Course of Tactics

The Course of Tactics is a core Course that all campaigns start with. It introduces basic rules for Tactical Scenes.

**Course Requirements**: None

**Prerequisite for**: None

## Overview

Tactical Scenes are Encounters played out strategically, such as combat. During Tactical Scenes, the **player characters** (**PCs**) will typically be challenged by enemies called **Cogs**.

At the start of a Tactical Scene, everyone rolls initiative to determine the turn order. At the start of your turn, you gain **3 Actions and 1 Reaction**. Actions are used on your turn, Reactions can be used any time. Remaining Actions are lost at the end of your turn. Remaining Reactions are lost at the start of your next turn. On your turn, you may use an Action as a Reaction. Prior to your first turn, you do not start the scene with any Actions or Reactions.

### Injury

If a character reaches 0 HP, they are **knocked out** and fall unconscious. If the entire PC party is knocked out, bad things happen for them in the story. The details are left up to the GM; in more harsh campaigns, this may mean death for those PCs. If the remaining party survives the Tactical Scene without being knocked out, any knocked out PCs wake up with 1 HP.

## New Rules

This course introduces these concepts:

* Adjacent is when you're next to someone
* A creature can gain Alerts
* You can make ranged or melee attacks (see below)
* Attacks can be a direct hit or a glancing blow
* Abilities can target area effects
* Creatures can wear Armor which may have a Burden
* Creatures can give buffs and debuffs
* Some weapons have a limited range

## Attacking

See Attacking for details, but making an attack generally goes like this:

1. Your weapon has an associated Attribute. This is Dexterity for now, but some weapons in the Course of Combat use other Attributes.
2. Your Accuracy is 10 times your Attribute score with the weapon's Attribute. If your Dexterity is 3, your Blade attack has an Accuracy of 30 (10 \* 3).
3. The damage dealt is determined by your weapon plus the weapon's Attribute. A Blade, for example, has a base damage of 1d6+3, so if your Dexterity is 3 you deal 1d6 + 3 + STR (3) = 1d6+6.
4. If your Accuracy was equal or greater than the enemy's Vim, this is a direct hit and deals full damage. Otherwise it's a glancing blow that deals half damage.

You can make two kinds of attacks:

**Melee Blade**

All Three Rivers Guild adventurers are equipped with a sharp Blade to keep at their side for close quarters encounters. You can make a melee attack at adjacent enemies. This weapon uses your Dexterity as its weapon Attribute and deals 1d6+3 damage. Your Blade weighs 1 Bulk.

**Ranged Sidearm**

All Three Rivers Guild adventurers are equipped with a Sidearm pistol that can shoot at a distance. You can make a ranged attack at anything you can see. This weapon uses your Dexterity as its weapon Attribute and deals 1d6 damage. Your Sidearm weighs 1 Bulk.

# Gamemastering

## Encounter Difficulty

Each Encounter can have a difficulty of Easy, Medium, or Hard. This difficulty sets what the **sum of enemy Levels** should be in relation to the **sum of the Players’ Levels**. For example, for a Medium difficulty encounter, if there are 3 Players at Level 2, the enemy Levels should sum to 6, either as 6 Level 1 enemies, or 3 Level 2 enemies, or a Level 3 enemy and 3 Level 1 enemies, for example.

The Encounter Difficulty will also affect the Rewards gained from the challenge.

## Enemy Characters

When creating a unique enemy, the GM may design an enemy character (like the player characters). Enemy characters have No Gift and skip Step 6 (Beginner Boons). They have a carrying capacity of 15 Bulk. Enemy characters may trade XP for half as much sp for equipment and consumables. Enemies designed in this way are worth triple the amount of normal rewards.

## Cogs

Most enemies will be created as Cogs. Cogs are often unnamed, non-unique creatures, such as highway robbers or wolves in a pack. See the Cogs page for how to create them.