Mano a Mano:Action

Action

Rounds

A round of action represents one to two seconds of game time - enough time for most characters to perform a single action or quick combination. Each character has one turn during each round. Rounds can be measured from the beginning of any character's turn until the beginning of their next turn (or from the end of their turn until the end of the next.) Characters with ¼ speed must skip three out of four turns. After one turn of moving and performing actions, the character cannot move or perform actions on his next three turns. Characters with ½ speed must skip every other turn. Characters may skip more turns than they are required to skip. At the end of a character's turn, the character recovers one stun if they have any.

Stealth and detection abilities are used for surprise attacks. If two characters are mutually stalking each other, do two separate rolls. If both fail, combat doesn't happen. If a character successfully surprises another without being surprised himself, the character with the advantage of surprise gets to go first. If both succeed, they fight without either having the advantage of surprise. If there is no surprise attack, characters may choose to start out either evading (+4 defense modifier until the character's first turn) or ready to counter, and who goes first is decided by the circumstances (whoever throws the first punch in the story,) or random die rolls if there is a dispute. Characters with longer weapon range usually have the opportunity to attack first. Characters typically take turns in the order their players are seated, going around the group of players clockwise. To move in formation, characters may delay their turns until they are sequential.

On his turn, a character can prepare a counterattack, move and do one action, or move and do a combination of actions (combo).

To counterattack the character waits to move and perform actions until someone attempts to attack them. If no one attempts to attack the counterattacking character until their next turn, then they have effectively skipped the turn where they prepared a counterattack and continue with their next turn as normal. The counterattacking character moves and performs their action or combo before the attacker's action or combo, but after any movement the attacker does before acting. This gives the counterattacking character a little more control over positioning. After the counterattack, the attacker can change his action or combo, but cannot reuse any movement he used up before the combo.

Counterattacking delays a single turn, but does not change the order of characters turns. For example, suppose three characters are fighting. The first character prepares a counter attack. The second character, his ally, attacks the third character, their enemy, and misses. The third character decides to attack the first character, but the first character gets to counterattack first. The third character finally gets to attack after the counterattack. Now it is the first character's turn again even though he just counterattacked in the middle of the third character's turn.

In a combo a character can perform one quick action for each point of speed (rounded up, so a character with ¼ or ½ speed can perform one quick action), plus an extra quick action if the combo includes actions with multiple weapons. A character can only do a combo when he is healthy.

Movement

Each point of running, swimming or airspeed allows the character to move one meter per second, 3.6 kilometers per hour, a little over two miles per hour or one space per turn, where a space is about 2 meters wide and a turn is about 2 seconds. Characters can move more than once during their turn (before and after performing actions) but the total distance may not exceed their running, swimming or airspeed.

Swimming

Swimming is also added to striking and grappling rolls and defense against striking and grappling while swimming. When characters fight while swimming, striking attacks do half as much stun as they do in air, but no more or less damage.

Flying

A character's maximum rate of ascent and safe rate of descent is half of their airspeed. When a flying character ascends 1 meter vertically (under their own flying power) their airspeed is temporarily reduced by 1 until they descend again or land. A character can no longer ascend when their airspeed is 0. When a character descends 1 meter vertically their airspeed is temporarily increased by 1 until they reach twice their normal airspeed, ascend or land.

Jumping

Running is also the maximum distance a character can jump with a running start. If the character can barely jump across a gap (within 1 meter of their maximum jumping distance) they must make a success roll using their acrobatics ability or fall into the gap. Without a running start a character can jump half as far. A character can jump vertically half as high as they can jump horizontally (half of their running with a running start, a quarter of their running without it.) If the character can barely make a vertical leap (within 1 meter of their maximum jumping height) they must make a success roll using their acrobatics ability or fail to reach the required height.

