Multiple Actions in a Round
For every additional action, the character suffers a -1D to all actions
taken that round. Under normal conditions, a character can take a
maximum of 5 actions per round (with a cumulative penalty of -5D to all
actions). Some skills (such as Multitasking
or the Matrix Skill Speed) allow for
more actions per round with reduced penalties.
Any additional actions are considered to be taken in the second segment of the round. Thus, all first actions (by everyone acting in the round) are resolved in the first part of a round and any extra actions are resolved afterwards. Who acts first in a round depends upon Initiative (see above).
Example: Rom is in combat again. He decides he will take two actions: 1 attack and he will Dodge. He will be -1D to both actions.Reacting
Dodge, Melee Parry and Brawling/Martial Arts are commonly used as Reaction Skills to avoid damage.
If a Reaction Skill is used while defending from an attack, the dice roll becomes the difficulty the attacker must overcome to be successful, even if the reaction skill roll is lower than the original difficulty of the attack!
Example: Rom is in combat and has already acted once this round. Suddenly, someone shoots at him and he attempts to Dodge. His Dodge skill is normally 5D, but since he has already acted, it is now 3D (-1D for having already acted and -1D for being a Reaction Skill). The shooter's base difficulty was 2. Rom rolls 3 dice and gets only 1 Success. The shooter only needs a 1 or better to hit Rom.Full Reactions
Example: Myriad knows someone is shooting at her from a rooftop. She decides that all she will do this round it Dodge. She rolls her full 4D for Dodge gets 3 Successes. The shooter must now roll higher than 3 (standard difficulty) + 3= 6 in order to hit her!
Applying Reactions to the Entire Round
Dodge rolls apply to all ranged attacks in a round. Thus a character
need only Dodge once to attempt to avoid attackers using guns, thrown weapons
or grenades.
Parry rolls must be made for every attack! Thus, in close
combat, if a character is punched four times, he must either attempt four
parries using his Brawling or Martial Arts skill or be take the damage!
Ranged combat difficulty targets:
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Point Blank | Easy (2) |
Short | Moderate (3) |
Medium | Difficult (4) |
Long | Very Difficult (5) |
Extreme | Very Difficult to Heroic (6-7) |
Shooting at Multiple Targets
Characters may choose to aim at more than one target in a given round.
If they do so, they suffer a cumulative -1D when shooting at each target
beyond the first.
Example 1: Inside the Matrix, Myriad is cornered by two police officers bent on taking her down. She is armed with a pistol that allows her to fire three times in a round. She can either shoot at one without a penalty or attempt to shoot at both. She decides to fire once at both of her attackers. Her total dice penalty is -1D to the first shot (the penalty for taking multiple actions) and -2D to the second shot (the penalty for multiple actions + the second target penalty).
Example 2: Myriad is cornered again, this time by three thugs. She decides to fire once at each (3 actions, 2 additional targets). She suffers a -2D to her first shot (for the two additional actions), a -3D to the second, and a -4D to the third!
Spraying Bullets
Some weapons, such as fully automatic machine guns, allow the bearer
to spray bullets at an enemy. This has a variety of advantages and
disadvantages:
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Shooter gets +1D to hit and does not suffer any penalties for aiming at multiple targets in a round. | The shooter may potentially hit anyone in the direction in which he is pointing the gun (including allies and innocents). If the shooter is trying to avoid hitting a friendly target, add 15 to the difficulty number to hit. If the shooter rolls less than 15 over the standard difficulty (dependent on range) , he hits the friendly target as well. Roll damage normally. |
Uses ammunition more quickly. | |
If the attack is successful, roll one less die for damage. |
Using two guns at once:
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Shooter does not suffer any penalties for shooting at more than one target in a round without declaring a "Spraying" action (see Spraying Bullets below). | Shooting a second weapon counts as an action (resulting in an additional -1D to each action in the round). |
Both first shots are fired in the first segment of the round (if one gun is shot twice, the second shot is considered to go off in the last part of the round, after all other first attacks have been resolved. | Shooter suffers an additional -1D to any shot taken with his or her "off" hand. |
Permits the character to fire the maximum number of bullets from both guns in a round (thus, is a shooter is using two pistols which may fire 3 times in a round, she can shoot 6 times total in the round). | If someone using two guns stops to reload, they must take an additional action to stow one gun while the other is reloaded. There is no additional action if the "extra" gun is thrown away. |
SCALE
Scale represents the differences between small targets (such as Characters)
and large, fortified structures (such as aircraft carriers and buildings).
