Combat Tutorial
From CNWiki
In every life a little blood must be shed, and a vampire's life is no different. This simple walk through of the basics of combat serves to facilitate an ease of transition from standard self sustaining role-playing to the hard and fast convoluted dice mash that combat becomes.
First thing's first, the...
Contents |
Initiative Phase
Essentially the set-up phase, this is where order-of-action is established, and declarations of blood point and willpower usage occur. To roll for your position on the order-of-action roster, you type !inits <Sum of your wits + dexterity>. For example; if you have two wits, and three dexterity, you roll by typing !inits 5. This will return a response from Myrmidon:
* Myrmidon Inits - (Your Name Here) - (Initiative Rank)
The Storytellers (STs) use this number to place you on a little chart in order to help the combat roll smoothly.In the event you wish to spend a bloodpoint to activate a discipline during your combat turn (or at the end of the -next- combat turn in the case of celerity,) or to increase your physical attributes, you may declare so after you have rolled initiative. After all participants in the combat scene have made their initiative rolls, the ST running the combat will list participants in order of number for ease of reading, this statement will usually look like:
"Order of Combat: <Name 1 - Highest Ranking Initiative> <Name 2 - Next Highest Ranking> <Name 3..>"
and so on, before moving on to the...
Declaration Phase
One of the shortest phases, this exists to give a heads up on actions that will be taken during the combat round. This phase operates differently depending if our Duality Combat Rule is invoked, and only really applies to combat scenes run with five people or less. NO ROLLS ARE MADE DURING THIS PHASE.
In the event the combat ONLY contains FIVE PEOPLE OR LESS:
- The individual who rolled the lowest initiative states the action they will take when it is their turn, then the next lowest, and so forth.
- The lowest initiative, even though they have declared first, must wait the longest to act.
In the event the combat contains SIX OR MORE PEOPLE.
- The individual with the highest initiative declares their action, and immediately rolls for that action.
- The lowest ranking initiative must wait the longest to act.
After this has been completed, we move on to the...
Action Phase
During this phase all rolls are made related to the actions declared during the declaration phase.
Key things to remember:
- This phase is not only about rolling dice, post your character's actions and reactions with some dramatic writing as well.
- This phase should go as swiftly as possible, be attentive and ready to act when it's your turn.
- Wait for ST prompt before taking your action, initiative still applies!
Repeat
Should the combat need to continue, simply repeat the phases thus far.
Exception: Changing Actions
At any time after declaring an action, even during the Action Phase of combat, any player may abort their intended action in favour of a defensive one provided they have at least one remaining declared action that turn (undeclared Celerity actions may only be used for reflexive defense at the Storyteller's discretion). The player must succeed in a Willpower roll against a difficulty of 6, or may spend a Willpower point for automatic success (if WP has not been spent that round to, for instance, ignore wound penalties or grant automatic success on a different roll). This Willpower roll is considered reflexive. A failed roll indicates the character was not able to change course fast enough, and executes the action initially intended (or, perhaps, forfeits the action, if it is no longer possible).
Example: Character A beats Character B in initiative. B declares an attack, and A declares an aimed attack at B's eyes. When A rolls a success on the blinding, B elects to make the Willpower roll to change the intended attack to a dodge. If the willpower roll succeeds, B may roll to evade the attack; if the willpower roll fails, A may roll for damage and B must attempt the declared attack, if still possible, at +2 difficulty for blindness.
