Playing the Game

This section details what player character's can potentially do with their turn to influence the world in and out of combat.

Running
In combat, running is just a series of Move maneuvers. Your running speed is equal to your Basic Speed score, plus Running skill bonus, plus a one yard per second “sprint bonus” if you are running in a straight line for more than one turn. This is modified downward by encumbrance. When figuring long-distance speed (i.e., for runs of a few hundred yards, as opposed to combat movement), do not round down your Speed. A Basic Speed of 5.5 would let you run 65 yards in 10 seconds, if you were unencumbered.

Jumping
Usually, when you want to jump over something, the GM should say “OK, you jumped over it,” and get on with play. In combat, jumping over an “ordinary” obstacle costs 1 extra yard of movement but is automatically successful. Only when the obstacle seems really significant should you resort to math to see if the character can actually make the jump!

The maximum distance you can jump is determined by your ST score, as follows: High jump: (3×ST)-10 inches. Add 2 feet to the above if you have 4 yards for a running start. Standing broad jump: (ST-3) feet. Running broad jump: As above, but add 1 foot for every yard of “takeoff” distance, up to double your standing broad jump distance. Jumping Skill: If you have this skill, you may substitute your skill level for ST in the height and distance formulas above.

Climbing
To climb anything more difficult than a ladder, a Climbing roll is required. One roll is required to start the climb, with a further roll every five minutes; a failed roll means you fall. Modifiers to the roll depend on the difficulty of the climb – see the table below. Your encumbrance level is also subtracted from your Climbing skill.

Lifting and Moving Things
In general, the GM may let characters lift whatever they need to, without die rolls; but when very heavy weights are involved, a check against ST may be needed. The maximum weight you can lift is governed by ST.


 * One-Handed Lift: 6×ST pounds.


 * Two-Handed Lift: 25×ST pounds.


 * Carry on Back: 30×ST pounds. Thus, you can carry more than you can lift by yourself. (Note that every second you carry more than 20×ST pounds, you lose one fatigue point; see p. 29.)


 * Shove and Knock Over: 25×ST pounds, or 50×ST pounds with a running start.


 * Shift Slightly: 100×ST pounds. Drag: On a rough surface, you can drag only about as much as you can carry. If you are dragging something on a smooth, level surface, halve its effective weight.


 * Pull on Wheels: As for dragging, but divide effective weight by 10 for a two-wheeled cart, or by 20 for a good, four-wheeled wagon. Halve effective weight again if it is being pulled on a good road.


 * Picking Things Up in Combat: In combat, a light item is picked up with the Ready maneuver, which takes 1 second. It takes 2 seconds to pick up a heavy item (weight in pounds greater than your ST).

Throwing Things
Anything you can lift – i.e., anything with a weight of 25 × your ST or less – can be thrown. To hit a target, roll against DX-3 or Throwing skill. To lob something into a general area, roll against Throwing or DX. The distance you can throw an object depends on its weight and your ST. Find the weight nearest to that of the object on the table below, then multiply the distance listed there by your ST to get the distance, in yards, that you can throw it.


 * Throwing Skill: If you have the Throwing skill, divide it by 6 (round down) and add the result to your ST to determine how far you can throw something.


 * Throwing Things in Combat: Throwing an object during combat (whether as an attack or not) requires the Attack maneuver (p. 25). You must pick it up first, as described above. To see if you hit, roll against the Throwing skill or an appropriate Thrown Weapon skill.

If something weighs more than 25 times your ST, forget the formula – you can’t throw it! If you are hit by a (blunt) thrown object, the damage it does depends on its weight and the ST with which it was thrown.

Swimming
Swimming short distances, your Move is equal to 1 /10 your Swimming skill (round down), minimum 1 yard per second. Over long distances, the number of yards you swim in 10 seconds equals your Swimming skill minus twice your encumbrance. Swimming long distances can cause fatigue.

