Combat Rules For TORG

In a roleplaying game, combat isn’t often fought on a board. Usually, the combat situation is described to you by the gamemaster; she describes your surroundings, your opponents and what actions your enemies are taking. Then she goes around the table asking each player what his character is doing this round. When she comes to you, tell her what your character is doing, and what skills he is using. If you have a defensive skill, you are always assumed to be using that skill passively unless you state you are taking an active defense.

Actions

-An attack action is an action your character takes to damage a target. An attack action always requires a character to generate a total.

-A defense action is use of a defensive skill such as dodge. A character rolls only when making active use of a defensive skill. All bonus numbers for active use of defensive skills have a minimum of 1.

-Intimidation is a combat use of the intimidation skill. Intimidation can cause an opponent to lose a round, or worse.

-Maneuver is aggressive movement designed to tire an opponent or throw her off balance. Maneuver is a Dexterity skill used against an opponent's Dexterity or maneuver.

-A character generates a total on movement when trying to increase his speed; otherwise the character may move up to his movement limit without rolling the die.

-A simple action is one such as shouting commands, loading a weapon, drawing a weapon, or similar easy task. Simple actions require no roll to perform. For an action to be simple it must meet two criteria: 1) The action must not be covered in the rules as any other type of action. 2) You must believe the action has very little chance of failure in this situation, a difficulty of 0 or less. If normal people can succeed at this action 95% of the time or more then it is likely a simple action.

-Taunt is a Charisma based skill, targeted against an opponent's taunt or Charisma. Taunting is an attempt to anger your opponent or otherwise cause her to mentally lose her balance in combat.

-Test of wills is a character's attempt to break the will of his opponent. Test is a Mind skill and is targeted against the opponent's test or Mind.

-Trick is an attempt to gain an advantage by setting up a feint, a trap, or a condition of which an opponent is unaware. Trick is a Perception skill and is used against an opponent's trick or Perception.

Armor

Armor absorbs much of the punishment meant for characters. Armor increases the character's Toughness for purposes of resisting damage, up to a maximum value as listed for each particular armor. The amount of increase is called the armor add. The maximum value is necessary for realism, to prevent wrapping a battleship in leather to make it tougher, when the leather would be completely ineffective against the attack forms against which a battleship is armored. Armor can have a strength minimum required to wear it, which is particularly true of armor meant for large non-humans.

Attack Options

-A character may spend one round aiming. This may only be done with firearms and missile weapons, and requires the attacker to remain motionless and be undisturbed for that round. Next round, his attack value is increased by 3.

-A vital blow is an attack aimed at a vital spot (such as "aiming for the eye") The acting value for the hit is decreased by 8 because of the control needed for the blow, while the damage value is increased by 4 due to the critical nature of the target. If a character is facing an unknown creature, he cannot take a vital blow if he does not know what parts are vital. A vital blow may also be used to disarm an opponent who is using a hand-held weapon. The opponent's Strength score (melee weapon score if the defender is using a melee weapon) is used as the difficulty for the second total, rather than Toughness. If successful, the defender is disarmed.

-All-out attack is a furious, deliberate attack for maximum effect which sacrifices defense to increase damage. This may only be done in unarmed or melee combat. An all-out attack increases the acting value of the attack by 3, and increases the damage value by 1. In addition, an all-out attack leaves the attacker vulnerable to counterattack; all blows aimed at the character doing the all-out attack have their bonus numbers increased by 3 for both action and effect. An attacker may combine a vital blow with an all-out attack, resulting in a -5 attack value and a +5 damage value, with a +3 bonus to all attacks made on the character.

-A sweep attack may only be made in unarmed combat, or with a melee weapon. A sweep attack lowers the damage value by 5 in order to boost the attack value by 5, as the attacker is making broad, sweeping attacks to maximize the area covered by an attack

-A character taking an opportunity attack is waiting for a target to present itself later in the round. In effect the character passes her action when it is her turn. As each target presents itself, she must either decide to attack then or wait for another target. If she waits, any characters "passed over" may act and attack as they normally would. Opportunity attacks have a -3 bonus modifier for action and effect.

