Combat

Characters are going to come into conflict with others at some point. Sometimes this will result in combat.

Basic Rules

1. Everyone rolls initiative. This is 10 by default. Those with the awareness trait roll 15 dice for initiative. The highest amount of successes goes first. In the case of ties everyone who tied rolls again and the order of the ties are from highest to lowest within the tie range.
2. Declare action - When it is your turn you declare what your character is doing. You will be instructed to roll the appropriate skill. Also add in any special traits you are using and be mindful of any modifiers they have to use, as well as using focus.
3. Determine hit and damage - Normal combat is a hit when there a 3 successes on the attack roll. This deals 10 damage to the target. For each success above 3, 10 more damage will be applied. So 5 successes on a combat action would be 30 damage. Some abilities may apply additional damage.
4. PCs start with 100 HP. When they are reduced to 0 they are incapacitated. They are at risk of dying in three rounds. Spells such as Stabilize will freeze this timer for up to 24 hours, assuming they are not attacked again. The target at 0 HP is still incapacitated, but they are not at risk of dying. A threshold 2 roll for Medicine/First Response will also stop imminent death for a PC at 0 HP unless the PC is attacked again.

NPCs

NPCs are non-player characters, and intended to challenge PCs in various ways. They generally do not have fleshed out sheets and follow simpler guidelines based on how skilled they are meant to be.

Minions

Minions only require 2 successes from an attacker to be hit. They also become incapacitated upon being hit once. This makes them great to wear parties down a little but are not particularly interesting encounters. They roll 7 dice for their own attacks.

Enhanced Minion

These are like minions in they are out of combat after one hit, but require 3 successes to hit and roll 10 dice when they attack.

Weak

Weak means the NPC likely rolls at least 10 dice for their main combat skills, and may have a couple special combat traits. They have 45 HP. These are great to represent threats which need to either be hit twice or need a special ability to be used to take them down in one hit. Great for minor lieutenants and other small nuisances. Often they are accompanied by Minions or Enhanced Minions.

Parity

These NPCs have a full health pool of 100 HP and may roll up to 12 dice for a combat skill. Normally they have Minions or Enhanced Minions with them. Great for a final antagonist for a multi-scene plot.

Superior

These NPCs are special, usually at the end of major plots with unusual abilities. They may have higher HP pools as well as rolling a high number of dice. Players should consult staff before using NPCs of this level. Most plots won't end with characters like this, and this is often reserved for beings such as dragons, should they appear.