Climbing

For each climb make a success roll using the character's climbing ability vs. the difficulty of the climb, which depends on the surface, slope and length of the climb. If the character is not successful he looses his grip and falls. If the character is still able to climb after falling he can attempt the climb again. While a character climbs he can move and perform one quick action per turn. How far the character moves each turn depends on the nature of the climb.

	difficulty	surface or structure	movement
	0	ladder, steep mountain	½ running (rounded up)
	5	rope, pole	1 meter per turn
	10	wall or cliff with hand holds	not strategically significant
	15	finger holds only	not strategically significant
	20	sheer surface	not strategically significant

When the height of the climb is more than one story or 3 meters, a fall may be potentially dangerous, depending on the surface which stops the fall. If the height of the climb is more than two stories or 6 meters, the fall may be potentially lethal, depending on the surface. Falls of 30 meters or more are usually potentially lethal.

If a fall is potentially dangerous or lethal, make another success roll. This roll has the same difficulty as the climbing roll but the falling character adds his agility to the roll and he can use either his climbing ability or his acrobatics ability. If the fall is potentially dangerous, success means the character is unharmed and failure means the falling character takes damage and stun equal to his toughness. If the fall is potentially lethal, success means the character takes damage and stun equal to his toughness and failure means the character takes damage equal to his stamina. Armor does not protect a character from this damage and stun.

Encumbrance

Carrying capacity (CC) is the amount of equipment a character can carry without being encumbered. An encumbered character moves at half of his normal swimming and running speed. An encumbered character cannot perform strenuous actions or fly. A character cannot carry more than twice his CC. CC is determined by the character's strength.

	Strength	CC		Strength	CC		Strength	CC
	0	0 kg		17	400 kg		34	12,000 kg
	1	1 kg		18	500 kg		35	15,000 kg
	2	2 kg		19	600 kg		36	20,000 kg
	3	5 kg		20	800 kg		37	25,000 kg
	4	10 kg		21	1000 kg		38	30,000 kg
	5	15 kg		22	1200 kg		39	35,000 kg
	6	20 kg		23	1500 kg		40	40,000 kg
	7	30 kg		24	1800 kg		41	45,000 kg
	8	50 kg		25	2100 kg		42	50,000 kg
	9	65 kg		26	2500 kg		43	55,000 kg
	10	80 kg		27	3000 kg		44	60,000 kg
	11	100 kg		28	4000 kg		45	65,000 kg
	12	120 kg		29	5000 kg		46	70,000 kg
	13	150 kg		30	6000 kg		47	75,000 kg
	14	200 kg		31	7500 kg		48	80,000 kg
	15	250 kg		32	9000 kg		49	90,000 kg
	16	300 kg		33	10,000 kg		50	100,000 kg

List of Actions

Only quick actions can be used in a combo. A double power attack has two times the power listed by the weapon on the character sheet. Strenuous actions can only be used when a character is healthy. Standing actions cannot be used when the character is on the ground.

When rolling to see if a combat action is successful, there is an attacking character (attacker) and a defending character (defender). Attacks are successful if the attacker's modifier plus his dice roll is higher than his target's defense. Otherwise the attack fails.

Hand to Hand Attacks

Hand to hand attacks use natural weapons or hand weapons such as clubs and blades. Add the attack modifier next to the weapon on the attacker's character sheet to hand to hand attack rolls. The target's best defense is the difficulty of a hand to hand attack.

quick strike

A quick strike is a quick hand to hand attack.

strategic strike

A strategic strike is a strenuous standing hand to hand attack which cannot be used while grappling and has a +5 attack modifier.

cautious strike

A cautious strike is a strenuous standing hand to hand attack which cannot be used while grappling and gives a +5 defense modifier until the character's next turn.

powerful strike

A powerful strike is a strenuous double power standing hand to hand attack. A couple of quick strikes has a better chance of hitting at least once, but a powerful strike does damage quickly and hurts larger and armored characters more easily.

Thrown Weapon Attacks

Add the throw modifier next to the weapon on the attacker's character sheet to thrown weapon attack rolls. The target's missile defense is the difficulty of a thrown weapon attack.

quick throw

A quick throw is a quick thrown weapon attack. The maximum range of this attack is the character's throwing ability modifier plus the difference between the character's strength and the weapon's heft. This action cannot be used with unwieldy weapons. Quick throwing is useful when speed or precision is important, such as knife and hatchet-throwing competitions or throwing sand in an opponent's face.

powerful throw

A powerful throw is a strenuous double power thrown weapon attack. The maximum range of this attack is twice the range of a quick throw. Unwieldy weapons cannot be thrown this way. Powerful throwing is useful when distance or damage is important, like throwing a javelin.

heave

Heave is a strenuous double power thrown weapon attack. Any object the character can lift can be thrown by heaving. Heaved objects are wildly imprecise, so the character has a -5 modifier to hit the target. The maximum distance the character can heave an object is the range of a quick throw.

