Dancer Rules: Combat

Game rules

Checking on the Coriolis Discord, I read that the publishers are OK with players recreating tables, figures and data from the RPG source material where the only purpose is the facilitation of playing their game and I hereby promise this is my only intent with this article. Here I've taken the Year Zero Engine to modify the Coriolis rules for my own games - Doctor Weather

Oveall aim for combat: fewer dice rolls and fewer side rules to remember
To see what guiding principles are for my rules changes, please see the Dancer Rules overview.

Armour, cover and shields

IN DEVELOPMENT
Critical injury
Your weapon must do it's full base damage or more before you can buy a critical injury with successes. If armour, cover or a shield reduces the damage of your weapon then you need to spend extra successes to increase the damage back to at least its full base damage before you can spend further successes on critical injuries.
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Armour

Animate - armour feature: subtracts 1 from the number of successes rolled by the attacker
An active defence used by Martyr armour that actively intercepts incoming attacks.
Damage reduction: subtracts from the weapon's total damage dealt
A passive defence where the energy of the attack is reduced by having to go through material or deflected somewhat away from the target.
Ranged-weak - armour feature: representing a weakness in some armours
Armour provides 1 less DR against ranged attacks.

ARMOUR	Damage reduction	Features	Extra features	Tech tier
Light primitive	1	Bulky, Ranged-weak	0	P
Heavy primitive	2	Bulky, Heavy, Ranged-weak	0	P
Flight suit	0	-	0	O
Protective clothing	1	Ranged-weak	0	O
Light armour	1	-	0	O
Heavy armour	2	Heavy	0	O
Exo	1	Bulky, Thermostatic suit, Vacuum suit, Oxygen supply	0	O
Reinforced exo	1	Bulky, Thermostatic suit, Vacuum suit, Oxygen supply	2	O
Armoured exo	2	Thermostatic suit, Vacuum suit, Oxygen supply, Reinforced exo servos	2	A*
Battle exo	2	Thermostatic suit, Vacuum suit, Oxygen supply, Reinforced exo servos	5	A*
Martyr's animate armour	3	Animate, Thermostatic suit, Vacuum suit, Oxygen supply, Reinforced exo servos	3	F

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Cover

Ranged defence only
Cover provides no active defence like a shield can.
Obscures vision of, or access to, the target - giving an attack penalty

Just your legs or one side covered	-1
A good half of your body covered	-2
Leaning just one side of your body out for a look or a shot	-3
Complete, hard cover	The shot is not possible

Coming out of cover for an attack may reduce the penalty your attacker gets
If you spend time coming out of cover to attack then the GM could reduce the penalty to attack you. For example, 'I hide behind the bulk head' is infinite protection but if you add 'I pop out for a quick shot' it’s -3; for a normal shot -2; for an aimed shot -1.
Cover also provides equivalent of armour ratings
The value depending on the hardness of the material. Your cover's equivalent armour rating stacks with any armour you are wearing, giving a single total to use.
Examples

	ATTACK PENALTY	EQUIVALENT ARMOUR
A full-length curtain that you can see through just a little in bright light	-3	0
Ducked behind a chair on the bridge of your ship	-2	1
A raised flowerbed but at least one made of stone	-1	2

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Shields

A choice of defence
Shield users must choose between actively defending or hiding behind their shield.

SHIELDS	ACTIVE DEFENCE Bonus to melee roll	COVER	Features		Tech tier
Shield	+2	Attack penalty -1 Equivalent armour 1	Heavy		P
Riot shield	+3	Attack penalty -2 Equivalent armour 1	Heavy		O
Combat shield	+3	Attack penalty -2 Equivalent armour 2	Heavy		O

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Armour piercing

Ignores damage resistance (DR) of armour and cover
Every point of armour piercing allows you to ignore that much DR from your target's combined armour and cover DR.

WEAPON	AP VALUE
Accelerator carbine	1
Accelerator machine gun	1
Accelerator rifle	1
Accelerator rifle Nestera Parox	2
(Accelerator) Twin carbine	1
Al Sharaf blade	2
(Armour piercing) Missile system	2
Thermal rifle	1

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Autofire

IN DEVELOPMENT
Aims: simulate the threat of a hail of bullets; atacks can put a lot bullets in the air at the cost of reducing accuracy on individual targets (that single-shot is designed to be better at clarifying the benefits of autofire vs. 3 quick shots to make it a proper tactical choice
Attacking open targets
Attack at -2 but +1 damage. You can attack multiple targets but each subsequent target is at a further -1 die. Damage can be spent on physical or stress but armour counts for both.
Suppressing an area
Potential targets in the area suffer 1 stress per turn of suppression. If someone enters the area or comes out of cover for an attack then you count as on overwatch (your attack precedes their action). Such attack rolls are as for open targets but you don’t get the +1 damage.
Running out of ammo
Weapons can autofire for a narrative period before running out of ammo. This can still be affected by DP spends, though with heavier weapons a gun jam might be considered as more appropriate, based on circumstance.

