Combat is not the point of a tabletop role-playing game, but it is an important aspect of what makes such games fun and interesting. It is also the type of play that uses the most clearly defined structure, and therefore a significant amount of feats, spells, and other options found in the rules affect combat directly or indirectly. It is perfectly possible that a group of adventurers can avoid combat quite a lot through stealth or negotiation. These tactics don't always work, though, and when combat happens Realm of Runes seeks to ensure that it's varied, mobile and interesting. Standing around next to your enemies and doing nothing but swinging your sword is possible, and sometimes might even be the best choice, but the tactical combat system and the monster creation strategies help ensure that isn't generally what all combats boil down to. The same things happening in every combat gets boring quickly, and a bored group isn't typically having fun.
Realm of Runes approaches combat with a turn-based approach, much like many other tabletop role-playing games and board games. It's the cornerstone abstraction that ensures everyone has time to think and discuss what the best choices are for the current situation, and helps ensure that the Game Master has the mental bandwidth to keep track of all of the different combatants and their actions. When play switches to combat, all creatures that will participate in the encounter roll initiative. Initiative is a Perception check by default, though a creature’s abilities or its actions before combat can substitute a different check to be used. For example, a character that starts the combat hidden will use their Stealth, while one that is concentrating on a spell uses the skill associated with the magical tradition of that spell. Once all participants have rolled this check, creatures take turns in descending numerical order of the results, with the creature that rolled highest going first. A complete round of combat is from the start of a creature’s turn until the start of its next turn.
ACTIONS, REACTIONS & FREE ACTIONS
Each time a creature takes a turn during combat, its turn is broken up into intervals, called actions. Each creature has three actions on its turn to spend how it chooses, and each activity costs one or more of these actions to perform. The number of actions is indicated by the number of times the letter “A” appears inside brackets next to the activity's name. {A} indicates an activity costs one action, {AA} indicates an activity costs two actions, and {AAA} indicates an activity costs three actions, and so on. Because the default is three actions, activities with more than three actions are extremely rare and are typically composite activities when they happen. It can be possible through the use of feats, magic and other options to increase the number of actions available on your turn beyond the standard three, while the slowed condition instead reduces the number of actions available to those afflicted by it. Other abilities alter the action economy less directly, by packaging multiple usually discrete activities together into one activity that costs fewer actions than they would have taken separately.
In addition to actions, there are certain activities which are extremely quick, and can even be used on another creature’s turn. These activities are called free actions, and reactions. Reactions and free actions are similar to each other in that they each specify a trigger condition which must be met in order for the activity to be performed. The primary difference between a free action and a reaction is how frequently each can be used. A free action can be freely used each time it is triggered, without any restriction. Reactions are more limited in scope. A creature has one reaction it can use each round, and must spend that reaction to use a reaction activity. A creature refreshes its reactions at the start of its turn. You are never required to use a reaction or free action if one is triggered. Free actions are represented by an {F}, while reactions are represented by an {R}. It can be possible, through the use of feats, magic and other options to increase the number of reactions you have available beyond the standard one. Other abilities can temporarily or permanently change some reactions into free actions instead, making them more widely accessible.
STARTING YOUR TURN
When your turn comes up in the initiative order, several upkeep effects happen automatically in the order listed:
1. Start of Turn Effects: Any effect which specifically happens at the start of your turn happens now.
2. Refresh Actions: You gain your pool of actions and reactions for the turn. This is three actions and one reaction unless stated otherwise.
3. Reduce Durations: Any ongoing durations, such as active spells, are reduced by one round. If the spell’s duration is reduced to 0, the effect ends now.
TAKING YOUR TURN
This is the time when your character has free reign to act. You have your pool of actions and reactions, and can spend them how you want. Every creature, whether character or monster, has access to a suite of universal activities that anyone can take. These universal activities form the backbone of Realm of Runes' combat action system, and are in many ways the building blocks upon which other more complicated activities draw. Anyone can {A} Stride to move, or {A} Strike to attack, for example. Class and ancestry options provide additional available activities that vie for your limited number of actions, too. Any class that casts spells gets access to {A} Material Casting, {A} Somatic Casting and {A} Verbal Casting, and almost all classes have unique action economy enhancers that package multiple discrete activities together in a way that has special synergy with that class's special abilities.
ENDING YOUR TURN
When you have completed your turn, several upkeep effects happen automatically in the order listed. You can choose to relinquish your turn without spending all your available actions. If you do, convert each unused action into a bonus reaction which is lost when you refresh your actions on your next turn if not used.
