This is a suggested rework of the combat system, to be more story-driven, stepping away from over-complicating management of a combat turn. With this new style of combat, let's take a different approach to skills.
Test: perhaps instead of calling them checks, each roll could be called a test. To test if an attack is a success, lets have a test of attack or attack test. Same for skills, i.e. to test if a skill is successful, we have a test of skill or skill test.
Attack Skills: weapon skills, brawl, and martial arts would be used for both offense (trying to injure/kill the enemy with the weapon or attack) and defense (using the same skill to defend from attack). Defenders may have a static target number to cut down on dice rolls, the same as the default for defense skills. There would still be a Dodge skill, for those avoiding conflict or otherwise unable to defend themselves. Attackers must announce whether they're trying to grievously wound or merely incapacitate their targets. For wounding, successes are applied to wounds, for incapacitate, successes are applied to stun. Note base damage of the weapon is always applied, making incapacitation with a deadly weapon a dubious prospect - repeated applications of base wounds may kill your foe before stun damage is enough to incapacitate them.
Skill - Dodge: used when a character is not otherwise defending themselves. Doing away with the skills Parry and Block. Some attacks might be countered with stats directly.
Skill - Sway: this skill would replace the Talk skill, but could also be useful for inspiring allies (potentially giving them a positive modifier in combat).
Skill - Deceive: for lying, deception, and could be used in combat to give a character a positive modifier (or an opponent a negative one).
Weapons - perhaps a simplifying/rework of the weapons (they feel too complicated for what I was going for) - size modifiers feel good, as does special effects, but two sets of bonuses and two sets of damage, as well as multiple sizes and tiers, feels too convoluted to me. Could combine the two, i.e. the size of the weapon determines its damage. Template for weapons/tools stats: Name, Tier, Bonus, Size, Damage, and Traits.
Tier - same as before. Tiers impact the maximum bonus and the weapon's resilience against breaking.
Bonus - a single value rather than two, Special values of the weapon may impact effectiveness for offense/defense.
Size - same as before, but a single value that represents the overall size of the weapon. A normal-sized weapon (S3) for a normal-sized character would be a typical sword, while a small-sized weapon (S2) might be a long knife or short sword, a large-sized weapon (S4) might be a spear or greatsword. Note that the actual size of the weapon may differ from its damage size. Weapon size helps to determine reach and physical dimensions while damage size affects damage multipliers.
Damage - thinking through a new system here, perhaps damage is doubled for each side category higher and halved each category down. Under this system, smaller weapons with a physical size two categories smaller or more, like a pocket knife or other little weapon would be treated as Small (S2), so damage is halved after adding successes (and some weapons, like the stinger on a large wasp, might do one quarter or one eight damage to normal-sized creatures). Weapons that have a reasonable chance of dropping wounds or stress to zero (from deadly stilettos and daggers to swords, maces, axes, etc.) would have Normal (S3) for their damage size. Massive weapons - such as greatswords and other heavy, brutal, two-handed ones) - would have Large(S4) for their damage size, meaning the damage is doubled versus a normal-sized character.
Within each size category is a range from zero to six base damage for either wounds or stress, with zero being the least damaging for that size, while six is the deadliest in that category - any higher and it would be treated as a larger-sized weapon.
Damage types will determine base wounds and stress, while weapon type, components, and other factors may positively or negatively affect the final base damage. Damage types also have other, secondary effects against the target.
Cut - base damage is wounds, and if used to cause grievous injury to creatures, could trigger a Bleed, the blood loss causing additional wounds each round until a save is made or the wound managed.
Pierce - base damage is wounds, and if used to cause grievous injury to creatures, could trigger a Rupture, damaging organs, reducing the Body stat.
Smash - base damage is split as evenly as possible between stress and wounds, and if used to cause grievous injury to creatures, could trigger a Crush, breaking bones and damaging a physical stat (typically FIN or STR).
Stun - base damage is stress. Meant to incapacitate through shock and disorientation, some examples include non-lethal electrocution and rubber bullets. As successes from kill strikes go to wounds, it is possible to injure or kill with Stun damage.
Burn - base damage is wounds but does equal amounts of stress, and burn stress damage is treated as wound damage for the purpose of healing and recovery. If used to cause grievous injury to creatures, could trigger a Burning, causing additional Burn damage each round until a save is made or the burn managed. Acid is effectively chemical burning so acidic or corrosive weapons may be treated as Burn damage.
