Basic Keywords
Basic keywords are a small set of keywords a character has that apply to ALL their defences, attacks, social attacks and actions. It is currently primarily used for things like being an Animal or Plant or being a specific Gender and mostly just exists for match up purposes of other abilities.
As a basic standard most characters will just have
Animal and a gender (
Male or
Female) as their only basic keywords.
Gender keywords and homosexuality and stuff
Yikes. Hilariously, or frighteningly, there actually needs to be some accounting for this.
Some characters are going to respond differently to certain attacks, especially social Seductive type attacks, based on sexuality.
As such there ARE characters running around who just have things like
Male on their basic keyword list but have the special exception that they treat themselves as
Female for the purposes of defences only against Seductive attacks.
This is an odd way of describing characters, but it is a way of mechanically representing the blatantly obvious in a formal way that seems to get all the appropriate relationships correct.
Body Keywords
In addition to their basic keywords every character has a small set of “Body Keywords” that represent the material keywords of whatever their body is made out of.
Body keywords are added to any action, attack, or defence which has
Body among it's keywords. So for instance when you punch someone with your fist, or if someone is attacking you and you aren't wearing a full suit of armour, you will apply your body material keywords.
The typical standard character has a body made out of
Soft and
Flesh.
Standard Actions
The standard action list is a list of standard actions normally available to basically all (or in some cases, most) characters. Many more complex actions either interact with, or build from, these standard actions.
Everything gets keywords
It is important to note that pretty much every action has keywords. Even if you aren't rolling the action as an attack, and you don't expect any sort of attack to target the action in some strange way as if it were a defence your actions STILL get keywords. In the case of non-attack actions this is most commonly important for special circumstances where an action can be a trigger for some event, effect or other action.
The prime example of this being Move triggered Zone Hazard attacks. Which will be covered later.
Move
The basic
Move action is really simple. A character spends their Action for the turn and moves from their zone to an adjacent zone. The basic Move action has the keywords
Move and
Walk
Climbing
Any character with
Walk movement can attempt to climb, either to get over some sort of zone boundary obstacle or to move along zone walls or into zones without floors.
A character with the
Climb keyword can just do this. Other characters will have to roll a Climb check. Climb checks are (mostly) arbitrary “other stuff” rolls against a target number set by the GM representing the difficulty of climbing the surface. A few largely inconsequential “abilities” give small bonuses to your climb check, and as an arbitrary other stuff roll it should be possible to gain negotiated bonuses anyway.
Swimming
Any character character can attempt to swim in water (or other fluids?). Swimming for regular
Walk characters is a bit hard. They cannot Run or Charge while swimming, they suffer -2 to all normal attacks and to normal defence (though some normal attacks may not work at all in, or through, water. Especially projectiles vs submerged targets).
Some water may be rough or have a current and may require an arbitrary “other stuff” swim check, just like the Climb check. And just like climb some abilities may give small bonuses, and negotiated bonuses are acceptable.
Characters with
Swim can Run and Charge in water and suffer no penalties to attacks or defences for doing so. They MIGHT still have to make swim checks for special conditions, but if so should be given an arbitrary negotiated bonus.
Sometimes a character may for one reason or another sink. Most typically because certain heavy armours just do that to you when you wear them. In addition however a large amount or even a single large heavy held or pocketed item may cause a character to sink, though in the held or pocketed item case the character may opt to simply drop any held or pocketed item that would cause them to sink for free and have it sink without them.
There is no such thing as “water pressure” and we don't bother doing damage from water pressure. But you CAN drown. So lets side bar a drowning/holding you breath thing...
Holding your breath, drowning and suffocating
As an aside since we are doing swimming, your character can opt to hold their breath!
Each turn a character can hold their breath at the cost of 1 Energy. And if they are down to 0 Energy they can hold their breath for 1 additional turn (but then cannot hold their breath again until they perform a successful Rest action.
Holding your breath cannot be declared as an immediate response to an attack, and indeed should be declared at the beginning of a turn. But if you ARE holding your breath you may be immune to certain attacks (like say, a poisonous gas cloud zone hazard), or more commonly, immune to drowning attacks.
If for some reason you CANNOT breath, and you cannot hold your breath, (for instance, you are in an underwater zone), then each turn at the start of your action you suffer a Drowning Attack.
Drowning Attack Temporary-Damage Single-Target Special-Range +X vs All
Where X is the number of consecutive turns prior to this turn that this target has been subjected to a Drowning Attack (regardless of whether they hit). Drowning attacks deal standard injuries, but have the Temporary-Damage keyword and are restored entirely once you can successfully rest while breathing.
And yes. Suffocating uses the EXACT same attack as drowning.
And also yes, some characters may be immune to drowning or suffocation in certain or all circumstances. But that's not standard.
Jumping
Jumping any object smaller than a zone is an arbitrary other stuff effect. So hopping over a bench is generally just plain ignored, and hopping over a canyon somehow smaller than a zone is just an arbitrary roll.
Using jumping movement to move into or through air based zones IS possible, but generally requires you to add the
Jump keyword to your move action, which requires special abilities.
This however has the specific exception of circumstances where a character can indeed move off the edge of an elevated zone. ANY character with normal
Walk based movement CAN just jump off a cliff with lateral movement. Doing so temporarily adds to their
Jump action.
Jumping (by either means) CAN end your movement in a zone that is entirely “Air based”. If so however the character will, without other abilities like flight, FALL at the start of their next action.
Flying
Characters cannot normally fly. If they end up in a zone in the air because of say, Jumping, or being thrown, they will generally Fall at the start of their next turn.
However characters with
Fly can in fact just move into air based zones, and, as long as they retain Fly, they can do so so and NOT fall.
All this talk of flying and jumping requires a Falling side bar...
Falling Down
A character can fall. This typically happens when they find themselves in a zone up in the air with no means of support. They typically then will fall at the start of their action in the next turn.
Falling first of all moves the character typically it moves them DOWN. Because of the somewhat wobbly nature of zones which EXACT zone is beneath any other may not always be perfectly certain, or may have a number of potentially correct results LARGER than 1. If so the falling character should generally be permitted to determine which zone they land in.
Falling Damage
You are under attack! By Gravity! And possibly a Hard Surface! Oh No! Falling damage by default uses the following attack. And applies any time you fall 1 zone or further...
Falling Attack Applies material keywords of the surface fallen onto Falling Knock Single-Target Close-Range +X vs All
+2 if you fall onto a Hard material, -2 if you fall onto a Soft material.
Where X is the number of zones you fell
Knock means that if this attack hits it will also knock you over, placing you in the Knocked state.
Falling deals 1 normal injury. But if you fall long distances the falling attack also gains Devastating +Z where Z is the equal to the Range Penalty of the distance you fell.
Some special effects make you immune, or resistant, to falling damage. One of particular note is any attack with the Driver, keyword, which means it is an attack that lets you attempt to land on a target and on hit transfers falling damage onto the target. The exact details of Driver effects are outlined in the related attack abilities.
Gliding
One or two effects may permit a character to glide. This generally means that they can fall without damage and can do so slowly. While falling they must fall “downwards” at least 1 zone per turn of gliding, but may move laterally as normal. They count as adding Fly to their movement, but have the special Glide restrictions to movement and cannot fly freely.
