A DVANCED RANGED COMBAT EXAMPLE

Here is the classic scene from The

Matrix that was mentioned in the

Basic Combat chapter. To keep things simple we assume:

Neo/Trinity guards soldiers

attributes 13 7 9 skill rolls 7d+1 3d+1 5d+0 hits 26 14 18 toughness 4 2 3 stamina 13 7 9 dodge 8* 4* 6*

Neo and Trinity have 5d+0 effective Strength if using martial arts as an enhanced skill (page 3.14). This would give them a punch damage of 4d+0 and a kick damage of 5d+0. Because of the nature of the gameworld, Neo and Trinity have a more-or-less ‘invisible dodge’. Even if they are not visibly bobbing and weaving, they do seem to be harder to hit if they choose to. *Remember that Dodge is only at full value

against one attacker and attacks you can see. Most of the time it will be halved against gunfire. For all the good it did them in this scene, any armor the guards or soldiers had was as effective as soggy tissue paper, so we will act as though they have none. Given the nature of the world, Neo and Trinity probably have Larger than Life (page 3.34), and we will assume that they use ‘best four’ instead of ‘best three’ when rolling 4d+0 or more. Neo is apparently ambidextrous (page 3.27), and this is a major consideration, since he fires two pistols for much of the combat. He also has the Neat Trick (page 3.38)of ‘double draw’. He can, as a single major action, draw a weapon with each hand, a trick he ends up doing several times in this scene.

On Initiative 10 (0m3s), Neo draws a machine pistol with each hand (his previously mentioned neat trick). Drawing a weapon as a major action is a task of Average(7) difficulty on the appropriate skill. This is his second action, but because it is a neat trick it counts penalties like it was his third action, which would be

a -6 penalty. So he would be rolling 5d+1 against an Average(7) difficulty to draw each machine pistol. He is good enough to ‘take 2’s’ (page 2.2)on each and get an automatic success. On Initiative 7 (0m4s), he fires a machine pistol in autofire mode (page 5.10)at the guard on the right. This is a range of 3 meters, which is a difficulty of 6. This is Neo’s fourth major action, so it takes a -3d penalty, dropping his effective skill from 7d+1 to 4d+1. Neo rolls 4d+1 and gets a result of 10, for 3 hits (note that he could have also done a ‘take 2’s’ for a result of 9 and automatically gotten two hits). The machine pistol has a lethal damage of 2d+2 for each hit. The first hit rolls 8 damage, putting the guard past the -1d threshold. This means the second hit only does 1d+2 damage because of the declining damage effect (page 4.19), and gets 5 damage, putting the guard at the -3d threshold. The last hit only does the minimum of 0d+1 damage, but this is a total of 14 hits, which is what the guard has, so even if he had not taken crippling

damage from the first hit, he is now unconscious and bleeding (page 5.27) to death.

Technically, both this shot and the next one were into side arcs for an extra -3 penalty (page 5.9). In practical terms, Neo could have made the first shot into one edge of his side arc (rolling 3d+1 instead of 4d+1) and the following shot into his front arc (at no additional penalty).

Because a few of you are going to watch and re-watch this scene while comparing it to the EABA description, times in parentheses like this (0m22s) will be based on the ‘0m0s point’ at the first (and last) utterance of profanity by the first guard. And if you do not intend to go watch this scene again in an EABA context, you should. TURN1 (turn mod: +0, quantity mod: x1)

Turn length: 1 second

∂

Initiative: It’s an ambush, Neo and Trinity act first as though they had held action (page 4.6), and the guards do not get any major actions until Initiative 0. With an Agility of 13, Neo and Trinity have an effective Initiative of 13, but no

penalty. This means they theoretically can take five major actions before the guards, on

Initiative 13, 10, 7, 4, and 1.

Neo: On Initiative 13 (0m1s) he punches the guard, using a skill roll of 7d+1 against a fairly low difficulty for the guard’s unarmed combat skill, which is 3d+2. Remember that even though they are ambushed, the guards can take reactive minor actions like defending themselves in melee, or making Awareness rolls to gain information on something they could or should be seeing or hearing.

Neo succeeds and plants his palm in the guard’s chest for 4d+0 half-lethal damage. The guard takes 2d+0 non-lethal hits and 2d+0 lethal hits. The non-lethal damage rolls 8 hits. This is more than the guard’s Health, but he subtracts his toughness (page 3.9), so he only takes 6 and this is not crippling damage (page 5.25). The lethal damage does not apply toughness and also rolls 8, which is crippling damage, knocking him out of the fight.

