Core mechanics: Combat

So, in this entry, I'll tell you how combat works, this part might be a bit unclear and is still being redone as some parts are completely broken (goddamn ninjas, how do they work?).

Initiative:
The first thing to determine is who gets to act first. This is determined in two ways.
Ambush: If a ambush takes place, it is generally the ambushing side that get to take their turns first. Which order the players or enemies attack in are determined by the players or the GM, depending on who is ambushing whom.
Roll off: If both parties are prepared for combat, every player and npc (non-player character) gets to roll 3d6. Everyone takes their turn in the order of lowest to highest. Rolling low is good!

The turn:
Once the initiative is decided, the turn itself is divided into two stages, movement and attack. The order of these stages isn't set, so you can attack and then move, or the opposite, however you wish.
Additionally, there are circumstances where you are allowed to do more than one attack, altough this only occurs if you do not move this turn (unless you have a special rule applied to yourself).

Attacking:
When attacking, the character normally rolls 4d6 towards the statistic their weapon or spell relies upon (to example, a dagger or a bow rolls towards dexterity, while a sword or axe rolls towards strength, etc.) This is of course not always the case, as sometimes attacks are particularily difficult, so the GM may say that you need to roll 5d6 instead, or it might be particularly easy, and you'll only need to roll 3d6.
The character can additionally aim their attack towards a specific body part in order to score a critical strike or possibly cripple their opponent.
Aimed attacks are generally +1 d6 to the difficulty of the attack roll.
If you manage to roll a natural critical success on your dice, you double the damage dice of your weapon. If you do a vital shot aimed attack (that is, an attack specificly aimed towards a vital area on your opponent) you also double the damage dice of your weapon. If you criticly succeed on a vital shot aimed attack, you quadruple the damage dice. This is also known as double-critting.

Damage:
The damage you deal is lagely dictated by the weapon you use. A small, nimble weapon such as a dagger will generally have lower damage (probably around 1d6), while a normal sword would have more damage (generally around 2d6 or 3d6). Meanwhile, a huge axe or a crossbow would deal additional damage. Usually in the span of 4d6.
While rolling damage, higher rolls are better.

Blocking or dodging:
When a successful attack has been landed, you have the option to attempt to block the attack if you have a shield, or dodge it if you wear light enough armor.
When rolling to block, you roll the enemy combatant's attack roll +1 towards strength, and if it succeeds, the damage reduction given by your shield is doubled.
When rolling to dodge, you roll the enemy combatant's attack roll +1 towards dexterity. If that roll succeeds, you avoid damage entirely. Altough, if this roll criticly fails, the enemy combatant is entitled to a free critical damage roll. This might even lead to the mythical tripple crit.

Damage reduction:
When dealing with physical attacks, the armor you wear will protect you from harm by absorbing some of the enemy's damage.
To example, a leather armor would absorb 1 damage, while a suit of platemail would absorb significantly more, say 4 or even 5.
When dealing with magical attacks, you will need to aquire magic resistance to lower this damage. Something only magical creatures, mysterious talismans and mythic artifacts have.

Armor pen:
Something piercing weapons such as spears, crossbows, foils and guns have in common is that they provide something known as Armor Penetration. This means that your armor is much less effective against these weapons, and they reduce the damage removed by your armor by 50%. So if you have 4 dr, 2 of that dr will be removed. If the number is uneven, the effect will always be rounded up. (so if you have 5 armor, 3 of that will be ignored.)


Additional attacks:
In some cases, the character is entitled more than one attack, more specificly while standing still.
These cases are when you have more than one light or medium weapon in your hands, such as two daggers, a shortsword and a dagger, etc. If you do, you may perform a single attack with each weapon while standing still. If you wish to move, you must choose which weapon to use.


Well then, that was a very large entry, but I think we got the core mechanics of combat out of the way. The next entry will delve deeper into some advanced rules.