Part 4 - Combat

Combat

Combat Modifiers at a Glance

Circumstance	+20% Bonus	-20% Penalty	-40% Penalty
Very Long or Very Short Range	Firing at point-blank range (3 yards or less)	Beyond base range (up to 2×)	Beyond 2× base range (up to 5×)
Unusual Target Concealment or Visibility	Using a sight to line up a ranged attack	Terrible visibility due to smoke or darkness	Little to no visibility
Called Shot or Area Attack	Explosive weapon	Target about half covered or smaller than a human body	Target mostly covered or very small
Unusual Target Condition —Ranged Attack	Target standing totally still	Target prone or running	Target moving very fast
Unusual Target Condition —Melee Attack	Target pinned down or standing totally still	Target moving quickly (e.g., running)	Target moving very fast
Unusual Attacker Condition	Carefully aiming for a full turn	Suffering from an irritant; exhausted	Suffering from corrosive gas; stunned

A serious fight, where people are trying to kill each other, is chaotic, frightening, and fast. That’s what these rules represent. Being skilled, having better weapons, or being in a superior position helps, but the inescapable randomness of combat can claim even the most skilled combatant’s life.

Lovecraft’s fiction presaged humanity’s urge to reduce any confrontation with the unnatural to base combat. However, humanity’s weapons are as ridiculous to the unnatural forces that control the universe as an ant wielding a pebble is to the bulldozer razing the field the ant hill stands in. Combat rarely resolves any unnatural threat.

The Turn

Combat is measured in turns. A turn is a few seconds, or as long as it takes everyone to complete a single action.

The Game Moderator counts down by DEX for all characters, from highest to lowest. Each character acts when his or her number comes up. If DEX scores tie, the actions occur at the same time or the Game Moderator can choose some tiebreaker.

During a turn, a combatant can attempt one of the following actions.

Aim

Sacrifice one turn to aim and gain a +20% to your attack next turn. Aiming requires no roll. After the next turn, or if your Protagonist suffers any damage before attempting it, the bonus is lost.

Attack

An “attack” encompasses anything from throwing a punch to firing an anti-tank rocket. The “standard” attack (ranged or hand-to-hand) is a skill test to see if your Protagonist hits a target; damage is inflicted based on the weapon used.

• Use Firearms for a gun;
• Use Firearms for other aimed weapons (e.g., bow or crossbow);
• Use Athletics for a thrown weapon;
• Use Melee Weapons for a hand-to-hand weapon;
• Use Unarmed Combat for a punch or kick.

The number of shots fired in a single firearm attack depends on the weapon used — a bolt-action rifle fires one shot while a semi-automatic pistol might fire two or three shots — but it’s always a single attack roll and a single damage roll.

Attacking with unarmed combat or a melee weapon (but not with weapon which acts at a distance) also means your Protagonist is parrying and blocking. See DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details.

Called Shot

A called shot is an attack to a particular body part (the head, the hand, the leg).

A called shot allows your Protagonist to roll a grenade past cover to explode on the far side, or to shoot someone in the leg and avoid body armor. If the attack is automatic gunfire that can hit multiple targets, the called shot affects only the first target.

A called shot is more difficult than a standard attack, so it has a penalty:

PARTLY COVERED (−20%): The target is partially covered (half the body).

MOSTLY COVERED (−40%): The target is mostly covered (all but a limb or head).

Making a called shot with unarmed combat or a melee weapon (but not with weapon which acts at a distance) also means your Protagonist is parrying and blocking. See DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details.

Disarm

An attempt to knock an object from the target’s grasp using the Unarmed Combat skill. This is possible only if your Protagonist has both hands free and is in hand-to-hand range. If your roll succeeds, the target drops the object.

Attempting to disarm also means your Protagonist is parrying and blocking. See DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details.

Dodge

This is a Dodge skill test to get out of the way of an attack (or a disarm or pin). This opposed test pits your Protagonist’s Dodge skill against the attack roll. If your roll overcomes the attack roll, your Protagonist avoids harm. See DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details. If the Game Moderator agrees, a Protagonist can dodge while jogging or running as described in the MOVE action below.

Escape

A roll to escape a pin. Roll either STR×5 or Unarmed Combat, whichever is better. This acts as a defense roll against the character pinning your Protagonist (see DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details); it’s opposed by the pinning character’s attack roll against your Protagonist. If the pinning character is not attacking, the escape is opposed by either Unarmed Combat or STR×5 (whichever is better). If the escape roll succeeds, your Protagonist is no longer pinned — and the escape roll defends against other attacks until your Protagonist’s next action. If it fails, your Protagonist remains pinned and cannot defend against attacks.