Smashing Through Things
Movement is normally inhibited by obstacles like Walls and closed doors, or even characters explicitly standing in their path (characters using the
Guard action).
However a character CAN
try and move THROUGH such an obstacle.
Doing so grants them a
free attack on the object (or character) in their path.
Some obstacles are considered “evadable”, such as a guarding character, and if the free attack selected has
Escape and succeeds then the character may pass and continue their action. If they fail in the escape attack, then their action ends and they fail to move any further.
Other obstacles, like walls and doors, especially the fragile ones, can simply be smashed through. And if the attack deals enough damage (walls and doors typically getting no blocks) the character will smash through and may continue their movement and other actions.
Inhibiting Movement
A number of effects can effect a character's ability to move. Some are described in the attack and damage rules, for instance Knock and Grab (and later Pin), and in some circumstances Sever.
However it is worth noting some things here.
A character who has at least half their movement limbs (for the form of movement being attempted) damaged, severed or disabled in some way (most commonly by Sever attacks) has “Inhibited Movement” and can no longer perform any actions that grant the
Run or
Charge keywords.
A character who has ALL their movement limbs (for the form of movement being attempted) damaged, severed or disabled is considered “Immobile”. An “Immobile” character adds
Immobile to their defence, they CAN still perform a normal Walk based move action, but it is interrupted and cancelled if ANYONE even ATTEMPTS to attack the immobile character (normal OR social). Immobile characters cannot perform Close-Range actions or attacks on targets unless the target is willing to be targeted, or has attempted a Close-Range action on the immobile character that same turn.
It is possible that some effects other than loss of limbs may apply either Inhibited Movement or Immobile.
Special Move Actions
Instead of performing a standard Move action a character may instead perform one of the following SPECIAL move actions.
Run
Instead of performing a basic Move action a character can instead
Run.
Running expends their action and allows them to move TWO zones instead. It also costs 1 Energy, and a character with 0 Energy left may run one more time before requiring a successful Rest action before they can run again.
Running adds the
Run keyword to your action. Most notable as a trigger for special actions and effects, most commonly Run triggered Zone Hazards.
Charge
Instead of performing a basic Move action a character can instead
Charge.
Charging expends their action and allows them to move just the usual 1 zone, but then also permits them to make a single Close-Range normal attack in the destination zone.
Charging has no special cost but adds the keywords
Run and
Charge to the action.
Again most notable as special trigger conditions.
Stand
Instead of performing a basic Move action a character can instead
Stand.
Standing doesn't move you anywhere at all. But it ends a
Knocked effect on your character.
Rest
The basic Rest action is the means by which a default character regains Energy. A character must spend their Action for their turn “resting”.
In the Resources phase of that turn IF that character was NOT attacked that turn they regain 1 Energy. Note this is “Attacked” NOT “hit” or “damaged” even a completely blocked or missed attack DOES cancel a rest. However if a Parry (presumably by another character) completely cancels an attack action, then that cancelled attack does NOT cancel Rest attempts.
Special Rests
Some effects revolve around “Special Rests”. For instance you need to perform a “special rest” in order to regain the ability to Run or Hold Your Breath after doing so at 0 remaining Energy. Similarly Resting while breathing freely can restore the special temporary injuries from Drowning attacks.
Special Rests function just like normal rests, but they restore... that thing they say they restore and they do NOT restore the 1 Energy of a normal rest action!
Energetic Characters
It is especially worth reminding you here that Energetic characters regain +1 Energy in any resource phase in which they regain any Energy. So if an Energetic Character successfully rests typically they will regain 2 points of Energy instead of the normal 1.
Guard
You guard the zone you are in.
Characters may only move into, out of or through the guarded zone with your permission, or by means of first succeeding in an attack against you with the
Escape keyword (they may make an attack, with or without the escape keyword on, against you for free as part of attempting to move through your guard effect). Failure to apply a successful escape attack against you ends their movement, either preventing them from moving into or out of your zone depending on when and where you applied the guard effect.
Group attackers CAN attempt to bypass you, as a group, with a group attack which applies the Escape keyword.
When you are guarding you may also intercept any actions targeting characters or objects within your zone, substituting yourself for such a target during any attack.
If by the Refund Phase your Guard action has NOT been triggered in any way (no target substitution, no attempts by you to block movement using your guard attack), you may immediately perform another action in the Refund Phase.
The guard action technically has the
Guard keyword for trigger purposes.
Equip
Character's care a lot about equipment and gear. Indeed this system is intended to make equipment management a highly dynamic and important process. This means it needs to be formalised and somewhat restrictive. The Equip action is the main action you use to manage your equipment. But before you can understand it you need to know a few bits and pieces.
Equipment Slots
Every character has a number of equipment slots they can put “things” in, like clothing, armour, weapons, and trinkets.
The standard character has the following equipment slots.
1 x Hat Slot - A slot for hats, helmets, masks and other major head gear.
2 x Shoes Slot - A slot for boots, shoes, and bare feet. Technically a “paired” slot in which you put just ONE “pair of” shoes items, but technically there are two feet and you might have a dagger hidden in one boot or somehow end up with one shoe on so... its a 2x slot by default as a result.
1 x Main Clothing/Armour Slot - A slot for you to put your cloths on in. Whether its a bikini, chain mail, or a chain mail bikini, this is where it goes.
1 x Cloak Slot - A slot for cloaks, capes, overcoats, extra skirts and all those other things. A place where you can wear some sort of extra clothes that go over your other clothes.
2 x Hand Slots - Most weapons require the use of a Hand slot in order to be actively and usably equipped, many actions require a free hand in order to be attempted, so your hands are really important slots.
4 x Pocket Slots - The next most important major slot after hands. The Pocket Slot is a place where you keep stuff you might want to use in a hurry, and a place where you can put items that are “active” when equipped in pocket slots (various miscellaneous items will do... stuff... if worn in a pocket slot).
4 x Pack Slots - These are slots where you can carry even more stuff, but it's in long term storage and doesn't DO anything while in your Pack slots.
Some items are “slotless” or use special one off unique slot types and stuff. But generally pretty much everything falls into the above slot regime, and the most important slots are Hands, Pockets and your Main Clothing/Armour.
Some items are “stackable” and permit you to stack multiple copies of the same item in one single slot.
Free Equipment Shifting
Even WITHOUT performing an Equip as your action for the turn you can move around your equipment
a bit.
You can simply drop items in your hands or pockets for free, either at any time during your own action in a turn, OR in response to certain events that allow such an item drop, for instance if heavy items are causing you to sink while in water.
As part of an attack action you may move items from your Pockets to any empty Hands at no action cost. So you can draw a sword out of a pocket AND attack someone as part of the same action.
At the beginning of the first turn after you become alert you may shift any items from your pockets to any empty hands also at no action cost.
So why would my hands ever be empty?
Well. Why indeed?
Often your hand slots SHOULD have swords in them (or something) so you can also fit more swords in your pockets.
The important differentiation is this.
Other characters don't like to see you walking towards them carrying bared swords and shields in your hands.
Even swords and shields in pocket slots are going to alert the guards in certain contexts, but having a pair of drawn swords in hand is SERIOUSLY going to threaten opponents into becoming alarmed.
So typically the choice is fairly simple, when dressing for frontal screaming assaults, hell yeah, you hold swords in your hand slots from the get go. When trying to be more subtle and casual you most certainly DON'T do that.