Archery and Marksmanship Actions

Add the attack modifier next to the weapon on the attacker's character sheet to archery and marksmanship attack rolls. The target's missile defense is the difficulty of an archery or marksmanship attack.

aim

Aim is a quick gun or bow action which cannot be used while grappling. Aiming gives a +5 attack bonus to the character's next attack unless he takes damage or stun between aiming and the attack.

quick shot

A quick shot is a quick gun or bow attack.

strategic shot

A strategic shot is a strenuous gun or bow attack with a +5 attack bonus.

cautious shot

A cautious shot is a strenuous gun or bow attack with +5 defense until the character's next turn.

draw and fire

Draw and fire is a strenuous bow attack which does not require the bow to be already drawn.

draw

Drawing a bow is a quick action. A bow must be drawn before it can be aimed or fired. Drawing a bow requires the use of two hands. If the bow's heft is at least double the character's strength, the character cannot draw it at all. Bows tend to be lightweight, but the power of a bow comes from its spring instead of its mass. So the heft of a bow reflects the bow's pull and the strength required to draw the bow.

unload

Unloading a gun is a quick action. Most weapons are designed to be loaded quickly, but unloading them can be trickier. Unloading a weapon is usually a quick action. After unloading the character can hold onto the ammunition or lets it drop. Putting away the ammunition a character is holding requires an extra quick action. (If a character is holding several rounds of ammunition which must be put away sepearately, putting away each round is a quick action.)

load

Loading a gun is a quick action. Some weapons must be loaded before each attack, or reloaded after a certain number of uses. Replacing a clip of ammunition requires two quick actions: unload and load. If rounds of ammunition must be loaded individually, reloading requires an unload action and a load action for each round. For example, if a character has to load a revolver one bullet at a time then each bullet loaded is a quick action. Some weapons take several actions to reload. A "Brown Bess" musket can be fired about 3 times per minute with training, suggesting 9 actions to reload and 1 turn to fire. (Each of these actions required to reload the musket takes a full turn, so they are not quick actions.)

Grappling Actions

Grappling actions can give the character the dominant position. (See Action/Grappling.) Add the attacker's grapple attack to grappling attack rolls. Use the defender's grapple defense as the difficulty of grappling attacks.

push

A push, pull or shove is a quick grappling action which puts the target off balance. Successfully pushing, pulling and tripping up a standing opponent forces him to move in the direction the pushing character wants, and puts the pushed character off balance so he must make an roll against a difficulty of 8 using his grappling or acrobatics ability or fall down. If the pushing character is standing when his opponent falls down, the pushing character must choose whether to let go of him or follow him to the ground.

trip

A trip is a strenuous double power grappling attack which puts the target off balance. Successfully attacking a standing target's legs puts him off balance so he must make an roll against a difficulty of 8 using his grappling or acrobatic ability check or fall down.

slam

A slam is a strenuous grappling attack which puts the target on the ground. If the slamming character is standing and chooses to fall onto his opponent, then this attack has double power. The target will always end up on the ground, but he can still make an additional grappling or acrobatics ability roll against a difficulty of 8 to reduce damage from falling. If this roll is successful the damage is reduced by the attack's power, which means the slam will do no damage if the attacker does not fall onto the target and normal damage if the attacker does fall onto the target.

hold

A hold is a quick grappling action. Hold is not an attack, but this action allows a character to make a grappling success roll. If this roll is successful the character doing the hold can choose to take the dominant position or stop grappling with his opponent.

wrench

A wrench is a strenuous double power grappling attack. The damage and stun of a wrench are determined like the damage and stun of a blunt weapon.

choke

A choke is a strenuous double power grappling attack which only does stun. A choke always causes at least two stun if it is successful, regardless of armor and absorption.

disarm

Disarm is a strenuous double power grappling attack which forces an opponent to release his weapon or other possession. The difficulty of this action is the target's defense plus 5. If a character doing a disarm is successful and he has at least one free hand, he takes the weapon from his opponent. If he is successful but has no free hands, the opponent drops the weapon.