Fight Back

If someone attacks your Protagonist with a melee weapon or unarmed combat (not a weapon acting at a distance or an explosive), your Protagonist can fight back with Unarmed Combat or Melee Weapons to block and counterattack. See DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details.

Move

An action that moves your Protagonist a significant distance: 10 yards jogging, 20 yards running, or 30 yards sprinting (or you can move about 3 yards while performing some other action).

Usually moving requires no roll, but if Protagonists are running or sprinting, players may need to make a DEX×5 test to keep their footing. Fail, and your Protagonist falls prone and must spend a turn recovering.

If there’s cover at the end of your Protagonist’s movement, getting behind it provides protection (see PROTECTION IN COMBAT on page 53). This can give your Protagonist armor against firearms, ranged weapons and explosives — if the Protagonist is behind cover when the attack happens.

Pin

An attempt to immobilize a target, either on the ground or up against something, using Unarmed Combat. This is possible only if your Protagonist has both hands free and is in hand-to-hand range. If it succeeds, the target is pinned.

All unarmed or melee weapon attacks against a pinned target are at a +20% bonus. A Protagonist pinning a target can attack the pinned target in later turns.

A pinned target can attempt escape once per turn (see the ESCAPE action, above) but nothing else.

Attempting to pin a target also means your Protagonist is parrying and blocking. See DEFENSE ROLLS on page 47 for details.

Wait

Protagonists can choose to wait to take any action after their DEX order comes up. At any time before your next turn, you can insert your Protagonist’s action before the next action in DEX order. Your Protagonist can’t wait until another character acts and then jump in before it’s resolved, but your Protagonist can jump in before the other character’s turn comes up.

Anything Else

Drink a vial full of a glowing liquid, throw open an unlocked door, activate a mechanism, grab a rope, pick something up, stand up from a prone position — anything that takes a moment’s concentration. The Game Moderator decides whether it requires a stat or skill test.

One Action Per Turn

A Protagonist can take only one action per turn. In some settings, there might exist advanced weapons which may hit multiple targets, or one target multiple times, with a single roll (see LETHALITY RATING on page 50), but it’s still just one action per turn. If this seems counterintuitive (“a good brawler can throw three jabs a second!”) don’t think of every roll as a single action but as a few seconds of fighting or moving.

Attack Rolls

An attack is a skill roll which inflicts damage, disarms or pins the target, depending on the attacker’s action.

Critical Hits and Fumbles

An attack roll that’s a critical success (see page 39) is a critical hit. A critical hit inflicts double damage.

An attack roll that fumbles (see page 40) is bad news. The exact outcome remains up to the Game Moderator and can include:

1. A weapon malfunctions in some way, requiring 1D4 turns to fix
2. A weapon drops and it takes a turn to pick it back up.
3. The attacker accidentally hits a friend, a bystander, or himself / herself.
4. The attacker stumbles and falls.

Attack Modifiers

When you make an attack roll, it means the situation is out of control. Combat is chaotic and unpredictable even for the most highly trained fighters. The combatants’ skill ratings and the luck of the dice usually tell everything you need to know.

Bonuses and penalties in combat apply only in extraordinary circumstances. The COMBAT MODIFIERS table, nearby, lists the likeliest modifiers. If they do apply, Attack bonuses stack up to a maximum +40%. There’s no limit on penalties.

No matter the bonus or penalty, a roll of 01 always hits and a roll of 00 (100) always misses.

>> Optional Rules: Other Firearm Called Shots
If the Game Moderator agrees, you can make a called shot for some effect other than ignoring armor. Here are some possibilities. DOUBLE SHOT (−20%): Make two attack rolls. Both must be on the same target. If two potential targets are close enough that you could hit either one, randomly determine which one takes each hit. Not an option with bows, muzzle-loaders, bolt-action or one-shot weapons. STUN (−20%): A hit stuns the target (see STUN, page 49). FLESH WOUND (−40%): A hit inflicts half damage (round up). HEAD SHOT (−40%): A hit is critical without matching dice.
>> Optional Rules: Other Critical Hits
If the Game Moderator agrees, a critical hit can inflict normal damage (not double) and have some additional effect: STUN or DISARM the target; knock the target PRONE; make the hit a CALLED SHOT; or allow the attacker to immediately roll a SECOND ATTACK.