The Equip Action Itself
The Equip action is used for further equipment muddling.
By performing the equip action you can do ONE of the following.
1) Move items from full hands into your pockets, and items from your pockets into your empty or emptied hands.
2) Move items from the zone you are in into your empty hands or pockets.
3) Move items from your Pack slots into empty hands or pockets.
4) Put on or take off a hat
5) Put on or take off a set of footwear
6) Put on or take off a cloak
7) Put on or take off a “special slot” type item (like say, a pair of gloves or gauntlets)
8) Contribute 1 turn towards putting on (or taking off) a main clothing item or main armour item.
9) “Disrobe” an item from another willing or helpless character (or contribute 1 turn towards doing so if it is a main clothing or armour item).
Main clothing and armour items CAN take longer than 1 turn to remove or put on. Which is especially important when people surprise you in the bath or in your pyjamas (which this system is seriously designed to have actually happen on a non-zero basis), or when you might want to get undressed in a hurry (say while sinking and drowning in a heavy suit of armour) or changed in a hurry (like say swapping out an “expended” dinner suit during combat time in order to refresh your ability to use Torn Shirt).
The time it takes to put on OR remove a main clothing or armour item (by default) is as follows.
Normal Clothing Item – 2 Turns
Normal Armour Item – 3 Turns
With the
Skimpy Keyword – 1 less turn (to a minimum of 1)
With the
Partial Keyword – 1 less turn (to a minimum of 1)
With the
Light Keyword – 1 less turn (to a minimum of 1)
With the
Heavy Keyword – 1 more turn
If it is a Complex Item – 1 more turn
If it is a Very Complex Item – 2 more turns (doesn't stack with complex)
Equipped Items and Defences
One major effect of many equipped items, especially clothing and armour. Is to change your Defence profiles, especially Normal Defence.
So when you equip a
Clothing or
Armour item in your Main Clothing/Armour slot you apply all it's keywords (and any related bonuses) to your defence and remove your
Body keyword and your body material keywords from your defence.
If an item has the
Partial keyword you retain the keywords and material keywords, and potentially related bonuses, of any clothing/armour items somehow “beneath” that item (see Armour Layering section), which by default will be your
Body keyword and your body material keywords.
Layering Defensive items
By default this doesn't happen. But it IS possible through special abilities to end up with items in differing slots that apply keywords and bonuses to defence in a layered manner (for instance your Main Clothing/Armour slot is underneath your Cloak slot). And it is possible for some abilities to allow you to stack multiple layers of items in a single Main Clothing slot.
When you layer defensive items you treat the “upper most” layer as the one that applies it's effects and keywords. You ignore lower layers unless your upper layer item has the “Partial” keyword. In which case the next layer down counts too and so on through partial layers. You COULD theoretically end up with a character who has all the keywords and some or all of the bonuses of , say a Clothing item, AND an Armour Item AND their bare body at the same time. (this is in some ways a good thing, because you might milk some extra bonuses out of it, but also in many ways a BAD thing because you are going to have a lot of keywords for bad defensive match ups).
Expended defensive items and defences
Items can become “expended” in which case they are not destroyed, and are not removed, but ARE damaged and non-functional. This is especially notable for clothing and armour because Torn Shirt makes them the most commonly “expended” items in the game.
An expended armour or clothing item
still applies all it's keywords to defence. However it no longer applies any
positive modifiers associated with those keywords. So if you are wearing a simple suit that grants
Metal Hard Armour 4 and you expend it, you STILL have
Metal Hard Armour on your defence, but notably
lose the +4 bonus to defence from the Armour keyword.
This also applies in the case of “layered” armours and layered partial armours, each layer if expended stops applying it's effects. Unless otherwise noted an expended upper layer does NOT remove itself OR gain the Partial keyword just for being expended, so if you had an upper layer of armour that was blocking a lower layer from applying to your defence it STILL blocks the lower layer from applying to defence when the upper layer is expended, and the upper layer will STILL need to be REMOVED (or destroyed or something) before you can apply the lower layer to defence.
Normal Attack
The Normal Attack action is an attempt to deal normal physical attack based Standard Injuries to a target, one at a time.
The standard default normal attack has
Single-Target Close-Range and the keywords associated with the attack being used.
The default “Attack” a character can use is an Unarmed attack, this attack has the keywords
Unarmed and
Body and since it has Body it also applies the material keywords of the attacker's body.
Weapons and Attacks
The next most common form of “available attack” is an equipped weapon, like a Sword. Weapons have their own keywords that they will apply to any attack made with them, along with other properties. For instance a bonus to attack, like “+2 vs Soft” or a modification of the basic attack actions range, as for instance in the case of most projectile weapons which give your Basic Attack
Long Range when you fire them.
Multiple Attack Rolls
Some attacks can, in a variety of ways, target multiple targets. This requires some ruling on precisely how many individual rolls an attack consists of when targeting multiple targets.
The rule is as follows. For each GROUP of IDENTICAL targets IN THE SAME ZONE you roll ONE attack. If your attack covers multiple zones, or multiple TYPES of target (anything other than groups of targets with identical attributes) you roll one dice per target type/zone.
So for instance if your attack targets 20 identical nameless troopers in two zones, a NEARLY identical nameless squad leader in one of those zones with some of them, and a named character with unique traits in the same zone as the squad leader, you roll 1 Dice against the nameless troopers in the zone on their own, 1 Dice against the nameless troopers sharing the zone with the other targets, 1 Dice against the squad leader (who is slightly different), and 1 Dice against the named character (who is clearly different).
Note that if the
Multi-Attack keyword pops up that is different to
Multi-Target. Multi-Attack can even coexist with multi-target. Multi-Attack ALWAYS assumes separate rolls, and is in fact a sort of cloning of the whole attack profile, so
Multi-Attackx3 means you do the whole attack routine with whatever number of targets and whatever number of required rolls
three times and typically can target different characters and zones (or the same ones unless restricted) with each of those attacks. Multi-Attack unless otherwise noted does NOT ignore or exceed the damage cap in anyway, it's individual attacks are all treated as normal separate attacks for damage cap purposes.
This has disadvantages...
Yeah. One single roll per attack WOULD be quicker, one attack per target regardless of homogeneity would give better smoother results.
But one attack roll per target would be far too punishing on misses (and rewarding on hits). One roll per target could rack you into 20 or so d20 rolls for some attacks EVEN in the early LT game, it could rack up to 60+, maybe even hundreds later.
The per-zone and indentical target groups limitations are all in all a compromise between the two. They have part of the disadvantages and part of the advantages of both options. Whether this is the right place is unclear... but you know, whatever, you have to pick something.
Group Attackers and Group Targets
Some characters are considered “group attackers” and have the
Trooper keyword on their base profile to indicate this. Typically almost any group of identical unnamed characters are troopers.
When a group of Troopers in the same zone as each other make the same identical attack action on the same target or targets they do NOT make an individual attack each, in fact they are FORCED to make a single “Group Attack”.
Up to 10 Troopers can (and if making the same action MUST) co-operate in a single group attack. This attack acts identically to the base attack but ALSO gains a +X attack bonus vs All, where X is 1/2 the number of Troopers co-operating in the attack.
