Encounters

This chapter deals with the dangers of adventuring: encountering malicious spirits, being attacked by bandits and monsters, falling down a slippery ravine, or being caught in a wildfire. It also deals with the various kinds of damage an adventurer can take.

There are two types of encounters:

• Combat Encounters: These are physical combat, like a skirmish fought with melee or ranged weapons, or an unarmed backstreet brawl. The combat may also be fought against spirits who manifest in the physical world, or directly in the Spirit World.
• Social Encounters: Negotiations, intimidations, and even attempts at charming someone are social encounters. They do not immediately threading the physical or spiritual well-being of the characters, but they may damage their motivations and foil their plans nonetheless.

Encounters may be combined, such as a social encounter where negotiations fail and the situation degenerates into a combat encounter.

Combat Encounters

Combat encounters happen when characters start using violence against each other. This includes street brawls, ranged skirmishes, battlefield melees, and more.

Physical combat is played in “rounds”, an abstract unit of time that roughly (but not exactly) corresponds to about 10 seconds. Each PC and GMC involved in the encounter gets a “turn” to decide and resolve what they do during that round. Once all characters have had their turn, a new round starts.

Combat encounters can be played very quickly with the Quick Encounters optional rules in this chapter. This may be desirable when stakes are low or play time is short.

Turn Order

The characters involved in the encounter act in a strict “turn order”. This turn order is equal to:

• Physical combatants: Combat Initiative + 1D10
• Discorporate entities: Spirit Initiative + 1D10

Combat initiative is the average of DEX and INT, calculated as (DEX + INT) / 2. Spirit initiative is the average of POW and CHA, calculated as (POW + CHA) / 2. For animals or spirits without INT or CHA, use DEX and POW respectively. Creatures with no relevant characteristic have no combat or spirit initiative, and their turn order is 1D10. If an entity discorporates or reincorporates their body during the encounter, re-roll their turn order.

Characters go in descending turn order, so faster characters get to act first. However, see the Wait action, and the Weapon Reach optional rule.

Actions

Each character gets two actions per turn (but see also the High Initiative and Extra Actions optional rule).

Ability Use

This is a general purpose action for anything that isn’t covered by the other actions, but still requires an ability roll to achieve. This ability roll may be opposed. The player names a goal, and discusses with the gamemaster what ability to roll, what the stakes are, and what risk there is.

Example: pick a lock and open an escape route, get some frightened children to come with the adventurer, calm down a spooked horse.

Aim

Spend part of the round aiming at a target. Gain a +20% bonus to the next melee or ranged attack against this target. A character may choose the Aim action twice in a row, which grants cumulative benefits. These benefits do not stack a third time.

Attack

Spend part of the round attacking one target. Make a roll under a melee or ranged weapon skill, Brawl, or some other natural attack skill. The target may oppose this attack with the Defend action.

If the attack is a success, deal the weapon’s damage to the target. On a Critical Success, choose between ignoring the target’s physical and magical armor, or dealing the weapon’s Critical Damage.

See the Attack and Defense section in this chapter for more details.

The Optional Rules section presents a few options for attacking:

• Split Action: cumulative -60% for making multiple attack rolls, allowing attacking multiple targets in one action, or attacking the same target multiple times.
• Find Weak Spot: take a -60% penalty, any damage ignores all armor.
• Called Shot: aiming at the chest or abdomen is -40%, the head and limbs are -60%.

Cast Magic

Cast a magic spell of any type. Spirit magic is cast by rolling under POW (the character’s, or the spirit’s, depending on the type). If the spell is targeted at an entity with a POW characteristic, they may resist by opposing the castin roll with their own POW roll. See the Magic chapter for more information.

Concentrate

This action must be taken to keep an active spell going. See the Magic for more information.

Defend

Spend part of the round actively aware of incoming attacks and leaving time for parrying, blocking, or dodging. This gives the character one defense action to spend until their next turn. If no attack comes, this action is wasted.

If an attack comes before the character’s first turn (i.e. they haven’t taken any action yet), they may take the Defend action ahead of their turn, but their defense roll is at –20%. This gives an advantage to first-movers.

• Parrying uses a weapon skill. On a victory against the attacker’s roll, the defender may add half their weapon’s HP (round down) to their armor points.
• Blocking uses the Shield skill. On a victory against the attacker’s roll, the defender may add their shield’s HP to their armor points.
• Dodging uses the Dodge skill. On a success, the defender only takes half the attack’s damage (round down). On a victory against the attacker’s roll, all damage is avoided.

See the Attack and Defense section in this chapter for more details.

The Optional Rules section presents a few options for defending:

• Split Action: cumulative -60% for making multiple defense rolls, allowing defending against more than one attack in one action.
• Retreat: step back by one meter (or SIZ / 10) and gain +20% to a defense action.
• Dive Dodge: dive up to three steps away and gain +40% to a defense action. Make an Athletics roll to get back up immediately.

Disengage from Melee

The character atttempts to move away from melee combat with one or more enemies.

