The System

+Rolls

Whenever you use the +roll command, the MUSH rolls a number of virtual 8-sided dice equal to your Skill + its Ruling Attribute, with each roll of a 7 or 8 being considered a single hit. Multiple hits increases the level of success.

For example, if you wanted to see if your character noticed that a particular book on the shelf was missing, you would type:

+roll Alertness

The MUSH would then roll a number of virtual dice equal to your Alertness + Wit. If you got 2 hits, it would return: Good Success. The various possible levels are:

Embarrassing Failure (no Successes and more 1s than your ruling attribute)
Failure (no Successes)
Success (1 Success)
Good Success (2-3 Successes)
Great Success (4-5 Successes)
Amazing Success (6+ Successes)

You do not need to include the ruling attribute in the +roll, the system automatically adds it. You can also add modifiers to your roll, representing positive or negative circumstances, or the use of Luck(+3).

+roll Alertness-2
+roll Alertness+3

Success Tests

While a simple Success would be enough to notice the book was missing if your character was actively checking all the books on the shelf, if your character is instead just looking idly at the shelf, that Good Success might be required. If your character was instead involved in a rather intense political discussion on the other side of the room, a Great Success or an Amazing Success might be required.

Opposed Rolls

When one person is rolling against the other, you can use the +roll vs system. If you wanted to see if another character could lift your character's belt-pouch without you noticing, you would instead type:

+roll <your character's name>=Alertness vs <the other character's name>=Stealth

The MUSH would then roll the virtual dice for you and for the other character, determine how many hits each of you received, and determine who received more.

If one character Succeeded and the other Failed, then only the successful character accomplished their goals — in the example above, the other character lifted your character's belt-pouch and your character didn't notice, or your character caught the other character with a hand on their belt-pouch. If both characters Succeeded, but one Succeeded better than the other, then they both accomplished their goals, but one did so better — the example above, the other character lifted your character's belt-pouch, but you noticed as it was being taken (or noticed a moment or several moments later if the thief achieved more than a Marginal Victory). A DRAW is just that, a tie.

Aiding Another

It is possible for a character to help another character on a +roll. There are two ways for this to work, and no character may be involved in both for a single +roll (You can't Aid Up a character who then Aids Down to support the whole group).

Aiding Down

A character with a skill of 4+ can assist a group of characters with the same skill at 3 or lower. The assisting character can assist a number of characters up to half of their skill rating. They +roll their skill, and the others get a bonus based on the result:

Failure: -1 die.
Success: +0 dice.
Good Success: +1 die.
Great Success: +2 dice.
Amazing Success: +3 dice.

Aiding Up

Up to two characters can assist a single character with a +roll. The assisting characters each +roll their skill, and the assisted character gets a bonus to the same skill based on the combined results of the assisting characters (to a maximum of a +3 bonus):

Failure: -1 die.
Success: +0 dice.
Good Success: +1 die.
Great Success: +2 dice.
Amazing Success: +3 dice.

Example: Two characters are assisting a third with a Persuasion roll. Each assisting character rolls a Great Success. The third character gains a +3 to their Persuasion +roll (+2 for each Great Success, capped at +3).

The Combat System

Combat is handled by a modified version of Faraday’s combat system. In general, it will take care of things for you, but there are a few things to keep in mind:

Rolls

Melee Attacks are rolled as follows:
Attacker’s Melee skill + Brawn
vs.
Defender’s Dodge skill + Finesse

Ranged Attacks are rolled as follows:
Attacker's combat skill (Archery, Thrown, or Firearms) + Finesse
vs.
Defender's Finesse + # (2 or 3, depending on the type of weapon)

If the defender rolls more successes, then the attack does not hit them. If it is a melee attack and the attacker rolled at least one success but the Defender rolled more, it will be listed as a Dodge. Misses and Dodges can both be posed as parrying or avoiding the attack, or even as the attack glancing off armor.

If the attacker rolls more successes, then the system tests to see if their attack penetrates the defender’s armor, and assigns a wound and the accompanying wound modifier to the defender if it does. Net successes on the attack roll each reduce armor by 5%. Every point of Brawn over 2 adds 5% lethality to wound rolls for PCs wielding melee weapons. If the defender is wounded and has a total wound modifier of -1.0 or more, the system makes a Brawn + Brawn roll. If the roll fails, the defender has been KOed. (See Posing Damage in Combat for suggestions on how to RP various wounds.)

