Combat

Time in combat is split into rounds and turns. During each round, all PCs present in the Scene get to act by taking Actions, each one having a turn in which to use them. Once all PCs have taken a turn, the Round ends and a new one begins.

Each PC’s turn represents a period of time that lasts approximately ten seconds. In a turn, they can take up to two actions; they can move a number of zones equal to their speed, make an attack, cast a spell, climb an obstacle, help an ally or anything else they can reasonably accomplish in a ten-second period. Players decide what sequence they take these actions in. A PC cannot take more than one action in a turn that would require them to make an Aspect roll; while they could move twice in a turn, or reload twice in a turn, they could not attack twice, or attack then cast a spell in the same turn.

Along with their two actions, each PC also gets a single reaction. Reactions are only used outside of the PC’s turn, and can only be used for in specific circumstances, typically used for spells and abilities.

In order to determine what action PCs take their turn in, each player rolls their character’s Skill Mastery. Whoever rolls highest takes their turn first during each round, going in descending order (if there are any ties, the order is agreed between the tied players).

Attacking and Retaliation

In Into the Glowlands, hostile NPCs don’t roll dice - rather they have a Threat score. When acting against an enemy, PCs roll against the enemy’s Threat. Enemies have two Threat scores - Ranged Threat and Melee Threat. Ranged Threat is how easy it is to hit it from a distance, while Melee Threat is how easy it is to hit it up close.

Whenever you attack or otherwise interact with a hostile target, you trigger that target’s Retaliation - whatever it is the target does when threatened in a certain way. If your attack roll matches or exceeds your target’s Threat, it is Successful and you deal your damage using the appropriate Mastery with any weapon tags you have, but suffer the effects of a Retaliation; your target does something in response, such as strike back with its weapon, reposition, cast a spell or something similar. If your attack roll result is under your target’s Threat, it fails to hit, you deal no damage but still suffer the effects of Retaliation. If you are Critically Successful, you deal your damage and trigger a Retaliation, but the retaliation’s effects do not occur; the target is too staggered or overwhelm to react properly, but the Retaliation is still used for that round. Alternatively, you can choose for a Critically Successful to still trigger retaliation against you; if you do, you deal an extra 1 damage with your attack.

Bear in mind that damage is dealt before the Retaliation happens - if you manage to fill your target’s Strain, it cannot retaliate as it goes down.

For example, a Caretaker carries both a spear and a shortbow. Its Ranged Threat is 9 (Medium) and its Melee Threat is 10 (Engaged). If a character were to make a ranged attack against them, they would need to get 9 or more to be Successful (dealing damage but suffering the effects of Retaliation) or 19 or more to be Critically Successful (dealing damage and not being affected by Retaliation).

Most of the time, an NPC can only use Retaliation against one enemy per turn; once that Retaliation is used, any further attacks against them do not trigger against them, though the attacker must still beat their Threat. This represents them lashing out to counter their foe, and then going on the defensive. Some NPCs and creatures can use Retaliation more than once per turn if fighting multiple enemies, such as if they are supremely skilled or monstrously large; if they have this ability, this is outlined in their Bestiary entry.

Regardless of a target’s Threat, if an attacking PC gets a result of exactly 20 on their attack roll’s d20 (ignoring factors such as Aspects, Advantage etc.), then the attack roll is automatically Critically Successful; in addition, the result of the damage dice they roll for this attack is doubled.

Outnumbering

It’s not uncommon for PCs to be outnumbered by their enemies. If, at the end of a turn, all PCs have taken their actions, and there are enemies that have not had a Retaliation, then all remaining enemies take one Retaliation action.

In addition, if a PC is Engaged with more than one enemy, they are at a distinct disadvantage. They can take actions as normal, but their actions can provoke Retaliation from all engaged enemies, even ones they aren’t targeting. If their enemies have a different Threat, then the character makes only one roll against their target, but for the purposes of suffering or avoiding Retaliation this roll is checked against the Threat of all enemies they are engaged with.

