to roll for this chance before ranged attacks are calculated. Stepping out of cover at any time during one's turn, for example by using a split-move action or poking out to fire, downgrades the cover rating by one (light cover is negated). Indirect fire is not affected, but requires specialized launchers that tend to be heavy and cause collateral damage, and can only be used out in the open.