Attack: An attack is really any action you perform during a battle. “Attacks per melee” refers to how many actions you have during that melee of battle.
Armor Proficiencies: There are three APs: Light, Medium, and Heavy. Light armor is made of leather or other light flexible materials. Medium armor is generally chain mail and is heavier and less flexible. Heavy armor includes plate mail, and is the least flexible and the heaviest. Light armor has the least penalties for wearing it, heavy armor the most. APs reduce the penalties from wearing armor. APs denote the maximum level of armor a character has been trained in. Thus characters with AP Light have reduced penalties only for light armor, while those with AP Heavy can wear light, medium, and heavy armor.
Battle Level: This denotes characters ability in combat. Every successful encounter adds Battle Points (like experience points) and when the character has a certain amount of BP they go up a battle level and receive more bonuses.
Combat Feat: For every third battle level starting at 3 the character receives a combat feat. These are special moves/ abilities to be used during combat.
Critical Strike: When an attacker rolls 20 or over to strike their strike becomes a “critical strike” and does double damage to the opponent they are striking.
Disarm: This is a maneuver in battle to fling the weapon from an opponent’s hand. This move is usually countered by dodge. The roll to disarm is 1d20 -10 vs. dodge, and is successful only if the roll to disarm is higher. Bonuses to strike do not apply. However, there is a combat feat for disarming that greatly raises the attacker’s chances. The move to disarm cannot be parried, since this only makes ones weapon more vulnerable. To simply grip your weapon gives you a standard 1d20 vs. the 1d20 -10 to disarm.
Dodge: Dodging requires the opponent to move out of the way of the attacker’s weapon so as not to take damage. Dodging almost always uses up one attack. Dodging, however, is more reliable than parrying because of the bonuses attached to it. The roll to dodge is 1d20 vs. a roll to strike.
Hand to Hand (H2H): Denotes the amount of combat training a character has had. There are five levels: None, Basic, Expert, Martial Arts, and Assassin. This is selected during character generation, but if a peasant wants to become a warrior they can sacrifice 2 skills to raise one H2H level higher.
Initiative: At the beginning of every melee all characters roll 1d20 for initiative. The highest roll attacks first and second highest second and so on. Ties are re-rolled.
Melee: A melee is a fifteen second interval of time in which characters perform attacks.
Paired Weapons: Using two one handed weapons at once. The penalty for this is -8/-8; minus 8 to the main hand and minus 8 to the off hand. Ambidextrous characters are -6/-6. Using two weapons doubles your number of parries and attacks.
Parry: Parrying is using your weapon to block the strike of an opponent. Characters can parry a limited number of times during a melee as set by their H2H. Characters with shields have an unlimited number of parries. Unlike in palladium, parries have fewer bonuses than strike so that on average the attacker will win. The roll to parry is 1d20 vs. a roll to strike.
Skill Trade Offs: For every experience level a character gains they also get to select a new skill. The character can choose to trade their potential skill for advancement in combat. The trade offs are as follows: 1 skill = +2 to strike or parry; +3 to dodge, roll w/ punch, or initiative; +1d4 + 2 to sdc. 2 skills = an advance in H2H. Skill trade offs may also be selected during character generation with GM approval.
Special Attack: At battle level 8 all advanced weapon proficiencies get a special attack. There are seven special attacks: Gash, Snipe, Bash, Pierce, Crush, Sever, and Wound. The nature of the WP determines what special attack it gets.
Strike: This denotes the action of attacking an opponent. There are four types of strikes: Thrust, Chop, Cut and Impact. Bonuses that apply to strike apply no matter what type of strike you are attempting. The roll to strike is 1d20.
Stun: Attackers can also try to stun their opponents. Opponents who are stunned are helpless for 1d4 melees. The roll to stun is 1d20 vs. parry or dodge. Only a natural 20 will stun the opponent, otherwise, if not parried or dodged, the attack does normal damage (with out bonuses).
Roll w/ Punch: When an attacker strikes with impact the opponent may choose to roll with the punch. The roll to roll w/ punch is 1d20 vs. impact. A successful roll reduces damage by half. Rolling w/ Punch has higher bonuses in general than parrying or dodging.
Weapon Proficiencies: Skills that allow the character to use a certain weapon with skill. Advanced wps are for the masters of that weapon. Beginner wps can be selected any time, but the bonuses are not retroactive. However advanced wps bonuses are retroactive, because they rely more on knowledge than practice.