Combat

Vitals, fixed or opposed defense, absorption, actions with range and damage, type effectiveness, conditions and states.

The Combat tab connects your system to the VTT: which field is health, how one defends, which actions exist and what happens on a hit. What you define here is used by the combat bar, the tokens and the bestiary.

Almost everything is optional: a system can work with just Vitals and Actions.

Vitals

You tell the engine which field is health. It uses that to know when someone drops, how much to heal and which bar to draw over the token.

Defense

What an attack is compared against. There are two ways:

• Fixed value: a number or a field (the classic armor class).
• Opposed roll: the defender also rolls, and the attacker sees the result it is compared with. Useful in systems where dodging is something the defender does.

Damage absorption (optional)

Reduces the damage received after hitting. Each absorption rule points to a field (your armor, your resistance) and optionally to some damage types: for example, Defense subtracts physical damage and Deflection subtracts special damage.

If you tick rolls a die of that size, the field is not subtracted directly. It becomes the size of the armor die (2 → d2, 4 → d4), rolled on every hit. Use it for games where armor «subtracts d4».

You can also set a minimum damage, so a hit never ends at zero.

Damage vs Toughness (optional)

For games where damage is not subtracted from health but compared with a threshold of the target (Savage Worlds Toughness). Switch it on in Combat → Damage vs Toughness:

• Toughness: the target field damage is compared with (armor included).
• Armor (inside Toughness): the part a weapon's Armor piercing (AP) can remove. AP never lowers Toughness below what is not armor.
• Raise every: the size of a raise (4).
• Condition when beaten: the condition applied when damage matches it (Shaken).
• Wound cap per hit (optional): a formula over the attacker's sheet; 0 or empty means no cap. With an optional rule you write IF(set_tope_heridas, 4, 0).

On a hit, damage below Toughness does nothing and matching it applies the condition. Every raise is one wound (it lowers health by one), and a plain success on someone who already has the condition is another wound. The result card shows the damage, the Toughness and the AP.

Two settings that usually go with it:

• Counts damage taken (next to the health field): the field records wounds that fill up instead of what is left. The map shows it as what is left, and writes the right value to the sheet when healing or wounding.
• In each action, Die on a raise (1d6): added to damage if the attack beat the defense by a raise; Armor piercing (AP): a number or a formula; in healing, By raises (Soak: 1 on a success and 1 more per raise, no dice rolled); and Removes condition for an action such as Recover (roll Spirit and, on a success, remove Shaken).

Hit location (optional)

For games where a hit lands somewhere and armour only protects that spot (Fallout, Twilight 2000, Mythras). You build tables per body type, each with its die and its ranges ("1-2 Head, 3-8 Torso…"). A button adds the stock 1d20 humanoid, and you can add your own (robot, quadruped, vehicle) with their ranges.

• Which table each one uses: a character stores it in one of their fields (a "Body type" dropdown, which you name in "Body type field"). A bestiary creature has it in its sheet. Without a type, the first table is used.
• The action rolls it: in the action's damage, turn on "Roll hit location on a hit". On a hit, the location die rolls in the open and the blow says where it landed.
• Absorption, per spot: every damage absorption row gains an "only at location" box. A helmet only subtracts on the head; a row without a location always subtracts. A hit with no location (an area) only applies the rows without a location.
• Piercing: if the damage uses faces with Effect (below, in Rolls), "Pierces DR per Effect" makes each Effect ignore that many points of armour (Fallout's Piercing X).

Resistances and damage types (optional)

Here you decide what "resistance" means in your game, instead of using a fixed list.

First define the damage types (fire, ice, holy…), the things that can be resisted. Then the levels, which is the important part. Each level says what it does to the number:

The value can be a number or a formula on the sheet of whoever receives it (fx button): write armadura and each character subtracts their own. Below each level a line explains the result in plain words ("A hit of 10 becomes 5", "A hit of 10 HEALS 10"), so you don't have to work it out yourself.

With Roll to absorb the formula says how many dice are rolled, not how much is removed, and three more fields appear: the die, the difficulty and how much each success removes. A button builds the World of Darkness absorption ready-made. The dice show in the hit log ("Absorption (diff. 6): 2 successes · 7 → 5"), so the target sees their roll just as the attacker sees theirs.

Who has each resistance is NOT decided here. It is granted as an effect, in the same places as bonuses: in a perk, in a class option, in a level, in an equipped armor, in a status or in a card. In the effects editor, use the "Add resistance" button and choose the type and the level from this list.

