Combat Quick Reference

One page of everything you have to react to in the moment. It is a condensation of the Core Rules and Etiquette & Safety, not a replacement — when a call is genuinely in dispute, the full text wins. Print it, fold it, put it in a pouch.

Safety and out-of-game calls

These override everything. Learn these before you learn a single effect.

Call	What happens
Emergency	A real medical problem. Play stops everywhere. Everyone who hears it drops to a knee. Whoever called it leads or names a leader, then gets help.
Caution	Something could hurt someone — a fall, a hazard, a person on the ground. Only those nearby pause, no more than 10 seconds, while it clears.
Clarification	“What just hit me?” Those directly involved pause up to 3 seconds for a verbal to be repeated. Meant for new players, and that is fine.
Let Me Clarify	Plot-approved NPCs only. Whatever follows is true information about how an encounter works, no matter how untrustworthy the character saying it.
The Lookdown	Flat hand above the eyes, gaze lowered, walk out of the scene. No reason owed, no questions asked, nobody follows. Usable any time for any reason.
OK Check-In	Two fingers to your own opposite shoulder, at chest height, with eye contact: “are you okay?” Answer with thumbs up (continue), flat wavy hand (ease up), or thumbs down (not okay).

No physical contact between players. Boffer weapons to legal target areas and a packet touched to an arm or shoulder are the exceptions.

How a call works

A verbal is [Effect] by [Trait] — “Paralyze by Poison”, “5 Damage by Fire”. Effects with no trait are assumed to be “by Weapon”.

Melee: call it as you swing.
Packet or missile: finish the entire verbal before the packet leaves your hand. An incantation, if the skill has one, comes before the verbal.
You must call your verbal even under Silence. Verbals are out-of-game.
Acknowledge every hit with role play. Many skills are only spent if you react — if you do not, the attacker may reasonably assume they missed.
If you hear a verbal, your character knows what happened. Never play dumb.
Special and Bane attacks get no reaction flourish; take them immediately. So does anything that genuinely surprises you from behind.

When you go down

Situation	What happens
Vitality hits 0	You collapse, unconscious. Eyes closed, no moving, no speaking.
Stable — taken down by uncalled melee or missile hits	Out 5 minutes, then you wake with 1 Vitality.
Unstable — taken down by anything called: packets, traps, firearms, called melee or missile	You have 1 minute, then you die.
Stabilize	Unstable becomes stable; start the 5 minute count. First Aid suspends the death count while it is being applied.
Any healing above 0 Vitality	You wake up.
Death Strike	Weapon touched to the torso of a helpless, unmoving target while saying “death strike one, death strike two, death strike three” at a normal speaking pace. No weapon skill needed. Interrupt it by striking the attacker or their weapon.
Dead	5 minutes as a body, then you rise as a spirit and walk to the Death area — head bowed, hands at your sides, answering “Spirit” to anything.

You are always in game, even unconscious or dead. You still hear, smell, and feel everything, and you may use it. If combat comes dangerously close while you are down, open your eyes for safety and keep what you see out of game.

Effects, by how long they last

Until you rest 5 minutes

Most of the game lives here. Sit, kneel, or lie down where it is obvious, and one rest clears all of them at once.

Effect	What you do
Drain	No running, no game skills at all. If a skill or header is named, only that is suppressed.
Paralyze	Frozen in place, aware. You collapse if knocked out or moved. You are resting even standing up.
Repel	You cannot attack the source and must try to stay 10 feet away. Ends early if they hit you with something that is not Repel.
Root	Right foot is planted. Pivot on it, move the other foot.
Silence	No talking, no in-game noise, no incantations. You still call verbals and still cry out for Expose.
Slow	No running. Walking pace only.
Stricken	No beneficial effect works on you. Call “No Effect” to them. First Aid’s Stabilize is the one exception.
Stun	Unconscious. Another character can spend a full minute of role play to revive you.
Weakness	Your melee attacks can no longer deliver called effects. Uncalled strikes are unaffected.

Fixed duration

Effect	What you do
Agony	10 seconds. Wracked with pain — no attacking, no most skills. You may run, block, and call defenses.
Frenzy	Attack the nearest creature regardless of who it is. Ends when you go unconscious or die.
Slam	Up to three steps back and fall; ends when your back or chest lands. If falling is unsafe, take the steps, drop to a knee, both palms down, shake your head 3 seconds. “Shield Slam” works through a shield.
Disengage	Everyone attacking you, plus anyone you gesture at, backs out of weapon reach. Ends once the space clears. Not a melee attack, so melee defenses do not stop it.
Disarm	Drop everything in the named hand; pick it up once it stops moving. Fragile props may be set down instead, but stay down 5 seconds. Shields only with “Disarm Shield”.
Speak	Lets you converse with something that otherwise cannot talk to you. Ends when either of you uses a skill or walks off.

