All the Fighting Rules

These are all the fighting rules I'm going to use in the Fallen Empire campaign. They fit on four pages, or five if you include the Jousting rules. 

Fighting and Combat

Indoors or outside, it’s likely that your heroes will come to deadly combat with the odd men and monsters throughout the world. You can see the Attack Matrices on the front of the Referee’s Screen. These tables tell us how hard it is for someone to hit you and how hard it is to hit someone else in melee and missile combat.

When your character dies in the game, don’t take it personally. You are not your character, and the Referee and his monsters are not your personal enemies (even though they are the enemies of the treasure hunters in their world.) Try to see your heroic adventures as chapters in the novel of that character’s life and remember them fondly. Then start a new story with a new character.

Let’s examine the steps we go through in one Combat round.

The Surprise Round: For the first Round of combat only, each side must check to see if it has surprised the other. Have each side throw 1d6. On a result of 5 or 6, they have achieved surprise. In this case, the other side may not act in the first Round of melee. It is possible for both sides to be Surprised at once!

During the Surprise Round, the side which has surprised the other gains a +1 To-Hit. This bonus does “stack” with other To-Hit bonuses.

1. Each side checks morale, if appropriate. First the monsters, then the Henchmen of the Player-Characters and other NPCs on the side of the good guys. Check Morale for either side first when one side or the other has their first casualty, and then again when half of that side or more has been defeated. If the side passes both Morale checks, they will fight until death. Otherwise someone will surrender or try to run away.
2. Once combat begins, each person and then the monsters declare what kind of action they intend. The kinds of actions are full movement, make a missile attack, cast a magic spell, make a melee attack, and “other” which includes anything else.
3. Each side rolls 1d6 for Initiative. The side that rolls higher gets to make their actions first. In the case of a tie, everybody does everything simultaneously.
4. Movement happens. Characters and monsters can move 1/3 of their base movement in scale inches for free. Moving farther than that precludes taking any other actions that Round.
5. Ranged Attacks happen. Anyone with a sling or a bow fires off their weapon. In the case of hitting an enemy Magic-User, their spell is ruined!
6. Melee Attacks happen. Anyone attacking with a sword or mace, for instance, makes their attack now.
7. Magic Spells are cast. Again, if you are going second or there is a tie in the Initiative that Round, and you are hit with a missile weapon, your spell has been ruined and is lost from your mind.
8. Miscellaneous Actions happen. Maybe you want to drink a potion, use a magic wand, or push over a table as a barricade. These actions happen last.
9. Repeat for the side that lost Initiative. Go back to #1 and see what happens next!

The Opportunity Attack: Should a combatant currently engaged in melee attempt a Full Retreat or if a character moves right past you (including on a Charge), you get to have one “free” attack out of turn. If this attack succeeds at dealing at least one Hit Point of damage, the moving combatant must stop moving. Only one such Opportunity Attack may be attempted per combatant per Round.

Tactical Movement: Clever players and monsters won’t simply stand toe-to-toe beating each other’s brains out, but will rather make movements within combat- advances, withdrawals, and even full retreats when the time is right!

Fighting Withdrawal: A Fighting Withdrawal is the only safe way to leave a place that is threatened by an opponent. When a character withdraws, he backs carefully away from his opponent without turning his back or creating an attack of opportunity for his opponent.

Withdrawing is a move that takes place at the beginning of the Round. A withdrawing character cannot attack or cast spells, although he can still make opportunity attacks.

He does not attack, but moves backwards up to one-third speed (usually 4” or less) and retains his full Armor Class.

Full Retreat: Any melee combatant may attempt a Full Retreat. He moves away from melee at full speed (usually 12” or less). His opponent(s) get a free attack out of turn against him and the character does not receive the benefit of his Shield or DEX bonus to AC. If any attack deals damage to him, the Retreat is negated and the retreater is stuck in combat for another Round!

The exception to this free-attack rule is if an ally moves into melee with the same opponent(s) to cover the retreat.

The Charge: A "Charge" is a melee action in which your character moves as fast as possible, planning to use a weapon at a point of impact, benefitting by the force added due to momentum.