Other Actions

drop

Dropping to the ground is a quick action.

stand

Standing up is a quick action.

instant stand

Instant stand is a strenuous action which is like standing up normally except that the character using instant stand also gets a +5 defense modifier until his next turn.

rest

This action recovers all of a character's stun and gives him a +5 defense modifier until his next turn.

cover

A character can put himself at risk to protect a target, usually an ally. When the target is attacked, use the covering character's defense plus 5 instead of the target's defense. If the attack is successful it still hits the target. If the attack fails, it hits the covering character.

Health

Stun and Resting

Stun is the short-term effect of pain and injury. Characters can recover stun with the rest action. When characters are incapacitated they recover half of their stun (rounded up) each turn.

Damage and Healing

Damage is the long-term effect of injuries that heal slowly. Characters usually have a chance to recover damage once per week. This requires a success roll against the difficulty 10 plus 1 for every day the character exerted himself (by travelling or fighting for example) during that week, plus 1 for every time the character took damage or stun, and plus 5 for every time the character was incapacitated by damage. (There is no penalty for being incapacitated by a combination of stun and damage.) If the roll is successful, the character recovers half of his damage, rounded up. For example if the character has 5 damage and successfully heals, then he will recover 3 damage, leaving him with only 2 damage after healing.

Sharpness

Sharpness determines whether the attack power that gets through the target's armor becomes stun or damage. All the power of a sharp weapon becomes damage. Half the power (rounded down) of a blunt weapon becomes damage and the rest becomes stun. For example, 5 power getting through the target's armor absorption would become 2 damage and 3 stun to the target. All the power of a padded weapon becomes stun.

Healthy A character is healthy when the sum of his stun and damage is less than his toughness. Injured A character is injured when the sum of his stun and damage less than his stamina but not less than his toughness. An injured character cannot do combos or strenuous actions. Incapacitated A character is incapacitated when the sum of his stun and damage is greater than or equal to his stamina. An incapacitated character cannot move or perform actions.

Armor

Any equipment with cover and absorption is armor. Normally, the best absorption of all the armor worn by a character is subtracted from the power of successful attacks against the character. However an attacker can aim any attack to avoid armor, which increases the difficulty of the attack by the cover of the armor avoided. The attack can avoid all or just some of the armor a character is wearing. An attack cannot avoid armor that has complete cover.

Consider for example a character wearing a leather jacket (5 cover, 2 absorption) and a crash helmet (2 cover, 5 absorption). If an opponent attacks the character without specifically avoiding the character's armor, the armor will absorb 5 power from each attack. If an opponent tries to hit the character where the armor provides no protection, the armor will absorb no damage, but the difficulty will be increased by 7 (5 cover from the jacket plus 2 cover from the helmet.) However, the opponent can also try to avoid only the helmet. Then the leather jacket absorbs 2 power from each attack but the difficulty of the attack is only increased by 2 (the helmet's cover.)

Sometimes armor is worn in layers. A brigandine (vest lined with metal plates) is often worn over a gambeson (padded coat) or chainmail. Bulletproof ballistic vests often have optional inserts which offer extra protection to vital areas such as the heart. If one piece of armor is completely overlapped by another, the overlapping area has the cover of the smaller piece of armor and the absorption of both pieces added together. (This is like subtracting the cover of the layer with the least cover from the cover of the layer with the most cover, and adding the absorption of the layer with the most cover to the absorption of the armor with the least cover.)

Attacking

Charging Attack

If a character travels more than 5 meters in a straight line before attacking, all in a single turn, the distance traveled (in meters) minus 5 is added to the power of the attack.

Readying Weapons

Unless surprised, characters will usually draw their weapons before the beginning of combat. If they have to ready the weapon during an action round, drawing the weapon from it's sheath, holster, scabbard, belt, or other convenient location is a quick action.