In addition Troopers are also considered
group targets and when sharing the same zone any group of identical troopers are targeted not as individuals, but as a group. This means that any additional damage or effects of any attack can “overflow” onto the group, so if say, a Devastating +3 attack (an attack that normally deals 4 standard injuries to one target) hits a 1 Max Injury trooper it will damage him with 1 Injury AND then overflow the remaining 3 injuries onto his identical brethren in the same zone. This ALSO applies for special injuries, and also effects, so a damaging attack that deals a bonus Sever special injury, can knock out a single trooper AND sever the limb of one of his buddies, a damaging attack that also disarms a weapon can knock out a single trooper AND disarm one of his buddies, etc...
Multi-Target attacks are typically more useful in clearing troopers than devastating or extra damage attacks. But should a multi-target effect be combined with devastating (which can happen) the effects on Group Targets stack, and depending on the wording of the ability or the order in which the relevant keywords are applied it COULD indeed potentially
multiply the devastating/additional injury effect by the value of the Multi-Target effect. Just take care since some damage enhancements are “on hit” upgrades that specifically state they effect
individual targets while other upgrades specifically effect entire attack profiles.
When a Group attack is made against Group targets the Group attack gains an additional special damage effect. The attack will deal an additional number of bonus injuries equal to it's margin of success (capped to a maximum of the number of troopers involved).
All this is intended to significantly streamline large mobs of identical minor unnamed characters fighting both against each other and against named characters.
OK This looks flawed[/b]
There are indeed some notable flaws in the group attack/group target mechanics.
1) It's not as good to group attack as it is to make individual attacks.
There is some simalarity, but not enough. You probably ARE better off making 10 identical attacks with ten identical troopers from the 1 identical zone on the one identical target (even with the damage cap accounted for). But sorry group attacks are MANDATORY because we just can't have you rolling 10's or 100's of dice a turn just because someone brought 100 cheap identical goons to the battle.
2) Splitting attacks is still highly motivated.
Between the damage cap and the group attack requirement if you have 10 goons in a zone if they CAN attack multiple distinct targets (in order to break up their group attack) then they are probably best off doing so, and probably are best off doing so all the way up to 10 distinct targets. This is a bit of mixed news, both good and bad.
3) Splitting for special attacks is also motivated
A group of 10 identical goons against 1 distinct target are motivated to split their attacks into a standard attack, and maybe some combination of up to several special attacks like Grabs, Disarms and Parries. Now this is a bit less good. The damage cap already somewhat motivates this, and really any further motivation to do so from group attacks is probably unnecessary and excessive.
4) Of course there is the attack bonus thing.
The trade off for all the motivation to split these attacks is the group attack bonus. Which IS actually kinda nice. And with the current shortage of attack bonuses it is HIGHLY motivated for a group of goons to full group attack (or nearly full group attack) against any targets that have actually invested reasonably in the widely available defence bonuses in the game. Of course this makes for some questions about how much space is left in the system for the additional attack bonuses NON group attackers also need to keep up...
The “Off Hand” Attack
“Off Hand Attack” is a special term commonly used in special abilities. It is NOT actually a basic action available to characters without special abilities, but is common enough to bare mentioning. Typically it means you just get to make
an additional attack usually at some point before, during, or after your standard attack action or other standard action, and usually with some cost or limitation and usually with an equipped/available weapon/attack profile not already used that same turn.
The Basic Attack vs the Special Attack
“Basic Attack” is a formal game term.
Sometimes an ability will say you get to make “an additional Basic Attack” this means you can make an attack. But it must be an official “Basic Attack” and cannot be a “Special Attack”. Other times an ability will specifically state that it lets you make “An Attack” or a “Special Attack” which means you can make basically any attack, Basic or Special.
Sometimes an ability will say that it in some way modifies a “Basic Attack”. Again this is used to specifically exclude “Special Attacks” from being modified by that ability. Often an ability that enhances an attack will ALSO state that it changes the basic attack into a special attack. This is especially notable because this is used as a means of making certain abilities that enhance attacks mutually exclusive in nature. Again if an ability just states it enhances “an Attack” that means it works on everything, special or basic.
Standard Injuries and Attack Damage
Normal Attacks deal damage to their targets. Unless otherwise noted a Normal Attack deals just ONE normal Standard Injury. If the attack gains any “Special Injury” keywords they deal ADDITIONAL special injuries. The
Devastating +X keyword causes a single attack to deal additional standard injuries, and multiple instances of Devastating +X DO stack with each other.
Some attacks are
Undamaging these attacks do not deal their default one standard injury. Typically undamaging attacks will most commonly be seen associated with attacks that deal special effects, so it is not unusual to encounter undamaging Parry or Knock attacks.
Standard Injuries and Defeat
When a character has a number of Standard Injuries equal to their Max Injuries they are defeated (this does NOT count special injuries, but DOES count both normal and social Standard Injuries).
The last injury they suffer determines the flavour of their defeat. So if it is a normal type injury (rather than say a social one) they are either knocked out or killed as seems appropriate for the damage type and the intentions of the attacker.
All defeats cause a “Removed From Combat” effect, where in the character is disabled and can no longer perform any combat actions.
Actual death however... is different. Even a “killing” defeat (or a Kill special injury)
merely removes a character from combat. The bit where it does so in a “fatal” manner is FLAVOUR text. And while a character CAN be considered just plain outright dead at that moment, it is at the option of the controlling player to do so. They MAY instead consider their character to be “knocked out and in danger of dying”. In which case any form of informal first aid by another character some time “soon” will save their life in the long term, and they MAY even (very slowly) recover on their own if not further harassed (but they will not restore the removed from combat effect until their injuries are properly healed by Strategic Time or special effects).
The optional nature of death on defeat even applies to effects like “Decapitate” though in those cases one might have to assume that “it wasn't as bad as it looked” rather than “and I got better”.
While the “Death” state may well be purely optional and fluffy in the long term sense it DOES have formal implications in the short term as long as specific keywords or special injuries are involved. So being “Killed” with say, a special Kill injury
is potentially formally different from say, merely being “KOed” with a special KO injury for the purposes of some special abilities (such as for instance certain forms of healing abilities).
Because making death purely optional is a bit of a screw you for certain things, like players feeling they are able to actually eliminate NPCs they REALLY want to eliminate, even if a player opts NOT to have their character die the helpless character can be killed with a close range standard action by another character (technically a normal attack action requiring no roll) as a coupe de grace. Presumably GMs should try to refrain from gratuitously doing this to PCs, and it wouldn't hurt to suggest to players that they should also refrain from gratuitously doing this to NPCs so as to avoid getting a reputation that would encourage others to do it unto them.
Special Attack Actions
Instead of performing a standard “Basic Attack” Normal Attack action a character may instead perform one of the following “Special Attacks”.
All of the following special attacks officially change the Normal Attack from being a Basic Attack to being a Special Attack instead.
Assassinate
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
May only be used on an
Unready target
+0 Attack, +3 vs Targets with only 1 Remaining Injury
adds
Assassin KO
The Assassin keyword is just for match ups. But the KO keyword adds an additonal “special injury” to the attack's damage result. The KO Injury does what it sounds like, it knocks the target out, removing them from combat.
It is especially worth noting that pretty much all active defence abilities, including most Parries and Blocks, and most notably including
Torn Shirt may NOT be used by a character who is “Unready”. This means this attack has a pretty good chance of pulling off a one hit KO on the vast majority of targets with no means of reducing or cancelling it's effects if it hits.