A PC or other character can "Charge" anywhere as long as he expends at least half his base full move in the process, and only if he is holding and using a melee weapon.

A Charging character is +2 to hit, but -2 Armor Classes. If your man’s “Charge” hits, the damage inflicted is double normal; throw twice the normal number of dice, and then apply bonuses (strength, magic, etc.).

Charging creatures must have suitable weapons: a skirmish weapon or large horns or tusks. A monster without such weaponry doesn't have the ability to charge.

Setting the Spear: If a PC or another character is aware of an opponent using the “Charge” maneuver against him and is acting first in a Round, He can use a tricky maneuver to stop the Charge: he can “set” a spear or pole arm against the charge by bracing it with his foot or against some heavy object. On a successful hit, he deals double damage and negates the attack at the end of the Charge. Only Fighting-Men, Men-At-Arms and Demi-Men are able to “set” a spear in this way.

Rear Attacks: Melee attacks to the rear of the target (aside from being dishonorable), gain a +2 to hit, and the defender does not get the AC benefit from his shield if he uses one.

Other Combat Rules

Cover: Should a character in missile fire combat find his mark behind cover of some kind, throw 1d6 after determining a hit. A throw of 1-3 means the attack hit the cover instead. Of course, characters may “cover” one another, like a Secret Service man taking a hit for the President.

Firing into Melee: A missile shot into melee that is scored a hit has an equal chance to hit any character engaged in that instance of melee, even the attacker’s allies. So be careful! Henchmen and Retainers will never fire into a melee, for fear of hitting their bosses.

Mounted Combat: Mounted cavalrymen and knights gain a +2 to hit and a +2 to damage over combatants on foot. Lances have an extra 10’ reach as well, which makes it likely that cavalrymen automatically gain initiative if he uses one.

One the other hand, shooting a bow from horseback imparts a -1 penalty to hit, and only Shortbows can be used from horseback anyway.

Surrounding Individual Combatants: If you and your party want to surround an enemy, up to six Men may encircle a Man-sized opponent. Up to eight Men may encircle a larger opponent.

Fighting requires 5’ of frontage per man in any case, unless in tight formation. If a single target is at least halfway surrounded, the majority attackers get a +1 to hit.

Shields Shall be Splintered!: You get the usual -1 to your AC with a shield. However, any time you take damage, you can opt instead to say your shield absorbed the force of the blow. The shield is shattered and must be discarded, but you don't take any damage from that hit. It's quick, it's easy, and it's valuable.

Magic shields can be given up once per day without shattering, but then they are considered nonmagical for the rest of the day. If you give it up again, it is shattered permanently.

Shields made from the heartwood of the rowan tree (which is sacred to the Elves) can be given up to avoid one magic effect, even one that deals no damage or one that offers no Save.

Shieldmate: A Fighting-Man or Demi-Man using a shield and standing next to another character also provides their shield bonus to AC to that character. Therefore two Fighting-Men with shields, for instance, standing side by side, grant each other an additional -1 AC.

Subdual Damage: Attacks made with the “flat of the blade” for non-lethal damage suffer a -2 attack penalty. Many weapons can be used this way.

If a character or monster reduced to zero Hit Points has taken at least some subdual damage, the he becomes unconscious rather than dead. A character knocked out in this way but not subsequently killed will wake up with 1-3 hit points in 1-3 Turns, or can be awakened by someone else after 1 Turn. This is one way to force a monster to serve you if you want.

Character Damage Effects

Hit Points: No one can say exactly what a Hit Point is. They are an abstract scale with “completely unharmed” at one end and “dead” at the other end.

Poisons, Toxins, Venoms: Not all poisons kill you instantly. Not all poisons kill you outright at all. These can have varied effects over relatively long periods of time. “Save versus Poison” is not an instant death sentence, but it usually serious.

Natural Healing Rates: 1 Hit Point is healed each night on the trail. 1d3 Hit Points is healed per night of good bed rest back in town.

Bandages: “Bandages” is a catch-all for first aid supplies. Applying Bandages takes one Round (1 Minute) and heals 1 hit point. For characters under 0 hit points, Bandages will stabilize their condition.

