Personal Combat

1. Determine the first side once per combat. Clear tactical advantage lets that side choose the first Activation. Otherwise each side rolls 1d6: highest chooses, ties reroll.
2. Alternate one combatant at a time: one PC’s Activation, then one opposing combatant’s Activation resolved by the GM. Each relevant NPC acts individually, not as a shared attack. Any remaining combatants act after the smaller side runs out.
3. Each normal Activation grants one Move (up to 4 spaces) and one Action, in either order. Do not split the Move around the Action. Attack, Reload, Ready, treat, help or use a Working as the Action. Sprint uses the Action for up to another 4 spaces.
4. For an uncertain Action, establish Skill, Risk, Effect and named consequence; roll 2d6 + Capability once and apply the result. There is no damage roll or separate defence roll.
5. Normally each combatant has one Reaction per round, used only on a valid trigger outside their Activation. Next round, the side that did not make the previous round’s final Activation acts first.

A genuinely surprised side cannot use Reactions until its first combatant finishes an Activation. Surprise is not a free round or automatic Helplessness. Specific Major Threat profiles may grant extra Activations.

Native Rules, printed p. 55.

• Guard

  Trigger and cost

  After a melee attack from a space you threaten rolls 7–9, spend your Reaction to reduce bodily Harm or manoeuvre Effect one step. You need credible defensive means. A 10+ beats ordinary Guard. Guard cannot stop ranged or unthreatened attacks, or protect you while Helpless.

• Turn

  Trigger and cost

  When an enemy enters an adjacent space you do not threaten, spend your Reaction to face them before their attack resolves. This may expose another side.

• Reaction Strike

  Trigger and cost

  When an enemy voluntarily leaves a threatened space without Fighting Withdrawal or another permission, spend your Reaction for one melee attack before movement completes. It does not automatically stop movement.

• Ready / Hold

  Trigger and cost

  Spend your Action to name one specific Action and a perceptible trigger. Before your next Activation, spend your Reaction when it occurs to resolve the Readied Action immediately. Without the trigger or an available Reaction, it is lost.

Normally choose one response each round; specific Techniques alter permissions. Guard never stacks with armour, Cover or Going Low to reduce the same Harm twice.

Use an Action to control position with one normal Athletics or Close Combat roll, as appropriate. The target makes no opposed roll. Their size, footing, skill, equipment and position establish Risk and Effect. Guard applies to a threatened melee manoeuvre on 7–9, reducing its Effect one step; 10+ beats ordinary Guard.

• Grapple

  Standard Effect

  Grappled

  Great Effect

  Grappled; may Pin if the position supports it

  Procedure

  Action while adjacent, with a credible free hand, limb or hold. Limited gives only lesser positional advantage.

• Pin

  Standard Effect

  Pinned

  Great Effect

  Resolve the established advantage from the position

  Procedure

  Action from an existing Grapple. The target cannot Move or freely turn; full-body actions usually have Limited or No Effect.

• Escape Grapple

  Standard Effect

  Free

  Great Effect

  Free, with the established greater Effect

  Procedure

  Action using Athletics, Mobility or Close Combat. On 7–9 escape with the named consequence; on 6 or lower the hold remains.

• Escape Pin

  Standard Effect

  Grappled

  Great Effect

  Free

  Procedure

  Action using Athletics, Mobility or Close Combat. On 7–9 apply the stated Effect and consequence; on 6 or lower the Pin remains.

• Shove

  Standard Effect

  Move a comparable target 1 space

  Great Effect

  Move them 2 spaces or knock them down

  Procedure

  One Action; footing, size and obstacles determine credible Effect.

• Disarm

  Standard Effect

  Drop one held item into an adjacent space

  Great Effect

  Throw it farther or put it under your control

  Procedure

  One Action aimed at the held item.

• Knock Down

  Standard Effect

  Target on the ground

  Great Effect

  Resolve the established advantage from the position

  Procedure

  Standing normally uses Move. While down: no Sprint and no effective Reach beyond adjacent spaces.

