Chaos Fantasy: Source

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Chapter 9: Combat
[ | Combat Statistics | The Tick System | Personal Combat Rules | Vehicle/Mount Combat Rules | Example Moves | ]
Combat Rolls

All combat rolls take place on a D20. Add the bonus listed to any roll a GM asks you to make. So if you roll to parry an attack, add your parry bonus. Here is the process for making combat rolls:

The offender declares their action. The defender immediately declares their response.
The GM determines penalties and bonuses to each side by looking at the situation.
Once declarations are made, the offender rolls openly first and states their final number. The defender responds with their own roll.
Tied rolls between combatants always go to the defender.
If you make a roll and the number you get meets or exceeds your Critical, it is a critical roll.
A critical attack always hits unless the defender also makes an equal or better critical roll.
Any offensive roll that is 4 or lower is an automatic miss. This is after penalties are added, but before before bonuses are added.
All combat rolls (including the GM) must be made in the open, preferably across a shared surface. Even the GM should comply with this rule.
For the purposes of the combat rules, a melee attack is any move done in close range that relies on a held weapon used for striking.

Combat Bonuses

Sometimes when you get bonuses to combat, it will be said one of the following two ways:

+x to all combat bonuses: You get to add this to any combat bonus when you use it. Your combat bonuses are listed on your sheet.
+x to all combat rolls: Same as above, but also counts for contested stat checks and rolling initiative.

Shatter

Shatter is a special type of critical strike, normally won only through hard training. First off, Shatter can only be done with a melee attack. With this attack, the user can choose one of the two following ways to commit Shatter:

It does both double base damage (or weapon damage) and double base penetration (or weapon penetration).
It does double total damage (base damage + any bonuses, which are then added together and doubled afterwards).

Knockback

If a character is hit by an attack that could cause him to stumble backwards, use this rule. Whenever the character takes Red damage, make a Resist Balance Loss roll; if he fails, then he is stunned by the attack and knocked to the ground. If the attacker's strength (or the speed of the attack) is devastatingly high (the character's weight is somewhat trivial), the character is knocked back a number of metres equal to the attacker's Strength rating (if hit by a vehicle or other object, it's the GM's call). There are knockback abilities which may increase the distance a victim is thrown.

General Penalties

These penalties should be considered by the GM each time a player makes an attack or a defense. Most of the time, the GM will likely ballpark it, but these specific rules are meant to help the GM figure out what penalty the player has on their rolls. Each penalty may stack multiple times if the GM deems it necessary.

Disorient Penalties: The character is dizzy, deaf, has reduced vision, or other obstructions on his senses. -4 to all combat rolls. If this stacks again, the character is likely completely blind to his surroundings or has multiple disorientating problems.
Ambush Penalties: If ambushed, the character has -4 to all combat rolls for the first two rounds.
Moving Penalty: If the character is running or on a moving vehicle while attacking, he is -4 to all combat rolls. This will stack again if the target is also moving in a different direction.
Awkward Penalty: If the character is in an awkard position (lower ground, slightly entangled, on the ground, attacked from behind), he is -4 to all combat rolls. If this stacks again, it is because the character is doing multiple things that would each be considered awkward (hanging upside down from a rickety object, entangled and attacked from behind, etc).
Size Penalty: Hitting or defending against a smaller target than you is -4 (the size difference must be at least double). This may stack again if the target is quite small.
Called Shot Penalty: Hitting a specific body part on a target is -4. If a target has partial cover, this penalty still applies.
Ranged Penalty: When defending against thrown objects (balls, stones, etc), the character is fine. If the shot is fired (archery or a gun), the character has -4 to all combat rolls. This stacks if the object is fired or is some sort of near-instant energy blast (laser weapons, etc).
Offhand Penalty: Relying on your offhand with any weapon is -4. Offhand melee weapons do simple jabs.
Unskilled Penalty: Using an unfamiliar weapon (no skill) is -4. This stacks if the character is Poorly Skilled with this weapon.
Red Damage Penalty: The character has -2 to all combat rolls for each point of Red Damage.

Prepare Bonus: A character who is prepared for an incoming attack has +4.
Skill Bonus: Weapon skills and expert performance from certain skills can give bonuses in certain situations.
Block Bonus: Using an object to take your damage instead of a simple parry grants +4. Large objects may grant another +4.

