Combat. 'Oh my god, what do I do.. the thing.. and and '

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Combat. That one word strikes dread, fear and a sense of apprehension into most players that are not used to it. It evokes that sense of loss or fear of losing a character and can cause panic attacks into those that are not ready or used to it. This is to help with that. 

Step one. Breathe. It's not life shattering or world ending. It happens. We ALL sucked at it at some point. ALL of us. No ONE walked into their first combat scene and aced it. No ONE. It takes practice to get even moderately good and that means conducting combat. 

Step two. Disconnect. Your character is not you and vice versa. The character is a construct of creative horror fantasy that you and the ST bring to life through creative, interactive storytelling. When the character gets punched, slashed, stabbed or shot you are not actually feeling it. You might visualize it but that is the end.

Step three. Mechanics. Combat is defined in a series of steps, that, once you know them, are repetitive. It only gets complicated when characters activate funky, game specific powers. IE Rage, Celerity, Black Wind etc. There is in most cases, initiative to determine the order in which a character or NPC acts, then the declaration of actions. A roll for attack, to see if a character hit then follows. If a character can or chooses to dodge, they roll that. IF the attack hits, then the character rolls damage. If they do damage then the character rolls for soak, if they can. If they fail to soak, then damage is applied. If the characters have additional actions from Celerity, Rage, Black wind etc, these go off now in initiative order. Once all actions are resolved, then a new round starts..

Sample combat 1: Two combatants, Bill and Bob. Both are mortal with nothing special powerwise. Bob surprises Bill. Note: Numbers are not actual, just pulled out for demonstration purposes. 

Bob: Rolls dex+Brawl = 1 success.
Bill: Surprised so gets no dodge. 
Bob: Rolls Strength+1 (Punch) = 3 successes
Bill: Rolls Stamina (plus any armor worn) to soak = 2 succeses so Bill takes 1 level of bashing damage. 

~First round, Initiative rolled~ Bob beats bill on initiative. 

Bob: Rolls Dex+Brawl=2 success.
Bill: Splits dice pool for two actions. Rolls Dex 2+ Dodge 3= 2 success. Bob misses but only barely. 
Bill: Rolls Dex 2+ Brawl 3= 1 success.
Bob: Cannot dodge. 
Bill: Rolls Strength+1 = 4 success. 
Bob: Rolls Stamina (+Armor) = 1 success. Takes 3 levels of bashing damage. Is now down 3 HL and is at injured so all dice pools are at -1 dice. 

~Second round, Initiative rolled~ Bob beats Bill again. 

Bob: Hurting he decides to just block.
Bill: Does not split dice. Rolls Dex+Brawl = 4 success.
Bob: Rolls Dex+Dodge-1 dice= 2 success
Bill: Rolls Strength+1 = 2 successes
Bob: Rolls Stamina (+Armor) =1 success, takes 1 point of damage. He now has 4 HL of damage as it at a -2 dice penalty on all actions. 

The fight could continue, back and forth like this until one opponent is down. However for this both combatants simply come to an agreement. Bob apologizes and Bill accepts, the two go off and get drunk. 








 

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Sample combat #2: Two combatants again, Bill and Bob. This time Bill and Bob are both Vampires. Both have celerity 1 (one extra action for 1 bp), fortitude (1 extra soak dice; can soak all forms of damage) and 1 point of potence (1 extra strength). Bob surprises Bill.

Bob burns 1 BP for celerity 1, will activate the beginning of the first round of combat. 
Bob: Rolls Dex+Brawl = 3 successes
Bill: Rolls Dex+Dodge = 2 successes
Bob: Rolls Strength+1 (Punch)+Potence 1 = 4 successes
Bill: Rolls Stamina (+Armor) +Fortitude 1 = 2 successes; takes 2 HL of Bashing damage, now has a -1 dice penalty. Bill Burns BP for Celerity 1

~First round initiative, Bill beats Bob~

Bill: (Normal action) Rolls Dexterity + Brawl -1 Dice = 3 Successes
Bob: (Normal action) Rolls Dodge+Dex = 3 successes. No damage incurred. It's a miss.
Bill: (Celerity action) Rolls Dexterity + Brawl -1 Dice = 4 successes
Bob: Does not dodge
Bill: Rolls Strength+1+Potence 1-1 Dice = 2 successes
Bob: Rolls Stamina (+Armor)+ Fortitude 1 = 2 successes; No damage. It's a grazing blow but nothing damaging. 
Bob: (Celerity action) Rolls Dexterity+ Brawl = 4 successes. 
Bill: Cannot dodge, has no actions left. 
Bob: Rolls Strength+1+ Potence 1 = 4 successes
Bill: Rolls Stamina (+Armor) +Fortitude 1 = 2 successes. Takes 2 HL of damage. He is now at 4 HL of damage and a -2 penalty to all dice. 


Then would begin a new round of combat with initiative. Simply rinse and repeat until combat is done. 

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Melee Tutorial

Melee Combat is nothing more than using a weapon. It could be one handed, two handed or one in each hand. It covers anything short of firing a bow, blowgun, or firearm. It does not cover thrown weapons like spears, knives, shuriken, spikes, grenades, axes etc., nor does it cover weapons like brass knuckles, gauntlets etc that actually for game purposes are part of the hand.

Melee is conducted in the same way as Brawl, except that the player rolls Melee (or appropriate martial skill) plus Dexterity for their attack roll. Damage is going to be the weapons damage rating + strength (+Potence or other strength enhancing power specific to the game.) 

Melee example: Bill & Bob. Neither one surprises the other. Both are using knives. They both roll initiative and Bob wins. His player opts to let Bill go first. Both are just plain mortals. 

Bill: Rolls melee+dexterity= 4 successes
Bob: Rolls dodge+dexterity = 3 successes
Bill: Rolls Strength+1 = 3 successes* For mortals and mages, unless magically fortified in some way, lethal damage is not soakable.
Bob: Rolls +Armor)= zero successes and takes 3 HL of damage as well as a -1 dice penalty

Rinse and repeat until one combatant cannot continue. Unlike with Brawling this damage is lethal in most cases and takes a long while to heal naturally, weeks and months. It can also kill if left untreated. Most supernaturals can soak lethal damage with stamina as their bodies are supernaturally resilient to such.