Make a Swimming roll when you enter the water, and again every 5 minutes. Subtract twice your encumbrance level, and add 3 if you entered the water intentionally. Fat characters (p. 5) get a bonus here. If you fail this roll, lose one point of fatigue (p. 29) and roll again in 5 seconds, and so on until you reach ST 0 and drown, get rescued, or make the roll. If you recover, roll again in 1 minute. If you make that roll, go back to rolling every 5 minutes.

Swimming skill can be used to rescue a drowning person. Make a Swimming roll at -5, plus or minus the difference in ST between you and the person you are rescuing.

Travel
Distance traveled in a day, either on foot or horseback, is a direct function of your encumbrance. Under ideal travel conditions, a party in good shape may plan on traveling the following distances in one day’s march:


 * No encumbrance: 50 miles


 * Light encumbrance: 40 miles


 * Medium encumbrance: 30 miles


 * Heavy encumbrance: 20 miles


 * Extra heavy encumbrance: 10 miles

A party’s speed is equal to the speed of its slowest member. Whatever your daily mileage, you will spend about the same amount of time traveling. But the heavier your load and the worse the traveling conditions, the more slowly you will walk and the more frequently you will stop to rest. Parties with mechanical transport will move at that transport’s best speed, depending on the terrain.

Sense Roll
Sense rolls include Vision rolls, Hearing rolls, and Taste/Smell rolls. All Sense rolls are made against the character’s IQ. The Alertness advantage is a bonus to all Sense rolls.

Vision

 * To see something small or hidden, make a Vision roll with a bonus equal to your level of Acute Vision (if any). The GM may make this roll easier or harder for things that are more or less well-hidden. Partial darkness can give from -1 to -9. A nearsighted person has -6 to Vision rolls for items farther away than 3 feet; a farsighted person has -6 on Vision rolls for things within 3 feet. Blind characters, or those in total darkness, can see nothing

Hearing

 * To hear a faint sound, roll against IQ with a bonus equal to your level of Acute Hearing, if any; Hard of Hearing gives -4. The GM may make this roll easier or harder, depending on the loudness of the sound, surrounding noises, and so on. Once a sound is heard, a regular IQ roll may be required to understand its significance. Deaf characters can hear nothing.

Smelling and Tasting

 * These are two manifestations of the same sense. To notice an odor or a taste, roll vs. IQ with a bonus equal to your level of Acute Smell/Taste, if any. In some cases, the GM may require a separate IQ roll to understand the significance of a smell or taste that everyone notices.

Will Rolls
When someone is faced with a frightening situation, or needs to overcome a mental disadvantage, the GM should require a Will roll. Normally, Will is equal to IQ, so this is just an IQ roll. However, if the character has the Strong Will advantage or the Weak Will disadvantage, this is added to or subtracted from IQ.

On a successful Will roll, the character overcomes his fear, bad impulse, or whatever. On a failed roll, he is frightened or gives in to the “lower impulse,” whatever that is. Any Will roll of 14 or over is an automatic failure (this does not apply to Will rolls made to resist influence skills and mind control).

Combat
As violent and dangerous as it may be, combat is a staple of adventure stories, and PCs are very likely to end up fighting at some point. Here is a simple system for resolving such conflicts:

Combat Turn Sequence
Characters act one at a time, until they have all taken a turn; then they start over. The sequence in which they act is set as follows: Before combat begins, compare the Move scores of all characters. The highest Move goes first, the second-highest Move score goes next, and so on. In case of ties, the highest Basic Speed goes first; here is where a 5.5 is better than a 5.25, for instance. If anyone is still tied, roll dice to see who goes first. Your turn starts when you choose a maneuver, and ends when you choose your next maneuver – that is, after all other characters have acted once. Each turn represents one second of real time.

Maneuvers
Start each turn by choosing any one of the following maneuvers. The maneuver you choose will also affect your defenses if you are attacked before your next turn. You do not select a defense until you are actually attacked – but the maneuver you choose will govern the defenses you can use.

Move

 * Move, and do nothing else (except for a “free” action – see below). You may use any legal active defense. Movement and special actions are wholly abstract; no gameboard is required.* If a detail about movement is important (“How long will it take me to run across the room and grab the jewel?”), the GM decides. The number of yards you can run per second is equal to your Move score.

