Post by Raithe Nightwalker on Nov 8, 2014 22:33:03 GMT
The currency of defeat is Damage, and most combat actions are geared toward dealing damage enough to kill, maim, or force your enemy to yield. Since healing and recovery can be uncertain and difficult, players may find it wise to yield when their characters face certain defeat.
The primary method for dealing damage is through conflict tests. You roll a test using Fighting dice against your opponent’s Combat Defense. A success deals damage as determined by the weapon you’re using multiplied by your degree of success plus any other modifiers that might apply. Your opponent’s Armor Rating reduces the damage you deal, but any damage left over comes off your opponent’s Health. Once you reduce an opponent to 0 Health, you defeat him and decide the consequences of his defeat.
Reducing Damage:
Although you have a small pool of Health, there are many of ways to remove damage, enabling you to avoid immediate defeat. Reducing or removing damage in any of the following ways does not count as an action. Furthermore, you can reduce damage at any time, even if it’s not your turn.
Injuries:
An Injury is a minor, rarely fatal wound. Anytime you take damage, you can accept an injury to reduce the damage taken by an amount equal to your Endurance rank. Each injury you accept imposes a –1 penalty to the result of all of your tests. You cannot accept more injuries than your Endurance rank. If the number of Injuries taken equals your Endurance rank, you die; perhaps not instantly, but there is no way you will survive the fight.
Wounds:
Some attacks are so brutal and so deadly that the only way you can overcome them is by accepting a Wound. A Wound essentially negates ALL damage in exchange for a penalty of -1d on all tests. This does not effect passive attribute statistics, such as your Combat Defense, but it will affect any active test where dice are rolled. If the number of Wounds taken equals your Endurance rank, you die; perhaps not instantly, but there is no way you will survive the fight.
Consequences of Defeat:
If at any time your Health drops to 0 or lower, you are defeated and removed from the combat. The opponent that defeated you decides what happens to you. Common choices include any of the following. Remember, defeat by an attack using a Vicious weapon always results in death.
Death:
This outcome is the most common when defeated. You are dead. Depending on the era in which you play as well as where you died, your corpse might stir into unlife… if you believe in that sort of thing.
Maimed:
Your opponent might leave you alive but gives you something by which you will remember him. Examples include a wicked scar across the face or the loss of an eye, thumb, or some other body part. Permanently reduce one ability of your opponent’s by one rank.
Capture/Ransom:
Your opponent holds you or some possession for ransom.
Enslaved:
You opponent sells you into slavery or takes you as his own slave, dooming you to a life in chains. For many, this is a fate worse than death.
Unconscious:
You are knocked out and left for dead. You awaken 2d6 hours later. While unconscious, you are helpless and may be killed or eaten by someone or something else.
If you choose to Yield:
You may choose to yield in order to choose the outcome of your defeat. If you fear imminent defeat, you may, on your turn, offer terms by which your character will go down to defeat, including the outcome. So for example, you can offer to have your character defeated and left unconscious or taken for ransom. The admin has the option of accepting your terms, making a counter-offer, or rejecting them. If you reject our counter-offer, you cannot yield to your wishes and will have to either continue fighting, or surrender based on your opponent's terms.
Mounts:
Fighting from horseback provides a variety of advantages, including enhanced mobility, the advantage of height, and—if the mount is trained for war—the steed’s own hooves and teeth.
Mounted Attacks:
When riding a Courser or Destrider into battle, you gain the following benefits:
Gain +1d on all Fighting tests made against opponents on foot, while your horse is moving.
Gain +2 Damage on a successful Fighting test made against opponents on foot, while your horse is stationary.
When your horse is stationary it will also make its own Fighting tests against nearby enemies.
Attacking Mounts:
It is not seen as honorable to kill a knight's horse, and the value of a horse captured in battle often dissuades men from killing them, but horses can be attacked in combat the same as the men who ride them. If you attack a knight's horse while mounted on your own horse, you suffer a penalty of -1d on all Fighting tests (with the exception of someone wielding a Spear or War Lance). If you are on foot, then it is a normal Fighting test, against the horse's Combat Defense, rather than its rider's.
Armor is also made for horses, though it can be extremely expensive as it uses roughly four times as much steel as a suit of armor for a man. If you purchase Barding Armor for your Mounts, they will be somewhat protected in combat.