Surprise Attacks

If your Protagonist is out to kill someone who’s unaware or helpless (and nobody is trying to stop you), that’s hardly combat. You may not even need to make a roll.

TARGET IS TOTALLY HELPLESS — BOUND OR ASLEEP: No roll is needed to murder the target in one turn.

TARGET IS ACTIVE BUT UNAWARE AND COMBAT HAS NOT YET BEGUN: Make an attack roll at +20%. Any success is a critical hit. If it fails, the attack misses. Maybe your Protagonist flinched at the last instant or maybe the target moved. Work out the details with the Game Moderator.

Firing Into A Crowd

Use a called shot to hit a particular target in a crowd with a ranged attack. Otherwise a random member of the crowd takes the hit.

Defense Rolls

Dodging and hand-to-hand combat (with unarmed or with melee weapons) are tests that protect your Protagonist by opposing an attack roll.

Dodging and Fighting Back

Your Protagonist can Dodge or fight back against an incoming attack even before your Protagonist’s DEX order in a turn. If you do this, it becomes your Protagonist’s single action for that turn. A Protagonist who has already taken another action that turn can’t Dodge or fight back until the next turn.

A roll to Dodge opposes all hand-to-hand attacks that turn. It lets your Protagonist duck behind cover to evade all ranged attacks that turn if cover is near. Dodging never inflicts damage.

Fighting back blocks all hand-to-hand attacks that turn. If you win the contest, you take no damage. It does not protect you against ranged attacks unless you’re close enough to push the ranged weapon away. As part of your fighting back roll, choose one offensive action – attack, called shot, disarm, or pin – against a single attacker. If your roll beats that attacker’s roll, your Protagonist takes no damage and your Protagonist’s action affects the attacker.

In order to Dodge or fight back, your Protagonist must know an attack is coming and be physically able to block or evade it. If your Protagonist is pinned, if the attack occurs before he or she realizes it, or if your Protagonist can’t see or hear the attacker, your Protagonist can’t Dodge or fight back.

Dodging Ranged Attacks

An ordinary Dodge roll can avoid a slow-moving ranged attack, such as an arrow or a thrown weapon.

Nobody can react as fast as bullets and shrapnel, but your Protagonist can use Dodge to scramble for cover. If your Protagonist is near enough to move to cover and knows gunfire or an explosion is imminent, make a Dodge roll for the Protagonist to get behind the cover. If there’s no cover, Dodging does no good. This is why people get nervous when guns come out.

Defending After Attacking

When your turn comes up, declare your Protagonist’s action — attack, called shot, disarm, or pin — and make the roll. Your Protagonist can harm, disarm or pin only one target per turn (the attack might hurt others, but all attacks have a single target).

A roll to attack, disarm, pin, or make a called shot also opposes each Unarmed Combat and Melee Weapons attack against your Protagonist until your Protagonist’s next action. If an attack fails to overcome your roll, it does no harm.

To oppose an attack, your Protagonist must know the attack is coming. That requires seeing or hearing the attacker. The Protagonist must also be physically able to block the attack, if it is melee. A pinned Protagonist can’t defend, nor can a Protagonist who has already successfully pinned a target.

An attack roll with a ranged weapon does not oppose attack rolls against your Protagonist.

Damage

Combat is about inflicting damage. Each weapon or attack has a damage rating measured in dice. When an attack hits, roll the weapon’s damage dice and subtract the result from the target’s Hit Points.

DAMAGE BONUS: High or low Strength modifies the damage of unarmed and hand-to-hand attacks, to a minimum of 0:

>> Damage Bonus from STR Score
1—4	5—8	9—12	13—16	17—18
-2	-1	0	+1	+2

STUN: Stun attacks startle and impair. While stunned, your Protagonist can’t act. When it’s your Protagonist’s turn, you may attempt a CON×5 test to recover and act normally next turn. If a single attack inflicts half of your Protagonist’s current HP, the Protagonist is automatically stunned.

UNCONSCIOUSNESS: If your Protagonist is reduced to 2 or fewer HP, he or she falls unconscious. An unconscious Protagonist is helpless and can be killed with a single attack without having to roll. At 3 HP or more (or after an hour passes), the Protagonist regains consciousness.