Replace this action with the Defend action. If no attack comes before the character’s next turn, or if no attack deals an injury to the character, then the character is disengaged from melee at the beginning of their next turn. However they may be re-engaged immediately after if they don’t have a way to put some distance between them and their opponents.

If any ranged or melee attack gets through the character’s defenses and armor, dealing at least 1 point of damage, the action fails and the character is still engaged in melee.

See also the Move action, and the Retreat and Dive Dodge optional rules.

Disengage from Spirit Combat

The character attempts to break away from combat with a spirit.

Replace this action with a Spirit Combat action. If no attack comes before the character’s next turn, or if no attack deals a magical injury to the character, then the character is disengaged from spirit combat at the beginning of their next turn. However they may get re-engaged immediately after if they don’t have a way to put some distance between them and the hostile spirits.

If any spirit combat attack gets through the character’s defenses and magical armor, dealing at least 1 point of magical damage, the action fails and the character is still engaged in spirit combat.

Equip / Unequip (Engaged in Melee)

While engaged in melee, sheathing or drawing a weapon, nocking an arrow, and other such changes in held and ready equipment, require taking this action. Replace it with a Defend action, but only Dodge or Shield may be used. Only Dodge may be used if the equipment change requires two hands.

Outside of melee, changing equipment is a free action (see Equip / Unequip (Outside of Melee)).

Grapple / Escape from Grapple

To grapple an enemy, make a roll under a melee skill capable of it. This is generally Brawl, but a melee weapon capable of grappling such as a net or a whip also work. The enemy may defend against the attack as usual. On a success or victory, the enemy is grappled.

Getting free requires an opposed roll of Brawl against the grappler’s skill (Brawl or a grappling melee weapon skill). The grappler attempting to keep their hold does not count as an action. The results are:

• Weak Victory: The defender is free from the grapple and may immediately act as usual.
• Normal Victory: The attacker is thrown and ends up prone on the ground, taking damage equal to the defender’s damage bonus (or 1 if there’s none).
• Great Victory: As above, but the attacker takes maximum damage bonus plus rolled damage bonus (or 2 if there’s none).

While grappled, the defender is at -40% for all physical actions except the Escape from Grapple action.

While grappling, the attacker may spend a Grapple action to do one of the following:

• Twist Limb: Resolve the opposed roll as usual. On a victory the attacker deals damage equal to their damage bonus (or 1 if there’s none), ignoring armor. With a critical success, the damage dealt is maximum damage bonus plus rolled damage bonus (or 2 if there’s none).
• Tighten Grapple: Resolve the opposed roll as usual. On a victory, the attacker strengthens their hold. Add a cumulative -20% penalty to the defender’s actions while grappled, and add +1 to further grapple damage (see above). This cumulative penalty applies to the Escape from Grapple action.

Help

A character may use an ability to help another character, similar to the rules for helping (see the Game System chapter).

Manifest / Discorporate

Manifesting is what spirits do in order to become visible in the physical world. Some spirits even become tangible or corporeal, such as elementals. Discorporating is the opposite, when a spirit returns to the Spirit World.

Manifesting is a requirement for interacting with the physical world, such as attacking or helping characters. Both manifesting and discorporating cannot be done while enaged in melee or spirit combat.

Move

The character moves up to MOV meters. If less than that maximum distance is travelled, such as to make a second action at a specific location, the excess movement is lost. That is: a character may not split their Move action in two halves.

The gamemaster may declare that difficult terrain, low visibility, or other circumstances modify a character’s MOV by half, one quarter, or one tenth.

If the character was engaged in melee, they must make a Dodge roll. If they were fighting more than one enemy, this roll gets a cumulative -20% penalty for each enemy after the first one. The outcome of this roll is:

• Critical Success or Success: The character is disengaged from melee and may move away with their full MOV.
• Failure: Each enemy they were engaged in melee with may make an attack against the character. This attack does not count as an action. After this, the character is disengaged from melee and may move away with their full MOV.
• Fumble: As abvove, but the character stays engaged in melee after all enemy attacks, and must roll on the Combat Fumble table.

Rally

The character spends part of their turn commanding, organizing, and supporting allies. Make a Battlefield or CHA roll, whichever is best.

• Critical Success: Allies gain +1D6 DP and may choose to roll or re-roll a Passion augment for the scene.
• Success: Allies gain +1D4 DP.
• Failure: Allies gain +1 DP.
• Fumble: Allies lose –1D4 DP.

Only allies within earshot and/or line of sight benefit from these gains or sustain these losses. If unusual means of communication were used, the gamemaster decides which allies are affected.

This character may take the Rally action more than once per round. However, if a different character takes the Rally action, and that action may affect some of the same allies, there’s a chance these allies get confused by the different directions. These other Rally actions are at –40%.

Spirit Combat

Spend part of the round trying to attack and defend against spirit entities. Only discorporate entities may initiate Spirit Combat, but corporeal beings such as human adventurers can pick this action in response to a spirit attacking them.

A spirit attacking a corporeal being must first come to the physical world using the Manifest action. At this point, that spirit can be seen near, around, or inside their victim, harassing them in various ways.

