Hey people. I bought Rotted Capes for my son's 18th birthday because we love both genre's that this game focuses on. We played a small scenario the other night after taking a day for 3 of us to make characters. Our primary confusion was how to handle combat. Does anybody have a streamlined version or suggestion of where to look to get a decent combat example? We are used to the d20 system but this system confuses us.

Lend us a hand please! We are really looking forward to getting some gritty gameplay going...as soon as we can figure out how to hack up those zombies.

Thanks!

I might be able to shed some light.

First most: this game's mechanics, though simplified, is not similar 100% to the d20 system. Walking in with that expectation will confuse you more and it is best to clear your mind of the d20 rules when taking on the rules for Rotted Capes. This might appear as a completely new language, but after a couple of rounds playing you'll get the hang of it very quickly. If you have played the recent version of Arcanis, Rotted Capes is a more simplified version of those rules.

Combat can be reviewed in detail on Pg. 84 of the main rule book. Please refer to that book for further information regarding combat and more.

Dice
Pending your stats, you'll need a variety of dice to have with you. Usually d10's (for action and initiative), d8's (the average stat's die, but this is not always the case), d12 (for the clock if you don't have a counter). It is recommended to have different color dice to aid keeping track of what type of dice are rolled (Action and Attribute).

Initiative
is always rolled using d10s and it is dependent on your Quickness' (Qu for short) attribute passive modifier (which also affects your base Pace). So say you have a Qu of 5, your pace will be 3 Areas and your initiative will be 3d10. When you roll the d10's, you take the lowest result and that's when you first get to act on the clock. Example: You roll 3d10 and happen to get a result of 4, 7, and 2. On the clock you get to act for the first time on 2.

The Clock
An intiative/turn based system that keeps tracks of when things occur. It is measured in 12 tick intervals. Once the clock reaches 12, it resets to 1 on the following turn and so on and so on.

What can be done on my turn and how does it affect my turn/when I go next?
All actions have a speed name/cost associated to them. These speed name/costs are: Trivial (Speed 1, can usually be combined with another action), Simple (Speed 2, can sometimes be added to another action), Complex (Speed 4, cannot be combined with another Complex or Demanding action), and Demanding (Speed 6, cannot be combined with another Complex or Demanding action). When you perform these actions, you add their speed costs to your current turn. Example: Using the example above, a character gets to act on tick 2, and lets say he/she performs a Complex action (Speed 4). Once you resolve the action, you then adjust your counter, or d12 die, from 2 to 6 (Tick 2 + speed 4 action = 6, your next tick to act).

Action die
Most actions are performed by rolling your skill in said action. Example: Using the complex action above, lets say the Complex action performed was an Energy Blast and the character has 3 ranks in the Ranged skill. To determine what your roll is, you use 2d10 (action dice) + your Prowess' (Pr for short) attribute die (lets say this character has a 5 Pr, making the attribute die a d8) + ranks in Ranged skill (we determined the character had 3 ranks), rolling 2d10 + d8 + 3 and you get a result of 7+5(<-- the 2d10)+4(<- the d8)+3 = 19. You would compare this to your target's Avoidance. If their avoidance is equal or less than 19, you hit them.

Note!: There are two factors you must keep track of when performing action rolls -
1) if you roll a pair of "10's" with the action die (the 2d10), it is considered a "critical hit" regardless of the target number to hit the target. The same can be said of the opposite: Rolling a pair of "1's" is considered a critical miss.
2) if you max out on the attribute die (d8 in this case), you blow that die up allowing you to roll that die again and adding it to the roll's result (and continue to blow up if you max out the next roll).

Damage
Damage is based on the weapon or power being used. Since I've kept building up on the examples above, I will elaborate more on the Energy Blast mentioned previously. Lets say the sample character has Energy Blast Rank 7 (which gives him a damage die of d10). When rolling damage you would roll a d10 + your Qu attribute die (as mentioned above, this sample character has a Qu of 5, providing a d8 die, and like the action die, you keep track to see if you max out this die for blowing up purposes, which I will expand on now). Lets say you get a result of 5 (from the d10) and 8 (from the Qu's d8). I now roll that d8 again and add it to my result (and blow up again if I get another 8), resulting in a 6 for a total of 5 + 8 + 6 = 19 damage!

