Combat rules


Initiative

Combat uses action reaction. Players go in order of initiative (this may be fudged in mass combats against npcs). Your initiative is the total of your base traits. This number does not change if you lose traits in challenges.

Actions

You may not take more actions than one third your base max physical rounded down to a minimum of two actions. Celerity does not count towards this limit (god forbid this comes up).

Health levels and dying

You have a base of 2 healthy 3 bruised 2 wounded 1 incapacitated and 1 mortally wounded. If you hit mortally wounded you are unconscious even if you have the ability to ignore wound penalties. Every 20 minutes or additional damage past mortally wounded causes the loss of a permanent physical trait. When you run out of physical traits you are dead. You may also call a killing strike against someone mortally wounded to finish them off.

Garou healing

Garou healing in non breed form heal one bashing a minute, one lethal every 15 minutes, and 1 aggravated damage a day. If you are wearing armor you heal the bonus health levels the armor gives you because armor makes you able to take more damage it does not block damage.

Defensive actions

There is no retest for soaking damage with stamina.
You may dodge any attack. (cat feet bonus traits only add to this defensive action type)
You may parry (retest with melee) any melee or brawl attack.
You may block (retest with brawl) any brawl attack.
Shields add bonus traits when dodging or soaking. Shields may not be taken off or put on in combat rounds. They also can not be disarmed.
If using an item on the defensive your attacker may bid its negative traits against you.
Wielding a sword and shield or parrying while dual wielding makes you bid additional traits as per dual wielding (2 traits with primary hand 3 traits with off hand item).

Item negative traits

Armor negatives may be bid against you in any challenge. Weapon and shields negatives may be bid in challenges they are used. You may burn an appropriate ability to learn the negatives of an item (melee for swords, firearms for guns, athletics for armor and shields.)

Grappling

You may grapple someone with brawl attack that may be dodged or parried. Once grappled neither character may break the grapple unless they win a physical challenge against the other. (you may relent if you want) Grappled characters may only attack each other with brawl attacks.

Protecting another character in combat

You may declare you are getting between 2 characters to protect one from another or to try and keep them apart. You may only do this on your action, and if it is physically possible. If you do this you may only soak any attacks from either of them. If one wants to get past you, you may demand a strength test to stop them that retests with brawl normally and both parties may get the catfeet bonus. If the attacker has a ranged weapon the defender gets a 3 trait cover bonus from you being in the way.

Other

Ranged Combat: There is no unopposed range retest.
Blind: If your opponent can’t see you get a free retest against them. Blind fighting may be burned to counter this retest and does not count towards your normal ability retest. If you are blind you may not attack people at range without a good explination, some gifts, or burning a blindfighting.
Shield destroying: Some weapons have shield destroying. The attacker may choose to target the shield and if they win the challenge the shield is destroyed (some shields may require more than one hit), but the defender takes no damage. It no longer grants bonus traits but still gives negative traits.
If you throw a melee weapon or use a thowing weapon in melee it gives no bonus traits. Some weapons may be used as both.
Defending with silver weapons: If you are being parried by a weapon you are vulnerable to (garou and silver) you can ignore the half traits penalty by taking 1 agg.

Sample weapons and armor coming soon.