Chapter 3.4: Conflict and Personal Combat

Combat begins when timing and position matter enough to resolve one turn at a time. Every fight should have an objective beyond defeating the opposition: reach the shuttle, hold the corridor while the colony evacuates, disable the war-construct, recover the captive, or survive until help arrives. State that objective when the conflict begins. State what would make each side withdraw, yield, or change course.

Speech remains available during combat. A character can call for surrender, offer terms, warn an opponent, or attempt another appropriate Task on their turn. An opponent who surrenders or genuinely ceases aggression leaves the fight immediately, and the crew must accept that choice. Chapter 2.2 governs the factored assessment and force standard used throughout the conflict.

Rounds, Turns, and Initiative

A conflict proceeds in rounds. Every character able to act takes one turn in each round. On a turn, a character may take one Major Action and one Minor Action, in either order.

The players normally take the first turn. If one character is the clear choice, that character begins; when the choice is uncertain, the player character with the highest Daring begins. An NPC begins when the opposition clearly seized the opening, such as through a successful ambush. Where the opening remains in doubt, the gamemaster may spend 1 Threat to give it to an NPC.

After a character acts, the other side chooses one of its characters who has yet to act. Turns alternate between sides until everyone has acted. If one side runs out of eligible characters, the other side finishes its remaining turns. A new round then begins with the players unless the situation or a rule gives the opposition the opening.

After your turn, spend 2 Momentum to Keep the Initiative and pass the next turn to an ally. That ally must pass play to the opposition afterward. The gamemaster may use 2 Threat for the same effect. No character takes more than one turn in a round.

Stress

Stress is a character's short-term capacity to absorb pressure, narrowly avoid harm, and keep functioning through exhaustion. It is a buffer against consequences, including Injury. A main character's maximum Stress equals their Fitness.

When a consequence has a Severity from 1 to 5, you may mark Stress equal to that Severity to avoid the consequence. Avoiding an Injury works the same way: mark Stress equal to its adjusted Severity and the attack becomes a near miss, a glancing impact, or harm the cysuit contained before it reached the body. You must have room for the full amount. If you do not, fill the remaining spaces on the Stress track and suffer the consequence.

At maximum Stress, you are Fatigued:

• You cannot take further Stress.
• The Difficulty of every Task you attempt increases by 1.
• Choose one Attribute. You automatically fail Tasks using it until you are no longer Fatigued.

Hazards can inflict Stress directly. Extreme heat, radiation, poison, dehydration, sleep loss, sustained fear, and similar pressures use a Severity set by the gamemaster.

Hazard Severity and Exposure

Set Severity from the consequence the hazard can inflict during one exposure.

Before exposure, the gamemaster states the hazard's mode, Severity, and Interval: one round in a fire, ten minutes in radiation, an hour in hostile cold, or another span suited to the fiction.

• Attritional exposure directly inflicts Stress equal to Severity. Use it for accumulating heat, cold, radiation, poison, exhaustion, fear, and similar pressure without one discrete wound. Direct Stress cannot itself be Avoided by taking more Stress. Appropriate protection or a relevant Trait may prevent or reduce the exposure before it reaches the character.
• Acute exposure inflicts an Injury of the stated Severity. Use it for a blast, fall, burn, decompression event, collapse, or another discrete impact. Protection reduces the Injury as usual, then the character may Avoid Injury by taking Stress equal to the adjusted Severity.

One exposure uses one mode and never inflicts both Stress and Injury. A hazard may change modes only when its fiction changes, and the gamemaster announces the new mode before it applies. Repeated exposure can also create or worsen a Trait even when an acute Injury is avoided.

A cysuit prevents ordinary environmental exposure within the limits in Chapter 3.5. Roll when damage, depletion, an extreme beyond its rated protection, or an expired life-support window lets the hazard reach the wearer. Name that change as a Trait so the table knows which protection has failed.

The Battlefield

Divide a battlefield into zones defined by its meaningful features: rooms and corridors aboard a station, the street and adjoining structures in a colony, or stretches of open ground broken by vehicles and cover. Three to five zones serve most encounters.

Range uses the zones:

Being within Reach of an enemy increases the Difficulty of every Task except a Melee Attack by 1.

