How to do Combat (Dice Mechanics)

## Combat

           Combat in the universe of Sojourner is brutal, fast paced, bloody and extremely dangerous. It is often more advisable to avoid combat through negotiation, stealth, subversion or otherwise entirely negating the possibility of combat. A single gunshot wound from a relatively low power weapon will usually not kill an enemy. However, there are other factors to contend with; infection being the most primary. Additionally, wounds suffered from a previous battle may be debilitating enough to the character that they fail subsequent checks even unrelated to combat such as the ability to craft or to farm if they received a significant hit to the head or arms.

           Most combat in the Sojourner games is not two parties moving towards one another with a clear objective. Often combat is merely another means of survival; preying upon the weak or unwary. Commonly, raiders and bandits prefer to ambush their targets and quickly overwhelm them if possible rather than engage in long, drawn out combat situations. Those who set traps and mines often do not do so with the intention of outright killing their opponent but instead maiming them beyond their ability to continue forwards; slowing down their allies with them as they rush to care for their wounded.

           Alternatively, the situation arises where both parties are knowledgeable of the other’s presence. In this instance, most raiders and bandits will instead flee the battlefield to fight another day. Disciplined soldiers on opposing sides of a war may move to engage one another. Most survivors will simply pass one another under a mutual banner of truce in most cases.

           Enemies with machineguns and rocket launchers are not necessarily the most deadly combatants on the post-apocalyptic battlefield. Instead these individuals typically fulfill a specific role such as suppressive fire or eliminating enemies that are in massed groups. Instead the most dangerous enemies are often hidden snipers who fire from a concealed location and relocate immediately afterwards.

## Action Points

           The first step of any combat encounter is to know the number of Action Points a character has. Each Action Point can be used to move, shoot or perform an action that would take a considerable amount of time such as hacking a computer, picking the lock on a door or using medical supplies to heal the wounded. A typical character has two action points and may spend twenty stamina for a third action point at any point on their turn. Most weapons will use a single action point to perform their base number of attacks. Heavy weapons require two points to perform an attack and some must have an additional action point spent to unpack the weapon. All weapons require an action point to reload provided they are firearms. Some typical action point uses are detailed below.

           Outside of combat, there is not much need for Action Points as there is no threat present to deter the party from doing something else aside from their assigned or self-assigned task. Hacking a computer when not worrying about incoming gunfire is very different from hacking a computer while bullets are flying around the battlefield.

           Additionally, stamina may be sacrificed for additional Action Points. The rule is twenty stamina per action point with a maximum of one additional action point per turn being possible. Another way of phrasing this statement is that a character may sacrifice twenty stamina for one additional action point once per turn. Naturally, running out of stamina has other effects listed later in this page. .

## Attacking

           An attack action is a straightforward action that requires a dice check against the opponent’s defense. Certain things will affect this outcome such as the shooter’s skill, the skill of the opponent, cover, terrain and other such effects.

           Every attack requires a skill check aside from weapons like grenades. A skill check is a 1d20+skill level. For example if a player’s character has a +5 in their pistol skill and shoots with a pistol type weapon, their roll to hit would be 1d20+5.

           Each attack also requires a skill check against the target’s defenses. For most attacks this will be against the target’s reflex score. Other weapons that cause effects such as poison may have a roll made against the target’s fortitude. Stealth based attacks are always critical hits but rolling into stealth requires a successful stealth check against the target’s perception. Each attack made must roll against the target’s defenses even if that attack is made against the target on the same Action Point.

           Most attacks have some sort of terrain or bonus against that type of attack. For example an enemy in cover, regardless of skill, is better protected against targets that are not in cover. Typical bonuses and debuffs are detailed in the chart below along with examples of what may constitute such a bonus. A target that is not in cover nor laying prone against an enemy using a firearm of any type confers advantage to the shooter’s check to hit them.

There are many other bonuses and debuffs that can constitute additional penalties as well such as exhaustion, sickness, insanity and more. A character trying to sneak through an area while a spotlight is over their position will probably fail a stealth check provided they have nothing to counter the light.

