Encounter

In most games, conflict will be inevitable, and depending on how hostile the situation gets the game will turn into an Encounter. Encounters switch the rules around from Roleplay and become more mechanical, time is also slower and more measured.

Encounters are conducted by a system called Action Frames, where a number of actions can be taken simultaneously providing they fit within 3 seconds of time. Each character gets two Action-frames per turn/round, meaning each turn/round lasts around 6 seconds.

Combat Operation

Initiative

When a Combat Encounter has been called, all participant characters must roll for Initiative.

All characters should roll d12 + Reflex + Other bonuses, to determine turn order. A couple of order methods can be used:

Direct Order
With Direct order, every character is arranged from highest (fastest) to lowest (slowest).

Alternating Order
With Alternating order, the character with the highest value goes first, followed by the fastest of the other team, this continues with the next highest initiative character for each side until all participants are loaded into the turn order.

"As the party journeyed through the forest, they were ambushed by a handful of Bandits! After rolling initiative, the player playing the Fighter goes first, followed by the fastest Bandit, then the Druid, then the second bandit and so on. When the order was set, the battle begins!"

Turn Begins

When a character begins their turn, they will be given two Frames to perform actions. A character typically can move and perform an action or task at the same time, provided there are no logical conflicts with appendages used.

However, if a round begins and a character has not yet received their turn and are caught unawares, do not gain any Reactions. Characters aware of the threat will still get a Reaction though.

During a Turn

When a character starts their turn, they start with all of their Action-Frames, normally two of them. Each Frame allows a character 3 seconds worth of time to move and act. When each frame resolves, the character can continue until they have resolved all Action-Frames and then end their turn.

After/Between Turns

When a character ends their turn, they have one Reaction that can be used to do something outside of their turn. This reaction works the same as any Action-Frame, except it is limited to one particular activity instead of multiple.

A character may be able to spend a Frame at the end to anticipate events ahead of time. This is known as 'Vigilance'. When a character is Vigilant, they gain an extra Reaction they can use between their turn, instead of one.

Concluding a Combat Encounter

Usually, a Combat Encounter is complete when combatants on one side are defeated, either by incapacitation, death or retreat. If the game uses Experience, then points can be reward for completion of an encounter like this based on the difficulty, either set by the Game-Master or by how difficult it was for the player characters to win.

"When the player characters defeated the Bandits who ambushed them, they won the battle. The Game-Master rewards XP to each character who participated and the characters may find loot on those they defeated"

Likewise, if the player characters are all defeated, this will result in a TPK, a Total Party Kill. Depending on the Game-Master's decision, the character could wind up dead for good, reborn some other way (As Undead, Ghosts, Other...) or offer to restart the encounter like it were a video-game with save states.

Attacking and Damaging Targets

During a combat encounter, participants will try to attack each other to deal damage to each other's Health (HP). When a character's HP is reduced to 0, they are Incapacitated and unable to act. If a character's HP is reduced to a negative value greater than their Body Core value, that character may die instead.

Not all creatures are equal in terms of game mechanics. While important characters and Player Characters may be Protected, allowing them to survive with negative HP lower than their Core value, lesser entities such as regular enemies may be knocked out or killed the moment their HP reaches 0 or less. This is to generally make encounters less tedious as only special opponents may use mechanics to revive fallen allies.

"During the battle, a Bandit knocked out the Wizard who dropped their HP down to -4, but since the Wizard has a Body value of 10, they survive. The Fighter avenges the Wizard by striking a powerful blow to the Bandit, dropping them to -3. The Bandit is not a protected entity thus they were instantly killed/defeated, their Body value is irrelevant."

ToHit Checks

Attacks against targets are rolled as ToHit checks:
[ d12 + appropiate Attribute + Metaphor bonuses + Equipment bonuses ]

If the attacker rolls high enough to beat the target's Evasion and/or Deflection, they may hit the target and deal damage. If the player rolls a 12 on a d12, that die may explode, creating a Critical Meta-d12 that can provide a Versatile bonus towards the attack. The Critical Bonus effect can take a variety of bonus types, including extra ToHit, damage or inflict a Status Magnitude appropriate to the attack used.

When attacking unusually large creatures, the Critical bonus value can be used to multiply the damage of the attack up to the target's Size-rating.

The Appropriate Attribute Bonus is based on the attack method. Weapons relying on force usually benefit from Strength, while others valuing speed and precision can use Agility. Perception can be useful when predicting enemy movements, making it applicable to most other attacks. This bonus is only the Base value, Attribute dice are not used here.

The target numbers needed for an attack to hit the target are as follows:

♦ Evasion: ToHit must be equal or greater this value to make contact. Otherwise the defender evades the attack.

♦ Deflection: ToHit must exceed this value or the attack may be reduced or negated by other means.

Attacks mitigated by Deflection can provide varying protection depending on context and the equipment worn by the defender. Deflection could negate damage/magnitude of an attack, or reduce it to 1 point each. A partially effective defense can reduce damage/magnitude taken by half, or remove the base or bonus portion of the value dealt against them.

