The Combat Round
Combat begins immediately when any character declares an attack. This character is the first to act in combat. Simply being the first person to say “I attack” is sufficient.
Actions
The acting player can make three kinds of actions (one of each) during their turn in combat or skip their turn entirely to refresh Action Points.
- Major Actions: These actions are the meat of combat and represent actions that can change directly the outcome of the fight.
- Typically, any action that requires a dice roll can be considered a major action, even those not on your turn.
- Attacking, Defending, spells that require dice, and other complex actions are all major actions.
- Major actions require spending an Action Point. Always.
- Minor Actions: These actions are things that affect the indirect logistics of the fight. Any action that does not require a roll is typically considered a minor action.
- They include drawing weapons, changing out ammo, moving around in an Arena, flipping a table for cover, or typically any ability that requires no dice.
- Free Actions: There are some actions that aren't worth keeping track of but add to the game. You can take as many free actions as the Judge will allow, but you are only entitled to one per turn.
- Dropping an item in your hands, speaking to another character, and activating certain effortless abilities are considered free actions.
- Free actions allow characters to jump to a pivotal point in a fight without being bogged down with too much realism that makes combat becomes boring and slow.
- Prepare Actions: Instead of a Major Action, a character may take a Prepare action to gain back all their Action Points.
- A character that uses a Prepare Action must hand the turn to an Enemy character. See below.
The End of your Turn
- At the end of your turn, you pick the next character that is allowed to act.
- If you used a Prepare Action or Attacked another character, you may only pick an ENEMY character to give the next turn to, otherwise you may pick any character involved in the combat scene.
- An attack is any action that can deal damage to another character
- An Enemy Character is any character that you are trying to immediately oppose or stop this scene.
Note: It should be pointed out that there are no "Rounds." Each character takes turns, refreshing action points as necessary. Characters continue to take Turns until the combat is resolved.
Action Points
- Action points indicate how much opportunity your character is able to capitalize on in a fight.
- The number of Action Points you begin each combat round is 3 unless you increase it with Abilities.
- It is best to keep track of your Action points with poker chips or dice as it is a low number that jumps around quite a bit.
- An action point is used to take defensive actions that are not on your turn and to make Major actions (typically attacking or spellcasting) during your turn.
- When you are out of action points you are unable to take any Major Actions, but you may Skip your turn to replenish all your Action Points (See the Skip Action above)