An example of the combat system in action.
Gamer #1 has chosen a powerful Nuvroci warrior. Wearing thick armor he is difficult for foes to harm with physical damage. He wields a warhammer and a shield.
Gamer #2 has decided on a light fighter, picking a Kurrot with a high Dodge Defense and two weapons.
The two decide to duke it in a spar out to see whose creation is better in a fight...
Round One:
Both gamers roll for initiative using the Initiative skill. Gamer #2 has a serious advantage as he has a high dexterity and Gamer #1's armor check penalty (ACP) applies to his initiative skill. Gamer #2 could have also chosen the Kurrot technique (2 XP cost) that grants him two automatic successes his initiative. However, as a starting character, he spent his precious few XP elsewhere for the moment. Luckily, he still wins. He knows a swift and brutal offense may win, so he uses the Charge Standard Action. It gives him a 1 die bonus to hit for a 1 die penalty to his Dodge and Parry Defense.
Gamer #2 rolls his attack at the same time as Gamer #1 rolls his defense. Gamer #1 chooses use his Parry Defense. Gamer #1 rolls 7D+5 for a total of 9 successes. Gamer #2 rolls 11D+2 with the charging bonus for a total of 8 successes. His attack would normally be parried. However, he can choose to use a Hero Die to boost his attack, rolling 1 die for each Hero Die he spends. His opponent can do the same if he has any. Knowing it is another PC, Gamer #2 metagames and chooses not to use his hero dice.
Gamer #1 then rolls his attack while Gamer #2 rolls his defense. Gamer #2 chooses to use his Dodge Defense and rolls 6D+3 with the charge penalty for a total of 6 successes. Gamer #1 rolls 7D+3 for a total of 4 successes, missing by a mile.
Round Two:
Gamer #2 now uses a full attack as a Full Round Action to attempt to hit with both his short swords, giving him two chances though his attack rolls are 9D+2 with each attack. His first attack rolls an impressive 11 successes! Gamer #1 rolls a paltry defense of 6 successes. 11 beasts 6 by at least 5 successes, turning that attack into a critical hit!
Gamer #2 rolls his damage - With his bonuses, his weapon does 4D damage. A short sword has a critical damage bonus of 2d6. This is a total of 6D damage for this critical hit! He rolls a total of 4 successes on the dice.
This damage is compared to Gamer #1's physical threshold. His threshold is normally 9D+1, but 7D of that is from armor. Gamer #2 has an AP of 5, removing 5 dice from the armor pool (Minimum of 0D added from armor). Rolling his modified 4D+1, Gamer #1 gets 3 successes. 4 is higher than 3, however, to actually leave a wound, he must beat the threshold by 2 successes. Still, this is a hit and can possibly stun his opponent for 2 rounds. Normally an opponent must roll an Endurance skill check to resist this (TN 4) and make the victim merely "dazed" for those 2 rounds. Beating the TN by at least 2 successes reduces the time dazed.
Gamer #1 has the Pain Resistance feat, which means he may drop an extra 2 dice for successes on this roll. He rolls 6D+6 on his Endurance skill with all his bonuses and gets 6 successes. This is enough to meet the TN of 4, and transforms the stun into daze. He beat the TN by 2 reducing the time dazed to 1 round. He could have reduced it to 0 with a 8 successes and continued fighting normally. Being dazed puts you on the defensive, unable to do use any actions other than the Withdraw action and your defenses. Multiple rounds of stun (or daze) stack, allowing multiple foes to become a larger threat.
Gamer #2 rolls his second attack and rolls poorly It is lucky for Gamer #1. Gamer #1 decides to withdraw as a Move Action, moving up to half his speed away from his foe. This movement allows the first square of movement to be free of Opportunity Attacks. Often people will use this action to just move 1 square around opponents - a "shift" of sorts. Being dazed he can do little else, however this prevents Gamer #1 from being able to use the Full Attack option.
Round Three:
Gamer #2 use his Move Action to get close to his foe and makes a normal attack with one blade as his Standard Action. He rolls his 10D+2 and gets 9 successes. Gamer #1 rolls his Parry Defense of 7D+5 for 8 success. He decides to blow a pair of hero dice to up that defense, rolling 2 more successes. That is enough to make the attack a miss and Gamer #2 decides to save his hero dice for later as he only bought 2.
Gamer #1 misses horribly. the dice are not with him.
Round Four:
Gamer #2 makes one last attack and rolls poorly with a total of 5 successes versus Gamer #1's Parry Defense total of 10 successes. Gamer #1 brings his hammer to bear with a total of 8 successes on the attack. Gamer #1 also rolls a total of 8 successes. As defense is a threshold, tying a threshold means a Complication. Complications are weak effects that can add flavor. A Dodge Complication means the foe touches but does no physical damage to the victim. This can be deadly for contact poison or touch spells however. A Parry Complication means a meeting of weapon and defense, allowing a free attack on the defender's defense (Shield, weapon, or body in that order). For flavor the GM decides that for this Dodge Complication the hammer caught on Gamer #2's clothing and ripped it - A close call.
Round Five:
Gamer #2 misses twice against his foe's impressive defenses and Gamer #1 finally connects. His warhammer does 3D damage. He has also bought the Brawn technique (2 xp) that allows him to drop one die and make it a success with melee weapons, making the damage 2D+1 instead. He rolls 1 extra successes on damage on the dice for a total of 2 successes with an AP of 7. Gamer #1 has very light armor (2D bonus), relying on his ability to dodge to avoid damage. His physical threshold is 4D with armor, but only 2D against this attack. Rolling no successes, 2 damage would be enough to wound him. As he only has 1 wound, this would drop him to 0 wounds. He could spend his Hero Dice to resist the damage, but decids not to.
Normally being dropped to 0 wounds would leave a foe unconscious, but Gamer #2 took the Diehard technique. While he is still dying at 0 wounds, he is conscious and can still act. The player decides to surrender for now, getting a feel for the combat system and what feat and techniques he would like to buy next with experience he earns to improve his character.