Combat

The Tarafore system was originally designed to attempt a slightly more realistic form of combat, though it still carries its inspirations from other systems available at the time. Ultimately, as a game, it still relies on a turn-based system, but it attempts to take into factors other games might ignore (or those that were more ignored at the time this was originally designed in 1999). The basics, however, will likely be familiar to most who have played other games, with some mechanical differences.

Rounds

Every round lasts three seconds. Any action possible within three seconds is allowable so long as the character has the ability to perform it. Every character on the field of battle will be able to go during a turn unless they have been affected by something to cause them to be unable to act.

Turns

A turn is just the single character's turn during a round of combat. Actions taken on a turn are considered to happen nearly simultaneously to other actions happening on other character's turns, but they may still react to anything being done before their turn in the round.

Initiative

Initiative is determined by a roll of a character's Reaction score. Reaction is a substat of either AWA or PRO. Which stat it falls under is up to the player, but the guideline is that it is what makes most sense for the character. A character who relies upon their wits or is very aware will use AWA, while a warrior might usually use PRO. The easiest way to determine this is to look at which score is higher, but if a player thinks it makes sense for their character to have a slower reaction or rely on their perception or their combat instincts more, they may choose the lower. They may also have a substat of Reaction under PRO or AWA that is different from the base if it makes sense for their character.

Initiative is rolled every round, but the GM may choose to simply keep the same initiatives from the first round if that makes their life easier.

Negative Initiative

In rare instances, a character may have penalties that drop their initiative roll below 0. In these instances, they do not go in the round, but are dropped to the next round with the previous penalty ignored and a new penalty of how much below zero they rolled. This is extremely rare.

Edges

Some edges may affect initiative, such as giving a character the high die on initiative/Reaction rolls or even having them be especially slow to react, forcing them not to act for the first round, but giving them either bonuses or extra tokens.

Actions

Any action that can be done in three seconds is fair game. Below are just some of the most common actions. Unless the character has some special feature to give them more actions per turn, they only have one action per turn.

Movement

All characters capable of movement may use their base movement, determined by their ATH, for free during a turn. If they choose to move more than this, that takes their action for the turn.

Communication

Communication is a free action, like base movement, but must be something that takes three seconds or less to say. This is very much at the GM's discretion. Full conversations may end up taking up a full action, if the players choose to engage in it, but if a character shouts something at another character, the other character may respond even if it is not their turn if the response is brief. This allows for coordination throughout the combat, but unless they use some special means to communicate, the enemy can probably hear them as well.

Attack

In combat, the most common move is attacking the enemy. There are many attack types, but of the basic physical attacks are melee (hand-to-hand) and ranged (throwing, archery, firearms, etc.). For magical attacks, please consult the specific magical abilities, powers, or spells for how they work, as they are extremely varied.

Melee

A melee attack is possible if the character is close to their target. Range is usually about 5'-10', with some spears and polearms having a little more reach. This is usually a simple PRO roll against the ATH or PRO of the target. See the attack roll chart below for more information. Damage is determined by a roll of STR plus weapon bonus plus any bonus for the success of the hit (see chart below). Damage is rolled for both stun and wound. See Combat Damage for more information.

Feint

On a melee attack, a character may attempt to feint - to make a false attack to make the target vulnerable to a real one - on their turn. This is may be PRO or STH, whichever is more relevant or higher, against the AWA of the target. If the target succeeds, no penalty occurs. If the target fails, their failure rate gives bonuses in the next round to the character's attack. A tie means +1, normal success +3, special +5, exceptional +7, critical +9.

Dodge, Parry, Block

If the target rolls ATH, it is a dodge. They may have a substat for higher or lower dodge. If the target rolls PRO, they may have the chance for a counter attack on a special or better success to parry. They may have a substt for higher or lower parrying. They may also roll to block if they have a shield, cloak, or other piece of armor that allows safe blocking. If they roll blocking without armor, they will still risk being injured, but at reduced damage. They may have a substat for higher or lower blocking, and if they have a shield or cloak, they may have automatic bonuses to block.

