Combat and Actions
Speed and Actions
All abilities (skill abilities and spells) have a speed; this represents loosely how long they take to perform.
Turns in this game are not of a fixed length. No abilities in this game list specific measurements of time for their duration, so precisely how long a turn takes doesn't ever matter. Abilities are only separated into fast enough for combat (actions, attacks, and reactions), and too slow for when time matters (ritual speed).
Action
Action-speed abilities must be used on your turn. You get two actions on each of your turns, so can use up to two action-speed abilities of any kind (two skill abilities, two spells, or one of each).
Actions could include throwing an item, attempting to see through a distortion spell, or pressing a conspicuous button; they cannot deal damage to other creatures unless they are attacks.
Attack
Attack can be thought of as a special kind of action. They still take one of your actions on your turn to use, but you can only use at most one attack-speed ability on each of your turns.
Attacks always require a contested roll, unless you're attacking a willing creature or an object, and are entitled to deal 1 damage.
Nothing you do can cause damage to another creature unless it's part of an attack action.
Collapse a building with an action-speed spell, and every creature inside is entitled to survive unharmed (of course, your Arbiter may decide that unimportant background characters die) — the evil wizard you're fighting will jump out of a window and miraculously survive.
Reaction
Reaction-speed abilities do not take an action to use, and do not have to be used on your turn. Rather, they will specify certain conditions that must be met. You have one reaction to use—split between skill abilities and spells—and regain it at the start of each of your turns.
Ritual
Ritual-speed abilities are too slow to be used in combat — if you're running in initiative order, or the number of turns that are passing matters (e.g. you're paying a skill point cost every turn for an ability), then you can't use ritual-speed abilities.
Outside of combat, however, ritual-speed abilities have no fixed time requirement. If you're travelling or exploring, you can use ritual-speed abilities as often as you like without worrying about how long they take.
Combat
Initiative
At the start of combat, all participants roll Awareness. The highest result acts first, and play proceeds in descending order. Break ties randomly.
Movement
Characters have a movement speed equal to (5 + their Prowess) × 1 m. On their turn they may move up to their speed, split up as they like before, between, or after any Actions they take.
Damage
All attacks that deal damage are potentially lethal; Endurance measures a creature's ability to resist them (whether that be by dodging, or simply being very large!). When a creature takes damage, its Endurance falls by that much — unless its Endurance already was 1, in which case it is rendered helpless.
A creature with 2 Endurance taking 2 damage (from a single attack) would not be rendered helpless, as its Endurance was not 1 when it took damage; it would just be reduced to 1 Endurance.
If a creature is helpless, it can't avoid harm anymore — if a helpless creature would take damage, the attacker may:
- Kill the creature.
- Render the creature unconscious but stable.
Helpless creatures can't resist attacks or spells; they are automatically affected by spells which target them without rolling defence. They can also be affected by spells which cannot normally affect unwilling targets (i.e. those which do not specify a way for unwilling creatures to avoid their effects).
Maps
For combat using a map, use a scale of 1 m per square (with characters taking up one square each). Count diagonals as 1 m.
Helplessness
Helpless creatures are subject to the following:
- Has no actions on its turn.
- Can't take reactions.
- Cannot concentrate on anything.
- Can't stand.
- Can move by crawling, up to half its usual speed.
Unconscious
Creatures rendered unconscious are out of the fight; they can recover later (at ritual speed) but cannot be revived quickly enough by any means (even magical healing) to contribute to a fight.
Awareness
Hiding
You can only target creatures or objects that you are aware of (spells that affect an area will still affect things in that area that you aren't aware of). You become aware of any creatures or objects that you can see, and any creatures that make a sound (e.g. running, casting a spell). The Arbiter may ask you to roll Awareness to detect creatures making a subtle sound. If they are actively trying to hide, they may contest your roll with Discretion. Once aware of a creature, you remain aware of it (even if it breaks line of sight) unless it successfully Hides from you. Creatures that cannot see do not automatically become aware of creatures or objects within line of sight. Creatures that cannot hear do not remain aware of creatures they cannot see.
Casting a Spell
Casting a spell doesn't require to you speak, but it does always give away your location with sound. You might have your character speak magic words, but you could equally choose for the magic to produce a ringing sound, or gentle music at your location. Anyone who can hear when you cast a spell become aware of you and learn your location. You can still cast spells as normal in an area of silence. Casting spells doesn't require any particular movements and doesn't need you to have a free hand. Casting spells doesn't require any specific material or device (e.g. magic wand), though you are welcome to impose any restrictions on your character that you wish.