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KitsuneBoxing
2014-06-26, 05:44 PM
Ok, so i posted the main post of this system a couple of days ago (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?358551-Cities-amp-Traitors-%28A-low-fantasy-3-P-ish-system%29-WIP), but that's just general descriptions of ideas about the rules, and especially the part about the combat system was very hazy and vague. So i compiled the ideas that i've had for it in this, more detailed and hopefully much clearer text.

It's important to note that this is still a work in progress, and it hasn't really been tested yet. But at least i think that this should contain enough information for someone who reads it to be able to run a battle themselves, although with some limits (and they might have to read some parts of the main post to fully understand everything).

The idea of the combat system is partially to up the realism level from games like pathfinder, and also to a lesser degree to make battles shorter than they generally are in these systems. My hope is that this is done partially by making damage a bit more dangerous (although not necessarily more deadly) and by making it harder to fight several enemies at the same time.

I should note that while i want to make combat feel more realistic i still definately want it to feel fun and tactical and something that you would want to do when playing the game. I also want it to still have a fairly high degree of abstraction, since i think it's fun to leave it to the players and gm to describe what happens.

Ok, please comment if you have any tips, comments, complaints, ideas.


Combat

The Action System:

The action system is not just used for combat, but for any situation where time is of the essence and a character wants to get as much done as possible in as short a time as possible and any activity within Cities & Traitors should techinically be expressable through the action system. However, combat is one situation where the action system is always used, and it is therefore a good opportunity to explain it.

Basically it is a way to divide a characters actions into small sections, relative to other characters and npc's actions and to time.

The action system is divided into rounds, turns, standard actions, swift actions, free actions and immediate actions. All of these terms will be explained below.

Rounds: A round is a period of time within which all characters get to act. A round is usually somwhere around 10 seconds long, but its' duration can vary. The important thing about a round is not how long it is, but what it contains, which is a single turn each for every character relevant to the situation that is being described. In effect, rounds are a way of chopping up time into segments, to let each character's actions happen simultaneously, while still having an order to them. As soon as one round ends, the next begins, with each character gaining a new turn.

Turns: A turn is the part of a round that each character gets to act on. A turn is not necessarily a set amount of time, but merely a contained description of what a character does during the round. Turns are relative to each other, meaning that one character gets it's turn first, another second, and so forth. This does not mean that the actions made during one turn happens first, and then the actions of the second turn starts, and so forth. Turns happen almost simultaneously. The character who is the first to act merely has a slight edge, and so other characters have to adapt their actions after it.

Standard actions: Each character has a number of standard actions during its' turn, determined by the character's base attack bonus. A character with a base attack bonus of less than 3 has two standard actions every turn. A standard action represents the character doing something that takes time and effort and that cannot be done as part of another action. Again, a standard action is not a set period of time. Different character can do different things at different speeds, and with different degrees of efficiency. This is why the number of standard actions that a character has varies. A character can always choose not to take a standard action.

Swift actions: Each character has a single swift action during its' turn. A swift action represents the character getting to act to its full potential, filling up the time of the turn as efficiently as it is possible for the character to do at its current state. Usually, a swift action does not represent doing a self contained thing. Instead, swift actions usually affect the effects of standard actions or the character's very state. There are situations where a swift action can be a quick, self contained action though. A character can always choose not to take a swift action.

Free actions: There are no real limits to how many free actions a character has during its' turn. Free actions represents doing something that is simple and that can be done as part of another action. As a general rule, a character cannot make a free action to do the same thing twice during a single turn. A character can always choose not to take a free action.

Immediate actions: Immediate actions are different from the other actions in that they are not done on a character's turn, but at any time before or after the character's turn. A character can use one immediate action every round. Immediate actions represent having to react to something, and using one sets a character off balance slightly. When using an immediate action, a character looses its' swift action on its' next turn. A character can always choose not to take an immediate action.

Initiative: Initiative is what determines the order of acting characters' turns. On the first round, when an action system starts being used, all the acting participants roll an initiative roll. Initiative rolls can be different depending on the situation, but it always consists of a d20 roll and generally each character adds its' dexterity modifier and its' base attack bonus. The character with the highest roll has its' turn first, the one with the second highest roll has its' turn second, and so on. This order is maintained until the action system is broken, and the game master descides to stop dividing time into rounds.

Delaying a turn: A character can always choose to wait and see what happens before taking its' turn, letting another turn pass first. When a character delays a turn, it gains a choice after every turn that passes to have its' turn then. When delaying a turn, the character changes its' place in the initiative order to the place where the character choose to take the turn. If a character delays its' turn so long that a new round starts, that character can still take its' turn between any two turns during that round, but no character can ever take two turns during the same round, so in that case, the character has effectively lost a turn.


Battle:

Movement: Movement in Cities & Traitors is described by a grid system. When precise movement becomes important (as it always is during battle), the game master divides the world into a series of squares, each five by five feet. A medium creature or object (such as a human), takes up one of these squares. Game masters are encouraged to use an actual, physical grid with pieces to represent the characters and other pieces to represent terrain and such in the world. This will make movement and placement on the grid system more submersive and understandable.

