Hit Dice
Combatants have a pool of d6s called Hit Dice (HD). These dice serve
as both your health track and your resource for attacking and
defending. On their turn, combatants may spend dice on one or more
attacks, as they wish. Targets spend dice to defend or counterattack.
Damage directly reduces Hit Dice. Spent dice refresh at the start of
your next turn. Dice lost to damage require healing to recover.
Initiative and the First Turn
Both sides roll 1d6 for initiative (reroll ties).
-
Winner: Takes the first turn with all Hit Dice
available.
-
Loser: Starts on the defensive with only half their
Hit Dice (round up) available until their first turn.
The Turn
On your turn as the Attacker:
-
Refresh: Recover dice spent since your last
refresh.
-
Exchanges: Engage a target in an exchange of blows.
You may keep attacking as long as you have dice available.
-
End: Your turn ends when you
take damage, decide to stop, or
run out of dice.
The Exchange
Every exchange follows this sequence:
-
Commitment: The Attacker declares how many dice
they will commit. The Defender then does the same.
-
Maneuver Selection: The Attacker secretly selects
their maneuver (Attack, Feint or
Dodge) as the Defender secretly selects theirs
(Parry, Counter or
Dodge).
-
Reveal: Combatants simultaneously reveal their
maneuvers.
-
Resolve: Roll dice, count successes, compare
results, and apply damage.
Maneuvers
Any die rolling a 5 or 6 counts as a success.
Attacker Maneuvers
-
Simple Attack: Roll your committed dice to deal
damage equal to your successes. Against a counter,
your damage lands first.
-
Feint: Your initial commit was a decoy. Move those
dice to spent and launch a follow-up attack from your reserve dice.
-
Dodge: Abort your attack (moving your committed
dice to spent) and roll from your reserve dice to evade. If you roll
at least 1 success, you take no damage at all. This is useful
against a powerful counter. If the defender parried
or dodged, you don't need to make a follow up roll.
Defender Maneuvers
-
Parry: Roll your committed dice to block or divert
the blow. Each success cancels two attacker
successes. Against a feint, your parry whiffs
unsuccessfully (move the dice to spent without rolling).
-
Counter: Launch an attack into the attacker. If
they feinted, you attack with your committed dice
and your damage lands before their follow-up.
- Dodge: Same as the Attacker version.
Damage
Damage dealt = Successes + Weapon Bonus − Armor Bonus. You must have
at least 1 success to deal damage.
When you take damage, remove dice in this order:
- Committed (Dice currently in the exchange).
-
Reserve (Dice you have left to use this round).
- Spent (Dice already used this round).
Defeat: Once your total Hit Dice hits zero, you are
defeated.