Escape
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
Adds
Undamaging to attack (the attack will not deal a standard injury of damage)
Adds
Wrestle (the attack can be made while
Grabbed)
Adds
Escape (on a success this attack breaks grab effects and bypasses Guard movement prevention)
The Escape special attack ensures that all characters have a basic means of breaking Grabs and bypassing Guarding characters.
Knock
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
Adds
Undamaging to attack (the attack will not deal a standard injury of damage)
Adds
Knock (on a success the target of the attack is tripped or pushed over and enters the
Knocked state)
Knock can be used against a target that is mounted on a steed or vehicle, if so the target is also knocked off their steed/vehicle on a success.
A basic action for pushing things over and pulling people off horses.
Characters in the
Knocked state add
Knocked to their basic keywords and are rendered Immobile. They also suffer a -3 vs All to all their rolled actions. They can end the state by performing any action with the
Stand keyword (like say, the default
Stand special move action)
Parry
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
Adds
Undamaging to attack (the attack will not deal a standard injury of damage)
Adds
Parry (on a success this attack cancels the action of the target)
The default Parry action CAN target group attackers and cancel the effect of a group attack by hitting the “lead” attacker.
A basic action for stopping people from doing stuff. Especially handy for dealing with those awkward “uh oh I'm dead or just had an arm cut off and my Torn Shirt is already used up...” situations. Or at least attempting to.
A parry CAN cancel another parry. If two characters mutually parry each other both their actions are cancelled in some sort of divide by zero exception.
Disarm
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
Adds
Undamaging to attack (the attack will not deal a standard injury of damage)
Adds
Disarm (on a success this attack removes an item from the target, throwing the item as per a
Throw effect)
If this action targets a main clothing item, a main armour item or other item that takes multiple turns to remove or equip then it only “partially” removes the item, applying just 1 turn worth of removal.
A basic action for knocking swords and hats off things.
Grab
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
Adds
Undamaging to attack (the attack will not deal a standard injury of damage)
Adds
Grab (on a success the target of the attack is grabbed by the attack and enters the
Grabbed state)
A basic action for holding onto things.
Characters in the
Grabbed state add
Grabbed to their basic keywords and are rendered Immobile, the attacking character adds the
Grabbing keyword to their own basic keywords and counts as “grabbing” the grabbed character. They can only perform actions with the
Wreslte
keyword and can only end the state by succeeding in an
Escape action against the Grabbing character.
If multiple targets are grabbing a character they have to remove EACH of them with an Escape action. If multiple targets are being grabbed each has to succeed in escape all characters grabbing them.
Grabbed characters move with the Grabbing character's move actions, but the grabbing character MAY opt to allow the Grabbed character to move, in which case the grabbing character moves with them instead.
A Grabbing character may at opt to end the Grabbing state at any time in their own turn at no action cost.
Throw
Modifies a Basic Attack into a Special Attack
May only be used against a target you are already
Grabbing
Adds
Undamaging to attack (the attack will not deal a standard injury of damage)
Adds
Throw (on a success this attack throws the target to any location in the same or an adjacent zone. You May use this effect to throw them into zone hazards triggering zone hazard effects, or throw them up in the air or off edges to trigger falling)
A basic action for throwing things around.
Torn Shirt
This basic action is a basic Block effect available only to Named Characters.
During the block phase any named character may expend their equipped main clothing or armour item to gain 1 Block with the keywords of the item and the
Block keyword.
This single block allows them to cancel 1 normal type Standard OR Special Injury during the block phase. Unless otherwise noted this block can NOT be used against Social typed injuries.
The injury blocked is one of the DEFENDERS choice. Typically a defender will reserve torn shirt to either block the last normal injury that would remove them from combat, or the first really undesirable special injury like a severed limb or a KO or kill effect.
You may NOT use torn shirt (or indeed any actions unless otherwise noted) when you are
Unready
Hide and Sneak
Stealth is (intended to be) an important aspect of this game. There are several default stealth actions that may share certain common special mechanics.
Stealth Targeting
Stealth “attacks” target Social Defence (instead of normal defence), but deal no damage, instead they determine whether or not you have successfully hidden in some way.
When making a stealth attack you do NOT target ALL observers, you just target the “best observer not yet targeted this turn”.
This means that if a single character is attempting a stealth action they ONLY target the opposing character (or one of the tied opposing characters) MOST likely to observe them (has the best social defence against their action). If they succeed NONE of the observing characters see them.
A character may opt to NOT apply their stealth action to some observers (typically allies) in which case the observing ally will automatically see their action (or whatever) and NOT be counted towards “best observers” for determining who you are rolling against. (basically just a way to ensure that standing next to an eagle eyed ally doesn't make you fail all your stealth checks against blind and stupid enemy guards).
If MORE than one character is attempting to be sneaky in a turn then any observer that has ALREADY been (successfully) rolled against with a stealth action is REMOVED from the “best observers” targetting for further stealth actions that turn. Unless there are no further observers, in which case the last “best observer” is rolled against by any remaining stealth actions.
This means, among other things, that in situations of having mixed observers and mixed levels of sneaky people the sneakiest (probably) end up sneaking against the most observant, and the clunky great clumsy fools end up sneaking against the half blind stupid guards.
Stealth Modifiers
Stealth actions are modified by range, and by lighting.
You can look up the lighting notes in the basic zone mechanics section, but basically trying to be stealthy in a bright or shadowy zone can apply either a -1 to -4 penalty or a +1 to +4 bonus (both vs
Non-Blind observers only) respectively.
Range modifies Stealth actions DIFFERENTLY to attack actions. The long range modifier is added as a BONUS to stealth actions instead of a penalty. Being further away makes you HARDER to see.
Stealth Persistence
Once a stealth action has succeeded it is “persistent”. If you hide, and continue to hide as your action you REMAIN hidden and potentially do so WITHOUT FURTHER ROLLS.
As long as the bonuses to your Stealth action, or the defence targeted by the action does not change you do NOT need to roll again to maintain the successful action.
Even if the modifiers/defence DOES change you ONLY need to roll again if they WORSEN for the stealthy character.
The general up shot is that as long as you hide and stay still, or sneak and move AWAY from observers, you only have to roll ONE stealth check for an action/effect that may cost and apply over multiple turns. Meanwhile trying to sneak closer, or if a more eagle eyed look out turns up, or if someone turns the lights on, you will have to reroll your sneaky action.
Stealth persistence ends when a character ceases to perform stealth actions.
Stealth and Alert status
Stealth actions target Social Defence. And unless otherwise noted ARE effected by the
Alert defence bonus.
Stealth and Surprise
One of the primary uses of stealth is to sneak up on people so you can attack them while they are
Unready
When a character has successfully performed a stealth action they treat ALL observers they succeeded against as
Unready starting from that turn and extending as long as Stealth Persistence applies. This extends potentially into a turn in which you perform actions other than stealth actions, for instance you successfully sneak up to a target, then on the next turn attack them and they are unready in the turn you make your surprise attack.
An Unready target adds
Unready to their basic keyword list and cannot perform any actions.
In more complex situations where mixed groups of characters do or do not observe mixed groups of other characters it is possible for a target to merely be unready towards SPECIFIC characters, in which case they MAY perform actions but MAY NOT perform actions that interact with the character they are unready towards, and they DO add unready to their basic keywords but ONLY towards actions involving the character they are unready towards.
