Rounds, Turns, & Actions

The Combat Round

A combat round starts at the 1st character’s turn and ends at the last character’s turn. The next round begins when the 1st character starts their next turn.

Most of that time is characters measuring & checking their opponent, trading blows that don’t do much. All leading up to the moment when one of those two characters lands a solid blow on their opponent… or time running out as a solid blow is evaded or soaked by their armor.

A round is approximately 5-15 seconds.

There is no defined amount of clock time for each turn taken by a character in a round. It’s loosely defined as simply, “a moment in time”. Many actions from character turns can happen simultaneously within any round.

Turn Order & Initiative

For additional simplicity, the most common way to determine turn order is to simply go around the room clockwise or anti-clockwise starting with players going first, then the enemy NPCs (Non-Player Characters) after combat has initiated. This is true regardless of who initiated combat & after the first attack action has concluded — perhaps because of an ambush or a particularly violent player character prompting the battle by attacking pre-combat.

If it is needed, the GM may instead follow: Once combat has been initiated, the turn order will be determined by 1d20 + reflex bonus rolled by each combatant. With the highest total roll going first and the lowest going last. Any tie will be rerolled to determine turn order placement as a tie-breaker. For instance, if two characters tie for first, then after the tie-breaker, one will be first & the other would be second in turn order. All NPC’s can roll for turn order individually, as multiple groups, or as 1 big group (GM’s choice).

Turns & Actions

At the start of each character’s turn, if any effect is in play attached to that character – apply those effects. If an effect ends at the start of their turn, they may declare an action to extend those effects before they wear off. But only if it’s the first action they declare each turn.

Each turn a character may perform 2 actions in the order of their choosing. During each turn a character may only declare 1 contested action.

They may use either 1 contested action & 1 non-contested action -or- they may use 2 non-contested actions each round. Their contested action may only be used on their turn.

A contested action (aka: contested roll, contested attack, or simply “attack”) is any time a character rolls dice against another. These may be combat (usually as an attack) or non-combat rolls (such as stealth). Often referred to as an “attack” when done as the initiator of the contested roll, & as “counterattack” or “defense” when on the receiving end of the contested-roll.

A non-contested action is any action where characters do not roll against each other. Non-contested actions include: moving, unequipping a shield, grabbing a weapon (or any object) from anywhere other than a worn weapon slot (including from other character’s hands), grabbing ammunition from anywhere other than a ammo pouch, lighting a torch, and reloading (crossbow, firearm, etc). It also may be used in some attacks, such as firing a loaded firearm/crossbow if within guaranteed hit range.

*Equipping a shield takes 1 round to complete (2 consecutive non-contested actions).

*Throwing an object, not as an attack, is a non-contested action. Objects may be thrown any distance up to the character’s Body stat value. If the creature’s race has a +1 or +2 to all weapon range, they also can throw an object that much further than their Body stat. The object must be in an item size category that matches their creature size category, or lower. ie: a Gratchen is a (Sm) race & can throw (XS) & (S) sized items. A Orc is a (XL) race & can throw items equal or less than (XL) size category (almost anything not nailed down). For now, this may not be done to deal damage (whatever was there would move before it lands). But it may be done to toss a torch to light an area, or to pile objects to create impassable terrain or cover.

Free actions can be done at any time simply through declaration. These actions will resolve 1st in, 1st out(meaning 1st to declare is 1st to resolve & any declarations after are in response). Free actions can be used to: equip or switch between worn weapons, sheath or holster a weapon, speak or scream in pain, drop a weapon (or any other object), cast a spell, or use a worn enchanted item. As such, these things can be done at any time, on anyone’s turn, as many times as desired.

Nothing can interrupt damage. Once dice are thrown for any contested action or damage has been declared from some other action, that damage must be concluded before any other actions can take place. The time to clutch attack with your firearm or spell is before dice are thrown.

At the end of each character’s turn, the player may declare the direction their character faces. Or they may choose to maintain facing an opponent, object, or ally until their next turn. This is not a action, not even a free action. It is only decided at end of their turn.

This may seem like a trivial rule. But a player may want their character to focus on keeping their shield facing a group of enemy archers or they may want to continue to turn in place so that nasty rogue-like enemy can’t smack another stealth attack on them.

Tactical Actions

A character may trade their contested action for an additional non-contested action to perform 2 non-contested actions in a round. They may perform the same action twice, like moving twice in a round or firing two loaded 1-handed crossbows. Or they may perform 2 different non-contested actions. A character may not trade a non-contested action for an additional contested action.

A character may choose to hold their non-contested action to be used on another character’s turn. Someone may do this to block a path of an enemy, provide cover for another ally from incoming fire, or utilize any other non-contested action in some clever way. That character still only gets 2 declared actions on each round, & only 1 of them can be a contested roll. They cannot reserve their contested roll this way. If no action is used before the character’s next turn, the reserved action is considered forfeited. All actions are generally “first in / first out”, but this interruption is considered preemptive in nature. The act of reserving an action grants priority to respond to other’s actions with a non-contested action. They may even use this action at odd timings where it makes sense. Such as: “I fire my crossbow on them when they get in range”, may mean you fire when they are in the middle of their movement action before they reach their destination tile.

If an action is reserved and an attack is made against that character. If they interrupt the attack action to move, the attack action did not happen & the attacking creature can change their action. If the character moves to behind cover to interrupt a ranged attack, the attacking creature can change their action or choose new targets. You cannot “waste” their contested action this way. You can block a moving creature this way. If you do, they move up to the tile next to your new position and lose part of their movement distance from that action. They still get to move at least 1 tile before they can be blocked while using a move action.

For example, if you wish to block someone else as they move with a reserved or unused non-contested action – The intended action must be declared as they move. If the enemy moves in a path that would be inside the move range of your hero, your hero may move to any tile that blocks their path. The enemy cannot go through your hero, they may not change directions after they are intercepted, & lose any remaining tiles of movement for that action.