Native Rules, printed pp. 57–58.

One grid square is approximately 2 metres. A diagonal step costs one space, just like an orthogonal step. The arrows below mark Facing, not a free attack or extra movement.

Every combatant has a Facing. Turn freely during a Move; if staying in place, spend the Move to set any Facing. It then stays fixed until a rule, Reaction or later Move changes it. Ordinary melee weapons threaten the three adjacent front spaces; Reach adds the five immediately beyond them, out to 2 spaces. Obstacles remove approach spaces naturally.

Attacking from an unthreatened space is not automatically flanking. Flanked requires two hostile, Engaged combatants in exact opposite adjacent spaces across the target. Their attacks gain +1 Effect while that pair remains; turning does not remove it. A ranged attack may turn toward a visible target unless another commitment fixes Facing.

A rider and mount share one Activation. Replace the rider’s normal Move with the mount profile’s movement; the rider keeps their normal one Action and Reaction. Mounting or dismounting normally uses the rider’s Move. The mount grants no second independent Action economy unless its profile explicitly says otherwise.

Ordinary riding in safe conditions needs no roll. Use Mobility when riding under pressure is genuinely uncertain: a frightened animal, dangerous ground at speed, an obstacle, or staying mounted after an impact. Establish Risk and Effect from that actual situation.

Facing, threatened spaces, range, Risk and Effect apply normally. Use a special footprint or war-mount permission only when the specific profile provides it. Riding grants neither a free attack nor automatic cavalry Harm.

Check sightline, Normal / Extended range and Loaded state. Beyond Normal but within Extended, reduce Effect one step; beyond Extended, normally No Effect. A normal firearm becomes Fired after shooting. Reload costs one Action, or two with Slow Reload; normally you cannot shoot and Reload in the same Activation.

Engagement does not itself protect a target from a clear shot. An intervening combatant substantially screening the target reduces Effect one step. Friendly fire on 6 or lower must be established beforehand and uses no extra roll. While Engaged: pistols have no inherent Effect penalty; boarding guns normally work where they can be brought to bear; carbines usually have normal or Limited Effect depending on position; muskets and rifles normally lose one step. A controlled barrel can make firing impossible.

At a prepared position, once per Activation spend your Move to exchange a held long firearm for one actually Staged within reach. The Action may fire, but every fired gun stays Fired until Reloaded. Staging grants no extra attack.

Take Cover uses the Move if suitable protection is reachable; the Action remains for firing, Reloading or Readying. Briefly leaning out to fire from substantial Cover does not itself remove it. Consequences, enemy manoeuvre, damaged protection or movement may change the position.

On a ranged attack’s 7–9, substantial Cover that plausibly intercepts the shot reduces bodily Harm one step. A clean 10+ resolves normally. Complete Cover denies a direct shot and normally means No Effect until the sightline changes. Do not stack Cover, armour, Guard or Going Low to reduce the same Harm repeatedly.

Smoke, darkness and fog are obscurement, not physical Cover. Reduce Effect one step if the target can still be meaningfully located; otherwise normally No Effect. Establish Risk from actual danger, not a universal Cover bonus.

• Substantial Cover

  Resolution at a glance

  Physical protection plausibly intercepts or spoils a ranged shot: on 7–9 reduce bodily Harm one step (Wounded to Strained). On 10+, resolve normally. It does not subtract attack Effect.

• Complete Cover

  Resolution at a glance

  No direct shot: normally No Effect until the line of fire changes. Not an extra Harm-reduction layer.

• Smoke / fog / darkness

  Resolution at a glance

  Substantially obscured but meaningfully locatable: reduce attack Effect one step (Standard to Limited). Unlocatable: normally No Effect. No post-hit Harm reduction.

• Go Low

  Resolution at a glance

  Use Move to minimise your profile. At roughly the same elevation, genuinely reduced exposure may reduce ranged bodily Harm one step on 7–9; 10+ resolves normally. No benefit against a nearby clear downward shot, an elevated attacker, Scatter or another area attack.

