Combat
(This is a simplified version of the Combat rules found in The Ruins of Arcanum Rulebook.)
Combat in RoA is a base 3-Hit system. The majority of characters in the world have 3 Hits, which means that after three hits from a weapon, damaging Power or spell, the character will either fall unconscious or die. Remember that your Hits are an out of game concept to gauge how injured you are. If you got in a fight on the street, you would never say to the paramedics, “Oh, I have about 2 hits left before I go unconscious.” In game, you would be either healthy, injured or close to death.
Injuries have varying effects depending upon the type and degree of the attack. Players are encouraged to roleplay any injuries they receive to the best of their ability. This certainly helps to enhance the mood of the game, making the entire experience more enjoyable for everyone. While three hits may not seem like much, there are ways to defend against them, which we will talk about below.
Stun and Death Counts
Once you get wounded to the point of dropping to your death count, you have two possible options: Start dying, or fall unconscious. To start dying, you begin a count that lasts for 15 minutes called your Death Count. This is the amount of time that your friends have to revive your dying corpse before you pass into the next life. There are various skills, spells and powers that allow them to do this, such as Raise and First Aid. Once you have been raised from your Death Count, all skills, powers and spells that have been used by you are still expended... you are just alive now! Which isn't a bad thing.
Option two: Go unconscious. We have in The Ruins of Arcanum what we lovingly call 1-UPs. Just like in the old-school video games, 1-UPs are "extra lives" that can be used to get back into a fight. Along with these goes the Stun Count, which is an amount of time that your character is unconscious before he can use a 1-UP. Both of these are determined by your level in the Body Development skill. The higher your level, the more 1-UPs you have available and the less time you have to be in your Stun Count. For example, when your Body Development skill is at 5th level you have two 1-UPs and your Stun Count is three minutes. Also, the Stun Count is only used when you have 1-UPs available to you. If you don't, you drop into your Death Count.
Defenses
I said something earlier about being able to avoid dying from that deadly one hit. The most obvious is to not get hit! But we have included defensive calls to reflect the fact that our characters are supposed to be the great warriors that we may not be. Some of these calls include: Parry, Evade, and Resist. Most of these calls come from skills and all that needs to be done to use one of these defenses (but only if you actually have one available) is to call it out within three seconds of being hit. There are also Armor calls that are received from wearing armor.
Offensive Skills
Now, on the other side of things, these great warrior characters that we have would also have offensive skills that demonstrate their ability to hack through the evil hordes that stand in their way. These include: Power Blow, Wound, and Death Blow. Again, most of these will come from skills and to use one, simply yell it out before hitting your opponent. If your attack lands, the ability succeeds. That's unless it's defended against.
Finishing Blows
So, let's say your opponent has dropped three times and each time he uses a 1-UP and pops back up for another beating. "This could go on for hours," you think. "If only there was some way to drop him immediately into his Death Count." Well, there is and it's called a Finshing Blow. These are gained from your weapon skill and it is the ability to take someone out of their Stun Count and place them firmly into their Death Count. All that needs to be done is to place your weapon on their torso and count to the number specified by your weapon skill level, usually between five and 20 seconds, and shout, "Finishing Blow!" Their Stun Count is aborted regardless of how many 1-UPs they may have and their Death Count begins.
Body Contact
The only allowed contact between two people is with their weapons. There is no punching, kicking, biting, scratching, grappling, hair-pulling, junk-kicking or any other type of body contact allowed. We try to run a safe and clean game where all can have fun.