Age of Sigmar: Soulbound’s RPG Combat Rules
Hey folks, today we’re taking a look at some of the playtest elements from the Age of Sigmar RPG–specifically, how combat works.
Journey with us once more to the Mortal Realms as we get ready for the upcoming AoS RPG: Soulbound. That’s a lot of letters to parse out, but the gist of it is, in Soulbound you’re playing as a cadre of mighty warriors (or for you WFRP fans, Mitey Worriers) who are all soulbound together and who go fight and have adventures across the different realms. Today we’re taking a look at how these warriors fight.
via Cubicle 7
In Soulbound, characters have three major combat traits: Melee, Accuracy, and Defence.
Melee is how effective you are in hand-to-hand combat. It is derived from your Body and your Weapon Skill. When making a Melee Attack, you make a Body (Weapon Skill) Test.
Accuracy represents your marksmanship and ability to pick out a target. It is derived from your Mind and your Ballistic Skill. When making a Ranged Attack, you make a Body (Ballistic Skill) Test.
Defence is how hard you are to hit, and how adept you are at avoiding danger. Defence is derived from your Body and your Reflexes Skill.
These traits are rated on a scale we call The Ladder. Ratings range from Poor right up to Extraordinary. When you are making an attack, you compare either your Melee or Accuracy (depending on the type of attack) with the target’s Defence. This determines the difficulty to hit. If you are evenly matched, say with a Good Melee versus a Good Defence, the difficulty to hit is 4. This means any result of 4 and up counts as a hit. If you are one step higher on the ladder, say Good Melee versus an Average Defence, the difficulty would be 3. If you are one step lower on the ladder, say Average Melee versus Good Defence, the difficulty would be 5. If you are two steps or more higher the difficulty is 2, and if you are two steps or more lower the difficulty is 6.
This means that defence and attack aren’t static, and are instead determined by the effectiveness of the combatants. It also means that even the tiniest Grot has a chance of hurting a towering Kurnoth!
In addition to the basic steps you see outlined there, you’ll be dealing damage based on your weapons as well as successes rolled on your attack. Armor reduces incoming damage before it reduces your Toughness.
But you can do more than just make a basic attack. You can dodge, hide, make a called shot, grapple, help, or take an “improvise” action. Presumably this means getting a suggestion from your opponents and then doing scenes from a hat.
Happy Adventuring!
