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. Players can and should play strategically to ensure that their character and anything else they care about stays safe against the forces that seek to harm them. How an encounter is triggered depends on the story preceding it, usually hostiles are about to attack the player characters, or a dangerous event is about to, it will be your opportunity to react and fight back. The following article describes how to start, play through and finish an Encounter, both combat and non-combat. Combat Scenario Follow the process for when a battle is about to occur. Encounters function terms of Turns and Rounds. Where a round is approximately 6 seconds of in-game time. For more information about Actions work over time, see Action Point. Initiative When a Combat Encounter has been called, all participant characters must roll for Initiative. All characters should roll d12 + Reflex + Initiative Modifier, then when every character has a value assigned, you may create a turn order in a couple of ways. Direct Order With Direct order, every character is arranged from highest (fastest) to lowest (slowest). It is simple but can sometimes lead to one side getting multiple turns in a row. Alternating Order With Alternating order, the character with the highest value goes first, followed by the fastest of the other side, this continues with the next highest initiative character for each side until all participants are loaded into the turn order. A Game-Master may allow two characters per side to be next to each other. But Alternating order is designed to limit the amount of turns each side in a row can act from the beginning of the encounter. "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!" Before Turn Begins At one point or another, an Encounter and Turn order will result in a character not going first, and still be subject to the events of the Encounter. All characters start with 1 Action Point (AP) to use for reactions, even if they have not begun their turn yet. There may be times in which the character is caught unawares, the Game-master should tell players if they are subject to a Surprise Round. The side that is surprised do not get Action points until their turn comes up. During a Turn When a character starts their turn, they start with all of their Action Points, usually 3. They also can move a distance as indicated on their character sheet, usually 6 squares or 30ft. When a character has exhausted all action points, used up their movements, or simply does not wish to do more, they can end their turn. Doing so will move initiative to the next participant in the turn order. After/Between Turns When a character ends their turn, they gain 1 Action Point to able to perform reactions. If the character already had at least 1 AP left over from the previous turn, they may then have a total of 2 AP after their turn is over. No more than 2 AP can be held after a turn is ended normally. A character can move when it is not their turn by spending an Action-Point. They can usually move half their movement (rounded up) for 1 AP, up to twice per round. Next Turn Begins When the character's turn is up again, their AP is reset to its maximum amount. 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 much the characters suffered to get their win. "When the player characters defeated the Bandits who ambushed them, they won the battle. The Game-Master will reward XP at the end of the session 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. It is up to the Game-Master to decide whether Perma-Death is enabled, and that those characters can't be recovered, or sort alternate means to restart the encounter. 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 inverse to their Body Core value, that character may end up dying instead. "During the battle, a Bandit was knocked out by the Fighter who dropped their HP down to -7". However the Wizard was able to deal a huge blow to another Bandit, taking their HP to -19, since that was more than their Body value, the Bandit is dead." Attacks against targets are ToHit checks, they use the character's Metaphors and d12 values, if they roll high enough, they may hit the target and deal damage. If the player rolls a 12, that die may explode, creating a Meta-d12 that can be used in a bonus effect. The Bonus effect can take a variety of bonus types, including extra ToHit. A ToHit check is the sum of: d12 + Combat Metaphor Ability + Metaphor Sub-Ability + Other Modifiers 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. Game-Master adjudicates. Combat Actions Some actions common in combat scenarios are as follows, each costs 1 Action Point unless specified. 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). Only tends to deal damage unless Bonus effects are applied. Setup (Attribute) A support action that harnesses a character's Attribute score to create bonus effects or enhance their next attack. As long as the Attribute used makes sense for the attack and bonus, it can allow characters to enhance attacks in creative ways. "The Fighter sets up his next attack using Strength, when he goes to spend his action to attack, the bonus effect adds Knockback Magnitude to the attack, when the attack lands, they inflict Knockback to their target on top of the usual damage dealt." Move Although characters can move a certain amount of distance in their turn, a character can spend AP outside their turn to move half their normal movement per point. Targets that are moving are harder to hit and can cause a complication against attackers. "The Rogue sees one of the Bandits is trying to strike at them. They spend their action point to move out of range, spoiling the Bandit's attack, the Bandit now has to roll normally instead of with Advantage because of the Moving-Target complication." Nock / Fire (for Bows and Arrows) For Bows and Arrows, two actions are required to operate the weapon. This is common amongst projectile/ranged weapons. Nock is to draw an Arrow into the Bow, priming it so that it may be Fireed in a subequent action. A bow does not need to be fired immediately after, but it can't be fired until it is nocked. "The Ranger's turn is up, she first has to prime her bow by Nocking it as her first action. She then decides to immediately Fire her bow at a target for a ranged attack. On her third action, she Nocks the bow again. Although her turn ended, the bow is ready to fire any time she has an Action available." 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. "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 an action to Unload the chambers of the Revolver before using a Speed-loader to Reload the gun fresh. They end their turn with an action ready in case they need to shoot twice." Tap Mana / Cast Spell In magical settings, spellcasters have complex gestures and incantations they have to take into account before they can start bendings reality to their will. Anything above a Cantrip will require the caster to Tap Mana first so they can draw upon magical energies required to Cast Spells on a subsequent turn. Typically Mana tapping lasts a short while and can be done multiple times for stronger spells. "The Wizard gets ready to cast Lightning Bolt at one of the bandits. First they gather magical energy by Tapping Mana as an action, now channeling a small amount of magic, they spend an action to Cast Lightning Bolt at their target. Bezapping them zztzly. For their third action they Tap Mana again, and are ready to cast another Spell of equal or lower power later" 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 and Action Points but there is no Initiative and instead the participants have to achieve an objective or goal, the simplest form of goal is not dying, or avoiding as much harm as possible. Special Encounters are often under a time-limit, otherwise the need to have events occur moment for moment would be pointless. "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 turns 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 a moment after"