Attacking from a Distance

The difficulty of hitting a target depends on distance and the weapon's range. The difficulty of hitting the target increases by 1 for every 5% of the weapon's maximum range between the attacker and the target. 5% of the maximum range can be found by multiplying the maximum range by 0.05 or dividing the maximum range by 20. For example, if a weapon has 140 m range, then the difficulty of hitting targets with the weapon increases by 1 for every 7 m between the attacker and the target (140 / 20 = 7). The difficulty of hitting a target less than 7 m away would not be affected. The difficulty of hitting a target 7 to 13 m away would be increased by 1 (14 = 7 × 1), The difficulty of hitting a target 14 to 20 m away would be increased by 2 (14 = 7 × 2), The difficulty of hitting a target 70 to 76 m away would be increased by 10 (70 = 7 × 10), and so forth.

Attacking in the Dark

A lack of sufficient lighting can add to the difficulty of an attack if the attacker is not blind. Total darkness can increase the difficulty by +3 for a grappling attack, +4 for a striking attack and +5 for an attack from a distance. Very dim light rather than total darkness only increases the difficulty of grappling attacks by +1, striking attacks by +2 and attacks from a distance by +3.

Random Damage (Optional Rule)

Double power attacks only have double power if the attack roll is 13 or better before adding modifiers. If the attack roll is 12 or less before adding modifiers, the attack has normal power instead of double power.

Critical Hit (Optional Rule)

When an attack is automatically successful, increase the power of the attack by the weapon's power. In other words normal attacks have double power when they are automatically successful and double damage attacks have three times normal power when they are automatically successful.

Grappling

When grappling, regardless of weapon attack or defense, a character's grapple attack and grapple defense is used instead for grappling combat rolls. Striking while grappling uses the normal weapon attack and defense, with the appropriate grappling position modifiers.

A grappler can be in a dominant, neutral or inferior position relative to an opponent. Either one grappler's position is dominant and the other's is inferior, or they are both neutral. If a character is fully successful with any grappling action, he may choose whether to end up in a hold with the dominant position, or to release the hold. If a character fails, his opponent gets to decide whether to release the hold (but does not have a dominant position if that opponent did not already have it.)

Characters can grapple while standing (clinch fighting) or on the ground (ground fighting.) In a clinch, both grappling characters have a -5 modifier to all combat rolls except that a grappling character with a dominant position has a +0 modifier against his opponent in the inferior position. While ground fighting the grappling characters have the same modifiers except that instead of the -5 modifier they have a +5 defense vs. missile weapons and a -5 defense vs hand to hand attacks from other characters who are not grappling.

In order to for a pair (or other group) of grappling characters to move, one of the characters must successfully move the other using a grappling technique. Both characters then are moved unless both character's holds on each other are broken.

When a character falls down they he takes damage as if hit by a quick attack, except that the sharpness of the attack is based on the surface he lands on, and he takes at least two points of stun regardless of what armor he is wearing. If a character falls from a height the damage is increased by 1 for each meter he falls. If a character is pushed or thrown into a wall instead of the ground he takes damage as if falling.

Archery and Marksmanship

Keeping a Bow Drawn

The strength and concentration required to keep a bow drawn prevents a character from performing any other actions until the bow is fired. (A character can perform other actions while holding a crossbow, just like a loaded firearm.)

Drawing a Crossbow

Drawing a crossbow without a lever or crank is the same as drawing other bows. A lever or crank can decrease the heft required to draw a crossbow by increasing the number of turns required to reload. (See Equipment/Features/shots.)

Stance and Position

To simplify keeping track of success roll modifiers, there are only 10 different actions and positions to be aware of. A character can only be in one of these positions at a time. For example, a character cannot do a strategic attack while aiming or grappling.

Standing

This is the position where characters are ready to do most actions, but they are also fully exposed to missile weapon attacks such as thrown weapons, slings, bows and guns. While standing a character can move at normal speed and have no special modifiers from this position. When a character does the instant stand action, he has a defense bonus until his next turn.

On the Ground

While a character is crouching, crawling, sitting, or lying on the ground, they move more slowly (half movement, -5 to all striking attack rolls and defense against striking) but they are harder to hit with missile weapons (+5 defense against missile weapon attacks, even without cover, unless the attack comes from above.) Powerful, strategic and cautious attacks cannot be done from the ground.

