Valeria in Runequest 6

In the spirit of jumping around wildly, we will run Valeria using the Runequest 6 rules against a duo of orcs.

As before, neither side is surprised.

Combat in Runequest 6 is in Cycles and Turns:

• A Cycle consists of a series of Turns wherein characters may spend 1 Action Point (AP) to do something.
• A Cycle lasts until all APs are expended.

Cycle 1 Turn 1   Valeria: 2Luck Points 3 Action Points, ORC 1 2AP, ORC 2 2AP

Both Orcs use 1AP to advance

Valeria uses one AP to throw her spear at orc2, she rolls a 70 spends a luck point to reverse it making it a 07.

The orcs are armed (fortunately) only with short swords, and no shields, so no parry is possible.

When either the attacker or defender succeed by one or more degrees, they get one or more ‘special effects’

In this case, Valeria’s spear throw yielded an automatic failure on the part of the orc, countered by a normal success… This gives her one special effect, and ‘impale’ is usually quite popular with missile weapons as it both ensures more damage, and causes massive penalties to the ‘receiver’ while either the arrow or spear is lodged within him.

At this point, we roll a d20 to determine hit location on the orc.getting a ‘3’ which is the orc’s right leg. Damage is the best of two rolls on an impale and the spear will do 1d8+1 (rolling a 4 and a 5, we take the 5) meaning 6 damage to the right leg, versus 1 point of armor means 5 points get through.

Orcs have 5 HP in their legs… Well not Orc 2, he now has ZERO which means not only does he have a spear stuck through his leg, he has now suffered a ‘Serious Wound’ long term this means permanent scarring, but short turn he cannot do anything but attempt to evade for 1d3 turns due to the terrible pain (we rolled a 2, so 2 rounds)

He now must also make an opposed test of his Endurance versus the original attack  of 07… Catch is since he is impaled by a spear all of his skill checks are at ⅓. He rolls an 81, and falls to the ground, his leg useless until medical care is rendered.

Cycle 1 Turn 2

Valeria has 2 AP left, Orc1 has 1AP and Orc2 is stunned for 2 turns and his right leg no longer works.

Orc1 moves and atttacks, being close enough to do so, and rolls a 29.

Valeria rolls a 98, and even though she has one luck point left, this is just shy of a fumble and she is (over)confident at this point.

The orc hits, and chooses the ‘press advantage’ special effect which means Valeria’s next action can only be defensive in nature as he is pressing her back.

He also rolls to see where he hit and gets a 12, which fortunately for Valeria is her chest which she has ‘passively’ blocked with her shield.

(Shields can be used to actively parry or attack, but when not in active use ‘cover’ a certain number of hit locations.)

He can’t roll enough damage to knock her down, so he basically bought some time for himself pushing her onto the defensive

Cycle 1 Turn 3

Valeria cannot attack as she is on the defensive, so she uses her last AP to draw her battleaxe.

Cycle 2 Turn 1 Valeria: 1LP 3AP, ORC 1 2AP, ORC 2 2AP (impaled, ruined leg, stunned for one more round)

Orc 1 swings again at valeria rolling a 03. This is a critical as it is %10 or below of the Orc’s attack skill.

Valeria would most likely use her last luck point to force the orc to reroll, but that is boring.

Instead Valeria will attempt to block with her shield and gets an 18, which is normally a success, however a critical success is one step better than a regular success meaning that the orc gets one ‘special effect’  and chooses ‘disarm opponent’ forcing her to roll her combat style versus his critical success or have her battleaxe knocked from her hands, and the location indicates he hits her in the head for 5 points of damage. Fortunately her armor blocks one, leaving her with 1 hitpoint left in her head location.

In story terms, the orc had put her on the defensive last turn, and she had not yet gotten a solid grip on the axe she was drawing when the orc knocked it out of her hands and gashed her face.

Not wanting to lose momentum she attempts to smash the orc with her shield instead of trying to recover her axe, rolling a 17, the orc fails with a 91 and she chooses the ‘bash’ effect which will knock him back 1 metre for every 2 points of damage rolled.

The hit location is 4, the orc’s left leg, and she rolls 2 points of damage, 1 point getting through to his leg, but knocking him back a metre as he yelps in pain.

This would suggest that she feigned going for her battleaxe, and instead drove her shield into his knee, causing him to stumble backwards.

Cycle 2 Turn 2

Valeria still has 1 AP left, and uses it to move and grab her spear out of the leg of orc2. Orc1 is disengaged by the bash and can’t do anything about it

This is a ‘brawn’ test with orc2, who suffers a penalty for being impaled, Valeria rolls a 6, Orc2 rolls a 68,causing half damage to be applied to that location (1d8+1 / 2 round down = 2, armor doesn’t help, and now the orc is at -2 on his leg, but no longer suffers impale penalties.)

Cycle 3 Turn 1 Valeria: 1LP 3AP, ORC 1 2AP, ORC 2 2AP (ruined leg, gets 1AP this round)

Orc2 is going to try to crawl away with its move.

Orc1 is now facing a spear wielding opponent while wielding a shortsword, so he will need to try to ‘change range’ to get inside the spear’s reach.

Valeria can either allow him to, spend a point to attempt to keep range, or throw caution to the wind and spend an AP to attack.

Valeria attacks with a 98, blows a luck point and rerolls a 38 instead, she ha sno luck points left.

The orc does not get to parry as he is closing, instead he resists with ‘evade’, rolling a 39. They are equal in terms of success, so no special effect and the orc does close range, but Valeria also hits the orc in the head with her spear for 9 points of damage… 8 points bypass armor, putting the orc’s head at -3 HP, a Serious Wound.

As with his fellow Orc, he now rolls Endurance vs the attack roll and fails, passing out  for a number of minutes equal to the damage suffered in the attack, in this case 8 minutes.

We can assume that Valeria does the honorable duty of ending Orc1 quickly, and then casually killing Orc 2 as he attempts to crawl away from the fight.