Example of Melee Combat in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy
Here is the recently rewritten and updated example of melee combat gameplay from the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook.
This example follows up from where the example of investigative gameplay left off.
An actual combat scene in Eureka should have more colorful descriptions than this, but that has been dialed back specifically to help highlight the mechanics as it is a learning device, and to keep it from taking up too many pages.
When we left off in the Example of Investigation in Chapter 1, detectives Nick Morgan and Hector Law, the investigators of players Addison and Ash respectively, had just discovered a hidden trap door in the office with the secretary, Hugo. The jig is up, and Hugo moves to attack, hoping to clobber at least one of these men and slip away in the chaos.
He swings the marble paperweight Law’s head. There is no “Marble Paperweight” weapon listed in the rulebook, but, the marble paperweight is a bit bigger than a hand, and, of course, made of marble. It is not a stretch of the imagination to say that getting hit by it would be similar to getting hit by a hammer, so everyone at the table can easily agree that the marble paperweight is a weapon that does 2 Penetrative Damage. Because every human character in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy has 5 Superficial HP and 5 Penetrative HP, that’s enough to Injure a person in 2 good hits, and kill them in 3.
Because Hugo swung first, he automatically gets to take the first turn.
Ash quickly interjects, Law is going to try to react quickly and seize the initiative. This requires rolling Law’s Reflex skill, and if he gets a Full Success, he will be able to make a move first and interrupt Hugo’s strike. Law’s Reflex stat is good, a +2. However, the dice come up as double 1s, ‘snake eyes’. Even if Law had a Reflex of +100, double-1s would always be a Failure. This means that the strike will go through uninterrupted, as Law is not able to meaningfully react quick enough, even as Morgan yells out “Look out!”
Law also does not get any Investigation Points for this Failure, because it was not an investigation roll.
This is a dangerous situation for the investigators. Because he has a hard-hitting weapon, and because of Epicenter Initiative, Hugo could end up Injuring Law before Morgan even has time to react.
Epicenter Initiative means that the two participants that an instance of melee combat starts out with get to make two moves in the first Round before anyone else involved moves, and then every character takes their actions in order or who is closest to the center of the fray.
Round 1
First, there is Morale to account for.
Morale is like a very simplified Composure for NPCs. There are no rolls for it, it just goes up and down depending on things happening in the fight, and when it goes to 0, an NPC will flee or surrender—though they may flee or surrender before that, at the Narrator’s discretion.
Hugo is a bit of a wimp, he only has a base Morale of 1. At the start of this instance of combat, he is outnumbered by his opponents, which is -1 Morale. (This is not the same as the “Overwhelmed” mechanic which we will get to in a moment. This Morale hit still counts even if not all of the enemies are directly engaged.) However, he also feels like he has no choice but to fight, which bumps his Morale up by +1, balancing it out and leaving him with a Morale of 1. Of course, the investigators could probably force him to surrender instantly just by pulling out their guns, but for the sake of having an Example of Melee Combat, we are saying they somehow don’t have their guns.
If either of the investigators are hit with Hugo’s melee weapon, they will have to make a Melee Weapon Composure Roll. Law and Morgan are both pretty tough guys, their fear of melee weapons equates to a +0 and +1 modifier respectively. Morgan also has the “I’m Fine” Trait, which adds +2 to all his Composure rolls.
Round 1: Hugo’s Bonus Turn
Now for the attack. The Narrator rolls 2D6+[CQC] for Hugo because he is using a melee weapon. His CQC is -1. (5+5-1=9) A 9 is a Partial Success, meaning the weapon hits, but for only half its regular damage. That is 1 Penetrative Damage instead of 2.
The Narrator lets Ash take this description, because it involves her character. Ash describes that Law is able to move out of the way just enough that instead of hitting the top of his head, the blow hits his shoulder, leaving an earful bruise but nowhere near as bad as it would’ve done to his skull.
Law now has 4/5 Penetrative HP.