Moving on the grid system is a standard action. Every creature has a move speed, which is how far that creature can travel on the grid system with a single standard action. A creature does not have to travel its' full move speed with a standard action. A normal human has a move speed of 25 feet plus five additional feet for every point of dexterity modifier that human has.

Movement that is not on the ground, such as climbing or swimming, can also be descrived by the grid system (thinking of the grid as a series of five foot cubes instead, that reaches up and down). The rules for swimming and climbing and such will be described under the skills of the same names.

Standard actions and movement: As mentioned above, a standard action is used to move up to your full speed on the grid system. A creature can spend as many standard actions as it has to move every turn.

Swift actions and movement: A swift action cannot be used to move by itself, but if spend together with a standard action to move, that standard action can be used to move up to one and a half times that creature's base speed. This is called to spurt.

If a creature spends two or more standard actions to move in a straight line, that creature can also spend a swift action to move up to one and a half times the distance of those standard actions combined. This is called to run.

Free actions and movement: Free actions can be used to move in two ways, to take a five foot step, and to face a new direction.

Taking a five foot step is something that a character can only do if it has not and will not use a standard action to move during that turn. Taking a five foot step means to move five feet in any direction. Like most free action, taking a five foot step can only be done once every turn.

Facing means to turn your front towards a new direction. This can usually only be done once per turn, but by spending a swift action, a character can face a new direction a second time in a turn.

Immediate actions and movement: Immediate actions are generally not used to move, except in the sense that avoiding an attack or similar is a form of movement.

Difficult terrain and moving backwards: Difficult terrain is terrain that is hard to move through for some reason. It could represent thick undergrowth or knee high water or sticky mud. A character moving through difficult terrain does so at half speed and cannot spurt or run. A character cannot take a five foot step though difficult terrain.

When moving backwards, a character does so at half speed and cannot spurt or run. When moving backwards through difficult terrain, a character moves at one quarter speed and must make perception or acrobatics checks not to fall over. A character can take a five foot step backwards, but if the ground is anything but even a character must make a perception or acrobatics check to not fall.

Attacking: Attacking in Cities & Traitors is done by skill checks. Which skill is used varies depending on what is used to attack. All skills checks used to attack agains an opponent's body part to deal damage are dexterity based.

Standard actions and attacking: Attacking someone is a standard action. An attack must be made against someone that is within your range of attack. With most melee weapons this means the five foot square that you are facing, the two squares adjacent to it, and the two squares on your sides. However, certain melee weapons have reach, and can attack only people further away. More in depth rules about reach weapons will be added further on. Ranged weapons can attack people further away from you of course, and are limited only by their range implements. Rules about ranged weapons will be added further on.

When making an attack against an opponent who you have just moved towards as part of a spurt or run, you can make that attack a charge. This is made as a normal attack but if it hits, it gains a +2 bonus to damage.

When making an attack against an opponent, you choose what part of the opponent's body you attempt to attack. You can attempt to attack either an opponent's arm, head, leg or torso.

Weapons can always have special rules about their range of attack, which sort of attack they are best at and which situations they can be used in. A lot of the finer points of the combat rules will actually be found within the weapon rules.

Swift actions and attacking: A swift action is not used to attack, but can be used together with a standard action to affect how an attack is made. This can be done either by making a precise strike, a double attack or a full attack action.

A precise strike is made by making an attack as a standard action and spending a swift action. This attack gains a +2 bonus to its' skill check to hit and a +2 bonus to damage.

A double attack is made by making a standard action to attack and spending a swift action as part of that attack. This divides the attack into two seperate attacks, each made with a -4 penalty to their skill checks and a -2 penalty to damage.

A full attack action is made by spending two or more standard actions to attack and spending a swift action. This allows for a single extra attack, made with a -2 penalty to its' skill check to hit.

Defending: Defending against an attack is always an opposed skill check. Which skill is used depends on the method of defense. The normal methods of defending are: blocking an attack with a weapon or shield, dodging an attack and absorbing an attack with your armor.

Standard actions and defending: A standard action can be spent on your turn to ready yourself to defend against an attack. This means that whenever an attack is made against you, you can make an opposed defense roll of any kind you want that is available to you. This is the most effective way of defending against an attack because it is one of the only two ways to block an attack with a shield or weapon (which will usually give the highest bonus) and it does not give you any penalties on your checks and does not cost any physical stamina and it does not get rid of your swift action for the next round. However, each standard acion saved can only block a single attack.

If you are wielding a shield then you can attempt to block a single attack with that shield every round as if you had saved a standard action to do so, without having to spend a standard action. This can be done even before you have had your turn.

Swift actions and defending: I don't know if I want swift actions to help you with defending. There will be some way for them to do it i'm sure but I don't know in what way.