PERMANENT INJURY: Any time your Protagonist is reduced to 2 or fewer HP, make a CON×5 test. Failure indicates permanent injury. The Game Moderator selects a stat to be permanently reduced by the number on the lowest ten-sided die of the failed CON×5 roll. Stats can only be reduced in this way to a minimum score of 3. If STR or CON drop, adjust HP accordingly.

DEATH: If an attack brings your Protagonist to 0 HP, he or she is dead. HP do not go below 0.

>> Optional Rules: Other Permanent Injuries

At the Game Moderator’s discretion, a permanent injury may have some effect other than stat loss: a permanent penalty that can’t be corrected with surgery. Usually it’s a −20% penalty that applies in certain circumstances. Here are some possibilities. PARTIALLY BLINDED: The Protagonist suffers a −20% penalty to all tests requiring good eyesight. PARTIALLY DEAFENED: The Protagonist suffers a −20% penalty to all tests requiring good hearing. ARM CRIPPLED OR SEVERED: The Protagonist suffers a −20% penalty to all tests requiring two hands. LEG CRIPPLED OR SEVERED: The Protagonist suffers a −20% penalty to all tests requiring movement.

Healing

There are four types of healing: Resuscitation, Stabilization, Treatment, and Recuperation.

RESUSCITATION: Sometimes it’s possible to resuscitate a dead character. If the Game Moderator says resuscitation is possible, someone must make a First Aid test. This must occur within a number of minutes after death equal to the victim’s CON score. If it succeeds, it restores 1D4 HP (doubled for a critical success) and allows the patient to recover. If First Aid fails, the victim dies and may not be resuscitated.

STABILIZATION: Stabilizing a wounded character with a successful First Aid test immediately heals 1D4 HP. A critical success doubles the amount healed; a fumble inflicts 1D4 damage. Once your Protagonist receives first aid, success or failure, the Protagonist can’t benefit from it again until he or she suffers damage again.

TREATMENT: Treatment is professional care in a clean, calm location with extensive tools and healing supplies.

A doctor can attempt a Surgery or Medicine test once per week: Surgery for critical care of severe wounds; Medicine for poison, disease, and ongoing healing. If treatment succeeds, the patient recovers 1D4 HP. This is doubled with a critical, while a fumble inflicts 1D4 HP damage. At the Game Moderator’s discretion, having worn-out tools or poor quality medicines may incur a penalty.

RECUPERATION: Over time, the human body repairs itself. A patient who rests in a safe place with proper food and water can attempt a CON×5 test once per day to recover 1 HP (in addition to any HP recovered due to medical treatment). On a critical success, the patient regains 1D4; on a fumble, the patient loses 1 HP.

Complications

After treatment, and until the patient heals all lost Hit Points, undertaking strenuous activity (any physical stat or skill test) inflicts 1D4 HP damage as sutures rip, broken bones shift, or fever sets in.

Recovering Stat Points

Unless the Game Moderator says otherwise, temporarily lost stat points are restored at 1 point per day.

Lethality Rating

Certain attacks inflict damage well beyond the possibility of survival; a burst of heavy machine gun fire or an artillery shell makes fast work of human anatomy. Rather than rolling many dice for damage or many separate attacks, a weapon like this has a Lethality rating.

If an attack hits with a weapon that has a Lethality rating, there’s a chance it simply kills the target outright. Instead of rolling normal damage, roll percentile dice against the weapon’s Lethality rating. If the Lethality test succeeds, a human target immediately drops to 0 HP. If the Lethality test fails, add the two dice together as if they were individual D10s (0 is 10) and apply that as HP damage.

Lethality rolls do not fumble or critically succeed, but the attack roll can. If the attack roll is a critical success, double the Lethality rating, and double the HP damage if the Lethality roll fails.

Kill Radius

Some types of especially destructive effects destroy not just one target but spread across an entire (usually circular) zone – the size of the effect is measured by Kill Radius.

If a weapon has a Kill Radius, a successful attack inflicts a Lethality roll on each character inside that radius. The center of the Kill Radius is the initial target of the attack.

Why Lethality Ratings?

The Lethality rating replaces the need to roll lots of separate attacks and lots of dice for damage. Without it, a massively damaging attack might require several separate attacks and damage rolls to afflict many different targets. In the middle of combat, rolling that much breaks the tension. If you’d rather roll damage the old way, it’s 1D6 damage for every 3% of Lethality. So a weapon with 35% would do 12D6 HP damage.

