Step 1 - Roll initiative, give me the initiatives as I ask for them.
Step2 - Declare posture from lowest initiative to highest.
Step 3 - Perform actions from highest initiative to lowest.
Step 4 - Tides of Battle - If you were not hit, you may roll a d10 (that does not explode) and add that to your initiative. If you were not hit and successfully hit your opponent, you may subtract that amount from his/her/its initiative rather than adding it to yours.
Raises: Raises add 5 to the TN of the roll you are making for a better effect. You must declare raises before making any roll. Please, please, please remember this. Thanks.
NEW STUFF:
1) All penalties for stances begin when you declare your posture. They last until your initiative comes around on the next turn, but are non-cumulative (that is, once you declare full attack, if you declare it again on your next declaration (step 2 from above) you do not suffer the full attack penalty doubled.
2) 1 raise for damage gives you 1k0, 2 raises gives you 1k1, etc. The first raise allows you to roll an extra die, the second allows you to keep an extra die, and you can make these raises multiple times.
3) If you want to delay your action to see exactly what an opponent will do, you may wait until their initiative count, hear their declaration, then make a contested Reflexes roll to interrupt them - there are no bonuses or penalties to this roll - it is raw Reflexes vs Reflexes (roll and keep dice equal to your Reflexes). If you win, you go first, if you lose, your opponent goes first.
4) Postures: (this one is important)
- Full Attack: All-out offensive commitment. You may move your full amount and still attack. You receive two free raises on your attack, and your opponents get 3 free raises against you. (nothing new here).
- Attack: Standard posture, allows you to do most actions, whether attack oriented or not. Spells are usually cast from this posture as well. You may half move and perform an action (attack, cast a spell, or use a skill). Simple actions (ones not requiring a skill roll) can usually be performed after or during a full move (GM's discretion). You may attack after a full move if you make a raise on your attack roll. If you fail your roll, observers can tell that you were clearly trying to attack, but you did not successfully do so. Other complex actions and spells may be performed after/during a full move but will require at least one, and possibly more, raises.
- Full Defense: This stance no longer requires a full defense roll - it is just a posture - see the Defense Skill below for details on the use of that skill. This posture grants you +10 TN vs opponents equal to your insight rank. To attack or cast a spell you must make 3 raises. You may move at most half your movement in this posture.
5) Engagement (another important one): Once you or an opponent makes an attack roll in hand to hand combat, you are engaged. You may only break off from this in one of a few ways:
- Your opponent is "down", "out", or "dead". In any of these circumstances, you are free to disengage at will (you already have, as you no longer have a conscious target). You may maintain engagement with a down or out target to finish him off, but you will gain no bonus against missile attacks for being engaged.
- You outnumber an opponent by more people than that opponent has attacks. Anyone not being attacked may break off, but you must do this after you have determined if they have attacked you (even if you are higher in the initiative order).
- You make a contested attack roll vs. your opponent using your weapon skill plus Reflexes for the roll (or juijitsu for unarmed combat). You must make one raise per opponent past the first, and may have to make additional raises based on the GM's discretion if there is no clear escape route.
Keep in mind that it is not necessarily dishonorable to disengage, but it may be depending on the situation and the character. Should you fail the roll, your opponent gets 3 free raises on their next attack against you, and you fail to disengage from them - you have put yourself at an extreme disadvantage (try actually disengaging from a sword fight without getting smacked - it is pretty difficult)
6) Defense Skill - May not be used in full attack posture.
- In attack posture, you may make a defense roll to replace your base TN of Ref x 5 with your Defense Skill roll, then add any armor bonuses or technique bonuses
- In Full defense posture, you have two options:
A) Make a Defense skill roll and add that amount to your TN against a number of opponents equal to your insight rank -you no longer gain the plus 10 to your TN from the posture (this is a complex action because it requires a skill roll so you may not attack)
OR
B) Take the +10 bonus from posture and modify that as follows: Make a TN: 15 roll on your Defense skill, and you make raises for the following effects: Each successful raise gives you either +5 additional TN, or the total bonus against one additional opponent. The maximum opponents is your Insight + Def Skill.
Examples of Defense skill in Full Defense Posture:
i) Toku Sakuraba has a TN of 2o (15 from Ref, 5 from armor) and has a Ref of 3, a Def of 4, and an Insight Rank of 2. Since three thugs are attacking him, he decides to make one raise on his defense roll to make his TN good against three defenders, and makes one raise to boost his TN from the posture by 5. He makes the roll (TN 25), and his TN is now 35 against all three of his attackers.
ii) Same situation as above, but he makes a straight defense roll and gets a 28 - this gives him a TN of 48 against two of his opponents and a TN of 20 against the third (his choice).
iii)Same situation as above, but he adopts the Full Defense Posture without making an Defense roll. His TN is 30 against two of the thugs, but only 20 against the third. He attacks the third by making three raises to attack from this posture.
Note that these are all very viable options and serve to make the Defense skill a bit less overpowering but more versatile as well. We'll play test this for a bit, to see how it works, but it should be pretty good. Before, defense could lead to TNs easily in the seventies (when 10k10 averages about 60) kind of overpowering against people unless they have a technique or a specialization to help them. The insight rank cap helps out, and high rank characters can still get a monstrous TN should the need arise. The actual writeup for Saturday's game will be posted later tonight or tomorrow morning.