Ranged

Ranged attacks are distance attacks, usually done with a bow, firearm, sling, cannon, or a thrown weapon. Every weapon has a different range, but throwing weapons usually have range based on STR plus a bonus from the design of the weapon.

Thrown attacks are the same as melee in terms of damage - STR plus weapon bonus. Other ranged weapons will have a damage score associated with them, usually four numbers divided by slashes: 1/2/3/4. This represents the damage on a normal, special, exceptional, and critical hit.

Called Shots

A character may make a called shot against a target to specify what part of the target they are trying to hit. They take a penalty to their roll to hit them (PRO or ranged skill, usually), but automatically get a certain kind of hit success based on what they targeted. No called shot is an automatic critical hit, but if the called shot succeeds exceptionally or critically, it will elevate to a critical hit.

Usually, a called shot is to the head, heart, neck, or some other vulnerable spot. On an average human, the penalty to hit the head or neck is -3. An exact hit on the heart is -6. An eye shot is -6. See the chart below for general penalties and the effect of targeting a specific spot:

Target	Penalty	Hit	Effect
Finger/toe	-6	Graze	Digit loss on special wound
Foot/hand	-5	Normal hit	Limb loss on special wound
Arm/leg	-2	Normal hit	Limb loss on special wound
Belly/abdomen	-1	Normal hit	+3 to stun, organ damage on exceptional wound
Chest	-1	Normal hit	Broken ribs on special wound
Heart	-6	Exceptional hit	Broken ribs on special wound, permanent heart damage on special wound
Lung	-4	Special hit	+6 stun, organ damage on exceptional wound
Kidney	-4	Special hit	+4 stun, organ damage on exceptional wound
Shoulder	-2	Normal hit	Extra penalties to PRO on special wound
Knee/elbow	-4	Normal hit	Extra penalties to ATH/PRO (knee/elbow) on special wound
Midsection/rear	-3	Normal hit	Only fatal on critical wound
Genitalia	-4	Special hit	+5 stun, permanent loss/damage on exceptional wound
Lower back	-2	Special hit	Spinal damage on special wound
Upper back	-2	Normal hit	Spinal damage on exceptional wound
Lower spine	-2	Exceptional hit	Spinal damage on normal wound
Upper spine	-2	Special hit	Spinal damage on special wound
Neck	-3	Exceptional hit	If frontal, vocal damage on special wound; if rear, spinal damage on normal wound
Head	-3	Exceptional hit	Fatal on double exceptional
Mouth	-6	Special hit	Comminication damage or taste penalties on exceptional wound
Nose	-5	Special hit	+3 stun, nose loss on exceptional wound
Nostril	-7	Exceptional hit	Gross, +3 stun, nose loss on special wound
Eye	-6	Exceptional hit	Blindness on special wound
Ear	-6	Exceptional hit	Deafness on special wound, ear loss on exceptional wound
Temple	-6	Exceptional hit	+3 wound
Carotid, jugular, femoral, etc.	-7	Exceptional hit	Rate of blood loss goes up one wound level

Unmoving Targets

Unmoving targets roll dodge at a score based on their size of both the tool used to hit them and the target

Size	Dodge score	Weapon size modifier
Tiny (speck, mote, mite, flea)	22	+9 per size
Very small (penny, ant)	16	+7 per size
Small (cat, bread box)	10	+5 per size
Below average (dog, child)	4	+3 per size
Average (adult human, common door)	0	+1 per size
Above average (tall human, gorilla, couch)	-1	n/a
Large (horse, bear, automobile)	-3	n/a
Very large (elephant, large truck)	-6	n/a
Huge (small building, whale)	-9	n/a
Massive (large building, your least favorite person's ego)	-12	n/a

Called shots on unmoving targets simply consider the size of the actual target - i.e., a called shot to the head of an unmoving adult human is a small target, not an average one. Living things are considered unmoving only if they are unconscious.

Stealth Attacks

Stealth attacks gain bonuses to hit (either to PRO, ranged attack skill, or other relevant skill, ability, or power). Usually they give +6 to hit. The target is not considered unmoving because so long as they are conscious, they will notice the attack at the last instant and have a chance to move.

