Hero System Rules Supplement

Combat Time

• Combat Time
• Initiative
• Surprise
• The Attack Roll
• Attacks of Opportunity
• Combat Actions
• Attack Actions
• Move Actions
• Full-Phase Actions
• Free Actions
• Special Initiative Actions
• Delay
• Ready
• Abort

Combat Time

Combat time is cyclical: everybody acts in sequence in a regular cycle of Phases. Every character can perform one or more Actions in each Phase, doing so in an order determined by their INIT score. Each Phase is 3 seconds long. 4 Phases make up 1 Turn of 12 seconds. After every Phase 4, before the next Turn begins, there is a "Post-Turn" period which takes no time. At this time most characters automatically get to Take a Recovery.

Combat always follows a set sequence.

1. Determine which characters are aware of their opponents at the start of the battle. If some but not all of the characters are aware of their opponents, a Surprise Phase happens before regular Phases of combat begin. The characters who are aware of the opponents can act in the Surprise Phase.
2. In INIT order (highest to lowest), characters who started the battle aware of their opponents each take one Action (either an attack action or a move action) during the Surprise Phase. Characters who were unaware do not get to act in the Surprise Phase. If no one or everyone starts the battle aware, there is no Surprise Phase.
3. All characters are now ready to begin the first regular Phase of combat.
4. Characters act in INIT order (highest to lowest).
5. When everyone has had an opportunity to act, the first Turn ends and everyone receives a Post-Turn Recovery if they are eligible.
6. The character with the highest INIT acts again, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until combat ends. Every four Phases, everyone receives a Post-Turn Recovery if they are eligible.

Initiative

If two or more characters have the same INIT score, the characters who are tied randomly determine which one of them goes before the other. Characters act in order, counting down from highest INIT score to lowest. In every phase that follows, the characters act in the same order (unless a character takes an action that results in their INIT score changing; see Special Initiative Actions).

Even if you can't take actions (for example, because you're unconscious or paralysed), you retain your INIT score for the duration of the combat.

Surprise

When a combat starts, if you are not aware of your opponents and they are aware of you, you're surprised. Sometimes all the characters on a side are aware of their opponents, sometimes none are, and sometimes only some of them are. Sometimes a few characters on each side are aware and the other characters on each side are unaware. Determining awareness may call for PER rolls.

If some but not all of the characters are aware of their opponents, a Surprise Phase happens before regular phases begin. Any characters aware of the opponents can act in the Surprise Phase. In INIT order (highest to lowest), characters who started the battle aware of their opponents each take an attack action or a move action during the Surprise Phase. You can also take free actions during the Surprise Phase. If no one or everyone is surprised, no Surprise Phase occurs. Characters who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the Surprise Phase and have a -3 DCV penalty during that Phase.

The Attack Roll

An Attack Roll is made whenever a character attempts to hit another character. The attacker rolls 3d6 and adds their OCV (including modifiers such as combat levels). The TN is 10 plus the defender's DCV (including modifiers such as being Stunned or underwater).

Attacks of Opportunity

Sometimes a character in a melee lets their guard down. In this case, characters nearby can take advantage of their lapse in defense to attack for free. These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity.

You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Most characters have 1m reach, and can make melee attacks against characters up to 1m away: characters with Growth or Stretching have more reach. An enemy that moves out of a square you threaten while you can make melee attacks against them provokes an attack of opportunity from you, unless the enemy attacks you as part of their action or the movement is part of either the 1m step or the withdraw action.

An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per Phase. You don't have to make an attack of opportunity if you don't want to, and you cannot make an attack of opportunity if you have used the dodge manoeuvre. You make your attack of opportunity with any manoeuvre that requires an attack roll: you don't have to use the same manoeuvre that you used on your Initiative score. As with any other circumstance in which you use multiple attack manoeuvres in a round, you use the worst OCV and DCV bonus, while all OCV and DCV penalties stack.

An attack of opportunity "interrupts" the normal flow of actions in the Phase. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then complete the current action (if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the middle of a character's action) or continue with the next character's action.

If you have the Combat Reflexes skill you can make more than one attack of opportunity in each Phase. This does not let you make more than one attack on a given opponent, as moving out of more than one square that you threaten doesn't count as more than one opportunity to attack, but it does let you perform an attack of opportunity on a second opponent.

Combat Actions

An action's type tells you how long the action takes to perform (within the framework of the 3-second combat Phase) and how movement is treated. There are four types of actions: attack actions, move actions, full-phase actions, and free actions.

In a normal Phase, you can perform an attack action and a move action, two move actions, or a full-phase action. You can also perform one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of an attack action. In some situations (most commonly in a Surprise Phase), you may be limited to taking only a single move action or attack action.

• Attack actions allow you to do something, most commonly make an attack. They never provoke attacks of opportunity.
• Move actions allow you to move up to your combat movement or perform an action that takes a similar amount of time. You can always take a move action in place of an attack action. If you move no actual distance in a Phase (commonly because you have swapped your move for one or more equivalent actions), you can move up to 1m before, during, or after the action.
• Full-phase actions consume all your effort during a Phase. If you move no actual distance in a Phase, you can move up to 1m before, during, or after the action.You can also perform free actions. Some full-phase actions do not allow you to move at all. Some full-phase actions can be taken as attack actions, but only in situations when you are limited to performing only an attack action during your Phase (most commonly in a Surprise Phase). The descriptions of specific actions detail which actions allow this option.
• Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. As a result, they never provoke attacks of opportunity. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free.
• Some activities are so minor that they Take No Time. They literally don't take any time at all to do and are considered an inherent part of doing something else. You can perform actions that take no time at any time, including during other character's actions.