-A location attack is an opportunity attack in which a character waits for the first target to present itself at a location, and then attacks it. Her attack is "held over" until the target appears, or until the end of the round. The character must specify a single location, such as a doorway, for location attack. The location attack occurs as soon as the target presents itself. There is no penalty for location attack.

Attack Skills

Attack skills include energy weapons, fire combat, heavy weapons, unarmed, melee, and missile. Magic and spiritual skills can sometimes be used as attack skills. When using an attack skill, if your skill total is equal to or higher than the difficulty number of the attack, your character hits his opponent. The difficulty number is either an opponent’s defensive skill, or his Dexterity if he has no skill.

Damage

Once a character is hit, a second total (the effect total) determines damage. The attacker’s damage value is his Strength, possibly modified by a melee or missile weapon, or the damage value for the weapon itself (for firearms and other weapons that provide their own energy). The difficulty is the target’s Toughness (or armor value). The more the difficulty is exceeded, the more the target is damaged. Your gamemaster will tell you the specific effects. Remember that to get an effect total, you use the same bonus number that generated the first total.

A character can take up to three types of damage when he takes a blow: shock, knockout condition and wounds. An additional, temporary effect called knockdown is also possible. When your character is hit, the gamemaster will tell you what kind or kinds of damage the character takes.

-Shock damage is expressed as a number. Record shock damage in the “Damage” section of your character template. When the total number of shock points taken equals or exceeds your character’s Toughness, he falls unconscious.

-Knockout Conditions represent blows to vulnerable areas. Knockout conditions are marked by the letters “K” and “O”. The gamemaster will tell you if you take a K blow; record this on your template. If a character with a K-condition takes another K blow, two additional shock points are taken. If a character with a K later gets an O, he is knocked unconscious.

-Wound damage is damage that lingers. There are four levels of wound severity: wounded, heavily wounded, mortally wounded, and dead. When your character takes a wound, record this on your template. Wounds are cumulative: a heavily wounded character who takes another wound is now mortally wounded, and so forth. When a character reaches the mortally wounded level, he will soon die unless he receives medical attention.

-Another possible result is a knockdown. This represents the force of the blow physically knocking a character off his feet. A character who has been knocked down may only defend for his next action.

-Some types of attack do "stun" damage rather than regular damage. This includes blows from clubs, rubber bullets, fistfights, and knockout gas. Stun damage does shock and KO damage just as regular blows; however, stun damage does not wound as frequently or as severely. When checking for damage from a stun-type weapon, ignore a kockdown result, treat a wound result as a knockdown, and any #Wnd result has the number reduced by 1.

Defensive Skills

Some skills can make your character harder to hit. If your character has the dodge skill, his dodge value is the difficulty number for an opponent’s fire combat or missile attack. This is called a passive use of the skill because no die roll is involved.

Your melee skill may also be used as a defensive skill, if you have a melee weapon; your melee value is the difficulty number for an opponent’s unarmed or melee attack. Your unarmed combat skill value is the difficulty number for an opponent’s unarmed attack if you do not have the melee skill or a melee weapon.

A defensive skill may be used actively, if you announce your action as the use of a defensive skill (such as dodge). You may generate a defensive skill total for all attacks against your character in the round in which you announce active defense.

When rolling a bonus for an active defense, treat all bonus numbers of less than one as one. This makes sure your character does better by taking an active defense instead of passive.

Initiative

Initiative is determined by flipping a card from the drama deck onto the action stack. Characters on the side with initiative act in descending order of Dexterity, high Dexterity to low Dexterity. In the case of tied Dexterity scores, the person with the highest Mind acts first. If there is still a tie, go next to Perception. Once all characters on the side with Initiative have acted, the characters on the other side act, again in descending order of Dexterity. Once all characters who wish to and are capable of acting have acted, the round is over. A new round is started by flipping a new card.