Example: Joe wants to fire his laser gun at Fred. Joe doesn't have that gun skill, so he has -4. Fred is moving about and has partial cover. Since Fred is moving, Joe has another -4. Since Fred is behind some boxes, Joe must make a called shot at another -4. Joe fires with his aim bonus at -12. Fred is Prepared (obviously trying to get out of the room), so he has +4. He uses the box to quick parry for another +8 (it is large enough to stack). He has -4 because it is a long range attack and another -4 because it is a long range energy attack. Fred is defending with a quick parry bonus at +4.

Automatic Misses

It's one thing to have penalties, but sometimes if a roll just isn't up to snuff it misses completely. For all combat situations, if the combatants ever roll a 4 or less on their offensive rolls, it misses the opponent. For an automatic miss, the die roll itself matters (so the roll before you add any bonuses or penalties). If either the offender or the defender roll a 1, their roll critically fails. The defender may trip or put themselves in a bad position. The offender may drop their weapon by accident or some other minor misfortune accompanies their action.

If an offensive roll is still 4 or less after bonuses and penalties, it is again an automatic miss (but not a miserable failure).

Simultaneous Strike

If a player holds his turn for a defense and is being attacked or has the appropriate ability/skill, the player may choose to do a simultaneous strike whenever he is attacked. Both opponents are now committed to hitting eachother; only an automatic miss means failure at this point. The combatant with the highest roll gets to do full damage to his opponent. The other combatant's attack is turned into a simple jab.

Ties mean they both do simple jabs.

Dual Strikes

An attacker may commit to doing more than one attack during his Turn if he has dual weapons. The second attack takes another 2 ticks and does offhand damage with offhand penalties to hit. If the player was parried for his main hand attack, he may not do an offhand attack. Since the offhand attack happens near the same time, the defender does not make another defense roll for the second strike. The attacker need only beat the original defense roll with his offhand attack roll.

Making the offhand attack so quickly afterwards costs 1 Ki, but may be done by anyone.
Dual Strikes can be done while unarmed as well.
The second strike must be declared along with the first strike, before any rolling occurs.

Acquiring a Target

When throwing or firing at a target, you must first Acquire their position. What this means is that your character takes the time to switch to that target and stall a bit to aim before firing. All this means is that your first shot at any target takes an additional 3 ticks to fire. You can forego Acquiring a target, but you no longer receive your Aim bonus. If you lose sight of your opponent, you must reacquire your target when he is again visible.

Acquiring can be reduced in time by a weapons skill.

Called Shots

There are many reasons to make a called shot. You might need to make a called shot to hit a specific area of the body (called a Vital Shot) or you might need to make a called shot just to hit the person in general (called a Necessary Shot). Called shots are normally -4 to hit and take an additional tick.

Vital Shot: This is when the player is making certain of the kind of damage he does. He doesn't just want to shoot someone, he wants to peg them in the head to kill them. This does the same amount of damage as a normal attack, but it specifies what kind of Red Damage and effects the player is looking to inflict. This could be cutting someone's hand off by hitting the wrist specifically (only needing to do 2 Red Damage), for example. If the player fails to inflict Red Damage with a Vital Shot, the GM should consider that he missed any vital areas. If the character has quite a bit of skill with the weapon or a martial art, the called shots could get quite narrow. Instead of just hitting the opponent in the head, maybe the character can hit the person right in the eye from long range. It's the GM's discretion just how accurate a called shot can be given the character's skills.

Necessary Shot: There are times when a player simply *has* to make a called shot on someone just to hit them. If you are firing on someone who is outside your Effective Range, you must make it a Necessary Shot. If the opponent has partial cover (lying down on the ground at long range, hiding partially behind an object) then you must make a Necessary Shot.

If the opponent is too far beyond your Effective Range (beyond the gun's maximum range or your maximum throwing distance), you cannot attack them at all.

Spray Fire

If a player decides to lay down fire in a general area, firing in the direction of his targets, he follows Spray Fire rules. Spray Fire can be done by firing multiple arrows, firing a gun multiple times, throwing multiple darts between fingers, or holding the trigger on an automatic weapon. Spray Fire automatically has Awkward penalties for every shot fired after the first one. Spray Fire cannot be called on vitals.