TURN2 (turn mod: +2, quantity mod: x2)

Turn length: 2 seconds

∑

Initiative: Neo and Trinity each declare 8, which means they will lose 8 points off their skill rolls. This guarantees they go first since the guards cannot declare more than their Agility of 7. The

remaining two guards however, do not know this.

They just know that three other guards just went down in an eyeblink. From a game standpoint, they have a skill roll of 3d+2 and need to hit a difficulty of 7 for the range. So, the amount they use for Initiative should be enough to let them reliably hit someone at close range. They each declare 5. This would drop their effective skill to 2d+2 on their first major action (skill roll of 3d+2, -5 for Initiative, +2 for turn mod). Neo: On Initiative 8 (0m9s) he swings the machine pistol from the right and shoots it at a guard on the left. The difficulty is 7 and his adjusted skill roll is 4d+2 (7d+1 skill roll, -8 for Initiative). He rolls a 14 and hits the guard 4 times, each at 2d+2 lethal damage. Even with declining effects (page 4.19)on damage after the first hit, he goes down.

On Initiative 5 (0m10s), both Neo and the remaining guard act (Neo goes first because of higher Agility). The guard is diving for cover and dodging, Neo is shooting at him. The difficulty is 11 (range difficulty of +7, +2 for the guard’s movement and +2 more for the guard’s Dodge). Neo’s adjusted skill roll is 4d+1 (7d+1 skill roll, -8 for Initiative, -3 for second major action and +2 for using his turn mod on this action). Neo rolls a 10 and barely misses. The guard successfully gets behind a pillar.

On Initiative 2 (0m12s), Neo ducks behind a pillar. Because the quantity modifier for the turn is x2, his autofire use expended 20 rounds from one weapon (emptying it) and 10 rounds from the other (leaving 10 left), while the remaining guard has a fully loaded revolver. The guard grabs his walkie-talkie and says “Backup! Send backup!” (0m13s).

On Initiative 4 (0m6s), Neo fires at one of the three guards on the left. Neo takes his fifth major action, which is at a -4d penalty, so he has a 3d+1 skill roll against a difficulty of 7, since the range to the guards is 4 meters. He rolls a 9, and gets two hits. Rolling damage, the results are 7 and 5, for a total of 12 lethal hits, one of which did crippling damage. By the time the first guard hits the ground, Neo has drawn and fired two machine pistols.

On Initiative 1, Neo holds action in case one of the remaining guards is fast enough on the uptake to be a threat, and starts to swing both machine pistols around to face them.

Trinity: On Initiative 13 she draws a machine pistol as a major action, ‘taking 2’s’ for an automatic success, and steps forward to go around the metal detector.

Guards(2 remaining): The ambushed guards only get one major action on Initiative 0 (0m7s). One guard is drawing a weapon, and the other guard is diving out of his chair and declaring his full Dodge of 4 (possibly as a desperation action (page 4.6)).

That ends the turn. Everyone still up is ‘in combat’ for +1 towards stamina use (Neo uses +2 for being in melee combat). Since the amount divided by 5 rounds nearest, no one uses

stamina. Neo has also expended 10 rounds (one autofire) from each of his two machine pistols, each of which has a 30 round clip.

Taking into account changes in perspective and slow-motion, roughly 15 ‘real’ seconds have elapsed.

Because it is merely a leadup to the real meat of the fight, the first three turns might have been run using the Outmatching rule (page 5.7). Neo and Trinity would have had a “group” skill roll of 8d+0 (their skill, +2 for a quantity mod of x2) and the guards would have had a “group” skill roll of 5d+0 (their skill, +4 for a quantity mod of x4). This beats the minimum 2d difference for outmatching, so Neo and Trinity could simply declare victory and move on. Of the five guards, only one managed to draw a weapon and call for help by the time it was over, which is a pretty clear indication that they were totally outmatched by Neo and Trinity. However, the ‘calling for help’ was dramatically important, so playing it out made a difference in this case. TURN4 (turn mod: +6, quantity mod: x8)

