A typical Combat Encounter is a clash between two sides; a flurry of punches, feints, deflections, energy blasts, and melee combat. The DBU RPG organizes the chaos of combat into a cycle of rounds and turns. To make combat manageable, combatants take turns. Combatants consist of both player-controlled Characters (PC) and Characters controlled by the ARC (NPC). During a round, each combatant takes a turn in battle. The order of turns is determined at the beginning of a Combat Encounter when combatants roll Initiative. Once all combatants have taken a turn, the round ends, and combat continues to another round until one side is overcome.

Combat Structure

1. Establishing Positions. The Architect and players decide and determine where the characters involved in the encounter are positioned at the start of the Combat Encounter. 2. Rolling Initiative. All characters involved in a Combat Encounter must roll Initiative, determining the order of turns for each combatant. 3. Taking Turns. In Initiative Order, all characters take their turns. Once a character has spent all of their Actions (see — Actions & Maneuvers), their turn ends. 4. Ending a Round. Once all combatants have taken their turn, the round ends and the second round begins. This continues until one side of the Combat Encounter is completely Defeated, or the Combat Encounter meets an alternative end.

Initiating a Combat Encounter

A Combat Encounter can be initiated by multiple means, but usually it is at the behest of the ARC. Though, there’s normally two ways a Combat Encounter will start up:

• An ARC will declare that you have entered a Combat Encounter as soon as the Adventuring (see — Adventure) period is over and there’s no way to avoid a fight anymore. This may be due to equal desire on the parts of the combatants, such as in a tournament or in a bout of shared scorn, or it may be a surprising turn of events that occurs when you are attacked out of the blue.
• A player may request the start of a Combat Encounter from the ARC at any suitable period. For example, during a scene, their Character may be tired of talking and try to fly off the handle to initiate a battle. The reason this is a mere request is to prevent players from feeling entitled to the creation of Combat Encounters, the ARC is the one who chooses when a Combat Encounter starts, but even if your Character flies forward and makes an attack, your ARC may choose to use whatever methods they see fit to continue the scene if a Combat Encounter does not feel appropriate to them.

There is no hard or fast rule as to initiating a Combat Encounter beyond that it must be set up by the ARC, but as this is a roleplaying game, it’s important for an ARC to be aware of the player’s wants and position their Combat Encounters appropriately. Though, that’s no reason to adhere to the whims of one overly rambunctious player that keeps trying to derail the scene and throw everything into combat. Remember, you control the world! If someone is being obnoxious in that method, you can just come up with ways to restrain their character.

When setting up a Combat Encounter, make sure to declare all Characters and if they are Allies or Opponents to your players during this period. Although, any Character that is Hidden from your players… Well, they don’t have to know about them just yet.

Initiative

Your Initiative Value is a score that decides the order of turns, also called the Initiative Order. It determines the sequence of turns during combat. When a Combat Encounter starts, every Character makes an Initiative Check to determine their place in the order. The Initiative Order has Characters taking their turns in order of Initiative – from highest to lowest.

Initiative Check. To make an Initiative Check, roll your Base Die and increase the Dice Score by 1/2 of your Agility Score – the Dice Score is your Initiative Value and decides your place in the Initiative Order (you cannot score a Critical Result on this). In the case of a tie among two Characters, the Character with the higher Agility Score will go first. If both combatants have the same Agility Score, both will roll a d10 and the highest result wins. If there is a further tie, the ARC decides which of the two goes first. All Initiative Checks are Urgent (see — Urgency).

Initiative Order. Your Initiative Value decides the Initiative Order. If your Initiative Value would change, increasing through some effect or another, it influences the Initiative Order – changing the order in which turns are played out. When one turn in the Initiative Order ends, the next one immediately begins.

Surprise!

Occasionally, if a party is caught unawares by a group of enemies when a Combat Encounter starts due to effective stealth or the surprising nature of the assault, a Surprise Round may occur. Ultimately, there is no direct check and it is up to the ARC to decide if you were in a situation that would qualify for a Surprise Round.

