Combat

To attack someone in melee, you roll Strength. It is a contested Strength check.

To attack someone with a ranged weapon, you roll your Dexterity versus their cover. If they have no cover, you still need 1 success.

All weapons are detailed in the weapons wiki, alongside their stats and gimmicks. The list does not encompass every weapon in existence. The general rules below cover the rest.

Ranged

Random thrown objects deal 2 damage. Chairs, rocks, bricks, and so on. They have 1 weight.

Rate of fire describes how many shots you can fire in one turn. You can shoot multiple targets per turn, but you must waste one shot per additional target.

• If you have multiple ammo types, you must declare the order your shots are loaded in. If you fire multiple times in a turn, your successes fire the bullets in the order you declared.
• Shooting each target is rolled individually. In the example above, you must roll your shooting stats three times, against the three enemies' covers.
• You need 1 success over the opponent's cover to shoot them. Every success above that is an additional shot into your target, up to how many shots you have fired.
• Every shot past the first adds +1d6 to your accuracy.
• Damage reductions apply to each shot individually.

Melee

• Unarmed combat deals 1 damage (fists, slaps, biting). They have no weight; they are a part of you.
• Random objects are called makeshift weapons. They deal 2 damage, have 1 weight, and have no gimmicks other than being one- or two-handed.

A soldier, naturally, has more than just a gun. There is misc gear to choose from in the equipment wiki. The consumables listed there are charges: you get an X amount of uses per scene, and they regenerate afterwards.

Every piece of misc gear has a flat 1 weight unless stated otherwise. You start with 3 free pieces of gear, but you may need to justify how you got them depending on how uncommon or rare they would be for you to get. This is based on where you are, who you are, your role, and similar factors.

Every attack, unless stated otherwise through some perk or gimmick, always has a 1d6 chance to hit, and deals at minimum 1 damage.

You automatically take cover when you move into it, unless specifically stated otherwise due to special conditions.

Cover has four ratings: weak (2d6), middling (4d6), strong (6d6), and fortified (8d6). Certain perks can make cover stronger.

• Weak cover does not actually block shots, but does block vision: tall grass, curtains. These offer 2d6.
• Middling cover offers considerable cover, but is not intended to: a building's wall, a car. These offer 4d6.
• Strong cover is anything militarily built for taking hits: tanks, trenches, sandbags. These offer 6d6.
• Only the Sapper perk can build 8d6 fortified cover. It is an upgraded strong cover.

Cover has no effect on melee.

Initiative is ordered from highest Dexterity to lowest. In case of ties, all tied parties roll their Dexterities; whoever has more successes goes first among them. Roll off multiple times if needed. Relevant perks apply.

Distance to someone is measured in "distance" units. These are relative to you and your target, or a reference point. They represent 5 meters worth of distance.

Each character can only move 1 distance per turn. Moving is considered your action for the turn; it is not free.

• Distance 0 is melee range. You can only melee attack someone if you are in distance 0. You cannot perform ranged attacks if there are enemies within distance 0. If someone tries to leave distance 0, they may be freely melee-attacked as a free action. Such an attack can only be done once per character. You may defend yourself from such attacks. There is no safe disengagement.
• Distances 1 and beyond forbid melee attacks, but allow ranged attacks.
• Each distance may have usable cover so as to approach gunners with relative safety.
• For every 10 distances away from the target, you have a −3d6 penalty to shoot them.

If there are allies in the same distance as your enemy, and you are shooting them from 1 distance away or beyond, you need 1 additional success for each ally within that group in order to hit an enemy. If you do not have as many successes as you have allies in that spot, you will shoot your ally instead, in order of initiative.

If there are 3× or more enemies as you have allies in a distance, you have no chance of hitting your allies, as there are enough enemies to pick a safe target to hit.

Stealth is a contested Intelligence check. If you succeed, the opponent is not aware of your presence. Otherwise, they are.

A stealth check cannot be done if the enemy already knows where you are. You need to relocate and/or find a new hiding spot before you can stealth again.

If you have succeeded in a stealth check, no further stealth checks are done unless the enemy spends their action to perform another contested Intelligence check, which can only be done if they are actively searching for you. If they are entirely unaware of your presence, no further perception checks may be made unless you do something they can reasonably spot, like walking by them or making noise.

If you try to do something to someone you are hiding from — such as attacking them — you must do a final contested perception check, and this is considered an ambush. If multiple characters are involved, all roll their Intelligences, compare to one another, and then decide the action order individually.

• If the ambush succeeds, the ones setting it up go first regardless of Dexterity, and their first actions automatically succeed against the targets that were ambushed.
• If the ambush fails, the ones being ambushed go first, regardless of Dexterity.

Ambushing someone gives away your position, unless your attack cannot be detected, such as by using a suppressed or silent weapon.

