Combat

Before Combat

Sometimes during the campaign, your character will be forced into a situation where they must fight other people or creatures either to live or to subdue them for a particular goal. Many of your characters' Attributes, Skills and commands are designed for combat specifically. Make sure your character's stats and commands are ready before the game starts so that the GM may prompt you and the team into combat when appropriate.

• The GM will usually indicate to the group that they will soon be entering combat, whether the characters wish to fight or not.
• The GM will give everyone a brief moment to get ready and then they will announce combat has begun. Initiative is then decided by sorting Player characters (PCs) and enemy units by Basic or Interleaved.

Combat Start: Initiative

Before battle can truly begin, all player characters and enemy units have to be put into the Initiative window in Maptool. Go to Window > Initiative to open your Initiative window so you can view the order of turns set by the GM, this window is also important for manually ending your turn.

Your GM will decide on which of the two Initiative styles will be used in combat for the campaign, which sorts the PCs and enemy units according to specific ruleset, you as a player do not need to do anything until it is your turn to act.

Basic

• If the Initiative style is Basic: All player characters and enemy units are sorted from the highest total of Perception and Agility to the lowest total, tie-breakers are determined by dice roll. This can sometimes allow members of one side to take multiple turns before the other can have their first.

Interleaved

• If the Initiative style is Interleaved: PCs and enemies are sorted by the total of their Perception and Agility, then the unit with the highest total of their group goes first, followed by the highest of the opposing group, followed by the second highest of the first group until all units are evenly distributed.

If one group outnumbers the other, the larger group may gain consecutive turns by pairing or grouping up additional units together between the turns of the smaller group, at the GM's discretion.

Ambush / Surprise

• Ambush or Surprise style is often used in scenarios where one group is able to take the other at an inopportune time, resulting in one group being able to act before the other group can. The group that initiates first can act first before the other group can. The GM may instruct the player group that another Initiative style will be used after the initial surprise round.

Your Turn

When Initiative moves to your character, this is the point where your character may act during this Round.

00: Turn Begins Event

If there are any status effects, timers or abilities that trigger at the start of your turn, this event occurs before you are able to do anything else. If the character used some action that lasts a certain duration of time, this event also counts down the remaining rounds that effect remains active; when the effect duration becomes 0 due to this event, the effect ends.

The phrase 'At the start of your turn' or variants thereof will be used to refer to this event.

01-A: Character Movement

If your character is not affected by any movement impeding effects, your character is permitted to move a number of steps equal to the Movement stat.

(Example: A Medium-sized creature like a Human can move 6 steps)

You may move your character before, during or after any action that consumes Action Points (AP), but only if the character meets the action's requirements doing so.

01-B: Character Action-Commands

If your character is able to act, they can use Commands as long as they meet the basic conditions of their action, such as designating a target and being in range to perform a melee attack, or having the necessary resources to cast a spell; and that they have the necessary Action Points to execute it.

(Learn more about Commands via the Actions page. Standard actions usually cost 50AP while Advanced ones can cost 100AP.)

02: Ending your Turn

If your character has moved into position (to the maximum given by their stats) and lacks the AP needed to execute more actions. You can then End your turn by informing the GM or clicking the next-in-initiative button as directed by your GM in Maptool. By clicking next-in-initiative you allow the next PC or the enemy unit to start their turn.

Declare the end of your turn, every time!
Don't forget to make the end of your turn known to the GM or ending your turn manually, as saying nothing can stall the game. The GM will end your turns for you if you refuse to comply.

Gain AP by ending your turn
Your character gains AP equal to HALF their maximum AP when they end their turn, this is used to give characters AP for reaction commands outside their turn.

AP Recovery Rate

• As a rule, all characters start battle with Action-Points equal to their Max AP. A character cannot have more AP than their Maximum in normal circumstances.
• When a character ends their turn, they gain AP equal to HALF their Max AP.
• When the character begins their next turn, they gain AP equal to half their Max AP again.
• AP Recovery Rate Bonuses and Penalties always increment in amounts of 20%, to a minimum of -80% rate and a maximum of +100%.
  • AP Recovery Rate modifications apply to AP gained at a character's turn ending and beginning.
  • In layman terms: 20% is worth 1 AP for every 5 AP chunk, which makes calculating AP by hand much easier.

