Simple Combat Rework

Combat:

Into every spacefaring adventurer's life a little caseless ammunition must fall. While prudent starfarers avoid combat whenever possible, there are times when a peaceful solution to a dispute is impossible. When those circumstances arise, it's important that an adventurer be able to exert a little practical self-defence.

The Combat Round:

Combats and other tense situations in Stars Without Number are divided up into rounds. A round is roughly six seconds long. During a round, each character involved takes a turn doing something. When all characters have acted -or chosen not to act- the round ends and a new one begins.

During their turn a character can:

• Move up to 20 meter in one go

• Make One Action; Make an attack, reload, move again, etc

• Make any number of free actions; Drop a carried item, use a specific psionic power, pulling out a readied item, etc. (Note, Free actions as their name implies can be used at any time. Both within and outside of their turns)

Initiative:

When a fight begins, every participant rolls initiative, rolling 1d8 and add their Dexterity attribute modifier. Participants act in initiative order, highest roll first. In case of ties, PCs act first. If two PCs tie, the player with the highest Dexterity score acts first. Initiative is only rolled once, as when all participants have had their turn a new round begins from the top.

Movement:

Moving around in a whirling broil of monoblades, shotgun blasts, and laser fire can be hazardous. During their turn, a character can move up to 20 meter in one go if unencumbered. Up to 40 if they Dash.

Climbing ropes, swimming, crawling or otherwise perform advanced movement during combat requires the use of an action to complete. Meaning that although you make it to that vantage point, you have to wait till next round before attacking.

Characters can move freely past enemies with ranged weapons but if engaged with an enemy with melee weapons the character must take a fighting retreat action or grant their opponent a free attack against them.

Characters who attempt to flee a fight completely might be chased by angry enemies. The chase can usually be resolved by an opposed Athletics check, usually modified by Constitution for anything longer than a sprint. If the fleeing character wins, they get away, and if not, they're cornered or run down by the opponent and must fight.

Examples of Actions:

Full Action Examples (Not a complete list of EVERY action able to be used):

• • Attack: Make a Ranged or Melee Attack with either a weapon or unarmed.

  • Aim: Spend a turn lining up a shot. Gain a +1 each turn spent aiming to a maximum of +3 to your next ranged attack (DOSE NOT APPLY TO SNIPER AND SNIPER LIKE WEAPONS)

  • Dash: Move up to another 20 meters this round.

  • Use Psionic Power: Activate certain Psionic Powers

  • Reload: Reload a weapon. (May take more than one round)

  • Unstow: Move an item from Stowed to Readied.

  • Stow: Move an item from Readied to Stowed.

  • Fighting Retreat: Move out of melee combat without provoking an opportunity attack.

  • Access Terminal: Make use of a computer or other terminal.

  • Assist Character: Make an assist roll for another characters action.

  • Hold Action: Specify an action to be taken later under certain circumstances.

Free Action Examples (Not a complete list of EVERY action able to be used):

• • Talk: Speak to anyone within audio range.

  • Draw: Draw or pullout a readied item.

  • Drop Item: Drop any readied item onto the floor.

  • Use Psionic Power: Activate certain Psionic Powers

Making an Attack:

A character may use one of their action to attack an enemy. To attack, the character rolls 1d20 and adds their relevant Combat skill, the attribute bonus associated with the weapon, their target’s armour class, the weapon's Attack Bonus (if any), and the Attack Bonus for their class and level. If the total is equal to or greater than 20, the attack hits the target. A natural roll (the unmodified result on the die) of 1 always misses, and a natural roll of 20 always hits.

A normal, unarmoured human has an AC of 9, but agile or armoured characters can have substantially lower armour class. The target’s Dexterity modifier is subtracted from their base armour class as well as their base armour class from wearing armour.

Circumstances can apply other penalties or bonuses to the hit roll. Energy weapons grant a +1 to hit as their Attack Bonus due to lack of recoil, for example, while heavy cover reduces the target's AC. These modifiers are cumulative, and the GM is the final arbiter of what merits a modifier.

If the attack hits, the character then rolls the damage dice associated with the weapon and adds the appropriate attribute bonus. This damage is then subtracted from the victim's hit points. Creatures reduced to zero hit points are either dead or mortally wounded. Note that while you add the relevant skill bonus to a weapon's hit roll, you don't add it to the damage. The only exception is with the Combat/Unarmed skill, which adds its level to both the hit and damage roll.

Dual Wielding:

A character can dual wield any weapon that requires a single hand to operate. Such as two pistols or two monoblades. This allows the user to make two attacks in their turn with a -4 negative modifier on each attacks. This assumes that the weapons are the same type and aimed at the same target. If targeting two separate targets the modifier becomes a -8.

Note, holding a firearm in one hand a melee weapon in the other so that you can switch between the two on the fly doesn't count as dual wielding unless you try to make two attacks that round.

Fire and Incendiary Weapons:

Incendiary Weapons are a dangerous class of weapons that can inflict incredible pain and damage. Often they will cause an initial flash damage followed by the horrific possibility of burning alive. Whenever a target is hit they will take the base weapon damage and then must make a Luck save otherwise catch fire. Causing them to take Burning Damage.

When a creature starts its turn on fire then they must pass a mental save before they are able to act. If they fail then they spend the turn running around screaming as the fire burns them. On a success they are able to act as normal. Regardless of the result they take 1d6 damage each round (or the Incendiary's burn damage if different) until the fire is extinguished.

On their turn, a person can expend an action to either extinguish either themselves or someone else on fire. When attempting to extinguish themselves a person must make a Physical Save. On a success the fire is put out and the person is no longer burning. Otherwise they are still on fire. When putting someone else out they must pass a DC 8 Athletics/Dexterity skill check in order to extinguish the fire.

VACUUM and Zero-G Combat:

Certain weapons simply cannot function in a vacuum environment. Mainly projectile weapons such as the crude pistol or musket. Anything which either don't rely on combustion or uses a sealed cartage can be used in a Vacuum. Zero-G environments also offer interesting challenges to ranged combat:

• The first is that any primitive or projectile weapon no longer has a maximum range because of Newton's first law. An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Though they still have an optimal range they can and will keep going until they hit something.

• The second is that any projectile or primitive ranged weapon not the Void Carbine or Advanced Bow inherently gains a -1 to hit due to the recoil not being mitigated by Gravity. This doesn't apply to energy weapons as they don't have recoil anyway.

• Finally, those without a background in zero-gee environments or the Culture/Spacer skill at at least 0 suffer a -2 penalty to hit rolls and a -1 to physical skill checks. This can be mitigated to a -1 and a 0 respectively for the unskilled if anchored to a relative surface. (Such as mag-boots to a Starship hull or holding onto a ladder outside an orbital.)

Cover and other Bonuses:

There are three types of cover in Stars Without Number:

• Light Cover : -2 to target AC

• Heavy Cover: -4 to target AC

• Hard Cover: Target cannot be targeted nor target others except from weapons that ignore cover. E.g Flamethrowers