At the same time, Ash rolls 2D6+0, Law’s Melee Weapon Tiers of Fear modifier, because taking damage from a melee weapon also means that he has a chance to take Composure damage too. (4+5+0=9) A 9 is a Partial Success. Law takes 1 Composure Damage, putting him at 6/7 Composure.
Round 1: Law’s Bonus Turn
Law jumps to his feet, and Ash declares that he is going to take a swing back at Hugo. An unarmed Basic Melee Attack can use either Athletics or CQC. His Athletics(+0) is worse than his CQC(+1), so the roll will go with his CQC. Ash rolls the dice. (1+6+1=8) An 8 is a Partial Success. Partial Successes with unarmed basic melee attacks deal 1 Superficial Damage. A Full Success would also deal 1 Superficial Damage.
Ash describes that Law stands up and socks Hugo in the chest.
Hugo now has 4/5 Superficial HP.
Round 1: Hugo’s Turn
Not dissuaded by the hit, Hugo goes to swing again. (4+6-1=9) Partial Success. 1 Penetrative Damage again.
Hugo swings the marble paperweight around and clubs Law’s nose with it, blood now drips from his nostrils. Law now has 3/5 Penetrative HP. A Full Success hit from that weapon at this point, and he could become Injured and possibly Incapacitated. Another two hits, and he could die. There is also a Composure Roll. (4+4+0=8). Law loses 1 more point of Composure, now with 5/7.
Ash and Law both realize that even with Morgan’s help, they will probably not be able to outpace the damage Hugo can do with a weapon as long as they’re only using Basic Melee Attacks.
[off to the side] In melee combat, when characters are unarmed, often their best bet is the Advanced Combat Moves, such as Grabs, Holds, etc.
Round 1: Law’s Turn, or is it?
Law changes strategies. Instead of punching, he is going to tell Morgan to Grab Hugo. Law can hold his action and wait for another character to go first, which is just what he’ll do.
Round 1: Morgan’s Turn
Morgan is starting his turn on the other side of the room, which isn’t too far away for him to cover the distance in just a second or so, but is too far for him to swing a fist, so he has to move into engagement range. This is less than 30 feet away, and there are no obstacles in between, so it requires no special roll, Addison just has to say he goes there and he goes there.
Now that Morgan and Law both are within arm’s reach of Hugo, Hugo is Overwhelmed. This means every attack against him will have a +1 bonus for every additional character trying to fight him. Because it’s two against one, this will be a +1 bonus total.
A Grab is an attack that, well, grabs ahold of the enemy. It can use Athletics or CQC, but always has an added penalty of -1.
Morgan’s CQC and Athletics are both +2, so it doesn’t matter which one he uses, but now that Hugo is officially Overwhelmed(directly engaged in melee by more opponents than him), there is an extra +1. Morgan’s Grab Roll is (4+2+2-1+1=8). An 8 is a Partial Success.
A Grab is a somewhat risky maneuver, it leaves the attacker open to a counter-attack. With a Partial Success, Morgan does get a grip on Hugo, but Hugo gets to swing at him as he does. That’s why it was a more tactical choice for Morgan to make the Grab attempt instead of Law, because he still has enough HP left to take a hit if Hugo clobbers him.
(6+5-1=10), 2 Penetrative Damage.
Phew! It’s a good thing Morgan took that hit instead of Law; if Law had taken it, he would be down to 1 Penetrative HP, and he would’ve had to make an Injury roll, and that’s bad news. Now Morgan is down to 3/5 Penetrative HP, which isn’t great, but at least neither of them are Injured. Morgan also has to make a Composure Roll because he took damage. His Melee Weapon fear is +1, and he gets +2 from the I’m Fine Trait. (3+5+1+2=11). An 11 is a Full Success so he loses 0 Composure, keeping him at 7/7.
Round 1: Law’s Turn, for real.
Hugo is now Grabbed, meaning he has an extra -1 penalty to all actions he takes, and any character attacking him gets a +1 to their attack. This stacks with him being Overwhelmed.