1. End of Turn Effects: Any effect which specifically happens at the end of your turn happens now.
2. Persistent Effects: Persistent damage, fast healing and regeneration activate now. Each time a creature takes persistent damage it can attempt a DC 15 flat check to remove the persistent damage.
3. Overcome Sickness and Fatigue: If you are sick or tired, attempt the flat check to reduce its value.
4. Reduce Conditions: Several conditions reduce their values automatically over time. Reduce the value of these conditions by 1.
5. Save Against Poison: If you have contracted a poison and must save against it this round, you attempt the save now.
REACH, RANGE & THREATENING
When attacking with a melee weapon or unarmed attack, which enemies can be targeted depends on your reach. Small and medium creatures have hex 1 reach naturally, meaning they can attack or touch creatures up to 1 hex away, or in their own space or adjacent when using a hex map. Large and bigger creatures have increased natural reach, allowing them to use melee attacks or touch creatures at a greater distance. Reach is an upper limit, and creatures can freely attack enemies closer than their reach distance. Some abilities, such as reach weapons, can allow a creature to attack farther than its natural reach allows.
When using a ranged or thrown weapon, which targets can be attacked, and how effectively, is based on the weapon’s range. Each weapon or ability that can be used at a distance specifies a range or range increment. If a range is given, as with most spells, it is the longest distance at which a target is valid. If a range increment is given, the maximum range is instead a multiple of the range increment. Thrown weapons cannot attack beyond the 5th range increment, and projectile weapons cannot attack beyond the 10th. When using an attack with a range increment, attacks beyond this distance are penalized based on how far beyond that distance it is. For each multiple of the range increment, or more simply each range increment beyond the first, the attack takes a -1 un-typed penalty. Certain abilities, like the volley trait, can reduce the effective range increment, which both lessens penalties and increases the maximum range a weapon can be used to attack.
You are threatening a creature if it is within your melee reach and you could deal lethal damage to it. Creatures are not usually threatened by ranged weapons unless stated otherwise. Some activities, such as Attack of Opportunity, require that a creature is threatened to function. A creature that cannot be harmed by attacks, such as an incorporeal creature by non-magic weapons, is never threatened by a creature incapable of damaging it.
TACTICAL MOVEMENT
Actual positions of creatures in relation to each other is important in combat. A few feet of distance can make the difference between a target within reach or range, and clever use of movement and terrain allows a character to get the best use of abilities while keeping personal risk to a minimum, because there is a very real risk when moving. Creatures that are active combatants threaten the area within their reach, and activities that have the move, intricate or manipulate trait can trigger an {R} Attack of Opportunity if performed while threatened by an enemy. The universal activity {A} Step is a very short movement that carefully avoids triggering reactions. It can also be possible through feats, magic and other options to gain access to other ways of moving farther without triggering reactions. Generally speaking, making your enemy spend time coming to you is an effective way of limiting how much it can do to you in one turn.
MOUNTED COMBAT
There are many advantages to riding a mount in combat, and it's a staple tool of many fantasy characters. Realm of Runes makes using this tactic easy to understand and adjudicate. In fact, the most difficult part of using mounted combat is often reliably finding combat in a place where your mount can fit. To utilize mounted combat, the creature you ride must be your minion. If you ride a minion, it does not normally take its own actions, and is not Directed like normal for minions. Instead, you use your mount's movement speed and types when you move, and use its size for determining your natural reach. For big mounts, this can dramatically improve your ability to threaten area without requiring special tools to do so. If hostile reactions are triggered by your movement while mounted, those reactions target you and not your mount unless stated otherwise. Other attacks are free to target your mount separately if they choose, however, so bringing a mount into combat can be just as risky for it as it is for you. If the creature you ride lacks the mount trait, it is encumbered while ridden, regardless of its encumbered bulk limit. In order to make these tactics easy and accessible, it does not take hands to control a mount in combat, nor does it require checks to do so. If checks are required to move, such as using Long Jump to cross a chasm while mounted, those checks are attempted by the mount using its own statistics and abilities.
Tactical combat is an important aspect of the Realm of Runes system, and is one of the more detailed aspects of play. The action system keeps things running smoothly when combat happens, and the huge variety of possible options for what to do with your turn helps to keep things fresh an interesting every time combat happens. Next time we'll take a more advanced look at spellcasting in Realm of Runes, including an exploration of some of the spells themselves.
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