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Wyrd
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Resolving Combat

Combat Examples

Hand-to-Hand Combat

  • Character A armed with a longsword and medium shield of sword weapon skill 6/34 and 7/46 with shield (6/46 +2 for shield –1 for left hand), faces character B similarly armed of weapon skill 5/56 and 6/12 (5/12 + 2 for shield -1 for left hand). Both are wear ring mail hauberks and open-face helms. They approach each other from the front.
  • Character A rolls 47 (over his skill modifier) on a d100 for his sword giving a skill level of 7 with the sword for this round. His initiative with the sword is 7 (skill) + 3 (long sword) -1 (ring mail) = 9. He rolls 32 (under his skill modifier) on another d100 for his shield giving a skill level of 7. His initiative for his shield is 7 (skill) – 1 (shield) -1 (ring mail) = 5.
  • Character B rolls 14 on d100 for his sword (under his skill modifier) leaving his skill with the sword at 5 for this round. His initiative with the sword is 5 (skill) + 3 (long sword) -1 (ring mail) = 7. He rolls 18 (over his skill modifier) on a d100 for his shield giving a skill level of 7 for this round. His initiative for his shield is 7 (skill) – 1 (shield) -1 (ring mail) = 5.
  • Thus Character A holds the initiative with his sword with a 9.

    • NB: in practice the players and GM will be aware that some weapons need not be considered in first-strike initiative determination. The shields in this example could never gain initiative over the swords and need not be considered.

  • Character A declares a slash to the face. Character B opts to defend with his shield. The strike at the face adds 2 to the Feat level. (Defence (7) – Attack (7)) +2 (face target) gives Feat level 2. The defender has no armour to the face so the maximum Slash damage of 1 from the sword is deducted from a 0 armour defence, therefore giving –1, a reduction to the Feat level. Thus the final Feat level is 1.
  • The table shows that a roll of 7 or 8 on the first d8 (Feat Level 1) is required to cause a minor wound, an 8 (Feat Level 2) will cause a serious wound and an 8 with the first die and 7 or 8 with the second die (Feat Level 4, two additional Levels are required for a mortal wound) will cause a mortal one.
  • If Character A rolls 5 or 6 on the first die (Feat level 0) the result is a block. Character B would be driven back and his shield would have a small chance of breaking. A medium shield has a weapon strength of 5, whilst a long sword has a damage rating of 1. Thus the Feat level for the attacker to break the shield is 5 – 1 = 4. The first two dice must roll 8 and 7 or 8 respectively to break the shield. Whether the shield breaks or not Character B is driven back off balance and may not make an attack in this round. Since Character A has an initiative of 5 with his shield he may attack again with a shield barge in the same round. Although Character B also has initiative of 5 with his shield the block result means that he cannot attack with his shield barge.
  • A roll of 4 or less on the first die (Feat level -1) represents a parry by Character B and he may now make his own counterattack in the round and, depending upon the result, may also be able to use his shield whereas Character A will not be able to respond with his shield barge because the parry result has thrown him off balance.

Missile Combat

Character A with Accuracy 5 fires a short bow at the chest of Character B using a medium shield, wearing padded armour, and in soft cover 69 feet away. The range difficulty factor is 5, soft cover increases this by 1, and aiming at a single target increases this by a further 1 giving a net Difficulty of 7. The chest as a target adds nothing to the difficulty but the target is protected by a medium shield adding 2 increasing the difficulty to 9. The character deducts his missile skill of 5 giving a Feat level of 4. Under 200’ the pierce damage of a short bow arrow is 2 and padded armour has no effect on this thus the Feat Level of 4 is reduced by a further 2 giving a final Level of 2.

Using the Feat Table...

Once the Feat level has been established the feat table is consulted to establish the outcome. Consulting the feat table shows that to hit and cause a minor wound the character must roll an 8 with the first d8. However to cause a serious wound he must succeed at a Feat one level higher that is roll 7 or 8 on the first two d8s and to cause a mortal wound he must roll two levels higher that is roll an 8 on the first two dice. Any result less than a 7 on the first die represents a miss or a deflection by armour or shield. An 8 on the first die and less than a 7 on the second die represents a minor wound. A 7 on the first die and a 7 or 8 on the second die represents a serious wound. An 8 on the first two dice represents a mortal wound.

Multiple opponents

An individual character may make two attacks in a round against different opponents. These attacks must be made by different weapons. He may be attacked by, and defend against, as many individuals as can bring weapons into combat range. A single weapon may be used in defence against all attacks but a weapon used to attack in one round may not also be used in defence in that same round.