Chapter 3 - Combat

Here is an overview of the combat system followed by a discussion on how this system affects game play. Once ready, a PDF link will appear on this page so you can dowload the whole chapter.

How it Works

Grid or No Grid

For melee combat or distances where melee might be involved, a grid is recommended to keep track of distances and facing. Hexes are recommended over squares. Don't worry, you won't be counting squares like in D&D, and you don't have to stand in the middle of the space. An optional movement method for TOTM combat is also provided.

Initiative & Action Economy

Rather than asking how many actions per round (unit of time), Virtually Real asks how much time it takes to perform an action. You get 1 action.

The GM marks off the amount of time required, forming a bar graph per combatant. The next offense goes to the shortest bar. Ties for time cause an initiative roll of the tied combatants.

Everything you do in combat is an action that costs time or a maneuver. Actions include defensive actions such as a block. After a defensive maneuver, add a maneuver penalty by setting a 6 sided die on your character sheet. Maneuver penalty dice are disadvantages to your next maneuver or ranged attack. You give these back on your next offense.

For more on Virtually Real's initiative system, check the blog article about Initiative.

Movement

You may move your Free Movement (usually 1 space) as part of another action. Otherwise you may "run" typically 2 spaces per second (8mph). If you ran or sprinted on your last turn, then you can sprint now. Sprinting costs endurance.

Positional Penalties

Some melee ranges cause penalties if you are too close or too far. Being on an opponent's primary-hand side gives your opponent a disadvantage, while being at a rear flank is two disadvantage dice, and directly behind is 3. Range will add additional disadvantage dice. Remember that advantage and disadvantage dice will "swing" and generate an inverse bell curve when combined (See Chapter 1).

Offensive Actions

The most common are Attack, Aim (ranged/thrown attacks only), and Power Attack. An attack is a weapon skill that involves the [S]trike bonus of your weapon. A power attack adds your Body attribute modifier to the attack. This costs an additional second and you must give up your Free Movement (some combat styles may get around this, but it will cost you an endurance point).

A power attack broadcasts your intent, giving your opponent extra time to ready a better defense, while putting yourself in a worse predicament for mounting your own defense or quick combos. All this is reflected in the additional resources used for the attack. You can only use techniques that add your Body attribute to a roll if you are not Winded (Endurance total above 0).

Ranged Attack

A ranged attack is just like a melee attack except that additional ranges are available. Maneuver penalties apply to ranged attacks unless you take a Delay action to reset the penalties (imagine shooting a bow while dodging). After making a ranged attack, keep one of the dice. This will be an "aim" die. You get an additional aim die each shot as a sustained fire bonus to a maximum of your Mind attribute modifier. You must maintain line of sight with your target to keep this bonus. You can not aim at a target you can not see! If the target ducks behind cover, you switch targets, or if you spend time on any action other than a delay, you give back all sustained fire dice.

Aim

You can take a mind action (usually 1s) to Aim rather than releasing a round/arrow. You gain 1 aim die to use as an advantage die on your attack and your offense is over. You may take your usual free movement and single turn while you aim, but can not move any faster. You can attack with that advantage at your next offense, or you can keep aiming!

Defense

The usual defensive maneuvers are Evade and Parry. You can also perform these as actions, Dodge and Block. Actions cost time, and time is precious! The time for a defense can not exceed the time of your attacker.

Rolling a defensive maneuver incurs a maneuver penalty, making your next defense more difficult and increasing the risk of critical failure until you get another offense.

On a Block, you add your Body attribute and this costs a weapon action's worth of time. Like a Power Attack, you must give up your free movement or an Endurance point on this action.

Damage

Base damage is offense - defense. If this total is 0 or less, your defensive maneuver succeeds and you are not hit. Otherwise you are hit and the difference is your base damage. This damage is modified by your weapon's [D] value.

Armor

Armor can convert some lethal damage to non-lethal damage. The amount is equal to the armor's AD value. A weapon may have "Armor Penetration (AP)" capabilities that reduces the AD of armor. Wound conditions are based on lethal damage for lethal attacks and total damage for non-lethal attacks. Combat training saves are always based on total damage.

Ammo

Ammunition is kept track of by using an extra dice bag as a magazine or quiver. The dice inside is your ammunition. Take one out and use it as part of your attack roll. If you double-tap (requires a semi-automatic and the "DoubleTap" passion) or fire a 3 round burst (requires a capable weapon), then remove the number of rounds fired from the ammo bag. Any extra dice from additional ammunition fired become advantage dice.

