Combat Details

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 38

All damage is categorized into two major divisions, Physical and Elemental, of which can be further segmented into a few categories that have somewhat different effects or are simply better suited than others to combat certain armors and items. 

• Physical Damage: There are three physical damage types. These damage types are dictated by the weapon being used. While in general each is treated the same way in most situations there are many times in which the type of damage can have a big effect on the amount of damage actually dealt as some armors and enemies are susceptible or resistant to various physical damage types. These strengths and weaknesses will be noted when ever it comes up so until it does there is no need to worry as all you need to do is remember what kind of damage you’re dealing.

  • Types: Stabbing, Slashing, Crushing

• Energy Damage: Energy damage represents the damage done by attacks that lack a solid physical form like fireballs, laser beams, acid pits, etc. Attacks  that deal Energy Damage can not be blocked except with the use of shields (and weapons that can block) because attempting to stop fire from hurting you with your bare hands is a dumb idea no matter what universe you live. Like with physical damage types certain enemies and armors are weak to one or more the energy damage types so try to have a variety of options.

  • Types: Fire, Water, Air, Electricity, Radiation

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 39-40

When certain energy types interact with others they can effect each other either enhancing, weakened, or altering the effectiveness of one another.

Fire Energy

• Air: When fire or fire energy spells/ability is affect by Air energy, the fire is enhanced and deals an additional 1d6 fire damage.

• Water: When fire or fire energy spells/ability is affected by Water energy it's damage is reduced to half or extinguished if small enough.

Water Energy

• Electricity: When water or water energy spells are affected by Electric energy water is enhanced dealing an additional 1d6 electric damage.

• Fire: When water or water energy spells are affected by Fire energy they have their power reduced to half. Enough fire can dry out a water source.

• Air: When water or water energy spells are affected by Fire energy they have their power reduced to half. Enough fire can dry out a water source.0

Air Energy

• Water: When Air energy is affected by Water energy the Air energy is enhanced into a small storm dealing an additional 1d6 Water damage.

Electric Energy

• Water: When Electric energy is affected by Water energy the effect is altered, the electricity now has an area of affect from the water's splash zone. Electricity damage now has a  3 meter radius of effect.

• Radiation: When Electric energy is affected by Radiation energy it has its power reduced to half as the radiation strips the electrons from the targets surface.

Radiation Energy

• Air: When Radiation energy is affected by Air energy the effect is altered, the radiation now has an area of affect from the water's splash zone. The Radiation damage now has a  3 meter radius of effect.

• Water: When Radiation energy affected by Water energy it's damage is reduced to half.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 41-43

• Armor Rating(AR): The sum of a character’s effective defensive tools is represented as their Armor Rating (AR). AR can come from many sources not just armor, anything that adds to a character’s defensiveness will have an assigned armor rating. As mentioned in the threshold section (page 5) this Armor Rating adds to the attackers target threshold, making it harder to hit the defender. For example, the werewolf Lycus is known to walk around in a reinforced leather vest that has an AR of 3. This means that the threshold that another character has to beat to actually hit Lycus is a 18, 15 for being a medium sized creature and +3 from Lycus’ armor.  Many creatures in Terra also have a form of armor known as Natural Armor meaning that they gain an armor rating simply from having tough skin or thick fur.

• Damage Reduction (DR): While any armor is better than no armor, the best armor does more than just boost your AR, it also provides damage reductions for when the enemy still manages to get a hit in. These are flat numeric reductions that are linked to a specific damage type. The armor of your choice will give a number and damage type, i.e. “5 crushing, the designated number is the amount of damage removed from the damage of that type that you would have taken. For example, if an attack inflicts 10 damage and the character has damage reduction of 4 in that damage type, those 4 points are removed from the total so that the damage taken is only 6.

• Armor Penetration (AP): Armor Penetration works in contrast to AR by increasing the number to the hit of the attack by the AP indicated. AP can be found as a natural property of a weapon or a spell and also has the ability to stack together, when it makes sense. If a spell that adds a flaming edge to a sword which grants +1 AP but the sword already has +1 AP so while that spell is active your attacks have a +2 AP. This means that if you get an 13 to your hit roll then the AP bonus makes it a 15!

