This section deals with situations where violence has broken out. Combat does not prevent other methods being used, and any worthwhile battle will have an objective above and beyond simply overcoming the enemy. These goals are normally straightforward: reaching a location, object, or person, or preventing the enemy from doing those things. There may also be a time factor involved in a combat encounter, where achieving the goal in a specific time frame is necessary, or one side needs to fend off the enemy long enough to complete some other challenge.
One important consideration for combat is that not all combats are fought to the bitter end—few combatants are willing to die pointlessly, and everyone knows the value of regrouping rather than pushing on against hopeless odds. Instead, combat frequently ends in one side retreating from the battle. This may involve a fighting withdrawal on foot, the arrival of a transport, or getting transported out.
In battle, knowing the location of every combatant is important, and determining both absolute position (where you are on the battlefield) and relative position (how far you are from a given friend or foe) is essential. Rather than track everything in precise distances, RFI:Freelancers resolves this matter using distances and zones.
The battlefield in which you fight is always a discrete location—a building, a colony street, an area of wilderness, part of a ship, or another area. A battlefield is divided into several zones based on the terrain in the area. A simple battlefield may consist of three to five significant zones, while complex environments may have many more. For example, combat inside a starship may treat individual rooms as distinct zones, using the internal walls and bulkheads as natural divisions, while a city street may focus zones on features like parked vehicles, the fronts of buildings, alleyways, and so forth.
Track your characters’ place in combat by noting which zone they are in. This should be easy in most cases, as zones are defined by the terrain around them. Tracking your character can be a matter of simple description: a character may be described as ‘behind the control console’ or ‘standing by the shuttle.’ This has the advantage of relying on natural language and intuitive concepts, rather than specific game terms, and avoids the tracking of relative distances which can become fiddly where there are many characters present.
Zones do not have a fixed size; they are based on the features of the battlefield. A forest may be divided into many small zones between trees, while its clearings will have larger zones. Larger zones convey quicker movement and easier target acquisition in open areas, while the smaller zones convey cramped conditions and short lines of sight.
Individual zones often have terrain effects defined when the gamemaster creates them, like cover or difficult terrain, interactive objects, or hazards. Some zones may be defined more by the absence of terrain than its presence, and some environments are enhanced by a few ‘empty’ zones between obstacles.
Movement and ranged attacks range is measured in four distances and one state, based on the battlefield’s zones.
Reach is the state when an object or character is within or moves into easy reach of your character. You enter Reach to interact with objects manually or to make a melee attack. When you move your character into or within a zone, you can declare they are moving into or out of Reach of something. Being within Reach of an enemy increases the Difficulty of any task that isn't a melee attack by 1.
Close range is defined as the zone you are in, or a distance of 0 zones.
Medium range is defined as an adjacent zone, or a distance of 1 zone.
Long range is defined as two zones away, or a distance of 2 zones.
Extreme range is any zone beyond long range, or a distance of 3 or more zones.
You will want to communicate during combat—battle cries, verbal challenges, and other dialogue. Your characters can converse normally within Close range—they’re near enough to one another to be heard and to make themselves understood without raising their voices.
A character at Medium range can be communicated with, but they’ll need to raise their voice and shout to be understood. At Long and Extreme range, you can shout to communicate, but conveying any but the simplest of meanings is unlikely. Communicators and similar technologies make distance trivial, allowing you to communicate across vast distances with ease.
The further away something is, the harder it is to notice. In game terms, this means characters in distant zones are harder to observe or identify. The Difficulty of tasks to try to notice creatures or objects increases by:
Your gamemaster describes what you can see clearly, and people who aren’t trying to hide from sight can be seen moving at most ranges. Traits, such as darkness or smoke, increase the Difficulty to perceive others or make it entirely impossible depending on the trait. Species traits often apply here, as some species can perceive things more clearly in darkness, or see over longer distances.
Humanoid perception is generally dominated by sight and hearing, but other senses can come into play depending on the species.
A species with a particularly keen sense may reduce the Difficulty of all tasks related to that sense, while dull senses increase the Difficulty of those tasks. This is covered by the creature’s species trait.
Moving to anywhere within Medium range requires a minor action. Moving further than this requires a major action. Movement can take many forms—walking, running, jumping, swimming, climbing, etc.