Wounds

Every creature has a Damage Capacity (DC), used to determine the severity of a wound. A minor wound is 1-2 points for everyone. A serious wound starts at your DC, which is 6 for a human. This means 3-5 points is a major wound, and 6 or more points is a serious wound. A critical wound does damage equal to your max hit points in one attack.

Conditions from wounds are determined by the type of attack and the wound level. More serious injuries can affect initiative rolls and more.

Basic Combat Training (BCT)

If you've taken any wounds since your last offense, you must roll a BCT save to act. The degree of failure determines how much time you lose from pain, injury and fear. If you've only taken minor injuries and you have at least primary combat training, then you can ignore this check. This check is not affected by armor. NPCs also use this roll for morale checks, taking into consideration the ratio of combatants on each side.

Once you hit 0 hit points, you take a critical condition which causes BCT saves to be resolved as Body saves instead. Your training no longer matters. And failed Body saves can lead to incapacitation and death. You do not automatically fall unconscious, there are no rolls to make unless you wish to act. Roll the save (and possibly die on failure) in order to keep fighting.

Critical Conditions

A critical condition increases your critical failure range for all rolls. However, it also causes an andrenaline burst that grants advantages in things like Sprinting or Perception. You can attempt to turn this response from a defense response into an aggresstive response. Other subsystems integrate with the adrenaline system to provide for dramatic feats of heroism when defending the things that matter to you most! This also helps avoid death spiral problems!

Conclusions

Consistency

One of the big problems I saw in D&D and other systems was that results were all over the place. Even when you rolled a high attack, you could roll a low damage. What makes this system work is that consistency of rolls is achieved through tightly controlled probabilities formed by the basic system of Chapter 1.

Active Defense

A number of systems want to keep the number of rolls down or have only player-facing rolls. However, people love to feel like they are actively defending themselves. Opposed rolls scale damage to each hit rather than using a "to hit" ratio to scale damage over dozens of rounds. Plus, active defense removes the need for escalating hit points and tons of mechanics that come from that.

Offense - Defense

Calculated damage doesn't just reduce time spent rolling dice, but basing damage on the combatants skill levels means that every possible advantage or disadvantage to your strike roll changes your damage output. Wound severity levels mean that its better to do large amounts of damage rather than paper cut your opponent to death.

If a well-hidden opponent shoots from concealment, and the target fails to detect the attacker, then they don't get a defense roll. No special sneak attack ability is needed to do massive damage, just don't let anyone see you!

This also means that those with higher skill levels do more damage to lower skilled opponents, but the proper usage of tactical options can be much more effective than relying on numbers! This is especially true since you don't get strike bonuses every skill level. Sometimes you get a parry bonus, or effective range increase, or something else, reducing the disparity between combatants of different levels. You don't generally get more hit points.

Passions

Passions are covered in the next chapter. Passions are earned from Styles. Certain skills, like Basic Combat Training, come with a style that is represented as a tree of "passions." Combat styles also go to world building and defining cultures. You can assume that tribal communities will usually share a style. Combat styles form the heart of the martial arts system as well!

Passions are sometimes limited to a certain number of uses per "wave" of attack. Your wave will normally start with an intiative roll, although not every initiative roll restarts a wave. Some passions, like Second Wind, will immediately begin a new wave. When a new wave starts, erase any marks used to keep track of used passions.

Tactics

You'll want to constantly step to your opponent's primary side in melee while preventing them from doing the same to you. Step and delay (or ready an action) to make them come to you. Use power attacks when you see an opening in your opponent's defenses (when they have a maneuver penalty) or when you need to prevent an enemy from attacking your ally. The power attack gives them the time and incentive to block or dodge, which costs time, time they can't use to attack your ally! You can also use your passions to set up combination attacks that exploit specific disadvantages.

Speed

Quick resolution is a popular goal. By removing the action economy, Virtually Real drastically speeds up resolution. Defensive actions engage the players between turns, and when you get your next action is deliberately kept elusive, ensuring players pay attention! The most common feedback during testing was "It's on me already?" because things really move! And the low hit points, which rarely go up, stop the super-long slugfests of massive attrition. You'll know fairly early on if you are out-matched and need to run!

Happy Hunting