• Armor Stacking: Since armor rating and damage reduction can be acquired from armors, perks, spells or Natural Armor, it’s possible and even likely that characters will have multiple layers of protection on them at anytime. When this occurs the over all armor rating is the sum of all AR contributors but the damage reduction doesn’t add together instead defaults to that of the highest. 

This means that if a character has natural armor granting AR 1 with 5 points of damage reduction to Slashing damage and 10 points reduction of electric, with set of armor that grants 3 AR with 10 points slashing reduction, 5 Stabbing reductions and 5 Electric reduction then this character’s total AR is 4 and their damage reductions are 10 for slashing, 10 for Electric and 5 for Stabbing.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 44

Numbers aren’t everything, but they can make a great impact in a fight. While you are attacking an opponent in martial combat, each of your allies within martial combat range of the same enemy grants you a +1 to your attack roll.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 44

Often your fights will be against fleets of minions, dozens of enemies hoping to dispatch you. Fear not for these minions are not as plot significant as you and therefore inferior in nearly every way. Minions do not have any health, one hit equals one kill against them. They also have only 1 point in all stats with only one skill at +2 for elite minions. The total MP pool and MP cap for a squad of minions is equal to the total number of minions in the squad and one squad can only know one spell.

While meek when alone the more of these enemies team together the more formidable the encounter becomes as minions form squads they increase all their stats by for each sqaud member. Meaning if there is a squad of 6 minions this squad has 6 points into all stats, with one skill at +8 if they're an elite minion, and they must be hit 6 times to defeat.

When fighting such enemies damage is not calculated since they die after just one hit. What matters isn’t how hard you hit them but how well you do it. To fight minions roll attacks normally and if the attack is successful then for each and every degree of success kill one minion, including one for the base success. This means that on a good hit you might be able to eliminate an entire squad. Spell attacks that don't require attack rolls and instead require the target to make a roll avoid being damaged work in same manner but 1 minion dies per degree of failure on their roll. If the spell or ability has an area of effect then it can hit multiple squads at the same time.

To control your own squad of minions, if they are not sentient, you must use a major action to command them. The minions can take 2 Major actions.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 45

Objects have HP and Armor rating, just like living combatants. An object’s thickness determines its HP, and its material determines its Armor rating.

Thickness

• Thin Objects: 5cm or less and have only 1 HP.

• Average Objects: 6 to 12cm thick and have 20 HP.

• Thick Objects:13cm and up, these have 40 HP  then +1HP per cm.

Material

• Paper, cardboard, average fabrics: 5 AR

• Glass, ice, simple plastics: 10 AR

• Softwoods, brittle metals, poly-carbonate plastic: 15 AR

• Hardwoods, regular metals, and fiberglass plastic: 20 AR

• Reinforced woods, tempered metals, carbon fibre plastic: 25 AR

The tool used to break an object should matter a great deal and is often up to GM discretion. For instance: even if an attack with a knife technically does enough damage to pierce through a wooden door, it’s far less effective at breaking a door down than a hammer or grenade would be. Represent the uses of a proper or improper tool by offering advantage or disadvantage accordingly.

If a character is struck and Pushed into a wall or object, and if the attack that did so would have been capable of destroying that wall or object in a single hit then it is destroyed by the body being Pushed through it. When this occurs the one being forced through said wall or objects takes half the HP of the wall or object as damage.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 46

Sometimes the best means of eliminating your enemies is to let gravity do the hard work. When a character lands from a fall, they suffer 1d6 damage for each full 2 meters they fell. A character that takes any damage from a fall also lands prone. If falling from within the maximum of your movement distance then the damage can be eliminated with a successful acrobatics or athletics roll at an average threshold. For falls from any higher a successful roll only halves the damage. This damage reduction is only viable until a height equal to double your max movement. You can jump down from within your jump distance without taking any damage but if it occurs by accident then the saves must be made.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 46

In a world with monsters, magic and guns the best way to survive is, sometimes, just to hide! There are two kinds of cover that a character can hide behind Partial Cover and Total Cover. Anyone targeting a creature or an object behind Partial Cover, take a -3 to their roll. To take partial cover requires that the character take a minor action to properly position the body.

When targeting a creature or object that is behind Total Cover the roll has a -6 and only attacks that can break through the barrier can reach the target. Since total cover requires complete obstruction no action is required other than moving behind the object.

