Combat

Action Mode
During combat and other intense, high-stakes situations, the game enters Action Mode. In Action Mode, characters take turns moving, attacking, or using abilities or skills. All of the basic Actions which are available to any character can be found on the Actions page. The turn order is determined by rolling Cunning, with the highest roll moving first, the second highest moving second, and so on. Each full rotation of the turn order is called a round. During each character's turn, they have 3 Action Points or AP to spend. A character may use AP to perform a variety of actions, most commonly moving and attacking. Moving a character's Speed in feet costs 1 AP, most attacks and abilities cost 2 AP, and using most skills costs 3 AP. During each round, characters also have a number of Opportunity Actions or OA equal to their Cunning score, which they can use during another character's turn. Usually this means performing an opportunity attack against an enemy who moves while within melee threat range or attacks with a ranged weapon while adjacent to you.

Hit Points & Critical Wounds
Earth 2308 is an extremely lethal game, both for the bad guys and for the protagonists. In most cases, the enemies that players face are built similarly to the characters they play as, using the same character creation rules; no effort has been made to give players an inherent edge over NPCs. In order to survive combat, players are encouraged to fight smart, make friends, and know when to retreat. Escaping from a dangerous situation at the right moment can be the difference between life and death.

In 2308 every character has 6 hit zones, each with its own hit points that do not scale with any attribute. All humans generally have the same amount of hit points for each hit zone. These hit zones include the torso, the right and left arms, the head, and the right and left legs. The torso has 30 hit points, the legs have 24 hit points and the arms and head have 18 hit points. These represent the structural integrity of a character's body, and all body parts except the head can reach 0 HP without the character dying. In most situations, a character will die due to suffering Critical Wounds.

Critical Attacks are dealt when an attacker rolls a 6 twice on their attack roll. Whenever a Critical Attack is dealt and penetrates armor, the character who gets hit suffers a Critical Wound. A Critical Wound represents a severe injury that could be life-threatening if left untreated, such as a fractured bone, a torn artery, an injured organ, internal bleeding or a brain contusion. Many weapons also inflict additional effects with Critical Attacks. Each time a Critical Wound is sustained, the character must roll their Vigor attribute against their number of Critical Wounds or go into Critical Condition. If they are already in Critical Condition and fail this roll, then the character dies. Additionally, any damage sustained to the torso past 0 HP is converted into Critical Wounds and any character who suffers more than 20 Critical Wounds automatically dies.

When a character is in Critical Condition, they are immobile and dying. They remain this way for a number rounds equal to their Vigor score, after which they must roll Vigor against their current number of critical wounds. If they fail that roll, they die; if they succeed, they remain in Critical Condition and will have to roll again after the same number of rounds. In most cases, the only way to escape from Critical Condition is to be rescued by an ally. When a character stabilizes someone who is in Critical Condition, they roll their Medicine skill against the target's current number of Critical Wounds. If they succeed, the stabilized character recovers from Critical Condition.

Critical Wounds can also be dealt by depleting a body part's Hit Points. If a character's torso HP becomes 0, they suffer 3 Critical Wounds and automatically fall into Critical Condition. If a character's head HP becomes 0, they die. If one of their legs or arms reaches 0 HP, they suffer 2 critical wounds and the limb is permanently destroyed. In most cases, the only way to replace a lost limb is with a prosthetic or a vat-grown replacement, although it is possible to put a limb on ice if it is dismembered cleanly with a slashing weapon and have it re-attached. The way in which a limb is destroyed depends on the source of the damage that brought it below 0 HP. Cold damage causes irreparable extreme frostbite, Fire and Electrical damage melt flesh, muscle and bone, gunshots perforate, swords and axes dismember, hammers crush bone to splinters, and so on.

Healing and Survival
Characters are able to heal in several ways. Willpower and Stamina are restored to full capacity upon getting a full night's rest, while your hit zones heal an amount of HP equal to your Vigor score. Your hit zones can also be healed by using a First Aid Kit, certain prosthetics or mutations, and certain drugs. Some Conditions, like Bleeding, can be cured by using the Survival skill (in this case, to find a suitable improvised bandage and apply it) if you do not have a First Aid Kit. In order to heal Critical Wounds or Crippled body parts, a character must undergo Surgery. Surgery can be performed by another party member, by NPCs hired by the player characters or in some cases, even the wounded character themselves.