Lasts the event

Effect	What you do
Maim	One limb is useless. An arm hangs at your side; a leg puts you on one knee — no hopping, but you may crawl. Melee and missile maim the limb struck, and are ignored on the torso. Packets may name the limb, otherwise you choose. Arms and legs only.
Imbue / Inflict	Either grants a named trait for the event, or hands you an effect card. The card is the rule. It does not take hold until you read it — and if you are down or dead, read it immediately.

Instant

Effect	What you do
Damage	Removes Vitality. Cannot be dispelled or cured, only healed back.
Death	You die outright. Only a Death effect does this.
Destroy	An item is unusable until Repaired. Melee “Destroy” hits the weapon it strikes; “Destroy Shield” and “Destroy Armor” are their own calls. Untagged clothing and pouches cannot be Destroyed.
Waste	Costs you uses of a named skill or points of a named attribute. “Waste Vitality” ignores armor.
Expose	Followed by a trait. If you have it, cry out — as loudly as it was called — even unconscious, silenced, stunned, or paralyzed.
Diagnose	Packet touch plus “Diagnose [thing]”. Answer “Yes” or “No” honestly. Cannot read Imbue or Inflict.

Beneficial

You may always say “Refuse” to a beneficial effect you do not want.

Effect	What it does
Heal	Restores Vitality; wakes you if you were at 0.
Cure / Remove	Ends one matching effect — you pick which, if several qualify. “All” ends every matching one. Never restores Vitality, and does not touch Imbue or Inflict unless the card says so.
Stabilize	Unstable to stable. Otherwise “No Effect”.
Refresh	Restores uses of a named skill or points of a named attribute, never above your event maximum.
Repair	Restores one Destroyed item, or armor points — “Repair Armor”, “Repair 3 Armor”, “Repair All Armor”.
Grant	Gives you a one-off ability: armor, an attribute, protection, a defense, or an attack. Max 3 at a time, no duplicate types, only one attack-type Grant.

Defenses

You pick which defense to use when more than one applies.

Call	How it works
Elude / Guard / Shield	Negates the first attack of that type that hits you. Not optional — if it applies, it fires.
Avoid / Parry / Resist	You choose which attack to negate. You may take one hit and save it for a later one.
Purge	Negates an effect after it landed. 3 seconds of relatively still role play, no skills during it. Not usable while dead unless the skill says “Purge Death”.
No Effect	It does not affect you and never will. Not consumable.
Reduce / Absorb	Mitigated or changed — “Reduce to Maim”, “Absorb to Heal 2”. Role play the new effect.
Increased	Not a defense. It hit you harder than normal, for better or worse.
Reflect	Bounces one attack back at the attacker, traits intact. They may defend against it, including reflecting it back.
Spirit	Insubstantial. Almost nothing affects you, you cannot speak or use skills, nobody can search you or take your things, and you cannot block a doorway.

Chained defense: defense plus an immediate effect, joined by “and” — “Resist and Heal to Self”, “Purge and 2 Damage to Self”, “Parry and 3 Damage”.

Armor

Armor points come off before Vitality. Only one base armor type is active at a time — activate a second and whichever has fewer points is exhausted, and exhausted points must be restored, not just re-worn.

Traits

The second half of the verbal. What matters in the moment is which family it belongs to, because defenses key off families.

Family	Traits
Elemental	Air, Cold, Earth, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind
Mental	Awe, Confusion, Despair, Fear, Gloom, Inspiration, Madness, Presence, Trance, Will
Metabolic	Aging, Air, Cold, Disease, Poison, Radiation, Sleep
Physical	Crystal, Earth, Force, Ice, Silver, Thorns, Weapon, Web, Wind
Special	Everything else — Acid, Blessing, Curse, Light, Magic, Malediction, Shadow. Only abilities that name them specifically will stop them.

Bane targets one trait only: “10 Damage to Undead” affects nothing without the Undead trait. Say “to”, not “by”. Lose the trait and the effect ends.

Self means the caller is the only target: “Heal 2 to Self”.

Verbal modifiers

Only one modifier per attack.

Modifier	Effect
Short	An effect that lasts until rest or all event instead ends after 10 seconds of rest. Frenzy just lasts 10 seconds.
Permanent	Lasts at least the rest of the event and cannot be rested off — but Cure still works. Report it to plot at the end of the event.
Ambient	The effect comes from the environment or plot, not the creature saying it. Silencing or paralyzing the speaker will not stop it.
Double / Triple	Two or three copies of the same attack from one delivery. Each needs its own defense.

Chained effects: two effects in one attack, joined by “and” — “Drain and Slow by Poison”. A defense against one part stops only that part; a defense against the shared trait stops all of it.