Outside your Turn / While Waiting for your next turn

When your turn ends, you will have to wait and watch as the other players and the GM's units take their turns, pay attention to what is going on because enemy units especially may attack or otherwise endanger your character or your allies.

Reaction Opportunities

If an event or circumstance occurs in which your character is able to take action, and they have enough AP to do so. Your character will be able to perform a Reaction and take the opportunity to do something even though it is not their turn yet.

Disrupt
If an enemy unit tries to pass by your character within melee range, they can perform a shove attack as a Standard Action (50 AP).

Roll for the action as if you were performing a Melee attack, If you are successful, you can strike them with a single melee attack and interrupt their movement and action. If you miss, the enemy unit will be able to pass by you harmlessly. If you hit, their movement is disrupted and they will need to spend AP to resume movement, up to their base Movement distance.

Sidestep / Dodge
If an enemy attacks your character, and you successfully evade (or deflect) the attack, your character is able to move a number of steps equal to the radius of the attack. If an attack is directed at one square, the character can move one (1) space in any direction not blocked by terrain or other units. Explosions and other area-of-effect attacks will require the character to use Sidestep to exit the attack's area-of-effect upon a successful dodge.

Sidestep: Vs. Giant Attacks
Due to the extremely high damage and Area-of-Effect properties of melee attacks by Giant-sized foes, smaller characters may expend AP in order to immediately Sidestep or Dodge an incoming attack from a Giant which targets squares rather than creatures. The AP cost to move is 10 multiplied by the number of steps needed to exit the radius of the attack. If the character lacks the necessary AP to execute the action or the player elects not to use it, the character will rely on their passive defences to determine if they avoid the attack anyway.

Knocked Down / Getting Back Up

Occasionally, your character may be Knocked Down due to attacks made by the enemy or other effects like being pushed or blown back by explosions. When your character is knocked down they cannot perform actions or reactions while prone or on their back and this can also make them vulnerable to attack as they won't be able to dodge or move.

Quick Get-Up
By expending a standard action (50AP), your character can get back up after the opponent (or event responsible for being knocked down) finishes their turn. Doing so prevents your character from being taken advantage of by other enemies that round.

Normal Get-Up
By spending no AP after being knocked down, your character will remain knocked down until the beginning of their turn. They will then get up automatically and be cleared of the status.

Help Up
If an ally is knocked down, you can help them back up on your own turn as a Quick Action (25AP), this saves them AP and removes Downed status from them. Allies can also do the same for you should you be knocked down.

Note: Help-Up only works if the one helping is equal or larger than the character being helped up. As such, it's improbable for a smaller character to help up a larger one by themselves.

End of Combat: Typical Win/Loss Conditions

The end of combat is usually signalled by the GM and determined by the status of the participating groups.

Win Conditions

All enemies defeated
Your character and their allies wins if they manage to defeat all enemies either by killing them, knocking them unconscious or forcing the enemies to retreat and let them escape.

Objective achieved
The battle is considered won if a special objective or condition is met, even if other hostiles are in the area. This condition usually causes other hostiles to stand down or be automatically defeated by association.

Objective-based Time-lapse
If the battle has a special condition to make sure that an object or creature remains safe/alive for a certain amount of time, the character and their party may win by letting the time lapse to zero. Enemy units may retreat or be instantly defeated upon successful protection of the objective.

Objective-based Escort reaches destination
The battle requires carrying an object or escorting a creature to a certain location successfully, the party will win the battle.

Loss Conditions

Losing at battles may not always end the party members lives but may end optional quest chains. In some cases the party may retry the battle again.

All party members knocked out or incapacitated
The battle ends if no party member is left to act. Their fate depends on the opposing forces, if the enemy is savage or feral the party may die from being eaten or killed whereas more intelligent or opportunistic enemies may hold them for ransom.

Party member is killed outright
If a party member is killed in such a way that they cannot be brought back to life, the battle may end due to a party member being terminated. This loss condition may be cancelled if the player whose character was killed accepts their death to create a new character, or leaves the game entirely. When this occurs, the battle will resume and the terminated party member stays dead (unless revived later).

Protect Objective Failure
The battle will end in a loss if the objective the party was meant to keep intact/alive is destroyed/killed before they lapsed their objective time.

Ran out of Time
The party will lose a battle or scenario if they had a certain time limit to complete an objective or reach a certain place in time, or if not all party members were able to reach the objective in time.