Surprise Round. A Surprise Round is a special version of the first Combat Round of a Combat Encounter that occurs when your guard is down. During a Surprise Round, Characters are individually marked as Surprised by the ARC. Each Surprised character:

• Suffers from the Guard Down and Slowed Combat Conditions for the duration of the Surprise Round.
• Halves the Dice Score of their Initiative Check at the start of the Combat Encounter.

Hidden

Hidden. When you become Hidden, you are ‘Hidden’ in relation to another Character, who becomes known as an ‘Oblivious Character’ for your effects.

While you are Hidden:

• Oblivious Characters cannot target you with any Maneuver (except the Sense/Search Maneuvers) unless that Maneuver is an AoE and either: targets at least 1 other Character, or is a Sphere AoE with a Magnitude of Huge or more and the Target Square is a Square the user occupies.
• You do not trigger the Exploit Maneuver from any Oblivious Characters.
• Increase your Combat Rolls against Characters who are Oblivious of you by 2(bT).

Being Found. There are multiple ways for a Hidden Character to be found by an Oblivious Character, thus stopping them being Hidden:

• If a Hidden Character ends their turn in the Melee Range of an Oblivious Character while there are no Features between them, they stop being Hidden for that Character.
• If a Hidden Character hits an Oblivious Character with an Attacking Maneuver, they stop being Hidden for that Character after concluding that Maneuver.
• If a Hidden Character initiates a Clash through a Special Maneuver or Unique Ability against an Oblivious Character, they stop being Hidden for that Character after concluding that Maneuver.
• If an Oblivious Character is targeted by a second Attacking Maneuver by a Hidden Character during the same Combat Round, that Character stops being Hidden for the Oblivious Character after concluding that Maneuver.
• If a Hidden Character uses the Power Up Maneuver, Energy Charge Maneuver, Transformation Maneuver, or any Attacking Maneuver that has an AoE, an Oblivious Character may initiate a Clash (Perception/Clairvoyance vs Stealth/Concealment) against that Hidden Character as an Out-of-Sequence Maneuver. If they win, they stop being Hidden.
• The use of the Search Maneuver and the Sense Maneuver (see — Special Maneuvers) can be used to find a Hidden character.

Allies & Opponents

When in a Combat Encounter, Characters other than your own are categorized into ‘Allies’ or ‘Opponents’. An Ally is a Character definitely on your side, striving towards the same objective or fighting against the same Opponent. An Opponent is any Character except your own that is not an Ally.

A Character can become an Ally or an Opponent during a Combat Encounter, changing their dynamics within the Combat Encounter. This has to be announced, as a great number of effects within the system refer directly to either ‘Opponents’ or ‘Allies’. A player can declare themselves an Opponent of a Character at any time, so watch out for betrayals!

You are not considered your own Ally or your own Opponent, as both ‘Ally’ and ‘Opponent’ refer purely to other Characters.

Turns

The Turn. When your turn arrives in the Initiative Order, it’s your turn to perform Maneuvers in the round. Each of your turns has three steps: Effect, Act, and End. The Effect Phase happens before anything else and takes nearly no time, the Act Phase is where all the juicy stuff happens, and then the End Phase happens, you guessed it, at the end of your turn when you have run out of all of your Actions.

Effect Phase. Before any Actions are spent, there are a few things you must track and certain effects that occur at the start of your turn. These things take almost no time in the game world and are simply mechanical effects.

• Mechanical Effects: Deal with any effects that occur at the start of your turn (such as the Damage Over Time effect). You can decide the order in which they activate, if multiple occur at the same time.
• Ending Effects: Some effects and mechanics might automatically end at the start of your turn. You can decide the order in which they end, if multiple occur at the same time.

Act Phase. You can spend Actions on a Maneuver to perform complex tasks ranging from solving a puzzle, transforming into complete badasses or, of course, rocking the socks off the bad guys. During the Act Phase, you can typically spend up to 3 Actions in a turn (see — Actions & Maneuvers).

End Phase. The End Phase is identical to the Effects Phase but simply takes place at the end of your turn. You can willingly end your turn at any point during your turn before you spend your Actions, but otherwise your turn ends as soon as you run out of Actions. Track certain effects that occur at the end of your turn. These things take almost no time in the game world and are simply mechanical effects.