WEAPON FEATURE	WEAPONS HAVING THIS FEATURE	OUT OF AMMO RULES
Autofire - S	Pistols	Reload after 3 rounds of combat or DP spend
Autofire - M	Carbine, rifle, grape	Reload after 8 rounds of combat or DP spend
Autofire - L	Heavy weapon	Only runs out of ammo within an encounter through a DP spend; otherwise only runs out of ammo as a plot point covering an extended period of time

Soldiers resist the stress better than school teachers with high Mind Points
Professional soldiers can buy a talent that allows them to take less stress damage from bullet fire through experience, maybe -2 stress, minimum 1. Martyrs could have access to a second talent to make this even better, as they’re by definition not afraid to die.
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Critical injuries

Removing the instant death on critical injury
Being more of a narrative game, I'd rather no character died in Coriolis on a single, lucky dice roll. Yes, they can still die from a serious injury but I want a chance of another PC bringing medical attention over. Moreover, a few rounds to live adds more tension than a simple death perhaps.

d66	Injury	Fatal?	Time limit	Effect	Heal time
65	Crushed chest	Yes -2	d6 minutes	Unconscious until healed During recovery -2 strength and -2 agility	4d6
66	Head trauma	Yes -2	d6 minutes	Unconscious until healed During recovery -1 wits, -1 empathy and -2 agility	4d6

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Grappling

Damage an opponent in a pin (unchanged)
Normal action: unarmed melee roll +2, no defence possible.
Break out of a pin (changed)
Normal action: opposed melee or force roll.
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Initiative

Extra aim: to make sure combat characters more reliably go first
Action order runs highest to lowest Dexterity
Ties are resolved by rolling Dexterity and acting in the order of most successes, then most fives, then most fours and so on.
Combat Veteran grants +2 and you always win ties against someone without it
Combat Veteran grants a +2 to the Dexterity stat comparison and to any roll off to break a tie. Anyone with Combat Veteran also automatically wins ties against someone without it, without having to roll.
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Quick shots

3 quick shots no longer make you run out of ammo
It's just something else to remember and the rules for autofire above now serve to differentiate the two attack choices instead.
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Success spends

First success can be spent on a manoeuvre
When attacing, you don't have to spend your first success on doing damage. (I found that when people only get one success it's a little disappointing to not be able to do something interesting or useful.)
Expanded list of options for successes
And I'll keep adding to this as my players get more and more creative.

EFFECT	DAMAGE INCREASE - attack, melee and ranged	COST	MULTI-BUY?
Increase damage	+1	1	Y
Critical injury, attacker spend	Roll on table Your attack must do at least its weapon's base damage before you can buy this	Weapon stat	N
Critical injury reroll	Reroll and take the best	1	Y
	COUNTER - defender, melee
Decrease damage	-1	1	Y
Counter attack	Deal damage; can't increase damamge but allows critical	1	N
Critical injury, defender spend	Roll on table Your counterattack must do at least its weapon's base damage before you can buy this	Weapon stat +1	N
	MANOEUVRES - attack and defend, melee and ranged
Disarm	Disarm	1	Y
Intimidate	1 stress	1	Y
Raise initiative	+2 initiative	1	Y
	MANOEUVRES - attack and defend, melee
Grapple	Opponent can't act until they break the grapple	1	N
Knock back	Pushed away, further spends increase the distance	1	Y
Knock down	Knock prone	1	Y

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Main: Dancer Rules overview

Contents

• Armour, cover and shields
• Armour
• Cover
• Shields
• Armour piercing
• Autofire
• Critical injuries
• Grappling
• Initiative
• Quick shots
• Success spends

Related

• Combat rules reference
• Dancer Rules overview
• Dancer rules: Character development
• Dancer rules: Gear and equipment
• Dancer rules: Portal jumps without stasis
• Dancer rules: Praying to the Icons
• Dancer rules: Skills
• GM style overview
• House rules summary