Combat

Oftentimes, physical combat is a swift, brutal thing, and never more so than between apex predators with long memories and an overabundance of pride and ego. These rules have been drawn up with the aim of keeping combat simple and swift wherever possible.

Combat in this case is defined as a physical altercation between one or more parties. Crucially, only the parties immediately involved are ‘in combat’ at the start. Others may join later as described further down, but the first round will only involve the attacker(s) and defender(s) of the initial altercation.

Combat Initiation, Joining and Leaving

  • Each round initiative will be counted down from highest to lowest, at their initiative a character will perform their actions. A character’s initiative is equal to their Reaction (Physical + Mental). If attacked before their action, the player may decide whether to actively defend or not, consuming one action for that round if they do. Some merits grant additional kinds of action which can be taken out of turn.

    If a character is surprised - defined as being attacked by unseen assailant(s) outside of initiative - then the attacker(s) will have one free action before combat begins, to land their blow. This one action is regardless of how many people got the jump on their victim; it is one action only, not each. In the case of multiple attackers, they will decide between themselves who gets that one action. After that, we move to Initiative.

    On their initiative each round a character must use their actions on their turn or they lose their actions. They may not choose to delay their actions or define a condition to take an action later.

  • If a character wishes to join combat that has already begun, the player should announce this intent to an ST. Unless circumstances prevent it, they may join combat the round after they announce this, on their initiative.

  • Certain actions and Disciplines may allow a character to leave combat. This means that they drop out of the initiative order and no longer take combat actions.

    They may not choose to rejoin the original combat once this has happened, but they can be re-engaged.

Subtopics:

Character Death

If your character ends up meeting their Final Death, here’s what comes next.