Spray by Area: If done over an entire area, each combatant in that area will have to roll Evade against the one Aim roll made by the attacker. The GM will ask for an Evade from each defender in the order of which they are being shot at. If they are hit, they are simply hit once. Attacks that are done with a single move (throwing knives, shooting arrows, certain guns fire multiple bullets at angles) MUST be directed over an area and cannot hit the same person more than once. The aim roll is affected by the recoil penalty of the gun as each target rolls Evade.
Ex. Fred declares the intent to spray over an area by spending 1 ki. Joe, Billy, and Claire all declare to evade. Fred rolls a 25 (total after aim bonus). The GM states that Fred is firing clockwise, starting with Joe. Joe rolls an evade of 18; he is now hit by one bullet and is down. Fred's aim roll now has an awkward penalty and the recoil on his assault rifle is -2. Billy rolls an 18 as well against Fred's new aim of 19. Billy gets hit and is down. Claire rolls a 13 against Fred's new aim of 17. Everyone is hit and everyone is down.
Single Target Burst: Firing multiple shots (bursts) at a single target is the other way to go with Spray Fire. Each shot taken afterwards at a single target is affected by the Recoil penalty listed on the gun (along with Awkward penalties). The defender makes his defense roll; the attacker makes his attack roll. Even though more shots are to be fired, the penalties simply affect the attacker's original roll.
Ex. Fred declares the intent to burst by spending 1 Ki. Joe declares to dodge. Fred rolls an 18 to shoot Joe. Joe rolls a 6 to dodge. Fred's pistol has a recoil penalty of -2 and can fire every 3 ticks. Fred hits him once; his second shot happens three ticks later (as part of the same action). His second shot is Awkward and has -2 (from recoil). His second shot is a 12. Joe gets hit again. Joe decides he doesn't like getting hit and uses his Turn to Prepare to dodge again (changing his defense roll). Joe rolls a 7, but gets +4 from Preparing on his Turn. He has 11 against Fred's next shot which is now at 10.

Because Joe's turn had come up, he used it to Prepare himself (his defense at +4). He could have simply spent an action to change his defense roll. Fred's action took 9 ticks in total.
While spraying, the attacker may make no attempts to defend himself. Spending an action to defend would interrupt the spray and he is still Awkward.

All guns have a listed recoil penalty and refire time. Spray Fire requires 1 Ki. Refire time on manual weapons can be lowered by 1 tick by high weapon skills.

Cleave

Anyone can hit multiple targets (that are near eachother) if they have an appropriate melee weapon (or simply use a fist to slam through or past two nearby targets). All parties affected by the attack make a defense roll. The attack does half damage, half penetration to all failed defenders past the first target.

Cleave also works if someone was the focus of an attack and it caused Red damage and went through the defender. If there was anyone behind the defender, they will take half damage, half penetration on a failed defense roll. This type of Cleave also works if a player was attacking a wall to get at someone right behind it.

Blocking & Deflecting

There are two ways to parry; you can either deflect a blow away from you, or you can use something to block the blow.

Deflecting: This is when you divert the opponent's attack away from you. This is the standard way to parry.
Blocking: Blocking is when you use a nearby object to take the blow for you. Blocking is much easier to do than deflecting; whenever you attempt to block you get +4 to your parry roll. If the object you are using is so large that it provides partial cover, you get another +4 to your parry roll. When you use an object to block, it takes the damage; consult artificial PFb rules for more. You may use your weapon to block (a sword or a shield).

Capture

To catch a bullet out of the air (hopefully with an appropriate device), grab onto a fast moving object passing by, or to catch an arrow out of the air is a Necessary Called Shot with a Quick Parry. The player probably has Ranged penalties depending on the speed of the object.

Reflection

If the player wishes to bounce a bullet or another object off a wall to hit someone, there are two things to consider:

The attacker has to make a Necessary Called Shot with Awkward penalties.
The resulting attack does half damage, half penetration.
The object used in the bounce must be solid, else the attack will simply completely damage the object instead of doing only half damage, penetration.
Attacks cannot be realistically deflected back at the attackers without an ability stating it.

Multiple Defense

This is when your character is being attacked from all sides. If you are currently in the middle of making a defense and someone else attacks you, there is nothing you can do about it. For certain characters, however, they will have a skill or ability that allows them Multiple Defense. What this means is that while your defensive action is taking place, anyone attacking you must beat your original defense roll in order to hit you. If someone does successfully hit you during a Multiple Defense, you may roll to tumble (without spending an action) and your action to defend has ended.

By spending 1 Ki, a character can turn any successful defense roll into a Multiple Defense roll.

Circular/Return Defense

A circular defense means that you are behind your opponent once your defensive action ends. You have the advantage of attacking from behind next time. You must actually have some skill or ability that gives you circular defense.

A return defense is simply this: you counter-attack whenever you successfully parry a melee attack. Whenever you use an action to parry, if you beat your opponent's roll by 6 or more, you may get the option from a skill or ability to return an attack. The attack made is fast and is only 1 tick long (a simple jab). Return Defense costs 1 Ki. You must actually have some skill or ability that gives you return defense.

