Combat

The approach to combat and everyday life should be the same. - Miyamoto Musashi

1. Rounds
2. Actions
3. Range Bands - Melee, Reach, and Ranged Attacks
4. Attacking and Damage
5. Attack Modifiers
6. Critical Damage
7. Attribute Loss
8. Character Death
9. Detachments
10. Retreat
11. Wounds
    1. First Permanent Wound
12. Dueling
    1. Dueling Saves
    2. Types of Duels

Rounds

A round is roughly ten seconds of in-game time and is comprised of turns. Each round starts with all PCs that are able to act, followed by their opponents. The result of each side’s actions occur simultaneously.

During the first round of combat, each PC must make a DEX save in order to act before their opponents. Special circumstances, items, or skills may negate this requirement. PCs that fail their save will not act this round.

Opponents then take their turn, and the first-round ends. The next round begins with the PCs taking their turn, followed by their opponents, and so on until combat has ended with one side defeated or fled.

Actions

On their turn, a PC may move up to 20ft or one Range Band (from Melee to Reach or Reach to Ranged, etc.) and take up to one action. This may be attacking, making a second move, or some other reasonable action.

Each round, the PCs declare what they are doing before dice are rolled. If a character attempts something risky, the Guide calls for a save for appropriate players or NPCs. All actions, attacks, and movements take place simultaneously.

Range Bands - Melee, Reach, and Ranged Attacks

The distance of an attack is driven by the story and falls into three abstract ranges: melee, reach, and ranged.

Characters may move from one distance to another adjoining distance as their move action. Characters may use their action to move another distance instead of attacking.

Each weapon has an optimal distance for its use. All weapons are either melee, reach, or ranged. Unless noted, a weapon is considered melee.

• Melee - 近間 chikama (short distance) – Combatants are very close to one another.

• Reach – 中間chuma (middle distance) – These weapons can extend the PC’s attack range and keep a foe out of arms reach.

• Ranged – 遠間 toma (long distance) – These weapons are able to attack foes from a distance.

RANGE	DEFINITION	MELEE	REACH	RANGED
Melee	Within arm’s reach		Impaired	Can not use
Reach	A few feet away	Can not use		Impaired
Ranged	A bowshot away	Can not use	Can not use

Ammunition is not tracked unless otherwise specified.

Attacking and Damage

Attacks in combat automatically hit.

The attacker rolls their weapon die and subtracts the target’s Armor, then deals the remaining total to their opponent’s HP. If the opponent has no remaining HP, see Critical Damage.

Unarmed attacks always do 1d4 damage.

If multiple attackers target the same foe, roll all damage dice and keep the single highest result.

Also note that only the weapon tag/effects of the highest result are used; it’s as if only the highest result lands the blow.

Attack Modifiers

Weapon Type: Weapons can deal 3 types of damage:

• Bludgeoning. Always ignores 1 armor.

• Slashing. Deals +1 damage against targets without armor.

• Piercing. Rolling the maximum value on your damage roll makes your attack ignore all armor. This ability only works if you use the regular damage die for the weapon (i.e., if you are using Impaired/Enhanced, not on an Impaired d4 attack.)

Weapon Skill: Many weapons have a specific Skill that provides an additional impact on combat.

• Counter X: Damage rolls of X or less against you are bounced back against your attacker.

• Heavy X: Ignore X points of Armor, but Damage rolls of X or lower completely miss.

• Shock X: Damage rolls of X or higher trigger a STR Save - on a failure, the target loses its next turn.

• Sweep X: Damage rolls of X or higher grant one bonus attack on another target in reach. You can’t chain this effect for multiple bonus attacks.

• Quick X: When determining who acts first during the first round of combat, treat your DEX as being X higher.

Impaired: If fighting from a position of weakness (such as through cover or with bound hands), the attack is Impaired, and the attacker must roll 1d4 damage regardless of the attack’s damage die. Unarmed attacks always do 1d4 damage.

Enhanced: If fighting from a position of advantage (such as against a helpless foe or through a daring maneuver), the attack is Enhanced, allowing the attacker to roll 1d12 damage instead of their normal die.

Blast: Attacks with the blast quality affect all targets in the noted area, rolling separately for each affected character. Blast refers to anything from explosions to huge cleaving onslaughts to the impact of a meteorite. If unsure how many targets can be affected, roll the related damage die for a result.

Dual Weapons: If attacking with two weapons at the same time, roll both damage dice and keep the single highest result.

Critical Damage

Damage that reduces a target’s HP below 0 decreases a target’s STR by the amount remaining. They must then make a STR save to avoid Critical Damage. On a success, the target is still in the fight and must continue to make Critical Damage saves when incurring damage.

Additionally, some enemies will have special abilities or effects that are triggered when their target fails a Critical Damage save.

Any PC that suffers Critical Damage cannot do anything but crawl weakly, grasping for life. If given aid and rest, they will stabilize. If left untreated, they die within the hour.

NPCs and monsters that fail a Critical Damage save are considered dead, per the Guide’s discretion.

Attribute Loss

• If a PC’s STR is reduced to 0, they die.

• If a PC’s DEX is reduced to 0, they are paralyzed.

• If a PC’s WIL is reduced to 0, they are delirious.

Complete DEX and WIL loss renders the character unable to act until they are restored through extended rest or by extraordinary means.

If a character takes damage outside of combat, they should instead receive damage to an Attribute, typically STR.

Character Death

When a character dies, the player is free to create a new character or take control of a retainer. They immediately join the party in order to reduce downtime.