Movement and Terrain

A Movement Minor Action carries you anywhere in your current zone or into an adjacent zone. A Sprint Major Action carries you up to two zones. You cannot use the Movement Minor Action while an enemy is within Reach.

Difficult terrain and obstacles require a Fitness Task as part of Sprint. A modest obstacle or awkward ground is Difficulty 1; unstable rubble or a chest-high barrier is Difficulty 2; a fast current, steep ascent, or taller barrier is Difficulty 3. Use a fitting Specialization, usually Security for force and endurance or Infiltration for controlled movement. A relevant Trait may reduce the Difficulty by 1. Success crosses the terrain.

Cover and Prone Characters

Cover turns a Ranged Attack into an Opposed Task. The target resists with Control + Security. Cover is usually a location Trait, and a character must be within Reach of the covering feature to use it.

A prone character gains +1 Difficulty against Ranged Attacks from Medium range or farther. If they also have Cover, they gain +1 Protection. Melee Attacks and Ranged Attacks from Close range against them gain 2 bonus Momentum, usable only on that Attack.

Actions

You receive one Minor Action and one Major Action on your turn. Spend 1 Momentum for one additional Minor Action. Spend 2 Momentum for a second Major Action; any Task attempted as part of that second action increases in Difficulty by 1. A character cannot take more than two Major Actions in a round.

Minor Actions

Major Actions

Attacks

An Attack follows three steps.

1. Choose the target, weapon, and intent. A weapon lists whether it makes Melee or Ranged Attacks, the Severity of the Injury, and whether it can inflict Stun, Deadly, or either. A player-controlled character choosing Deadly intent adds 1 Threat as an escalation. A gamemaster-controlled character spends 1 Threat. It may take the Threat pool into deficit under Chapter 3.2. Chapter 2.2's force standard determines whether the choice was authorized and what review follows it.
2. Attempt the Attack. A Melee Attack is normally Daring + Security at Difficulty 1. If the target is aware and able to defend, resolve an Opposed Task against their Daring + Security. A Ranged Attack is normally Control + Security at Difficulty 2. Cover makes it an Opposed Task against the target's Control + Security. Another pairing may apply when the weapon or approach clearly calls for it.
3. Resolve the hit. A successful Attack inflicts an Injury with the weapon's Severity. Apply Protection, then the target may Avoid Injury by taking Stress equal to the remaining Severity.

A hostile in an adjacent zone fires a field sidearm at your scout, who has no Cover. The gamemaster rolls Control + Security against Difficulty 2 and scores 3 successes, adding the surplus success to Threat. The weapon is set to Stun at Severity 4. Your scout's cysuit reduces that to 3. She has room on her Stress track, marks 3 Stress, and Avoids Injury; the suit locks across her ribs, spreads the impact, and keeps her on her feet.

If a target wins the Opposed Task, they may move out of Reach after a Melee Attack. They may spend 2 Momentum to Counterattack instead, immediately inflicting their weapon's Injury on the attacker. An NPC uses 2 Threat.

Protection

Protection reduces an Injury's Severity to a minimum of 1. A functional cysuit provides Protection 1 through impact dispersal, structural support, and its life-preserving motor reflex. Dedicated armor, shield hardware, and other Traits may provide more. Piercing attacks ignore Protection. A Trait such as Protection Compromised removes or reduces this benefit as described in Chapter 3.5.

The cysuit's reflex is already represented by Protection and the option to Avoid Injury with Stress. It creates no separate defense roll.

Increasing Severity

After a successful Attack, spend 2 Momentum to increase its Severity by 1. This is repeatable, with a maximum increase of 2. The gamemaster spends Threat the same way for an NPC Attack.

Injury, Defeat, and Death

An Injury is a character Trait named for the harm: Burned Hand, Concussion, Broken Leg, Neural Shock. Its Severity determines the Stress needed to avoid it and the Difficulty of treatment.

A character who suffers an Injury becomes Defeated. They fall Prone and take no actions while Defeated. First Aid can revive them during the scene.

• A Stun Injury incapacitates without lasting harm. Once the character is no longer Defeated, remove the Stun Injury at the end of their next turn.
• A Deadly Injury causes serious harm. A Defeated character with a Deadly Injury is Dying and dies at the end of the scene without stabilization.