All characters other than robots also need to eat a full meal at least once a day and have access to drinking water in order to stay healthy. Each day a character goes without food, they suffer a stacking -1 penalty to all rolls they make, up to a maximum of -12. If they go without food any longer than this, they die of starvation. Each day a character goes without water, they suffer a stacking -1 penalty to all of their attribute scores, up to a maximum of -3. If they go without water any longer than this, they die of dehydration.

On the other hand, Vehicles, Robots and fully cybernetic body parts can only be healed by use of the Engineering skill, a full set of tools and spare parts. The same skills and equipment are also used to repair Critical Damage.

Read the Skills page for more information on Engineering, Survival, Surgery and Medicine.

Help! I'm dead!
If you die, don't despair! There are several ways for dead characters to be revived. If used quickly, Heart Shots and Defibrillators can bring back the spark of life, and there might even be other, less mundane methods...

Note that dead characters can only be revived if it is physically possible. If your head is missing or you suffered more than 20 critical wounds, you are gone for good.

Fighting Vehicles
Fighting vehicles works almost identically to fighting characters, with some minor differences.
 * Dealing critical hits through a vehicle's armor will force it to make DUR rolls to resist being disabled by Critical Damage. If it becomes disabled, it functions exactly like a character in Critical Condition, with the caveat that the vehicle's crew may still be active.
 * Standard Vehicles and Spaceships have 6 Armor Facings - up, down, left, right, front and back. You do not use targeting rolls to see which armor facing you hit; when attacking Standard Vehicles and Spaceships, you simply hit the facing which is pointed in your direction.
 * Mechs have the same hit zones as characters, do require targeting rolls when attacked and are all the only type of vehicle capable of using Cover.
 * When a Standard Vehicle or Spaceship has one of its Armor Facings depleted to 0 HP, it is automatically destroyed.
 * Meanwhile, mechs function almost exactly like characters with regards to damage, with the exception that they are not destroyed when they lose their head. Mechs can have their head, arms and legs destroyed, suffering two points of Critical Damage in any case. If the head is destroyed, the mech's Perception is halved. If the mech's torso HP reaches 0, it is automatically destroyed.

Armor & Penetration
Armor has a fixed Armor value, and will list which body parts it covers. Likewise, weapons have fixed Penetration values. When an attack hits a body part that is covered in armor, you compare the two values. If the attack has a Penetration value that is lower than the armor's Armor value, it deals no damage. If it is equal to the armor's Armor value, it deals half damage, and if it is greater, it deals full damage.

Armor and Penetration values range from 0 to 13. Here are their relative values to give a general idea of what these numbers mean:

0 - Most unarmed attacks and attacks with improvised bludgeoning weapons, such as thrown rocks or wooden planks.

1 - Sharp everyday objects, such as scissors or kitchen knives.

2 - Dangerous tools and bludgeoning weapons.

3 - Axes and any sharp weapons specifically designed for melee combat, such as fighting knives or battle ready swords. Also .22lr, .32 acp and other very small cartridges.

4 - 12ga shotshells and most handgun cartridges, including 9mm, .45 ACP, .40 S&W, .38 S&W and .380.

5 - 12ga slugs and most above-par, high-energy handgun cartridges such as 10mm Auto, .45 Grizzly, .44 Magnum, or .357 Magnum.

6 - Fragmentation grenades, 12ga flechette shells and most intermediate rifle calibers, including 5.56x45mm NATO, 7.62x39mm and 6.8x43mm SPC. Armor-piercing pistol cartridges, such as FN 5.7x28mm also fall here.

7 - High-explosive grenades, flechette bullets and full size rifle calibers, such as 7.62x51mm NATO, 7.62x54mmR, and .30-06.

8 - .50 BMG as well as high-velocity sharpshooting rounds, such as .338 Lapua magnum, .408 CheyTac, or .416 Barrett.

9 - Heat-blades, autocannons, mortars, High-velocity grenades, and infantry Anti-Tank guns.

10 - Infantry rocket launchers, combat lasers, tank cannons and artillery.

11 - Missiles, bombs, plasma weapons, and gauss weapons.