## Damage

           Most weapon damages are stated in their stats. Certain weapon damages can be very situational and may not be stated or may have several damage statements with their appropriate conditions listed. Regardless of the weapon’s capabilities there are set rules for how damage is applied. Limb damage functions similarly to health damage but has a different effect based on the limb that was stricken; arms and legs being halved damaged while the head is a times five multiplier IF there is no helmet involved. Health is an overall measure of the character’s health but any character will die if their head reaches zero health points.

           For non-player characters (NPCs), damage is typically counted as health damage to avoid overcomplicating and to streamline the game. However for more important NPCs (ie; the baron of a place, a special forces soldier, important alien creatures, etc.) limb damage may also apply.

           For player characters, most damage is rolled to see which limb is stricken. These rolls are done via a 1d8. The chart below shows how this roll occurs any time a player character is hit.

 Head
 Upper Torso
 Lower Torso
 Left Arm
 Right Arm
 Left Leg
 Right Leg

           Armor Rating is a last resort to avoid damage to a character’s body. When a character is hit the appropriate armor piece is compared to the Armor Piercing of the weapon or psionic ability in question. If the Armor Piercing is within one of the Armor Rating (ie; the weapon has 6, 7 or 8 against an armor rating of 7) then the weapon deals full damage to the armor. If the weapon is below this range by at least two it deals only half damage before armor effects. If it is above this range the weapon by at least two deals half of its damage to the armor and health. If a weapon is above this range by at least four it deals full damage to armor and health. If the weapon is below by at least four the weapon deals zero damage to the target.

           For most cases a weapon will only deal damage to one area of the body at a time. Weapons such as explosives are the exception to this rule which deal their damage to every portion of the body. All weapons when striking a limb (arms, legs) deal halved damage to the overall health of the character while dealing full damage to the limb. When striking the head the weapon deals full damage to the head and deals five times the normal amount of health damage assuming there is no armor in the way. When the torso is struck the weapons deal full damage to health and to the torso.

Limb damage affects more than health however. A character with a broken arm is not as useful in combat as a character without. Limb damage becomes significant once a limb has taken twenty-five damage. At this stage major bruising is to be expected on the limb in question but nothing too significant. However once a character’s limb damage reaches fifty then the limb is expected to have fractures or even breaks. At seventy-five the limb is so damaged that it is no longer functional; leading to a variety of effects. When a player’s limb is at zero health points the limb has been severed.

 100 HP
 75 HP
 50 HP
 25 HP
 0 HP

## Limb Damage

           The effects of limb damage can severely hamper a character’s functionality. For example, crippling the legs of a target without amputating the limbs will severely reduce the target’s speed. Crippling the arms of an opponent will severely hamper their ability to aim, deal damage and more. The chart below details how limb damage affects characters.

## Recreation and Sanity

           Recreation is the key to maintaining your character’s sanity during any campaign within the Sojourner setting. Each and every action, good or bad, will ultimately cause insanity points to begin accumulating. When a character reaches a full one hundred of their total potential one hundred insanity points the character is too insane to remain playable. Their actions can include anything from suicide to going completely berserk and attacking party members to simply becoming a gibbering mess of whispers and paranoia.

           There are upsides to gaining insanity. For example, the paranoia mental disorder provides additional perception to see things that other party members might have missed. However there are, as always, many downsides such as reduced skill checks or even the potential to kill other party members inadvertently due to the effects of PTSD.

           The tables below will, to the best knowledge available, describe the conditions that arise from insanity. Each time a character goes above twenty five, fifty or seventy five insanity points the potential for a new mental affliction to arise becomes greater. Mental afflictions can be caused other ways of course but those are typically very temporary compared to these more permanent ones.