Slain Mounts:
Should your mount be killed while you’re riding it, you must immediately succeed on a Formidable (12) Animal Handling test. If you succeed, you leap clear of the collapsing steed and land within a yard of the poor beast. If you fail, you take Damage (ignoring AR) equal to the mount’s Athletics rank from the fall and become trapped beneath the dead animal. Freeing yourself requires a Greater Action and a Challenging (9) Agility or Athletics test (bonus dice from Contortions or Strength apply). Other characters may assist, and attempt to pull you out by succeeding on an Athletics test against the same Difficulty. While trapped, you take a –5 penalty to your Combat Defense.
Recovery:
If you survive your fight, Wounds you have sustained will heal heal—eventually. The rate at which you recover depends on the type of injury you sustain, as well as the medical treatment you receive after your fight, and your character's Endurance rank. Damage to Health vanishes rapidly; Injuries take longer, sometimes as long as a week or more. Wounds can plague you for months, such are the perils of battle. If you can receive the ministrations of another character's Healing skill relatively soon after a battle, you can mitigate some or all of your Wounds depending on how skilled they are.
Damage:
Damage is a minor injury, little more than a few cuts and scrapes. At the end of the combat, you remove all damage to your Health.
Injuries:
Injuries are more significant than damage and, thus, take longer to heal. One day after gaining an injury, you may roll a Endurance test, the Difficulty of which depends on your activity level, the easiest being if you are just lying up getting bedrest. Each degree of success removes 1 injury, but a failed test means you don’t recover at all. If you roll a Critical failure, you gain another injury. If you cannot accept another Injury without dying, you will need another character to pass a Formidable (12) Healing check to save your life.
Wounds:
Wounds are the nastiest injuries, the ones that take the longest to heal and can cause the most lasting harm. One week after gaining a Wound, you may roll an Endurance test, the Difficulty of which depends on your activity level, the easiest being if you are just lying up getting bedrest. A successful test removes 1 Wound, but a failed test means you don't recover at all. You may remove an additional wound for every two degrees of success. If, however, you roll a Critical failure on the Endurance test, you gain another Wound. If you cannot accept another Wound without dying, you will need another character to pass a Very Hard (18) Healing check to save your life.
Healing:
The best way to recover from an Injury or Wound is to receive Healing. The Healing ability can help speed recovery from injuries by allowing the healer to substitute his or her Healing rank result for the wounded character's Endurance rank in their recovery test. When the character would roll an Endurance test, the healer instead rolls a Healing test. The target levels are the same, depending on the wounded character's activity level, however the main benefit is that a failed Healing test does not result in the worsening of injuries.
The primary method for dealing damage is through conflict tests. You roll a test using Fighting dice against your opponent’s Combat Defense. A success deals damage as determined by the weapon you’re using multiplied by your degree of success plus any other modifiers that might apply. Your opponent’s Armor Rating reduces the damage you deal, but any damage left over comes off your opponent’s Health. Once you reduce an opponent to 0 Health, you defeat him and decide the consequences of his defeat.
Reducing Damage:
Although you have a small pool of Health, there are many of ways to remove damage, enabling you to avoid immediate defeat. Reducing or removing damage in any of the following ways does not count as an action. Furthermore, you can reduce damage at any time, even if it’s not your turn.
Injuries:
An Injury is a minor, rarely fatal wound. Anytime you take damage, you can accept an injury to reduce the damage taken by an amount equal to your Endurance rank. Each injury you accept imposes a –1 penalty to the result of all of your tests. You cannot accept more injuries than your Endurance rank. If the number of Injuries taken equals your Endurance rank, you die; perhaps not instantly, but there is no way you will survive the fight.
Wounds:
Some attacks are so brutal and so deadly that the only way you can overcome them is by accepting a Wound. A Wound essentially negates ALL damage in exchange for a penalty of -1d on all tests. This does not effect passive attribute statistics, such as your Combat Defense, but it will affect any active test where dice are rolled. If the number of Wounds taken equals your Endurance rank, you die; perhaps not instantly, but there is no way you will survive the fight.
Consequences of Defeat:
If at any time your Health drops to 0 or lower, you are defeated and removed from the combat. The opponent that defeated you decides what happens to you. Common choices include any of the following. Remember, defeat by an attack using a Vicious weapon always results in death.
Death:
This outcome is the most common when defeated. You are dead. Depending on the era in which you play as well as where you died, your corpse might stir into unlife… if you believe in that sort of thing.
Maimed:
Your opponent might leave you alive but gives you something by which you will remember him. Examples include a wicked scar across the face or the loss of an eye, thumb, or some other body part. Permanently reduce one ability of your opponent’s by one rank.
Capture/Ransom:
Your opponent holds you or some possession for ransom.
