CoActionDrama

Weapon Developments come in several types, and enable a character to pick up a weapons of a certain type and discharge it without damaging themselves.  First level specialisations attract a +1 Bonus for the narrowed weapon class, and -1 Penalty for using outside the narrowed class, and level two specialisations benefit from +2 Bonus, and -2 Penalty when not using the weapon.  Level three specialisation implies that the character uses a particular weapon only and attracts a full +3 Bonus, but a -3 Penalty for using ANY other weapon.  It must be borne in mind that the loss of such a weapon would be a major blow to the character and that such a loss would attract the penalty until a new custom weapon was made.

GMs may wish to impose further restrictions but these should be the minimum.

The Weapon Development Table gives the Developments for the various weapons types.  Any other types should be considered “special”, and given a specific Development of their own.

Weapon Development Table

A combat round is divided into four “quarters”.  It lasts 12 seconds, and each quarter is nominally 3 seconds long.   A segment is the pulse of the combat round, lasting 3/10ths of a second.  A character rolls initiative, and can move, fire a weapon or dodge during their quarter.

Initiative is Wit + D20 + modifiers (-10 to +10).  (Ex, turned away -1, facing and weapon out +1).  Count down through highest initiative (40 is the highest possible generally), to 0.  Characters with initiative over 10 get another go ten segments later, so a character on initiative 17, goes on 17 and 7, and a character on 20 gets to go on 20, 10 and 0.  Persons who initiative of 40 or over may go five times per round, on 40, 30, 20, 10 and 0, the first go considered a bonus action for reacting very quickly indeed.  Characters holding a segment go before people holding the same segment by virtue of having a roll 10 higher.

Initiative stays the same every a round unless modified by injury.  For every ten points of injury use -1 initiative.  Characters state their initial actions after initiative, these are generically, Attack, Defend or Wait (defer, as in waiting to see if a dodge action is required, for example).  Make a roll to hit, this is the weapon Development + the associated Nature, roll equal or under.  If hit, make the damage roll, from the weapons chart, or by the weapon, you should write it in.  In summary:-

Combat Round

Initiative is determined.  Highest first.

Declaration of intent; Attack, Wait (for later Dodge most likely), Move, prepare weapon, reload etc

Attacks are a roll on 2d20 under the weapon Development.

If failed, check for bad failures and apply.

If succeeded, roll d20 for Hit Location.

Roll Damage, apply to hit location, taking into account armour etc.

Start at Declaration of intent for next initiative holder. (i.e. go to 2). 

Injury happens to a specific location or locations.  Roll a d20 to determine hit location.  Each location has 10% of the total hit points for the character, in other words Constitution.  (Which adds up to more hits than the character has, to the tune of 140% of the total hits).   If the location goes to 0 it is unusable, for the head or chest this means unconscious, if a location is at  Con hit points, it is destroyed, for the head or chest, this means that the character is dead.  Fighting with a weapon in the off hand is  6 to hit, and half damage, unless the character is ambidextrous, for which there are special rules.

Damage

Damage occurs to a location or locations.  Apply damage to the armour first, then the remainder to the location, remove the equivalent amount from the hits table.

The hits table will be depleted before the character has taken full hit points to all locations.  This reflects the overall damage done to a character when hit many times, or when suffering the effects of poison or illness.  Reaching -Con on the hits table means that the character is dead.

Losing all of the hit points in the head or chest instantly renders the subject unconscious, and moving to -Constitution in these locations means that the character is dead.

Recovery is at a rate of 1hp per day without intervention.  Players may also make a recovery roll once per day.  This is 2D20 under raw Constitution, if made, another d3 hit points are recovered.

Dodging and Aiming

All characters have an inherent Dodge skill.  This is 15+Perception or 15+Dexterity, depending on the situation (GM discretion).  Surprised characters would use Perception, as this would imply their ability to act quickly when surprised, others would use Dexterity as this would imply their ability to act quickly when prepared.  The success margin is taken from the to hit as a penalty.  Dodging takes an action, generally the player/character will have to hold an action in order to dodge, but the gm may allow that the next action could be used if the attacking and defending player/character are in the same quarter.

Aiming is a factor of the skill of the hit, and the time taken to make it.  Characters succeeding by 15 or more may aim, time taken can count as a bonus, thus increasing their chance to aim.  It is suggested that each segment delayed is a +1 bonus to aim, thus a 15 segment delay would guarantee an aimed hit discounting other penalties.  Hits made using this bonus do not count double damage.  Aiming may also apply if only part of a character or NPC can be seen, at the GM’s discretion.  An Aiming Bonus may also be given under certain circumstances.  An Aiming Bonus is a 1-10 bonus given to characters for a not quite special or other circumstance.

Parrying

Parry is inherent in the use of a weapon if it applies.  Use a bit of commonsense about this, an bow could parry, but it will probably break in the process.  The rule is that parrying is a roll of 2d20, as normal vs Wit+1+bonuses.  Give a +1 bonus per segment held action.  If successful, subtract the difference from the attacking roll.  (This works the same as dodge).  One may attack and dodge, attack and parry or dodge and parry, but not all three.  There is no penalty for simply trying to parry without having held and action, but there may be other penalties depending on circumstances.  Note that parrying is not dependent on weapon skill in any way.