...And on to the cool stuff! Here you FINALLY get to learn some of the basic skills
of combat. Things like, "What does this skill do?", "How do I attack an enemy?", and
more. The basic skills are covered in this chapter, and advanced ones in the next.
Basic skills are basically all the attacks you could do before class change, while
advanced covers attacks after class change. Also, I only teach you how to attack with one
character in basic skills. Fighting with an entire unit against a hoarde of evil sponge
minions definitely makes the advanced category.
INITIATING COMBAT
Combat is initiated 4 ways:
1. A random enemy on the overworld attacks you for no particular reason
2. An enemy attacks you because you failed to comply with his demands
3. You pre-emptively attack an enemy to prevent him attacking you
4. A boss attacks you, or you attack him.
If you have a student of the Squirzi Arts(Squirzi Trainee, Master, or Teacher), you cannot
use option 3. They believe heavily in pacifism. Though they will fight if attacked, they will
not pre-emptively attack a creature. Tough noogies if you don't believe in a fair fight.
GETTING TO AN ENEMY
You move across the battlefield by rolling dice, as
seen in the chart to the left. Once you reach an enemy, if you have at least one movement point
left, you can attack him. You can also retreat from combat if all the living members of your
party are able to reach the black border of the combat map. Any other little annoying movement
bits are covered in chapters 13 and 14.
WHUPPIN' YOUR ENEMY BIGTIME!
Now we get to the fun part:the real combat stuff. This small section will teach you
all the rules you need to know until chapter 11...or the expansion pack.
RULE 1:WHO GETS FIRST STRIKE?
This is a remarkably easy rule:If you have one or more movement points left over when you
get next to the enemy, or within range for a ranged weapon, you get to attack him. If you
don't have any points left when you get close enough, or he has points left over when he heads
toward you, he goes first.
RULE 2:HOW MUCH DAMAGE DOES WHO DO TO WHOM?
This is pretty easy to figure out. First, you calculate his evade. Take his base dexterity
and add the amount for his evade to it. Now we calculate how much damage you can do. Take
your base strength, add the amount in either leg or arm strength(Depending on what type
of attack you're doing, though must all attacks are arm attacks-I'll tell you if it's leg), then
add the amount of strength your weapon has. This tells how much
damage you'd do if you hit him, so let's figure out if you even did hit him. There are a
number of ways to tell if you hit the enemy, and your narrator may wish to create his own ways,
but until then, I suggest the following:
You basicaly change evade to absorb. If his evade is 50, your blow only does half the
amount of damage it would normally do. This is easily calculated with a pocket calculator.
There is one other option:Have the narrator write down a certain amount of numbers directly
proportianate to the amount of his evade. For example, if his evade is 20, the narrator
writes down a number between 1 and 5. You then guess the number, and if you guess correctly,
you miss on your attack. The same goes for whether or not he hits you. The easiest way to
figure out what number to pick from is to take his evade and divide 100 by it. If his number
is a decimal, round up to the nearest whole number.
RULE 3:CALCULATING RANGED WEAPON'S DAMAGE
Ranged weapon damage is calculated in much the same way as any other type of basic damage is,
but with a few minor changes. The biggest of these is Range. With a ranged weapon(Defined
in the List of Itemy Things), you can shoot from as far away as the maximum range.
RULE 4:ABSORBING DAMAGE, AMONG OTHER THINGS
As detailed in the List of Itemy Things, each chunk of armor has absorbing power. Using a pocket
calculator, you can calculate how much of the damage actually goes through your armor. There
ain't much more to say on the subject.
Well, that just about is all I can say on basic combat. For the real fun stuff, like
Techniques, Uber-Skills, Multi-attack techniques, and more.