With explosive weapons, Kill Radius attacks don’t need to be as precise as ordinary attacks; hitting a zone within the Kill Radius of a target is enough. That adds +20% to the chance to hit.

A failed attack roll means the Kill Radius lands harmlessly outside the intended area. The attack does no harm—but may still suppress targets (see SUPPRESSION, below). Whether a failed Kill Radius attack does unwanted collateral damage is up to the Game Moderator.

MANY TARGETS: A single attack with a Kill Radius usually affects everyone in the Kill Radius. If that doesn’t make sense for the situation, the Game Moderator can decide who gets hit.

The Game Moderator is welcome to let players roll the Lethality results for NPCs to speed things up. But really, you need to roll Lethality only for characters who are important enough to track in detail. Since even a failed Lethality roll inflicts between 2 and 20 damage, it’s safe to just assume that most humans caught in a Kill Radius are either dead or incapacitated.

Selective Fire

Some small arms, like submachine guns and assault rifles, have selective fire. The shooter chooses how it’s used; each pull of the trigger can fire a single shot, a short burst, a long burst, a short spray, or a long spray. A weapon set for single shots attacks normally. A burst or a spray has a Lethality rating.

A short burst fires three bullets in one trigger pull. It affects a single target. A long burst fires five shots with a Kill Radius of 1 yard. Short and long sprays empty the magazine faster, but cover a larger Kill Radius. Some firearms allow only single shots or short bursts (“three-round bursts”).

Explosions

If your Protagonist wants to disable or destroy a structure or vehicle, an explosive or other form of Lethal attack might be their best bet. Such large objects have their own Hit Points (see VEHICLES, page 65), and they are considered huge targets (see HUGE, page 54).

For example, if your Protagonist wanted to gain entry into a home safe, he or she might try lobbing a hand grenade at it. The GM might rule that the safe has 20HP and an Armor rating of 10. Assuming the grenade lands such that the safe is within its kill radius (10 yards from where it lands), the safe will take damage. Because the object is treated like a HUGE target, the normal Lethality 15% damage is translated into an automatic 15 HP damage reduced by Armor down to 5 HP. So, while the explosion makes a lot of noise, the safe is only a quarter broken into. Time to get some more grenades.

Fear in Combat

Being involved in combat is inherently frightening for most people. However, certain types of attacks which devastate an entire area are especially terror-inducing. When faced with such destruction – whether from a mundane weapon (e.g., full automatic fire from an assault rifle) or something supernatural – primal instinct kicks in to prevent a person from placing themselves in mortal peril.

The GM can nominate that any massively damaging attack is Terror-Inducing. Any character who knowingly seeks to enter a region targeted by such an attack will hesitate and go to ground – even if the attack does not succeed. The only way to stifle this primal terror is by voluntarily sacrificing 1 SAN.

The types of attacks which might be ruled Terror-Inducing include:

• Attacks (mundane or supernatural) that inflict Lethal Damage to a Kill Zone,

• Attacks which have previously been witnessed to inflict Unnatural effects worthy of a SAN test,

• Anything else the GM believes would strike extreme fear into combatants.

Note that these effects do not apply to a combatant who is not aware that he or she is straying into an area targeted by the Terror-Inducing attack – when in doubt, call for an Alertness test.

A character adapted to violence (see ADAPTING TO SAN LOSS on page 75) loses no SAN for braving a Terror-Inducing attack. For NPCs, it’s easiest to assume the average human goes to ground when faced with such attacks. Only insane, hardened, or fanatical enemies stand up to such intense fear.

>> Optional Rule: Creating Terror Through Concentrated Fire
Normally, mundane ranged weapons won’t be damaging enough to inspire terror. What if several combatants team up to concentrate simultaneous shots – none of which themselves are Terror-Inducing – on a single point? In such a case the GM might decide that the combined effect is sufficient to create 1 yard-radius circular zone centered on the point of concentrated fire. All combatants firing at the spot make an attack roll – if the majority succeed, no damage is inflicted but the designated zone is treated as Terror-Inducing. If one or more of the attackers scored a critical on their roll, a random target in the zone is hit for normal damage and everyone else in the zone is affected by the Terror effect. If fewer than half of the attackers succeeded on their rolls, no damage is inflicted and no terror is generated. As a rule of thumb, for a concentration of smaller attacks to be ruled as creating a Terror-Inducing effect the sum of their individual maximum damages should be at least 30HP (i.e., three attacks each delivering 1D10 or five attacks each delivering 1D6). Any coordination of two or more attacks with Lethal effects would also qualify.

