Close combat
Close combat represents the fundamental type of combat. We differentiate between armed and unarmed close combat.
If two enemies close to at least 3 cm, they are engaged in close combat. Firearms are only useable under very difficult conditions.
Unarmed close combat:
In unarmed close combat, two or more enemies fight hand to hand or with unarmed weaponry against each other (That might sound paradoxically at first, but please remember the existence of knuckle dusters and such). The following describes simple close combat.
Close combat consists in principle, of a sequence of attacks and parries.
Both are tested on the unarmed skill.
An example: Sulik gets into a bar brawl with a slaver. Enraged by the mere presence of the hated slaver, Sulik tries to break his nose with an attack. Sulik has a value of 70 on his unarmed skill, that means his player must test on that value (i.e. roll 70 or less). The slaver has a skill value of 55.
If Sulik's attack roll succeeds, the player of the slaver can still parry by rolling on his unarmed skill.
If he succeeds in that test, he parried the attack and the slaver does not take damage. If the slaver defends himself with anything but an unarmed weapon, please check the parrying rules for the added difficulties.
Self imposed handicap
The self imposed handicap is a method to balance out a weak unarmed skill. Unlike as with the aimed hit that is explained further later, the probability of a critical hit (and therefore, more damage) does not go up with self imposed handicap, however it raises the probability of hitting the target at all.
A common punch costs 3 action points. The character that wants to utilize it, has the bad luck of a rather bad unarmed skill and an enemy that is quite good in this method of combat. The player of the bad fighter raises the cost of his own attack from 3 AP to 5 AP. Each further action point gives his character a bonus of 10 skill points on the unarmed skill, which makes that character effectively 20 points better.
This represents that you can divert the enemy with feints or just watch for tiny holes in his cover.
It's IMPORTANT, that the handicap is called out before the roll, to prevent the following statement of a player: “What? I rolled a 54?! Oh, damn. I have a skill of 50. Hey, if I spend an AP more, I hit!”
Aimed hits
In close combat, just as in ranged combat, it's possible to aim more carefully to hit the target better.
The attack will become at least one AP more expensive and the attacker decides which body part he's aiming for.
Since one aims on a small part of the target, and not the whole bit, the hit chance is reduced as follows.
With punches:
When aiming for the head by 30 points.
When aiming for the legs by 60 points.
When aiming for the arms by 16 points.
When aiming for the torso by 6 points.
With kicks:
When aiming for the head by 60 points.
When aiming for the legs by 6 points.
When aiming for the arms by 30 points.
When aiming for the torso by 10 points.
The chance to hit a critical hit increases when doing aimed punches (or kicks) by half of the handicap written above. That means:
With punches:
When aiming for the head by 15 points.
When aiming for the legs by 30 points.
When aiming for the arms by 8 points.
When aiming for the torso by 3 points.
With kicks:
When aiming for the head by 30 points.
When aiming for the legs by 3 points.
When aiming for the arms by 15 points.
When aiming for the torso by 5 points.
OPTIONAL K.O. rules:
At tournament fights or a friendly sparring people of course don't try to kill each other. For that reason, you'll find some rules here regarding the art of unarmed combat until one of the opponents is knocked out.
- Each of the fighters gets so called KO points in the value of 3 * EN
- Each hit on an extremity costs ONE KO point, each hit on the torso costs TWO, hits on the head cost THREE and critical hits cost FIVE.
- Fighters that reach 0 KO points are knocked out.