When the action picks up and the game moves into taking turns in initiative order, it’s good to know how much time is passing and what you can do in that time.

When you get to take a turn and describe what your character is doing, your actions are contained in a combat round. A combat round lasts for about three seconds of in-universe time. Everyone, player characters and non-player characters alike, take a single player turn within that round.

Each combat round, you gain an action allotment that you use on your player turn. Actions come in two categories: Minor and Major. The basic action allotment for each character is 1 Minor Action and 1 Major Action per combat round. Players get 1 additional Minor Action for every additional Initiative Die they have beyond the first. Players can trade Minor and Major Actions, using a Major Action to perform a Minor Action or using 4 Minor Actions to perform a Major Action (possibly providing an extra attack in a single player turn). 

Each action has a note next to it indicating when it can be performed; this is either Initiative (I) or Anytime (A). Initiative Actions can only be performed on the character’s player turn during an initiative round, while Anytime Actions can be used at any time. Note, though, that in order to perform an Anytime Action, you must have an Action left. If you spent them all on your turn, you can’t use one later. So sometimes it pays to save an action for later in the round if you act early. Note that actions cannot be carried from one round to another unless that is specifically allowed in a rule.

Along with these actions, enough words can be spoken or conversation can be shared to fill three seconds; if there is any doubt about the amount of words that can be said, time it!

Buying Hits

Sometimes a player does not want to trust the vagaries of the dice, and they feel that they have a large enough dice pool and an easy enough task that they can buy hits instead of rolling dice. To buy hits, you form your dice pool and calculate 1 hit for every 4 dice, rounded down. This is an all-or-nothing move - you either buy hits with all your dice or with none. Edge cannot be used in any way when buying hits, and you need gamemaster approval to buy hits. It should not happen in a circumstance where a Glitch or Critical Glitch would have a significant impact on the test’s outcome.