Combat Basics

When a combat scene begins:

1. Determine who has the initiative when the scene begins.
2. Each player rolls their Luck Die to determine their starting Instant Karma.
3. Each player should set aside a number of d6s equal to their Hero Dice pool. These dice are their Reaction Pools.
4. Establish any information relevant to the scene: locations of characters and important props, distances, active trackers or counters, etc.

Initiative

In gaming jargon, “initiative” refers to the method of determining the order in which characters take their turns. The acting character “has the initiative.” When a combat scene begins, it’s up to the GM to determine who gets the first initiative. In most cases this is obvious from the situation. Frequently, it’s simply the first character to declare an attack. In some cases--for example, when a group of characters sneaks up on an enemy--the initiative can go to a group rather than a particular character. If it’s not clear which group should get the initiative, each group rolls a d20 and initiative goes to the group with the highest roll. When initiative goes to a group, it’s up to the group (or the GM, if the group is made up of NPCs) to decide which group member starts with the initiative.   The character who starts the scene with the initiative gets to act first during the battle. Once the character has completed their action, they pass the initiative to any other character involved in the battle (friend or foe) who can still perform an action during the round. After each subsequent character takes their action, they pass the initiative to someone else. The last character to act in the round gets to decide who goes first in the next round.   If the initiative is passed to a character who isn’t ready to act yet, the player may choose to hold their action. This means that the character chooses not to act right now and can still be passed the initiative later in the round. When a character decides to hold their action, they must pass the initiative to an opponent. If there is no opponent who can accept the initiative, the player may pass the initiative to an ally instead.

Actions

An action is the character's attempt to do whatever it is they want to accomplish during the round: attacking an orc, casting a spell, or moving to the other side of the battlefield, for example. Characters usually only get one action during each combat round, and in most cases they can only attempt their action when they have the initiative. When taking an action, the character makes a standard roll.  

Delayed Actions

Some actions, like spellcasting or taking an aimed shot with a missile weapon, do not take effect immediately. In this case, the player uses their initiative when they declare the action, but don't make the roll (if any) until the result takes effect. If the effect occurs after a set number of segments (like with spellcasting), the effect takes place at the beginning of the round before the character with initiative acts. If the timing of the effect is at the player's discretion (as in the case with an aimed shot) and the player declares that they're completing the action before the character with initiative declares their action, the delayed action is resolved first. Otherwise, it's resolved after the player with initiative resolves their action. No matter the order, the character with the initiative decides who acts next.   For delayed actions that take place after a certain number of segments, it may be helpful to use a counter to track when the action goes off.   Delayed actions can be carried over to the next round, but the players initiative doesn't refresh until the delayed action is completed. The player may give up on the delayed action at any time, but this merely makes them available to act--they don't take their action for the new round until someone passes them the initiative.  

Conditional Actions

Conditional actions are like delayed actions, but rather than taking place after a set amount of time (like a spell) or at the character's discretion (like an aimed shot), they take place when some condition that is outside of the character's control is met. For example, a player may declare that he's aiming his gun at the bad guy and will shoot if the villain makes a move. If the bad guy goes for his gun, the conditional action takes effect. Conditional actions are always resolved before the event that triggered them.   If a player chooses to extend an action into the next round, their initiative refreshes normally but is used when the conditional action takes effect.     

Reactions

Reactions are things that a character does in response to things that happen during the round: dodging an attack, attempting to resist a charm spell, or taking an attack of opportunity, for example. When a reaction requires a die roll, the player uses the dice in their Reaction Pool in place of their Hero Dice. Each time the Reaction Pool is used, it shrinks by 1 die.    A character whose Reaction Pool is reduced to zero dice can still react as long as they have Trope, Trademark, or other dice that can apply to the roll. If they don't have any dice to use, they either can't react (in cases like attacks of opportunity) or automatically fail (for dodge rolls and the like).   In most cases, a player who still has dice in their Reaction Pool can choose a passive reaction, which means that the character chooses not to add their Reaction Pool to the roll. Since they're not using the Reaction Pool, they don't lose a die from it.   If a character has not taken their action yet, they can choose to perform a reaction as their reaction that round. In this case, the character uses their standard dice pool for the action and does not lose a reaction die, but the reaction uses up their turn.  

Round Order

Rounds are divided into segments, each of which represents one character's action, so the number of segments in a round varies depending on how many characters are involved and how many actions each character can take. The order of play for a round is outlined below:  

1. Players refresh their reaction pools and intiative
2. Characters take their turns, starting with the character with the first initiative for the round. Each character's turn includes the following steps:
1. Resolve delayed actions by other characters, if applicable
2. Player with initiative declares action
3. Resolve conditional actions triggered by the player's declared action
4. Determine any unclear/variable details of the acting player's roll
5. Acting player rolls for action
6. Resolve acting player's action
7. Resolve delayed or conditional actions by other characters, if applicable
8. Acting player passes initiative to a player who can still act during the round. If nobody has any actions left, the acting player can pass the initiative to anyone who doesn't have an uncompleted delayed or conditional action. That character will go first in the next round.
3. Players with uncompleted actions may choose to complete them (if allowed), continue them into the next round, or abandon them. If they abandon them, their initiative refreshes normally
4. Players who are required to do so make Health Checks
5. Resolve other rolls, actions, and events as necessary
6. Unless combat is over, return to step 1