Running Combat

Combats in the horror genre tend to be tense and bloody. The Saga Machine combat system makes a number of design choices intended to emphasize the horror nature of the game, while at the same time keeping in touch with the science fiction themes.

Keep it Simple, Stupid

As the GM, the golden rule of combat is: Don’t make things hard on yourself. Have the NPCs use the simplest combat options. Make a single Defense test for all enemies. Don’t bother having them hold on to AP to take reactions, unless you have a specific reason.

Unless an enemy is supposed to be a tactical genius, don’t worry about employing the most optimal actions. Let NPCs make mistakes and leave openings. Many players love exploiting an enemy’s mistakes—so let them!

That said, don’t be afraid to go all out for villains who are supposed to be geniuses. Paying attention to tactics and exploiting player character weaknesses will make them seem all the more clever when they’re compared to the usual riff-raff.

Defense Tests

At the beginning of every round, all players make a Defense test (see page XXX). To better keep track of the result, we recommend that players use a different colored die or keep track of which card they flipped, setting it aside for the round as a reminder. Discard it at the end of the round.

As the GM, you get to decide whether you will make a Defense test for all enemies, for groups of enemies or for each enemy individually. When in doubt, make the test once for all enemies; this keeps your job simple.

Static Defense

If tracking changing Defense values from round to round is still too difficult, you may opt to treat all NPC Defense tests as always getting a five on the randomizer. For abilities that grant a ⊕ or a ⊖, add or subtract two, respectively. This means that each enemy has an unchanging Defense TN which can be calculated once, at the beginning of combat. Do the same thing when determining each enemy’s Willpower TN.

This optional rule is not recommended for player characters.

The party is being attacked by a dozen assassin drones and the GM doesn’t want to track changing Defense TNs from round-to-round. The drones have Defense 6 and Willpower 4, furthermore they’re nimble, so they get a ⊕ on Defense tests. At the beginning of the encounter, the GM determines that they have a Defense TN of 13 and a Wilpower TN of 9 for the combat.

Turns & Conflicts

Saga Machine’s system of fast turns and slow turns works best when all player characters are on the same side.

If the players ever find their characters in conflict, the GM may opt to avoid any disputes over who acts by resolving fast turns in order of each character’s Speed stat, with ties broken by Perception, then Determination. Slow turns are then similarly resolved, in the same order.

This system also works for groups that dither or which are excessively indecisive when determining turn order.

Tracking Action Points

It’s useful to have some sort of physical tokens to track Action Points (AP). Glass beads work well, as do poker chips. Keep the tokens for your remaining AP in front of you and push the spent tokens aside.

For most NPCs, don’t bother tracking AP when it’s not their turn. Just spend what they have on their turn and forget any that are leftover. This makes tracking groups of enemies easy. Save tracking AP for special occasions or important villains.

Tracking Consequences

To track consequences, we recommend using a deck of our Saga Machine: Consequence Cards. Each consequence gets its own card, which can be handed out to players as needed. Additionally, beads, poker chips or other tokens may be placed on a card to represent multiple instances of the same consequence.

Emphasizing Horror

One of the fundamental truths of horror is that the unknown is a thousand times more scary than even the best detailed description the GM can cook up. Similarly, categorization and analysis are the enemies of horror. The more something can be classified and understood, the less scary it is.

Emphasizing horror in a combat is one part managing information and one part taking the emphasis away from the nitty-gritty of the mechanics. Don’t simply say, “A thug leaps over some boxes and attacks you,” instead say, “You peek over the boxes where you have taken cover and don’t see him. Has he retreated back into the dark tunnels? Pulling your head back behind the boxes, suddenly he flies out of the darkness, cackling with a crazy glee.”

When giving descriptions, don’t describe what’s happening on the battlefield from a god’s eye view. Describe it from the point of view of a character, limited and ingrained in the moment.

Another way to emphasize horror is to tack on an extra ability or useful skill when using enemies. Have different foes try different tactics or handle things in different ways. The more players can predict the behavior of their adversaries and the more they believe they know their limitations, the less scary they become. Make the players sit up and say, “They can do that!?!”

Combat Grids

We recommend running combat using solely the group’s imagination (“theater of the mind”), but it is also possible to employ maps and miniatures to represent the combatants on the battlefield. Saga Machine has been written to support either approach.

If using a map, grids consisting of hexes or squares are the most common. Just have each space on the grid represent 1 meter. This means that a character’s Move score is the number of spaces she can move in a single action.

Grave Wounds & Defeated Foes

Tracking non-player character health can get complicated, particularly when there are numerous enemies engaged in a battle. To help simplify this, whenever a foe would gain a Grave Wound—whether due to accumulated damage or due to a critical hit—narrate an appropriate result and then have her either die, fall unconscious or run (GM’s choice).

This rule is best used for enemies that attack en masse, saving the usual Grave Wound rules for villains and powerful monstrosities.

Damage From Bullets and Other Piercing Projectiles

Bullets embed themselves in their target’s flesh and later need to be removed before the wounds they inflict can heal. This is also true for arrows, bolts and other piercing projectiles. GMs who wish to track this sort of gritty damage may use the following optional rule.

Take note of any wounds dealt by these projectiles. Until the bullet or other projectile is removed, the wound cannot be treated with first aid and heals naturally at half the usual rate. Removing one of these projectiles requires a minor surgery (see page XXX), but only imposes the Fatigue consequence on a failure.

Shock

Game masters wishing to emphasize the quick and deadly nature of combat may apply the following rule for pain and shock from injuries:

Whenever you take a Wound or Grave Wound, you suffer a ⊖ on all tests until the end the NPC turns next round.