• Mechanical Effects: Deal with any other effects that will occur during the end of your turn. You can decide the order in which they activate, if multiple occur at the same time.
• Ending Effects: Some effects and mechanics might automatically stop at the end of your turn. You can decide the order in which they activate, if multiple occur at the same time.

Combat Round. The total sum of turns is called a Combat Round. A Combat Round starts with the Character highest in Initiative Order and ends with the lowest, before starting back at the highest again. Once all Characters have taken their turn during the Initiative Order, the Combat Round is over. Repeat the process starting with the highest Initiative until the Encounter is overcome or has ended.

• Combat Round Effects. Some effects will say that they last for x Combat Rounds (x being the number of Combat Rounds intended for them to last). When you see this effect, it means that the effects end at the end of the turn they started in (in terms of Initiative Order) after that amount of Combat Rounds have ended.

Skipped Turns. Some effects may result in a Character’s turn in the Initiative Order being skipped. If that occurs, during their position in the Initiative Order, no effects (except those of Combat Conditions) can occur either due to the ‘start’ of their turn or ‘end’ of their turn as their turn is entirely skipped. Any effect that would end on their turn, either at the start or end of it, will still end as usual at this point in the Initiative Order, however.

For example, the Guard Down option of the Condition Advantage lasts until ‘the start of your next turn’. If a Character had hit an Opponent with an attack with the Condition (Guard Down) Advantage and then had their turn skipped due to another effect, the Guard Down condition would still be lifted from that Opponent.

Ending a Combat Encounter

There are multiple ways to end a Combat Encounter, and surprisingly, not all of them end in bloodshed:

• Absolute Victory. The most common way to end a Combat Encounter is through simply defeating all of your Opponents. If no undefeated Opponents remain in the Combat Encounter, the Combat Encounter ends.
• Ceasefire. A ceasefire ending occurs when all Characters involved in the Combat Encounter simply agree that there’s no reason to keep fighting. This can be done at any time, but requires the complete acceptance of every Character in a Combat Encounter. If even one Character is still intending to fight to the last, a ceasefire ending cannot occur.
• Escape. It’s possible to simply escape from your Opponents, usually done if you’re overwhelmed or you simply do not have the time to fight them. If you and all of your Allies are able to escape a Combat Encounter (see — Hide and Seek), then that Combat Encounter ends.

Leaving a Combat Encounter. Rather than ending a Combat Encounter completely, sometimes a single Character may have to (or be forced to) leave the Combat Encounter. When a Character leaves the Combat Encounter, they are completely removed from the Initiative Order. There’s a few ways this can happen:

• Death. While being Defeated does not remove you from the Combat Encounter, if your Character dies in a Combat Encounter then they are no longer part of the Combat Encounter.
• Escape. By leaving the Battlefield (see — Battlefield) or by normal means of escape (see — Hide and Seek), a single Character may flee a Combat Encounter. If a Character flees from a Combat Encounter, they cannot re-enter that Combat Encounter unless they are spotted (see — Hide and Seek).
• Surrender. At the start of their turn, a Character may attempt to Surrender. If all of their Opponents accept their Surrender, they are successful. A Character who successfully Surrenders is considered to have been Defeated for all of their Opponents’ effects and is removed from the Combat Encounter (allowing them to immediately flee the Battlefield).

At the end of a Combat Encounter. When a Combat Encounter ends, all effects triggered during that Combat Encounter (except effects that choose something upon gaining access to a Transformation) immediately end and all Resources (see — Traits) are lost. After ending a Combat Encounter, all involved Characters benefit from Instant Recovery (see — Damage & Recovery) and, at this point, your ARC may say that you’ve gained a Power Level, representing your growth as a result of that Combat Encounter. This isn’t a guarantee, and it is ultimately up to the ARC to decide when it seems like you’ve fought hard enough and often enough to deserve an increase in Power Level (for newer ARCs out there: it’s recommended that you space out any increases in Power Level and keep them infrequent to properly give players time at each different Power Level, and to not rush the growth of strength in your story – not every battle needs to come with its own rewards).