Abilities

Character abilities are divided into 5 types: Social, Physical, Mental, Martial and Special. The first three are fairly self-explanatory. Social abilities are those that can be used to influence or understand other characters, or that provide resistance to such attempts. Mental abilities provide a character with knowledge, or mental faculties beyond the typical person. Physical abilities allow the character to manipulate their physical environment.

Martial abilities are abilities that can only be used during combat. They may include training in fighting, and skill with weapons. Martial abilities can not be used outside of combat. While other abilities generally cannot be used in combat.

Special abilities are those which for whatever reason do not clearly fall into one of the other categories. Some may be able to be used in combat. The text of a Special ability will make clear when and how the ability may be used.

Use of abilities should be self explanatory, and unless stated otherwise, does not require a GM to resolve.

Combat

The following is a long-winded and overly complicated explanation of what essentially boils down to: “Throw rock-paper-scissors, and add any bonuses, winner is the one with the highest score.”

Combat is an unlikely occurrence, and as such the combat system is designed to resolve combat as quickly as possible, at the expense of some detail, so that everyone can get back to role-playing. Combat is resolved in a series of exchanges. In an exchange each character chooses one other character to attack, and defends himself against any attacks against him. A character who is neither attacking, nor being attacked is free to leave the scene if they wish.

An exchange begins with one or more characters declaring attacks against other characters. The other characters then have the option of declaring their own attacks, until all nearby characters have declared who they are attacking, or passed.

The exchange is resolved by each attacker and defender throwing rock-paper-scissors. The winner has a base combat score of 1, the looser has a base combat score of –1. If the throw is a tie, both characters have a base score of 0. To the base score, each character adds any modifiers they have for martial abilities or weapons. The character with the lower final combat score has lost the combat. If both combatants have the same final score, the combat is inconclusive, and the combatants may chose to continue combat during a second exchange.

What happens to a character who has lost a combat exchange depends on what they were attacked with. If their attacker used their bare hands, the looser is knocked out and unconscious. They are not seriously injured and will recover 5 minutes after the combat (not the exchange) is over. At this time they will be bruised, but otherwise able to act normally. Other characters may of course do pretty much anything they want to unconscious characters.

If the loosing character was attacked by a weapon, including melee weapons and firearms, they are in a much more serious situation. In addition to being unconscious, they are also critically injured, and if not treated by someone with an appropriate ability, will die within a short period of time. Even if treated, such characters will remain injured and unable to participate in combat, or use physical abilities for the remainder of the game.

If after the first exchange, there are still characters who wish to attack each other, then a second exchange proceeds, in the same manner as the first. This continues until there are no characters who wish to attack any other characters in the scene.

Example 1:

Player 1 and Player A are both unarmed, and have the Trained Fighter ability, which allows them to add 1 to their combat scores. Player 1 declares he is attacking Player A. In response Player A declares he is attacking Player 1. No one else in the vicinity declares an attack, so the players resolve the first exchange. They both throw rock, giving each of them a base score of 0. Player A adds his bonus for the Trained Fighter ability, giving him a final score of 1. Player 1 also adds one to his score, also giving a final score of 1, the result of the exchange is a tie. Neither opponent has landed a solid blow. A second exchange is begun, and both players declare attacks against each other as before. This time Player 1 throws rock, and Player A throws paper. Paper beats Rock, so Player 1 receives a base score of -1, and adding 1, results in a final score of 0. Player A receives a base score of 1, and adding 1 results in a final score of 2, beating Player 1. Player 1 takes a solid blow and falls to the ground unconscious (because they were fighting unarmed). If player 1 had had a weapon, he would have received an additional bonus to his score, which would have allowed him to beat Player A in the first exchange, seriously injuring him.

Combats involving more than 2 fighters get a little more complicated, and should be supervised by a GM. If a character is being attacked by group of two or more opponents, he picks one of them as the primary opponent. He then throws against only the primary opponent. The primary opponent may add one to his combat score for each additional member of the group who is attacking the same character. If the primary opponent wins the throw, the group wins. If the lone character wins, he has bested the group, but only affects the primary opponent. Other characters in the group are not rendered unconscious or injured, and may continue fighting in a subsequent exchange. Characters may declare attacks against different opponents in a new exchange if they wish.

If a character is attacked by a character, or group, which he is not attacking in return (likely because he is attacking someone else), he throws against the character (or primary opponent) attacking him as usual, which may result in a second throw for that character in the same exchange. However, during this throw, the defending character receives a -1 to his score, and may not receive any bonus for shooting a firearm (since he is shooting it at someone else). He may receive any other combat bonuses normally. If he wins he has managed to avoid the attacker, but does not affect him in any way. All cases where a character is required to perform multiple throws in the same exchange are resolved simultaneously.

Example 2:

Player 1 and Player A are both unarmed, and have the Trained Fighter ability, which allows them to add 1 to their combat scores. Players 2, 3 and B are also unarmed, but have no combat abilities.

Player 1, looking for revenge gets reinforcements and comes looking for Player A. Players 1, 2 and 3 all declare attacks against Player A. Player A, seeing that he is outnumbered, decides to try to even the odds by knocking out a few of Player 1’s buddies first, so he declares that Player 2 is his primary opponent. Player B comes to Player A’s aid, and declares an attack against Player 1. No other characters declare attacks, so the exchange is resolved.

Player A throws against Player 2, who is the primary opponent for the group attacking Player A. Player A throws scissors, and Player 2 throws paper. Player A won the throw, so has a base score of 1 with a bonus of +1 for his Trained Fighter Ability, giving him a final score of 2. Player 2 lost the throw so has a base score of -1, and has no bonuses due to abilities or weapons. But he does get +1 for each of the other two characters attacking Player A, raising his final score to 1, not enough to beat Player A, who knocks Player 2 unconscious. Players 1 and 3 are unaffected, because Player A chose Player 2 as the primary opponent.

Player B throws against Player 1, who is not attacking him back since he is part of the group attacking Player A. Player B throws rock, and Player 1 throws paper. Player B lost the throw, so he has a base score of -1, and has no modifiers from weapons or abilities, so that is his final score. Player 1 won the throw, so his base score is 1, he receives a -1 to his score because he is attacking someone else, but he does still get his +1 bonus for having the Trained Fighter ability, leaving him with a final score of 1. Player 1 won this exchange, but since he was not attacking Player B, Player B is unaffected, he was simply unable to hurt Player 1.

After the first exchange, Player 2 is lying on the ground unconscious, and Players 1, 3, A and B are still able to fight in a subsequent exchange if they wish.

This method is designed to quickly resolve who is left standing after a combat. If they wish, players may take additional time to describe the blow-by-blow of their fights, especially in one-on-one duals, where they are “making it look good for the crowd”. An exchange is not necessarily a single punch or blow. This system just determines who wins in the end.