AI:L Rules Testing

Ascension Isle: Legacy

Based on version Rules version 0.302

Combat Damage

As characters take damage they build up Physical Stress. When Physical Stress is high enough, the character is incapacitated, and may even die.

A Character can tolerate a number of Stress Points equal to their Physique + Physical Conditioning + Racial Minimum. For humans the racial minimum is 5. This number forms their Stress Limit. The character is not penalized for any damage that does not exceed the Healthy State stress limit, unless other conditions are attached to the damage. When damage equal or greater than this limit is taken the character is in Critical State and is incapacitated. When damage equal or greater than twice this limit is taken, the character is in Dying State and dies (although advanced medical care can still revive them). When damage equal or greater than five times this limit is taken, the character is in Annihilated State, and their body is completely destroyed.

Heroic characters have additional levels of stress limit equal to their Heroic Level. Characters can also buy additional levels of stress limit through traits. These levels increase the amount of damage a character can take before becoming incapacitated.

Heroic characters can also choose to “cap” damage taken by instead suffering wounds. Capping damage means that a character halts the damage taken at the start of the next level of stress limit, regardless of how many points of damage were inflicted. The price for this is the character must suffer from an ongoing penalty that will reduce their stats, abilities or traits in some way.

For example, a Local Hero with a Stress Limit of 15 has two Healthy State stress levels, for a combined total of 30 stress points. While healthy, the character takes a gunshot which inflicts 35 points of damage. Normally this would blow through all his healthy stress levels, and put him five stress points into Critical State. Rather than be incapacitated, the Hero chooses instead to cap the damage at his first healthy level, taking only 15 points of damage, putting him into the start of his second Healthy State level, and suffering a wound. Note that even if the Hero had previously suffered 14 points of damage, he could still cap the damage from this latest attack, effectively only suffering one point of damage from the hit.

Some particularly powerful attacks have the “Overwhelming” tag, and have limits on how much they can be capped. An Overwhelming 2 attack will blow through two stress levels before it can be capped, and Overwhelming 3 will go through three levels, and so on. An attack that is “Completely Overwhelming” cannot be capped at all, without special traits. Overwhelming attacks are common with particularly powerful weapons, particularly vehicle mounted ordnance.

Other attacks have the “Stressful” tag. A stressful attack will always do damage equal to however many stress points the target has remaining in their current stress level. Stressful 2 will do damage equal to the points remaining in the next two stress levels, and so on. Stressful attacks are common in hand to hand combat, as well as with some magic attacks.

PS resets very quickly out of combat. Once combat ends, PS will reset to the beginning of the current stress level. So a character with a Stress Limit of 10 and sitting at 5 PS would reset to 0 at the end of combat. However, if their Stress limit was 12 putting them in Critical State then they would only reset to 10, remaining in Critical State. PS can also be reset by using various traits both in and out of combat.

Wounds

(I am playing with several different methods of inflicting wounds. This is the "longchart" option)

When the attacker rolls a 6 on any damage roll, a wound is inflicted. Each additional six rolled adds +2 to the wound roll. Wounds are also taken when the defender caps a damage roll. For each additional stress level of damage avoided after the first, add +2 to the wound roll. When a wound is inflicted the attacker rolls 1d6 on the wound table.

0 - The next "6" rolled by this character does not cause a wound

1 - Character loses one action from next turn

2 - -1 Accuracy Edge for rest of current combat

3 - -1 Initiative Edge for rest of current combat

4 - Character loses 1 point of Adrenaline (or one action from next turn if no Adrenaline left to lose)

5 - Character loses 1 point of Focus (or one action from next turn if no Focus left to lose)

6 - Character loses 1 point from all Exploit Pools (and one action from next turn for every pool with no points left to lose)

7 - All Physique and Aether Traits cost +1 Adrenaline and +1 Ether to use for the rest of the current combat

8 - All Senses and Willpower Traits cost +1 Focus and +1 Willpower to use for the rest of the current combat

9 - Character can no longer inflict wounds on rolls of a "6" in the current combat

10 - Character loses one Action a turn for the rest of the current combat, and suffers a Crippling Injury

11 - Character loses all points in all Exploit Pools, and suffers a Crippling Injury

12 - Character reduced to Critical State, and suffers a Crippling Injury

Crippling Injuries

Long term badness, much ouch

Accuracy Challenge (Combat DC)

AC = Base 10 + Size Modifier + (Natural Stat) + (Skill)

For ranged combat, the character's Senses Stat is added to their AC unless they are surprised or unaware. Their firearms skill is also added to the AC if they have adopted the "Alert" stance. Other modifiers, such as for range, movement or cover, are applied as edge penalties or bonuses to the hit roll, rather than modifying the AC.

