Combat at St. Trinians is a brutal affair, but not lethal! Like much in this game, the action is brutal but St. Trinians girls are not trying to kill people, merely run them off or break their will so they give up. Of course fatalities do happen, and a girl who stands in a fire or lies down on the railway tracks is going to end up dead, but combat is not designed to kill. You may get so badly beaten you are effectively out of action for some time, but if the girls work together, they will likely manage to best their adversaries, by brains if not brawn.

But there are times when a well placed boot to the trousers is by far the best approach. When this happens, the rules of Combat Hockey come into their own.

Combat Hockey is obviously a catch-all term for all sorts of different means of causing pain to others, and includes unarmed, armed, and ranged combat. But out of deference to the fine traditions of St. Trinians, the term Combat Hockey is used as a general phrase to describe the different methods of kicking the enemy in the unmentionables.

Combat is fairly simple. It follows several steps. Most roleplayers will be familiar with these, so without further ado, here we go!

Step 1 - Determine Initative Order
Initative is not based on stats. It's based on grabbing what you can, when you can. On RPOL, this is not so easy, so the Headmistress shall determine who goes first with a simple dice roll, with highest rolling girl going first. You'll be told combat order when it is determined. By and large, unless they get the jump on you, enemies will not be going first. However, if you want to start a fight, one of you MUST spend 1 WP. It is therefore better to adopt the traditional St. Trinians method: goad the enemy so they attack. That costs no WP, and gets them so angry they may make mistakes!

Step 2 - Declare Intent
The players will declare what they intend to do in initiative order. This is a double edged sword. The girls who act fast may get to go earlier, but it means that they don't have the option to hang back to see how thngs pan out. If the bad guys have a nasty surprise planned, the faster grils might find their enthusiasm gets them into trouble.

In some cases you may prefer to run away than stand and fight. If you do flee, Games (Track & Field) will be used to calculate your defence pool. if you run, only assailants with ranged weapons, or who are directly in your path, can make an attack. However, you cannot run away until it is your turn to act, and you remain a viable target for nearby enemies until that time comes.

Step 3 - Resolve Actions
This is where you attack! You have two main attack pools: Games (Team Sports) or Games (Marksman) depending on whether you are in melee or ranged combat. The defender makes a defence roll using an appropriate skill - Games (Team Sports) or Games (Track & Field) depending on whether they are using weapons or simply trying to dodge or run away. There may be more obscure pools too. For example, Magic combat may use Religious Studies, and vehicular combat would use the CDT skill.

The difficulty roll is usually 5, but modifiers may be applied depending on circumstances, such as poor light, high speed, uneven ground and so forth.

If the attacker scores more successes than the defender, the attacker gets to damage the defender. If the defender gets more successes, the attacker fails to damage the defender. Simple enough!

It is possible that to speed things up the Headmistress may ask you to make one Defence Roll for the whole combat. This speeds things up immensely, but it does mean that you are stuck with whatever result you get. If you roll a poor defence for the combat, you may be in trouble.

Step 4 - Calculate Damage
All right, all right! Settle down girls. I know it is exciting to see your enemy squirm in pain, and we all like the sound of breaking bones, but this is important. Pay attention!

If you have won an attack roll, roll 1d6 and consult this table:

Modified
1d6 Result      Wound Level     Willpower Lost
0-3                  Slapped              0
4-5                  Battered             1
6+                   Trashed              2

There are modifiers. Thus:
No weapon used, just unarmed combat: -1
Improvised weapon, such as bottle or spanner: No modifier
You scored twice as many as your opponent on the attacker/defence contested rolls: +1
You scored a success and your opponent failed to score anything at all for defence, or you have surprise so the defender des not get to make a roll: +1
If you have a blade or large melee weapon (hockey sticks or lacrosse nets are two handed, and therefore count as large): +1
You are using a firearm: +2

The wound levels have special effects. They are as follows:

Slapped
You've been hit! But it is mostly a graze. You are shaken, but not stirred. You suffer -1 to your dice pools for the duration of the combat. Multiple slap penalties are cumulative.

Battered
You have been hurt, a deep cut, or even a bullet has found its mark. You must halve all your dice pools (round up) until you are healed.

Trashed
That's it, you're down and out for the count. At the end of the scene you recover a little, but until then, you're done.

Wound Stacking

When you are injured, and take another wound on top f that njury, this is called Wound Stacking, and it works like this:

If you are already Slapped, and are Slapped again, you suffer an additional -1 penalty, but are still just Slapped. If you are Slapped for a third time, you are Battered instead. The Battered status replaces the Slapped penalties.

If you are Battered and get Slapped, you gain the effects of being Battered, with an additional -1 penalty from being Slapped on top. Battered with two slapped levels gives you the effects of Battered with -2 penalty from two Slaps. If you are Battered and get Slapped three times, you are Trashed.

If you are Trashed, it really doesn't matter who else hits you. You're down and likely unconscious and probably have no idea who hit you anyway.


Surprise!!!
If you can attack someone without them expecting it, you Surprise them and they get no defence roll. Stealth is one way to achieve this. Or an ambush. Or having somene distract your prey long enough to get the jump on them. However, this works only once. After you hit them, they are no longer surprised. Just really annoyed...
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:03, Mon 25 July 2011.

Healing

Healing takes time, which is a good reason to avoid fights. Well, fair fights. Beating up people who are obviously weaker is to be encouraged in the fine traditions of the School.

How easy it is to heal depends on your current wound status at the end of a fight. Badly injured characters may need bed rest. Try to avoid getting Trashed. Flight is a viable option if you are faced with overwhelming odds. St. Trinians pupils have a tradition of legging it to safety and then fighting back with new, despicable tactics. This is to be encouraged!

Healing from the various Wound statuses goes something like this:

Slapped
Being slapped is only really a stun, a moment of dizziness. After combat is finished, you lose the effects of being Slapped, and your dice pools return to normal. If you were Slapped twice, but not Battered, this takes an hour. If you were only Slapped once, the effect is immediate.

Battered
When you are Battered, you have taken a real injury. It hurts, a lot, and it isn't going away without medical attention. Firstly, you need medical help after the combat to ensure the wound is bandaged properly. Anyone with the Biology skill and bandages can do this by making a roll at difficulty 5. As many people as have the skill can attempt to make the roll until it succeeds, but each can only attempt the roll once.

Even when bandaged up, you are still Battered; you can only heal during downtime when you are resting. After one day of rest, you are no longer Battered, so long as you have received further medical attention. If you did not get medical attention, you are not Battered, but you will stay at a level of Slapped permanently until you do receive medical help.

Trashed
When you are Trashed, you are out for the count. You are knocked unconscious, or at least insensible. As with being battered, you need immediate medical attention. If someone can make a Biology roll at difficulty 5, you can be brought round before the end of the scene. However, being conscious is not the same as being active. You can only roll 1d6 for any physical actions, and your non-physical dice pools are halved, rounding down.

If you have a day of rest after being Trashed, you become Battered for the rest of the adventure, no matter what medical attention you receive.


Obviously, characters who end up Trashed or Battered are going to have problems without some sort of help. The Biology skill will allow for mundane medical treatment, but to obtain instant healing that will even remove the penalties from being Battered or Trashed, the girls may wish to use magical healing instead. It's faster, much more effective, but does require that the players have access to a reasonable level of Magical Energy and someone with enough Religious Studies skill to be able to heal effectively. (See the rules on magical healing in the Magic thread.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:18, Mon 25 July 2011.