Personae v4 SRD, Piece by Piece: a Series (entry the Sixth)

HOSTILE AND VIOLENT ENCOUNTERS

As has been mentioned above, the Personae system thrives on the belief that the rules only need to be as intricate and detailed as you need or want them to be. The challenge can be applied to a wide variety of situations, both combat and non-combat related. There's nothing saying that war, for example, can be a backdrop for storytelling—it has been done before—but the focus should be on using the mechanics to provide a common unit of exchange both players and chorus are happy with when it comes to resolving conflict, and doesn’t have to be not on the blow-by-blow detail of thousands of soldiers killing each other (and more importantly, resolving the entire exchange with hours upon hours of dice-rolling).

Combat is one possible example of a string of challenges strung together from one to the next, but not a special or separate one. Once swords, knives, guns, bows or spells have been brought to bear, then the identities involved have escalated the conflict to the point where they're no longer interested in resolving it with words or nonviolent actions, but instead with weapons or the supernatural. Combat is typically an extended challenge, leading to one or more of the identities involved in the conflict either backing down from violence, or “fighting to the death”. However, not all combat involves simply battering down an opponent until unconsciousness or death; spreading disease, for example, and taking control of an opponent's mind, fall into the realm of combat as well.

The Action Order, and Actions: Combat is chaotic, and even veteran warriors often cannot get an advantageous position in a flailing mess of swinging weapons , a hail of bullets, or the eyebrow-singing heat of fireballs. It is necessary, however, to establish an order to which, in combat, each identity who is involved will act. How the action order is determined should be decided upon by the group. This could be as simple as going in an order based on where everyone is physically sitting at the table, allowing players to invest in an Initiative skill for their characters, or having each player choose one of their character's skills that they will be using on their turn.

Regardless of the method used to set down the order of who acts when, the identity who performs the action that escalates to a nonviolent encounter, or from a nonviolent to a violent encounter, always acts first: issuing a challenge to an opponent is the trigger that escalates the scene. The challenge that was issued is then resolved, and each identity in the encounter acts, in order, thereafter. Once all identities involved in the encounter are finished acting, then the order starts again at the top—each iteration of the order is called a round. On each actor's turn, they declare an aim (goal, objective) they want to accomplish, and have three actions available to do so. Actions can be used to move or challenge. Challenging typically takes an action, unless preternae or enhancements say otherwise. Movement is dependent on the consensus that the group has come to regarding space and time (see below); an identity can always use an action to move a second time, if they so desire.

• Simple turns

  • Move

  • Action

    • 1 action → 1 challenge

    • Action can always be used to move

• Compound turns

  • Move + action + one or more additional actions

    • x # of actions → x # of challenges

  • Combination of follow-up and subsequent challenges

“What can you do with more actions?” Having more actions makes you more effective at accomplishing your goals, more versatile—better able to respond to shifting circumstances. Having more actions lets you affect more than one opponent, affect the same opponent multiple times, "hand out" more benefits to allies, better control the encounter space, better react to/adjust to changes to the encounter space. "How do you get more actions?" Enhancements and Preternae.

Follow-up challenges

• Rely on momentum, success stacked on success—follow-up is only possible if identity succeeds initial challenge issued

• Require less overall effort on the part of the character—should be afforded by enhancements or preternae first before additional actions

• Issued only, by default, to the same opponent or affect the same target

• Follow-up challenge must use the same skill as the initial challenge issued

• Is in essence a duplicate of the initial challenge without an additional action being required

• Use the next-highest die result, and the next

  • depending on how many dice are available

  • how many follow-ups are afforded by the terms of enhancements or preternae

Subsequent challenges

• More taxing, require more wherewithal and coordination of effort

• Enhancements and preternae should afford follow-up challenges first before subsequent challenges, and upgrade to allow each action/subsequent challenge to involve a different skill if desired

• Can be issued either to the same opponent or different opponents, affect the same target or different/multiple targets