Attack Rolls

All melee or thrown attacks default to prowess. Any missile attacks are a skill - firearms, archery, etc. If the character has no skill in a missile weapon, they roll awareness as the default, but with a penalty (usually between -3 and -6, depending on the weapon being used). If the character has a higher AWA than PRO, they may take a turn to aim a thrown weapon and roll AWA for a bonus to PRO the next round. They may do this for a missile weapon even if their skill is lower than their AWA.

When a character attacks, they roll their PRO or relevant substat or skill against the target's athleticism/dodge or PRO/block/parry. The following chart explains the results of such a contest:

Roll	Description	Parry Result	Block Result	Dodge Result	Damage modifier
10 or more below target	Critical failure	Attack is parried, target may counter attack with a special maneuver or take a single full action	Attack is blocked, melee weapon might break, missile may ricochet, if unarmored, no damage roll necessary	Attack is dodged, missile may ricochet	None
7-9 below target	Exceptional failure	Attack is parried, target may counter attack with a special maneuver	Attack is blocked, target may attempt disarm if in melee, if unarmored, roll damage -12	Attack is dodged	None
4-6 below target	Special failure	Attack is parried, target may counter attack	Attack is blocked, if unarmored, roll damage -9	Attack is dodged	None
1-3 below target	Normal failure	Attack is parried	Attack is blocked, if unarmored, roll damage -6	Attack is dodged	None
Tie	Tie	Grazing hit	Grazing hit	Grazing hit	-3/-3
1-3 above target	Normal success	Normal hit	Normal hit	Normal hit	None
4-6 above target	Special success	Special hit	Special hit	Special hit	+3/+3
7-9 above target	Exceptional success	Exceptional hit	Exceptional hit	Exceptional hit	+6/+6
10 or more above target	Critical success	Critical hit	Critical hit	Critical hit	+9/+9

Held Actions

Any character may choose not to act in a round, holding their turn. If they hold their action, they may act any time after their initiative. If they choose to hold their action after the end of the round, they can continue holding their action or reenter initiative, depending on the GM's discretion.

Reaction

A held action may be done with a specific reaction in mind. The player may declare as they hold their action their intent to act when a specific event happens, such as after another character's turn, to interrupt the attack of a specific character, or in response to any other attack, defense, or event during the combat that their character may reasonably expect or perceive. If they intend to react to something specific, they may roll AWA vs. the STH of the character performing the action to gain a bonus to their reaction if it is an interaction with that character.

Interruption

If a character is interrupting the action of another character with their action, they roll Reaction vs. Reaction to see if they are successful in their interruption. If they succeed, they take their interrupting action and roll the relevant scores to attempt the interruption. If their action can feasibly prevent the intended action of their target. For example, if their attempt to interrupt is to trip the character, it will prevent the action if they succeed on their PRO roll. If they attempt to interrupt by singing a song, they may roll PRS to see if it distracts the character. But if they try to interrupt with something that could not reasonably prevent the action, they may perform the action, but it won't have an effect.

Support Actions

A character may support the actions of another character on their turn or with a held action. The effect of this depends on how they choose to support - they may create a distraction (PRS vs. AWA against the target), feint (STH or PRO vs. AWA), simultaneously attack (giving the one they are supporting bonuses while they roll normally; bonuses are determined by the success of their attack - failed attacks do not give bonuses), try to trip or grapple, etc. Any potential action that may give support is on the table, as per GM's discretion.

Multiactions

If a character wants to perform two actions in one turn, they can attempt to do so with GM's discretion and only if their PRO, ATH, or AWA are higher than 14. They take -6 to the second action, and another -3 for every subsequent action attempted, capping when one of their stats hits 0 based on penalties, even if it is not a relevant stat. This does not apply to movement - they cannot take a third movement in a round after their total movement and movement action are taken unless they have a power, ability, item, or skill that allows for it - unless their ATH is over 25.