Enslaved:
You opponent sells you into slavery or takes you as his own slave, dooming you to a life in chains. For many, this is a fate worse than death.
Unconscious:
You are knocked out and left for dead. You awaken 2d6 hours later. While unconscious, you are helpless and may be killed or eaten by someone or something else.
If you choose to Yield:
You may choose to yield in order to choose the outcome of your defeat. If you fear imminent defeat, you may, on your turn, offer terms by which your character will go down to defeat, including the outcome. So for example, you can offer to have your character defeated and left unconscious or taken for ransom. The admin has the option of accepting your terms, making a counter-offer, or rejecting them. If you reject our counter-offer, you cannot yield to your wishes and will have to either continue fighting, or surrender based on your opponent's terms.
Mounts:
Fighting from horseback provides a variety of advantages, including enhanced mobility, the advantage of height, and—if the mount is trained for war—the steed’s own hooves and teeth.
Mounted Attacks:
When riding a Courser or Destrider into battle, you gain the following benefits:
Gain +1d on all Fighting tests made against opponents on foot, while your horse is moving.
Gain +2 Damage on a successful Fighting test made against opponents on foot, while your horse is stationary.
When your horse is stationary it will also make its own Fighting tests against nearby enemies.
Attacking Mounts:
It is not seen as honorable to kill a knight's horse, and the value of a horse captured in battle often dissuades men from killing them, but horses can be attacked in combat the same as the men who ride them. If you attack a knight's horse while mounted on your own horse, you suffer a penalty of -1d on all Fighting tests (with the exception of someone wielding a Spear or War Lance). If you are on foot, then it is a normal Fighting test, against the horse's Combat Defense, rather than its rider's.
Armor is also made for horses, though it can be extremely expensive as it uses roughly four times as much steel as a suit of armor for a man. If you purchase Barding Armor for your Mounts, they will be somewhat protected in combat.
Slain Mounts:
Should your mount be killed while you’re riding it, you must immediately succeed on a Formidable (12) Animal Handling test. If you succeed, you leap clear of the collapsing steed and land within a yard of the poor beast. If you fail, you take Damage (ignoring AR) equal to the mount’s Athletics rank from the fall and become trapped beneath the dead animal. Freeing yourself requires a Greater Action and a Challenging (9) Agility or Athletics test (bonus dice from Contortions or Strength apply). Other characters may assist, and attempt to pull you out by succeeding on an Athletics test against the same Difficulty. While trapped, you take a –5 penalty to your Combat Defense.
Recovery:
If you survive your fight, Wounds you have sustained will heal heal—eventually. The rate at which you recover depends on the type of injury you sustain, as well as the medical treatment you receive after your fight, and your character's Endurance rank. Damage to Health vanishes rapidly; Injuries take longer, sometimes as long as a week or more. Wounds can plague you for months, such are the perils of battle. If you can receive the ministrations of another character's Healing skill relatively soon after a battle, you can mitigate some or all of your Wounds depending on how skilled they are.
Damage:
Damage is a minor injury, little more than a few cuts and scrapes. At the end of the combat, you remove all damage to your Health.
Injuries:
Injuries are more significant than damage and, thus, take longer to heal. One day after gaining an injury, you may roll a Endurance test, the Difficulty of which depends on your activity level, the easiest being if you are just lying up getting bedrest. Each degree of success removes 1 injury, but a failed test means you don’t recover at all. If you roll a Critical failure, you gain another injury. If you cannot accept another Injury without dying, you will need another character to pass a Formidable (12) Healing check to save your life.
Wounds:
Wounds are the nastiest injuries, the ones that take the longest to heal and can cause the most lasting harm. One week after gaining a Wound, you may roll an Endurance test, the Difficulty of which depends on your activity level, the easiest being if you are just lying up getting bedrest. A successful test removes 1 Wound, but a failed test means you don't recover at all. You may remove an additional wound for every two degrees of success. If, however, you roll a Critical failure on the Endurance test, you gain another Wound. If you cannot accept another Wound without dying, you will need another character to pass a Very Hard (18) Healing check to save your life.
Healing:
The best way to recover from an Injury or Wound is to receive Healing. The Healing ability can help speed recovery from injuries by allowing the healer to substitute his or her Healing rank result for the wounded character's Endurance rank in their recovery test. When the character would roll an Endurance test, the healer instead rolls a Healing test. The target levels are the same, depending on the wounded character's activity level, however the main benefit is that a failed Healing test does not result in the worsening of injuries.