Turn length: 15 seconds

π

Initiative: Neo and Trinity expect things will be happening, but not just yet, and declare zero. Neo/Trinity: At a certain point (0m30s) they hold action (page 4.6). They expect there to be trouble on the next turn and want to count as having declared their full Agility, but without taking a penalty for it. Because there is a slight lull in combat, they can do this with no problem. Soldiers: Run up to the scene (0m33s), take positions under partial cover (0m38s), and the leader shouts “Freeze!”. There are ten soldiers, in two equal groups, one group on either side of pillars on the right and left close to the elevator. The soldiers are using turn mod, and running, so they expend 1 stamina (+6 for turn mod, +1 for running, divide the total by 5, rounding nearest). Neo: Has used 1 stamina

Trinity: Has used 1 stamina Soldiers: Have used 1 stamina EABA elapsed time: 15 seconds Trinity: On Initiative 8 she walks around the

metal detectors. This is a minor action, and over the course of the turn she and the remaining guard come into line of sight of each other (0m16s). She has an action, he does not. She plugs him at close range with an autofire blast from her machine pistol, expending twenty rounds in the process for a +2 turn modifier on the shot. She can ‘take 2’s’ and still hit him (difficulty of no more than 11 and she has an adjusted skill roll of 5d+1). Perhaps fortunately, the camera only lingers on this guard for a moment as he goes down.

The time modifier for the turn is +2, both of them were ‘in combat’ for +1, a total of +3. Since you divide by 5 and round nearest, this turn costs each of them 1 stamina.

Neo: Has used 1 stamina Trinity: Has used 1 stamina EABA elapsed time: 3 seconds

TURN3 (turn mod: +4, quantity mod: x4)

Turn length: 4 seconds

∏

Initiative: Neo and Trinity are the only people here. The combat could reset to zero at this point, but the gamemaster says that it is a continuing scene.

Trinity: Discards her empty weapon, picks the duffel bag off the conveyor belt (0m23s) and walks forward. Both of them walk an effective distance of +6, or 3 meters.

Neo: Discards his two empty weapons (0m26s) draws two regular pistols (0m28s) as a single action and walks forward.

No real combat is taking place and both of them are merely walking, so the gamemaster says no stamina is used. The sound of running, booted feet is heard in the distance.

On Initiative 7 (0m46s) he repeats the process with the other pistol, for an adjusted skill roll of 4d+0 (he loses -1d for a third major action). He

chooses to roll 3d+2 instead of 4d+0 and misses again. Dramatically speaking, we can say that

the guards have partial cover, so either the difficulty of the shot was a little higher, or the shots that might have hit actually hit what they were standing behind. Note that because he is using semi-automatic pistols rather than full- auto, he could have gotten a maximum of one hit on each action.

Trinity: On Initiative 13 (0m42s) she dodges, drops the duffel bag and runs towards the opposite side of the gallery. She takes cover behind a pillar while the soldiers’ attention is drawn towards Neo’s gunfire. She then holds action on her second major action (on Initiative 10), waiting for an opportunity.

Soldiers(10 of them): We will say that three on each side have automatic rifles with 30 round clips, and two have pump shotguns with 8 round internal magazines. This is important to note for several reasons. The shotguns can only fire 8 shots before they have to be slowly reloaded, so the maximum turn mod they can use is +6 (for a x8 quantity). Doing this would empty the

weapons this turn, and it would take them quite a while to reload the shells one at a time. So they will choose to use no more than a +2 quantity mod each time they are fired (2 shots). The assault rifles will be used in an autofire mode, which limits them to three pulls of the trigger, a quantity modifier of +3. However, they

do get the possibility of getting multiple hits for the action. Remember that three trigger pulls

is not three actions, it is one action at a +3 for quantity mod and the possibility of getting multiple hits.

This turn has a length of 15 seconds, so they can fire on Initiative 6, try to reload on Initiative 3 and then fire again on Initiative 0 if they still have a chance of success...

While the arrival of the soldiers was well-timed for movie pacing, the soldiers, fully armed and organized, must have been on break right down the hall to respond to a call for assistance that fast. From the guard’s call of “Backup! Send backup!” to the fully deployed soldiers yelling “Freeze!” was only seconds of movie time. TURN5 (turn mod: +8, quantity mod: x16)

Turn length: 15 seconds

∫

Initiative: Neo and Trinity have a held action, so their initiative counts as their Agility, which is 13, but they take no penalty for it. However, they each add their full Dodge of 8 to the mix. This will not affect sequencing, but will affect their use of skills. Note that since they cannot see any- thing to dodge at the moment, the effect of the Dodge will be halved, even though the penalty on Neo and Trinity’s action is not halved. The guards, not knowing what they are up against yet, declare 6, an amount that shows an unwillingness to let someone get the drop on them, but not so much that it would keep them from being able to hit normal targets.

