Work in Progress
Combat Summary
Stage One: Intent
• The players and the Storyteller describe what their characters want out of the fight.
• Decide whether characters can surrender and can become Beaten Down.
Stage Two: Initiative
• If the attacker springs an ambush or otherwise strikes when the defender isn’t able to counter,
the defender rolls Wits + Composure contested by the attacker’s Dexterity + Stealth.
If the defender scores fewer successes, she doesn’t act on the first turn of combat and cannot apply Defense against attacks.
If the defender gets equal or more successes, the ambush has no effect.
• Everyone rolls Initiative: the result of a die roll + Dexterity + Composure.
If the character has a weapon readied, apply its Initiative Modifier.
A vampire with Celerity can spent 1 Vitae to jump to the head of the queue; if more than one tries, trigger a Clash of Wills.
Stage Three: Attack
• Unarmed Combat: Strength + Brawl vs. Defense
• Melee Combat: Strength + Weaponry vs. Defense
• Ranged Combat: Dexterity + Firearms
• Thrown Weapons: Dexterity + Athletics vs. Defense
A character’s Defense is normally subtracted from any attack dice pools where it applies.
If she chooses to Dodge, the defender rolls twice her Defense as a dice pool against each attack (not aplied with the above step, either or).
Each success reduces the attacker’s successes by one.
If the attacker is reduced to zero successes, the attack does nothing. If the attacker has successes remaining, add any weapon modifer to the number of successes to
determine how many points of Health the target loses. All weapons deal lethal damage to mortals, while all mundane weapons deal bashing damage to vampires.
Stage Four:
The Storyteller describes the attack and wound in narrative terms
• Aiming: +1 per turn to a +3 maximum
• All-Out Attack: +2 with Brawl or Weaponry attack; lose Defense
• Armor Piercing: Ignores amount of target’s armor equal to item’s rating
• Autofire Long Burst: 20 or so bullets, no target limit pending Storyteller approval.
A +3 bonus is applied to each attack roll; –1 per roll for each target after the first.
• Autofre Medium Burst: 10 or so bullets at one to three targets, with a +2 bonus to each attack roll; –1 per roll for each target after the first.
• Autofre Short Burst: Three bullets at a single target with a +1 bonus to the roll.
• Concealment: Barely –1; partially –2; substantially –3; fully, see “Cover”
• Cover: Subtract Durability from damage; if Durability is greater than weapon modifer, attack has no effect.
• Dodge: Double Defense, roll as a dice pool with each success subtracting one from the attacker’s successes.
• Drawing a Weapon: Requires instant action without a Merit and could negate Defense at Storyteller discretion.
• Firing from Concealment: Shooter’s own concealment quality (–1, –2, or –3) reduced by one as a penalty to fire back (so, no modifer, –1, or –2)
• Offhand Attack: –2 penalty (You are assumed right handed if not otherwise stated beforehand).
• Prone Target: –2 penalty to hit in ranged combat; +2 bonus to hit when attacker is within close-combat distance
• Range: –2 at medium range, –4 at long range
• Shooting into Close Combat: –2 per combatant avoided in a single shot (not applicable to autofre); –4 if grappling
• Specifed Target: Torso –1, leg or arm –2, head –3, hand –4, eye –5
• Surprised or Immobilized Target: Defense doesn’t apply
• Touching a Target: Dexterity + Brawl or Dexterity + Weaponry; armor may or may not apply, but Defense does apply
• Willpower: Add three dice or +2 to a Resistance trait (Stamina, Resolve, or Composure) in one roll or instance.