For something to count as partial cover for you it has to be at least 25% as tall as you, shooting from partial cover exposes you to enemies until you take cover again. For something to count as total cover it must be the same size our larger than you. While behind behind total cover you can shoot blindly while staying safe but, all shots are at -4 to hit. You can shoot without penalty but this causes the total cover to act as partial until you uses your movement to re-position yourself.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 47-48

Maneuvers allow you to make more strategic attacks that deal reduced damage, in exchange for a bonus effect or that might deal more damage despite being more risky to attempt. You must choose to make a specific maneuver before you roll your attack because some maneuvers have a disadvantage to hit rolls. Maneuvers are 1 Major action unless otherwise specified.

When you make an attack roll and get a 20 on the dice, you can inflict a Critical Hit. Which means you can either double the damage of your attack or select any one of the maneuvers listed below and inflict its effect while ignoring the penalties to damage. If you already declared a maneuver, and your to hit roll results in a 20, you inflict a Devastating Critical. Your attack deals double damage and adds a maneuver effect.

• Aim For The head: Adds 2 disadvantage dice to the attack but increases the number of damage dice by two. If Degrees of Success on the attack is 5 or more add the effects of Go For The Eyes.

• Disarm: Attack deals half damage (or no damage, if you choose), and has disadvantage. An item or weapon in one of the target's hands is knocked free. The target can make a free Average Poise check to hold onto their item/weapon.

• Full Tackle: Make a running a running attack that deals 1d4 per 3 meters up to 8d4, and pushes the target back a number of meters equal to the distance of the run. The attacker moves in a straight line before making the tackle. Minimum distance from target needed to perform this is 3 meters. This attack has disadvantage unless rolled as a Push skill check.

• Knock Flat: The attack deals half damage (or no damage, if you choose) but knocks the target prone. The target can resist becoming prone with a free Hard Poise check. A prone creature cannot Dodge and has disadvantage on martial attacks. Prone creatures must spend a major action or movement action to get back up. You can make a Knock Flat maneuver as a reaction to trip an opponent moving passed within reach, this add +1 disadvantage to the attack.

• Grapple: The target is grabbed, no damage dealt but restricting their ability to move and take actions involving their hands. The target can resist being grappled with a free Hard Poise check. A grappled target can attempt to break free as a major action with a Poise check while the grappler can use a reaction to contest with a Power check, if they do not contest the escape attempt, the escapee must still succeed their Poise check in order to escape. Any character involved in a grapple cannot dodge or block spells delivered by touch unless they let go of the grapple. If the grappler attempts to take actions against other characters other than their grappled foe then those actions have 1 disadvantage dice, unless completely mental.

  • Choking: To choke your enemy you must first enter into a grapple, then successfully grapple them a second time to begin choking. This will inflict 3 exhaustion per round.

• Push: The use of the push skill as an attack that deals half damage and knocks the target backward a number of meters equal to your Power. The target can make a hard Poise check to not be moved.

• Go For The Eyes: A pinpoint strike to the eyes that temporarily blinds an enemy for a number of turns equal to the degrees of success of the hit roll (minimum of 1 round). This attack has a disadvantage and deals half damage. While blinded the target has two disadvantage dice to hit rolls. Any other action that would require sight and accuracy have one disadvantage dice. Spells that requires seeing a target but not a to hit roll can’t be used. The blindness can be cured by healing equal to the amount of damage dealt.

• Dirty Trick: The attack deals half damage but inflicts an ailment with a severity of 1 per 3 Degrees of Succes. The ailment should depend on the weapon, such as bludgeoning attacks inflicting Exhaustion, or limb injury, slashing or piercing attacks inflict Bleed, and electrical attacks inflict Stun, Ect.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 49

For the most part hacking simply requires one or more Security checks. Most personal devices such as smartphones and laptops should be of Average difficulty, while more expansive networks such as the server system of a corporation would be Hard as there is a lot more that goes into such a network of devices.