In some situations, you may be unable to take a full phase's worth of actions. In such cases, you are restricted to taking only a single attack action or a single move action (plus free actions as normal). You can't take a full-phase action (though you can start or complete a full-phase action by using a move action; see below).

Attack Actions

You can strike any opponent within reach with a melee attack. You can fire at any target that is within the attack's maximum range and in line of sight with a ranged attack.

Move Actions

• The simplest move action is moving up to your possible combat movement. If you take this kind of move action during your turn, you can't also move 1m as a free action.
• You can crawl 1m as a move action.
• Drawing a focus so that you can use it in combat or putting it away so that you have a free hand requires a move action. This action applies to weapons and to weapon-like objects carried in easy reach, such as flashlights. If your weapon or weapon-like object is stored in a pack or otherwise out of easy reach, treat this action as retrieving a stored item. Drawing ammunition for use with a ranged weapon (such as arrows or shuriken) is a free action. The Fast Draw skill allows you to draw or sheathe a focus as a free action.
• Standing up from a prone position requires a move action. The Position Shift talent allows you to stand up from a prone position as a free action.
• The "start/complete a full-phase action" move action lets you start undertaking a full-phase action, which you can complete in the following phase by using another move action. You can't use this action to start or complete a non-combat move, to withdraw from combat, or to perform any action that requires an attack roll.

Full-Phase Actions

A full-phase action requires an entire phase to complete. Thus, it can't be coupled with an attack or a move action, though you can move 1 metre as a free action if it doesn't involve moving any distance.

• Withdrawing from melee combat is a full-phase action. When you withdraw, you can move up to 2 times your combat movement. You are not considered threatened by any adjacent opponent you can see who does not have unusual reach, and therefore visible enemies do not get attacks of opportunity against you when you begin your movement. (Opponents you can't sense with a Targeting Sense still get attacks of opportunity against you.) If, during the process of withdrawing, you move past an enemy or away from an enemy with unusual reach, your enemy gets an attack of opportunity as normal. Note that despite the name of this action, you don't actually have to leave combat entirely.
• Restricted Withdraw: If you are limited to taking only an attack or a move action each phase you can withdraw as a move action. In this case, you may move up to your possible combat movement.
• You can move at non-combat speed as a full-phase action. When you move at non-combat speed, your DCV is reduced but you gain a bonus to your DCV based on your relative speed.
• In some situations, your movement may be so hampered that you can't move even 1m. In such a case, you may spend a full-phase action to move 1m in any direction.

Free Actions

Free actions don't take any time at all, though there may be limits to the number of free actions you can perform in a turn.

• Dropping an item in your square or into an adjacent square is a free action.
• Dropping to a prone position in your square is a free action.
• You can move 1m in any Phase when you don't perform any other kind of movement as a free action. You can't take this action more than once in a Phase. You can move 1m before, during, or after your other actions in the Phase. You can only take this action if your movement isn't hampered by difficult terrain or darkness. Any character with a total movement of 1m or less can't take this action, since moving even 1m requires a move action for such a slow character.

Special Initiative Actions

There are two ways to change when you act during combat by altering your place in the initiative order: delaying or readying. There is one way to take a defensive action before it is your place in the initiative order: aborting.

Delay

By choosing to delay, you take no action on your own INIT score and wait to act later in the sequence. You can specify your new place in the sequence (for example, "immediately before Captain Comet's action") or just wait until some time later and act then, thus fixing your new INIT score at that point. You can't interrupt anyone else's action, as you can with a readied action.

Initiative Consequences of Delaying: Your INIT changes to when you took the delayed action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don't get to take a delayed action (though you can delay again). If you take a delayed action in the next Phase, before your regular action comes up, your INIT score rises to that new point in the order of actions, and you do not get your regular action that Phase.

Ready

The ready action lets you prepare to take an action later, after your turn is over but before your next one has begun. Readying is an attack action. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity (though the action that you ready might do so).

You can ready an attack action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character's activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming they are still capable of doing so, the other character continues their actions once you complete your readied action. Your INIT score changes: for the rest of the encounter, your INIT is when you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

You can move 1m as a free action as part of your readied action, but only if you don't otherwise move any distance during the Phase.

Initiative Consequences of Readying: Your INIT changes to when you took the readied action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed your readied action, you don't get to take the readied action (though you can ready the same action again). If you take your readied action in the next Phase, before your regular turn comes up, your INIT score rises to that new point in the order of actions, and you do not get your regular action that Phase.

Abort

You can abort to any defensive attack or move action before your INIT score comes up in a Phase, giving up your next Action to do so. You can also abort to a defensive action after acting on your INIT score earlier in a Phase, but doing so gives up your Action from the following Phase.

Initiative Consequences of Aborting: Your INIT does not change. If you aborted your action from the following Phase, you do not get to act on your INIT in that Phase, and you cannot Abort your next action until after your INIT in the following Phase.

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