I know this was a quick, dirty, version of how things go, but I hope it does clear the matter somewhat. Do not hesitate to ask further questions

Thanks for the assist, EddieS! This does help a bit.

You bring up a good point with the power rank that we were also unsure of. So, the ranks of powers are increased the same way as attributes wherein you must spend exp points equivalent to the next rank? To go from Energy Blast rank 7 to rank 8, you would need to spend 8 exp, right? That means that the main table which provides the die listing indicates the power increase for all attribute/rank stats. Is that about right?

I haven't played Arcanis. Seems interesting, but one game at a time is good for this guy. lol

Glad I could help. New mechanics tend to be confusing especially when we become used to another game system's mechanics. Keep the questions coming!



Absolutely correct! However, there is also the factor of a power being a "primary" (a list of powers under Archetypes). If a power is a Primary, they instead cost their current rank to go up.

Example: To raise Energy Blast from Rank 7 to Rank 8 cost normally 8 xp, but if the character has an Archetype that has Energy Blast as a Primary Power, raising it to Rank 8 would cost 7 xp.

The 1 pt. difference doesn't appear as much, but it makes a monumental difference when buying several ranks at once.

Example: Buying Energy Blast from scratch to rank 7 costs 28 pts. Buying Energy Blast as a Primary Power from scratch to rank 7 costs 22pts.



It's the predecessor to Rotted Capes rules-wise. The storyline is fantasy genre, but takes on a very serious roll as it heavily incorporates the concept of "actions have consequences" and at times leaves you with the feeling "omg, what did my character just do?!" It has a very heavy impact on choices and how one plays about. There is no pure black 'n' white as you'll find yourself dabbling in various shades of grey (whether by choice or accidentally). It definitely opens your mind to a whole new level of roleplaying and encourages you to embrace it

Glad I could help. New mechanics tend to be confusing especially when we become used to another game system's mechanics. Keep the questions coming!

I think we kept the rules separate enough, but the new rules are very different and so it take some adjusting.


Absolutely correct! However, there is also the factor of a power being a "primary" (a list of powers under Archetypes). If a power is a Primary, they instead cost their current rank to go up.

Example: To raise Energy Blast from Rank 7 to Rank 8 cost normally 8 xp, but if the character has an Archetype that has Energy Blast as a Primary Power, raising it to Rank 8 would cost 7 xp.

The 1 pt. difference doesn't appear as much, but it makes a monumental difference when buying several ranks at once.

Example: Buying Energy Blast from scratch to rank 7 costs 28 pts. Buying Energy Blast as a Primary Power from scratch to rank 7 costs 22pts.


At least I made sense out of the the ranking system. Thanks for pointing out the power buy advantage. I made a heavy character that has the Tunneling power. I made it limited in that he can only enter the ground through a shadow and instead of turning the ground to loose gravel, he the burrowing causes the ground to become mud. Hence, his code name is Mudd. I think I might need to look at the power ranking again though because I may have jipped myself since I don't think that I bought them at rank cost and instead spent next rank cost.



It's the predecessor to Rotted Capes rules-wise. The storyline is fantasy genre, but takes on a very serious roll as it heavily incorporates the concept of "actions have consequences" and at times leaves you with the feeling "omg, what did my character just do?!" It has a very heavy impact on choices and how one plays about. There is no pure black 'n' white as you'll find yourself dabbling in various shades of grey (whether by choice or accidentally). It definitely opens your mind to a whole new level of roleplaying and encourages you to embrace it [/quote]

We'll see how this plays out, but I am pretty sure we will enjoy it. At some point, I'll get my character up to share. Thanks again!!