Immediate actions and defending: The most common use of an immediate action is to initiate a desperate defense. This can be done any time when you are attacked, and if you do not have a standard action saved to defend it is the only way of defending against attacks. Once a desperate defense is initiated you can defend against as many attacks as are directed towards you. However, every skill check you make to defend yourself as part of a desperate defense gains a -2 penalty and every check you make as part of a desperate defense costs you 1 point of physical stamina. In addition, if you want to block an attack with a weapon or shield as part of a desperate defense then on your next turn, you loose one standard action. If you have no standard actions left on your next turn, you cannot block any initial attacks as part of a desperate defense. This means that the most common way of defending during a desperate defense is to dodge attacks or absorb them by armor.

Damage: When you are hit by an attack two things happen.

First of all, your opponent rolls for damage, using the base damage die of the weapon used and adding its' strength modifier and its' base attack bonus. If you are wearing armor on the part of you that was hit, the damage reduction from your armor is substracted from the damage. The damage is then dealt to your physical stamina.

The second thing that happens is that your opponent adds the damage deals as a bonus to a roll on the appropriate effects table. Effects tables are tables meant to describe how severe a hit is, and what effects it has. There are twelve effects table in total, divided into categories of the parts of the bodies that can be hit and the types of damage that can be dealt. The body parts that can be hit are arm, head, leg and torso and the damage types are blunt, piercing and slashing. So, if an opponent attacks your arm with a slashing weapon, that opponent rolls on the effects table that describes slashing damage dealt to an arm. When rolling on an effects table you roll a d100 die and add the damage that you have dealt to your opponent's physical stamina as a bonus. If the damage dealt has been reduced entirely by armor no roll on the effects table is made.

When the roll on the effects table has been made, you receive the penalty described in the roll that your opponent made, but you also receive all the penalties that are described in the lower numbers of the table. Different penalties given from the same table roll never stack with each other.

Note: bleed damage is dealt automatically to physical stamina every turn until the bleeding has been stopped by a heal check.

Effects tables:

Table 1;1: Arm; Slashing
1-35: no additional effect
36-45: the opponent gains 1 point of bleed damage
46-60: the opponent gains a -1 penalty on all skill checks made using the arm.
61-70: the opponent receives a 1 bleed damage for each 5 damage he/she received to physical stamina
71-80: the attack also deals damage to physical health
81-90: the opponent receives a -1 penalty for every five damage he/she received to physical stamina to all skill checks using the arm
91-100: the attack deals double damage to physical stamina
101-110: the attack deals double damage to physical health
111-115: the opponent drops whatever he/she is holding in the arm.
116-120: The attack deals triple damage to physical stamina
121-: the opponents arm is severed and can never be used again

Table 2;1: Head; Slashing
1-40: No additional effect
41-50: The opponent gains one point of bleed damage
51-60: The attack also deals half damage to mental stamina
61-70: The opponent receives a 1 bleed damage for each 5 damage he/she received to physical stamina
71-80: The attack also deals damage to physical health
81-90: The attack deals full damage to mental stamina
91-100: The attack deals double damage to physical stamina
101-110: The attack deals double damage to physical health
111-115: The opponent in partially blinded by blood in th eyes and must spend a standard action every round to wipe the blood off or receive a -3 penalty to all checks relying on sight.
116-120: The attack deals triple damage to physical stamina
121-125: The attack deals double damage to mental stamina
126-: The opponent's head is completely or partially severed and the opponent dies.

Table 3;1: Leg;Slashing
1-35: no additional effect
36-45: the opponent gains 1 point of bleed damage
46-60: the opponent gains a -1 penalty on all skill checks made using the leg.
61-70: the opponent receives 1 bleed damage for each 5 damage he/she received to physical stamina
71-80: the attack also deals damage to physical health
81-85: the opponent receives a -1 penalty for every five damage he/she received to physical stamina to all skill checks using the leg
86-91: The opponent's move speed is slowed by five feet for every 10 damage he/she received to physical stamina (minimum 1)
91-100: the attack deals double damage to physical stamina
101-115: the attack deals double damage to physical health
116-120: the opponent falls to his/her knees and gains the prone condition
121-125: The attack deals triple damage to physical stamina
126-: the opponents leg is severed and can never be used again

Table 4;1: Torso;Slashing
1-40: No additional effect
41-60: The opponent gains 1 point of bleed damage
61-70: The attack also deals damage to physical health
71-80: The opponent receives 1 bleed damage for each 5 damage he/she received to physical stamina
81-95: The attack deals double damage to physical stamina
96-100: The attack deals double damage to physical health
101-110: The opponent receives internal damage of some sort and either gains a -5 penalty to move speed for every 10 damage he/she received to physical stamina, gains the damage that was dealt to physical stamina to mental stamina or drops whatever he/she is holding in one of his/her hands (roll a d3 to descide which)
111-125: The attack deals triple damage to physical stamina
126-: The attack deals triple damage to physical health