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Kannukei

Chapter Five:
Combat

Fighting is a fact of life when it comes to RPGs and anime often makes violence an form of art. This chapter, thus, explains how combat is to conducted in FARPS. Keeping with the rules-light trend that the game system and most other Anime RPGs stick to, you'll find that combat with FARPS is quick and easy.

Initative

The first step in any fight is to determine "who goes first". This is what most RPG veterans call Inititive. Each participant in the fight must roll a 2d6 and add their reaction stat modifier to the dice roll. Whomever gets the highest result gets to act first. The other participants then get to act in decending order from highest to lowest.

Movement and Time

Time in combat is measure in 'rounds'. Each round counts as 10 seconds where the character may take one action- attack, dodge, use a power, or whatever else they feel like doing. In addition, they can also move. There are five forms of movement: Walk, run, swim, jump, or climb. Walking can be done without taking up a full action and the character may walk an amount of meters equal to their Agility. Running takes up a full action and allows the character to run (Agility x 2) meters at the cost of their chance to act. Swimming, Jumping, and Climbing are different special movements that should require must explanation. In each, the can swim, jump, or climb an amount of meters equal to their Agility divided by two.

Attacking

Usually the main purpose of any fight is to inflict bodily damage on another person- the more the merrier in most cases. This works as an opposed dice roll with each character rolling a 3d6 and adding (or subtracting) their Agility modifier. Whichever character gets the best results wins. The attacking character should use the appropriate skill for the attack (the guns skill if attacking with a gun) while the defending character can either use the same skill (if the attack can parried or blocked) or the dodge skill.

Dodging

Okay, so sometimes it's better to just get the hell out of the way of an attack rather than countering it. By declaring that your character will be actively dodging, your agility bonus temporarily doubles. Yes this may be a little wierd (extremely high agility character will be able to nearly dodge anything), but it's fitting. For low animeter games, a +2 dodge bonus maybe better.

Example: Bob the Destroyer is trying to beat up Timmy the Timid. Bob just happens to have an agility modifier of +2 and a Big Guns skill of 15. Not to mention that Rocket Launcher he happens to be carrying looks like it'd hurt if you were hit with it. Poor Timmy, on the other hand, has a dodge skill of 16 and an agility mod of +2. Fate most likely will not be in Timmy's favor so Timmy goes on the defensive. Both participants make their dice rolls Bob comes up with a 8 while Timmy scores a 10. With the modifiers, the rolls come out to 6 and 8. Since Timmy is defending however his roll is bumped up to down to 5 - just enough to let him dodge the attack. The Rocket flies by Timmy's head just barely and Bob's got plenty more ammo where that came from...

Damage

So you hit your opponent- what now? Since you succeeded with the hit, you inflict a certain amount of damage. First of their are two types of damage in FARPS: stun and kill damage. Stun damage (done by blunt weapons and hand to hand manuevers) will cause unconciousness when a character is reduced to zero HP. Kill damage (done by sharp weapon and guns) on the other hand will draw blood and at zero HP the character is near death (can we say "911"?). In extreme anime settings, kill damage is considered stun- after all what's the fun if a major characters gets blown up?

In both cases, damage first depends on the weapon or manuever used by the player, the character's skill divided by 3, and their P. damage stat. These three scores are added together and the total is subtracted by the opponent's armor rating (if they have any) to get the final damage inflicted.

Example: Bob the Destroy smacks Timmy the Timid with a Mega Mallet (a giant mallet that does 12 damage as a base). With his mighty strength of 18 he does 10 points of damage just out of brute force (18\2 + 1) and melee weapons skill of 12 contributes an extra three points. The total comes to 25 points of damage. Timmy better watch out....

Damage after-effects (Optional)

Being smacked around hurts alot- especially if you wind up getting reduced to zero HP. If this happens, the gamemaster may (if they so desire) roll for damage after effects.

Roll   Effect
1-10   Memory Loss
11-30  Broken Bones
41-70  Assorted Bruises
71-90  Broken Bones
91-00  Personality Switch

Memory Loss: The character has temporarily lost his memory due to his recent beating. Their memory will slowly return in roughly a month and the only thing the character will remember is their name. If the opponent was vastly superior to the player, the GM has the choice of giving the character a temporary phobia of their assailant.