Difficult terrain describes any ground requiring more effort to cross, either because it hinders you or because you need to be careful where you step. A zone may be filled with difficult terrain, slowing anyone attempting to cross it.
| Difficult Terrain | Momentum Cost |
|---|---|
| Thick mud, loose sand, stairs | 1 |
| Swamp, unstable rubble | 2 |
| Steep slope, fast-flowing water | 3 |
| Obstacle | Momentum Cost |
|---|---|
| Wall or barrier up to waist height, or a short jump | 1 |
| Wall or barrier up to chest height, or a long jump | 2 |
| Wall or barrier taller than you, or a long jump with a run-up | 3 |
Obstacles are similar in that they hinder your movement, but they exist between zones—attempts to move from one zone to another where an obstacle is present may slow your progress. Obstacles may be barriers you need to climb up or over, or they might be gaps that you need to jump past.
When you attempt to move from an area of difficult terrain or cross an obstacle, you must spend 1 or more Momentum, depending on how difficult the terrain or obstacle is. This is Immediate.
If you do not have sufficient Momentum available (and don’t want to add Threat), you must find some way to generate the points you need. The simplest way to do this is to attempt the Sprint task as a major action, generating Momentum with a Difficulty 0 Fitness + Security task—any successes become Momentum, which can be spent on moving through the terrain. Other tasks can also generate Momentum in this way, but taking the Sprint major action combines movement and a task into a single action for convenience.
Characters with appropriate traits (representing gear for traversing terrain, or perhaps physical adaptations suitable to a particular type of movement) may reduce the cost of crossing types of terrain by 1, at the gamemaster’s discretion. For example, Denobulans evolved to climb quickly and efficiently, and thus reduce the cost of difficult terrain when climbing.
Sheer drops, steep slopes, precarious catwalks, deep chasms, and other places where falling is a possibility are the most common forms of hazardous terrain. As falling is such a common risk, it deserves specific attention, which can also serve as inspiration for how to handle other hazards.
The simplest way to consider falling is to inflict damage—falling a long way may cause an injury. However, this is probably the least interesting way to approach the situation, and if the group isn't in combat, it can be an inconsequential one. Further, there are a range of other possibilities that could be explored:
You could offer Success at Cost on tasks to avoid falling; the character may only fall part of the way, but grab onto something, or lose an item in the process. This is useful for falls that would otherwise be deadly.
Cover is a common terrain effect, representing objects that interfere with your ability to see or attack a target clearly. Cover allows you to turn an enemy ranged attack into an opposed task, giving you a better chance of resisting them and possibly counter-attacking. Cover can be represented by a location trait.
A zone will either provide cover to any creature in the zone, or the gamemaster may point out features within the zone that grant Cover (requiring you to be within Reach of that feature to benefit from it).
Interactive objects are any object or terrain feature you can manipulate. Doors and windows are examples, as are control panels and computer terminals. Interacting with these objects may only take a minor action, but a complex object might need a major action, including a task, to interact with properly, at the discretion of the gamemaster.
In any given turn in a combat, you can attempt one major action and one minor action. You may gain additional actions by spending Momentum or adding to Threat.
Minor actions are short activities that do not include a task. They are taken in support of a major action, like moving into position before making an attack. You can take 1 minor action on each of your turns and may take an additional minor action per turn by spending 1 Momentum (Immediate).
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Aim | When you make an Attack this turn, you may re-roll a single d20 on the task roll. |
| Draw Item | You pick up an item within Reach or draw an item you are carrying. If using the item doesn't require a task to use, you can use it immediately as part of this minor action. |
| Interact | You Interact with an object in the environment, such as opening a door by pressing the control panel or issuing a simple voice command to a computer. Complex interactions may require a major action and a task roll instead. |
| Movement | You move up to one zone, to any point within Medium range. You cannot take this minor action in the same turn as a Movement major action. If there are any enemies within Reach of you, you cannot perform this action. |
| Prepare | You prepare for or set up a task. Some items require this minor action before they can be used, and some major actions require this minor action before they can be attempted. Sometimes items will grant special benefits if this action is used before performing a task. |
| Stand/Drop Prone | You drop to the ground, making yourself a smaller target, or stand up from being prone. You cannot Stand and Drop Prone in the same turn. |
Major actions are the main activity you perform on your turn, and normally include a task. You can attempt 1 major action during your turn. You can attempt a second major action on your turn by spending 2 Momentum (this adds +1 Difficulty to any task on the second major action). You may also gain a second major action during the round if you are the subject of the Direct action. You may not attempt more than two major actions during any round.
An Attack is the most direct major action in combat. The process for attempting an Attack is as follows:
Example: ...