A spirit attacking another spirit (including a discorporate adventurer) may do so while entirely in the Spirit World. The scene might look like fantastical creatures or abstract shapes fighting each other.

Make a roll under the Spirit Combat skill. On a success, deal Spirit Damage to the enemy. However, the enemy may defend and counter-attack. See the Spirit Combat section for more details.

Wait

A character may lower their turn order to go later in the round.

Specify a new lower turn order. When that turn comes, the Wait action is replaced by a new action. That is: waiting does not consume an action, the character still keeps their two actions.

Reactions

Reactions are rolls a character may do any time in the round without having to use an action.

Hold Grapple

If the character is currently grappling someone or something, they may resist their victim trying to break free. See the Grapple / Escape from Grapple action.

Resist Magic

If the character is targeted by a magic spell, they may resist it. See the Cast Magic action and the Magic chapter.

Free Actions

Free actions are done during a character’s turn but do not use up one of their actions. The gamemaster may allow other free actions based on the situation.

Drop Item

Dropping something is a free action.

Equip / Unequip (Outside Melee)

Outside of melee, a character may sheathe or draw a weapon, nock an arrow, and perform other such changes in held and ready equipment as a free action. While engaged in melee, they need to spend an action, (see Equip / Unequip (Engaged in Melee)).

Speak

A character may say or scream a couple of short sentences, up to a handful of seconds-long.

Step

Once per round, if they have not used the Move action, a character may move in any direction by SIZ / 10 rounded down (minimum 1 meter).

Use Passion

Once per social encounter, a character may try to gain a scene augment from a Passion. See the Passions chapter.

Attack and Defense

The procedure for attack and defense actions is:

1. Roll for attack
2. Roll for defense (if any)
3. Roll and apply damage
4. Handle follow-ups (if any)

Step 1: Roll for Attack

When a character attacks, they roll under the appropriate combat skill. For a melee weapon or ranged weapon, it’s the appropriate skill specialization, or the closest skill specialization at –40% (see the Skills chapter). For unarmed attacks, use the Brawl skill, or some natural attack skill for animals and monsters.

The result of the attack depends on the level of success:

• Critical Success: The player gets a Devastating Blow (which deals critical damage) or a Precise Blow (which deals normal damage that ignores all armor).
• Success: The attack strikes a Normal Blow (deals normal damage).
• Failure: The attack failed to connect in any way that matters, and the action ends.
• Fumble: Roll on the Combat Fumble table. The action ends.

Step 2: Roll for Defense

The target may defend against the attack. This usually requires spending an action. If the target has no actions left or in reserve (such as with the Defend action), they cannot defend against the attack. Remember that taking the Defend action on the first round before one’s turn imposes a –20% penalty.

Make a roll under an appropriate weapon skill (generally a melee weapon) for parrying, the Shield skill for blocking, or the Dodge skill to get out of the way. The Brawl skill may also be used for parrying with one’s own hands or limbs. Only blocking and dodging are possible against ranged attacks. See also the Retreat and Dive Dodge optional rules.

When dodging:

• Any Victory: With any victory against the attacker’s roll, the attack is completely avoided and the action ends.
• Any Victory, with Critical Success: If the Dodge roll got a victory against the attacker’s roll and was a Critical Success, the attack is completely avvoided, and the defender either gets a free counter-attack, or an immediate Disengage from Melee (player’s choice). See Step 4.
• Any Defeat, with Any Success: If the Dodge got a defeat against the attacker’s roll, but it was a success, the attacker’s damage is halved (rounding up).
• Fumble: On any fumbled Dodge roll, the defender must roll on the Combat Fumble table.

When parrying or blocking:

• Any Victory: With any victory against the attacker’s roll, half the parrying weapon’s HP (round down) or all the blocking shield’s HP may be added to the defender’s armor AP to absorb damage.
• Any Victory, with Critical Success: If the Melee Weapon or Shield roll got a victory against the attacker’s roll and was a Critical Success, half the parrying weapon’s HP, or all the blocking shield’s HP may be added to the defender’s armor AP to absorb damage. In addition to this, the defender gets a Devastating Defense and may deal Critical Damage back to the attacker as a free counter-attack.
• Any Defeat, with Any Success: If the Melee Weapon or Shield roll got a defeat against the attacker’s roll, but it was a success, half of the shield’s HP (round down) may be added to the defender’s armor AP to absorb damage. Parries do not benefit from this.
• Fumble: On any fumbled Melee Weapon or Shield roll, the defender must roll on the Combat Fumble table.

Step 3: Roll and Apply Damage

The attacker rolls for damage. If the attack roll was a Devastating Blow, roll critical damage. Otherwise, roll normal damage. If the opponent successfully dodged, all damage is halved (rounding up).

Reduce damage by the opponent’s physical and magical armor AP (if any), unless the attack was a Precise Blow. Also, if the opponent scored a victory with a parry or block roll, further reduce the damage by the parrying weapon’s or blocking shield’s HP.

See the Damage and Injury chapter for more information.

