Combat

As many of you may have guessed, the combat section has been the most worrisome and most problematic. I have elected to divide the combat section into three areas, a personal combat part, a modern combat part and a robot combat part. First off though are some ground rules regarding all combat forms.

Actions

In the main book it is stated on page 37:

"All player characters automatically start off with two attacks/actions per 15 second melee. Additional attacks are gained through HTH skills and boxing."

This part is wrong. Forget all about it. The quote above is based on the character not having any previous combat experience. Why should a character have more actions that f. ex. a seasoned veteran that has fought more enemies than the character has ever met?

Of course the answer is that the player character is supposed to be special, not normal. The character is special. He/she starts out with more equipment than most people get through their entire life. They have more education and most probably better survival prospective than most people. So why give them so much (e.g. where's the challenge ?)

Please note that some RCCs start out with more attacks. In such instances (ex. rahu-men) just add the total attacks due HTH combat to the attacks the character has due to RCC.

The simultaneous strike

A simultaneous strike occurs when the defender declares a strike attack instead of a parry or dodge. Sometimes the simultaneous strike will be of a nature that will hinder the attack from coming through (e.g. I use my laser pistol to shoot off his arm). This means that the defender doesn't necessarily have to take the damage.

Step 1: Defender declares simultaneous strike and what the strike target will be.

Step 2: Attacker and Defender roll 1D20 each. The highest roll strikes and resolves damage first.

NOTE: This action still counts as 1 action.

Hand-to-hand and ancient combat

Hand-to-hand and ancient combat arts are especially fun to play. There is more latitude for funny things to happen while still keeping a serious tone.

Strike

The strike roll is made to determine if you hit the enemy, and then just how good you hit the enemy.

Needed Strike roll: At the short ranges in HTH combat, all rolls under 5 (4 3 2 1 and negative),

including bonuses, miss.

Parrying / Blocking

There are several occations where the player can parry a strike, however there are also several occations where a character cannot parry a strike roll (even an ancient strike (e.g. sword/knife) or a HTH strike) unless he/she has appropriate equipment present. Please note that the defending/parrying item must have a D.C. equal to or greater than the attacking item.

• The item used for the parry takes only 1/3 the damage from the blow (round down).
• If a sharp edged weapon is used (sword, axe, knife) arms/legs/soft materials take full damage!

Blocking on the other hand happens when not trying to deflect the blow, but stop it dead in it's tracks. When an attack that obviously cannot be parried/deflected is attempted parried, the result is a block. That means that both items take damage (the one used to strike and the one used to parry).

E.x.1 Erik has just provoked a dwarf into a bar brawl. The dwarf immediately readies his axe. Erik can see that the axe is of a normal type (not vibro/rune/magic). The dwarf swings his axe after Eriks head. Since Eric doesn't have any SDC item he can parry the strike with, he opts to dodge instead of receiving serious, perhaps debilitating wounds to his arms.

E.x.2 Erik and the dwarf are at it again. This time Erik has brought a chair up. The dwarf swings his axe at Eriks head. Erik uses the chair to parry/deflect the blow. The chair will not be able to take much more damage (received 3 points. 1/3 axe damage).

E.x.3 Erik decides to block the strike towards his head with the chair. The chair takes 13 points of damage and is shattered, but it did however stop the axe blow from making Erik a foot shorter.

Special Rule:

If the blocking item isn't shattered or destroyed during the block, the two combatants can lock in one position. Only one of the combatants needs to engage in the lock, and must do so by declaring a lock.

In effect this represents the event in which two combatants try to force their weapon onto the other combattant. This kind of attack requires the attacker and the defender to roll a save vs. PS.

Use the save margin to determine if damage was dealt or not.

A lock attack uses up at least a melee where both participants can attack once on the opponent. An exception is the melee in which the lock was made. No attack or defence except dodges can be done during the remaining melee.

At the beginning of each melee the attacker may opt to disengage combat. This is done by using an alternate way to attack (e.g. punch with the free hand, a kick in the balls, psionics etc.). The defender may not parry the attack but may try to dodge it with a -6 penalty.

Once damage has been dealt, the lock is out of effect.

E.x.1 Tom is wielding a bastard sword, while Simon is wielding a rapier. Tom strikes first with an overhead strike. Strike roll 17. Simon decides to lock the battle and rolls a 18 (including the parry bonus). Toms bastard sword sustains 4 points of damage while Simons rapier sustains 6. The melee goes on with the two circling around trying to gain the upper hand. At the beginning of the next melee they roll for initiative as usual.
Simon gains the initiative and tries to force his rapier on Tom. Simon rolls under his PS (PS = 18. The roll was 12, clearing with 6). Tom has to roll under his PS with 6+ in the save (PS = 16. Roll was 11, giving a save = 5). Tom doesn't manage his save and takes damage from the rapier (8 points). The lock is now over.

