Combat: Introduction

The feel of adrenaline rushing through your veins as you face down your enemy on the field of battle is like no other feeling in the world. This section will go over the rules and mechanics for combat within the setting of Essence and Energy.

Combat is perfomed in rounds. During each round, the characters and NPC’s take turns based on the highest initiative, in which they perform their actions. Once everyone has completed their turn, the turn order restarts. Any end of the round condition effects apply to characters and a new round begins.

Combat is a strategic encounter that involves working with your fellow players to plan out your turns in order to be as efficient as possible. Know your surroundings when strategizing and ask the game master to describe it. Learn to use cover and use the durability and health of objects around you. Having the right cover and using the environment to your advantage in a gunfight can help decide the outcome.

Combat Phases

1. Roll initiative
2. Determine Turn Order (Initiative)
3. Begin round
4. Perform actions during turns (and outside of turns with counter actions)
5. End round
6. Repeat 3-5 until combat has ended

Phase 1: Roll Initiative

Initiative is based on your reaction instinct because it reflects on how fast you can react to situations. To figure out what your initiative is you make a reaction check.

d10 + reaction instinct = Initiative

Once everyone has rolled their initiative, it should be collected and ordered from highest to lowest. The player or NPC with the highest initiative goes first, followed by the second highest and so on until everyone has had a turn. This is known as the turn order.

If an enemy and an ally have the same initiative whoever has the highest reaction goes first. If their reactions are ties roll a d10 and the higher result does first. However, there are other features of initiative that should be taken advantage of during combat which can alter the tun order.

Consecutive Initiatives

When initiative is determined but before the first round starts any players (or allies) that have the same or consecutive initiatives can exchange turn order positions. This can only be done if there are no enemies in between the players (or allies) turn order positions. For example, Alfred, the Yuki and GD-666, the Bionix have both rolled nines for their initiative they can discuss who wants to go first. However, if a Blood Goblin also had a nine for its initiative its turn order position would be based off its reaction compared to Alfred and GD-666’s reaction. The Blood Goblin has a reaction of three but Alfred and GD-666 have a reaction of four which places the Blood Goblin after Alfred and GD-666 in the turn order. Now Alfred and GD- 666 can decide who wants to go first.

Consecutive Initiative aids players in strategizing combat situations. There might come a time when a channeler and a fighter have the same initiative, yet the fighter isn’t at the front line and needs to be. Letting the fighter go before the channeler would allow the channeler to be protected and the fighter to get to the front line faster. Similar to letting the fighter go before the channeler, the Turn Order Position Swap (in Phase 2) can be used for similar purposes.

Critical Initiative

If you roll a ten during initiative, the die is chained once.

Phase 2: Determine Turn Order

The turn order is the order in which characters take their actions during combat. The character with the highest initiative goes first.

When everyone has rolled their initiative and the turn order is, the character who has the highest initiative in the turn order goes first.

Turn Order Example

Giblets, the sneaky goblin, has an initiative of eleven. GD-666, the Bionix gets a nine for his initiative. Alfred the Yuki has a nine for his initiative (Alfred has a higher reaction, so he goes before GD-666). Shirazar, the Karak Onca halfoid, gets a fourteen on hers. Their opponents, five blood goblins, have initiatives of seven, eight, four, ten, and thirteen. This means that Shirazar with her fourteen, will be on the top of the turn order and will go first when the round starts. The turn order would be:

1. Shirazar – 14 (Start of the round)
2. Blood Goblin 1 – 13
3. Giblets – 11
4. Blood Goblin 2 – 10
5. Alfred – 9 (higher reaction)
6. GD-666 – 9 (lower reaction)
7. Blood Goblin 3 – 8
8. Blood Goblin 4 – 7
9. Blood Goblin 5 – 4
End of the Round

Turn Order Position Swap

At the beginning of your turn, you can declare that you will exchange turn order positions with an ally. The ally must agree to this swap otherwise. It does not happen, and you can only swap positions with allies.

Making the Swap

Strategize with your fellow player if you go before or after them in the swap. Any allies and enemies with a turn order position in between the swapping character’s original positions take their turn as normal. Once it becomes the player’s turn of which you will swap with, you play out both of your turns out based on how you decided.

You now take their turn, and they take yours, but you can only swap once per round.

Phase 3: Begin Round

Combat broken up into rounds, in which the characters take turns performing actions. You completed a round when every character involved in combat has taken their turn.

Ten Second Rounds

A round is ten in game seconds long, regardless of the size of the turn order. Even though everyone takes turns to perform their actions, in game the characters are all moving at the same time.

Phase 4: Performing Actions

During your turn, you have three actions to use (you can increase this up to five through skills), all within your allotted movement. Some actions cost more than others. It is possible to perform more actions but only if you have a mastery, trait, or other ability that grants them.

Actions do not have to be used only on your turn. If you have an ability that uses a counter action, you can interrupt another turn to use your counter action. However, using that action out of turn means you have fewer actions to use on your turn during that round. Likewise, you can save actions on your turn to be used as counter actions later in the round.

When moving around the battlefield, you can break up your actions between movements. For example, if you have thirty feet of movement, you can move fifteen feet, spend two actions to shoot your pistol; move another fifteen feet to find cover and finish up by spending your remaining action to reload.

Phase 5: End of the Round

Once everyone has taken their turn(s) and performed their actions, the round ends and a new one starts with the highest character in the turn order. If there are any end of the round effects, you apply them before the new round starts.

All actions and movement are reset at the end of the round. Now you repeat phases one through five until the combat has ended.