User:Nod/System/Combat

There is no initiative roll. Combat progresses at the DM's discretion and/or using the suggestions in other parts of these rules. (DM eyes only!) => Generally, combat can progress according to which player queued up their action(s) first, taking coolness, quickness, sixth sense, and/or prowess, for example, into account.

Attack and Defense

The attacking character makes an opposed hit roll against the defender's dodge roll.  If the attacker rolls higher than the defender the attack hits its mark.
If the crit threshold is exceeded for the attacking character's crit score, then the attack is a critical hit and damage is modified appropriately.
Grip can used instead of hit for starting, maintaining and changing grapples.

Damage

Armor adds raw points on top on a character's toughness score. Damage is rolled by the attacker using the appropriate mental or physical damage stat dice. The defender then rolls dice according to their soak score and modifies the incoming damage 1:1 such that one point of damage is negated by one point rolled on the defender's soak. If there is damage remaining for the defender to take, it is subtracted from the defender's appropriate toughness score according to the attack (i.e. spell eats mental, Colt .45 eats physical). Once damage equal to the defender's toughness is taken, that character falls unconscious and any remaining damage subtracts from that character's soak score. Once damage equal or greater than the defender's toughness + soak is taken by the defender, that character is dead and cannot be normally revived.

A critical failure results in some adverse effect ideally, such as the attacker's weapon being knocked into another character or the defender leaning into the blow in an ill fated attempt to dodge. Damage need not be modified, but can at the DM's discretion or according to the adverse effect. This is generally more fun or fair if rolled randomly, to avoid complaints of favoritism. This is another area where coolness can come into play at the player's or DM's choice, and sixth sense, prowess, or quickness can be argued, for example.

Note:

Initiative can be rolled using any of the stats listed at the beginning of this section if the group so desires.