Broken Bones: Ka-snap! You broke something in your fight- normally a limb. Roll a 1d6 and compare on the chart for where the break happened.

Roll Location Effect 1 R. Leg 1\2 Movement 2 R. arm Can't use arm 3 Ribs 1\2 Vitality Until healed 4 Ribs 1\2 Vitality Until healed 5 L. Arm Can't use arm 6 L. Leg 1\2 Movement

The broken bone will heal in roughly a month in extreme anime campaigns or two months in a normal anime campaign.

Assorted Bruises: No major detrimental effect- you just have some various bruises and cuts to remind you of your loss. Keep those bandaids handy.

Personality switch: This one is mainly for comedic potential and may\may not be suitable for more serious game settings. The character's personality polarizes- they now do the opposite or act in a totally different way than normal. For instance, a character who is normally shy will suddenly become an arrogant outgoing pervert. They could even develop a totally different personality (a combination memory loss\personality switch) where they think they are someone else all together.

Regaining HP & PP

While the topic of damage is fresh on your mind, how does one go about regaining lost Hit Points or spent Power Points? The rate of recovery depends on the animeter level of the campaign.

Extreme: Due to the odd way all damage seems to vanish after a few minutes, all characters heal damage at a rate of Muscles x 3 HP per hour. Spirit Points recover at a slower rate equal to their Spirit per hour.

Normal: Damage heals at a slower rate depending on the type of damage the character is healing from. Kill damage takes the longest, with the character regaining a number of HP equal to their Muscles stat. If the character is under the care of a doctor, the rate is increased to Muscles x 2 in HP. Stun damage is healed at Muscles in HP per hour as the sting from the bruises slowly fades. Spirit Points are restored at a rate of Spirit in SPs every two hours.

Low: The healing rate is the same as with Normal level animeter campaigns.

Called Shots

Sometimes you'll want to attack a specific part of your enemy- a hand, an arm, or maybe whack 'em on the head? This is what a "called Shot" is. By taking a called shot, the character's attack roll is penalized. Notice that the torso region (the abdomen and chest) is missing on the below chart. Normal attack (ie, non-called shots) are assumed to hit the torso region (or where ever the GM feels like letting the blow land).

Location Penalty Damage Head -4 x 2 Arms -1 x 1 Hands -2 x 1.5 Legs -1 x 1 Feet -2 x 1.5

There are extra effects for hitting a special body part. Reducing the head to 0 HP will cause an instant knockout. Reducing an arm or hand to 0 HP will restrict them from attacking using that arm or hand. Reducing legs or feet to 0 HP will halve the character's agility in terms of movement. And reducing the head location to 0 HP is an instant knockout. For clarification's sake, the damage done to each region of the body does not effect the character's main pool HP (although it probably should).

If the GM demands it, called shot modifiers and effects can ignored. Afterall, this is an anime RPG and many anime are reknown for smashing people over the head with mallets and whatnot (granted, this is an innate ability of all female characters in any extreme animeter game).

Hnd to Hand Manuevers

Getting that itchy feeling to kick some rear? If you're planning to make a martial artist character, then you'll want to get nice and cozy with the various Hand to Hand Manuevers. These are the "essential" attacks that anybody with the hand to hand skill can use. Each has its own modifier (which, by the way, are penalties to attack rolls).

ManueverDamageModifierEffect
PunchStr+0A regular punch
UppercutStr+2-1A solid punch
KickStr+2-1A regular kick
Flying KickStr+4-2A kick administered after running
Sweep KickStr-1-1Causes "knockdown"
ThrowStr-1-1Causes "knockdown"
TackleStr-1-1Causes "knockdown"

A knockdown is when the technique causes the intended target to fall down. Once on the ground, they'll be forced to get up off the ground- a proccess which means they'll lose their next initative (in a group fight, they'll go last).