12 - Railguns, lightning cannons, gamma ray lasers, bunker buster bombs and non-nuclear torpedoes.

13 - Nuclear explosions, particle accelerator cannons and Vibroblades.

Note that in general, +C (Charged) ammunition will have a Penetration value 1 point higher than a normal round of the same caliber. This stacks with the use of Armor-Piercing bullet cores and other effects.

Attacking
When attacking, you normally use Physique for melee weapons and Agility for ranged weapons, adding your skills and any relevant bonuses. The enemy then rolls their defense using Agility. If your attack roll beats the defenders defense roll, the attack hits

When you hit with an attack, you then roll 2d6 to determine which body part is struck. The targets, which are called hit zones, are as follows: You may use a Called Shot to target a specific body part or a vehicle's weak points. The rules for Called Shots can be found on the Actions page.
 * Left Leg (LL): 2-3
 * Right Leg (RL): 4-5
 * Torso (T): 6-9
 * Left Arm (LA): 10
 * Right Arm (RA): 11
 * Head (H): 12

Altering Hit Zones
In some cases, such as when attacking certain robots, mutants, cyborgs, or aliens, the aiming targets will be different.

Many mutations, cybernetics and robot parts have an impact on a character's physical appearance, size, and the shape and structure of their body. If something changes a character's hit zones, use the following rules to determine the new targets: So for example, if you took a mutation that gave you an extra leg, it would replace the 6 result that normally means you take a hit to the torso. If you took a disadvantage that removed your right arm, the 11 result that normally means you take a hit to that arm would be added to the Torso's targets instead, which would become 6-9 & 11. If a hit zone has non-contiguous target numbers, it is usually written with a slash. I.E., 6-9/11.
 * The first new hit zone replaces the 6 result.
 * The second new hit zone replaces the 7 result.
 * The third new hit zone replaces the 4 result.
 * The fourth new hit zone replaces the 2 result.
 * Any hit zone that gets removed has its target result added to the Torso.

It is highly unlikely that any character will end up with more than 4 extra hit zones. If this happens somehow, you will have to discuss how to arrange your character's hit zone targets with your Game Master.

Indirect Fire
When a character attempts to attack an enemy they cannot see clearly, they are attacking with Indirect Fire. When using Indirect Fire, you take a three dice penalty on your Attack roll. Verbally communicating targeting information to a character will reduce their Indirect Fire penalty to two dice, while giving them precise coordinates with a Rangefinder will eliminate the penalty altogether. Indirect Fire is usually performed with artillery pieces, mortars, and other weapons that fire projectiles in a parabolic trajectory; however, it can also be done at extreme distances, especially in space, or with air-to-ground weapons when terrain is uneven.

It is not possible to make a Called Shot with Indirect Fire, although weapons with the Homing property do not suffer the Indirect Fire penalty.

Cover
While engaged in a firefight, the best way to avoid getting hurt or killed is to Take Cover. While taking cover, a character is able to protect some of their body parts from damage by hiding them behind terrain, buildings, objects, and even other people. When you Take Cover, you choose which body parts to protect. When a character is Flanked, an enemy is able to target them from an angle at which their cover is ineffective. For instance, if someone is hiding behind a car and is approached from behind, the car will not give them cover. Keep in mind that Cover generally does not apply to melee attacks; it is assumed that any character who gets close enough to use a melee attack could simply swing around it.

There are four types of cover:

Light Cover
Light Cover protects three body parts at a time. Generally, it consists of makeshift cover like overturned tables, cars, trees, and small rocks. Although Light Cover is significantly less effective than other sources of protection, it is extremely common and ubiquitous. Nearly any object large enough for a human to hide their lower body behind it while standing can count as Light Cover.

Medium Cover
Medium Cover protects four body parts at a time. The most common types of Medium Cover are floors, walls, ceilings and terrain, meaning that any time a character is in an Enfilade position, they are in Medium Cover. Most objects taller or wider than a person also count as Medium Cover.

Heavy Cover
Heavy Cover protects five body parts at a time and is relatively uncommon. Heavy Cover includes objects that are bother taller and wider than a person, large enough that one can hide their entire body behind it and only peek out with their head. Many military defensive structures, such as sandbags, also count as Heavy Cover.