Wounds

As your character takes damage, he or she will receive dice pool penalties based on the severity of his or her wounds, so even with 4 Brawn can be worn down — or they might get KOed from a series of Light wounds (or a Moderate and a Light) and an unlucky roll.

KOs do not necessarily mean that a character has been knocked unconscious, but they have been rendered ineffective in the fight. This could include being disarmed, being knocked down, gaining a particularly dangerous wound (a blood vessel being nicked), or actually being knocked out.

Characters who are KOed are unable to fight back unless they use a Luck point to re-enter the combat (using +combat/hero). If they are attacked again by an opponent (by the opponent passing their turn and no one attacking that opponent), it is assumed that they are badly wounded or killed — either way they are rendered unconscious and out of the fight. For this reason, it is a good idea to attack enemies the turn after they KO a friendly character. If the friendly character immediately uses a Luck point to re-enter the combat, they cannot be taken out of the fight in this way, and they may continue to fight.

Stances

Characters can be assigned stances to represent how they are fighting. The basic stances and their affects are listed below:

Stance Attack Mod Defense Mod Used When
Aggressive +3 -3 Attacking all-out with little care for your defense.
Defensive -3 +3 Fighting cautiously and without much attempt to hit your opponent.
Mounted +1 +0 Fighting from atop a warhorse.
Cover +0 +0 Taking cover behind something solid (provides 4 points of armor).
Outofsight +0 +0 Hiding some place out of sight.
Reserve +0 +0 Remaining in formation out of battle.

If a character in Mounted stance takes a Moderate or greater wound, there is a chance they will fall off their horse. A Moderate wound requires a Success on a Riding +roll, a Serious wound requires a Good Success, and a Critical wound requires a Great Success. If the roll fails, a non-Mounted stance must be chosen for the character.

Mounted characters may also use the Defensive, Aggressive, Agg_Shield, and Def_Shield stances if appropriately equipped.

Makeshift metal shields shields are represented by another set of stances, as follows:

Shielded Stance Attack Mod Defense Mod Used When
Shield +0 +1 Fighting with a shield and another weapon.
Agg_Shield +3 -2 Fighting aggressively, using your shield as a weapon.
Def_Shield -3 +4 Sheltering behind your shield with next to no attempt to hit your opponent.
Mount_Shield +1 +1 Fighting from atop a warhorse with the benefit of a shield.

Armor and Armor Penetration

When a character attacks another character wearing armor and hits a location that is protected by the armor (+gear/armor <armor name> to see what locations are protected by each type of armor), the Penetration value of the attacker's weapon is checked against the Protection value of the armor to determine the chance that the armor will stop the attack. Each net hit on the Attack vs Defense roll subtracts 5% from the armor's Stop Chance. Below are the stop chances for various weapons attacking available armors:

Light Grounder Armor Protection 3
Weapon Pen Stop Chance
Thrown Rock 1 145%
Brawling, Sling 2 70%
Knife, Thrown Knife, Shock Baton 3 45%
Sword, Frag Grenade, Natural Weapon 4 33%
Axe, Club, Spear, Bow, Thrown Spear 5 25%
Crossbow 6 20%
Pistol 7 16%
Assault Rifle, Hunting Rifle 8 14%
Heavy Grounder Armor Protection 4
Weapon Pen Stop Chance
Thrown Rock 1 195%
Brawling, Sling 2 95%
Knife, Thrown Knife, Shock Baton 3 62%
Sword, Frag Grenade, Natural Weapon 4 45%
Axe, Club, Spear, Bow, Thrown Spear 5 35%
Crossbow 6 28%
Pistol 7 24%
Assault Rifle, Hunting Rifle 8 20%
Flak Jacket/Guard Armor Protection 3
Weapon Pen Stop Chance
Thrown Rock 1 245%
Brawling, Sling 2 120%
Knife, Thrown Knife, Shock Baton 3 78%
Sword, Frag Grenade, Natural Weapon 4 57%
Axe, Club, Spear, Bow, Thrown Spear 5 45%
Crossbow 6 37%
Pistol 7 31%
Assault Rifle, Hunting Rifle 8 26%

Combat 101

For more information on +combat and how to set it up, check out Combat-101.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License