• Could possibly involve a different skill used to issue challenges for each action

• Requires additional actions beyond the first

• One additional action per subsequent challenge

Physical Combat: Physical combat involves attacking unarmed, such as with appendages organically or artificially connected to your person (e.g. fists, feet, forearms), with hand-to-hand weapons (e.g. swords, shock batons), or with ranged weapons (e.g. bow & arrow, rifle). When an identity issues a challenge to another identity that involves a directed effort to inflict injury, then the challenge is known as an attack challenge. The actor is known as the attacker, and the reactor is known as the defender. The attacker rolls a skill that involves either unarmed combat or some sort of weapon, and the defender rolls some sort of defense (either to dodge or block the attack). If the attacker is successful in issuing an attack challenge to an opponent, then the attacker either inflicts injury (see “Vitality and Shock”), shock, some sort of special condition, or any combination of the three.

• Weapons:

  • Hand-to-hand weapons by default fall into one of three categories:

    • small (held in one hand, such as a dagger or knife),

    • one-handed (rapiers, battle-axes and longswords) and

    • two-handed (two-handed weapons, such as polearms, claymores or great axes).

• Ranged weapons by default are also:

  • small (hand crossbows, holdout pistols),

  • one-hand (light crossbows, blaster pistols), or

  • two-hand (heavy crossbows, longbows, machine guns).

• Weapons by default fall into groups, such as

  • blades, axes, or bludgeons,

  • projectile, energy

  • laser, maser, plasma

    • Unarmed attacks are always considered small bludgeon weapons

    • All weapons inflict at least one hit, unless otherwise specified by preternae or enhancements

    • CNG is typically added to ranged attacks made in an attack challenge, and STA is added to all unarmed or hand-to-hand attacks.

    • Circumstances can change the attribute that is added, and identities can take preternae or enhancements that can permanently set the attribute that is added

Preternae Combat: Use of preternae can be incorporated into any type of challenge, whether interaction, power or attack. Preternae can be used in either nonviolent or violent encounters. In a combat scenario where preternae are being used—namely, when an identity is bringing preternae to bear against another identity intended to inflict a hit and impose shock—the process is similar to physical combat and typically involves issuing or answering attack challenges.

When an identity wants to deliver a harmful preternae upon an opponent, the actor, or attacker, rolls an appropriate supernatural skill to initiate the preternae. When the defender, also known as the resistor, rolls to resist the preternae's effects, the resistor also rolls the Steel skill, but rather than adding Cunning or Stature, the resistor’s RES must be added to the resistor's roll (this represents the resistor exerting force of will to neutralize the effect of the preternae) unless specified by enhancements or other preternae. If the attacker wins the challenge, then the resistor suffers the effect of the preternae, or sustains injury, according to the preternae's description.

If the caster's preternae inflicts injury on the resistor (such as from a blast of fire, or a concussive bolt of pure magic), then the process is identical to physical combat and is handled like any other attack challenge.

Defense: Survival is an instinct all creatures are born with. Therefore, when the threat of harm is imminent, identities who are subject to potential harm seeks to either avoid harm outright, or intercept the incoming harm with something that will deflect the harm away from the identity. The basic instinct is to avoid first above everything else.

All identities automatically unlock twelve skills, four of which are reactive, expressing a character's defenses. These four skills—Counter, Steel, Dodge, and Repel—represent the ability to avoid injury.

• COM is added to a defender's Counter skill for answering interaction challenges

• RES is added to a defender's Steel skill for answering power challenges

• STA is added to a defender's Defend skill for answering attack challenges

Passive vs. Active Defense: Passive defenses are where the defender performs no special intentional action when responding to attack or power challenges:

Counter, typically used to answer interaction challenges; Repel, typically used to answer attack challenges; and Steel, typically used to answer power challenges.