Despite the penalties, Hugo is still dangerous with that big block of marble in his hand. It’s a low chance, but a good hit would now Injure either of the investigators. Law needs to end this before that has a chance to happen. He has a lot of options.
He could just punch Hugo with a Basic Melee Attack, but that would only do 1 Superficial Damage at best, Hugo would get to make a move of his own right after.
He could wind up for a Knock-out Blow, and try to take all 4 of Hugo’s remaining Superficial HP in a single strike, which would force him to make an Injury Roll, and making any kind of Injury Roll would take his last point of Morale, but Knock-out Blow carries a -3 penalty with it that is not entirely made up for by the various bonuses, making it unlikely to be a Full Success and do the 4 damage needed. Plus, if Hugo fails that Injury roll, it might actually knock him unconscious, and then Morgan and Law wouldn’t be able to question him. Worst of all, if Law gets a Failure, Hugo could make a counter-attack.
He could try to Disarm Hugo of the marble paperweight, which would not only render him unable to do so much damage, but also take his final Morale point, but that also carries a penalty and a chance for Hugo to counter-attack.
He could Guard, which would make him less likely to take damage if Hugo attacks him next, but that wouldn’t put him any closer to defeating Hugo, and plus Hugo could just attack Morgan instead.
His best option in this specific situation then is probably to try and put Hugo in a Hold. A Hold is a much more effective form of a Grab that can only be attempted if a target is already Grabbed, either by the character attempting the Hold, or by an ally of the character attempting the Hold. It also has a less serious penalty than Knock-out Blow and does not open Law up to a potential counter-attack. Plus, even though a Partial Success on a Hold does not put the target in a Hold, it gives the attacker a +2 bonus to the next Hold attempt, and being put in a Hold takes -1 Morale from NPCs.
Ash declares that Law is going to attempt to put Hugo in a Hold, and rolls the dice. The penalty for a Hold is -2, but he also has his +1 CQC skill, the +1 bonus from Hugo being Grabbed, and the +1 bonus from Hugo being Overwhelmed. (6+3+1-2+1+1=10) A 10 is a Full Success.
Law is able to get a grip on Hugo too and completely restrain him. Now, any action by Hugo would have a debilitating -3 penalty, and any attack against him would get an extra +3 bonus. Law could also put him into Submission, which would automatically do 2 Superficial Damage to him every time it is Law’s turn and make any resulting Injury Roll count as one degree of success lower than its actual result. However, none of that really matters, because being put in a Hold has taken Hugo’s Morale down from 1 to 0.
“Stop! Stop! I give up! I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me!” He cries, dropping the marble paperweight and surrendering to Morgan and Law.
This does not necessarily stop combat, Morgan and Law could continue to hurt him until he collapses or dies, but neither of them is that kind of guy.
Morgan tells him he has some explaining to do, and he better answer all their questions.
Lastly, at the end of combat, Law and Morgan must each make a Composure roll using the Melee Weapon Fight modifier from their respective Tiers of Fear, because they just got in a fight where melee weapons were in play. Ash and Addison roll the dice.
(6+5+0=11) for Law. A Full Success. He loses 0 Composure Points.
(6+6+1+2=15) for Morgan. Also a Full Success. It is also double sixes, or ‘boxcars’, meaning that no matter what the modifier was, it would have always been a Full Success. Even with a modifier of -1,000, double sixes would still count as a Full Success. Morgan loses 0 Composure.
That whole combat encounter lasted less than a minute in the world of the game, and only took about 5 minutes in real-world time. Combat in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is fast, exciting, and decisive, and this helps it be every bit as characterful as any other scene in the game without running over on the session time. Like in real life, simulating combat in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is a small handful of very meaningful decisions happening one right after another in a very short span of time.
None of these rolls gave the investigators any investigation points, because they were not investigation rolls.
Find out what happens next in the Medicine Example.
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