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Skirmishes

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The Skirmish rules are intended for detailed or intricate fast-paced combat between a small number of relatively powerful individuals in a constrained combat area. They take longer to resolve than Battles and should be restrained to combats that hold a great deal of significance to the game.

Skirmishes take place as a series of Rounds. Each Round represents a brief period of time (a few seconds) wherein each character receives a Turn on which they may perform Actions to eliminate their enemies or otherwise secure their objectives.

Skirmishes require the following components for a battle:

  • A map of the battlefield & its terrain;
  • Some means of measurement of distance — by default, a ruler;
  • Markers to indicate combatant locations.

Round Order

Rounds in Skirmishes have 3 phases.

  1. The GM provides the players a brief overview of the current situation, if necessary. He informs them of what the enemies appear to be planning on doing this Round; he may fully describe the intended Actions of slower NPCs, and not at all the Actions of faster NPCs at his discretion.
  2. All players take Turns in whichever order they figure (or simultaneously).
  3. All enemies take their Turns in whichever order the GM determines (or simultaneously).

Some characters may have Features that let them act before or after all other characters. In such a case, the Round phases look more like this:

  1. Overview provided
  2. Fast characters take Turns
  3. Ordinary characters take Turns
  4. Slow characters take Turns

In all cases, PCs move before NPCs. If for any reason two NPCs or PCs are fighting each other, assign odds to & roll a d6 to determine who goes first.

Surprise Rounds

A Surprise Round is a special kind of Round where only characters who are ambushing another set of combatants may act.

Turns & Actions

On their Turn, characters may:

  • Take up to 2 Instant Actions.
    • Of these, only one may be a Save Action; we count any usage of Spell Dice (i.e. for casting) as a Save.
  • Take as many Free Actions as desired.
  • Take a single 1-Turn Action if they take no other Actions on their turn (excepting Free Actions).
  • Spend Actions on continuing/finishing a previously-chosen multi-Turn Action whose Duration has not yet ended.
  • Spend Actions on Concentration to extend the Duration of a previously-chosen Action.