5 - Combat

This section will be a step by step guide to understanding combat in Merf. It is pretty similar to other TTRPGs. Let's start with initiative.

Initiative

At the beginning of combat, initiative is rolled as a team (i.e. initiative is rolled by one person for the whole team.) You may add a bonus to the roll equal to how ever many SLICK proficiencies you have on your team (i.e. if three people have a SLICK bonus, then a +3 is added to the roll). Then, your team chooses turn order. Afterwards, depending on which team rolled higher, that team gets to go first.

Initiative is alternating in Merf. What this means is that one of your teammates gets to go, and then one of the enemies get to go, and so on and so forth. Initiative works differently for different kinds of enemies, and there are three types.

BOSS enemies get to go after every single ally turn.

HORDE enemies ALWAYS go after the last ally turn.

SKIRMISHER enemies alternate as though they were a party. For example, with a party of:
ALLY 1 ALLY 2 ALLY 3
and
SKIRMISHER 1 SKIRMISHER 2,
The turn order would go ALLY 1 SKIRMISHER 1 ALLY 2 SKIRMISHER 2 ALLY 3 SKIRMISHER 1 and so on.

If the amount of SKIRMISHER enemies doubles the amount in the ALLY team, then two SKIRMISHER enemies get to go at once, and so on and so forth with triple and quadruple enemies.

Honestly, just don't worry about it too much, just remember that turns are alternating.

Action Points (AP)

On your turn, you expend a resource in order to have your character do things. These are called Action Points or AP, and you get three per turn. You can use action points to:

Move: Gain 6 tiles of movement
Attack: Make an attack (AP cost is listed on the weapon)
Use: Use an item or interact with an object
Cast: Fire off a spell (2 AP)
And so on... anything that is significant in a turn costs an AP or two.

You can also save an action point, which turns into a Reaction Point, or RP. You can use reaction points to:

Opportunity Attack: Make an attack on someone moving outside your melee range
Brace: Reduce an attack's damage by 1
Intercept: Become the target of someone adjacent's attack
And so on... anything that is a reaction to something and is significant can be done as an RP.

Action points are the core of combat in Merf, so use them well!

Downs and Death

When you hit 0 hp, you go into a Downed state. You drop to the floor, get 1 AP, can't gain momentum, and your movement is reduced to 1 tile. If the overkill damage exceeds double your max hp, you just die instantly. While injured, you die if you take any damage, but you can get back up if you heal. If you get three downs in one fight, you die.

Critical Hits

When you roll a 7 or higher (with bonuses), you perform a critical attack. On a crit, you do +1 damage on your attack, but there are skills that can enhance it.

PLUS and MINUS

There are not really specific ways ways to gain PLUS or MINUS status on an attack. Generally to get PLUS you need to have some kind of advantage against the target, so much so that it warrants getting PLUS on an attack or roll. Vice versa for MINUS, the target needs to have some kind of disadvantage against you in order to have a MINUS bonus against their roll. Let's run through an example.

Let's say you knock someone to the ground. This would give PLUS to people attacking them, since they are much less mobile on the ground.

Or maybe you have the high ground with a gun, giving you a clear sightline. This would give PLUS to you, since it is an advantage.

Or maybe you want MINUS against ranged attacks against you, so you take cover behind a desk or something.

Maybe there will be specific ways to get it later, but I'm running with a loosey goosey system first.

Armor

Armor is a big part of how you'll tank in Merf. Armor is essentially a second health bar that can be modded. Armor (for now) only has 2 variants: Light and Heavy that will be described in the items section, so don't worry about it for now.

Next: Aether