COMBAT!

~Initiative~

-When combat begins, the player who initiated the combat takes a turn immediately. Once this is done, the gamemaster ranks the combatants in order of their initiative statistic, from highest to lowest, and the first round begins. In each round, the character with the highest initiative goes first, and then each character takes a turn in order of highest to lowest. If there is a tie, the GM decides which character or creature goes first. Once the last character has completed their turn, the round ends, and the character with the highest initiative takes the first turn of the next round. Repeat this sequence until the conflict ends.

~Actions~

I’m getting attacked! Whatever shall I do!
—Well, on your turn in combat, you can attempt one minor action and one major action in any order that suites your fancy. You can buy extra actions using Action Points, but can never take more than two minor and two major actions in the same turn, and never ever ever more than one movement action per turn.

Minor Actions:
—Aim. You may reroll 1d20 on your first attack this round.
—Draw Item. Draw one item carried on your person or pick up an object/item within your reach. You may also put away that object/item as part of this same action.
—Interact. Interact with your equipment or environment in a simple way, like opening a door or pushing a button.
—Move. Movement action. Move up to one zone, to any position within Medium range. Alternatively, stand up from the prime position.
—Take Chem. Administer a dose of a chem that you are holding, targeting yourself or a willing character within your reach. If you’re not holding the chem, then you need to draw it first.

Major Actions:
—Assist. You assist another character with their next test. When the character you are assisting takes their turn and attempts their task, you provide assistance.
—Attack. You make one melee or ranged attack.
—Defend. You focus on protecting yourself. Make an AGI + Athletics test with a difficulty equal to your current Defense. If you succeed, add +1 to your Defense. For 2 AP, add an extra +1 to your Defense.
—First Aid. You try to quickly patch the wounds of yourself or an ally. Make an INT + Medicine test, with a difficulty equal to the number of injuries the patient has, and increase the difficulty by 1 if you are trying to perform first aid on yourself. If you succeed, you can either:
----1. Heal HP equal to your Medicine rating.
----2. Treat one injury the target is suffering from (does not heal the injury).
----3. Stabilize a dying patient.
—Pass. You choose not to do anything. For when you're just not feeling it I guess...
—Rally. You grit your teeth, catch your breath, and prepare yourself. Make an END + Survival test with a difficulty of 0, and save any Action Points you generate. The GM may allow you to use a different attribute + skill for this action depending on how you describe it, such as CHA + Speech to inspire your allies.
—Ready. Describe a situation you expect to occur, and choose a major action you will perform when it does. If that action occurs before the start of your next turn, you may perform that major action immediately, interrupting other characters’ actions as necessary. If more than one character has readied an action for the same situation, their readied actions occur in initiative order.
—Sprint. Movement action. You move up to two zones, to anywhere within Long range.
—Test. Perform a skill test for an action not covered by any other actions, with the GM’s permission.

~Making an Attack~

Feel like shooting something in the face? Or smacking something with that giant stick of yours? Well here’s how to do it!

1. Choose Weapon and Target.
—Select one weapon you are currently wielding. Then, select a single character, creature, or object as the target. If you’re using a melee weapon, the target must be visible to you and within your reach. If you’re using a ranged weapon, the target must be visible to you.
——Choose Hit Location. You may choose to target a specific part of the target creature or character. This increases the difficulty of the attack by 1.

2. Attempt a Test. The test is determined by the weapon used, and the difficulty is the target's Defense:
—Melee weapon. STR + Melee Weapons.
—Ranged weapons. AGI + Small Guns, PER + Energy Weapons, or END + Big Guns. The difficulty is modified by the range to the target.
—Thrown Weapons. PER + Explosives or AGI + Thrown Weapons. The difficulty is modified by the range to the target.
—Unarmed. STR + Unarmed.

3. Determine Hit Location. If you passed your test, roll 1d20 to determine the part of the target you hit. If you chose a specific hit location already, you hit the chosen location instead.

4. Inflict Damage. Roll a number of Combat Dice (dF) listed by the weapon’s damage rating, plus any bonuses from derived statistics, or from AP or ammo spent. Reduce the target’s health points by the total rolled.
—Resistances. The target reduces the total damage inflicted by their Damage Resistance against the attack’s damage type, on the location hit. Characters and creatures have different DRs for different types of damage and for each target location: physical, energy, radiation, and poison, and head, torso, arms, legs, wings, etc.

5. Reduce Ammunition. If you made a ranged attack, remove one shot of ammunition, plus any additional shots of ammunition spent on the attack. If you made a thrown weapon attack, remove the thrown weapon from your inventory.

~Combat Dice (dF)~

The book uses a little icon for the combat dice, but I’ll call them dF, for dFallout.