Example: Haelon is an outrider who has ranged ahead of her band to try and find a weak point in the defences of some hostile machines. However, a string of bad luck has meant that she has been cornered by a Peacekeeper and a Caretaker.

Determined not to go down without a fight, Haelon draws her shortsword and decides to go for the Caretaker, hoping that by taking down the weaker enemy she can make an opening to escape. The Caretaker has a Melee Threat of 10 and the Peacekeeper has a Melee Threat of 13.

Haelon is skilled with her blade and rolls a 21. She is Critically successful against the Caretaker, dealing damage to it and avoiding its Retaliation. However, she is not critically successful against the Peacekeeper’s Melee Threat, and so while it was not targeted, it still retaliates against her and damages her with its shock coils. She’s improved her odds, but the fight ahead is still a tough one.

When PCs outnumber a foe, they also have the advantage, though indirectly. While they roll to attack as normal, their enemy will often have limited retaliations to respond with; this can let them press the advantage and minimise the danger they are in from a foe.

Ranges

Distances in Into the Glowlands are determined by zones. Some weapons, spells and abilities will have a range listed with them; these ranges will either be Intimate or Engaged, or listed as a number.

Engaged is the typical range used by two combatants fighting each other in melee, twenty centimetres to a metre apart depending on what weapons they wield. Sometimes melee combat will be in Intimate range, where grappling, daggers and claws are utilised; Intimate can be risky against a normal combatant, but are dangerous when the wielder can slip within a foe’s reach. When using an Intimate attack against a foe, the attack has Disadvantage; against an enemy with Reach, however, the attack has Advantage.

Weapons that fight at range have a numerical increment, going from 0 upwards. A weapon with Range 0 can only target something the same zone as its wielder, and this typically applies to thrown weapons such as daggers. Weapons and abilities with a Range of 1 or higher can affect characters and objects who are that many zones away from the wielder.

Common combat actions

While you can only make one Aspect Roll action per round, you repeat all other actions in combat up to your action limit of 2.

In combat, there are a number of actions you will commonly take. When you move in combat, you can move between a number of zones equal to your Speed. Some zones have difficult terrain in them, which halves your movement, reducing it to a minimum of 1.

When an enemy is engaged in melee with you, you cannot simply move away from them. To back out, you must use an action to roll Graceful+Defiant vs the target’s Melee Threat. Failure means you don’t move out of reach and their retaliation succeeds (if not already triggered). Success means you move out of reach but retaliation succeeds. Critical success means you move out of reach and retaliation fails. Once you have done that, you may use your other action to move, or take any other action you please.

You can also choose to prepare an action, such as an attack or a spell. Choose the action you wish to prepare and what condition will cause you to take the action. Doing so uses up one action, which may well be your Aspect Roll action if the action requires a roll, but when your condition triggers outside of your turn you can take that action using your reaction.

Noncombat actions within Combat

Often, a PC will want to take an action in a battle that isn’t directly acting against one or more opponents.

If they do, their action will draw the attention of an enemy; this nearly always will be the enemy closest to the character in question. The difficulty of the roll will be determined by the appropriate Threat of the enemy in question (usually, but not always, the Ranged Threat). As with attacking, the usual effects of Retaliation will apply to the character attempting the action.

Strain and Damage

When you take damage, you gain that much Strain (reduced by your armour and any other protection you have). Whenever your Strain hits its maximum amount, you tick off one of your wound ranks, starting from Injured and going down. Then reset your current strain back to zero. If the damage you took would take you above your maximum strain, then the excess is added onto the current strain.

If you tick off your Dying wound, and your Strain gets maxed out, you are knocked out and start bleeding out. On your next turn you must roll Defiant+Lucky (10) as your only action. If you are successful, you hang on and survive, but must repeat this on your next turn. If you are critically successful, you lose 1 Strain and regain consciousness.

Victory

At the end of a combat scene, if you were victorious then the group as a whole chooses two benefits and one drawback from the fight. If you were defeated, you instead choose one benefit and two drawbacks from fighting the battle. Sometimes, a battle may end as a stalemate. If this happens, you collectively agree on one benefit and one drawback.