When targets of the same size are shooting at each other, ignore scale
modifiers. When targets are of different scales, add the Dice modifier
(presented below) to the rolls as follows:
Scales | Tiny | Small | Character | Car | Tank | Aircraft | Capital | Superstructure |
Tiny |
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Small |
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Car |
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Tank |
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Aircraft |
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Capital |
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Superstructure |
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A number of factors can affect a character's chances to succeed in combat. Smoke may obstruct a target, oil on the floor may make dodging more difficult, etc. Following are a number of modifiers Game Masters may choose to apply in the game. There are two types of modifiers: Die Reductions and Difficulty Modifiers. The first results in a loss from the character's dice pool when he rolls any Attribute or Skill tests. The second increases the number of successes required in order for an action to succeed.
Die Reductions:
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Light Smoke |
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Thick Smoke |
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Very Thick Smoke |
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Poor Light |
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Moonlight |
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Complete Darkness |
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Other Modifiers:
Target is | Modifier |
1/4 covered | +1D |
1/2 covered | +2D |
3/4 covered | +4D |
Fully covered | If cover provides protection, attacker cannot hit target directly. Damage is absorbed by the item giving protection, until it's Body rating is depleted (see Protection below). |
Sample Protection |
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Flimsy wooden door |
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Standard wooden door |
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Standard metal door |
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Reinforced door |
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Blast door |
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If the damage roll is lower than the Armor Value, the protection is not damaged at all and the target character suffers no damage. If the damage roll is equal to or greater than the protection's Armor Value roll, find the difference on the chart below to see how badly the protection is damage. Furthermore, its Armor Value is reduced by 1.
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Not seriously damaged |
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Lightly damaged |
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Heavily damaged |
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Severely damaged |
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Destroyed |
A character behind protection may suffer some damaged depending upon how badly his protection is damaged. Subtract dice from the attack's damage based on the chart below.
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Not seriously damaged | Character is completely protected |
Lightly damaged | -4D |
Heavily damaged | -2D |
Severely damaged | -1D |
Destroyed | Character suffers full damage. |
MELEE COMBAT
Hand-to-Hand Combat
Striking:
Brawling: The standard difficulty to hit with Brawling
roll is Easy (2). Damage is equal to the character's Base Damage
Value + his Strength/Lifting Bonus+the Effect Value (the number of successes
beyond those needed for a successful hit).
Example: Rom is in a fight. He has 3D in Brawling and takes a swing, getting a 4,5,4 for 3 successes. He then rolls his Base Damage Value of 3D, getting two successes for 2 points of damage. He adds his S/L Bonus of +1 and the Effect Value to get the Damage Total= 2 (BDV)+1(S/L Bonus)+1(EV) for 4 points of damage.
Martial Arts: The standard difficulty to hit with Martial
Arts is Moderate (3), resulting in damage equal to the character's Base
Damage Value + S/L Bonus + the Effect Value (just like Brawling, but with
a higher difficulty to hit). A fighter skilled in Martial Arts may
attempt more complicated maneuvers to render more damage, but must roll
against a higher difficulty number to hit.
Blocking:
Character's may attempt to block an attack using their Brawling or
Martial Arts skills. Players must declare they will be attempting
to block before the attack occurs. If they do not, they suffer an additional
-1D when attempting to block.
Example: Rom is in a fight with a street thug. He decides to strike but forgets to "hold an action" in case he needs to block. The thug takes a swing and Rom decides he had better try to block. He must roll Martial Arts at -2D. If his blocking roll is higher than the Thug's attack roll, he will have parried the blow. If not, he may take damage.
Example: Somewhat bruised from last round, Rom decides he will hold an action this round in case he needs to block. This means he is -1D to both his attack and blocking roll.An unarmed character may not attempt to block an attacker with a weapon without a special Martial Arts move.
