Combat & Battle Effects

Original Boxed Set · Battle Book + Campaign Book

The Combat Round

A combat round takes about eight seconds of game time. Each round resolves in this order:

Initiative. Each side rolls 1d10 and adds their highest-Intuition combatant's rank number. High roll acts first.
Declare actions. Each character on the winning side declares what they're doing.
Resolve actions. Roll FEATs, apply Battle Effects, deal damage.
Other side acts. Same procedure for the losing-initiative side.

Movement, attacking, and defending can all happen in the same round.

Attack Actions

An attack uses an ability and consults the Battle Effects Table. The 1984 Basic Set covers these:

Action	Ability	Notes
Slugfest	Fighting	Unarmed melee. Hit/Slam/Stun outcomes.
Hack & Slash	Fighting	Melee with a sharp or blunt weapon. Hit/Stun/Kill.
Shooting	Agility	Ranged attack with a gun, bow, or thrown blade. Hit/Bull's-Eye/Kill.
Throwing	Agility	Thrown object (rock, shield, whatever). Same column as Shooting.
Dodging	Agility	Defensive — shifts attacker's column LEFT by 2/4/6.
Grappling	Strength	Wrestling. Hold/Reverse outcomes.
Escaping	Strength	Breaking a grapple. Miss/Escape/Reverse.
Snatching	Strength	Grabbing an object away from someone. Miss/Grab/Break.
Charging	Endurance	Running attack. Hit/Slam/Stun based on distance and Strength.

Damage

A hit deals damage equal to the attacker's relevant rank number, reduced by any armor or resistance:

Slugfest: Strength rank number, minus defender's Body Armor.
Hack & Slash: Higher of weapon damage or Strength rank, minus armor.
Shooting/Throwing: Weapon damage (or Strength rank for thrown objects), minus armor.

Damage is subtracted from the defender's Health. At 0 Health the character is unconscious; with Endurance FEAT failures at 0 Health, they begin dying.

Slam, Stun, Kill

Many combat results trigger a secondary effect on the defender — the colored cell in the Battle Effects Table tells you which.

Slam. If attacker's Strength >= defender's Endurance, defender makes an Endurance FEAT vs. the "Slam?" column. Failure = knocked back 1 or more areas.
Stun. If attacker's Strength >= defender's Endurance, defender makes an Endurance FEAT vs. the "Stun?" column. Failure = stunned 1-10 rounds.
Kill. The defender is dying. They lose all current Health and continue losing Endurance ranks each round until stabilized.

Defense

A character not actively defending is a sitting target — the attacker rolls against their full rank. To improve odds, a character can:

Dodge: Use their action to make an Agility FEAT. Result shifts the attacker's column LEFT (Green = -2, Yellow = -4, Red = -6).
Use Cover: Hiding behind a wall, car, or piece of terrain shifts the attacker's column LEFT.
Have Body Armor: Reduces damage by the armor's rank number on every hit.

Multiple Attackers

If multiple attackers target the same character in one round, the defender uses their best dodge once, but each attacker rolls separately. Splitting attention across multiple defenders splits the attacker's effectiveness: shift their column LEFT by 1 per additional target.