This allows "Dragon skin: +2 health and fire resistance" as a single perk, or let a resistance disappear when changing class or unequipping the cloak.

On a hit, combat reads the target's resistances and records them in the log: "Armor: 13 → 10 · Resistance: 10 → 5". If you do not define levels, the usual ones remain (Immune · Not very effective · Super effective…), which add ±2/±4 instead of multiplying.

Shortcut: a defense can also be declared from the field itself (Fields tab → Combat → "This field is a defense"). This is handy when you build the system field by field: you create "Dodge" and say what it is right there, without coming back here. What you declare in this tab wins if it points to the same field.

Initiative

What determines turn order: a field, a formula, a roll, by side or by cards. By cards, the GM deals a card from a system deck to every combatant at the start of the round and they act from highest to lowest. Whoever draws the joker gets the condition you choose and, if you pick a field and an amount, every player character adds it to their sheet (in Savage Worlds, a Benny per Joker).

Movement

How far a character moves per turn. The VTT uses it to paint the range when dragging a token. With the unit set to Squares, the whole table talks in squares: the ruler, dragging and areas say "4 squares" instead of feet.

Actions

Actions are the core of combat. Each one is something someone can do on their turn: an attack, a spell, a skill, an item.

Identity

Name, Icon, Category (to group them in the bar) and Economy (whether it consumes your action, a bonus action, a reaction…). With Only for (classes/subclasses) you limit it to certain characters; leave it empty and everyone has it.

Who and at what distance

• Range: melee, ranged, self or touch. With Squares you define how many.
• Target: enemy, ally, anyone or self.
• Area shape: circle or line.

The video clip makes a gunshot look like a gunshot: the visual effect above picks shape and colour, the clip picks the video. Without one it is guessed from the damage type, so a "piercing" bullet comes out as an arrow and a "bludgeoning" bat as a boulder. Type the clip name (the editor suggests the ones in the pack) and where it goes: on the target, travelling to it, as a swing arc, in a cone or in a line.

An area with a hit roll against a difficulty (or with no defense) is rolled once against the spot it lands on, and if it misses, nobody takes it. A missile launcher can miss. If the action resolves against the target's defense, nothing is rolled, since an area does not aim at one person.

Hit

• Hit roll: what is rolled to hit.
• Resolves against: what it is compared against (the target's defense, another value…).
• Shots (optional): how many dice are rolled at once, each one a separate hit with its own margin and damage (rate of fire). Number or formula; empty or 1 is one shot. With a wild die, it replaces the worst one, and it's a critical failure if it rolls a 1 along with half or more of the dice.

If the system uses opposed rolls, this is where the defender comes into play.

Damage

It is defined with Dice and Bonus. Some cases worth knowing:

• No die, fixed damage: leave the dice empty and the damage is exactly the bonus. Use it for systems where hitting already determines how much you take off.
• The bonus can be a formula, so the damage can depend on attributes, level or the equipped weapon.
• The type can be several at once: write them separated by commas (radiant, necrotic) and the damage counts as all those types: a resistance, immunity or reduction to any of them reduces it.
• Several damage portions: with "Add another damage type" an attack does more than one part at once (for example 1d6 slashing + 1d6 fire). Each portion is rolled and resolved against its resistance separately.
• Boost by tag: give the action some Tags (for example magic) and a perk, item or state can add or subtract damage to every action with that tag with "Add damage by tag" in its effects. The action's damage type or category also work, and an asterisk means all damage. Conditions have the same, while they last.

Then the following are applied, in order: type effectiveness, absorption and the minimum damage.

Type effectiveness on hit

If your game has elemental types, enable super effective / not very effective / immune here. When attacking, effectiveness can be chosen by hand or calculated automatically:

• By hand: on hit you choose the band (super +2, not very −2, immune ×0…).
• Automatic (type chart): if the system defines a type chart and the defender has their types set, effectiveness is worked out automatically on hit, crossing the attack's type with the opponent's two types (double advantage = ×4, double resistance = ×¼, immunity = ×0). If the defender has no types set, it is chosen by hand as always.

You define the type chart in this same tab, in the Type chart section: the list of the game's types and, for each one, against which it is super effective, not very effective or immune. Double advantage or resistance (×4 / ×¼) is applied automatically when the defender has two types. Each creature's types reach the token when you drop it into combat.