An identity who has practiced how to defend with a weapon or a shield, however, or has a special preternae that can be used to resist a harmful preternae, can use a non-defense skill to avoid an attack, power or interaction challenge—this is known as active defense. Dodge, one of a character's automatic skills, is considered an active defense. Active defenses require that the defender

• is aware of an incoming attack, and

• has declared that an action will be used to anticipate an attack that will be parried, blocked, or resisted in a special way, unless the defender has an enhancement or preternae that allows for parrying or blocking a strike reflexively, requiring no action to be declared to anticipate an incoming attack.

The defender uses a weapon, shield, or preternae-related skill to avoid actively; while the defender can use a weapon skill to parry, without having to have a separate parry skill for the same weapon, or a preternae-related skill to use a special preternae to resist, a separate skill must be taken to block with a shield.

• When it comes to parrying with weapons, the “like against like” rule is in effect by default: light weapons can only parry attacks made with light weapons, and heavy weapons can only parry attacks made with heavy weapons.

• Shields, on the other hand, can block weapons of any category equal to or less than the category of the weapon; heavy shields can block heavy or light weapons, but light shields can only block light weapons. The only exception to either of these situations would be an identity who has enhancements or preternae that supersede this rule.

Armor: Whether it be thick padding, a vest made of treated fabric, or a full set of powered armor, armor is another means by which an identity protects itself from injury, worn by anyone who wants an extra layer of protection between themselves and an incoming attack.

• Armor functions no differently from any other piece of gear. Someone can wear an average, "off the rack" suit of armor, but in order to truly benefit from its ability to reduce the impact of an opponent's attack, the wearer must take one or more enhancements or preternae that are provided by the above-average armor

• It is up to player-chorus consensus to decide on the exact mechanical benefit from armor:

One possible benefit, for example, that above-average armor might provide is to allow the wearer to force their attacker to yield one or more dice rolled in an attack challenge (which would take place after any rerolls have been resolved).

Vitality and Shock: Identities typically enter a violent encounter at full vitality, with no injury sustained (no hits marked against vitality). Once combat begins, however, this will most certainly change.

• All identities have a four-tiered shock track that can be reached in the course of sustaining hits beyond either Savvy, Obstinance or Resilience: rattled, distressed, stunned, then incapacitated.

• When an identity succeeds either an attack or power challenge that inflicts injury (one or more hits), the opponent marks vitality one or more times corresponding to the type of challenge succeeded. The attacker inflicts a hit, the defender sustains a hit (marking a hit, sustaining a hit, taking a hit are interchangeable terms).

• When an opponent has sustained a number of hits equal to their vitality [1 + COM, RES or STA], plus any bonuses from enhancements, preternae, or circumstances, the opponent suffers shock, starting with rattled.

• Additional hits sustained beyond rattled result in the opponent becoming distressed, then stunned, then incapacitated.

• By default, it takes only one successive hit beyond rattled to reach the next, more precarious status.

• Each status imposes a deleterious condition on all challenges until the end of a violent encounter. These conditions are cumulative. The penalties persist with the identity until they recover from the associated status.

  Shock level	Impact
  Rattled	Yield one(1) die when either challenging or responding (in addition to any other dice yielded)
  Distressed	Unable to challenge, respond only
  Stunned	Unable to challenge or respond
  Incapacitated	Must drop out of the encounter, unable to participate further until taking part in long-term recovery outside of an encounter.

• No number of hits sustained from a successful challenge can immediately “roll over” from one shock status level to the next. When an identity reaches rattled, only a separate successful attack that follows can inflict one or more hits that result in the identity reaching distressed, stunned or incapacitated.

  For example, an opponent can sustain 3 hits to Savvy before rendering them rattled. You deliver successful interaction challenge against the opponent that inflicts 4 hits. The 4th hit does not render the opponent reaching both rattled and distressed; only hits inflicted by successful challenge(s) that follow the first mean the opponent is rendered distressed, then stunned, then incapacitated.