Detachments

Large groups of similar combatants fighting together are treated as a single detachment. When a detachment takes critical damage, it is routed or significantly weakened. When it reaches 0 STR, it is destroyed.

Attacks against detachments by individuals are impaired (excluding blast damage).

Attacks against individuals by detachments are enhanced and deal Blast damage.

Retreat

Some battles cannot be won - and running away should always be a viable option. Just like in base Cairn, a successful DEX Save allows one to run away from a dangerous situation, as long as there is a safe place to run to.

Retreating from an enemy that is not in Melee range takes a single action.

Retreating from an enemy that is in Melee range takes two actions (one to create some distance, one to make the retreat attempt).

Wounds

Adventuring is dangerous. Wounds can come from a variety of sources:

• Fire (such as from a burning building or a dragon’s breath) can inflict burns.

• Electricity (such as from magic or an ancient contraption) can inflict nerve damage.

• Cold (such as from weather or magic) can inflict frostbite.

• Poison can inflict poisoning.

Some creatures might inflict wounds when dealing Critical Damage, or on special attacks. Wounds can also be gained as a cost of player action (storming into a burning tavern to save one’s treasure, for instance, might inflict burns).

A wound occupies a slot in your inventory. The type of wound is mechanically just flavoring, while in fiction a character with burns might have nasty blisters.

Wounds come in 3 levels.

• Light wounds can be healed in the field, given that proper medicine and treatment is available. Light burns can be healed by gathering the right herbs and applying them overnight, for instance.

• Severe wounds require serious medical attention, probably between adventures. Severe frostbite could be cured with a comfortable week-long rest in a healing temple.

• Permanent wounds are just that, permanent. They can never be healed. Every permanent wound also lowers an associated Attribute by -1 (For instance, WIL for nerve damage). While this -1 penalty can be overcome in time by training, the wounds’ Inventory slot is forever lost.

Whenever a wound of the same type is gained, the player can choose to have their existing wound increase in severity or to fill in a new slot in their Inventory.

This allows player choice between short- or long-term impact: do you suffer another mild wound and heal after combat, or stack up to possibly permanent injury?

Wounds are intended to provide a prompt for adventure, with PCs gaining them as a consequence of decisions and curing them becoming adventures of their own.

First Permanent Wound

The first time a PC receives a Permanent Wound they gain 1d6 HP. PC’s do not gain any more HP for subsequent Wounds. This represents the PC gaining experience and knowledge that helps them stay alive in a dangerous world.

Dueling

Duels between samurai weren’t entirely common. Often, when these duels did occur, they were agreed upon in advance and used non-lethal means, such as bokken or shinai instead of katanas.

The repeated clashing of blades would be rare, the preference being to dodge a strike entirely, as each clash would take chunks out of the blade. Most duels ended after one strike, with a typical fight involving footwork and positioning as each side sized the other up and sought the best moment for attack.

A duel can occur for many reasons: sport, test of skill, fame or pride, to settle insults, etc. But whatever the reason, dueling requires combatants to be entirely focused and prepared. All three Attributes are used when completing a duel.

Dueling Saves

A duel consist of 3 contests that challenge each of a PC’s Attributes:

1. Jo – Beginning/Staredown (WIL)

2. Ha – Break/Draw (DEX)

3. Kyu – Rapid/Clash (STR)

During each contest, both sides make a Save.

A combatant wins if they roll equal or under their Attribute while the opposing side rolls above their Attribute.

• If both combatants roll above their Attribute, it’s a draw.

• If both combatants roll equal or under their Attribute, the lowest roll wins and gains -1 on the next Save.

• If both combatants roll equal or under their Attribute and roll an equal value, it’s a draw.

Jo

Koiguchi no kirikata or “cutting the carp’s mouth” is the motion of “unlocking” a katana from the koiguchi of its saya (scabbard) by pressing the tsuba (handguard) with one’s thumb.

The koiguchi (named for its shape like a koi’s mouth) is meant to be perfectly fitted so the saya can be turned upside down without the blade falling out.

The battle of wills. Two opponents lock eyes, their hands hovering over their weapons. They thumb their katanas from their scabbards (koiguchi no kirikata or “cutting the carp’s mouth”). A drop of sweat falls on the ground. The winner of this clash clearly has ice in their veins and gains -1 on the next Save.

Both participants roll a save against WIL.

Ha

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast – but sometimes, slow just means dead. The winner of this contest is just that split-second quicker – and primed to land a devastating blow and gains -1 on the next Save.

Both participants roll a save against DEX.

Kyu

Speed is one thing, but landing a blow still requires a certain degree of physical control: a strong follow-through, a decisive slash, a punishing blow.

Both participants roll a save against STR.

While koiguchi no kirikata could imply a fight was imminent, the concept of koiguchi san sun (3 sun or 9 cm from the koiguchi) during the Edo period meant that a sword was considered fully “drawn” once it reached this point.

The winner of this contest rolls their damage die and a d12 (as their attack is Enhanced), taking the highest result. The damage is done directly done to the loser’s STR (but reduced by any Armor worn).

Types of Duels

Consider any of the following duels, depending on your setting:

• Friendly Duel. Do not roll damage after the Kyu – simply keep track of who could’ve landed a serious blow.

• To The Death. After the Kyu, both parties roll for initiative as per normal combat, and duke it out.

• 3 Touches. After the Kyu, combatants are expected to retake their position and duel again, until one side scores 3 hits.

• The Dramatic Climax. Use a ‘best out of 3’ structure. Damage is only done after one combatant wins the decisive clash – the duels leading up to it represent a dramatic clashing of blades, moments to spout dramatic exposition or vengeful monologues.