Total Cover
Total Cover protects all six body parts at a time and represents when there is a sheer barricade between the attacker and the target. Most of the time, Total Cover only comes into play when a character attacks another through Cover intentionally.

Cover Penetration
Depending on the attack and the type of cover, attacks may penetrate through and deal damage regardless, but they will still hurt less than they would otherwise. When a character is hit by an attack through Cover, you subtract the Cover's Armor score from the attack's Penetration score before the attack reaches the Character. For example, if a Penetration 5 attack pierces through an Armor 4 rock, then the attack hits the character with 1 Penetration. Like the armor used by characters, creatures and vehicles, all Cover objects have an Armor value which is determined by their material and thickness. Unlike other Armor values, Cover does not reduce damage if Penetration is equal to it in value.

0 - Thin cloth, such as window drapes or bedsheets.

1 - Consumer ceramics, such as vases and cups, and soft, filled objects like pillows or couches.

2 - Thick cloth or leather.

3 - Wood, plaster, padded cloth and tough boiled leather.

4 - NIJ Level II Kevlar, bricks, porous rock and most plastics, automobile sheet metal

5 - NIJ Level IIIA Kevlar, thick hardened wood, and porous rock bricks.

6 - Wire-mesh glass and regular concrete

7 - NIJ Level III Ballistic Armor, metal plates, natural hard rock, and glazed security glass

8 - NIJ Level IV Ballistic Armor, aluminum vehicle armor, large boulders and engine blocks

9 - Rolled homogeneous armor, liquid armor and reinforced concrete

10 - Sloped armor, sheer steel and thick fortified stone

11 - Composite armor, tungsten carbide, reinforced layered metal, and earthy ground.

12 - Entire buildings, packed bedrock and depleted uranium composite armor

13 - Entire city blocks and Carbon Lattice Armor

Cover for Vehicles
Regular cover, of the sort used by infantry, can only be used by mechs that are small enough to hide behind it. In contrast, other vehicles will have to use buildings and terrain to partially conceal themselves from the enemy. As long as such a vehicle is meaningfully obscured, it gains a bonus die to Defense rolls.

Damage and Damage Types
In the vast majority of instances, characters who take damage in-game do so from sources like melee attacks and firearms. This type of damage is referred to as Brute Damage, and simply subtracts from a target body part's HP, with a chance to deal Critical Attacks. Any outright physical trauma, such as bruises, lacerations, punctures and the like are considered to deal Brute damage. It bears repeating that any damage to the torso suffered past 0 HP is converted into Critical Wounds, and that any character with more than 20 Critical Wounds automatically dies and cannot be revived.

However, there are also other, more dangerous Damage Types that affect more than just a character's HP, and can ignore a character's armor. All damage types that say they ignore Armor that does not have a specific property *do not* affect vehicles or robots. These circumstances are as follows:

Fire Damage
Damage from flamethrowers, napalm, white phosphorous, plasma weapons, laser weapons, many other incendiary weapons and exposure to hot hazards like chemical fires or pools of molten material. Any time a character suffers Fire Damage, they must roll VIG against the source's Attack dice. If they fail this roll, they are now Burning. Direct Fire damage from lasers and incendiary bullets can be blocked by armor, but area Fire damage from flamethrowers or white phosphorous ignores Armor unless it has the Fireproof property. Robots and vehicles do not take damage from Fire, but if they take a Critical Hit from a Fire source, they must succeed on a DUR roll against the source's Attack dice or suffer the Compartment Fire Condition.

Cold Damage
Damage from exposure to extreme cold, most often suffered by the unfortunate victims of spacings, or people standing too close to a coolant tank when it bursts. When characters suffer from Cold Damage, they must roll VIG against the source's Attack dice. If they fail, they become Slowed. Cold damage ignores Armor unless it has the Cryoproof property. Robots and vehicles do not take damage from Cold, but if they take a Critical Hit from a Cold source, they must succeed on a DUR roll against the source's Attack dice or suffer the Frozen Coolant Condition.