Any digital device regardless of threshold can have extra security measures as they are just programs that can be bought in the Shop. If such a security program is installed on a device then what is needed to proceed is denoted on the program itself in the shop but generally they increase the threshold difficulty by one category and/or make it so that you have to make X many successful security checks in a row before gaining entry, with failed checks resulting in some sort of trap.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 49

It isn’t just monsters and bandits that are trying to kill you in the wild lands of Terra, even the environments themselves want you dead too! Various environments are so difficult that survival in them is not guaranteed even if you never come into combat with a foe. Some areas might be so hot that you can have the burn ailment applied over and over until you’re cooked!

There are many hazardous environments that can be found in the Terra quest books. While the effects of these vary wildly there are always mild and severe effects for each environment. At the beginning of each day in hazardous environment, or when you first enter, you must make an Endurance check the difficulty of which is detailed in the quest book or determined by the GM. If successful you proceed normally, if the check fails by 1-4 degrees then the mild effect is applied and if failed by 5 or more degrees then the severe effect is applied.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 50

Rough Patch

Battlefields are rarely pretty places. The natural shape of the landscape, unintentional destruction caused by combat, or deliberate magical sabotage can create patches that impede tactical movement. Such areas are called a Rough Patch, and halve the movement distance of characters traveling through them.

Examples of rough patches include: grease or ice slicks, ridiculously tall grass or other tangling vegetation, crushed pavement, knee-deep water, and the interiors of fast-moving vehicles. The GM is the final arbiter of what qualifies as difficult terrain within their campaign.

Swimming

Swimming is also considered moving through a rough patch so you can only move at half speed. While submerged characters can only see up to 3 meters unless of oni ancestry, or wearing the appropriate gear. Characters can hold breath for X rounds equal to their Endurance, after which they must make an average stamina check for another X rounds equal to their endurance of held breath. This can be done until a check is failed or the character has been under water for X minutes equal to their endurance. Each stamina check increases in difficulty by 1 rank. Once a check is failed or the time limit is reached, the character must begin to surface, and will take 3d4 water damage per round until they surface.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p. 51-55

Fighting is already a complex string of carefully planned accidents and adding to this a vehicle increases the complexity a great deal. In order to simulate this complexity there is a separate set of verbs exclusive to combat while piloting a vehicle. These verbs are meant to allow the control of the spacing and positioning of the vehicles involved. With spacing accounted for in the driving verbs, other actions work regularly but depending on distance targeted actions, like shooting, are given a penalty to the hit rolls, to account for the languished quick time calculations required to manage the shots. These penalties can be overcome through the driver making certain driving checks the threshold of which is decided by the DM.

Speed

Speed variance is key to any vehicular fight or chase  specific km/h would make things messy but it's also necessary to figure out long distance travel. Instead of picking one over the other speed has been broken into two pieces, Travel Speed shown as km/h and Chase Speeds which are speed tiers going from 1 to 12. Different vehicles have different minimum and maximum speeds landing somewhere within the speed tiers. The maximum speed is as the absolute fastest a vehicle can more while the minimum speed represents the speed to which a vehicle can accelerate to within 6 seconds meaning that when starting a race or speeding combat you can start at that vehicles minimum rather than just at 1. When a vehicle loses it's driver it begins to slow down 2 tiers per round. If a character becomes faster than a movement speed of 25m they enter vehicle speed 1. Each speed tier represents a range of up to 30km/h.

Speed Actions (count as Major actions) 

• Accelerate/decelerate: Increase or decrease speed by 1 tier, no roll necessary.

• Floor it: Increase speed by by two or more tiers, this requires an average driving check, for every 3 degrees of success you are able to increase the speed by an extra tier.

• Halt: Reduces speed by 2 after succeeding an Average threshold drive check, success of a Hard threshold can  reduce speed by up to 4 and succeed at an Extreme threshold reduces the speed by up to 6. Reducing speed below 1 brings the vehicle to a complete stop. Failing this check reduces speed by only 1 and gives disadvantage to next Drive check.

Placement

For the sake of simplicity distance has been de-granulated to mere categories of Adjacent, Near, and Far. These distances are relative to whoever else is on the road at the moment, and each represents a distance of about 30 meters interms of weapon effective distances. This means Adjacent vehicles are within 1-30 meters from you, if your ranged attack has a max range of less that 30 meters it can still make attackes to adjacent targets as they at anytime might be within range that round. All ranged attacks suffer a penalty to hit rolls for the variable distance and movement of the vehicles, Adjacent targets have 1 disadvantage, Near targets have 2 disadvantages and far targets have 3 disadvantages. If you move past far from a target then they no longer have visual contact and in a chase this is considered an escape. 

