Combat

We are talking here about physical, putting holes in people, combat. Combat is never easy and always carries risk, but sometimes the only way through is violence.

There are two forms of combat in this system that differ mostly in how pre-meditated they are and the number of participants. In both cases it should always be held in mind that moves and their descriptions cover not single attacks, as in D20 based systems, but entire mini-arcs of descriptive combat that involve back and forth between attacker and defender. This is then resolved by rolling the appropriate move and then, if anyone is still standing, the cycle repeats from there.

Small scale violence

Here we speak of 1v1 fights, spontaneous bar-fights and other random acts of violence. In this case you simply describe the scene as usual and then roll the appropriate move. For engagements at range use Open Fire, if you prefer to get upclose and personal instead use Skirmish

Notice that when you Skirmish you roll the damage move from your opponent before inflicting your own damage. This may seem strange but remember this single move is encompassing an entire fight, not a single swing, and there is always the chance that the chaos of melee will not go your way.

Into Battle!

If the violence is larger in scale, involving multiple participants, or more pre-planned in nature then the GM may declare that we are Going into Battle. This has several effects:

• Some moves specific that they activate whenever you Go into Battle
• The order of things becomes slightly, but only slightly, more formalised
• The Battle Moves become available for use to all characters

To be clear there is no initiative, no order tracker or firm order in which each player goes. We are still narrating the story, only now we are being a little more focused. A battle is a single scene that is further subdivided into segments. Here each segment spans only seconds or minutes of in-world time and typically involves characters executing a specific objective in the fight, along with corresponding reactions from the enemy. Remember you are not rolling to shoot someone once - you are instead rolling to resolve a short narrative segment where you run forward, vault over the stack of crates between you and the enemy exsurgent and empty your clip into the back of their head at point-blank range!

Note that each round may involve one or more moves from each player, and players may have to roll the damage or trauma move more than once if the GM has spent hold on them.

The GM has two special moves that he can use to simulate the escalating tension and danger of a battle. The moves are inflict incidental fire and inflict concentrated fire. The GM may use these moves at the end of any round of battle, against any PC, as appropriate according to the narrative. In general, the GM should inflict incidental fire in the first couple of rounds, and inflict concentrated fire in later rounds, but if a PC does something particularly brave or foolhardy, the GM is encouraged to unleash whatever incoming harm the PC deserves.

Incidental Fire

When the GM inflicts incidental fire, the PC rolls the damage move or trauma move (as appropriate to the nature of the fire) and is +boosted on the roll.

Concentrated Fire

When the GM inflicts concentrated fire, the PC rolls the damage move or trauma move without modifier, as normal.

A note on ranges

There are five ranges in the game; gear, weapons and moves will often have tags that identify at which ranges they may be used. The ranges, nearest to farthest, are:

• Intimate
• Hand
• Close
• Close/far
• Far

These are not hard ranges measured in any particular way. Instead they relate to the narrative distance between individuals and so are subject to some variation due to circumstance. Guidance is given below.

Intimate

She can bring it to bear only when she’s very close to her target or subject, close enough to hold, kiss or grapple him. Arm’s reach isn’t close enough.

Hand

She can bring it to bear only when she’s within arm’s reach of her target or subject.

Close

She can bring it to bear only she she’s pretty close to her target or subject. If they could call to one another and have a shouted conversation, they’re close enough.

Close/far

She can bring it to bear at both close and far range.

Far

She can bring it to bear only when she’s pretty far from her target or subject. If she can see the whites of his eyes, they’re too close together.