User:TheFairyKing/sandbox

Fighting in the post-nuclear wasteland
"Violence never solved anything" so the old saying goes, and while it certainly can't solve everything, it can certainly solve most problems this side of the Apocalypse. Inevitably, whether your party wants to or not, they'll get into a fight, and this section details the mechanics and options of combat players have.

Initiative
Time is combat is divided into turns (generally considered six seconds long). During each turn, characters can take multiple actions of their choice by spending Action Points (AP). This total amount of AP refreshes at the beginning of each turn, and unspent points do not carry over.

Fights are not often stared fairly or obviously, so in the case that one or more combatants initiate an encounter without the other side being fully prepared, the combatant(s) initiating combat get a full turn of actions before their opponents can respond. After those actions are over, or when combat is initiated in a situation where all opponents are combat-ready, then initiative is rolled. Whether or not combatants(s) are able to foresee an ambush like this ahead of time, is an opposed Perception roll VS. the Sneak skill of the ambushing party. Any character that succeeds against this Sneak check, does not lose their first turn and may roll initiative immediately.

Initiative rolls are 1d10 + AGI + PER. Whoever has the highest roll acts first, the combatant with the second-highest roll acts second, and so forth, continuing until every party with initiative has acted. At that point, the turn is over, everyone's AP refreshes, and a new turn begins.

If any combatants roll the same total initiative, the one with the highest Agility acts first. If their Agility scores are identical, the one with the highest Luck acts first. If both combatant's Luck is still identical, they act simultaneously. The Game's Overseer should keep track of the sequence of simultaneous actions. i.e. if a character using an AP 2 weapon is going simultaneously with an enemy throwing an AP 5 Grenade, and the first character deals enough damage to kill the enemy in the first two attacks, then the enemy will die before they had time to arm their Grenade and throw. For ease of gameplay, a Game Master may opt to roll a single initiative for all enemy combatants using the average of their Agility scores.

Attacking
The most common action any combatant will take is simply attacking with their weapon until their foe stops moving. The AP costs for attacking varies wildly depending on the weapon being used, and are listed in the weapon’s description on the Tiered Weapons List. AP COST: Variable

Basic Movement
The Basic Movement action is the most common way to manoeuvre around the battlefield. Terrain conditions can impose a bonus or penalty to the character’s effective Agility for the purpose of movement rates. If moving through snow, for example, they would receive a penalty depending on the depth of the snow. If a character is carrying more than her Carry Weight allows, their effective Agility is reduced to 1. Carrying more than 150% of a character’s Carry Weight allowance will reduce their effective Agility to 0. If a character’s effective Agility is reduced to 0, the character cannot move. AP COST: 1AP for moving (END + [AGI x 2]) in meters.

Dodge
Once a player has decided they completed enough actions, they may use any amount of remaining AP to gain a dodge bonus that last until the start of their next turn. For AP spent this way, your opponents suffer a -15 penalty to hit. You can spend AP this way up to your Effective Agility score. AP COST: 1AP per -15 Penalty imposed.

Reload
Unfortuanley, every gun runs out of ammo eventually, even melee weapons stop working if they have the Powered tag. Replacing those batteries, or slapping in a fresh magazine into your assault rifle takes time, but the amount of AP it takes, depends on the type of Weapon. AP COST: 1AP for single shotguns or guns with clips, drums or speed loaders. AP COST: 2AP for Revolvers, Bolt-Action, Lever-Action, and Pump-Action guns without speed loaders. AP COST: 3AP for Heavy Weapons, and powered Melee weapons

Basic Item Use
Using an item from your inventory, such as a Stimpack or chem, costs 2AP. Readily available items, like equipping holstered items (usually weapons) or worn clothing (like switching hats, or masks) costs 1AP less than the above cost. AP COST: 1AP Equip (weapons) or use Holstered Items AP COST: 2AP Equip (weapons) or use an item stored in inventory

Activate PipBoy Function
Characters who possess a PipBoy may with to activate features of their PipBoys during combat at times. Turning on or off the Pipboy’s light, accessing its Automapping program or any other installed or native program, costs 1 AP. This includes the most common in-combat Pipboy Function, activating the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.). V.A.T.S. acts as a penalty reduction system for the turn it's activated. By defualt, V.A.T.S reduces up to 30 points of penalties per turn, and can be all used for one attack or spread out over many. i.e. The party is being assailed by raiders, and one of them has a Fatman! Not willing to even let the raider get a chance to shoot, Joyce wants to fire her Anti-material rifle at the trigger mechanism on the weapon and cuase it to go off in the raider's hands! Her sniper rifle mean's she would take no range penalties, but attempting to hit such a small part of the weapon, incurs a -70% penalty to her shot. Joyce decided to first activate V.A.T.S. for 1 AP and chooses to use all 30 points of reduction to make the shot at only -50%. Finally, Pipboys included a “heads up display” that allows a character to locate and assess targets. (Alert the wearer of targets within their 5 times their Perception in meters, including hiding creatures that are not completely obstructed by cover(stealth boys count as total cover) Activating the H.U.D. costs 2 AP but will last until turned off. Turning off H.U.D is a 0 AP action. AP COST: 1AP Activate Core Pipboy Function (i.e. V.A.T.S.). AP COST: 2AP Activate Pipboy H.U.D.

Unjam/De-glitch a Weapon
Whenever you critically fail at using most weapons, they jam or freeze, and must be fixed before being used again. Small guns and Big Guns are counted as having been Jammed whereas Energy weapons and Powered Melee weapons count as having been Glitched. While Unjamming a firearm can be difficult, it is often more apparent how to fix than a complex Energy weapon, as such they have different AP cost to fix. AP COST: 2 APTo Unjam a Small Gun or Big Gun. AP COST: 3 APTo De-glicth an Energy weapon or Powered Weapon. In the case of weapon Glitching, Gauss always counts as an Energy weapon.