Armed Conflict
In the Second World, if two more more characters enter a situation where they aim to directly inflict harm, the narrative has entered an Armed Conflict scene.
Second World Armed Conflict aims to improve Fate's conflicts system by providing a more tactical combat experience with spacial context.
Turns and Turn Order
Combat occurs in turns of non-specific length of somewhere between ten seconds and one minute. While characters may take only one action during their turn, it is often implied that much more is going on in that span of time. For example, in a turn where a shock trooper takes an attack action at an enemy, they might also be returning fire as a part of a defense action or reloading in the heat of battle.
Turn order can be determined in two ways.
"Head on a Swivel:" Standard Initiative
Before combat begins, each character rolls their Notice skill. Turn order is then assigned in descending order of their Notice roll. Ties should be broken by comparing who has the higher Notice skill bonus. If equal, compare which character has the higher Athletics skill bonus. If still equal, flip a coin.
If one side ambushed the other, that side should get a surprise round where the characters on their side get a full round of actions before the other side can act.
"Captain Takes Point:" Simple and Fast
Due to the statistics behind Fate's fudge dice and skills, many players have found trying to evaluate a turn order using dice and Fate skills as a cumbersome and time-wasting affair. While it is much more engaging for turn order to be a consequence of an initiative system, sometimes it is better to opt for a leaner solution.
In "Captain Takes Point," each side of the conflict is given a turn order. If both sides entered the conflict on equal footing or otherwise expecting the conflict, flip a coin to determine which side goes first. Otherwise, the side that surprised the other should take precedence.
During a side's turn, any character on that side can act in any order. Sides with players should designate a "Captain" to coordinate the turn order for their side.
Zones
Combat takes place on a drawn map of connected Zones. While zones do not have a fixed area, it should be noted that a zone is a region of space where two characters could reasonably remain in melee range of one another. Pistols and light firearms can fire into adjacent zones, and large firearms and bows can fire up to three zones away. Five zones is the minimum distance to consider combatants as withdrawn from a combat.
Zones can also have aspects; the fact a particular zone might be Cluttered with Boxes or have Squeaky Floorboards could be invoked for one's benefit or detriment. These aspects should be writted directly on the zone.
Special Situational Aspects
These aspects are special in that they also deliberately modify how characters can engage in combat.
Cluttered: This zone is cluttered with large objects that block line of sight. Ranged attacks cannot be made out of this zone.Claustrophobic: This zone has many walls and corners that make using ranged weapons awkward. Ranged attacks from this zone have a maximum range of one zone.
Edges
The passages between zones are called edges. If a passage between two zones is difficult to traverse, that edge may have a traverse cost. The traverse cost defines the number of shifts from a successful move action required to traverse the passage and proceed into the next zone. Wooden doors have a traverse cost of 1 or 2, where reinforced barricades or narrow crossings across a river might have traverse costs of 4 or higher.
Just as doors can be open and bolted shut, some edges can also have an open or closed state. For these edges, they have an additional state change cost that must be paid to make the edge traversable or untraversable. If a character pays the cost to change an edge's state from closed to open, then subsequent characters moving through the edge do not have to pay that cost. Some edges may also be able to be opened but not closed; blowing a hole through a wall is a good example.
The traverse and state change costs can be summarized on the map using open cost/traverse cost/close cost notation. An edge that can be opened but not closed will assign an 'X' to the close cost. An edge that is always open will assign an 'X' to both the open and close cost.
Example Edges
- A Door:
1/0/1, a light hinderance to open and close but easy to move through. - A reinforced bunker door:
4/0/4, hard to open and close but easy to move through. - Barbed Wire
X/4/X, crawling through is difficult but it can't be "opened" like a door. - Barricade
4/2/X, costs a lot to clear but is only a minor annoyance to move through.
Combat Actions
Free Move
Every turn, unless something is preventing a character from moving, that character can move one zone. Alternatively, that character can erode an edge's open/close/traverse cost by 1. If a character makes a Free Move action, they take a -1 on Shoot rolls to attack.
Characters wielding Heavy Ranged weapons cannot take a free move action.
Move
If a character wants to move further than one zone or try to completely overcome an edge's traverse or open/close cost, and nothing is preventing the character from moving, that character can roll Athletics against a difficulty 0 and move that number of shifts. Edges with traverse and open/close costs can either be moved through in a single turn or eroded over multiple turns. A character can move no more than three zones in a single action.
One of the Four Fate Actions
A character can take any of Fate Core's Four Actions as their turn action.
Cast a Spell
A character can cast (or continue casting) a spell as their turn action. See Creating & Casting Spells for more information.