Sandalwood Combat Interlude

Just before shadowfall Darius is making his way down a Gutterway when he is accosted by a group of 4 thugs, demanding his money. The odds are not good for him but Darius is not in the mood to run, even if he carries the aura of the Doomed.

Darius

Physicality 45%: Brawn 1, Combat Style 1 [Brutal], Athletics 1, Vigour 1
Personality 13%: Influence 1
Knowledge 22%: First Aid 1
Innate Traits: Agile, Clever, Coarse, Doomed, Hardy, Muscular
HP8, Action Points 3, Dmg +1d4
Club, Dagger

Thugs

(Physicality 50%, Personality 18%, Knowledge 12%)
Physical Threat 1
No Resists
HP 4, Action Points 2
Knife, Club

Round 1

Darius Acts ...

In Sandalwood there is no initiative and Player Characters always act before the GM unless interrupted. None of the thugs have the Interrupt ability, so Darius makes his move.

Darius has 3 Action Points to use. He can use all actions on his turn, or save some to defend himself during the Thugs' Turn.

Darius' 3 Action Points permit him one Major Action (like an attack) and 2 Minor Actions (like a defence) He takes a minor action to draw his club, then a major action to attack.

Working out Darius' chance to succeed ...
Darius' Physicality is 45%, adding +10% for Brawn and +10% for his Combat Style. He decides to use his Clever Trait to add another +10%, spotting a vulnerability in one of the thugs. This makes his adjusted skill chance to 75% so far.

The Thugs have a Physical Threat rating of 1, so Darius takes a -10% penalty to his roll, he has to roll under 65% (75% -10) to succeed.

Resolution ...
He rolls a 62 - a hit on the Thug - and he wins a Gambit from the success. Darius decides to use the "Follow Up" Gambit to make an immediate following attack, but first he rolls for damage.

Rolling Damage ...

Rolled together:
                               1d6 for the club                              ...Rolled a 4
                               1d4 for Darius' damage bonus    ...Rolled a 1
                               1d6 for the location                          ...Rolled a 6

The weapon damage is 4, and he rolled a 1 for damage bonus - his Brutal Trait allows him to add 1 to the roll as long as it does not exceed the maximum damage bonus possible, which is 4. Since the +1 takes the roll up to 2, he is within the limit. (The Trait Brutal adds one point of damage per point of the Combat Style, which for Darius at the moment is 1)

This makes his damage total 6 (4+2).

Knockout ... one Thug down
The location was the thug's head (location roll 6), which has no armour and HP of 4, taking it to -2. The thugs have the "No Resists" trait, so any hit which goes to zero or below is a knockout. Three thugs remain.

Using a Gambit
Darius has another attack since he chose the Follow Up Gambit, this attack uses his last Action Point. He used his "Clever" trait with the previous attack, and since a PC can't use the same Trait consecutively, Darius has to use another trait if he wants to continue to boost his skill.

As it happens Darius has no other Traits he could legitimately use, so he is back to 65% minus 10% for the thug's Physical Threat rating of 1, an adjusted target roll of 55%.

Resolution
Darius rolls a 13 for his attack, another successful hit.

Another Gambit won
Darius is out of Action Points so he can't choose another Follow Up, so he decides on "Defend" as his Gambit - this will buy him one action point which may only be spent to defend against an attack this Round.

Attack Damage ... and Knockout Thug number Two
For the attack he again he rolls 1d6+1d4 plus the location die of 1d6. This time he rolls a 2 for the club, a 3 for damage bonus (increased to 4 due to his Brutal Trait) and a 1 for the location (left leg). This is another total damage of 6, which hits the Thug's unarmoured leg and again is a knockout.

Summing up Darius' Turn
Darius spent a minor action to draw his club, a major action to make the first attack, then the Follow Up Gambit permitted another immediate attack which cost another action point. This has cost him 3 action points in total. Ordinarily this means he would be out of Action Points for this Round, making him vulnerable to attack. Since he chose Defend as his Gambit, he has bought himself an additional action point to make a defence against any one attack which comes later in the Round.

The Thugs Act ...

Now that all PCs have taken their turn (in this case it is just Darius), the NPCs get to act. Darius has knocked out two thugs, leaving two remaining. Despite having their numbers halved, the thugs stay to make their play.

Creatures and NPCs do not make rolls to attack. They are assumed to hit the PC they are attacking, unless the PC successfully resists the attack. If the PC has no Action Points to resist the attack, the results of the Action Table are applied directly to the PC.

The GM rolls 1d6 on the Action table to determine the action of the first thug, rolling a 1d6 location die at the same time:

The GM rolls a 3 and reads the table result - the Thug is effectively attempting a Disarm Gambit against Darius, who will take damage and lose his weapon if he fails his resist roll.

Darius needs to roll his Brawn or Combat Style with a difficulty penalty of the thug's Physical Threat of 1.

He has a better chance using his Combat Style - Darius' Adjusted Roll is 45% for his Physicality skill, +10% for Brawn, +10% for his Combat Style, and now he can use his "Clever" trait, adding +10% which totals 75%. Then he takes -10% penalty for the thug's Physical Threat, a final Adjusted Roll of 65%.

If Darius fails the roll then 1 point of damage will go through his light armour of 2 points to his weapon arm, but he is more concerned about dropping his club.

Resolution...
Darius rolls 42, under the 65% adjusted target number, a success, so he completely resists the effects of the thug's attack, both the damage and the disarming Gambit. Darius also wins a defensive Gambit, he choses Trip to knock the thug prone. Since the thugs have the "No Resists" trait, the Trip automatically succeeds, and the thug slips over prone into the Gutterway.

The Last Attack - Don't Lose your Head...
The last thug makes an attack, the GM rolls again on the table this time with a result of 1. Darius is out of Action Points, so he can't resist the thug's attack - the GM's location roll was a 6, Darius' head.

The GM tells the player Darius' helmet is ripped off to clatter against the Gutterway wall, his head takes damage of 1, taking his head hp from 8 to 7, just a scratch.

Losing his helmet is a worry now, his head exposed and vulnerable.

Summing Up
Two thugs lie knocked out on the ground, a third has been knocked over and is rolling prone in the Gutterway but remains very much active. Darius and the last thug standing are facing off.