Melee Combat
Melee Combat is handled much the same way Unarmed Combat is, except
that the characters involved use Melee Combat and are armed with handheld
weapons (which have a standard Base Damage Value).
A character armed with a weapon may use it to block an unarmed assailant.
Damage
When an attacker successfully hits his target, he rolls the appropriate
number of dice to designate damage (see the weapons list in the Equipment
section). Ranged weapons do a set amount (e.g. a Heavy Pistol does
5Dx3 damage). Melee weapons do a Base Value Damage (depending on
the weapon) + the wielding character's Strength/Lighting Bonus.
The targeted character then rolls his Strength dice and adds any armor
value, if armor is worn. If the target's strength roll is greater
than the attacker's roll, the she had resisted the damage. If not,
consult the table below for results:
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Character suffers a -1D to all skill and attribute dice for the rest of the round and the next. If a character suffers a number of stuns equal to her strength, she falls unconscious for 1d6 minutes. |
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Characters fall prone and can take no actions for the rest of the round. The character suffers a -1D to all skills and attributes until healed. |
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Wounded |
Falls prone and is in pain. -2D to all actions. |
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Falls prone, and heavily dazed and will remain that way until healed. -3D to all Attribute and Skill checks. |
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or dies. |
Instantly killed. There are rumors of dead hackers rising again within a few seconds of being killed, but most say it's only legend. |
Armor
Characters may choose to wear Armor to provide them with some protection
against damage. The Armor Value of the protection is deducted from
any damage rolls against the character. Every time a character wearing
armor takes damage above his armor, the armor's value is reduced by 1.
Different types of armor are listed in the Equipment
section.
Example: Rom is wearing leather clothing, which provides 5 points of Armor against damage. A goon shoots and hits him for 10 points of damage. Rom takes only 5 points of damage and his leather armor loses one point of its Armor Value. The next time he is hit, it will only provide him with 4 points of protection.HEALING
Natural Healing:
A character can heal naturally, but this process is both slower and
riskier than getting medical care. The character must rest a specified
amount of time and then can make a healing roll: the character's
full Strength to see if the character heals.
Healing characters can do virtually nothing but rest. A character who tried to work, exercise or adventure must subtract -1D from his Strength when he makes his healing roll. Any character who opts to "take it easy" and do virtually nothing for twice the necessary time may add +1D to his Strength to heal.
A wounded character may roll once per day for healing::
(Successes) |
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Character loses 10 points. |
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Character remains Wounded. |
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Character heals 5 Points. |
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Character heals 10 points. |
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Character heals 15 points. |
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Character heals 20 points. |
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Character heals 25 points. |
First Aid Kits/Medpacs
First Aid kits usually have bandages, antiseptics, anti-inflammatories,
painkillers and other lightweight medical supplies. A standard kit
can be used two times before needing to be restocked.
A First Aid roll is required to use a First Aid kit (or medpac).
The difficulty depends on the severity of the patient's injury:
Degree of Injury | Difficulty |
Stunned, unconscious | Very Easy |
Wounded or Wounded Twice | Easy |
Incapacitated | Moderate |
Mortally Wounded | Difficult |
Killed | Unearthly (must be attempted the round after the patient has been killed. |
If the First Aid roll is successful, the patient heals one level. Stunned and Wounded characters are fully healed. Wounded Twice are Wounded. Incapacitated are Wounded Twice. Mortally Wounded are Incapacitated.
If the First Aid roll is unsuccessful, the character's condition remains the same. If the First Aid roll misses the difficulty by more than 10 points, the patient remains the same and another First Aid roll cannot be made for another 24 hours.
Multiple First Aid attempts can be made on a patient within a single day, but the First Aid difficulty increases one level for each additional use.
Medical Bays/Medlabs/Emergency Rooms
In the real world, Zion and Hoverships have extensive medical facilities
(much of the technology has been stolen from the Machines' cloning facilities).
In the Matrix, there exist hospitals and emergency rooms where characters
may go seeking medical care.
To use these facilities, a character must have the Medicine (A) skill.
Degree of Injury | Difficulty and Time |
Wounded | Very Easy with 1D hours of care. |
Incapacitated | Easy with 4D hours of care. |
Mortally Wounded | Moderate with 1D days. |
Killed | Unearthly with 10D days. |