## Mental Disorders

 Effects
 Onset after acquisition

 Effects
 Onset after acquisition

 Effects
·       Each day roll 3d10. If all dice land on 6 on below the character cannot do anything except attend to basic tasks at the GM’s discretion. This is overridden if the above rule applies.
 Onset after acquisition

 Effects
 Onset after acquisition

 Effects
·       If the character acquired a party member as their nemesis the character must roll 3d10 each day. If all dice are below 6 the character makes a Willpower save against the appropriate level of insanity they have accumulated. If they fail, they must attack and kill the targeted player until subdued or successful.
 Onset after acquisition

 Effects
 Onset after acquisition

 Effects
 Onset after acquisition

Each time insanity reaches the level that a potential disorder is developed the player should roll a Willpower save against the potential. At 25 insanity the check is 1d20+5 against the character’s Willpower. At 50 insanity the check becomes 1d20+10 and at 75 the check becomes 1d20+15. At 100 insanity the character simply becomes unplayable and either wanders madly, commits suicide or otherwise becomes another forgotten and forsaken soul within the wastelands.

## Stealth

           Combat in Sojourner usually involves an ambush rather than a direct conflict. As such, stealth is an important skill and a major upper hand to have in the post-apocalyptic world. Being able to sneak past an enemy, disable them without killing them or otherwise gain an advantage upon foes without the need for a direct confrontation leaves many enemies killed before a fight even begins; or potentially party members if the reverse is true and the enemy is sneaking about.

           There are many factors to sneaking about however. A mere rolling of the dice is not enough to implicate a stealth advantage. Characters must follow these rules to be unseen:

1.     A character cannot be in line of sight of another character without cover or concealment and remain unseen. Certain items and equipment negate this.

2.     A character cannot make noise in order to remain unheard and thus undetected. This means speaking or performing an action other than sneaking. They may still use items such as medical equipment however or other ‘quiet’ actions.

3.     Gunfire with a suppressor still negates stealth unless that gunfire is at least 10 tiles away from any unit with a handgun or 20 with a rifle. Certain exceptions apply. Bows and crossbows are not silent but do not produce noise loud enough to be heard through walls and follow suppression rules for a pistol outdoors.

When sneaking, a character gains a number of advantages. Their first attack in a series of attacks is automatically a critical hit if they hit. All attacks are rolled with advantage for sneak attacks. A sneaking character, regardless of initiative, always moves first in combat if other characters are already engaged in combat or may hold their action for a specific set of circumstances. The last particular advantage ends after one round of combat.

## Hunger, Thirst and Sleep

Hunger, Thirst and Sleep deprivation are usually the deadliest things in Sojourner. Hunger is a measure of the general nutritional intake of the character, thirst is a relative indicator of how hydrated they are and sleep is a measure of how well rested they are. Each of these contributes to the well-being and effectiveness of the character as a whole as with either Hunger or Thirst reaching zero the character simply dies or with sleep reaching zero the character will pass out from sleep deprivation. The tables below will detail what each entails.

Hunger decreases at a rate of five points per day without food. Thirst decreases at a rate of ten points per day without consuming hydrating liquids and sleep decreases at a rate of twenty per day though sleep reaching zero will not kill the character.

Drinking water seems simple enough but most characters outside of city-states will not have access to clean, potable water which can in turn lead to dysentery and further loss of water. Thusly, a character’s first and foremost survival habit should be to obtain a source of safe drinking water.

Hunger on the other hand is far easier to combat as almost all meat products in the game are edible with minimal preparation and supplies. Cooks are valuable in Sojourner not because they make things edible but because they can make things that are normally not edible into meals which not only restore hunger but also sanity.

Sleep deprivation is rare in Sojourner but possible. It comes about usually in the form of torture or from extended periods in unsafe locations or alternatively when enemies force the party to run for extended periods of time in order to exhaust them. Likewise, sleep deprivation is a powerful tool for player characters who wish to take advantage of the mechanic.

In addition when a character’s stats are all at one hundred (hunger, thirst and sleep) and the character has maintained that level for at least three days the character gains the Good Health status. Characters with the Good Health status have all XP gains increased by 1.5x, rounded down. This status effect lasts for three days at which time the stats are rechecked and if they have been maintained the status effect still applies.