RULES AND STUFF
The objectives:
--Kill: Keep fighting until everyone on the other side of the fight is dead.
--Render Helpless: Keep fighting until everyone on the other side of the fight is too hurt to continue. Helpless opponents, once defeated, can be taken prisoner or allowed to depart after they're done rolling around on the ground in pain. Killing helpless people, or intelligent creatures, generally requires rolling to avoid negative conditions (Emotional Shock, Losing Control)
--Gain Surrender: Keep fighting until everyone on the other side agrees to be taken into custody, in exchange for a promise of fair treatment. Not all combatants will willingly surrender. When they don’t, the GM treats the situation as if the players have chosen the Render Helpless objective.
--Beat Up: Thrash your opponents and then leave, leaving them badly hurt but not dead.
--Block: Stop your opponents from moving past you.
--Drive Away: Keep fighting until everyone on the other side retreats. If they were attacking you, they flee back to wherever they came from. If they were defending a position, they flee in random directions or back toward the nearest position of safety. Use when you want to defeat your enemy without killing or capturing them.
--Escape: Flee to a position of safety the enemy is not attempting to hold or protect.
--Escape With A Captive: Grab a member of the opposing force, then flee with your new captive to a position of safety the enemy is not attempting to hold or protect. Where the enemy group includes combatants of varied ability, you take its weakest or most vulnerable member.
--Gain an Item: Grab a portable, easily seized item held by a member of the opposing force, then flee with it to a position of safety the enemy is not attempting to hold or protect. Suitable items include books, weapons, amulets, purses, satchels, and documents.
--Overrun: You forcibly move through a group of opponents attempting to block you from going somewhere.
--Topple: You knock the target off its feet—which is only worth doing when your enemy stands on a cliffside, on the brink of a raging river, on a rope bridge, or in some similar situation where a fall will cause a more-than-momentary setback.
Every player has STATS and ABILITIES.
STATS are what you use to roll with if you're not using an ABILITY.
ABILITIES, you DON'T have to roll dice for. You just USE them. Using an Ability costs FUEL. Different abilities have different kinds of fuel-- some common fuel types are MORALE, GOLD, and SNACKS.
COMBAT:
--Every Round, each player posts what they do, whether it's to do something with a STAT, or to burn Fuel and use an ABILITY.
--Once each player has done that, the GM tells the players how successful they were. If the combat isn't over, two things happen:
--CHANGE: the battle CHANGES in some way. Enemy reinforcements may arrive, the enemy may finish charging up a dangerous threat, the battlefield may change, who knows what (but these are three common examples). BATTLE CHANGES usually mean the players will have to change their tactics, which often means changing their Objectives.
--DROPS: The second thing that happens is that the GM creates FUEL DROPS. Often, the GM will do this randomly. Fuel Drops can recharge Abilities-- although sometimes (not always) the characters must move TO the new Fuel Drops and pick them up.
Repeat the above until combat is over!