Jedi425's Lessons on Shadowrun Lesson Two: Damage, and how you get it, or; how do i shot gun? This little romp deals with combat and damage. Specifically, the freaky Condition Monitor used to see just how much blood you're losing. First, though, combat. Combat is a series of actions, the order of which is determined by initiative, rolled every turn. Each character has a base initiative of 1d6 + Reaction. The chargen will determine that number for you. There are a million things that can boost or lower this; damage, cyberware, spells, bioware, and edges/flaws. Numbers are arranged high to low, and thus the first Initiative Pass is ready. After the first pass, all Init. scores are reduced by 10 (so for example, Aranith's 19 becomes 9). Anyone that has a positive score after this gets a second action. This continues until all characters have zero or lower init. Ties will be resolved by me. You can also delay actions. You can take an action at any lower number in the same Pass without losing your score; if you had a 17, and delayed until after someone with an 11 went, you'd still get a 7 next pass. Or you can wait and be certain of going first next pass. But you still only get one action per pass, period. (ie, you rolled 11, and you decide to wait until next pass to act; you only get one action at the top of the order, you don't get your second action at 1 like you would have if you'd gone at 11 last pass.) A Turn looks like this: -Pools refresh (except Karma). -Initiative rolls -Actions (in order of init) -Calculate and run next Pass. -End turn. Repeat. You can take a number of actions in one pass. They come in three flavors: Free actions are easy. Speaking, gesturing, ejecting a smartgun clip, all of these are Free. You get one of these per turn. Simple Actions are a bit more complex; shooting a weapon, aiming, manually removing a clip, etc. You get either two of these, or one Complex action. Complex Actions are really involved. Casting spells, reloading a revolver, manipulating a complex device, all of these take effort. In addition to these actions, you can walk or run up to your QCK attribute in meters. You don't lose any actions, but you take modifiers to your actions. COMBAT PROCESS: Ranged Combat is resolved based on your range to a target. That range, depending on your weapon, sets your TN for the Combat Test. Here is how it goes: -Range is determined. This sets a base TNN. -Situational Modifers (Target/Attacker mooving, cover, I hate you, etc.) are applied. -Attacker makes Ranged Combat Test using appropriate skill at a set TN. (I will be determining this.) -Target may make a Dodge Test with any Coombat Pool dice at a TN of 4. If this number of successes exceeds the attacker's successes, the shot misses. -If the shot hits, target may then make aa Damage Resistance Test at a TN determined by me, based on armor and weapon involved. Target uses Body dice and any Combat Pool dice desired. -Damage is then staged up or down based oon who got more successes (up a level per 2 in the attacker's favor, and vice versa for the defender.) Melee combat uses a similar process: -Attacker makes Melee Combat Test using aappropriate skill (and any Combat Pool dice) at a set TN of 4. -Defender makes Melee Combat Test using aappropriate skill (and any Combat Pool dice) at a set TN of 4. -The person with the most successes hits their opponent. -Damage is staged up or down as appropriaate. -The victim then makes his Damage Resistaance Test, same as above. WEAPONS: All weapons have a stat that matters most: the Power/Damage rating. For example, an Ares Predator (Heavy Pistol) has a rating of 9M. 9 is the weapon's Power. That determines the TN for damage resistance, reduced by armor. M is the level of Damage it deals. M for Medium. Ranged and Melee weapons deal Physical damage unless specified; unarmed attacks deal Stun, unless you're an Adept with certain powers. DAMAGE: It comes in two types; Stun and Physical. Stun is what you get when you get hit in the face. Physical is what you get when you get shot... in the face. You'll notice an odd diagram on the character sheet. This is the Condition Monitor. It has two tracks(Stun/Physical, natch), and 4 levels on each. The levels are: Light, Medium, Serious, Deadly. At each level on either track, you take penalties to your actions and Init. Stun Damage carries over to Physical when filled, so you can be beaten to death. At the end of either track lies unconciousness. When you fill up on Physical Damage, you're in deep drek. You then fall back to your Physical Overflow; you can take an additional number of boxes in damage equal to your BOD rating. So if Harl had a BOD of 7, he could take 17 points of Physical Damage (10 on the track, 7 overflow) before dying. One point over, and he's worm food. Healing will be adjucated by me, though FYI, Magic and certain skills/items can help the process. (Biotech skill particularly.) Next time; Good, Bad, and Team: Karma all around!