Failing A Stealth Action
When you fail a stealth action the observer you have rolled against HAS SEEN YOU. That observer may then immediately tell all his friends and acquaintances for free.
If for some reason he DOESN'T tell anyone (or even someone) then any observers NOT informed
trigger a reroll of your stealth attempt thus allowing a result where you for instance, try and hide from everyone including an observant ally, who then sees you, tells no one (or just not everyone), and lets you potentially succeed or fail against other less forgiving observers.
Characters who observe you are no longer potentially unready towards you, and MAY become
Alert depending on your appearance, the nature of your failed action, and the context it occurs in (so armed guards in a restricted area almost certainly become
Alert, and possible also rather aggressive).
The Alert State
Any character that recognises a physical threat is “Alert”. So if you see someone moving towards you with a bared sword, especially someone who just failed to sneak, you can choose to become Alert (or chose not to, but then let the consequences be on your head).
In addition any character INITIATING a physical threat on another character is ALSO “Alert”. So if YOU have a bared sword and attempt to swing it at someone then YOU may become alert (and probably should).
An Alert character adds
Alert 5 to their social defence.
You may NOT simply be permanently alert. You get tired and distracted. This means even professional guards are rarely Alert unless something has happened in their observation or been reported to them through the propagation of alarm.
Propagating Alarm and Other Information
Once a character becomes Alert to some form of threat they may spread the Alert state to any character in their zone or an adjacent zone at no action cost, though characters may CHOOSE to ignore them and not become Alert, if they insist. Propagating alarm beyond that is complex.
Some locations may have ACTUAL alarms, like bells or horns, which can be activated by a character with an action and will spread an alarm over a certain area (typically by adding some large penalty to a Causing A Disturbance roll).
Otherwise alarm is propagated by two things. 1) Runners, characters actually running off to tell other characters about the alarm. And 2) Causing A Disturbance, which is something that just happens automatically as a result of combat and other non-stealth actions being attempted.
Not ALL Alerts and Alarms are created equal. If a sneaky sword baring threat is sighted and characters become alerted, spread alarm to other areas informing everyone about that guy sneakily trying to attack the guards at the southern gate house this does NOT mean guards are alerted to, or will in anyway respond to some OTHER character SUCCESSFULLY sneaking near the north guard house. In addition if BOTH the sneaky characters are spotted then the alarm and information about them will propogate SEPARATELY, and you may end up in situations where some characters no of one alarm but not the other, or both, or neigther.
Hide
The Hide action is one of the basic stealth actions it uses your standard action for a turn and on a success hides you from observers while you remain Immobile in the zone you are in.
It has the keywords
Hide Stealth
and applies a +5 bonus vs All.
Hide is especially easy, but doesn't let you MOVE anywhere. The bonus compared to sneak means you can try and hide from even alert patrols or ambush people with a predictable path more easily than you can actively sneak towards someone.
Sneak
The Sneak action is one of the basic stealth actions it uses your standard action for a turn and on a success hides you from observers while you move to an adjacent zone. Best Observer is determined based on all the zones you are passing through, so you roll based on the hardest place you try to sneak through.
It has the keywords
Sneak Move Stealth
and applies a +0 bonus vs All.
Sneak is the action you use to try and move away or move towards observers.
Cause A Disturbance
This is a “free action” used to emulate people noticing stuff that is not especially stealthy. Like, say, you attempting to smash a door down, or engaging in combat in a distant zone.
It has the keywords
Stealth
-5 vs All if any attack actions (normal OR social) are attempted
-4 vs
Non-Deaf if any
Loud action is performed, including anyone who simply opts to Yell for free during whatever else they do (like say, a guard fighting off attackers would probably choose to).
Up to a +10 bonus for intervening barriers, especially sound dampening ones.
Cause A disturbance is rolled by a group of characters who may well NOT be allied and NOT have a shared idea about what they actually want other people to observe. You may NOT opt to “auto fail” your Cause A Disturbance action against anyone, and neither can those noisy bastards you are fighting against.
Conceal
The Conceal action is a basic stealth action that lets you try and hide items about your person.
It has the keywords
Conceal Deceptive Stealth
and adds the
Disguise keyword if you are trying disguise the nature of the item rather than merely hide it.
It gets +2 vs All if the item is
Small
It gets -4 vs All if the item is
Big
Some items specifically have a Conceal bonus that applies to this action.
Primarily conceal is used to hide weapons and sometimes armours so that a character doesn't cause Alert or Alarm on sight, or is permitted to smuggle items into areas where they are restricted or frowned upon, like the royal ball or more civilised cities.
Steal
The Steal action is a basic stealth action that lets you try and TAKE items without being noticed.
It has the keywords
Conceal Deceptive Disarm Stealth
-5 vs All if the item is carried by a character.
It gets +2 vs All if the target item is
Small
It gets -4 vs All if the item is
Big
Some items specifically have a Conceal bonus that applies to this action. (yes taking an item that is easy to conceal is EASIER TO CONCEAL even from it's current owner)
Main clothing and armour items (when equipped on a character), and other items with multiple turn removal times suffer apply a penalty to this action equal to -1 per turn of removal time AND take that many turns to remove, but Stealth Persistence DOES apply to this action so while it MIGHT take 4 turns to remove someone's elaborate suit without them (or any “best observer”) noticing, but it MIGHT take only 1 successful roll to do so.
Social Attack
The social attack is a means of attacking and influencing characters mentally rather than physically. And any character can do it!
When Do Social Attacks Happen?
Pretty much whenever, including during combat. Though without skills the Alert bonus (see the Hide and Sneak section) makes use of social skills in combat against alerted targets kinda hard.
Most (normal) social attacks occur in a contest to change the actions of a character. Normally characters actions are based on the motivations of that character as defined and decided purely by the player or GM in control of that character. If the player thinks that Sally the Barbarian doesn't like Bob the Wizard and wants to punch him... her character does that.
Social attacks kick in when the player running Bob the Wizard thinks that Sally the Barbarian should instead decide to be Bob the Wizards friend and they cannot convince Sally the Barbarian's player to agree using simple role played conversation or “reasoning”.
As such social attacks become a contest to inflict on a character a new set of broad motivations that a player OTHER than the usual controlling player for that character can use to influence that character's actions in a manner of THEIR choice instead.
Social Attacks and Violence
A... number of critics are “deeply concerned” that having effective social attacks in a system results in characters “reasonably” responding to social attacks with violent force. This is, unfortunately, a rather fake kind of concern, and fairly poorly justified.
Social attacks, and the effects of social defeat are
accepted by society having a Friend, trying to make someone into your Friend, is something widely accepted by society. This is despite the fact that making someone your friend gives you a VAST amount of potential leverage over them. Even the most casual friend could EASILY be killed by a traitorous “friend” with a penchant for poisoning or daggers in the back.
Even in the real world attempts to make and have friends are considered socially acceptable despite the very real fact that perfectly real friendships open you up to perfectly real potential to be horribly robbed or killed.
This is not to say characters in game SHOULDN'T sometimes respond to social attacks with actual physical violence. Not all societies and their responses are created equal. In some regions or contexts trying to lie to someone until you have confused them to defeat IS and SHOULD be some form of assault, possibly a minor crime, possibly one punishable by attempted summary execution on the spot. Even with more traditional RPG social mechanics a simple haggle attempt COULD very well “reasonably” be responded to with actual violence in more lawless scenarios.
