Genesys: Combat Example

Valeria, the barbarian character I created in the last entry, finds herself travelling through a forest with her occasional compatriot Day-Vahd Bowie, Elven Ranger.

They are checking up on a small village after reports of Beastman raids in the area.

Day-Vahd is on point, and ahead they can see smoke rising from the location of the village. Unfortunately, Beastmen erupt from both sides of the trail having been waiting in ambush.

There are 8 Beastmen, four in each group.

Valeria and Day-Vahd will both roll Vigilance, with Valeria getting 2 Bonus dice due to Day-Vahd's 'Heightened Awareness' talent (which only helps his allies, not him.)

Valeria gets 0 Success

Day-Vahd gets 4 Success and 1 Advantage

The two groups of Beastmen will use Cool as they were waiting in ambush.

Group 1 gets 1 Success
Group 2 gets 1 Success

Order is Friendly-Enemy-Enemy-Friendly

Round 1

Players have 2 Story Points
GM has 1 Story Point

Day-Vahd will take the first Initiative slot, quick draw his bow (Incidental action) , use a Maneuver to aim his bow, an Action to fire his bow at Group 1 ,  and take two Strain to move to Medium range as another Maneuver.

His dice roll 2 Success and 4 Advantages (two of which came from his Aiming.) He does 9 points of damage, plus spends 3 Advantage for a crit, and uses the last Advantage to recoup 1 of his Strain used for the extra Maneuver. 9 points is enough to kill a Beastman, and the Crit kills another.

"Day-Vahd unlimbers his bow with one fluid motion, takes aim and lets fly several arrows that quickly silence two Beastmen as he falls back to a more practical position for an archer."

The two remaining members of Group 1 use two Maneuvers to 1: Move to Close range and then 2: Move to Engaged. Being Minions, they cannot use Strain to buy another Maneuver, so they cannot move twice and then attack, only move twice.

"The other two Beastmen in that group howl in fury and chase down Day-Vahd, closing the distance in a mere heart-beat."

The other group moves to engage Valeria and rend her with their claws. Four of them in this group means they will be rolling 3 Proficiency dice and 1 Ability dice. Valeria is going to use a Story point to set one of the Difficulty die to a Challenge die, which makes only adds one Threat which will manifest as 1 Strain (wound since it is a minion group) on the Beastmen, but gets 5 Success, which would normally mean 11 Wounds - Valeria's soak of 5. Valeria uses her Parry talent to add 3 to her Soak at the cost of taking 3 Strain, which means she has taken 3 Wounds and 3 Strain instead of 6 Wounds.
Valeria now has 13 Wounds/ 7 Strain remaining.
Also since the Group has taken a wound, they all go into a Bestial Rage, which lowers their Critical score to 1.

"The pack charged in towards Valeria who does her best to beat them away as they claw and bite, drawing blood and driving them into an even more uncontrollable killing frenzy."

Valeria takes the last slot and uses a Maneuver to go into a Berserk state. She will now add 1 Success and 2 Advantages to all Melee checks she makes, but enemies will get to add 1 Success as well, she cannot use ranged weapons, and she will take a boatload of Strain at the end of the fight. She lashes out with her Greataxe at the mass of Beastmen around her. With Berserk, she gets 3 Success and 4 Advantage. She will use three of the Advantage to Crit a Minion, the last Advantage to reduce her Strain by 1 and will inflict 11 Damage (Pierce 2) to the Group, killing another minion outright and adding 3 wounds to one other Minion. (Group 2 now has two members, one with 6 Wounds, and one with only 2 Wounds remaining. Valeria has 13 Wounds / 8 Strain remaining.

"Screaming to an obscure Norse deity, Valeria swings her Greataxe with wild abandon, cleaving through mangy fur and deformed skulls, splattering the ground with their tainted blood."