Blast - base damage is wounds but does equal amounts of stress. If used to cause grievous injury to creatures, could trigger a Bleed, Rupture, Crush, or Burning.
Ballistic - base damage is wounds. When trying to incapacitate, could trigger a Bleed or Crush. If used to cause grievous injury to creatures, could trigger a Bleed, Rupture, or Crush.
Toxin - base damage is wounds, stress, or a combination of both, depending on the toxin, and it may have additional Traits that damages stats or has persistent effects.
Traits - traits that may impact offensive and defensive bonuses, damage and damage types.
Reach - by default, weapons have a reach equal to the size of the damage, but for each +1 Reach, treat as one size larger (weapons with superior reach get bonuses to initiative).
Example (sword)
Name | Tier | Bonus | Size | Damage | Traits
Katana | T4 | +1 | S3 | 5/0 (S3) | Cut
In the example above, the katana is a Tier 4 weapon, granting +1 to skill tests to use it, medium (character) sized in both dimensions and damage, and does a base of 5 wounds and 0 stun damage, with the Cut trait, meaning grievous injuries may result in a Bleed.
Armor - could simplify to armor types incurring negative penalties to some skills, like Dodge and Sneak, and perhaps make it stronger/weaker versus some forms of damage.
Health - stress, wounds, and the condition penalty system seems to work well for what I intended, however with the given rules it can be cumbersome trying to remember what injuries were treated (as the Heal skill can typically be applied only once per set of injuries). Perhaps a log (it could be named something like Status or Health) could be used to keep track of injuries and effects on the character, either by players themselves, or the GM may keep track of their injuries. If done in table-form, could have columns for Wounds, Stress, Stat (for stat damage), Treatment, and Notes.
Each turn is handled in phases, in the following order:
Actions - each participant declares actions, and are free to change this declaration until everyone agrees on their actions. Each participant suffers a negative penalty to all actions that round based on number of actions. See below for list of common actions.
Tactics - each participant sets the offensive and defensive tactics (oT/dT) by assigning points from Tactics. Enemies can see whether their opponents are fighting normally, defensively, or offensively (based on relative oT/dT). Each can alter based on others until everyone agrees to their set tactics. These tactics apply bonuses to all appropriate actions for this combat round.
Results - GM arbitrates actions, going in no particular order, but when one participant has an action that may impact another (for example, one character shoots at another engaged in fighting with an ally, and wishes to strike before target does), both roll initiative to determine which action goes first.
Under these changes, characters may choose opponents to engage with actions. Keep track of the number of actions, as they incur a negative penalty to all actions that turn. Some common actions:
Ambush opponent - character attacks an unaware opponent. Deceive skill might be appropriate, or perhaps a save from the opponent to determine how/if they can respond to the attack.
Engage opponent - closing within combat range to fight an opponent.
Fight opponent - character chooses a combat skill, squaring off and fighting with an opponent with that skill. Thus, a combat skill (such as swords) can be used offensively (such as stabbing someone) or defensively (fending off attacks with that skill, such as parrying an opponent).
Skirmish opponent - character takes a passing shot at opponent while staying in motion (can skirmish some targets before fighting last one, for example).
Flank opponent - character fights an opponent engaged with an ally.
Repel opponent - if superior reach, can keep an opponent from closing - perhaps if they try to close (to bypass or enter within their own weapon reach), Repel action grants an attack - if successful, opponent can take half damage to cancel closing.
Shoot opponent - character engages target with ranged weapons.
Dodge opponent - character does not engage enemy, rather attempts to avoid Fight or Skirmish.
Defend - character focuses on protecting a spot (such as a choke point) or another character from attacks.
Disengage fight - slow retreat favoring defense.
Flee fight - fast retreat favoring escape.
Operate tech - such as a piece of gear, vehicles, etc..
Perform skill - engaging in non-combative skills.
Inspire allies - use the Sway or Deceive skill to inspire allies, granting a positive modifier to their combat actions.
Intimidate enemies - use the Sway or Deceive skill to intimidate enemies, granting a negative modifier to their combat actions.
Each combat turn represents a few seconds of conflict.