The change in distance of any two vehicles is dependent on the difference in their speeds. For example, when two vehicles are chasing after one another at the same speed then the distance between them is unchanging for that round. If the difference in speed between the vehicles were 1 then the faster car moves one distance slot closer/farther to or from the other. So if they were Adjacent and the fleeing car was going 1 speed tier faster then the distance between would increase to near. If the difference in speed is 2 then the distance would go from adjacent to far. Changes to the positions happen at the end of the round.

Crash Damage

Crash damage needs to be calculated whenever a vehicle is forced to an abrupt and complete stop by an external force. Crashes are categorized as being low, moderate, high or extreme speed crashes. Low speed crashes are speed tiers 1-3, moderate speed crashes are speed tiers 4-6, high speed crashes from speed tiers 7-9, and extreme speed crashes are from speed tiers 10-12. For every speed increment past 12 add another damage dice to the crash. The damage for Low speed crashes is 1d6 Crushing, for Moderate it is 2d6, High is 4d6, Extreme is 8d6, and Extreme+ is 8d6 + 1d6 per unit of speed over 12.

The speed of the crash is dependent on the collective speeds of the vehicles involved. Meaning the vehicle speeds are additive, with each vehicle adding their speed to the total speed of the crash. All vehicles involved in the crash will experience the same crash damage.

Driving Maneuvers

Drivers/pilots have their own set of major actions, minor actions and reactions. The Drive skill check need to make each action may vary depending on speed and distance. Some vehicles also come with innate powers or tools such as boosters, oil slicks, transformations and of course guns. While many vehicle powers will be able to be operated by the driver some require a passenger and such requirements will be noted on the vehicles stat sheet. The driver is also able to take non-vehicle actions during their turn as normal. If there are more multiple characters in a vehicle they can swap positions to change out who is driving but this consumes both character's movement actions.

• Major Action Maneuvers

  • Stablize

    • Get the car moving as smooth as possible to remove one disadvantage dice from any character attempting to do a targeted action. At speed tiers 1-6 requires an Average threshold drive check, at speed tiers 7-12 requires a Hard threshold drive check.

  • Evasive maneuvers

    • Move with erratic precision that keeps enemies from being able to target you giving them disadvantage to their targeted rolls. With an Average threshold drive check this gives anyone trying to target you +1 disadvantage dice. With a Hard threshold check anyone targeting you get +2 disadvantage dice, but failing a Hard threshold check results in reducing your speed by 1.

  • Side Swipe

    • Nimbly hit another vehicle with your own to send it swerving. Requires a hard drive check, if successful targeted vehicle adds a disadvantage to all drive checks and to targeted rolls from anyone in the vehicle for the rest of the round. If failed then your vehicle is affected by the disadvantage instead.

  • Use Major Vehicle Power

    • Use any built in power such as guns, traps and so on that require a skill roll. The effects and threshold of the roll depends on the vehicle power in use. 

  • Drift Escape

    • Depending on environmental factors, make a maneuver to go around the corner of a building or other suitable structure to effectively conceal themselves. This increases the distance between them and a pursuer by 2 and the pursuer must make an Average Awareness check to keep eyes on the target.

• Minor Action Maneuvers

  • Use Minor Vehicle Power

    • Use of any built in vehicle power that does not require a skill roll. 

  • Tuck and Roll

    • Use a minor action to attempt an escape from the vehicle at any point during your turn using an Athletics or Acrobatics roll. Average threhold for speed 1-4, Hard for speeds 5-8, and Extreme for speeds 9-12. Failed attempts results in half crash damage. Succeeds allows escape with no crash damage.

  • Brace For Impact

    • You prepare yourself for a crash reducing crash damage by half. Requires successful Average Poise check

• Reaction Maneuvers

  • Last Minute Tuck/Brace

    • Perform a Tuck and Roll, or a Brace For Impact but with +1 disadvantage dice.

  • Swerve

    • Attempt a to swerve out of the way of an obstacle or an incoming attack. Requires Average threshold Drive check