• Enhancements or preternae can cause an opponent to be rendered inoperative without reaching shock 4. Conversely, enhancements or preternae could allow an opponent to reach shock 4 and not be rendered inoperative.

• When an opponent is rendered incapacitated, they are close to being negated. If no significant measures are taken—whether mundane or supernatural—to stabilize the opponent before the end of a violent encounter, then the opponent is forfeit.

• Stabilizing an incapacitated identity can be performed by any other identity without any special skill, enhancement or preternae, but doing so does require an action to declare. No rolling of dice is necessary. If the opponent is a player-controlled identity, then the details of the negated identity must be established within the fiction, such as the death of a character.

• Hits are marked as they are sustained unless an enhancement or preternae dictates otherwise. The penalties associated with shock are enacted immediately as combat takes place. Enhancements or preternae could be utilized to delay shock, or the penalties from shock, until the end of the round, after more than one round has passed, or even until the end of the violent encounter they were sustained in.

Recovery: Shock can be abated, either over time with rest, or with preternae that allow one identity to heal another (or an identity to heal itself) through either mundane or supernatural means. Identities may have enhancements that allow for more rapid recovery.

Recovery is a special type of action, regardless of shock level, that all identities or characters are capable of challenging to accomplish through their own natural capabilities.

An identity can attempt a recovery challenge during an encounter only if the identity hasn't reached beyond shock 1; otherwise, the recovery challenge can only be attempted after an encounter has ended.

• Immediate recovery: Provided an identity has not reached shock 1, all hits are removed (unmarked, cleared) immediately at the end of an encounter. If an identity has reached shock 1, it may immediately attempt recovery at the end of the encounter during which it became injured.

• Short-term recovery: During an encounter, one can only clear shock status boxes through use of enhancements or preternae, or if recovery is performed by another character or identity, and even then only before a character suffers incapacitated status. During a scene, fictional circumstances can clear shock status boxes with recovery by the character suffering shock.

• Long-term recovery: Happens only between sessions, and is the only way to clear shock boxes when an identity or character is incapacitated.

Recovering from Rattled (Shock 1)

An identity can attempt a recovery challenge during an encounter only if the identity hasn't suffered beyond “rattled” shock status (shock 1); otherwise, the recovery challenge can only be attempted after an encounter has ended.

• An identity who has sustained rattled status rolls depending on which vitality counter was reduced to zero(0): Counter for Savvy, Steel for Obstinance, or Repel for Resilience;

• The chorus responds by rolling 2d (two dice), one for rattled status plus one more, and adds the character’s Savvy, Obstinance, or Resilience;

• If the challenge succeeds, then rattled status is cleared, and the character’s vitality is restored (unmarked, cleared) as if immediate recovery took place for that vitality counter only.

Recovering from Distressed (Shock 2)

If an identity has reached “distressed” status (shock 2), since they’re unable to challenge, they may only recover by having recovery performed on them by someone with an appropriate skill:

• The character performing recovery on the character who suffered stunned status challenges with their appropriate skill;

• The chorus responds by rolling 3d (three dice), two for distressed status plus one more, and adds the character’s Savvy, Obstinance, or Resilience;

• If the challenge succeeds, then distressed status is cleared—the character suffering shock then may roll their own recovery challenge to recover from rattled status.

Recovering from Stunned (Shock 3)

If an identity has reached “stunned” status (shock 3), since they may neither challenge nor respond, they may only recover by having recovery performed on them by someone with an appropriate skill.

• The character performing recovery on the one suffering stunned status challenges with their appropriate skill;

• The chorus responds by rolling 4d (four dice), three for stunned status plus one more, and adds the character’s Savvy, Obstinance, or Resilience;

• If the challenge succeeds, then stunned status is cleared—the character performing recovery on the one suffering shock then may roll again to force recovery from distressed, then to rattled status.