Critical Damage

A Strong Blow or Devastating Defense deals critical damage to the other character (opponent and attacker, respectively). Critical damage depends on the weapon type:

• Slashing or Piercing: maximum normal damage plus rolled normal damage plus damage bonus.
• Crushing: rolled normal damage plus maximum damage bonus plus rolled damage bonus. Shields deal crushing damage. If damage bonus is zero, deal +1 damage.

If the attack or counter-attack was successfully parried or blocked, the parrying weapon or blocking shield may be damaged:

• Damage Equipment: If the rolled critical damage exceeds the other character’s parrying weapon’s or blocking shield’s HP, reduce that HP by the excess.

Normal Damage

A Normal Blow deals normal weapon damage to the opponent.

If the attack was successfully parried or blocked, the parrying weapon or blocking shield may be chipped:

• Chip Equipment: If the rolled damage exceeds the opponent’s parrying weapon’s or blocking shield’s HP, reduce that HP by one point.

Combat Fumble Table

If a character gets a fumble during combat, something bad or unlucky should happen to them. The gamemaster and player may decide on some appropriate outcome given the situation, or simply roll on the Combat Fumble table below. A table’s entry may be interpreted or adapted as needed by the gamemaster and player.

D10	Combat Fumble Result
01	Dazed and confused, the character loses their next turn.
02	Confused, the character loses one action on their next turn.
03	Shield or armor strap breaks, loose that piece of equipment. It is unusable until repaired. Choose the lost piece based on the current situation (e.g. the piece used or targeted by the current action), or randomly if needed (e.g. using a Hit Location table).
04	Drop weapon or other important held item. It falls 1D3 meters away in a random direction.
05	Lose grip on weapon or other important held item. It flies 1D3+3 meters away in a random direction.
06	Bad hit, weapon, shield, or other important held item loses 1D3 HP.
07	Exposed to attacks. One enemy currently engaged in melee with the charater gets a free attack.
08	Distracted. All enemies attack at +20% until the character’s next turn.
09	The character hits themselves with their weapon. Roll damage against a random hit location. Magical armor doesn’t apply.
10	As above, but physical armor doesn’t apply either.

Step 4: Handle Follow-Ups

In most cases there is no step 4, and the attack action ends after applying damage. However, a few situations lead to a follow-up.

Critical Dodge

If a Dodge roll gets a critical success, the defender may choose to either get a free counter-attack, or an immediate Disengage from Melee. These do not count against the defender’s number of actions.

• The counter-attack is a brand new attack action, starting from step 1.

• The Disengage from Melee applies as usual, gives a pending Defend action until the defender’s next turn, at which point only is the character disengaged.. The differences are that this action is free, and that the character’s next turn may actually happen later in the same round.

Critical Parry or Block

If a parry or block roll gets a critical success, the defender gets a Devastating Defense, meaning that they may choose to deal critical damage back to their attacker as a counter-attack.

There is no attack roll, and the defender deals damage directly to their attacker. When parrying, use the parrying weapon’s critical damage. When blocking, use the shield’s critical damage (note that shields deal crushing damage).

When using the Hit Locations optional rule, this counter-attack is dealt to a random location.

Spirit Combat

The procedure for spirit combat is:

1. Roll for attack
2. Roll for defense and counter-attack (if any)
3. Determine winner and apply magical damage

Step 1: Roll for Attack

The attacker rolls under the Spirit Combat skill. The result of the attack depends on the level of success:

• Critical Success: The player chooses between a Spirit Blast (deals Critical Spirit Damage) and a Spirit Sting (deals normal Spirit Damage but bypasses all the opponent’s armor).
• Success: The attack deals normal Spirit Damage.
• Failure: The attack fails to affect the opponent, and the action ends.
• Fumble: Roll on the Spirit Combat Fumble table. The action ends.

Step 2: Roll for Defense

If the opponent also picked the Spirit Combat action, they get to defend and counter-attack with their own roll under the Spirit Combat skill. The results are the same as in Step 1.

Step 3: Determine Winner and Apply Damage

If the attack was unopposed, the attacker deals their Spirit Damage to their target.

If the attack was defended against, both participants roll their Spirit Damage. Then, compare both Spirit Combat rolls using the opposed roll rules. The winner may choose to block incoming damage with their own. If so:

• The winner’s Spirit Damage is subtracted from their opponent’s damage.
• The winner sustains the Spirit Damage that was not blocked, if any.
• The winner deals their leftover Spirit Damage after all incoming damage was blocked, if any.

Critical Spirit Damage is equal to maximum Spirit Damage plus rolled Spirit Damage.

Spirit armor reduces Spirit Damage unless the attack was a Spirit Sting. Spirit Damage is dealt to Magic Points. See Damage and Injury for more information.

Modifiers

The gamemaster is encouraged to come up with modifiers that fit the situation and the story. This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Attacking an unsuspecting target: +40% or automatic success
• Attacking from behind: +20%
• Prone / attacking a prone target: –40% / +40%
• Bad terrain or very difficult terrain: –20% or –40%
• Low lighting to pitch black: –20% to –100%
• Target behind cover: –20% to –60%

Melee Engagement

Characters are considered engaged in melee once one is attacking the other. More than two characters may be engaged in melee together at a time.