Protection in Combat

We’ve seen how to injure, kill, and dismember targets, but how do you protect them?

There are five stages of protection, categories that determine how easy a Protagonist or other creature is to harm, regardless of their ability to get out of the way.

Fragile

Fragile targets drop to 0 HP instantly if they suffer any damage from a deliberate attempt to injure them. A helpless human is Fragile and may, at the Game Moderator’s discretion, be reduced to 0 HP with one attack without bothering to roll damage.

Exposed

Exposed is the default for humans and many creatures. It means the target is aware of danger and trying to avoid it, but doesn’t have any real protection. Attacks operate normally against Exposed targets.

Armored

Being Armored reduces the damage of attacks. Armor has an Armor rating which reduces the HP damage of attacks. Armor 5 means reduce damage by 5.

Armor comes in two forms: body armor and cover. They both reduce the damage of ordinary attacks, but have different effects on Lethality attacks. If you have more than one source of armor (such as wearing body armor while behind a wall), add them all together.

Some weapons are armor piercing, which in turn reduces armor (see ARMOR PIERCING WEAPONS, page 54). Furthermore, damage arising from wholly supernatural effects (e.g., mystical energy or psychic attacks by Mythos entities, or damage generated through rituals) completely ignores all armor. In cases where it isn’t clear whether traditional armor should protect against damage dealt through otherworldly means, it is the GM’s call.

BODY ARMOR: Body armor reduces the damage of an ordinary attack by its Armor Rating. Body armor protects against the damage of a failed Lethality roll, but does nothing whatsoever against a successful Lethality roll.

COVER: Finding cover means using a hard barrier as armor against attack. Cover protects more completely than body armor. If you have cover against a Lethality attack, the Lethality roll automatically fails, but still inflicts the sum of the dice as damage. Subtract the cover’s Armor rating from that damage.

What if your Protagonists are completely enclosed in a structure or conveyance? That’s definitely cover, but it’s the Game Moderator’s call. Maybe they take damage reduced by the cover, or maybe they take no damage until the cover is breached.

Being behind cover does not make Protagonists immune to the terror of combat (see FEAR IN COMBAT on page 52). If your Protagonist is terrorized, his or her next action must be to hide behind that cover instead of attacking.

Armor	Armor Rating
Kevlar helmet (adds damage reduction to other armor)	+1
Kevlar vest (concealable)	3
Reinforced Kevlar vest (typical for uniformed police)	4
Tactical body armor (typical for soldiers and SWAT teams), wall or thick door, makeshift vehicle cover	5
Bomb suit; thick wall, concrete, or moderate rock; light vehicle armor	10
Reinforced wall, big rock, or sandbag; medium vehicle armor	15
Heavy vehicle armor or light tank armor	20
Heavy tank armor	25

Huge

A huge target loses Hit Points from ordinary weapon damage as usual. But Lethality ratings don’t affect huge creatures in the same way they do a human sized target. Instead, the Lethality attack does flat HP damage equal to the Lethality rating.

Transcendent

Transcendent entities are immune to physical damage. This might mean they exist partly in dimensions we barely perceive, or are so organized that mere excesses of force and matter cannot harm them.

Nothing of this Earth is Transcendent. Only through the use of unnatural techniques, under extremely dangerous and limited situations, can humans become Transcendent.

Combat Protection Summary

Target Status	Effect of Normal Damage	Effect of Lethality Success	Effect of Lethality Failure
Fragile	Reduced to 0 HP	Reduced to 0 HP	Reduced to 0 HP
Exposed	Roll HP damage. If Armored, subtract the Armor value from the damage.	Reduced to 0 HP	Add up the Lethality dice to determine HP damage. If Armored, subtract the Armor value from the damage
Behind cover	Roll HP damage. Subtract the cover’s Armor value from the damage.	Add up the Lethality dice to determine HP damage. Subtract the cover’s Armor value from the damage.	Add up the Lethality dice to determine HP damage. Subtract the cover’s Armor value from the damage.
Huge	Roll HP damage. If Armored, subtract the Armor value from the damage.	Take the Lethality rating as HP damage. If Armored, subtract the Armor value from the damage.	Take the Lethality rating as HP damage. If Armored, subtract the Armor value from the damage.
Transcendent	No damage	No damage	No damage

Armor Piercing Weapons

An armor piercing weapon reduces the Armor value of a target by a number of points. If the weapon description notes it as armor-piercing it will normally also specify the reduction – if no number is given, assume the attack reduces effective armor by 5.

