Most important action/combat terms

From Sagataflwiki

Revision as of 08:17, 6 June 2011

This article briefly defines the most important terms, abbreviations and acronyms pertinent to physical actions (especially combat and movement), sorted alphabetically. Note that there are separate articles for more specific terms as well as for important English language words that are not specific to Sagatafl.

Action Class

high-Agility Skills

Skills that are Agility-High are ones that are affected by the larger of the two Fleetness Skill roll modifiers. These Skills involve swift and precise full-body movement, and tend to have the Agility Attribute heavily present in their APT Block, e.g. with weight 3/7, 4/7 or even 5/7. Examples are Dodge, Acrobatics, Jumping, Stealth, Climbing, and the various unarmed combat skills (Brawling, Judo, Karate and Wrestling), and quick "fencing"-like weapon styles. The Agility Attribute itself also takes the greater Fleetness modifier, as do Balance rolls.

Note that for very normal Fleetness values, of 3 or close to 3, the greater modifier is zero.

low-Agility Skills

Skills that are Agility-Low are affected by the smaller of the two Fleetness Skill roll modifiers. These Skills require a modest amount of swift full-body movement and legwork to be used properly, and tend to have some Agility presence in their APT Block, usually with weight 1/7 or 2/7, such as most melee weapon Skills, excepting the "swift" and more fencing-like styles.

Note that the smaller Fleetness Skill roll modifier tends to be zero, unless the character's Fleetness is rather far from the default value of 3.

non-Agility Skills

These are skills that are not affected by either of the Fleetness Skill roll modifiers. They include most (if not all) ranged attack Skills, although some heavy armours may have intrinsic "special case"-penalties to some or all forms of ranged attack. Also Lockpicking and Traps and most other physical Skills, and probably all mental Skills, are unaffected by Fleetness. Such Skills tend to have little or no Agility presence in their APT Blocks; a weighting higher than 1/7 would be unusual.

AP

Action Point, a number of Points that each character generates each Round, used to determine how he can act and how much he can do. Highest AP count gets to act first, and each action or reaction costs a number of AP. Characters may continue to act as long as they have remaining AP, but there are few things that can be done with small amounts of AP, and so some unspent AP can be put into the Bank to carry over to the next Round.

AP are generated with an Initiative Roll, sometimes penalized for Surprise in the first Round. The AP cost of specific Actions is reduced via Speed Factors, abbreviated SF.

AV

Bank

Bash

Blood

Blow

The term Blow was originally used in Sagatafl to define the number of attacks per weapon or other held item (shield, e.g.) that a character can make per Round, but this is no longer used. See AP for information.

CFP

Critical Strike

Effect Strike

A hypothetical combat action, that works like Critical Strike, but instead of intending to cause a griveous general Wound, the attacker wants to achieve a specific effect, usually some form of abstract leg injury to reduce the target's mobility, or some kind of abstractr arm injury to impair the target's ability to use weapons.

This is a hypothetical game element, and if implemented will be there to compensate for the fact that Sagatafl does not use hit locations and specific injury effects.

Encumbrance

Fleetness

Hardiness

HP

hx

Initiative Roll

Martial Arts

Move Action

PA

Pace

Power Strike

Precise STrike

Recovery

Round

SD

SF

Strike

A Strike is a specific combat action, thus distinct from an attack. See Critical Strike, Precise Strike, Power Strike and Tactical Strike for explanations (and Effect Strike for a hypothetical variant of Critical Strike).

Stun

Stun Damage

Stun Factor

Stunned

Stunt

Surprise Initiative Roll

Tactical Strike

TBH

Wound

Wound Damage