Combat Checks

See also: Brawl, Melee, Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), Gunnery

Combat Check Difficulty

The difficulty of a combat check depends on relative Range Bands and type of attack:

Remember to add the appropriate Defense to the roll.

Size Differences

When a character makes an attack against a target with a silhouette two points or more larger than they are, they decrease the difficulty of the check by one.

When a character makes an attack against a target with a silhouette two or more points smaller than they are, they increase the difficulty of the check by one.

Most characters are silhouette 1.

Engaged Status

Ranged Attacks at Engaged Targets

When attacking a target engaged with an ally, the attacker upgrades the difficulty of the check by one. In addition, if the attacker's check succeeds but they generate at least , that is automatically spent to make the attacker hit one of the individuals engaged with the target (of the GM's choice), instead of the target.

Ranged Attacks While Engaged

Any opponent Engaged with a character when they make a ranged attack (no matter who the target is), may add to the opponent's next Brawl or Melee check against the character making the ranged attack.

The opponent loses this bonus if either they or the character are no longer Engaged with each other.

Prone Status

Attacking Prone Targets

A character gains when attacking a Prone target with a Brawl or Melee check.

When a character attacks a Prone target with ranged attacks, they suffer

Attacking While Prone

A prone character suffers when making a Brawl or Melee check from a Prone position.

Prone characters suffer no penalties when making ranged attacks.

Damage

If a combat check is successful, each uncanceled adds +1 Damage.

When a character suffers Damage, they reduce the damage received by their Soak value. If any Damage remains after this reduction, they suffer that many Wounds. If the net result is zero or negative, the character suffers no Wounds.

Multiple Hits

If the character suffers Damage from multiple hits in an attack, they apply their Soak value to each hit individually.

Multiple Targets

If the attack affects multiple targets, the additional damage is added to each target.

Brawl Features

Basic unarmed Brawl attacks have a base damage of Brawn rating, a Critical Rating of 5, and the Disorient 1 and Knockdown qualities.

When making a Brawl attack, the attacker can choose to deal damage to the target's Strain threshold instead of their Wound threshold (still reducing the Damage by the target's Soak).

Brawl Weapons

Unlike other weapons, Brawl weapons augment this basic attack. Brawl weapons can add damage to this attack (the plus symbol next to the listed damage indicates that users add their Brawn to damage dealt), and may have an improved Critical Rating and additional weapon qualities. When using a Brawl weapon, the user can choose to use its Critical Rating instead of the standard Brawl Critical Rating.

Characters also add the additional Weapon Qualities to the Qualities already provided by the Brawl attack. If the weapon provides an improved version of an existing Quality, the character uses the improved version.

Grappling

The game does not possess specific rules for grappling. Instead, the unarmed combat rules have been designed to narratively cover multiple unarmed fighting techniques, including grappling. For this reason, the basic Brawl attack allows characters to deal damage to the target's Strain threshold, and can knock them Prone and Disorient them. This allows for the narrative of a grapple (which is often intended to incapacitate without killing) without additional rules.

Melee Features

When using a Melee weapon, users add their Brawn characteristic to the damage dealt, unless the weapon description indicates otherwise (the plus symbol next to the listed damage indicates that users add their Brawn to damage dealt).

Improvised Weapons

Improvised weapons — such as a bottle or table leg — are used with the Melee skill. Like most Melee weapons, the attacker adds their Brawn to the damage dealt.

Just like weapons with the Inferior quality, improvised weapons generate one automatic on any check. Improvised weapons deal damage based on their size and general weight, as described in Table: Improvised Weapons.

Any attack roll that results in a or indicates that the improvised weapon breaks and is useless in further rounds of combat.

Large improvised weapons also require two hands to use, as long as the user is Silhouette 1.

Improvised Weapons Table

Two-Weapon Combat

When attacking with two weapons, the character must be wielding two weapons that can each be reasonably held and wielded in one hand. Generally, these weapons are Ranged (Light) weapons — pistols and grenades — and one-handed Melee or Brawl weapons. If it's unclear whether or not a weapon can be wielded one-handed, the GM makes the final determination as to if it can be used.

To make the attack, they perform a combined check:

Combined Two-Weapon Check

First, the character denotes one weapon as the primary weapon. They then determine what skills and characteristics they would use when making attacks with their primary weapon, and their secondary weapon.

The character then takes the skill that they have lower ranks in, and the characteristic that they have lower ranks in, and use this skill and characteristic to assemble their dice pool. (If both checks would use the same skill or characteristic, they simply use that skill or characteristic.)

They then compare the difficulty of the two combat checks they would make with each of their two weapons to hit their target, and select the check with the higher basic difficulty (more ). They increase the difficulty by one if the two skills are the same, and by two if they are different.

If they succeed, they hit with their primary weapon as normal. They may also spend or to hit with their secondary weapon as well. If both weapons hit, they may spend additional or to activate qualities from either weapon. Each hit deals its base damage, + 1 damage per uncanceled success.

See also: Paired Weapons

Critical Rating

Each weapon has a Critical Rating that consists of a numeric value. The user can spend that many to inflict one Critical Injury on the target, in addition to regular effects and damage.

A may be spent to inflict one Critical Injury (no matter what the Critical Rating of the weapon is).

An attack's Damage also has to exceed a target's Soak to deal a Critical Injury.

Activating Qualities

See: Activating Item Qualities

Spending and in Combat

These options are not the only options, and are suggestions for general use.

Spending and in Combat

These options are not the only options, and are suggestions for general use.

Applying Critical Injuries

See: Critical Injuries