Optional Spot Rules for Weapons

There’s a staggering variety of personal firearms and weaponry. Their usefulness in adventures may be limited, of course, depending on who or what the Protagonists face.

The primary game statistics relating to different types of weapons may be found on the Example Weapons Table on page 50. The availability of any class of weapon will be dictated by the scarcity of weapon resources in the particular game setting (see preceding section).

What follows are some spot rules for Protagonists who have access to common ‘modern-day’ (20th or 21st Century) weapons.

Concealing Weapons

Knives and pistols can be concealed under ordinary clothing. Someone deliberately looking for a concealed weapon can attempt an Alertness test to spot it. A heavy pistol or especially big knife means a +20% Alertness bonus.

If a Protagonist is wearing an overcoat or duster, he or she can attempt to conceal a bigger gun like a submachine gun or sawed-off shotgun, or a larger hand weapon (e.g., a hatchet or machete) and incur no Alertness bonus.

There’s no way to conceal a full-size rifle or a large melee weapon.

Other Threats

The world is full of threats, combat isn’t the only thing that can kill a Protagonist.

Poison and Disease

Every poison or disease has two ratings: Speed and Damage.

Speed indicates how soon the poison or disease inflicts damage. A poison inflicts damage once and then passes from your Protagonist’s system. A disease requires a series of CON tests to resist damage.

Damage is ordinary HP for a disease, while poisons have Lethality ratings.

POISONS: A poison has a Lethality rating. If the Lethality roll fails, the victim makes a CON×5 test to withstand harm. Success means half damage, and a critical success means the victim loses only 1 HP. A fumble doubles the damage. ‘Hospitalization’ (makeshift or otherwise) grants +20% to the victim’s CON test.

DISEASES: Diseases inflict HP damage. If your Protagonist succeeds at a CON×5 test, he or she suffers half damage and recovers from the disease. On a failure, he or she suffers full damage and must make the CON×5 test again after another Speed interval. A fumbled CON test doubles the damage. While under the effects of a disease, the Protagonist cannot gain Hit Points back. ‘Hospitalization’ grants a +20% bonus to the CON test. Serious diseases may come with a penalty to the CON test.

Natural Poisons

Poison	Entry Route	Speed	Lethality	Symptoms	Antidote?
Spider venom	Bite	1D6 hours	5%	Pain, chills, nausea; possibly necrosis	Yes
dangerous drug administered with failed skill use	Varies	1D6 hours	5%	Usually pain, diarrhea, convulsions, or asphyxiation	Yes
Arsenic	Ingestion	1D6 hours	10%	Pain, diarrhea, cramping	No
Scorpion or rattlesnake venom	Bite or sting	1D6 hours	10%	Pain, weakness, hemorrhaging, convulsions	Yes

Manufactured Poisons

Poison	Entry Route	Speed	Lethality	Symptoms	Antidote?
Phosgene gas	Inhalation	2D6 hours	15%	Blistering, coughing blood, asphyxiation	No
Hydrogen cyanide gas	Inhalation	1D6 turns	20%	Asphyxiation	Yes
Sarin gas	Inhalation or absorption through skin	2D6 turns	20%	Muscle contractions, spasms, asphyxiation	Yes
Ricin	Injection or powder inhalation	2D6 hours	20%	Diarrhea, shock, seizures, circulatory failure	No

Sample Diseases

Disease	Route	Speed	CON Test Penalty	Damage	Symptoms	Cure
Bacterial meningitis	Airborne	1D6 days	–40	1D4	Stiff neck, nausea, confusion	Antibiotics
Bacterial pneumonia	Inhalation	1D6 days	None	1D6	Cough, fever, chills	Antibiotics
COVID-19	Inhalation	1D6 days	–20	1D6	Cough, fever, loss of smell	None yet developed
Gangrene	Dirty wounds	1D6 days	–20	1D4	Discoloration, oozing, numbness	Antibiotics, excision, or amputation
Plague	Flea bite (bubonic plague), inhalation (pneumonic plague)	1D6 days	None	1D6	Fever, chills, lymph node swelling, coughing (if pneumonic), shock	Antibiotics
HIV/AIDS	Injection or unprotected sex	1D6 months	None	1D6	Weight loss, fever, swelling of lymph glands, collapse of immune system	No cure; persistent; antivirals can keep it in check
Ebola virus	Contact with infected blood, bodies, or meat	1D6 days	–40	1D6	Fever, diarrhea, nausea, bleeding, shock	None

Some diseases are persistent. That means that even succeeding at the CON test only buys time; the disease subsides and your Protagonist recovers lost HP. But every time the Protagonist is badly hurt (losing more than half his or her HP) or suffers from some other poison or disease, the Protagonist must make a CON×5 test to resist a resurgence.