Martial Arts Manuevers

Minor Disciplines

Block/Strike: this maneuver allows the practitioner to both block an opponent's blow and strike himself in a round. In game terms, this means the martial artist can use his skill to deflect an unarmed combat, martial arts, melee or missile attack, and launch a martial arts attack in the same combat round. During flurry rounds, a character employing this maneuver blocks once and throws two blows.

To successfully perform a block/strike, two martial arts totals are generated. The first would have a difficulty number of the attackers combat skill (i.e., unarmed combat if he is throwing a punch), and success would allow the martial artist to block the blow. The second would concern the strike, and would have an opposing value of the opponent's relevant defensive skill.

Felling The Oak: a devastating blow, felling the oak involves chopping with both hands at the opponent's sides below the rib cage. Such an attack has a damage value of STR +4. This maneuver can also be used as a vital blow attack, as it can do damage to the kidneys and other internal organs if performed properly.

Lightning Fist: martial artists who have mastered this discipline can make two martial arts attacks in the same round, on the same or different targets. If performed against a single target, only one total need be generated (the same bonus can be applied to both strikes). If there are two separate targets, a total must be generated for each attack.

Lightning fist may not be used in consecutive rounds, and may never be used during flurry rounds.

Missile Dodge: this discipline enhances a martial artist's ability to avoid arrows, spears, knives and other muscle-powered missile weapons. Missile dodge can be used for either passive or active defense, and provides a DEX +2 bonus to efforts to sidestep an incoming attack.

Missile Dodge can only be employed against missile weapon attacks.

Stop Thrust: for use as an active defense only, this maneuver involves the martial artist thrusting his fist out to block a charging opponent (one making a melee, martial arts, or unarmed attack). If successful, the foe takes no physical damage but is considered to be unskilled for the next round.

Stunning Attack: this maneuver gives the martial artist the skill to attack a target and cause stun damage. A martial artist attempting a stunning attack recieves a +2 bonus to his martial arts value, but does not do as much damage as he would with another blow.

A successful stunning attack does shock and KO damage as a standard blow would, but when checking for the effects of the blow, ignore a kockdown result, treat a wound result as a knockdown, and any #WND result has the number reduced by one.

Throw: this permits a martial artist to grasp and throw a target. Treat a throw as a martial arts attack for the purpose of securing a hit. If the attack is successful, the martial artist can throw the target up to five meters in any direction. To determine the distance thrown and the amount of damage done, use the drop kick rules above.

A thrown target must then spend his next round standing up (unless he has mastered the instant up discipline). A martial artist cannot conduct throw attacks in two consecutive rounds.

Movement In Combat

On your template, to the right of the skill section, is a section for your movement rates and values; the movement rate given is in meters per round. The rate assumes you are running (or otherwise moving) full tilt.

You may announce a movement action and generate a movement total to try to go faster than your movement rate. Movement is like a defensive skill in that any bonus less than one is treated as one when you make an active movement roll. If you are walking, you can walk 10 meters per round. Any movement at a rate greater than 10 meters per round is considered running.

Ranged Attack Modifiers

Point blank attacks are attacks at less than short range. The minimum bonus number for a point blank attack is 1, as with active use of passive skills. Short range has no modifiers. Medium range has a -3 bonus number modifier. Long range has a -5 bonus number modifier.

Situational Modifiers

Blindside: A blindside attack comes from a direction which is unexpected of from which the defender cannot protect well. Hitting a character from behind is a blindside attack. Blindside attacks increase the attack bonus by 3.

Complete Surprise: This is only possible when the target is unaware of the attacker's presence, and is not expecting any attack at all. Characters who routinely operate in dangerous envirnments where conflict is expected, such as policemen and soldiers, cannot be caught completely by surprise while on duty. Complete surprise allows the attacker to play two cards into their card pool prior to combat, or (if the defenders are the player characters), prevents the defenders from adding any cards to their pools for the first two rounds.

Nomal Surprise: This occurs when the defenders may be expecting an attack, but do not know the time or exact loaction of the attack., such as an ambush of a patrol. Noral surprise allows the attackers to play one card into their pool prior to combat, or prevents them from adding a card into their pool for the first round.