Combat

Combat encounters are played out with tokens on a hex grid in rounds, with each round proceeding turn by turn through all players and enemies until everyone has had a chance to act. Combat can be roughly broken up into two phases: Deployment, where everyone takes their initial positions on the battlefield and the turn order is established, and the fight itself, where players and enemies attack and deal damage to each other's body parts until one side or the other has surrendered, been incapacitated, or killed.

## Deployment

Before the turn order is set and combat can actually begin, there is the deployment phase. Every combat encounter has one or more **attacking** and **defending** forces. If the party is the attacking force, the game master will place the enemies in whatever reasonable arrangement they like, and each player can deploy their character as close or as far from the enemy forces as they wish.

On the other hand, if the party is the defending force, players can place their characters on the combat grid in whatever reasonable arrangement you like. After all players are satisfied with their placement, the game master then places the enemies within attacking distance of the party.

This deployment phase only occurs once, at the very beginning of battle, and this is how the starting positions of all allies and enemies is determined. For example, a character with a crab claw would want to be adjacent to an enemy in order to attack right away. Someone with a crossbow might want to be 3 hexes away from an enemy, to fire a few shots before they close the gap. Someone with a flintlock pistol and a rapier might want to be 2 hexes away; far enough to fire their one-shot pistol in the first turn, but close enough to quickly fight in melee on the next. It’s up to you. Note that this is the typical case where you know a fight is about to happen and have time to prepare yourselves. If you’re ambushed or caught completely off-guard, the enemy will be allowed to deploy to their greatest advantage, instead of you.

## Turn Order

Whichever team was **attacking** in the deployment phase gets to go first. The most common way of determining the order that individual characters will act is by their proximity to the enemy, with the nearest going first and furthest going last. There are many methods to decide this order, including rolling dice, but ultimately the exact method used to set the turn order is unimportant as long as it stays consistent.

## Actions

During your turn, you can take one **normal action**, and as many **free actions** as you wish.

The following are examples of normal actions:

* Attacking
* Moving
* Breaking a **grapple**
* Standing up after being **downed**
* Using a special ability given by a mutation
* Drinking, eating, or applying something to your body
* Sheathing a weapon
* Picking an object up from the ground
* Mounting or dismounting an animal
* Reloading a weapon

The following are examples of free actions:

* Drawing a sheathed weapon
* Changing the limb that a shield is covering
* Dropping a weapon or held item
* Speaking or gesturing

Obviously, in a game built around player agency, neither of these lists can ever be exhaustive. If you come across something that doesn't fit into any of these categories, the GM is encouraged to use their own discretion.

## Attacking

Before you can attack, you need to be within range of your enemy. For melee weapons, this is typically 1, meaning that you have to be adjacent to an enemy in order to attack. Pole weapons such as spears and halberds are an exception. They have a range of 2, so you must have an empty tile between you. For this reason, it's advisable to have a secondary close-range weapon you can switch to if you plan on using a pole weapon. Note that dropping a weapon and drawing a sheathed one are both free actions, so you can switch to your sidearm in a single turn.

Once you’re within range and it’s your turn, you’re ready to attack. Choose one of your equipped weapons or natural weapon mutations, indicate which limb of the enemy you want to attack before rolling, then roll your weapon’s damage dice. If your roll contains a pair of 1s (or more), you miss. If your attack targets the enemy’s head, you will miss with even a single 1 in your roll. If your attack didn't miss, add up all the dice to determine the total amount of damage you do. The enemy's armor value (AV) is subtracted from this total, and the difference is applied as damage to the limb.

## Doubles

Any pair of matching numbers in your attack roll (other than matching ones) are called **doubles**. Similarly, any three matching numbers are called **triples**, and so on. All weapons have special effects that are automatically triggered by doubles, described in the weapon table. Weapons with larger dice pools have triple and sometimes even quadruple effects, which will trigger if you get lucky enough.

## Fumbles

A roll of all ones is called a fumble, and is worse than a miss. Not only do you fail to hit the enemy, but many weapons specify an even worse consequence. This is left up to the GM’s discretion when fumble effects aren’t specifically written in the weapon table.

## Armor Value (AV)

Armor Value is limb-specific, and is increased by natural armor mutations, which typically grant the same bonus to all limbs, and by individual pieces of armor like breastplates, gauntlets, et cetera. When a character attacks a body part, subtract that limb's AV from the damage roll to determine how much damage the limb will actually receive. This total is then subtracted from the limb's current health.

## Shields

Shields are equipped in an open hand, and provide their AV to both the arm holding them, and another limb of your choice. If no limb is specified, it's assumed that the shield is covering the torso, and that's where the bonus AV will be applied. Changing the limb your shield is covering is a free action, and can be done at any time in your turn.

## Limb Damage and Loss

If a limb's health is reduced to 0, it is **shattered** and cannot be used until healed. If its health is reduced further to -10 (either through the initial attack that shattered the limb or through subsequent attacks), it is **severed** and must be regrown or reattached. If the legs are shattered or severed, ordinary movement is impossible, though certain mutations may allow you to move in other ways. If the head or torso is shattered, the character is **incapacitated**. If the head is severed or the torso is reduced to -10 health, the character is **killed**.

## Incapacitation and Death

A character who has been incapacitated by having their head or torso shattered cannot act for the remainder of the combat encounter, and will require immediate medical attention after the combat has ended. A player character who has been killed in combat can be replaced, either by a new character or by a relative from their Bloodline.