• Rigid Armour

  Resolution at a glance

  Against a firearm, plausible coverage reduces bodily Harm one step on 7–9; 10+ resolves normally. No firearm benefit at Contact; Deadeye can ignore it on a successful aimed shot at an identifiable exposed weak point.

• Guard

  Resolution at a glance

  Spend an available Reaction after a threatened melee attack rolls 7–9, with credible defensive means: reduce Harm or manoeuvre Effect one step. Not for ranged, unthreatened or Helpless attacks; no defence roll.

While Low, you cannot Sprint and your Move covers at most 2 spaces, unless terrain makes even that impossible. Standing or returning to normal stance uses your Move. Going Low is not Cover and never creates Complete Cover. Armour, Guard, Cover and Going Low do not stack to reduce the same hit more than once.

A close Scatter attack covers exactly the three immediate front spaces. Make one roll for the whole area, exposing allies there equally.

• 10+

  What happens

  Every character in those spaces suffers the weapon's normal Effect.

• 7–9

  What happens

  Choose one target there for normal Effect. Everyone else in the area suffers Limited Effect. Apply the established consequence as well.

• 6 or lower

  What happens

  Resolve failure normally; anyone in the area, including allies, may be endangered if the fiction established that danger.

Inside that area, omit the Screened Shot reduction: the blast attacks occupied spaces rather than threading a precise line. At longer range, a boarding gun or blunderbuss fires at one target using its normal range profile.

Native Rules, printed pp. 59–60.

• Strained

  Meaning / lethal attack baseline

  Hurt or impaired, but capable of meaningful action; typical Limited Effect.

• Wounded

  Meaning / lethal attack baseline

  Significant injury changes what can reasonably be done; typical Standard Effect.

• Broken

  Meaning / lethal attack baseline

  Cannot function normally in the scene; Great Effect when severe injury is plausible.

These are fictional baselines, not damage points. Effect may instead pursue control, position or disarming. Harm of the same severity or worse escalates an existing condition one step: Strained plus Strained becomes Wounded; Wounded plus Wounded becomes Broken. Lesser Harm does not automatically escalate a higher condition; unrelated or trivial injury may remain fictional.

Broken is not automatic death. Speech, crawling or desperate limited action may remain possible. Immediately life-threatening injury adds Unstable. Further serious Harm while Broken can kill, whether or not Unstable.

Use Medicine with appropriate tools or materials. Anyone with a plausible method can attempt emergency stabilisation. Immediate access and safety still matter: Field Stabilisation specifically permits emergency stabilisation with a Medical Kit during active danger without first needing extended treatment or a safe position. A Working can substitute only when its physical operation addresses the cause. Standard Effect removes Unstable, not Broken; 7–9 stabilises with the established consequence. There is no universal death-save loop.

• Strained

  Default recovery with suitable care

  Normally clears after the immediate Scene with safety, a breather and basic attention.

• Treated Wounded

  Default recovery with suitable care

  Improves to Strained after about 3 days of safe recovery, unless the exact injury dictates otherwise.

• Treated Broken

  Default recovery with suitable care

  Improves to Wounded after about 1 week, then follows Wounded recovery.

Severe gunshot wounds, surgery, infection, crushed limbs and catastrophic burns may take much longer. A Physician, proper facilities, Fortera-assisted care and good conditions can improve recovery, never erase severe injury instantly. The Physician Strength gives decisive specialist expertise, not a universal ban on emergency aid.

For specific permissions, use the Technique catalogue. The Native Rules PDF retains the longer print examples.

Falls, drowning, machinery, explosions, weather, toxic exposure and collapsing structures use normal Risk, Effect and Harm. Brief or minor exposure may cause Strained; serious exposure may cause Wounded; overwhelming or sustained exposure may cause Broken or death where clearly supported. Repeated exposure can escalate Harm normally.

When the outcome is already obvious, apply the consequence without forcing a roll. A separate damage table is needed only if the scenario specifically calls for one.

Native Rules, printed p. 63.

Native Rules, printed pp. 63–64.