Combat Examples

[Block showing the stats of the two PCs who will be used for this]

Mockingbird: Hi, I'm Mockingbird, but my sisters call me MB for short. Kesari: And I'm Kesari! MB: And we're here to demonstrate how combat in Nechronica works. Kesari: Yeah! That way, when someone tries to be a bully, you can beat'em up so they'll stop being bad! Hey, where's Katja and Curie? MB: They'll be here later. Curie's getting more dynamite for a later demonstration. In the mean time, let's go find something to kill.

Example 1: Starting combat and basic turn order and resolution

Eventually the two run into a pair of mutated dogs. These dogs are quite hungry and waste no time approaching the girls.

Kesari: Dogs!

MB: They'll be good eatin' later, but first, we have to set up the battlemap.

Kesari: Battlemap?

MB: That thing that we fight on. It has the 5 locations: Eden, Elysium, Limbo, Hades, and Tartarus. It also has a thing on the side for tracking AP that goes up to 15.

Kesari: Tartarus? AP?

MB: Have you not been paying attention to all the fights we been in?

Kesari: Nope, I just bite the bullies!

MB:... Anyway, when the battle starts, you place the tokens representing what you marked your starting position on the map. For example, I use this rifle here for shooting, so I've set mine to Elysium. Kesari's more into tearing into things up close, so she starts in Limbo. You choose these when you make your character. There's nothing stopping you from changing them in between fights, but once the Necromancer's declared a combat, it's too late.

• The two place their tokens in the respective zones*

MB:The dogs started in Limbo since they don't want to waste any time attacking us. This means neither Kesari or the dogs have to waste AP getting up close.

Kesari: Hooray!

MB: After that, everyone sets their AP. AP is determined by what parts and skills you have, because of my mutations, my AP's really high. Kesari's a little slower at 12, and the dogs go last with an AP of 8. Once that's set, you start at the first count that has a character on it, which would be me at 13. So after deciding who will act this count, you declare. I'm the only one at this count so I declare first.

• Mockingbird proceeds to pull out a rocket launcher*

MB: I don't normally use this sort of thing, but I'd like example 1 to end fast.

Kesari: Where'd you get that?

MB: When it's your turn to declare, you declare something with the Timing "Action" like this gun. I'm declaring that I'm attacking Dog 1 with this rocket launcher and I pay the 4 AP to do so. *MB's AP counter moves down to 9* Later, we'll cover how it works if enemy's have means to react to this stuff before it happens, but for now, they have nothing so we go to resolving the action.

• Mockingbird fires a rocket at the dog*

MB: Now we move onto what's called the Attack check. I roll a single 10 sided dice to see if I hit. Since I have Gun God, I add a +1 to it. If the end result is a 6 or higher, it's a success and the dog is hit. If the result is higher than 10, that's a critical hit, which we'll also discuss later.

Kesari: Why hasn't it hit the dog yet?

MB: Because I haven't rolled to see if it hit. Oh, it's a 7. *There's an explosion where Dog #1 was once standing* Well that should kill it.

Necromancer: Unbeknownst to MB, since the rocket successfully hit, it triggered what's called a Damage timing. Since the dog has Cracked Flesh, which has that Damage timing, it can use it for the Defend 2 it confers, which reduces the damage the dog takes by 2, letting it survive her rocket.

MB: What? It actually survived that!?

Kesari: That's a tough doggie!

MB: I'mma kill it for that!

Kesari: No way, it's my turn first!

MB: Right, after the actions are resolved, it moves to the next count with a character, which would be count 12.

Kesari: Alright I declare my Meat snake at Dog 1. *Kesari's AP token moves down to 9*

MB: Killstealer...

Kesari: Oh no, I rolled a 5...

MB: That's great!

Kesari: But it's a miss.

MB: But now we can show them how check timing works!

Kesari: What's that?

MB: *Sigh* Anyway, when you make any kind of check (except for madness or conversation checks) in combat, it triggers what's called "Check Timing." This is when you can use Supports or Hinders, like Arm or Foot. Since you rolled a 5, you can use you Arm's Support 1 to increase it to a 6 so it hits! *Kesari's AP token moves down to 8*

Kesari: REEEEEEEEE

MB: Meatsnake's got a special property that lets it make more than one attack if it hits, we'll cover those in detail later.

MB: She's rolled well enough on them to hit Dog #2 with two more attacks so now it's almost dead. And now that that's done, we move to Count 9, which is just me again. I'm just going to shoot at this dog with the rocket again *she moves her token to 5* and... that's a 2.

• The rocket flies by the dog, blowing apart a nearby tree*

Kesari: You missed!

MB: I noticed. So we're on count 8 now.

Kesari: Which is me and the dog!

MB: Yep, when it comes time to declare, the necromancer declares his moves first. Then you. Looks like the dog's gonna bite you.

Kesari: Not if I bite it first!

MB: So anyway, all action timing actions are considered to resolve simultaneously, but since that's actually confusing to have everyone roll dice and stuff at the same time, you handle player actions first. Kesari: I rolled an 8! REEEEEEEEEEE *The dog is torn apart by Kesari's meatsnake* Now it doesn't get to bite me.

MB: Don't be so sure about that.

Kesari: What?

• She looks down to see the Dog also rolled an 8 on its attack and tore a hole in Kesari's gut, her intestines are now on the ground*

Kesari: What a bad dog!

MB: It's fine, we'll get all that shoved back in before the next demonstration.

Context, rules explored,

Explanation of mechanics used in above paragraph.