A functional cysuit begins trauma intervention immediately and broadcasts a Vitalis burst when a channel is available. In most cases it keeps a Dying wearer alive through the end of the current scene and the following scene, providing time for First Aid or extraction. This grace ends where the Injury destroyed the functions the cysuit would sustain, compromised the colony, or left no recoverable body. The gamemaster states that exception when the Injury lands. Automatic stabilization does not remove Defeat or treat the Injury. The cysuit's local treatment continues while Offline. The Vitalis burst and any remote response depend on the connection described in Chapter 3.5.

For a Synthetic operating through a chassis, Injury describes damage to the current embodiment. Use Engineering in place of Medicine for First Aid and repair. Destruction of a chassis and the Synthetic's continuity follow the character's embodiment and backup Traits.

For a Joined character, Chapter 4.4 governs the Synthetic's withdrawal, continuity, and relationship to any office held by the person who died.

First Aid, Healing, and Stress Recovery

As a First Aid Major Action, attempt Daring + Medicine at Difficulty 2 to revive a Defeated biological character within Reach. Success ends Defeat. To treat an Injury, attempt Daring + Medicine at a Difficulty equal to its Severity. A treated Injury stops imposing penalties, though the Trait remains until healed.

Removing an Injury requires proper treatment outside combat. Attempt Control + Medicine at a Difficulty equal to the Injury's Severity; treatment takes the same number of hours. An untreated Injury increases both the Difficulty and complication range by 1. A medical facility, the patient's cysuit, remote specialists through the Aelith, and species-compatible supplies function as Traits and Assistance. Remote Assistance requires a Full or Limited connection (Chapter 3.5). Synthetic repair uses Engineering.

Recover Stress in the following ways:

• After a successful Task, describe how that success creates immediate relief, confidence, safety, or practical aid for yourself or an ally who can perceive it. Spend 2 Momentum to remove 1 Stress from that character. Repeat up to three times on one Task. An unrelated success cannot support this spend.
• Take a breather for a few minutes to recover 4 Stress.
• Take a break lasting at least half an hour to recover 8 Stress.
• Sleep or take an equivalent extended rest to recover all Stress.

Poor shelter, active pursuit, incompatible food, or similar conditions may reduce recovery. A Fatigued character recovers only through rest or help from an ally.

Supporting Characters and NPCs

A Supporting Character with no Values has no Stress and becomes Defeated by any Injury. One with one Value has maximum Stress equal to half Fitness, rounded up. One with two or more Values uses their full Fitness.

Minor NPCs have no Stress and become Defeated by any Injury. A Stun Injury leaves them unconscious. A Deadly Injury leaves them Dying or dead according to the Attack and the available medical response.

A Notable NPC may spend Threat equal to an Injury's adjusted Severity to Avoid that Injury once per scene. A Major NPC may do so whenever the gamemaster has enough Threat. NPCs do not become Fatigued.

Common Weapon Profiles

These profiles are sufficient for immediate play. A cysuit can form an ordinary blade, bludgeon, or injector from available colony mass. Projected energy weapons and specialized combat systems require appropriate equipment or a Cysuit Hardware Trait (Chapter 3.5).

Weapon Qualities have the following effects:

• Accurate: Aim lets you re-roll up to two d20s.
• Area: Spend 1 Momentum per additional target in the target's zone. The Attack may Succeed at Cost.
• Charge: Prepare before the Attack to add Area, Intense, or Piercing. An Area charge reduces Severity by 1.
• Cumbersome: Prepare before making the Attack.
• Debilitating: Increase the Difficulty of treatment and healing by 1.
• Hidden X: Concealing the weapon takes a Minor Action. Finding it requires an Insight or Reason + Security Task at Difficulty X.
• Inaccurate: Aim provides no benefit.
• Intense: Increasing Severity costs 1 Momentum per step.
• Piercing: Ignore Protection.

Combat Momentum Spends

All core Momentum spends remain available. Combat adds the following:

Every Momentum spent here adds equal Threat. The gamemaster may mirror these effects by spending Threat for NPCs.