To leave melee combat, a character must either disable their opponent or use the Disengage from Melee or Move actions.

Optional Combat Encounter Rules

The following rules are optional but recommended, as they add many interesting tactical options and provide guidance for common combat situations. However, the gamemaster is encouraged to come up with their own rulings if these rules don’t apply well to a particular moment.

High Initiatives and Extra Actions

Some heroes, monsters, and major spirits may get extra actions. A high combat or spirit initiative above 30 also grants extra actions: total number of actions is combat or spirit initiative divided by 10, rounded down.

Example: a combat initiative of 47 would grant four actions per turn.

Re-Rolling Turn Orders

When engaging and disengaging from melee, re-roll the character’s turn order.

If using the Weapon Reach rules, you must use this rule, using the character’s weapon modifier when engaging in melee. Don’t use the Weapon Reach modifier when re-rolling turn order upon going out of melee.

When an entity moves between the Spirit World and the Physical World, or enters or exits a binding enchantment, re-roll their turn order.

Critical Impales

When dealing Critical Damage with an impaling weapon, roll the attack skill again at –40%. On a success, deal normal damage, ignoring armor, when pulling the weapon out. On a failure, the weapon is stuck in the target. On a fumble, the weapon is stuck and breaks.

A character with an impaling weapon stuck in an enemy may choose to leave it there. The weapon does half damage (round down), ignoring armor and without damage bonus, every round the enemy moves or does some physical action. All physical actions are at a cumulative –20% for every weapon stuck.

To pull the weapon out later, the character must spend a melee action and repeat the same process (roll the weapon skill at –40%, etc.). However, until the character lets go of their stuck weapon, all their physical actions, including defense, are at –40%. After letting go, re-grabbing the stuck weapon requires a Grapple action.

The enemy may remove the weapon themselves with a CON or STR roll, whichever is lowest. Each attempt is an action that, regardless of the result, deals half-damage (round down) ignoring armor and without damage bonus.

Split Action

A character may try and do more out of an action than usually possible. This allows a player to roll multiple times for multiple attempts at that action. Each extra attempts incurs a cumulative -60% to all attempts.

Example: rolling two melee attacks in one action causes both rolls to be at -60%. Trying to dodge three incoming attacks with one “Defend” action means that each Dodge roll is at -120%.

Splitting an action must be declared before the first roll for that action. Actions with no ability rolls cannot be split.

Find Weak Spot

The Attack action may be done at –60% penalty to find a weak spot in the enemy’s physical and magical armors. Any damage dealt by the attack ignores all armor.

Called Shot

A character may try and aim for a specific spot on their opponent. This is especially interesting when using the hit location rules (see the Damage and Injury chapter).

A called shot incurs a penalty to the attack roll, but may be tactically very advantageous. The penalties are:

• Chest or abdomen: –40%
• Head or limbs: –60%

Weapon Reach

This optional rule add detail and complexity to combat encounter to model the pros and cons of weapons with different lengths.

Initative Modifiers

Melee weapons have a “Reach”, which affects initiative and combat actions:

Reach	Initiative Modifier	Example Weapons
Short	-5	Daggers, knives, claws
Medium	0	Swords, axes, short spears
Long	+5	Spears, long blades
Very Long	+10	Pikes, sarissas

See the Wealth and Equipment chapter for weapon statistics. Use the weapon’s Reach initiative modifier only when engaging in melee:

• When engaging in melee, re-roll the turn order and add this modifier.
• When disengaging from melee, re-roll the turn order without the modifier.

Melee Distance

With the Weapon Reach rules, melee combat now tracks the “melee distance”. This is the distance between the combatants, which in turn affects how weapons perform.

Melee Distance	Skill Modifiers	Notes
Contact	Short weapons at +20%. Medium reach weapons and above cannot be used.	Use this distance when grappled
Short	Medium reach weapons at –20%. Long weapons and above cannot be used.
Medium	Short weapons at –20%.
Long	Short weapons cannot be used.
Very Long	Short weapons cannot be used. Medium reach weapons at –20%.

When two combatant first engage in melee, they each declare a melee distance to engage at. The effective melee distance for the first action is the longest of the two.

To change the melee distance, a character must declare their intent to do so and choose a Melee Attack or Defend action:

• Melee Attack: resolve the attack as usual. If the attack is undefended, halve any damage dealt to the enemy in exchange for increasing or decreasing the melee distance by one step. If the attack is opposed, the same trade-off applies but only if the attack scored a victory against the defense.
• Defend: resolve the defense as usual. If no attack came from the opponent with which to change the distance, the character may increase or decrease the melee distance by up to two steps. If an attack came from that opponent, the same distance change is possible only if the defense scored a victory against the attack.

Combat Tricks

Combat tricks may be used as a reaction at any point during a round. See the Combat Tricks chapter for more information.