Electrical Damage
Damage from certain weapons, such as Electroshock Grenades and Stun Prods as well as electrical traps and hazards and Hacking feedback. Electrical Damage is extremely dangerous to both organic and mechanical targets. For most characters, taking Electrical damage also drains an amount of Stamina from their Stamina pool equal to the amount of damage the attack deals. This occurs even if the damage is blocked by Armor. When Cyborgs, Robots or Vehicles take Electrical Damage, their Power is drained by twice the amount of damage they take and they must succeed on a DUR roll against the source's Attack dice or become '''Stunned. '''Electrical damage ignores Armor unless it the Insulated property.

Toxin Damage
Damage inflicted by venoms, poisons, many biological sources and some Hazards. This does not describe the Conditions caused by specific Toxin Damage sources, which vary tremendously. Toxin Damage reflects the overall accumulation of toxins in the body and does not target any hit zone. Instead, any time Toxin Damage is dealt to a character, they roll VIG against the source's Attack roll and instantly suffer a Critical Wound if they fail. Robots and Vehicles are completely immune to Toxin Damage, and Cyborgs and Mutants may have Cybernetics or Mutations that help them resist or nullify its effects.

Corrosive Damage
Damage inflicted by acids, both natural and man-made. When a character or vehicle takes Corrosive Damage, their Armor is lowered by 1 until the end of the round or until their next turn, whichever would be longer. If a character or vehicle takes Corrosive Damage again before the effect wears off, the effect stacks and the duration is reset. This effect is negated by the PPPS Property.

Ambient Damage Sources
In some situations a character or vehicle might suffer damage from sources that have no Attack roll. This is especially true for Hazards. For example, if a character were to stand too close to an open pit of lava, they would begin to take Fire Damage every turn. On these occasions the Roll Difficulty to resist the Conditions associated with that Damage Type can be decided by the Game Master, but most Hazards will also have their Roll Difficulty described on the Hazards page.

Grappling
Grappling is a core component of most melee combat training and, when used properly, can often mean the difference between victory and defeat. In order to attempt a grapple, a character must be adjacent to or otherwise within reach of their target. When Grappling, you first declare a hit zone to target, then roll an Unarmed Attack opposed by the enemy's Defense to grab hold of it. If you fail, the attempt is botched and your AP is wasted. If successful, you then roll opposed PHY rolls, applying the Melee and Specialty (Unarmed) skills. If you fail, the enemy may either immediately break free or choose to take control of the grapple instead of trying to escape; likewise, player characters can attempt to reverse grapples in the same fashion. If you succeed, the enemy is Grappled. While Grappled, a character is Restrained. They must pass an opposed PHY roll if they attempt to move away from you or be held in place, and you may move up to half your Speed while dragging them with you. Additionally, they will be unable to use any arms or legs that are being Grappled. A character may only attack with Unarmed attacks and certain small weapons while grappling or being Grappled.

While Grappling the head, an arm, or a leg, you may make an Unarmed Attack opposed by the enemy's PHY, representing wrenching, twisting and pulling the limb. This deals direct damage to the limb equal to the number of dice you roll for the Attack. Characters with superhuman strength - that is, with 7 or more PHY - may also make an Unarmed attack opposed by the enemy's PHY to tear the Grappled limb from their body, instantly reducing it to 0 HP. While Grappling the torso, you may make an Unarmed Attack opposed by the enemy's PHY to throw them, trip them or pin them up against a surface. If a character is standing and is not near a wall or other object, you must trip them before you can pin them.

When a character is Pinned, they are unable to act and are considered Helpless until they break free.

When you are grappling a character's head, you can also choose to attempt to strangle them. This counts as an Unarmed Attack opposed by the enemy's VIG. If you succeed, they are now Asphyxiating until you let go of their throat. Bear in mind that not all characters can be choked - you cannot strangle a robot or a character wearing any type of spacesuit. However, you may strangle the latter if your PHY is over 7 by crushing straight through the suit with superhuman force.

If you are already in a grapple and have hold of an enemy, but want to change the hit zone you are holding, you must make another grapple roll.

When shooting at a character who is in a grapple, there is a 50% chance that you will hit the adjacent character. Roll a 1d6. If you get 1-3, you hit your intended target. If you get 4-6, you hit the person they're in a grapple with.

Size
When grappling, size truly does matter. Larger characters have an enormous advantage over smaller ones due to their greater mass and leverage. During a grapple, if one character is larger than another, the large character receives bonus dice on all grapple-related rolls equal to their size minus their opponent's size.