E.x.2 Tom and Simon are fighting. The lock was applied during the last melee, meaning that eventual damage can be dealt from now on. Tom wins the initiative and tries to cut up Simon. Tom manages the PS save with 4 to spear. Simon saves with 6, so no damage was dealt now. Tom has used up his chance to deal damage this melee. Simon tries to deal damage and manages (5 save vs 3 save). The lock is no longer in effect.

E.x.3 Tom and Simon have tried to kill each other for some time now. The lock was applied two melees ago, and no damage has been dealt yet. Tom wins the initiative and decides that this game has become boring. He decides to kick Simon in the kidneys. Tom rolls a standard strike roll and gets a 16. Simon tries to dodge the strike and rolls a 13 (15 + 4 dodge bonus - 6 dodge penalty). Tom hits Simon in the kidneys. This means that the lock is finished and Simon is lying on the ground gasping for air.

NOTE 1: When a successful attack is made and the lock is over, count the melee for finished and roll initiative again to start a new melee. The looser of the lock plays at -1 action for that melee.

NOTE 2: If damage hasn't been dealt within 3 melee round, the lock is finished.

NOTE 3: If the lock is applied in a multi-battle (e.g. more than 2 combatants), and is broken during the beginning of the next melee, count each attack under the lock as two actions (e.g. first attack happens on action no. 2, 2nd attack happens on action no.4). It does not matter that the locked combatants don't have 4 actions. This system is just meant to keep a time perspective in relation to the other fighters. The lock break doesn't cause the winner to loose any actions from the following melee (exception note 1 (2 combatants)).

Dodge

Dodging is the act of evading the coming strike. This roll is made in stead of a parry, and generally only if the character is on the receiving end of damage. It is important to note that in the main book it is possible to dodge projectile attacks (although there are several discrepancies), however common sense dictates that it is impossible to dodge a projectile after the shot has been fired. Thus the normal dodge roll is applicable only during hand-to-hand combat and ancient combat (non-projectile).

Special Attacks

There are several special moves in Rifts. All you have to do is be imaginative. Then you come to the problem "is that possible?". The answer lies in the physical skill selection.

* HTH-Basic doesn't give any special moves since basic training is what is says. Basic. They don't practise any moves, have minimal sparring training and nearly no combat practice except theory (waving their arms in the air. Yeah, you feel good about it, but when you meet someone in a fight you suddenly don't know what to do).

Selecting the skill gives the special move. They are not automatic, take up an action or two. If the latter it will be written.

If more skills are selected that give the same move it doesn't mean that the move becomes something special.

This sub-rule may seem unnecessary to the GM, but it was the best way to combine the Rifts hand-to-hand and the Japan hand-to-hands.

If you want to see what special moves the Japanese HTH skills give, check out the World Book 8: Japan.

(x2) - Double damage

(2) - Takes 2 attacks

(M) - Must be first attack the character makes in a melee. The character cannot attack again in

the same melee.

(F) - The character can only use the kick in combination with flying / jumping or leaping.

Shields and Forcefields

There are several potential for misunderstanding/interpreting the rules regarding forcefields and shields. The difference between a shield and a forcefield is as follows:

The shield is a solid piece of matter that has been formed so it is able to deflect to some degree 1) bullets 2) sword/sharp weapons.

The forcefield is designed to counter fast moving objects, or energy. For a field to actually work, it has to extend several feet away from the body, with an increasing power of deflection the closer you get to the body. The best comparison to this is the force between two identical magnetic poles. At a distance the force pushing them apart is small, but the closer the poles get, the bigger the force is.

Using Shields

Shields generally give a parry modifier. Some of them can be used to parry energy/projectile attacks. This ability will be discussed further in the modern combat section.

Using Forcefields

Forcefields are always there as long as it is activated and has enough MDC/SDC left. Forcefields are designed to deflect fast moving objects like sword swings, bullets etc. However, forcefields aren't without problems. Since it is designed to deflect fast moving objects, it is possible to strike the character using slow movements. That means that if you can f. ex. get a gun skin-close to the wearer of the forcefield, you

can shoot him without the forcefield intervening.

As to the problematics of high velocity impacts from collisions, think of the forcefield as non-existent. A character faced with a 60 m.p.h. collision with a wall wouldn't be saved by turning the forcefield on. The forcefield exerts no force on the wearer. Do not think of a forcefield as a glorified bumper. A character will not bounce if he hits the ground with the forcefield erected.

The weapons that will inflict damage on a character in a forcefield have to be of a kind that doesn't require large amounts of movement in order to inflict damage. That generally rules out kicks and punches and most ancient weapons, except vibro weapons and neural maces etc.

One advantage with forcefields is that the character can parry attacks without much fear of taking personal damage. There is no bonus to parry from the shield itself.