Melee Weapon Manuevers

This part will be short, since there are only a few weapon manuevers. Like Hand to hand Manuevers, these allow a player to do various effects with their melee weapon of choice.

ManueverDamageModifierEffect
Strike+0+0A normal strike
Trip-1-1Causes a "knockdown"
EntangleNoneSpecialEntangles a person's limb
F. EntangleNoneSpecialEntangles a person
Backhand+0-2Does Stun instead of Killing damage

Trip: By using a staff (and only a staff- it doesn't work with other weapons), the character

Entangle: Usuable with any whip like weapon (including ribbons or Chains). If successful, the attacker can wrap their whip around an opponent's limb. This can have three effects, depending on what limb is entangled. If it's an arm, then the opponent cannot use their arm (or the weapon in the arm's hand) for an attack. An entangled leg will impede the opponent's movement- they can move (agility\2) in meters but can't run. An entangle head (which means the attacker snagged their whip around the opponent's neck) is a cause for concern since the player is starting suffocate. For each round they are choaked, they temporarily lose 2 points of vitality. If they reach a vitality of zero, they fall unconcious. Entanglements can be broken out of by opposing strength tests- if the entangled character gets a higher roll then the entanglement is broken. Choke victim regain the Muscles back at a rate of 2 points a turns and the loss does _not_ effect their HP rating. An entanglement is considered a called shot in terms of the penalty.

Full Entanglement: This is a trickier version of the normal entanglement manuever in that the attacking character attempts to entangle both of the opponent's arms or legs. By entangling the arms, the opponent cannot do any attacks that involve the use of their hands. If their legs get wrapped up, they won't be able to move period. Like the normal entanglement manuever, a full entanglement can be broken with a sucessful opposing strength test. Attempting a full entanglement from the start comes with an extra -1 penalty on top of the normal penalties for a called shot. If the full entanglement is attempted after securing a normal entanglement, the penalty is halved (mininum -1).

Backhand: By using the flat part of their blade, a character can inflict stun damage instead of killing damage with their weapon. This can be mostly be done with a long sword, greatsword, Axe, or Nagitana. Trying to perform it with other weapons (say a knife) is questionable at best.

What about new Manuevers?

This wouldn't be much of anime RPG if players couldn't make up their own Hand to Hand or melee weapon manuevers would it? Especially if you were going to play a martial artist along the lines of the Nerima gang (Ranma 1\2). A new manuever is a special technique that the player has mastered- think of them along the lines of special moves used by characters in a fighting game. There are several options available that players can bundle together for their new manuever. Starting characters should be restricted to 3 CP (or 4 CP for multi-strikes) manuevers while they are creating their characters.

Increased damage (1 CP p\ +2 damage): The damage of the attack is increased.

Increases speed (1 CP p\ +1 agility): The attack is done faster with more accuracy than normal giving the character a getter chance to hit.

Multi-attack (2 CP p\ extra hit): The equivelant of Chun-li's Lighting leg or E. honda's 100 hand slap. The character can launch multiple punches, kicks, or whatever during one round. This manuever can also be used for Kenshiro's Fist of North Star or Ranma's Tenshin Amaguriken even though both attacks land way more than three or four extra hits. Because of its power, it cannot be combined with other manuever options.

Example: Ichiro has a 3 hit multi-punch called the "rocket punch". Having a strength of 7, Ichiro could do a total of 21 points of damage before the extra damage die or armor modifications.

Gun Rules

Sometimes, you're going to have characters who are crackshots with a gun. There are a couple things different about shooting off a gun than using weapon or hand-to-hand attack. First of all there are five firing modes: Single Shot, Burst Fire, Burst Spray, Full Auto, and Full spray (stolen promptly from Palladium and Shadowrun).

Single Shot: The character can shoot off one single shot. This is considered to be a plain normal attack.

Burst Fire: The character squeezes off three shots one after another at one person. The damage of the attack is increased by 25% but has a -1 attack modifier.

Full Auto: The character goes fruit loops and starts shooting off as many shots as they can. Regardless of animeter level, they blow a full clip and must spend the next round putting in a new clip. The damage is increased by 50%.