This is actually considered “OK” by this system, which manages to easily cover scenarios where society would frown on drawing swords but doesn't mind a few lies and some mild flirting AND scenarios where swords and lies face off in a deadly contest to the death (or confusion) of someone's enemies.
Attacking with Social Attacks by Surprise
You CAN use stealth and other methods to make social attacks on Unready targets. There is some benefit, if you jump out of the bushes and throw a Scary attack at a guard or something and they won't be Alert that turn or able to respond immediately, and you might even knock them clean out.
But standard social attacks do NOT have an equivalent of the normal attack's “Assassinate” special attack upgrade, so presumable surprise social attacks are slightly unusual.
Social attacks and Alertness/Surprise
The interaction between social attacks and when you surprise a target however is more interesting the other way around.
Social attacks alone are NOT sufficient excuse to declare yourself Alert
unless you actually choose to respond with actual violence (in which case it is actually you OWN response that causes you to enter the Alert state).
However social attacks DO prevent you from taking someone by surprise. If you are talking and socialising and suddenly draw swords and attack your targets are NOT considered Unready (and you will immediately alert them as well by attempted swording).
There ARE ways to use social attacks to create a situation where you surprise unready targets. See the social special attacks section coming up shortly.
Characters suffering from social defeat that has not yet been cured ALWAYS are treated by the victors as Unready for 1 turn if the victors attack them again. Though the majority of on going social defeats will typically be cancelled by any such actions if observed by a surviving victim.
The 'Alert' State
You can see this in the Hide and Sneak section. But again. A reminder. Once characters commit to, or observe any form of normal attack action, they become Alert, this adds
Alert 5 to their social defence.
This makes throwing around social attacks while the swords are swinging harder... for non-social attack specialists, dedicated social attackers will have ways around this.
Social Targetting
One major difference of social attacks are the manner in which they target their victims.
First of all social attacks target their victims Social Defence scores instead of Normal Defence.
Secondly when making a standard social attack you may (before attack) CHOOSE between the following target options.
Single-Target
Multi-Target(Up to All in 1 Zone)
Multi-Target(All in Range, bar Self)
However social attacks suffer a “Multi-Target Penalty” and if you target more than 1 target you suffer a -1 penalty to the attack per additional target beyond the first.
Social specialists have ways of reducing or ignoring multi-target penalties.
Finally social attacks ONLY work on characters observing you. Even a failed social attack requires the opponent to observe you. They CAN be made on unready targets by surprising someone, but because the attack IS observed the target is unlikely to REMAIN unready.
Social attacks and the furniture
Technically the normal attack system also works against objects as well as characters, and you can run around hitting chairs with hammers using the same mechanics you use to hit characters with hammers.
Technically there is nothing in the rules to prevent you from attempting to use Friendly attacks on the furniture too. And for (admittedly unlikely) flexibility I'm leaving that open. There is even the rather odd edge case of Decadent characters being prevented from making attacks OTHER than Seductive ones against pretty objects, so some characters are somewhat OBLIGATED to run around trying to seduce pretty looking french windows.
It's just that, assuming you DO defeat an inanimate object with lies, it doesn't DO anything, because it cannot control or change or even consider it's own actions.
But in addition we need a special rule saying that social and normal injuries DON'T stack when attacking things like walls. Otherwise people are going to go around lying to a wall for five minutes and then pushing it over with a toothpick. So consider it a rule that while you CAN seduce a wall (for some reason) mindless objects do NOT stack social and normal injuries towards their max injury limits.
Social Damage and Social Defeat
Standard social injuries are
different to normal injuries. They DO count towards the same Max Injuries limit for removed from combat effects, so stabbing people and yelling at them DOES stack for defeating them.
But the TYPE of defeat varies depending on the final blow that removes the target. If a target's final standard injury is a normal injury they are simply removed from combat in the normal way.
But if they are removed by a SOCIAL injury then they instead immediately HEAL all their standard social injuries and instead receive a “Special Social Injury” corresponding to the specific social attack type.
Special social injuries can have a number of effects, they can however
at a minimum remove a target from combat. Commonly they will additionally have some further effect or allow some form of control or influence over the target and their actions.
The Imperfect Nature Of Social Defeats
Social defeats, as noted in the basic social attack types are merely “influence” over a character. Of course the nature of “influence” is so broad as to be functionally not to different from complete control. Even if the flavour is dramatically different, for instance only granting you control as long as the action is consistent with “This character would do X because this character is now my Friend”.
Because such a broad influence COULD with only mild imagination bring provide pretty much any actual RESULT in control of the target character's fate as outright control could bring. You can use friendship, or fear or whatever as leverage to achieve robberies, derive information, or cause injury easily as significant in nature as outright control could achieve. The main difference is the
flavour of the methodology used.
So social defeat has some minor flavour hoops you will need to jump through in order to achieve your end goals of control over a character, and may have some minor unintended consequences. But it is important note that defeating someone socially
should definitely be beneficial to the attacker. At similar cost in actions and character investments they COULD have just defeated the target normally and gained a major benefit of afflicting the target with “removed from combat” status, and possibly even a case of instantaneous long term incurably fatal deadly death. So social defeat should be AT LEAST as good as that.
Indeed it is intended to be in some ways
better than a standard defeat, and as intended should at a minimum be a means of eliminating an opponent, and should probably grant something additional up to potentially converting targets into allies.
Duration and Recovery from Social Defeats
Social defeats have an indefinite duration. Once a target has been socially defeated they remain effected by the social special injury that deals and continue to act accordingly for a potentially very long time. If not forever.
Characters can recover from social special injuries due to special effects, extended (probably Strategic scale) periods of time away from the character that defeated them, and by other characters using social defeats to trump and counter prior social defeats.
However the PRIMARY way that social defeat states end are due to actions that defy the flavour of that social defeat. Being friends with someone ends the moment they catch you backstabbing them, deceptions end the moment proof appears that they were lies, and so on. The following are some examples for the four main default forms of social defeat and the sorts of conditions that end them.
Friendly Defeats – End when you betray the character, or are caught behaving in a manner inappropriate for a supposed friend or a person respected and valued as a friend. Outright attacking a friend, being caught actively stealing from them, working against them, openly lying or various other abuses against their good intentions can end a Friendly Defeat state.
Scary Defeats – End when you in turn are defeated (probably by another character), when your power to threaten the scared character is broken or destroyed, if you show fear or weakness to them, or if they gain (and use) an opportunity to physically escape from your grasp putting sufficient distance (and ideally buildings or international borders) between you and them to prevent you from potentially harming them. Scary defeats also tend to heal when you ATTACK the victim, because delivering on your threats breaks the hold of the potential restraint of those threats over the victim.
Seductive Defeats – End when you betray the targets affections for you, make it clear that you will never return (or at least accept) their feelings (and possibly also their romantic demands). You can put off a marriage or a make out session or whatever it is your target feels you promised or instilled a desire for within them, but if you break any actual firm promise, or simply delay for too long eventually they will lose interest.