A Return Defense still does only normal offhand damage even upon a critical defensive roll. A critical offensive roll cannot be returned by a Retern Defense roll (even if the defensive roll itself is critical).

Movement Rules

If a character moves erratically during his actions, he will suffer a movement penalty. If someone tries to attack him from long range while he's moving around, they will suffer a penalty to hit him.

The general rule is that all characters in a combat can move at the speed of 1 metre per tick. A player can choose to keep moving during his action if it means closing the distance and striking someone. The movement can become part of the action.

ie. The opponent is standing 6 metres away. The player chooses to attack that opponent for his turn. Just getting to that opponent will take 6 ticks. Then the GM will add the number of ticks from the action being taken. Because the action is being taken at the end of a movement, the player suffers the movement penalty.

If the player had decided to move into range before his Turn, he would not have suffered the movement penalty. You do not need to use a Free Action to move between your Turns. If you do anything less than sprint, the GM will determine how many metres you cover in a given length of time. GMs, if they walk it'll likely be a metre every 4 ticks or so.

If the player wishes, they can make it so that moving becomes part of their defense roll. However many ticks their defense takes, that's how many metres they can move away from an opponent. Most defense rolls are only two ticks, unless the player decides to do something fancy (consult Moves List).

Movement rules should only be used if the opponent is 2 or more metres away (ie, outside of near-melee range). Larger weapons have a further melee range.

Retreating Rules

Running away from someone will involve a contested Speed Check. If it's an open field or something else equally empty, the guy with the highest Speed will eventually win. If, however, there is a crowd of people or other obstacles, things can get interesting. All parties make Speed Checks, with difficulties based on their surroundings. You may need to make contesting Agility Checks, with the losers needing to slow down more to make it through certain places. If the retreater ever turns a corner or otherwise gets out of sight from his chasers, the chasers must make Perception checks to find him again (difficulties again based on the surroundings).

Instead of having contestants roll dodge to avoid obstacles or other people (since they aren't technically striking the contestant), just have a Speed or Agility check (it's up to the GM based on the situation and what's needed to avoid the obstacle). If the contestants are moving at full speed, the difficulty is likely around 15. If a player does find an ingenious way to catch up with a contestant (jumps through the right window), lower their difficulties to catch up for this particular part of the chase.

Area Effect

Sometimes an attack covers the entire area thoroughly and cannot truly be dodged. If the character is able to get out of the blast radius (consider how long they have before the explosive attack catches them) or get behind cover (that will actually protect him), then he is allowed to roll Evade as normal. If there is no way to avoid the attack because of an overwhelming blast radius, the character may still roll Tumble to take half damage, half penetration. Critical strikes do not count with area effect attacks, however a victim will take critical damage if he is near point-blank range of the explosion (this obviously only counts for explosive area effects and not uniformly distributed attacks).

Ambush

If an ambush successfully starts off the combat, then the ambushers are gonna have an advantage for the first little bit. First off, those that are ambushed are not allowed to use their PFb when they are first attacked. Secondly, the ambushers get an entire round to themselves before the attacked can even do anything. When the ambushers roll initiative for the first round, they do not add their initiative bonus.

The attacked are allowed to use their Actions but do not get turns in the first round. The attacked are -4 to all combat rolls for the ambush round and the next round. The first attack of the ambush round cannot be defended against. If the ambushers attack simultaneously, altogether it counts as the first attack.

Sparring & Jabbing

Suppose you only want to prove that you are the better duelist in combat? Well, you certainly don't want to slash and kill your opponent. Therefore, your character is going to pull punches in order to ensure survival of both parties.

Or you might feel like toying with your victim, however you use it is up to you.

A simple jab takes only 1 tick to perform. Any unarmed attack requiring only 1 tick gets a mere half of your damage bonus. Any armed attack requiring only 1 tick does half damage (including half your damage bonus), half penetration. All offhand attacks with a melee weapon are jabs.

Critical strikes are impossible when doing simple jabs. Sparring is normally combined with the idea of Knockout Blows.

Any melee or long-range attack that only takes 1 tick to perform (regardless of whether the time has been reduced by skills) has no combat bonuses.

Knockout Blows

Sometimes you don't want to kill your opponent, but simply knock them out. This is how it works: When you do your damage in the attack, sacrifice every point of Red damage you cause to instead work towards knockout. You aren't trying to open his skull, just shake him up enough to put him down. So instead of doing Red damage, you actually have a much higher chance of knocking him out.