Edge Modifiers (Ranged)

Penalties

Additional Range Increment: -1 (rifles) -2 (pistols) -3 (shotguns)
Snap Shooting: -2 (maintain cover bonus while firing)
Target Moving: -2
Target Sprinting: -4
Target Speeding (vehicles): -5 to -10
Three Quarter target (limited cover): -2
Half Target (partial cover): -4
Fractional Target (loophole): -6
Full Cover: -10
Limited Visibility (dim light): -2
Low Visibility (dark, smoke): -5

Bonusses

Point Blank Range: +5
High Visibility Target: +1
Aiming: + scope/sight bonus

Combat Maneuvers (Ranged)

Stances

Adopting a stance is a free action, but can only be taken at the start of a character’s turn, before any other actions have been taken. A stance cannot be changed or dropped until the start of their next turn.

Braced: Gain +2 Accuracy Edge, reduce total range and recoil penalties by 1. May not move, lose Senses bonus to ranged AC.

Alert: Gain +2 Initiative Edge, and add weapon skill to ranged AC. May not sprint. May not build Accuracy Advantage. Suffer -2 Snap Shooting edge penalty to accuracy.

Standard Actions

Reload: Standard action. Restore Ammunition in current weapon. Lose all stored Advantage.

Aim: Standard action. Gain accuracy advantage equal to scope/sight bonus. Scope Advantage is lost once aiming character moves, sight Advantage is lost once the aiming character sprints.

Defensive action: Free Interrupt Action, For every +5 AC, grants opponent +2 Initiative Advantage. Expends all Advantage and remaining actions.

Overwatch. Standard action. Hold attack and only attack if target attacks or moves, then may convert overwatch to any standard attack action. Lose one overwatch action every time damaged by a successful attack. All Overwatch actions expire when initiative is rolled. Gain +2 initiative advantage when one or more of your unused Overwatch actions expire.

Suppressing Fire. Standard action. Expend one point of Ammunition from current weapon. Roll standard attack against target AC, ignoring cover. If successful, do no damage but remove Advantage from target equal to 1 Accuracy and Initiative for 1 point of success over AC threshold for fully automatic weapons, or for every 3 points over the threshold for semi-automatic weapons, or for every 5 points over the threshold for single shot weapons.

Rapid Fire. Standard action. Expend one point of Ammunition from current weapon. Add weapon's rate of fire bonus as Accuracy Edge. Can only be used by semi- and full-auto weapons.

Accuracy Advantage Actions

Aimed Shot: As a Free Action, expend 2 points of Accuracy Advantage for 5 points of Accuracy Edge this round.

Critical Shot (I, II, III): As a Free Action, expend 4 / 6 / 8 Accuracy Advantage to gain +1 / +2 / +3 Overwhelming on one attack and +1d6 / +2d6 / +3d6 to the damage roll. Certain weapons such as sniper rifles will increase the Critical Shot damage.

Kill Shot: As a Free Action, expend 10 Accuracy Advantage. If next attack hits, target must roll Physique + Physical Conditioning against DC of shooters Senses + Weapon Skill + 1 per damage die on weapon, or be dropped instantly to Dying State, otherwise deal damage as a Critical Shot I.

Initiative Advantage Actions

Quick Draw: As a Free Interrupt Action, expend 2 points of Initiative Advantage for 5 points of Initiative Edge this round (declared before initiative is rolled).

Double Tap: As a Free Action, expend 4 points of Initiative Advantage to make the next attack as a rapid fire attack that does not expend ammunition and does not suffer recoil, but can only score a maximum of one extra hit.

Improved Snap Shot: As a Free Interrupt Action, expend 6 points of Initiative Advantage to make a snap shot at any point in the current turn. Defensive actions cannot be taken against this attack.

Trick Shot:

Insane Trick Shot:

Combat Traits

Basic Traits (possessed by all characters)

Adrenal Surge: Allows a character as a free action to spend one point of Adrenaline for one extra move action during their turn.

Tight Focus: Allows a character as a free action to spend one point of adrenaline for a free standard action during their turn. This standard action cannot be an attack, although it can be made in support of an attack, such as an aim action.

Special Traits

Firearms Basics

Recoil

All firearms have a recoil number. This number indicates the amount by which a multi-shot attack, such as rapid fire, must beat the target AC to score additional hits. For every multiple of the recoil number over the threshold, the weapon gains an additional damage roll.

Rate of Fire

All weapons have a rate of fire. Single, Semi-Auto, or Full-Auto. Single shot weapons cannot use the Rapid Fire ability. Semi-Auto weapons can expend Ammunition to use Rapid Fire. Full-Auto weapons make all standard attacks as Rapid Fire without expending ammunition, and have access to additional forms of attack.

Ammunition

All weapons have limited ammunition, however rather than track individual shots, the ammunition stat is used only to track the amount of ammunition available for special attacks, such as rapid fire and suppression.