Aiming while Standing

When a character aims a missile weapon they have a +5 to hit.

Aiming on the Ground

When a character aims from a sitting or prone position they have a +5 to hit plus the penalties for being on the ground: they move more slowly (half movement, -5 to defense against striking) but they are harder to hit with missile weapons (+5 to avoid a missile weapon, even without cover, unless the attack comes from above.)

Clinch

When a character is grappling and standing up, but does not have the dominant position, they have a -5 to all attack rolls and -5 defense against all attacks.

Ground Fighting

When a character is grappling on the ground, and does not have the dominant position, they have a +5 defense against missile weapon attacks, -5 to defense against other attacks, and -5 to all attack rolls.

Dominant Position (Standing)

When a character in a clinch (grappling while standing) has the dominant position, he has a +5 bonus to attack rolls and defense against the character in the inferior position, and -5 to all other combat rolls.

Dominant Position (on the Ground)

When a character has the dominant position while grappling on the ground, he has a +5 modifier to attack rolls and defense against the character in the inferior position, +5 against missile weapon attacks, and -5 to other attack rolls and defense against other attacks.

Resting, Instant Stand and Special Attacks

The rest action, cautious attacks and instant stand give a defense bonus until the end of the character's next turn, and strategic attacks have an attack bonus. Cautious attacks cannot be done on the ground. (See Action/Actions and Action/Attacking.)

			Standing		On the Ground
	Default		no modifiers		+5 defense vs. missiles -5 striking attack and defense
	Aiming		+5 to hit		+5 to hit +5 defense vs. missiles -5 striking defense
	Grappling		-5 to all rolls		-5 attack -5 hand to hand defense
	Dominant		+5 vs. inferior -5 vs. others		+5 vs. inferior -5 attack vs. others -5 hand to hand defense vs. others
	Strategic		+5 to hit		n/a
	Cautious		+5 defense		n/a
	Resting		+5 defense		+5 defense

Mounted Combat

When the Animal Attacks

When riding an animal, the animal will fight automatically if it is trained to do so. Every time the animal attacks or defends, the rider must make a roll using their riding ability to stay mounted. The difficulty of this roll is 10.

Stopping the Attack

To keep the animal from attacking the rider must make an animal handling success roll every time the animal is attacked, and every round that the animal's attacker is visible. The difficulty of this roll is 10 if the animal is unhurt, or 15 if the animal has stun or damage.

Animals that do not Fight

Animals trained to be ridden but not to fight will not attack if they are being ridden. Instead, they will try to run unless the rider makes a successful animal handling roll. This has a difficulty of 15 if the animal is unhurt, or 20 if the animal has stun or damage.

Charging

Instead of having the animal attack, a rider may use the animal's speed to do a charging attack. (See Action/Attacking.)

Vehicles

Vehicle combat is similar to mounted combat, but most vehicles will not fight or try to run from an enemy.

Ramming

When a driver rams a target, their driving ability modifier or the vehicle's agility - whichever is lower - is used as the attack modifier. A successful ramming attack results in an automatically successful ramming counterattack by the target against the part of the vehicle used to ram (usually the front.)

Head-on and Broadside Collisions

If the vehicle and target are moving in different directions (or if only the vehicle is moving) the extra charging damage caused by the speed of both the vehicle and the target is added to the damage taken by both.

Rear-end and Sideswipe Collisions

If the vehicle and target are moving in the same direction then the charging damage is based on the difference in the distances the vehicle and target moved in that direction since the beginning of their last turn.

Combat Example

To demonstrate the basic hand-to-hand combat system, Steven - the character from our character generation example - has a clone exactly like Steven, except the clone has not made itself a machete. Steven decides to take out the clone before it can get started on an machete of it's own. (See Character Creation/Character Generation Example.)

