Okay, we now know how to roll dice and what those dice get us. We talked about Hits, Momentum, and Risks. Action Points are now called Stamina, on account of them limiting the amount of stuff you can do in a round of combat.

But what exactly can you do?

Let’s talk about putting these action points into actions.

Power Roll

Whenever you roll dice in combat, you make a Power Roll. This is on account of the amount of dice you roll (and the amount of Stamina it costs) being based on the Power of the thing you’re doing. Whenever you make a Power Roll, you count every 4 as a Hit, every 6 also builds Momentum, and every 1 is a Risk you must mark. You can also charge up any Power Roll by spending more Stamina and get that many more dice. These things are true for every Power Roll, regardless of why you make it.

Abilities

Everything that is an action in this game is called an Ability. That includes weapons–equipping a weapon grands you the weapon’s ability much the same as unlocking a perk that comes with an ability. Abilities have a Power rating, which is both the Stamina cost and, if the ability has a Power Roll, the base dice pool for using that Ability. All abilities that have a Power Roll also have Critical Effects on which you get to spend your Hits. When using an Ability, its base effect (weapon deals damage) always happens. The dice just make it more powerful.

Action Economy

The majority of rules that follow focus on the actions a player character can take. Some of the terms will reappear for enemy actions later on, but they run very differently than player characters. After all, I want GMs to have a more streamlined, easier experience, so they can focus on the story of the fight, instead of needing to become a tactical genius wargamer that needs to outsmart 3-5 other players out to defeat them.

Player characters take turns in any order they like during a round of combat. Rounds, turns–these terms shouldn’t be completely new if you’ve ever played a tactical TTRPG. Even 5e uses them. Just in case, though: A turn is when a character has the spotlight, when they are taking all of their actions and movement. A round is when every character, ally or enemy, has taken a turn. At the start of your turn, you gain free Stamina equal to your Stamina Refresh. This number is modified by things like heavy armor. During a turn, a player character has two types of actions they can use: a Setup Action and an Engage Action.

Setup Action

Setup Actions always happen at the start of a turn. These actions are fast, cost nothing, and are meant to get you going. Things like Repositioning (moving a set amount of spaces on the grid for free), Catching your Breath (gaining more Stamina), or Recovering (removing a single condition) are all Setup Actions.

Here’s the thing: once you’ve taken an Engage Action on your turn, you can’t take your Setup Action anymore. It has to be taken first or is lost.

Engage Action

The bulk of your turn is spend on taking Engage Actions. These actions always cost Stamina, even if they don’t have a roll associated with them.

Most Engage Actions, though, have a roll. The cost for that roll is called Power. Spend an ability’s Power cost as Stamina and get that many dice to roll. Any Hit scored on that Power Roll is then added to your basic effect, i.e. the damage a weapon attack would do.

There is no limit on how many Engage Actions you can take, so long as you’re willing to pay the cost. And remember, you can spend more Stamina on a single action to get that many more dice to roll, increasing your chance to score more Hits. And everything that has a Power Roll has Crits you can buy with Hits. So, the more dice you get to roll, the more potentially cool effects you get to buy. You can also use an Engage Action even if you don’t have enough Stamina left. Simply spend (and if needed, roll) as much as Stamina as you have left. You will become winded if you do this, though (see below).

Here are some examples of things you can do as an Engage Action:

• Use an Ability, such as a weapon to attack. The Stamina cost equals the Power of the ability.
• Heal, like drinking a healing potion. I think healing potions will be a limited resources, similar to the Estus Flask in Dark Souls. Drinking a charge of it costs 4 Stamina.
• Use a Consumable, such as throwing a fire bomb. Consumables cost 2-4 Stamina I think.
• Stabilize. Remove a number of conditions spending 4 Stamina. You may also make this a Power Roll, removing additional conditions with each Hit.
• Interact with the environment, which costs a certain number of Stamina based on the difficulty of the task.
• Move, which costs 1 Stamina for every space moved.
• Switch Weapons, by paying some Stamina based on the weight of the weapon.

Complex Actions

Sometimes, an action can also be Complex. A Complex Action costs twice its Power in Stamina without providing any extra dice. So a Complex Action that with a Power of 4 costs 8 Stamina but only offers 4 base dice. This does not affect adding more dice by charging the action.

A good example is using a super heavy weapon. The first attack with that weapon is resolved as normal, but if you want to use it again on the same turn, it now becomes a Complex Action to do so.

Winded

I won’t get into conditions in this post otherwise, but Winded is kind of important to understand here. If you are winded, which means that you have the Winded condition, you can’t use triggers at all (see below). You also can’t reposition as a Setup Action. You can take the Recover Setup Action or Stabilize Engage Action to clear Winded. Uniquely, you can also clear Winded at the start of your turn instead of gaining your free Stamina Refresh.

Triggers

Triggers are special actions that occur always in response to something else. There are two types of Triggers: Reactions and Interrupts.

