Encounters & Combat

ENCOUNTERS ARE ANYTHING WHERE players are presented with a challenge, combat, or anything that the GM might consider a time-sensitive event where Battle Order is rolled.  When players overcome these encounters with greater than 0 HP, they receive an En-Counter Point. During encounters time is reduced to six-seconds intervals, called a Round. Players and NPCs take Turns during the Round in a Battle Order. Leading up to the beginning of an encounter, players are provided Training Time to strategize, sometimes called “Metagaming”.

Turns

Turns are broken up into six-second increments in order to make a minute of an encounter divisible by 10. (Ex: A spell that lasts for one minute will last for 10 turns.)

When all a character's action slots are accounted for, that character's turn is over, and the turn of the next character in the rotation begins (see Number of Actions).

Rounds

A round is comprised of the turns of every character and NPC over the course of six   seconds. Effectively, every turn throughout the round are six-seconds that are stacked on top of one-another. In other words, all actions taken over the entire round all happen at the same time. The only exception is the order in which turns are taken, which brings us to the Battle Order.

Battle Order

The Battle Order is determined by Dexterity rolls. The rolls determine a player’s position in the rotation, the highest roll goes first, and the lowest roll goes last. In the event of a tie, the player with the higher Dexterity score goes first on their turn. If players have the same Dexterity score, both must roll a 1d6. The higher roll goes first on their turn.

Training Time

With limited health pools and healing options in the game, it is important that players understand what the general team strategy is. “Table Talk, or “Meta-Gaming" is encouraged in SURGE!, but within the following guidelines: GMs should effectively freeze time in the game universe and provide a limited time span, usually two to three minutes, in which the party is timed to discuss the strategy going forward.

Stats Used for Attacking

Melee: Martial Combat Skill roll + Strength Level = Attacking (To Hit); Physical Damage from successful hit determined by weapon.

Ranged: Marksmanship roll = Attacking (To Hit); Physical Damage from successful hit determined by weapon.

*See Physical Damage and Magical Damage to see how damage is applied.

Stats Used for Defending

Defending against Melee Attacks. Contest the attacking roll with Martial Combat Skill roll + Strength level.  If donning a shield , apply the applicable modifier.

Defending against physical (non-magic) Ranged Attacks. Also called Dodging.  Contest the attacking roll with a Dexterity roll.  If donning armor, apply the applicable Dexterity modifier.

Defending against Magical attacks. Most spells have a defending roll specified, however spells that do not use the following rules:

1. • A ranged magical spell may be dodged and must be dodged for each attacking action used to keep the spell in place.  For example, if a spell requires the caster's focus to remain in effect, and the defending target is within the spell's area of effect on the tactical map, it must attempt to defend against the spell for each action that the spell remains cast in play.

   • A magical spell that directly effects a target without the ability to dodge it (a typical ranged spells will have an elemental or physical property to it, but there are exceptions - such as spells in the School of The Third Eye), should contest the attacking spell with Mystic Skill roll + Intelligence level.