The soldiers are behind the four columns flanking the elevator alcove and one column on each side towards Neo and Trinity. Since Neo and Trinity have moved 3 meters down the 20 meter hall and the last pillar is 17 meters down the hall, the soldiers are from 11 to 14 meters distant.

Neo: On Initiative 13 he runs as a major action (0m42s), heading for one side of the gallery where the soldiers are using pillars as partial cover. On the way there he uses a second major action on Initiative 10 (0m43s) to start shooting at the closest guard. The range will be 8 meters after he gets close to the wall, for difficulty of 9. He has an effective skill roll of 5d+0 (7d+1 skill roll, -8 for dodging, -3 for second major action, and uses +4 of his turn bonus (using 4 bullets). He rolls 4d+2 against a difficulty of 12 (range of 8 meters is a difficulty of 9, +3 for half his running distance level). Note that the distance he moved is half normal because he is dodging (page 4.4). He rolls a 9 and misses (even with Larger than Life (page 3.34)).

Trinity: Had a held action and was waiting for a soldier to pause to reload. This happens after he finishes his Initiative 6 action (1m7s). She acts right after he shoots (she also acts on Initiative 6), popping around a pillar and kicking him (1m8s). Her adjusted skill roll is 5d+1 (7d+1 skill roll, using +8 of turn bonus, -8 for dodging, -3 more for the second action, and -3 because she is kicking). The difficulty for him to defend is his adjusted melee skill roll of 6d+0 (4d+2 skill roll with a +4, half her movement from earlier in the turn (page 4.10) because she was running It is easier for him to defend because she has spent part of the turn moving towards him. She rolls 5,4,3,3,2 and he rolls 6,4,3,3,2,1. However, Trinity has Larger than Lifeand keeps ‘best 4’ for a total of 16 (remember the +1 in her 5d+1 roll), while the soldier only keeps ‘best 3’ for 13. If he had chosen to roll 5d+2 instead of 6d+0 his total would have been 15, so Trinity would have gotten him either way.

Trinity connects for 5d+0 half-lethal damage (3d+0 non-lethal, then 2d+0 lethal). Even after the soldier’s Toughness is applied, the non-lethal damage does over his Health in one hit, so it counts as crippling damage. Against an extra, this takes him out. He staggers back from a kick to the gut and neck, hits the wall and goes down. In the movie, Trinity kicks the gun out of his hands, then rather angrily kicks him in the chest and then in the neck. The important thing is that

he goes down. The player or gamemaster can

embellish the results in dramatic fashion as long as it does not affect the outcome. However, Trinity will try something later that is both dramatic and requires a rule-based adjudication. The soldiers take shots with autofire rifles and

pump shotguns at Neo and Trinity on Initiative 6 (0m42s). They have an adjusted skill roll of 3d+2 or 4d+0 (base skill roll of 5d+0, -6 for Initiative and +2 quantity mod for the shotguns and +3 quantity mod for the assault rifles). The range is about 11 or 14 meters, both of which are difficulty of 10, with an additional +4 because of Neo and Trinity’s (halved) dodge and another +3 because Neo and Trinity have moved a distance level of +6, for a final difficulty of 17. They all

miss.

They would have been better off firing lots of individual shots for a +8 turn mod and not having to reload, but we are just replaying the action as shown on-screen.

Their chances were about 9% for a 3d+2 roll. If their targets had been people with Dodge of 4 instead of 6 or a run distance of +4 instead of +6, their chances would have been 16%. And if they had in addition declared an Initiative of 3 instead of 6, they would have an extra +1d on the skill roll and the chances would have been 36%. So you can see that your choice of tactics and the quality of your foes can make a huge difference. Note also that Neo and Trinity’s dodge negated any Accuracy bonus that the soldiers might have gotten from aiming (page 4.10). The other option the gamemaster could have used would have been mass fire (page 5.9). If we said there were two groups of four auto- rifles, each group would have a quantity mod of +4, in addition to the quantity mod for the rate of fire in the group (+3). This would have