Charge

A “Move” action followed by a melee “Attack” action is a charge if the travelled distance was at least SIZ / 5 meters (rounded down). For humans this is usually 2 or 3 meters. A charge allows rolling the damage bonus twice. If the damage modifier is zero, use +2 damage instead.

When mounted, add the mount’s damage bonus to the character’s damage bonus instead.

Retreat

A character may use the free “Step” action to step backwards and gain +20% to all defense rolls until next round. Remember that “Step” may only be used once per round, and a step is equal to SIZ / 10 meters (round down, minimum 1 meter). For humans this is usually 1 meter.

Dive Dodge

A character may drop to the ground to avoid an incoming attack, especially from ranged weapons or monsters with high SIZ (see the SIZ Differences optional rule). This gives a +40% bonus to one Dodge roll (although this roll may be split, see the Split Action optional rule) and allows moving up to 3 steps away (one step is SIZ / 10 meters, round down, see the Step action).

If the Dodge roll is successful, the character may also make an Athletics roll to get immediately back up. If failed, the character ends up prone. Of course, a player may choose to opt out of the Athletics roll to stay prone on purpose, such as behind a low cover.

Melee Fatigue

This optional rule adds a time pressure on combat scenes. Starting with the fourth round of combat, characters engaged in melee take 1 point of damage as a new “fatigue” injury every round. This may lead to such exhaustion that they fall unconscious (see the Damage and Injury chapter).

Firing into Melee

If trying to avoid hitting some people involved in the melee, count how many they are compared to the total number of people. Then apply the modifier:

• Less than or equal to a third: -20%
• More than a third and less than or equal to two-thirds: -40%
• More than a two-thirds: -60%

If the roll fails, but would have succeeded without this penalty, randomly hit one of the persons that were to be avoided.

Example: Firing at an enemy currently engaged in melee with an ally is at -40% to not hit that ally. If the ally is fighting two enemies, trying to hit one of those enemies is at -20%.

Long Magic Casting

A Cast Magic action spending 10 MPs or more takes an extra action. Each subsequent +10 MPs requires a cumulative extra action. This may delay the effect to a following round.

SIZ Differences

For every 20 points of SIZ difference between melee opponents, the smaller one gets a cumulative –20% penalty to all defense rolls.

Bash

A bash attack must be declared before rolling. If the attack is successful and either unopposed or victorious against the defense, the opponent is pushed back or sideways by 1 meter plus one-tenth of rolled damage (round down).

If the opponent is knocked into a hazardous zone (such as over a cliff or into lava) they get an Athletics or Dodge roll (whichever is better) to stop at the edge of the zone. If they were already at the edge, they can’t avoid it.

See also the knockdown rules in the Damage and Injury chapter.

Disarm

Disarming an opponent may be attempted by choosing an attack action (generally a Melee Attack) and declaring the intent to disarm before rolling. If the attack is successful and either unopposed or victorious against the defense, the character knocks a weapon out of the hands of their opponent. The attack deals no damage. The weapon falls 1D3 meters away in a random direction.

Social Encounters

Social encounters are used when characters try to persuade, intimidate, or negotiate with each other. This includes political debates, diplomatic meetings, dealing with raiders and bandits, and more.

These confrontations are played out in “rounds”, an abstract unit of time that varies based on the situation (see Time Scale, below). Each PC and GMC involved in the encouter gets a “turn” to decide and resolve what they do during that round. Once all characters have had their turn, a new round starts.

Social encounters can be played very quickly with the Quick Encounters rules, when stakes are low or play time is short.

Time Scale

The gamemaster should declare a time scale before the encounter starts, as it influences what Persuasion specialization is more or less effective, and what type of magic applies.

Time Scale	Social Encounter Round	Example
Short	About a minute	Warrior-chants and shield bashing before a battle or skirmish, haggling with merchants, negotiating with bandits
Medium	Handful of minutes	Arguing with investors, debating with political allies
Hourly	One hour	Political meeting, military surrender negotiations
Daily	Four hours or more	Multi-day diplomatic gathering

Of the different specializations of the Persuasion skill, Negotiation works at all time scales but only leads to reasonable compromises. Intimidation works on Short scales but can only be sustained at Medium and longer scales if the position of force can be maintained and demonstrated over that time. Fast-Talk cannot be used at an Hourly scale or longer. Charm cannot be used at a Daily scale.

Magic spells are only effective if they can last at least two-thirds of the maximum round duration. Sufficiently long-acting spells may be active for more than one round.

The gamemaster should feel free to adjust these rules to each situation, and to grant bonuses or impose penalties based on what the players are doing.

Active and Passive Opposition

In combat encounters, enemies always fight back – if they surrender right away, there is no need for a combat. Social encounters are different however, and may have an active or passive opposition:

• Active Opposition: both parties want something, and they will both strive to get it. The encounter may end with one achieving their goal while the other failed, or with both parties only getting part of what they wanted after having reached a compromised.

• Passive Opposition: one party is petitioning the other party for something. This is a one-sided argument, as the other party simply accepts, partially accepts, or refuses the demand.