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Assist | You Assist a character with a task roll during their turn. (See Teamwork and Assistance, page 255). If they have not yet acted, take this action on your turn, and Assist when they take their turn. If they attempt a task before your turn, you may choose to Assist them immediately, but you give up your turn later in the round to do so. |
| Attack | You Attack an enemy or other viable target and attempt to injure them. See Attempting an Attack for details. |
| Create Trait | This is a task with a Difficulty of 2, using an attribute + skill and specialty based on what you are doing. If successful, you create, change, or remove an existing trait, or increase or decrease the Potency of an existing trait. |
| Direct | This may only be attempted by one character on each side in a position of authority (the highest-ranking person or a nominated leader). Spend 1 Momentum and select one ally who can hear you. They may immediately attempt a single action with no +1 Difficulty; you Assist them with your Will + Leadership. |
| First Aid | You attempt to revive a Defeated character within Reach. Attempt a Cunning + Science task with a Difficulty of 2. If successful, the character is no longer Defeated, though they may still have an Injury. Alternately, you may tend to an Injury on another character within Reach. Attempt a Will + Science task with a Difficulty equal to the Injury's severity. If successful, one Injury is treated (see Recovery and Healing). |
| Guard | You defend yourself, preparing for an attack. This is an Cunning + Security task with a Difficulty of 0. Success increases the Difficulty of any attacks against you by +1 until the start of your next turn. You can confer the benefits of this task to an ally within Reach instead of yourself—this increases the Difficulty of this task by +1, and the benefit lasts until the start of your ally’s next turn. |
| Other Tasks | Perform a task at the discretion of the gamemaster. Circumstances or objectives may dictate a task, and dangerous situations may require overcoming an extended task or completing a challenge. |
| Pass | You choose not to attempt a task. |
| Ready | You choose another major action to take as a reaction to something else. When the trigger event occurs, you temporarily interrupt the current character's turn to resolve your readied major action, then play proceeds as normal. If the triggering event does not occur before your next turn, the action is lost. You can still perform minor actions during your turn as normal. |
| Sprint | You run forward, trying to cross the area quickly. You move two zones, to any point within Long range. If there is difficult or hazardous terrain, you may attempt a Fitness + Piloting task with Difficulty 0 as part of this action, to generate Momentum to cross the terrain as part of this action. |
The Assist action works a little differently from most other major actions in combat. You can choose to Assist when another character declares the task you wish to help with, even though it isn’t your turn. However, you can only provide this assistance if you have not already acted this round, and assisting means that you will not take a turn of your own later in the round—assisting takes up your turn instead.
While this may seem complex on the surface, in play it makes teamwork and assistance easier to resolve: you don’t have to plan in advance if you want to Assist someone, you simply declare it at the moment it becomes relevant, so long as you’re not doing anything else that round.
Choose a Weapon and Target:
Select the weapon you wish to Attack with, and the target. You must also choose whether you intend to inflict a Stun or Deadly Injury; if you choose to inflict a Deadly Injury, add 1 Threat.
Attempt Attack:
Make a task roll to see if the Attack is successful.
Resolve Attack:
If your Attack succeeded, you inflict an Injury upon your target (see Injuries, below).
When you successfully hit an opponent during combat, they may become Injured. Some environmental effects also come with a risk of Injury, such as:
When a character is hit by an attack or is affected by a hazard (e.g., a fire, falling rocks, or similar), they suffer an Injury.
The exact nature of the Injury is described as a character trait (see page 250), representing the damage done to the character. As with any trait, this may make some actions more difficult, or even impossible, depending on what the Injury represents. When a character suffers an Injury, the nature of the attack or hazard that caused it will suggest a name for that Injury—for example, a disruptor may cause a Burn trait. Players or the gamemaster may suggest a fitting alternative. The gamemaster's ruling on this is final.
All sources of Injury also have a severity, a number normally between 1 and 5, which indicates how serious the Injury is. The severity of an Injury is important in a few different ways, explained below. When you succeed at an Attack, you may spend 2 Momentum to increase the severity by 1. This is repeatable, but you cannot increase the severity by more than 2.
When a character suffers an Injury, they are also Defeated. A defeated character immediately falls prone and cannot take any actions for the rest of the scene. Characters can recover from being defeated in a few ways, described in the following sections.
The rules for Injury here apply primarily to main player characters. NPCs and supporting characters are treated differently.
A Minor NPC, or any supporting character who does not possess any values, does not suffer injuries. They are instantly Defeated by any successful attack and cannot choose to Avoid Injury. The only difference between Stun and Deadly attacks against a Minor NPC or basic supporting character is that Stun attacks leave them unconscious and Deadly attacks kill them instantly (or disintegrate them, at the gamemaster’s discretion).