After you use one supply of Bandages, roll 1d6. On a 1, that Bandages is expended.

Character Death: When characters reach zero Hit Points, they are hovering on the brink of consciousness, about to breathe their last. They cannot move, and only have a vague idea of what’s going on around them.

From -1 to -10 hits, you're on the edge of consciousness, unable to act. You can crawl 10 feet if the situation allows it.

At The End Of Each Round (1 minute Round) you Save or Die. If you miss it, you're dead. But conceivably you can hang on for a long time. After this check, see what else happens.

You will be stabilized by someone if they apply Bandages or healing magic. This takes 1 Round. If you are stable, you cannot fight or cast spells, but you can move with the group.

You can apply your own Bandages or drink a potion if you make a CON check to stay awake and focused enough. This raises you to 0 HP and you don't need to make any more checks. It will not cure poison or something if that's what nearly killed you.

Your New Character: You can roll up a new one like we did at the beginning or you can promote one of your own Retainers or Men-At-Arms. Remember the “Squander” Rule can advance your new character by quite a bit, if you decided to sock away any extra XP that way.

The Joust

Jousting Contests: Jousting is more sport than battle, and is conducted most commonly between Fighting-Men, although anyone who can wear Plate armor and carry shield and lance should be able to try it out.

Blue-bloods shall often call jousts and offer as a prize some amount of money. The greater the noble who calls the joust, the more prestige to the winner, and the more knights who will come.

“Official” jousts are called at many times outside of wartime, but usually during another festival or holy day. Fighters sometimes settle contests of skill or insults real or imagined over a joust. They can be for fun or very serious, but no one is meant to actually be injured.

The host calls upon any number of participants from far and wide. The host himself will compete if he can.

Jousts with many entrants are called Lists, and may proceed either by Swiss rounds or single-elimination at the decision of the host. Lawful hosts usually offer the first method while Chaotic hosts will usually offer the latter.

In a round of jousting, mounted horsemen take three rides at one another with the intent of knocking off the helm or unhorsing the other fellow. Scoring aside from these two outcomes is arcane, and for the most part, neither rider will lose his helm or his horse.

If the adventuring party in the Wilderlands comes upon the castle of a black knight, that knight may challenge one of the characters to a joust. If the black knight wins, he will take that character’s horse and armor! If the PC wins, the whole party gets to stay at the castle, rest up, and get fresh horses when they depart.

The Joust’s Game Rules: Each combatant has a Dice Pool with 1d6 for each hit die or fraction he has.

Each player secretly chooses to throw one to three dice and hides the number from the other combatant. If one player has chosen to throw fewer dice than his opponent, then ties count as victories to him (and defeats to the majority holder.) At the signal, each throws his dice.

Match up each player’s highest-scoring die with the other’s highest die, then the second-highest, and so on. Each die throw lost subtracts a die from the loser’s Dice Pool. Dice without a mate are not counted.

A player may only throw as many dice as are remaining in his Dice Pool or a maximum of three in any case. Should he be all out of dice, he has lost for the whole round.

A round of jousting continues until one or both jousters are out of dice to throw. The player whose character has the largest remaining Dice Pool is the winner. Differences in experience Level of 1-2 can sometimes be overcome by a canny player with hot dice, but the higher-Level combatant enjoys a strong advantage in any joust.

Unhorsing and Helm Tipping: Should a player throw three dice and the three dice all come up the same number (all 5’s for instance), the opponent is unhorsed, the round ends, and that player is the winner. This is the rule for any triple thrown except for triple 1’s. Should both players unhorse each other, score the round normally. Alternately, the Referee may say that the helm is tipped off rather than the rider being unhorsed.

Injuring the Opponent: If a player throws all 1’s on one, two or three dice, he has injured his opponent! Whether it has happened accidentally or through underhanded tactics, this is considered quite dishonorable. The injured knight then takes as many dice of real damage as the other player’s knight had thrown and is out of the tournament to recover. The dishonored knight is ejected from the tournament immediately.

In such a case, it is customary for the injuring party and the host of the tournament to split the cost of nursing the injured knight back to health.