In most cases, a social encounter has an active opposition. On the surface, it may at first look like the situation is about one party asking something of another party. However, nothing ever comes for free, and the gamemaster and players should figure out what opportunity presents itself to the opposition, and how they can use it to advance some public or hidden agenda.

Target Determination Points

The goal of the encounter is generally not to get the opposing party to mentally break down, so this is not about bringing their personal Determination Points to zero. Instead, the goal is to make the opposite party agree to something. This is a more nuanced goal and it therefore has its own determination points. These determination points going down represent the other party’s opinion changing in favor of the characters.

A base target DP is set by the gamemaster depending on how reasonable or outlandish the stated goals are, and then further modified by circumstances, to obtain the effective target DP.

If the encounter is actively opposed, the gamemaster and players decide on a target DP for each party. If the encounter is passively opposed, only the active side of the encounter gets a target DP.

Base Target DP

The gamemaster defines the base target DP according to the goal the players want to achieve:

• Reasonable Goals: 15 DP. The stated goals are reasonable, fall under the purview of the opposing party, and don’t include any notable risk or resource spending on their part.

• Debatable Goals: 20 DP. This is the default encounter difficulty. The stated goals are up to debate, involve some notable risk, or some spending of resources that warrant careful thinking.

• Difficult Goals: 25 DP. The stated goals are outrageous, preposterous, dangerous, expensive, or would otherwise provoke a majority of negative reactions among the opposing party.

• Impossible Goals: 30 DP. The stated goals go against everything the opposing party believes in, and simply talking about it would usually be enough to part ways or start a fight.

Target DP Modifiers

The base target DP is modified based on circumstances:

• Party Size: dealing with a significantly smaller or larger party my grant -5 DP or incur +5 DP. The gamemaster should consider the opposing party’s authority here. For instance, a single political envoy may actually represent the rulers of an entire kingdom.

• Recent Events: the gamemaster may use recent events in the game to justify adjusting the encounter’s target DP by -5 or +5 or more.

The gamemaster has the final say on the effective target DP.

Encounter Length

The active party or parties must beat the target DP for their side in a certain number of social encounter rounds. The gamemaster decides the number of rounds:

• One Chance: 1 round. The opposing party is actively shutting down any attempts at negotiation or other interaction.
• Short: 2 rounds. The opposing party is in a hurry, on bad terms with the adventurers, or uninterested in hearing their arguments.
• Average: 3 rounds. This is the default length for an encounter.
• Long: 4 rounds. The opposing party is open to discussion, or on friendly terms with the adventurers.

Adventurers may attempt the Appeal for Time action to get additional rounds, and therefore more time to beat their target DP.

Once the predetermined number of rounds have been played, the parties are dismissed and the encounter ends. See Ending Social Encounters, later in this chapter.

Turn Speaker

Each turn, only one character may take the Argue action to work at decreasing the target DP. This is the “turn speaker”, i.e. the party’s main interlocutor for this round. The turn speaker may change every round.

Turn Order

The characters involved in the encounter act in a strict “turn order”. This turn order is equal to Social Initiative + 1D10.

Social Initiative is the average of CHA and INT, calculated as (CHA + INT) / 2, rounded down.

Characters go in descending turn order, so more charismatic or intelligent characters are heard first, with their arguments figured out quicker.

The gamemaster may assign turn order modifiers based on the current circumstances. For instance, a scene happening in a tribal king’s great hall might grant that GMC +10, while recently maligned character gets –5.

Actions

Each character gets two actions per turn (but see also the High Initiatives and Extra Actions optional rule).

Ability Use

This is a general purpose action for anything that isn’t covered by the other actions, but still requires an ability roll to achieve. This ability roll may be opposed. The player names a goal, and discusses with the gamemaster what ability to roll, what the stakes are, and what risk there is.

Ad-Hominem Attack

A character goes after a particular interlocutor in the opposing party. This is basically like an Argue action, only any social damage is dealt directly to that interlocutor’s personal DP, insead of the encounter’s target DP.

This is of course a dangerous move, since it might make the interlocutor reach their Moment of Doubt (see Damage and Injury), making them unpredictable and reckless. However, this may be desirable if, for instance, they players wants to bait GMCs into a fight.

Appeal for Time

The character tries to add more rounds to the encounter, giving more time for the party to beat the target DP. This may be done by talking to the people in charge, engaging in some misdirection or diversion, or simply some pleading.

The player much choose an ability and justify how it helps get more time with the opposing party.

• Critical Success: the encounter gets two more rounds.
• Success: the encounter gets one more round.
• Failure: nothing changes.
• Fumble: the host or opposing party are upset! The encounter takes one less round.

Each use of the Appeal for Time action is at a cumulative –40% penalty over the course of the encounter.

Argue

Spend part of the round arguing with, intimidating, charming, or bullshitting the other party. Only the designated turn speaker may pick this action.

Wait until the end of the round and make a roll under an appropriate Persuasion specialization (see the Skills chapter). On a success, deal social damage to the encounter’s target DP. On a critical success, deal critical social damage.