For each Red damage you would have caused, they are another -20%. If you hit your victim in an ambush round against them, they have another -20% to Resist Knockout.

You must make a vital shot to their head for this to work. Knockout blows that sacrifice more than 1 point of Red damage may likely end up doing at least 1 Red damage to the victim anyway (GM's discretion). This won't work if your weapon is sharp or designed to cut.

Knockout blows must sacrifice any penetration they would have otherwise done. Knockout blows can actually be declared after the attack roll while resolving damage. If a knockout blow is declared, the victim has lost his opportunity to reactivate PFb for resolving damage.

Stunning Opponents

There are a number of ways to be stunned. Taking Red damage to the head, failing Resist Balance, or being hit by some ability. The effect is that your character is stunned. When you are stunned, you skip your next Turn. You are also disoriented and can take only defensive Free Actions until after your next Turn. When a character is stunned, it is likely he is thrown to the ground or is otherwise put down in pain.

Whatever other effects from the stun, the victim either has Awkward or Disoriented penalties until his next Turn finally arrives.

Contested Stat Checks

When a player is asked to make a stat check in combat, it's normally against an opponent. This works exactly like a normal stat check (roll a D10 + your stat).

Perception: Used in Feints and any other strategic attack the GM deems appropriate.
Strength: Wrestling or Steeling against eachother. Some holds are based on Strength.
Agility: Some holds are based on Agility.
Speed: If combatants race to pick up a weapon, they will contest on this stat. Both combatants must use their Turn or an Action to race for the weapon. It is assumed the weapon is an equal distance from both combatants, otherwise someone is getting penalties (perhaps -2 for each additional metre, GMs).

Parlay

Parlay is used when combat gets a bit tricky. Whenever the attacker wants to make an attack that isn't meant to do damage, but to do something else, it's time to roll Parlay. The defender may only use Parlay when the attacker is using it (and may in fact still choose to dodge or whatnot). In order to continue a Parlay situation, contested stat checks may be required.

Parlay can be done for many reasons; the most common methods are listed below:
Grappling

When two combatants are fighting over possession of a weapon or are otherwise wrestling with eachother, the will make a contested Strength check. To initiate a wrestling match follows the same rules as Steeling (but without weapons). Steeling is described below.

Tripping

When you attempt to trip, throw or knock over an opponent in some way, a Resist Balance check is made on their part. If they fail, they are stunned.

Disarming

This must be made as a called shot. A melee weapon cannot be disarmed from a victim unless their arm has at least 1 Red damage already. If the disarm hits the victim, the victim will roll their Agility + Weapons Skill. The penalty to the skill roll is determined by how much he was defeated by in the combat rolls (up to a -8).

Attacking a weapon directly is a called shot, but is not parlay. After disarming, the attacker may use a Dual Strike to take the weapon immediately (this must be declared before the disarm).

Steeling

If a parlay attempt has just been parlayed by the defender himself or a parry barely succeeded, one of the combatants can attempt to push onwards with a Free Action and attempt a parlay for Steeling. In other words, it's sword against sword, both combatants gritting their teeth and pushing against the other with all of their strength. A contested strength check is made; whomever loses is either tripped or disarmed. The number of ticks this takes is up to the GM, but it should be anywhere between 4 and 10.

Feints

A combatant can attempt to fake out his opponent in a melee attack by using a Feint. Both combatants make contested Perception stat checks. If the victim fails, he has no combat bonuses to dodge the incoming attack. A Feint requires 2 additional ticks, but otherwise proceeds as normal. If a Feint is used too often in the same combat, the GM may make them ineffective after a certain point with a particular opponent.

Entangling

Either using a whip or some other nearby object, the attacker is trying to put the victim in an awkward position. Entangling is the same as Holds, but is done with some object or the surrounding environment. If the victim is entangled, they contest with the object instead of the attacker. The difficulty to escape is likely around 12-15 if the object does not state it.

Holds

Holds are for entangling the victim, but using unarmed methods. When a hold is successfully accomplished using Parlay, the victim cannot do anything. He is completely held and must take his Turns or use Free Actions to contest the hold (contested stat checks where certain holds are based on Strength and others are based on Agility).

In order to keep the hold (or entanglement) going, the attacker may have to be completely engaged to it. In other words, both the attacker and the victim are basically out of the fight. Some holds can cause pain or other side effects if they go on for too long.

If the attacker wants to keep a limb free to fend off other attackers or punch his victim, he must sacrifice half his stat in the contested stat checks.

Some entanglements will not require the full attention of the attacker, but all holds definitely do.