In order to spot someone at all, you must be within viewing range of them. Your comfortable view range is [Intelligence] × 20 + 40 distances. If the enemy is beyond this range, you cannot accurately see them, and thus roll −3d6 for every 10 distances past your maximum comfortable view range.

A trap is something set up to cause harm to another. When laying a trap, the trapmaster must decide whether the trap is incapacitating or killing.

A trap then requires 2 Intelligence checks. The first is how well-hidden the trap is: the amount of successes prey needs to spot it. The second is how damaging it is, if at all: each success means one point of damage.

• A killing trap can kill its prey, and its damage can push someone into negative HP directly.
• An incapacitating trap will never kill, even if its damage would be killing otherwise. Prey is always left at 0 HP.

Provided two items can be held with one single hand, you can wield them both at once. Additional members (such as a tail) can also hold items.

Swapping hands is considered free. This extends to additional members — you can hold something with your tail and immediately grab onto it.

Whether the additional member can manipulate items itself depends on specific perks. You cannot, for example, hold a pistol in one hand, then use a two-handed weapon with one hand and your tail, unless your tail allows for item manipulation.

There are no penalties to dual-wielding. You can hold a pistol and a one-handed melee weapon and use both without issues.

You can only use one item or weapon in a turn, not both. You cannot attack with both in the same turn.

Weapons or items that are two-handed require you to use both hands to operate them. Unless specifically stated otherwise, every kit requires both hands to be used properly (survivalist, entrenching, demolition, and so on).

It takes one turn to mount or dismount a creature.

When mounting a mountable creature, you cannot move — it is the creature that does the moving instead. It uses their speed values, and your weight plus your gear's weight affects it. Carrying a lot of stuff, or having the Heavy perk, will affect your mount.

Whilst mounted, moving becomes free, as it is your mount that is moving, not you. You may perform attacks at any point during movement: at the start, in the middle, or after. This means you can move up to someone, attack them, and then move away.

If the mounted creature is a player, they give up their actions and let you take control instead, provided they are willing. The mounted player cannot act on their own anymore — they behave well and truly like your mount.

You can create a basic "if [something] happens, then [I do this]" statement for your action. If the trigger does happen, your action takes priority over anyone else's.

Grappling is a contested Strength check, where the one initiating the grapple adds the difference in Strength to their dice pool.

A grappled target can still fight back. They can attack you or someone else, put away or pull out items, and so on. The only thing a grappled target cannot do is move.

The target may try to break free from the grapple, which is a contested Strength vs Strength check, in which the one holding the grapple still applies the difference between Strengths to their dice pool.

After a target is grappled, you may do one of several things as an action on your subsequent turns:

• You may drag them alongside you, moving them however many distances you can also move.
• You may pin them, putting them onto the ground and holding them there. In a pin, a character may do nothing but try to break free, which is a contested Strength check where they roll twice, always taking the worse roll. The one who initiated the grapple still adds the difference in Strengths.
• You may eat them, which is a contested Strength check. The one who initiated the grapple still adds the difference in Strengths. On a success, the target is devoured. See the vore rules for more.
• You may use them as a human shield, making enemies target them instead of you. You must hold them with at least one hand. Enemies deal damage to your human shield before they can deal damage to you, unless they have an effect that would circumvent this. Incapacitated or dead enemies absorb no more damage, but work as 2d6 cover instead. If your cover saves you from being shot, an incapacitated human shield takes the full damage.
• You may try to disarm them, which is a contested Strength check. On a success, you may choose to either grab their weapon for yourself, or drop it onto the ground / throw it up to 5 + Strength distances away. When throwing it, roll Dexterity. On a success, it lands where you wanted it to. On a fail, roll a 1d[distance thrown] − 1. The result is where it lands instead.

Some characters can fly for one reason or another. When they start flying, their positions are determined through "altitude" units. This effectively turns the 1D field into a 2D field.

Someone can occupy, for example, distance 5 and altitude 3, meaning they occupy distance 5 and are at altitude 3.

Everyone is at altitude 0 by default, and this does not change unless they can get off the ground somehow. You need to occupy the same distance and altitude in order to attack someone in melee.

When falling, you fall 1 altitude at first, increasing by 1 with every subsequent turn of falling.

Once you hit the ground — reaching altitude 0 — you take [speed] × 3 damage.

Armor has five categories:

• None: the target has no armor at all. Any and all attacks do their regular damage.
• Personal: personal armor with middling effects. Each piece of personal armor has its unique characteristics.
• Light: can only be pierced by weapons with light armor piercing or higher. Immune to weapons with lower armor piercing.
• Medium: can only be pierced by weapons with medium armor piercing or higher. Immune to weapons with lower armor piercing.
• Heavy: can only be pierced by weapons with heavy armor piercing or higher. Immune to weapons with lower armor piercing.

Melee attacks cannot damage light armor or above.

If you cannot see a target directly due to darkness, fog, or smoke, but you know they are there, you may roll to attack, but may only roll 1 die, and only obtain success on a 6 or higher.