"The Wolf attempts to gnaw at the Fighter in heavy armour, the Wolf was able to hit, but failed to beat the Fighter's Deflection. The Game-Master could rule the Wolf's bite does nothing, or at most 1 point of damage."

"The Bandit strikes the Fighter with a metal mace, the attack hits but suffers Deflection. The damage dealt is 4+6 (10). With a moderately effective defense, the Game-Master can rule it does half damage (5), negates base damage (6), or negates bonus damage (4)."

Deflection always reduces damage/magnitude by at least 1 point regardless.

"A Giant four times the size of the Fighter slams their club down on them. Dealing 16+24 (40) damage. As the Fighter is not equipped to deal with such a massive attack, Deflection may end up only reducing damage taken by 1. But at the very least, they do get to reduce it by 1 no matter what."

Using Action-Frames

Multiple actions can take place in a single Action-Frame, but there are limitations to which of these can be performed simultaneously. This is determined by what and how the user's appendages/limbs are used at any given moment.

Attack
Character strikes a target creature with an Unarmed strike or Melee Weapon. They deal damage equal to the attack's damage on hit (dX + X typed damage). Attacks normally only deal additional effects when augmented by a Special Attack, or by rolling the maximum value of a d12 to trigger a Bonus Meta-Dice, adding the option to inflict Status Magnitude.

Special Attack
Spending a Frame to prepare a subsequent attack allows the character to augment the next attack, allowing damage inflicted to also inflict a status magnitude appropriate to the weapon. When factoring in the Attribute bonus in this way, the user uses their Attribute die instead of the flat bonus. If the user's Attribute is 6 or higher, every rank above 5 adds another md12, the result is the highest out of all md12s rolled.

Movement
Characters can move during Action-Frames even while performing other actions. An action can be performed if the character moves no further than their base speed.

Dashing prevents a character from using any actions that use their arms and legs in exchange for double the move speed that frame, even if it is just 5ft greater than their base speed.

Some actions may limit movement while concentrating or charging up, this means the character can't move more than 5ft in any direction per frame. Characters who do not move for a Frame do not carry over unused movement to other Frames.

For the purposes of line-of-sight, a character can perform an action at the start and end of their frame. If the character can hit their intended target in at least one of those parts of their movement it can still count.

Prime / Fire (for Bows and Arrows)
For Bows and Arrows, it takes a frame to draw an arrow to a bow (Priming), but firing it is a Quickened action (can be performed in the same frame as another action). 

To Prime is to load and prime an Arrow into the Bow, priming it so that it may be Fired at any time. A bow does not need to be fired immediately after, but it can't be fired as a Reaction until it has been properly primed. Priming a bow can be performed as a Reaction and be turned into a Quickened action via the Metaphor component Optimise.

Unload / Reload (for Firearms)
Similar to Bows, Guns often have to be reloaded once they have depleted their number of shots. But given the complexity of such weapons, the character must take time to unload the empty weapon before they can load in more shots, only then they can continue firing.

Unload and Reload are the same action, except Unload is only available on loaded firearms and Reload is only available on unloaded firearms.

Firing a gun while controlling recoil takes a frame, firing rapidly up to three times (while losing Advantage, and suffering Disadvantage for every subsequent shot respectively) also only takes a frame.

♦ Fire once per frame: Advantage (if proficient)
♦ Fire twice per frame: Second shot rolls at Normal (Lost Advantage).
♦ Fire thrice per frame: Third shot rolls at Disadvantage (suffer Disadvantage).

Not all weapons can be rapidly fired, be sure to read weapon specifics for fire speed.

Unloading a firearm takes a frame and so does reloading it with a rounds take a frame. One can quickly discard a firearm's remaining rounds as a quickened action but reloading always takes the normal amount of time. If a firearm user wants to be able to reload in a single frame they can take the Metaphor component 'Optimise: Unload/Reload', turning both into quickened actions.

"The Detective hiding behind cover has already shot six times from their Revolver, thankfully they have a Speed-Loader ready to keep the gunfight going. They spend a Frame to Unload the chambers of the Revolver, then on the second Frame they use a Speed-loader to Reload the gun. When their turn is over, they can fire their Revolver as a Reaction at anyone who may cross their line of sight."

Tap Mana / Cast Spell (for Spellcasting)
See Magic for more detailed information abotu how Spells are cast in an Encounter.

Special Encounter

Special Encounters occur when an Encounter is not against a particular foe, but to an event. It uses the same rules regarding time management but there is no Initiative, instead the participants have to achieve an objective or goal, the simplest form of goal is not dying, or avoiding a tragedy. Special Encounters are often under a time-limit.

"As Squad 119 entered the hallway of the space-station, emergency sirens ring out as the automated systems detected a threat. It begins to open the airlock, causing a huge atmospheric shift that will pull the team into outer space. They have only have four rounds to override the airlock system or be left breathless in the vacuum it creates!"

A Special Encounter concludes when the event has been solved or the danger imposed by it no longer affects the player characters.

"The Robotic Syn-frame of Squad 119 is able to hack into the Airlock systems using her Codex just before the atmosphere was depleted, shutting the doors and pressurizing the hallway. Everyone biological was able to recover from the ordeal moments after"