Steven, adult male human robber, 95 kg, 1.6 m height, 201 CP
1 speed, 0 agility, 3 strength, 7 toughness, 14 stamina, 5 running
2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship
2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
1 machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense)
14 melee defense, 10 missile defense, 13 grapple defense, 3 grapple attack
0 best absorption, 0 total cover, ____ stun, ____ damage

The Clone, adult male human robber, 95 kg, 1.6 m height, 201 CP
1 speed, 0 agility, 3 strength, 7 toughness, 14 stamina, 5 running
2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship
2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
14 melee defense, 10 missile defense, 13 grapple defense, 3 grapple attack
0 best absorption, 0 total cover, ____ stun, ____ damage

1. Establishing Initiative

Steven tries to ambush the clone. He uses stealth to sneak up on the clone, but Steven does not have the stealth ability so his success modifier is 0. Steven rolls a 13 and adds his modifier (0) to get a total of 13. The difficulty of this roll is 10 plus the clone's detection ability modifier, which is 0 because the clone does not have the detection ability. Steven's ambush is successful because Steven's total of 13 is greater than the difficulty of 10.

2. Combat Begins

Now on his first turn in the combat round, Steven is able to attack first and while the clone is not prepared to defend or counter attack, because of Steven's successful stealth roll.

Steven does a powerful strike with his machete. The attack modifier of this attack is Steven's attack modifier with the machete, which is 4. Steven's player rolls a 2, and adds Steven's attack modifier with the machete (4) so that his total attack roll is 6. The difficulty of the attack is the clone's defense. The clone's melee defense is 12. Steven's total of 6 is less than the clone's 12 defense, so Steven's attack misses.

3. The Clone's First Turn

Now the clone has initiative because his player is sitting next in order. 15 The clone launches a combo attack. The clone's speed is 1, but he has two hands and two feet. Because the clone has multiple weapons he can do an extra attack (as long as he doesn't use the same hand and foot for both attacks.) The clone's player decides that the clone's combo will be 2 quick strikes with his hands. Both of these quick attacks have an attack modifier of 2. The difficulty of the attack is Steven's melee defense which is 14.

• On the first attack in the combo, the clone rolls a 14, for a total of 16 after adding the clone's attack modifier (2). Because the clone's total (16) is greater than Steven's defense (14), the clone's first strike is successful. The power of this attack is 3. Because the clone's hands and feet are not sharp (or padded) half of the power, rounded down becomes damage (1) and the rest (2) becomes stun. Steven now has 2 stun and 1 damage.
• On the second attack in the combo, the clone rolls an 12, for a total of 14 after adding the clone's attack modifier (2). Because the Clone's total is only equal to Steven's defense, the attack misses.

4. The second round

When it is Steven's turn again, he decides to wait and counterattack.

Now it is the clone's turn, and the clone decides to do a powerful strike, but Steven gets to attack first because of his counterattack. Steven's response is a powerful attack of his own. Steven rolls a 14 for a total of 18 after adding his attack modifier (4). The clone's defense is 12. Because Steven's total (18) is higher than the clone's defense (12), his attack succeeds. This is a double power attack, so the attack power is 10. The clone has no armor with absorption to reduce the attack's power. Because Steven's machete is Sharp, the clone takes 10 damage and no stun.

The clone's stun plus damage (0 + 10 = 10) is now has more than his toughness (7) but less than his stamina (14). This means the clone is injured and can no longer do strenuous actions like the powerful strike he was planning. Instead, the clone chooses to evade, giving him a +5 defense modifier against all attacks until his next turn.

5. Steven's Third Turn

Steven decides to follow up his attack with a combo. He can only use the machete once in the combo because his speed is 1, but he can also use his other hand, legs, elbows, knees, head, etc. to do a second attack.

• Steven first attacks using a kick (a quick attack with one of his legs.) Steven's attack bonus with his head and legs is 2, and he rolls a 12, for a total of 14. The clone's defense is 12, but this is raised to 17 because the clone is evading. Steven's kick attack misses because Steven's total (14) is not greater than the clone's defense (17).
• 
  For Steven's second attack he uses the machete, and he rolls a 17, for a total combat roll of 21. The clone's defense and evasion together is only 17, so Steven's attack is successful. The power of this attack is 5. Steven's weapon is sharp so the attack does 5 damage. The clone is now totally incapacitated because the clone's damage plus stun (0 + 15 = 15) is equal to or higher than the clone's stamina (14).