Combat Basics
Before you dive head first into the shadows, you´ll want to know how combat works.
Do not take this document as the end-all, be-all rules for Shadowrun 5th edition. If you find something here that conflicts with rules you´ve found elsewhere remember that the order of what is "right" goes: The Gamemaster > Core Rulebook > Expansion Book > This guide.
Attacking and Defending
Hitting the other guy
Using a weapon, be it an automatic rifle, a sword, or even magic (but with some caveats) follow the same basic principles as an Opposed Test as described in Dice rolls and Skillchecks .
To perform a basic weapons attack you roll your Dice Pool against the enemy´s dice pool, if you roll more hits than the enemy, your weapon strikes them and you proceed to check damage (next chapter).
To calculate your Dice Pool, you add the relevant weapons skill to the associated attribute, then add or subtract any modifiers such as weapon modifications, weather effects or debuffs from taken damage.
All combat skills use Agility as their Attribute, unless otherwise stated.
Limits (or: Accuracy and you)
Just like with normal skill tests, all your rolls have Limits. This is how accurate your gun is, how hard it can punch and how fast you really can swing that sword. On your weapons stat card, this is called Accuracy.
The Accuracy, just like a Limit, caps the amount of hits on a roll that actually count towards the attack. There are many ways to increase this limit, from weapon modifications to Qualities. But the most straight-forward is buying a new gun.
Not getting hit
When targeted by an attack, you get to make a Defense roll. This is automatic and does not cost you anything.
Roll your Reaction + Intuition +- any relevant Modifiers. Modifiers can be things like being in Cover or in melee with an ally of the attacker.
The number of hits scored on this roll is what your attacker has to beat to hit you.
There are many other reactions (called Interrupt Actions) you can take when being targeted. Interrupt Actions trade Initative (more on that later) for an immediate effect. There are other Interupt Actions, usually available as Adept Powers or Martial Art techniques, but here are the most common, available to all:
- Full Defense: Costs you 10 points of your Initiative, but lets you add your Willpower to all Defense Rolls for the rest of the Combat Turn.
- Dodge: Melee only. Costs 5 Initative and lets you add your Gymnastics skill to your Defence roll, for one defense test only. Note that adding a skill into the mix also adds your Physical Limit to the roll.
- Parry: Melee only. Must have melee weapon in hand and have skill in that weapon. Costs 5 Initiative and lets you add your Weapons skill (for the weapon in your hand) to your Defence roll, for one defense test only. Note that adding a skill into the mix also adds your Physical Limit to the roll.
- Block: Melee only. Must have be unarmed and have Unarmed Combat skill. Costs 5 Initiative and lets you add your Unarmed Combat skill (for the weapon in your hand) to your Defence roll, for one defense test only. Note that adding a skill into the mix also adds your Physical Limit to the roll.
She rolls the attack and scores 6 hits on the ganger. Unfortunetly her AK-97 only has an Accuracy of 5, meaning that only 5 of her 6 hits count towards the attack.
The ganger tries to defend, rolling his Reaction + Intuition +- Modifiers. He rolls only 3 hits, and Tomoe´s attack succeeds with 2 hits to spare!
Net hits
Another important mechanic in Shadowrun is the Net hit. These are the hits "leftover" after a test has succeeded. For example; an attack roll of 7 hits beat a defense roll of 3 hits. The extra hits are the attackers Net hits.
On a weapons attack these are extra important, because any Net hits from a successful attack are added to the Damage Value of the attack!
Further Reading
Learn more about skillchecks on page 46,and skills on page 128, of the Core rules - Shadowrun 5e
Dealing (and taking) damage
Once you´ve hit your opponent, it time to deal damage.
Tracking Damage
There are two types of damage your character has to care about: Physical & Stun. On stat cards this is shortened to the Damage Value followed by and S or P, for Stun or Physical. (For example 12P)
On your character sheet or in your Chummer character you have two Condition Monitors, these are your hitpoints. One for Physical damage and one for Stun damage. Your Condition Monitor is calculated at the end of character creation (chummer handles this automatically). But here's how you calculate it manually:
- The number of boxes in the Physical Condition Monitor equals (Body ÷ 2) + 8.
- The number of boxes in the Stun Condition Monitor equals (Willpower ÷ 2) + 8.
One point of damage fills one box from your condition modifier, once your Condition monitor is full one of two things happen, depending on whether it is your Stun or Physical Condition Monitor:
- If it's your Stun Condition Monitor, it carries over into the Physical damage track. For every two full boxes of excess Stun damage, carry over 1 box to the Physical damage track.
- If it's your Physical Condition Monitor you are close to death. You´ll die of your injuries if you do not receive medical aid soon. Your character takes one more box of damage for ever Attribute number of minutes you spend without aid. The Physical Condition Monitor has a Overflow equal to your Body Attribute. Instant death happens when you exceed this Overflow.
Resisting Damage
To figure out how much damage you dealt your enemy (or taken yourself!) we need two things: The final Damage Value of the attack and how well you resist the damage.
The Damage Value of the attack is the weapons DV (Damage Value) + any Net Hits from the attack roll.
When getting hit you automatically get to resist the damage. You do this by rolling a dice pool consisting of your Body Attribute + (your Armor rating +- any Modifiers). Every hit removes 1 point of damage from the attack, any DV remaining
Armor
Your Armor is the total of all personal armor and situational modifiers. Worn armor or clothing with armor does not stack. If your character is wearing multiple layers of different armor, they only benefit from the one with the highest armor rating. There are a few exceptions: Items that list their armor rating as a "+1" (or similar) add their armor rating to your normal armor.
Weapons modify your Armor with their AP (Armor Penetration) stat. A negative AP (for example AP: -2) will reduce the dice you get from your Armor on damage resistance tests and a positive AP (for example AP: +1) will increase it.
If your armor is good enough it can also turn the damage from an attack from lethal Physical damage into a less-lethal Stun damage: If your remaining Armor after modifying it with the attacks AP is greater than the modified DV of the attack (including net hits) Physical damage is converted to Stun damage.
Some thug is shooting at her with some pretty fancy armor-piercing ammunition. The thugs weapon has a DV of 7P, and a final AP of -5. The thug hits Tweek and gets 1 Net hit, making the final DV 8P (7P Base + 1 Net hit).
She rolls to resist the damage with her Body Attribute of 4 + her modified Armor Rating of 6 (11 base- 5 AP). Tweek rolls 3 hits and removes 3 damage from the 8 DV attack.
Unfortunately for Tweek, the DV of the attack is greater than her modified armor rating, so the damage remains Physical and the remaining 5 damage goes straight into her Physical Condition Monitor. Ouch!
Knockdown
Further Reading
These are just the very basics. Learn more about Combat on page 158 of Core rules - Shadowrun 5e
Initiative
Before you can start shooting, we need to know who draws first.
In Shadowrun combat is divided into several Combat Turns each 3 seconds long. Every Combat Turn each character get an Action Phase in which they may take actions. The characters take their Action Phase in order of initiative, highest to lowest.
Comments