To roll a dF, roll a d6. The damage inflicted/effects triggered depends on what you roll.
1 ~ 1 point of damage.
2 ~ 2 points of damage.
3 ~ No effect. (0 points of damage for this die)
4 ~ No effect. (0 points of damage for this die)
5 ~ 1 point of damage and triggers all effects.
6 ~ 1 point of damage and triggers all effects.It's a little clunky, I know.

~Increasing Damage~

For melee weapons (including unarmed attacks and thrown weapons), each Action Point (AP) you spend adds +1dF to roll in your damage dice pool. You can spend up to 3 AP to increase your dice pool by up to +3dF. You can only spend AP you have saved in the group pool or generated with your attack: you cannot generate AP for the gamemaster to use this AP option.

For ranged weapons, each unit of ammunition you spend adds +1dF to roll in your damage dice pool. You can spend ammunition up to the gun’s fire rate. For example, a 10mm pistol has a fire rate of 2, so you can spend 2 additional 10mm bullets to increase the Combat Dice pool. An Institute laser rifle has a fire rate of 3, so you can spend up to 3 charges from a fusion cell to increase its Combat Dice pool. You can make this choice after attempting the skill test and determining whether you hit or not.

~Hit Locations~

There are 6 body parts that can be targeted as hit locations: head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg (some limbs are replaced for certain creatures, like wings on a bloatfly). When you successfully hit an opponent with an attack, you either randomly determine which body part you hit, or you hit the body part you chose before you made the test (this, however, increases the difficulty of the test, remember). Use the Hit Locations table below for reference.

Die Roll(d20): Hit Location
1-2: Head
3-8: Torso
9-11: Left Arm
12-14: Right Arm
15-17: Left Leg
18-20: Right Leg

~Range~

Ranged and thrown weapons can be used to attack any target you can see, but they vary in effectiveness depending on how far away the target is from you. Ranged weapons have an ideal range noted in their profile (just listed as Range), which is based on the relative distance between the attacker and the target, using the zones of the combat environment. A weapon’s ideal range is one of the following:

Close(C ): Targets in the same zone.
Medium (M): Targets in an adjacent zone.
Long (L): Targets two zones away.
Extreme (X): Targets three or more zones away.

The difficulty of a ranged attack increases by one for each range band outside of the weapon’s ideal range, whether closer or further away—a long sniper’s rifle is deadly at Long ranges, but awkward and unwieldy in close quarters, while a pistol is great at Close range but less useful at longer distances.Ranged Attacks when Within Reach:
Being in reach of an enemy is disruptive to ranged attacks and tests, adding +2 to the difficulty of any test that isn’t a melee attack.

~Critical Hits, Injuries, and Dying~

A critical hit occurs whenever a character suffers five or more damage in one hit (after reductions from Damage Resistance). A critical hit imposes an injury on the character, which confers a penalty depending on the location hit. Injuries last until the injury has received medical attention.

When your character is reduced to 0 HP, they suffer an injury to the location struck, and then fall prone and start dying. If they suffer a critical hit and are reduced to 0 HP, they suffer two injuries: one for the critical hit, and one for being reduced to 0 HP. While they are dying, they are unconscious, can not recover HP from the First Aid action, and cannot take any actions. Furthermore, at the start of each of your turns while they’re dying, you must attempt an END + Survival test, with a difficulty equal to the number of injuries they have, and a complication range of 19-20. If you pass this test, they remain alive, but are still dying. If you fail, they die. If they suffer any damage while dying, they immediately gain one additional injury, in addition to any injury caused by another critical hit.

~Healing in Combat~

During a combat encounter, you can use the following
methods to restore health and treat injuries.

--Take Chem: A number of chems, most commonly
stimpaks, can be used in a hurry in combat to
restore health points. Taking the minor action
allows you to administer the chem to yourself, or to
a willing creature within your reach.
--First Aid: You try to quickly patch the wounds of
yourself or an ally. Attempt an INT + Medicine
test, with a difficulty equal to the number of injuries the patient has, increasing the difficulty by +1
if you are trying to perform first aid on yourself. If
you succeed, you can do one of the following:
----Stabilize a dying patient
----Heal Health Points equal to your Medicine rating
----Treat one injury the patient is suffering from

(will explain each later when it comes up)

~Radiation Damage~

Radiation damage is applied differently than other damage types. Each point of radiation damage, after reduction for the location’s radiation DR, reduces a character’s maximum health points, rather than their current health points. If a character’s health point maximum is reduced below their current health point total, then their current HP are reduced as well.

Radiation damage is only reduced by a target’s radiation Damage Resistance, according to the location hit.

If the radiation would affect the whole body, like an environmental effect, then use the character or creature’s lowest locational radiation DR. In all cases, where a character would suffer radiation damage and another type of damage at the same time, resolve the radiation damage after any other types of damage.Radiation damage can only be removed by administering RadAway, or other chems or consumables that remove radiation damage. When you heal HP and remove radiation damage at the same time, remove the radiation damage first, and then resolve the HP recovery