See the Arguing section this chapter for more details.

Help

A character may use an ability to help another character, including the turn speaker, similar to the rules for helping (see the Game System chapter).

Identify Motivations

The character identifies what makes the opposing party tick. This is particularly useful for the Provoke action.

Roll Insight. On a success, identify an interlocutor’s two highest Passions or other personality traits. On a critical success, any social damage coming from that interlocutor is halved (round down) until the character’s next turn.

Investigate

This action is only available for hourly time scales or longer.

The character runs an errand that hopefully provides the turn speaker with useful information: find witnesses, spy on the interlocutor’s assistants, uncover secrets, etc.

Make an appropriate opposed roll for the investigation, such as Insight, Investigate, or Stealth. The gamemaster decides what the opposition’s ability rating is, depending on where the investigation leads. This will generally be between 40% and 80%, although trying to steal incriminating documents from an incredibly secure facility could have a very high score.

• Critical Success: grant +60% and +2D6 social damage to a subsequent Argue action.
• Success: grant +20% and +1D6 social damage to a subsequent Argue action.
• Failure: the investigation didn’t find any relevant information.
• Fumble: the next Argue action from the character’s party suffers –60%.

Provoke

Designate an interlocutor, and name a passion or other personality trait ability. If they do not have such a trait, the action fails.

The provoking character must state how they are pushing their interlocutor’s buttons through the named trait, and how they want that interlocutor to react or change. This must of course make sense given the interlocutor, the trait, and the situation at hand.

Roll a Persuasion specialty.

• If the Persuasion roll is a success and equal or below the opponent’s trait score, the opponent must choose between acting as desired by the provoker, or letting the provoker deal social damage to their target DP.

• If the Persuasion roll is a failure and above the opponent’s trait score, the provoker made a fool of themselves, and their target DP goes back up by +1D6.

Use Favor or Grudge

A character may use a favor (see the Passions chapter) to give another character a +20% bonus to a roll, or incur a –20% to the opposing turn speaker, if any.

A grudge for a 3rd party may be used if it makes sense (e.g. “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”).

The gamemaster may use a grudge to give a –20% penalty to any character.

Free Actions

Cast Magic

Cast a magic spell of any type. Only spells that last long enough for the encounter’s Time Scale (see above) are effective. Spells that don’t last long enough are wasted and ineffective. Casting magic otherwise works the same as the Cast Magic action in combat encounters. See the Magic chapter for more information.

Use Passion

Once per social encounter, a character may try to gain a scene augment from a Passion. See the Passions chapter.

Arguing

The procedure for social combat is:

1. Roll for arguments
2. Roll for defense (if any)
3. Determine winner and apply damage

Step 1: Roll for Arguments

The character makes a roll under an appropriate social ability, generally a Persuasion specialization that corresponds to their approach in the encounter.

The gamemaster is encouraged to come up with modifiers that fit the situation and the story. This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Weak or strong arguments from the player: –20% / +20%
• Good roleplaying: +20%
• Arguing from a position of weakness or superiority: –20% / +20%

The result of the attack depends on the level of success:

• Critical Success: The player gets a Devastating Argument, which deals critical social damage.
• Success: The attack deals normal social damage.
• Failure: The attack fails to advance the agenda, and the action ends.
• Fumble: Roll on the Social Combat Fumble table. The action ends.

Step 2: Roll for Defense

If the encounter is actively opposed, and this opponent also picked the Argue action, they get to defend and counter-attack with their own arguments. They roll under an appropriate social ability too. The results are the same as in Step 1.

Step 3: Determine Winner and Apply Damage

If the attack was unopposed, the attacker deals their social damage to the target DP.

If the attack was defended against, both participants roll their social damage. Then, compare both social ability rolls using the opposed roll rules. The winner choose whether to deal damage directly, or to block incoming damage with their own.

When dealing damage directly, each participant simply apply their rolled social damage to the other.

When the winner wants to block incoming damage, the following happens:

• The winner’s social damage is subtracted from their opponent’s social damage.
• If all of the opponent’s damage was countered, the opponent does not hit their target DP. The winner’s excess damage hits their target DP.
• If some of the opponent’s damage was left uncountered, the opponent’s target DP is decreased by the excess. The winner’s target DP does not get hit.

Critical social damage is equal to maximum social damage plus rolled social damage.

Ending Social Encounters

Once the number of rounds has been exhausted, the encounter ends. The oucome is based on the remaining target DP at that time:

• Victory: 0 or less. The party has reached their goal, and their interlocutor grants them what they want.

• Weak Victory: 1 to 4. The party gets only a part of their goal, or the goal comes with strings attached or caveats of some sort. The gamemaster and players should come up with what that means based on the exact situation and parties involved.

• Defeat: 5 or more. The party didn’t get what they wanted, and they have to play through the consequences.

The gamemaster may end an encounter earlier when some of the target DP have dropped to zero or less.

Optional Social Encounter Rules

Combat Tricks

Combat tricks may be used as a reaction at any point during a round. See the Combat Tricks chapter for more information.