Round 2

Players have 1 Story point
GM has 2 Story points

Valeria is going to take the first slot and continues her onslaught. The GM uses a story point to raise her difficulty due to the ground being so slick with all the blood and entrails and the like... Sadly she misses, but does yield a Triumph and 4 Advantage. The Triumph is going to be used to make the group about to attack Day-Vahd have a harder time as the screams of their dying comrades distracted them as well as adding a Setback dice to the group attacking her with 2 Advantage, and recovers 2 more Strain with the remaining.

"Continuing to scream and swing, the Beastman are momentarily distracted by Valeria's spectacle, possibly providing an opening for Day-Vahd."

The two beastman that ran towards Day-Vahd pounce. Fortunately they are not technically wounded, so no Bestial Rage yet. They do get a Challenge dice due to Valeria's screaming and flailing with the Greataxe, which nets them 1 Success and 3 Threat. Day-Vahd will take 7 Wounds - Soak of 3 for a total of 4. The 3 Threat get spend to provide Day-Vahd an Advantage die and one Strain on the Minion group (1 Wound.)
Day-Vahd has 7 Wounds/ 12 Strain remaining. The Beastmen duo has one with 6 Wounds, and on with 5.

"Day-Vahd did what he could, but the Beastmen raked him with their claws, but did so in a way that they stumbled all over each other."

The two fighting Valeria snarl and attack rolling 2 Success (one from her Berserk talent). This inflicts 8 Wounds - 5 Soak for 3 Wounds on Valeria. She will take 3 Strain to effectively block this damage.
Valeria has 13 Wounds/ 7 Strain remaining.

"Valeria continues to beat back the two Beastman fighting her, the barest signs of fatigue showing themselves."

Day-Vahd has one Advantage die from Valeria, and one from the Beastman fumbling around in their attack. He uses one Maneuver to swap weapons and bring his Axe into play. He gets 3 Success and 2 Advantage, his Success came from his Proficiency dice and his Advantage dice which might suggest that he deftly took advantage of the opportunity, inflicting 8 damage, killing the wounded Beastman.

"Day-Vahd, ducked between the two stumbling Beastmen and drove his axe into the front of one their throats , dropping it into a gargling pile of death."

Round 3

Players have 1 Story Point
GM has 2 Story Points

Valeria is taking the first slot again, and is going to spend the last Story Point to upgrade her dice pool, getting 3 Success and 4 Advantage with her Berserk talent. Valeria will spend 3 Advantage for a critical and do 8 wounds (pierce 2). This is sufficient to kill both Beastmen. The remaining Advantage she will spend to recoup 1 Strain and she moves towards the remaining Beastman.

"With one clean motion, Valeria removes the heads of the two remaining Beastmen that were accosting her, making the forest a quieter, albeit bloodier place in the process."

The GM is going to spend one story point to declare that the last Beastman is now in a Bestial Rage, it attacks Day-Vahd and (really against the odds given 3Green/2 Purple) gets 3 Success and 2 Advantage. This would do just enough damage to drop Day-Vahd to 0, which gets a Critical Injury, AND the Beastman spends both Advantages on Criticals, adding 20 to the Critical table. (Beastman Critical rating of 1 when in Bestial Rage.)  The roll is 84+20=104 ... Maimed and 1 Setback dice on all rolls until this injury is healed.

"As Day-Vahd had his Axe arm extended from the killing blow, the other Beastman grabs it in its jaws and tears the forearm right off. The forest is again not quiet due to the sudden outburst of Elfish screaming as he slumps to the ground."

Round 4

Players have 2 Story Points
GM has 1 Story Point

Valeria uses her Maneuver to Engage the Beastman and her Action to attempt to cleave it, she will use a Story Point to upgrade her pool, yielding 4 Success and ending the Beastman.

"Valeria brings down her greataxe, almost splitting the Beastman asunder. Now that she is alone with her critically wounded comrade, the rage fades replaced by worry.(she takes 6 Strain, now has 2 left)"

Valeria would now get a chance to roll to recover some strain, and her friend is in dire need of help...