A Reaction is usually granted by some other effect or ally. They are free and you can take as many Reactions as you like. Everyone has two defensive Reactions:

• Dodge. Spend Stamina to reduce incoming ranged damage by one point for every point of Stamina spend. If the damage is reduced to 0 this way, you can also move your base speed. If you are reduced to 0 Stamina while dodging, you become winded. Some gear, such as light armor, might allow you to Dodge melee attacks as well.
• Block. Spend the Power of a weapon you’re holding as Stamina to reduce incoming melee damage by that amount. If the damage is reduced to 0 this way, gain half the spent Stamina back. If the weapon you are using is not meant for blocking, you become winded. Some gear, such as shields, can be used to block ranged attacks as well.

Interrupts, on the other hand, cut into someone else’s action to affect them in some way. They also cost Momentum to be used. You can only take one Interrupt Trigger per turn.

Here’s the general idea about these two trigger types. Reactions are granted, meaning they are part of some larger tactical interplay and teamwork. In other words, they aren’t disruptive, and more like part of the plan. That means, they doesn’t need to be a limited on how many a single character can take during a turn. Interrupts, on the other hand, are disruptive. And mostly, they disrupt the enemy taking action. In order to keep the game flowing and bring about some semblance of “balance,” Interrupts are limited to once per turn per character, and they cost Momentum, a somewhat rare resource. This makes using them a tactical choice, as Momentum has other uses as well, such as buying Hits or canceling Risks, after all.

Monster Actions

Monsters, which is the catch-all term for everything you’re fighting, also have Engage and Setup actions. However, they work differently in nearly all aspects.

First of all, regardless of the details, each Setup and Engage action is split into four types. Setup Actions are either a Reposition or a Stunt. Engage Actions are either an Attack or an Exploit. The reason for that is that players will have Interrupts that are triggered by one or more of these four monster action types. So, regardless of what any of these actions actually do, if a player has an Interrupt that can be triggered against their type, they can use their Interrupt Trigger for that turn, pay the Momentum, and it just happens. And often, these Interrupts can outright deny that monster from finishing their indented action.

Monster Action Economy

I will be talking about detailed initiative in a later post. For now, let’s just touch on how a monster’s turn interacts with a player’s turn.

At the start of a new turn during a round, the GM will activate a monster. Then the GM will determine the monster’s Setup and Engage action for that turn. The Setup actions happens right away–either a Reposition to help the monster get into a better place for their attacks, or a Stunt that gives them or their allies some sort of buff or advantage. If they have them, any player character can use their Interrupts to interfere with this Setup Action at this point. Next, the GM will tell the players the determined Engage Action, telegraphing what the monster is attempting to do. This also comes with a predetermined target for that action, which will not change for the remainder of the turn unless the players manage to do so. Crucially, that Engage Action does not yet trigger. The players decide who among should act at this point. Whoever they chose, that character now takes their full turn, Setup Action, Engage Actions, all of it. Only after that player ends their turn does the telegraphed monster Engage Action trigger. If the players managed to, the monster might not be able to reach their predetermined target anymore, swiping its claws across empty air. Otherwise, the players can now use their Interrupts (if they haven’t used theirs this turn already) to react to the monsters Engage Action, which is either an Attack that does damage or an Exploit that does some sort of negative controlling effect such as forced movement or causing a condition on the target(s).

Once all of that is resolved, that turn ends and a new turn starts with the GM picking the next monster to activate.

Let’s sum this up again. First of all, there is always a monster that acts with a player character together. The monster is activated first at the start of a turn, does a setup, and telegraphs their intent toward their target. Players choose who should act given that information to take their turn. After that player’s turn, the telegraphed action happens. At any point, everyone can use their one Interrupt action this turn to affect the acting monster based on action types and triggers and momentum cost. This way, the spotlight always stays with the players, even when a monster acts, and the players need to make the choice whether to let the monster action happen (which can be really bad), or try to address it before it triggers.

And the players will have lots of ways to deal with the monster actions. Besides Interrupts, many Crits can make monsters less effective, force move them across the arena, make them switch targets, and so on. If executed well, this sort of wedge initiative system, where a player’s turn is literally wedged between the two actions of a monster’s turn, could feel tense, fast, and dramatic. Things feel like they’re always in motion. Everyone pays close attention to types of actions taken to trigger their interrupts. Everyone tries to figure out the puzzle of positioning, potential damage, the monster’s telegraphing, trying to make the best of their limited resources.

Things become more interesting once we introduce minions, which are easy to kill but show up in hordes and enhance the monster that activates. And boss monsters, well, they get to act during every single player character’s turn, taking setups and actions every time. This makes them truly menacing and dangerous. Bosses also have some unique actions and elements to make them feel truly epic. More on that later, though.

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There you have it. Actions and action economy are the core of any good tactical game. I think what I got here is a good start of a system that, I feel, tries some new ideas. I glossed over a lot of the finer details of how actions, especially monster actions, actually work in practice, but this should serve as good primer for what I have in mind.

Let me know what you think.

Stefan.

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