Deceptive Defeats – End when the target is confronted with observable proof that the web of deception you have spun around them is clearly contradicted by reality. OLD facts and knowledge from prior to your deceptive defeat of the target do NOT count, it doesn't matter if they should know
from evidence they confronted in the past that you were lying to them, the whole point of the deception defeat was explaining that away, but if they encounter evidence AFTER the deceptive defeat then they will realise the truth and the web of lies is broken. Interestingly this makes deceptive defeats where the web of lies you spin is actually TRUE or something you then MAKE into the Truth remarkably hard to end.
The Basic Social Attack
Is a basic attack with the keywords
Social Weak Long-Range Social-Targetting
It is a “basic attack” and the same “Basic Attack”/”Special Attack” formal differentiation applies to social attacks as already described for Normal attacks.
The basic social attack deals 1 Social Injury to targets on success. It targets Social Defence instead of Normal Defence.
All social attacks however must also use a social attack TYPE, there are four to choose from by default.
Friendly Attack
Adds the
Friendly keyword to the social attack.
+2 vs All if you
appear not to be equipped for combat
-2 vs All if you
appear to have actual weapons in your hands.
Targets defeated by this attack suffer a Friendly special injury towards their attacker. And now consider their attacker a good friend, or for a slight variation in flavour a good and worthy or honourable person. Their new friend can now influence them in any way that any friend might influence that character, and indeed the befriended target will even act towards their attacker as if they were a good friend
even without prompting.
Friendly characters are not perfectly co-operative, they may sometimes perform actions they regard as in the best interests of their friend which their new friend may not entirely agree with.
Scary Attack
Adds the
Scary keyword to the social attack.
-2 vs All if you
appear not to be equipped for combat, or appear to be severely weakened
Targets defeated by this attack suffer a Scary special injury towards their attacker. They are now terrified of the attacker and will either surrender, flee, or cower in fear as prompted. They may perform other actions, like surrendering items or information with appropriate prompting, or even voluntarily.
The victim's primary motivation is now to flee or otherwise free themselves from the scary character, this means that co-operation rendered is sometimes imperfect, while a scared character may surrender their sword for fear of angering their attacker they are unlikely to for instance willingly admit they are guilty of any action that they feel will anger the scary character towards them.
Seductive Attack
Adds the
Seductive keyword to the social attack.
Up to -6 “Inappropriate Target” penalty, consisting of penalties for targeting the “wrong” gender (-2), age group (-2) or species (-2).
Targets defeated by this attack suffer a Seductive special injury towards their attacker. They are now romantically or sexual obsessed with their attacker. This gives a great deal of influence to the attacker who may demand various favours in return for various other favours, or promises of future favours.
The victim's primary motivation is now primarily Romantic toward the Seductive character, this means that co-operation rendered is sometimes imperfect, while a seduced character may surrender to you, give you items, protect you, or even fight for you, they might balk at admissions or actions that they feel would repulse you or somehow make it less likely for their romantic ambitions towards you to be successful.
It is worth noting that Seductive Attack does not have to be purely “Sexy” in nature. It covers a broad range of effects including “Romance” and just being abnormally pretty. Depending on minor variations in the intended flavour by the attacker, and in the personality of the target some victims of seduction may be obsessed with a variety of romantic ambitions ranging from sex and marriage to kisses or mild flirting.
Deceptive Attack
Adds the
Deceptive keyword to the social attack.
Targets defeated by this attack suffer a Deceptive special injury towards their attacker. They are now deeply confused and believe whatever complex web of lies their attacker wants them to.
Deceptive attack is potentially rather versatile in flavour depending on precisely WHAT ridiculous web of lies the attacker chooses to define. Importantly as with all other social attacks influence is slightly imperfect, the victim will act as if the web of lies is in fact the truth, whatever that may entail even if the attacker has perhaps not perfectly anticipated the nature of that reaction.
Special Social Attacks
Just as there are a number of specific default special normal combat manoeuvres there are also a small number of special social combat manoeuvres.
Prevent Alarm
Applies to
Friendly, Seductive or
Deceptive attacks.
Makes a basic attack into a special attack.
Adds
Undamaging
Applies a -3 penalty if you or ANY “potential enemies” of the target just failed a stealth action (possibly the trigger for the alert in the first place)
Automatically fails (and does so in retrospect as if parried in a timely manner) if ANYONE attempts any non-social attacks on your targets.
This attack ignores the targets Alert bonus.
This attack must be made the same turn, or the turn immediately after targets become Alarmed and Alert, usually in response to sighting a potential threat, probably the character attempting this action.
This attack suffers a -1 stacking penalty per “enemy” the target or targets observe that appears to be equipped for combat. This penalty DOES stack with the penalty for similar equipment traits of the standard Friendly attack.
On a success this calms the targets and temporarily convinces them that they should not be alarmed OR Alert. This ability persists in a manner similar to Stealth Persistence, and only needs to be rerolled if the penalty or the opponents defence WORSENS.
Note that while preventing targets from going Alert may well go so far as to prevent them from attacking you. It does NOT make them unready and DOES NOT give any further control of their actions. Just because you temporarily convince them not to kill you on sight and spread the alarm when they see you hanging around in a restricted area doesn't mean they won't resort to OTHER actions (including potential social attacks) to try and get you to leave.
Prevent alarm is kinda messy
It's a lot of text for a little effect. Basically you mainly use this if you are running a “look harmless” strategy of some form and want to circumvent an alert penalty easily. Otherwise you just say “screw it” and use a regular social attack on your targets.
It probably needs rewriting. Maybe it should be made better and turned into a trained specialist skill option instead.
Distract
Applies to
Scary, Seductive or
Deceptive attacks.
Makes a basic attack into a special attack.
Adds
Undamaging
Ignores Alert bonus on targets.
This effect causes targets to pay attention to you and removes them entirely from “best observer” selection (potentially removing up to ALL observers) for any Stealth action attempted by anyone OTHER than the successful distracting character.
Parry
Applies to
Scary, Seductive or
Deceptive attacks.
Makes a basic attack into a special attack.
Adds
Undamaging and
Parry
Ignores Alert bonus on targets.
Basically you can just use a social attack to perform a parry if you want to. Works pretty much exactly like the standard normal attack version of parry otherwise.
Social Surprise
Applies to
Friendly, Seductive or
Deceptive attacks.
Makes a basic attack into a special attack.
Adds
Undamaging
Applies the “appears equipped for combat” and weapon in hand bonuses and penalties the same as Friendly attack does (does not stack with same penalties from Friendly attack if this attack is friendly).
On a success this attack makes the target Unready against you in the next turn. Useful for setting up assassinations.
Disguise
Applies to
Deceptive attacks.
Makes a basic attack into a special attack.
Adds
Undamaging and
Disguise
Applies an up to +4 bonus vs Non-Blind for (appearing to be) wearing the right clothes and carrying the right equipment (like stolen uniforms and stuff)
Suffers up to a -4 penalty depending on how well the targets know who-ever you are pretending to be.
On a success this attack makes the target think you are who you are pretending to be. Which can have a number of interesting and complex implications.
The default Social Special attacks are new
The least experimented with aspect of the system currently. Probably needs a few more entries and maybe some other extra work. Currently the special attacks are limited by social attack type purely by flavor... but this makes Deceptive the most versatile of social attack types to specialise in. Which may be problematic.
Still the basic principle of being the social equivalent of the normal default special attack options seems sound, and they have important interactions in the whole cross over points of the main mini-game stealth/social/combat/alarm stuff.