Change Position

 * Go from standing to prone, kneeling to standing, or any other position change. (It takes two turns to go from prone to standing: first you kneel, then you stand.) Exception: You can go from kneeling to standing, or vice versa, and attack on the same turn. You can use any defense on the turn you change position. The following table summarizes the effects of various positions on combat:

Ready

 * Ready any weapon or other item. Any weapon is “unready” if it is in its scabbard or holster. An axe, mace or other heavy weapon becomes “unready” when you swing it; it must be readied again before each use! Some weapons must be “readied” for more than one second after each use. You can parry with a weapon, or block with a shield, as soon as you have readied it – that is, on the same turn! You can also use any other legal active defense on the turn when you ready an item.


 * Exception: If you are “readying” a missile weapon by reloading it, your only defense is to dodge – and if you dodge, you lose the benefit of that turn of reloading. Note that, even if you are ambidextrous, you cannot ready one weapon on the same turn you attack with another.

Reload

 * Use the “Ready” maneuver to reload a missile weapon. This takes several turns. With a sling, for instance, you need a second to “ready” the rock, and a second to put the rock in the sling. If you don’t aim, you can fire on the third second. Crossbows take much longer. First you must cock the bow – this takes 2 seconds for a bow of your ST, or more for a heavier bow. Then you must ready the arrow (1 turn) and load the bow (1 turn). Some sample reload times:


 * Sling: 2 seconds to reload – can be fired every 3 seconds.


 * Bow: 2 seconds to reload – can be fired every 3 seconds.


 * Crossbow (your ST or less): 4 seconds to cock and reload – can be fired every 5 seconds. If ST is up to 2 greater than yours: 8 seconds to cock and reload – can be fired every 9 seconds.


 * Guns: Changing magazines for a replaceable magazine gun takes 3 seconds. Revolvers take 3 seconds of preparation, plus one additional second for each round loaded.

Aim

 * Aim a ready ranged weapon at a specific target. You must name your target. Your attack is at -4 if you use a ranged weapon without aiming unless your effective skill is at least equal to the weapon’s Snap Shot number. If you aim for 1 turn, your attack is at your normal skill level plus the weapon’s Accuracy modifier (also on the Weapon Tables). You may aim for up to 3 more turns, getting a further +1 bonus for each additional turn you aim. You can use any defense while aiming... but it spoils your aim and you lose all the accumulated benefits. If you are injured while aiming, you must make your Will roll or lose your aim.

Attack

 * Attack any foe with your ready weapon. The GM always has the option of ruling (for any reason having to do with the situation) that some combatants may not attack certain foes. If the battle is in close quarters, bows and similar missile weapons should only be allowed one shot each – then the fight will go to hand weapons.


 * You may parry (with a ready weapon), block (with a ready shield) or dodge on the same turn you attack.

All-Out Attack

 * Attack any foe with hands, feet, or a ready hand weapon. You have three choices:


 * 1) Make two attacks against the same foe, if you have two ready weapons, or one weapon that does not have to be readied after use;


 * 1) Make a single attack, at a +4 bonus to your skill!


 * 1) Make one attack, at normal skill, doing +2 damage if you hit. However, if you choose any form of all-out attack, you may make no active defenses at all until your next turn!

All-Out Defense

 * Defend yourself; do nothing else this turn. If you fail your defense roll against any attack, you may try another (different) defense – in other words, you get two defense rolls, using two different active defenses against the same attack. You are limited to two blocks and two parries per turn when you choose All-Out Defense, and you can’t parry twice with a weapon that becomes unready after a parry.

Long Action

 * This is a “generic” choice that allows for one second’s worth of any multi-second action (picking a lock, for instance, or defusing a bomb). The GM decides how many turns each “long action” will take. As a rule, no defense except dodging is possible during a long action, but the GM can vary this as he sees fit. Any sort of defense may also interfere with whatever you are trying to do.

Free Action

 * Things you can do during any maneuver, including


 * talking


 * dropping a weapon or other object


 * and crouching down behind cover (not kneeling).