Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of

So tonight I wanted to see how combat in the new Conan RPG.

Maeve is considered to be the the PC, while Edric is a 'Nemesis' NPC (An NPC that uses the full rules that apply to PCs, in a similar fashion to Wildcards and Extras in Savage Worlds.)

(These are also the characters found in the free Quickstart that can be found here.)

Maeve saw Edric enter the clearing, he was expecting him to make his move quickly, while the bounty on Maeve's head was 'fresh'. Maeve had his bow at hand, and had a decent amount of range between him and Edric which should allow him at least a few shots before the grizzled Nemedian mercenary could close the distance.

Both Maeve and Edric start this conflict aware of each other, and at Long distance. Unfortunately for Maeve their is no 'interesting' terrain between him and Edric. Maeve has three 'Fortune' points, and the GM has 3 Doom points to start. Unless the GM pays for it, PCs go first.

Knowing that he needs to make this count, Maeve takes a deep breath and looses a volley at Edric.

In game terms, a Volley expends one unit of ammunition, addition 1d20 to the test pool and 1 damage dice. Maeve is also going to spend one of his three fortune points which gives him a d20 set to '1'.

Rolling 3d20, he gets (1,16 and 11). The objective is to roll under your applicable skill which gets one success.

 If you roll under the Focus number you get two. In this case, Maeve gets 2 successes for the one he rolled as his Focus is 4, 1 Success for the 11, and none for the 16 which is just over his skill of 15.

The fortune point he spent for the '1' d20 gives him two more for a total of 5. His warbow has a range of Long which is right where Edric is (if he was one step closer or farther there would be an additional level of difficulty) .

5 Successes versus the difficulty of 1 leaves him with 4 'Momentum' a currency that he can use or bank for additional tricks.

Edric is going to try to parry, which is only possible against ranged weapons if one has a shield. Parrying is a Reaction and all reactions cost an escalating number of Doom (either GM spending, player giving) for each successive Reaction. Edric has a shield which gives him one 'free' Parry a turn, as well as a talent that would reduce the cost by one, effectively letting him Parry twice a round with no penalty.

The GM is going to spend a point of Doom to give Edric another d20 on his Parry attempt. Rolling 3d20 Edric gets (4, 9 and 14). The 4 and the 9 give two Successes and this is subtracted from Maeve's successes, still leaving him with 2'Momentum' , spending 1 point to bypass 2 points (all) of Edric's armor, and 1 point to roll another damage dice.

Maeve inflicts 5 damage dice, plus 1 for the volley, plus 1 for the Momentum spend for a total of 7 dice that coincidentally do 7 points of damage to his right arm.

Damage comes off 'Vigor' stress boxes, with every 5 causing a Wound, or every hit after stress is depleted causing a Wound as well. Not wanting to suffer the death spiral this early, the GM has Edric sacrifice his shield to avoid the wound (Once per scene a PC or Nemesis can sacrifice a shield or armor location to void a wound. Stress damage still occurs however.)

Edric throws his shield up between himself and the flight of arrows, his shield has seen a bit of use, and it sunders under the impact of multiple arrows as he throws his other arm up in a vain attempt to protect himself.

Edric is now down to 2 Vigor from 9.

Edric charges towards Maeve across the field, locking onto him with his Steely Gaze as he closes, to 
assure Maeve that his best just wasn't good enough.

Edric is using a Threaten attack, given he is running the difficulty is at 2, meaning he needs 2 successes, so the GM burns another Doom point rolling (3, 20 and 15). This is not good enough, and a 20 means a Complication occurred, the GM rules that Edric is too focused on his Threat and paying less attention to his charge putting him off balance which means his next roll will be at a difficulty of 2.

Maeve looks at his oncoming attacker with vague amusement as he stumbles a bit rushing towards him, loosing one last volley of arrows.

Maeve is going to roll 2d20 + 1d20 for the volley and will buy another d20 with a Doom point which the GM gladly accepts. His difficulty is 3 given the warbow's range is Long as Edric is almost on top of him. He rolls (3, 11, 15 and 18) which gives him 2 Momentum.
Edric will spend that Doom point to attempt to Dodge as he can no longer Parry given what happened to his shield. The GM will also burn the last Doom point to add d20 to the roll as Edric is taking a penalty for stumbling.

No luck.

Maeve rolls 5d damage,rolling 6 points of damaging and bypassing 1 point of armor, doing 5 points of damage as another arrow hit's Edric's right arm. He now had 1 Wound and will suffer a penalty equal to the number of Wounds to all Physical tasks.

Maeve uses the 2 Momentum for a 'Swift Action' as he draws his sword and attempts to stab Edric, spending another Fortune point to add a 1 to the pool. Rolling 2d20 (1,5,6) combined with the Fortune spend this gives him 5 Momentum, spending 1 to Penetrate armor and the other 4 are spent on additional 4 damage on top of the 4 damage rolled straight to Edric's torso. Since Edric is at 0 Vigor, 5+ points of damage will inflict 2 Wounds.

Another arrow slammed home, followed by the archer ripped his sword free from the scabbard and carving a gorey opening in Edric's belly. Edric stumbles forward knowing that this is his last fight, but he plans on taking his new 'friend' to hell with him.

Edric is at +3 difficulty for everything, meaning he needs to roll 4 successes to hit. Fortunately he rolls a 3 and a 2, which are under his Focus. Maeve fails the Parry as the blade hits his unprotected head for 6 points of damage. Maeve has neither armor on that location to sacrifice or a shield, so he takes 1 Wound.

The smug disappeared from Maeve's face as Edric opened an ugly gash across his mouth and nose. Both men stared at each other through bloodied eyes as the full moon emerged, its rays glinting off of their readied steel as well as revealing the skulking forms of Pictish warriors slowly encircling them. 

Crom was either feeling humorous or he was in a black mood indeed... No telling the difference with that grey god thought Maeve. The two men came to a quiet understanding before turning to meet their new common enemy.