Medicine

Characters with medical skills, first aid, or similar skills may take their turn to attempt to help an injured, stunned, or unconscious character. Those who have magical healing should refer to their magic instructions for how to help, but mundane medical skills operate as such:

Status	Difficulty	Normal Success	Higher Success
Flesh wound	2	Small bandage	n/a
Normal stun (Lose next action)	3	Snaps them out of it	n/a
Normal wound	4	Moderate bandage, reduced penalty	Penalty is gone
Special stun (stun condition)	6	Snaps them out of it	n/a
Deep/special wound	8	Staunched bloodflow, reduced penalty	Stitching, more reduced or no penalty
Exceptional stun (unconscious)	11	Wakes them up but still LNA	Quicker recovery, no LNA
Exceptional/mortal wound	14	Staunched bloodflow	Stitching, more reduced or no penalty
Broken bone	16	Cast or similar, reduced penalty	Reduced penalty
Lost body part	17	Staunched bloodflow, reduced penalty	Stitching, reduced penalty, reattachment not possible during combat
Critical stun (unconscious/brain damage)	19	Wakes them up, LNA two rounds	Quicker recovery, no LNA, and reduced damage
Critical wound	20	Staunched bloodflow	Stitching, reduced penalty
Coma	22	Wakes them up into Stun condition	Quicker recovery and reduced damage

Magic

Use of magic during combat is very common. Refer to the individual magic effects, spells, abilities, or powers listed in occupations, species, or other places.

Terrain

Terrain can affect combat significantly. High ground and low ground have impacts, as do barriers, rough terrain, and other parts of the landscape. A woodland will provide a lot of cover, a wetland will be hard to move through, and running water can complicate matters.

Rough terrain slows movement to half speed unless the character takes an action to roll ATH to move more easily across it; if they do this, they do not have to reroll for that specific section of rough terrain again during the battle. Some rough terrain includes loose sand, cracked earth or stone, rocky ground, thicket, tall grass, muddy ground, etc.

Wet, muddy, or otherwise slippery ground must be traverse carefully. This makes it rough terrain. If the character walks over it, they must roll ATH to see if they slip and fall. If they are moving slowly (half-speed), they roll against a difficulty of 5; if they are moving at regular speed, the difficulty is 8; if they are running or moving quickly, it is 11; the faster they go, the harder it is.

Still or slow water will slow characters if it comes above their ankles. Above the ankles is 3/4 speed. Above the knees is half speed. Above the waist is 1/4 speed. Above the chest is 1/8 speed. If the character can swim, they can swim if it is above the waist, but they must use an action to switch to swimming and to switch out. Water deeper than that must be swum through unless the character is super heavy and can walk underwater; this will be up to the GM, but usually means golems, meleks, living metal, or other beings made of non-flesh materials.

If a character attacks from high ground, they take the high die against their opponent. If they attack from low ground, they take low die.

Visibility

Smoke, fog, mist, darkness, and obstacles can reduce visibility. This can give bonuses to STH, penalties to PRO or ranged skills, and allow for surprise attacks. The characters may take a turn to roll AWA or perception to try to notice things in low-visibility areas. Difficulty is based on how hard it is to see - a minor haze is 5, a full moon night is 7, a moderate mist is 8, a starry night is 10, a thick fog is 11, pitch darkness is 14.

Cover

Terrain or the combat area may have objects or obstacles that provide cover. Trees in woodlands or swamps, rocks in mountains and rocky terrain, furniture inside buildings, signage and vehicles on the street, anything can be cover if it's bigger than your character. A character gains +3 bonuses to dodge (not parry or block) when behind cover. If the cover does not completely hide them, they may still get a smaller +1 bonus if it covers at least a fourth of their body.

Hiding

If there is cover to hide behind, under, in, or otherwise make oneself unseen, one may spend a turn to roll STH to hide. If no cover exists, they may try to hide via PRS - to stand still and blend in. The latter is much harder, and anyone who is not practiced in this takes low die or -3 on an attempt. Basic STH rolls are rolled normally. If a character moves to cover without taking action to roll STH, the penalties cover gives them account for the obscuring that occurs.

Escape

If a character is trying to escape a fight, they must get out of the range of perception of all of their enemies and remain there for at least a round to officially be escaped. If their enemy is following them on a map, it is a matter of movement, but if the GM and players are using theatre of the mind, they may roll ATH vs. ATH to get away from one another. They may also employ STH to hide to escape battle.