Extras of an action

Conditions (optional)

A condition is a temporary state someone can suffer: poisoned, stunned, in cover. Each one can:

• Modify your attacks and attacks against you.
• Leave you immobile.
• Do damage per turn.
• Add or subtract to your attributes while it lasts (for example, burned: −2 to attack).

Conditions are applied from actions or by hand from the combat bar, and are shown on the token.

The roll modifier of a condition or a status is a bonus to the check: negative is a penalty in every system. In roll-under systems (d100, d20 under an attribute) it applies to the percentage or threshold, not to the dice.

Statuses

Different from conditions: a status is automatic and depends on a formula on the sheet. The typical example is Health 0 → Unconscious. They are not applied by hand. They are calculated automatically and can have a mechanical effect (for example, penalizing all your rolls while you are wounded).

On the sheet they are shown with the Statuses widget.

Hit table by margin (optional)

For systems where the result depends on by how much you beat the defense (graze, wound, pierce). You define the bands and their effect.

Attrition and rest (optional)

What a rest recovers: daily uses, pools to maximum, fixed healing or a roll. You can define several kinds (a short breather and a long rest), and the sheet's Rest button offers them.

A rest can also set fields to a value or a formula: “New session” puts Bennies back to 3 even if you had more.

Advanced options

Fine engine settings for specific cases. Most systems don't need them.

The token frame

The ring around each token on the map. Out of the box there are two: the golden class frame on a D&D sheet and a plain ring tinted with the token's colour for everything else. Here you pick the one your system ships with (plain, circle, golden, any class frame, gear, hexagon, technical or none), which is what tables using it will see by default.

A table can change it in the campaign settings and also set it there per class. A single token can have its own from its menu, which overrides both, so a boss's ring can differ from the one its gang wears.

Arsenal and equipment

The system's weapons and armor are defined with Name, Slot (where they are worn), Icon and Spaces it takes. Each piece can carry its damage dice and its bonus.

The player equips them from the sheet's Equipment panel widget, and what is equipped automatically enters the calculations and the combat bar.

With Charges and a use effect, a piece gains a Use button in the inventory: it adds what you say to a sheet field (a box of bullets raises its calibre's counter) and spends a charge.

Consumed on use marks a single-use weapon: a grenade, a mine, a throwing knife. When its action is used the unit disappears from the inventory. It does not need to be equipped, since it is thrown from the bag. This is not the same as Charges, which are uses that come back with a rest.

Spends from the backpack when used names another item it consumes: a bow spends “Arrows”, a lantern spends “Oil”. Type its name (and how many per use). Attacking with the weapon, or pressing “Use” in the backpack, takes it from that item; if none is left, it cannot be used and the sheet says so.

Item templates (weapons the player writes)

Some games cannot ship an arsenal (the license does not allow copying the book tables), and the weapons still have to work on the map. In Combat → Equipment → Item templates you describe what a template asks for (damage, AP, range…) and which actions and effects come out of it, with {{field}} and {{#if field}}…{{else}}…{{/if}} placeholders. A when on an action or effect decides whether it applies to that weapon (tipo == "A distancia").

On the sheet there are New: Weapon, New: Armor… buttons in the inventory and the equipment panel. The player names it, presses Edit, fills in the fields and equips it: its attack shows up in the combat bar and its armor adds up. The row only stores the values, so if the author fixes the template, weapons already created are fixed too.

An effect with carried: true counts just for carrying the item, without equipping it, so weight adds to the load automatically. A template with equip: false is for things that aren't worn (rope, ammo) and hides the equip button. What was written is deleted from the same panel.

In template texts, {{#if tipo == "Cuerpo a cuerpo"}}…{{else}}…{{/if}} picks by the value of a field (also !=). And uses_field: "municion" says which field is the row's capacity: each attack spends one use, on the sheet and on the map, and the row shows "4/6" with Reload.

How it all fits together

1. The attacker uses an action.
2. The hit is rolled and compared with the defense (fixed or opposed).
3. If it hits, the damage is calculated (dice + bonus, or fixed).
4. Type effectiveness, absorption and the minimum damage are applied.
5. It is subtracted from the vitals, conditions are applied and statuses are recalculated.

Tips

• Start with Vitals and one attack action. With that you can already fight on the map.
• Do not model everything as a condition: if it depends on a sheet value (health at 0, low sanity), it is a status and is calculated automatically.
• Absorption is per type: if your system distinguishes physical from magical, say it here instead of subtracting it by hand at the table.
• Test one real action on the map before defining twenty.

Next step

Character creation, levels, perks and trees are covered in the Character creation and progression guide.

All Roliando guides