A Notable NPC, or any supporting character with one or more values, suffers injuries as normal. Supporting characters may Avoid Injury as player characters do (but have only half the amount of initial Stress). A Notable NPC may spend Threat equal to severity to Avoid Injury, but they can only do so once per scene.
A Major NPC receives injuries as normal and may Avoid Injury by spending Threat equal to severity.
Injuries broadly come in two categories: Stun and Deadly, and which one an Attack or hazard inflicts will be listed in its description. For example, an Unarmed Attack inflicts Stun Injuries.
Some Attacks have multiple options for the kinds of injuries they can inflict. For example, a Phaser can inflict Stun or Deadly Injuries. Where this choice exists, you must choose which kind of injury you wish to inflict when you choose the target of the attack. If you're counterattacking, make this choice when you spend Momentum to counterattack.
Stun Attacks: These are intended to incapacitate a target without causing lasting harm. An injury caused by a Stun Attack only lasts while you are Defeated. If you stop being Defeated, a Stun Injury is removed at the end of your next turn as you shake off the effects.
Deadly Attacks: These are those which inflict serious harm upon the target, which might result in death. If you choose to make a Deadly Attack, add 1 Threat. While you have one or more Deadly Injuries and are Defeated, you are Dying, and you will die at the end of the scene if you do not receive medical attention.
When you suffer an injury, you may Avoid Injury by taking Stress. Suffer Stress equal to the attack’s severity to ignore that injury, suggesting that you ducked out of the way at the last moment or otherwise resisted the attack. This also prevents you from being Defeated by that injury as well.
A character wearing armor, or using some other protective device, has Protection; for example, combat armor provides Protection 1. When you suffer an Injury, the severity is reduced by an amount equal to your Protection, to a minimum of 1.
You may provide First Aid to help defeated and injured allies. The First Aid action allows you to attempt a Will + Science task with a Difficulty of 2 to tend to another character within Reach. If you complete the task, the patient is no longer Defeated. Alternatively, you may attempt a Will + Science task with a Difficulty equal to the Injury’s severity to treat an Injury the patient has suffered.
A treated Injury no longer imposes any penalty, but it is still an Injury, and it will need proper medical treatment to remove entirely. Further, complications may result in a treated injury “re-opening” during strenuous activity, requiring the injury to be treated again.
Longer-term healing cannot be done during combat. An injured character requires medical treatment to remove the Injury completely. This treatment is normally a Reason + Science task with a Difficulty of X and takes X hours, where X is the severity in both cases. Add 1 to the Difficulty and the complication range if the Injury was not treated. This Difficulty may be modified further by circumstances—attempting to heal a severe disruptor burn in a damp cave with a basic medkit is much harder than attempting the same thing in a well-stocked medbay.
If the patient has multiple Injuries, treating them all at once could be treated as a challenge, or even as an extended task (with a progress track of 3x the number of Injuries), at the gamemaster’s discretion.
Momentum is a key tactical resource during combat. When you generate Momentum in combat, you have numerous options available to achieve victory over your enemies, empower your comrades, and bolster your own prowess.
You have all the normal Momentum options available to you in a combat scene, with additional options related directly to combat. Spends listed as:
| Combat Momentum Spend | Description |
|---|---|
| Added Severity (2 Momentum, Repeatable) | Increase the severity of a successful attack by 1 for every 2 Momentum spent. |
| Alter Trait (2 Momentum) | You create, change, or remove a trait in the scene. This change must relate to the task completed. |
| Extra Minor Action (1 Momentum) | You take one additional minor action on your turn. |
| Keep The Initiative (2 Momentum, Immediate) | At the end of your turn, pass the next turn to an ally instead of an enemy. Once that ally has acted, the next turn must go to an enemy. |
| Obtain Information (1 Momentum, Repeatable) | You ask the gamemaster a single question about the scene, which the gamemaster must answer truthfully. |
| Extra Major Action (2 Momentum) | You may attempt one additional major action. If this action includes a task, the task's Difficulty is increased by 1. |
| Disarm (1-2 Momentum) | Target drops one weapon they are holding to within their Reach. This costs 1 Momentum if the weapon is held in one hand. If the weapon is two-handed, the cost increases to 2 Momentum. |
| Buy D20s (1-3 Momentum, Immediate, Repeatable) | Before you attempt a task (but after the gamemaster sets its Difficulty), build your dice pool, starting with 2d20. Add bonus d20s granted from talents and other game effects. Add more d20s by spending Momentum or adding Threat. The first bonus die costs 1, the second costs 2 more, and the third costs 3 more. You can't roll more than 5d20 on any task attempt. |