Individual Combat
“The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.” – Miyamoto Musashi, a Book of Five Rings
All of combat breaks down to the implementation of a few factors. Initiative to determine turn order. Movement to determine the way in which characters engage. Combat actions, to resolve those engagements. Turns then go back and forth until the conflict is resolved by defeat, surrender, death, or retreat. In most cases, you will roll like skills in opposition.
Ex. A swordsman fighting an Ironborn reaver would roll his fighting to swing his sword, but also roll his fighting to parry his opponents axe blows. If acceptable to both parties, any combination of skills can be used in opposition. Stealth could be used to utilize a mob to evade an attacker’s furious assault, much to the mob’s regret.
Uncertain Terrain
Certain environments make fighting problematic. Two armies clashing in a muddy field. A pitched battle atop a rocking ship. Uncertain terrain gives a -1 to all combat attacks, a -1 to combat defenses, and a -1 to initiative. A properly planned ambush or attack can result in one side avoiding these penalties. If a narrator is consulted and an ambush planned with observable advantages – i.e. one side is on dry ground while the unaware opponent marches through mud, the penalties will only apply to one side.
Initiative
The first step of combat is to determine initiative. In most cases, it will be apparent who goes first. The person who attacks in story order will be the first to make an attack roll. But if both, or all, characters are at the ready and there is any debate as to who would strike first, an initiative roll is made. That is a d20 plus awareness. Highest roll goes first, and turn order descends. In the event of a tie, the tied players roll d20 to determine who goes first between them, but their initiative check remains. If two players roll a 13, they roll dice until one gets higher than the other. The winner is the first 13 to act and the other goes second, but also on 13.
Foresight in Skirmish Combat
In small group combat, an individual may grant their tactics score as a bonus to their side’s initiative, by taking a 0 result on their personal initiative die, adding only their Awareness rank to that result and their tactics rank as well. This represents tactical awareness and leadership. So, when their turn for initiative comes up, they do not roll a d20, but simply add their awareness to their tactics for their personal initiative, and grant their tactics rank as a bonus to their allies’ initiative rank. A single member of a group can choose this option, and if multiple would like to, the highest score in tactics is the one to gain the option. Roleplaying wise, all such scholars of warfare contribute, but only the keenest mind gives a mechanical advantage.
Narrative Rounds and Turn Order
Once turn order is determined, combat actions are made in that order, one at a time.
Movement
Movement is generally used only in descriptive terms. A person on horseback moves farther than a person on foot. A person is either moving towards or away from their opponent and that informs their choices of action. But, descriptive movement lends itself strongly to the believability of a scene. Crossing swords can be dull when it’s a constant swing and hit, swing and miss interchange. Movement is the flavor to a conflict. Characters should seek to use tables and carts to gain high ground. They should dart around doorways to get cover. They should try to put their opponent between the proverbial rock and the hard places of the world. But mechanically, that is simply not within the breadth of a straightforward narrative system to implement. Movement is the spice of a scene and you are encouraged to be both realistic and diverse in the ways that movement is used.
Attach Actions
Ambush
If a character sets up an ambush, they use Stealth (opposed by Awareness) to either hide themselves or mislead their opponent as to their intentions. If that deception is successful, an ambush occurs. A successful ambush gives the attacker a single round where the opponent gets no bonus at all from taking only defensive actions, and can only take defensive actions. An ambush is usually set before a combat begins. But if a character can successfully break line of sight and takes an action to set up an ambush, they can do so in combat. A character can only ambush a foe once per combat, successfully or not, whether it’s set up and initiates the conflict, or it’s done in the middle of the skirmish. An ambush attempt, successful or not, forewarns an opponent as to your duplicitous nature.
Attack
You roll your relevant attack against a defensive roll by your target, with the highest roll going first, describing the action attempt, with the defender describing the effects based on the rolls.
Pure Defense
Pure defense is an option for those either unversed in combat or conditioned by society to view themselves as noncombatants. Smallfolk, women, Maesters and such generally do this by instinct. You take no combat action on your turn, but gain a +1 to defensive rolls.
Defeat
Defeat results from driving your opponent to zero health levels or when they yield and the surrender is accepted. If an opponent refuses to yield and is driven to zero health levels, the conqueror may end them in a narratively appropriate way.
Surrender
At any point in the conflict, one party can offer surrender as a narrative option. This might be a simple matter of trying to avoid the healing process, or a tactical decision made on politics. When surrender is offered, the other party may accept or not. If they choose not to, combat continues. If they accept, then the defeated party is taken prisoner.
False surrender can be used to set up an ambush, with Stealth being rolled against Awareness. Once a false surrender has been used by a character, their reputation might follow them making such gambits hard to pull off in future endeavors. A false offer of surrender that is refused does not offer an ambush opportunity. Refusing to let opponents surrender as a habit, carries its own dangerous reputation.
Retreat
Retreat or escape is a combat action. It requires three successful rolls to escape to flee a combat scene and get away. These do not have to be consecutive. The person trying to flee rolls their tactics or their stealth to use the terrain and hoof it away from danger. The opposition rolls their fighting, marksmanship, or equestrian skills as appropriate to keep engaged. Though Retreat is a combat action, it counts as a defensive roll for all advantages and disadvantages.
Damage and Recovery
Successful attacks do a level of health in damage. Most characters have between 1 and 5 health levels making combat a relatively quick process. Healing, however, is lengthier.
A character recovers a level of health every week of real time. If, during that time, they seek out medical aid, either from a Maester or Wise Woman, someone skilled in healing arts, they can recover twice that, two health levels per week of care. Combat might seem like a quick solution to one’s problems, but its consequences can last a grievously long time.
Weapons, Armor and Warbeasts
Weapons are a distinctive part of a character’s style, and Westeros, by and large, favors the sword and shield, uplifting knightly images as the ideal. But the sly and the sleek have their place, from thieves and assassins to reavers and brawlers.
All weapons grant a bonus to combat rolls appropriate to their quality. Makeshift shoddy, or improvised weapons – a chair leg as a club, a rusty dagger, a broken sword nevertheless put to use for example – have a -1 penalty to attack. A standard weapon from a skilled forge offers no bonus. A castle-forged steel blade made by an expert smith in service to a lord offers a +1 bonus to attack. And a Valyrian Steel blade grants a +2 bonus. Shoddy weapons are easily found or acquired at very low wealth levels. Castle-Forged weapons are more expensive. Valyrian Steel Weapons are only acquired by approval, and are generally found in the histories of your noble house.
Armor inflicts a penalty to initiative checks, checks to retreat, and a bonus to health levels based on its level of protection.
Going armorless carries no penalty nor bonus to health.
Light armor, such as a fighting gambeson, boiled leather armor, or heavy Maester’s robes, carries a -1 penalty to initiative or retreat, but grants a bonus health level.
Medium armors, like most ring or chain mails, or partial sets of steel, carry a -2 penalty to initiative or retreat, and a bonus 2 health levels.
Heavy armor such as most brigandine coats or full knightly plate carries a -3 penalty to initiative or retreat, but grants a bonus 3 health levels.
These categories are largely descriptive aids, and any mix of armor can be classified as the player likes. Equipment qualities are defined by the player but must be listed in the character’s possessions in case those possessions… change hands.
Warbeasts can be mounts or animal aids in battle. A war dog, a falcon, or a warhorse might all aid in attack and defense in battle. Whether acquired by wealth or by advantages, a basic animal companion grants a +1 to relevant rolls. Unless an advantage says otherwise, creatures have two health levels and defend themselves if targeted using your combat abilities.