Recovering from Incapacitated (Shock 4)

If a character has suffered “Incapacitated” status (shock 4), their shock is so significant that it can only be recovered from by long-term recovery, outside of encounters. They may only recover by having recovery performed on them by someone with an appropriate skill.

• The character performing recovery on the one suffering stunned status challenges with their appropriate skill;

• The chorus responds by rolling 5d (four dice), three for Incapacitated status plus one more, and adds the character’s Savvy, Obstinance, or Resilience;

• If the challenge succeeds, then Incapacitated status is cleared—the character performing recovery on the one suffering shock then may roll again to force recovery from stunned to distressed, then from distressed to rattled status.

Skills, enhancements or preternae can be chosen by identities that involve aiding another identity in the recovery process. This can range from being able to assist in the recovery challenge, as one might assist in any other type of challenge, to replacing the identity's recovery roll with a skill roll, or some other type of effect that gets agreed upon between the character providing assistance and the chorus. Supernatural means of healing might also abate an identity's shock, remove sustained hits, or some combination of both.

Forfeit (Permanent Defeat): When an identity suffers an injury and they're already incapacitated, they suffer forfeit, or permanent defeat. This can mean death in the case of a character or other "living" identity, or it can mean a permanent condition that renders them incapable of contributing to ongoing narrative as it unfolds. They may continue as a recurring chorus-controlled character, fully exist "off-screen" without involvement in active scenarios, or some other circumstance as agreed upon by the group—in the case of a player- or player-controlled character, as agreed upon by the player.

Regarding the raising of the dead: The group must come to a consensus as to whether or not enhancements or preternae can be created that allow characters to raise, resurrect, reincarnate, or in any other way revive identities, either player- or chorus-controlled, that are living beings after they have died. The genre of the game being played, as well as the setting the game is taking place in, could have an impact on this decision—whatever makes sense within the fiction.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

All the characters that the main characters encounter throughout the course of a story, whose actions are controlled by the chorus, are referred to as supporting characters (non-player characters, or NPCs, in traditional role-playing game parlance). Most supporting characters will only require stats if they will have an impact on the progression of the story, interacting with the main characters in such a way that establishes, escalates, and resolves conflict.

COMPANIONS

Main characters will often have sidekicks, cohorts, familiars, and loyal followers. Companions are a special type of player-controlled identity (see below). The maximum number of companions a character is able to have should be decided upon by group-chorus consensus.

Companion Prerequisites: In order to have a companion, a character must possess an enhancement that represents the companion aligning their desires with that of the character.

Companion Development: A companion character goes through creation the same way that the main characters do. However, all companion characters:

1. have a starting potential of 1, going through creation with ten creation points, and

2. begin play as minion allies (see below).

You must spend your own development points to increase the attributes of your companion characters. You may upgrade the companion enhancement in order to increase the companion from a minion, to a minor, moderate to a major ally, in that order, each requiring their own development point expenditure.

ALLIES

Allies are supporting characters that aid main characters in the pursuit of their goals, controlled by the chorus unless they are companions.

ADVERSARIES

Adversaries are chorus-controlled identities that have goals of their own, oftentimes running in opposition to the main characters' goals. It should be decided by group-chorus consensus as to whether or not adversary characters are able to earn criticals. Whether the supporting character is an ally or an adversary, each follows a three-level progression of overall "toughness", relative to the main characters:

• Minion: don't have vitality (no distinct vitality types like player-controlled characters have) only two shock levels (rattled, distressed); forfeit immediately upon second shock level reached

• Minor: don't have vitality (no distinct vitality types like player-controlled characters have) 3 shock levels only (rattled, distressed, stunned); forfeit immediately upon third shock level reached

• Moderate: don't have vitality (no distinct vitality types like player-controlled characters have) 4 shock levels (rattled, distressed, stunned, incapacitated); forfeit immediately upon second fourth level reached

• Major: Full vitality suite the same as a player- or chorus-controlled character, 4 full shock levels before forfeit