ANTIDOTES: Many poisons and diseases can be cured with medication. If a physician has the antidote for a poison or the right antibiotics for a disease, a Medicine or Pharmacy test before the ailment takes effect renders the poison or disease harmless. An antidote given after the ailment takes effect halves the Lethality rating and the HP damage.

Falling

Falling is extremely dangerous to humans. Even a bad slip can be lethal. A fall from a short distance (one to three yards) does 1D6 damage, or 2D6 if it’s a particularly uncontrolled fall. Beyond that, a fall instead has a Lethality rating of 1% per yard fallen. A Protagonist who survives a fall must make a CON×5 test or be STUNNED (see page 48).

Suffocation

Suffocation is a slow death. If your Protagonist takes a deep breath before holding it, he or she can go without breathing for CON×5 turns. After that, your Protagonist’s oxygen-starved brain begins to die. Once every turn, make a CON×5 test. If it fails, your Protagonist suffers 1D6 HP damage. If the CON test succeeds, your Protagonist suffers 1 HP damage instead. This continues until your Protagonist can breathe again or he or she dies.

If your Protagonist doesn’t get a breath before suffocating, the damage starts immediately and lasts until someone clears his or her airway with a First Aid test. Armor does not protect against suffocation damage.

Fire

Fire damage suffered depends on the flame’s intensity. The victim suffers a damage roll every turn of exposure.

Intensity	Example	Damage
Minor	Candle	1/turn
Moderate	Flaming brand; momentary exposure to a larger fire	1D6/turn
Large	Campfire	2D6/turn
Major	Scalding steam; bonfire; furnace	Lethality (10%) each turn

After taking damage from any moderate, large or major source of fire, the victim must make a DEX×5 test or catch fire, suffering half damage each turn until extinguished. Being surrounded by a raging fire also causes suffocation as the fire consumes oxygen. (See SUFFOCATION above.)

Cold

Protagonists can last for CON in minutes exposed to freezing temperatures unprepared, or CON×5 minutes if partially prepared. Fully prepared and well-equipped Protagonists can last CON hours.

After this, their bodies start to fail. Players must make a CON×5 test every five minutes. Each failure reduces CON by 1. When a Protagonist’s CON hits 1, the Protagonist can no longer move and suffers 1D8 HP cold damage every five minutes. Exposure to warmth and shelter restores 1 point of CON per minute. Hit Points heal normally.

Starvation and Thirst

Protagonists deprived of food for longer than a week will begin to die of starvation. Each week, make a test against CON×2 or a relevant Survival skill (whichever is higher), failure leading to a loss of CON. For the first week without nourishment the loss is 1D2, the next week 1D4, then 2D4, 3D4 and so on.

Surviving without water is much more difficult. For the first 24 hours without hydration there are no effects, but for each day thereafter the Protagonist must make a test against CON×2 or a relevant Survival skill (whichever is higher). Failure means a loss of 1D4 STR and 1D4 CON. If a water supply is re‐established these points will return at a rate of 1D2 STR and 1D2 CON each day.

If at any point the Protagonist’s STR or CON drops to zero, he or she has died of starvation or thirst.

Impact

Slamming into a barrier at speed can be deadly. It has a Lethality rating of 10% for every 25 mph (40 km/h) of speed. Double the Lethality rating if your Protagonist slams into a wall and there’s nowhere to tumble. A Protagonist who survives an impact must make a CON×5 test or be STUNNED (see page 48). For damage from a vehicular crash, see VEHICLES on page 65.

The Aftermath

When the smoke clears and the fighting stops, it’s time for the Game Moderator to look to the consequences of combat. There are always consequences.

First, violence damages sanity. Unless your Protagonist is a hardened operator, getting into a deadly fight calls for a Sanity roll. So does getting hurt. So does killing someone. (See THREATS TO SAN on page 67.)

Next, was anyone killed or badly hurt? If so … who’s going to come looking for them?