In Rivers of Sartar, the secondstep of tactical gameplay is calculating Strike Ranks. This takes a combat and splits it into a sequence of opposed rolls.

Continuing on from the previous entry , we have split off an engagement within the overall combat where one PC is fighting two broo. To keep things simple, an engagement always involve either a single PC and one or more opponents, or a single opponent and several PCs. So a 2 on 2 fight should be split into two 1 on 1 fights. In this case,it turns out that the PC's strike rank (5) is lower than that of either broo (6), so they attack before they defend. If it was instead higher, they would need to defend before they attacked.

This is all there is too it. As each engagment is independant, you process it fully, then move onto the next. This means that combat can scale to a rather larger number of players without becoming bogged down. Running a combat for 6, 8, or more players only takes proportionately longer; there is no bouncing between players trying to sequence things exactly, or calculating numbers that must be recorded to be used later.

Rules as Written

See this entry.

Choosing actions

PCs select their actions when it is their tuirn to act. The three types of action are attack, defend and move; they may do all three. Or they may choose to take any one type of action twice; attack twice, defend in two different ways, or move twice as far. Each attack action normally targets one the combatants they are engaged with, each defence action provides a defence against all of them.

In addition, they may choose to either cast a fast spell before their main attack, or a prepared spell after it. 

A slow action (casting ritual spells, using most skills, or reloading heavy missile weapons) takes the whole combat round during which nothing else can be done.

Calculating Strike Ranks for Attacks

The procedure for calculating strike ranks is the same as that of RQ:G, allowing, as always for RoS, the same character sheets and NPC stat blocks, to be used. 

The difference is that only attacks (i.e. strikes) have a strike rank. If a combatant is not attacking, physically or with magic, they don't have a strike rank. If they attack multiple times, their strike rank is that of the first attack; any subsequent attacks happen after defending.

Fast magic attacks go off on SR1, focused ones on DEX SR +1 per MP spent after the first.

As in RQ:G, being surprised adds 3 to the SR value, drawing a set of weapons or a spell focus adds 5, donning armor, including unslinging a shield strapped to your back, is slow.  Any spell (e.g. Coordination) that is stated as modifying a combatant's SR value does so.

There is no limit to how high a strike rank can be. If some magic causes a PC to have a SR of 13 or more, that is their SR value.

Spell Speed category by Spell Type

Rune magics with no MP spent on boosting or powering them are fast.

Spirit magic spells for which a focus has been defined and is in hand are prepared. Creating a focus always fixes the MP used, normally to a value of 6 or less. More powerful focuses require specialst magical crafting skills to create.

Some Western sorcerors may know a sorcery technique that causes a specific sorcery spell, manipulated in a fixed way, to be treated as prepared. This technique is not taught by Lhankhor Mhy. The Lunar military may teach a corresponding technique for Lunar sorcery.

All other spells are coubnted as rituals. Note that this includes Rune Magic that is powered or boosted by MP (notably Sword Trance  and Heal Wounds). and spirit magic that is artificially strengthened to punch through magical protection, or provide resistance to dispelling. These are typically cast outside, or at least before, combat. But when they are, the ritual takes MP/12 full combat rounds of slow actions to complete, with a minimum of 1. Additional combat rounds may be spent to boost the chance of successfully completing the ritaul as per the RQ:G ritual magic rules. A completed ritual counts as a fast spell 

Example: a Humakit puts 8 MP into the Rune magic spell Sword Trance, making it a ritual. It takes 1 round of concentration to complete. The next round, they attack with their sword, casting the trance first and so benifiting from its bonus on that and subsequent attacks.

Movement during combat

Movement happens during combat, normally in parallel with attacking and defending. Each movement action taken allows a combatant to move up to 3x their MOV rating in meters.

If the distance to be travelled to make a melee attack is up to 3M per SR, the attack is not delayed. If it is more than that, but within the range the combatant can move, the melee attack SR becomes distance/3.

There is no limit to high a MOV value can be; combatants with a high MOV values may simply move further per round. Note that maneurvering and reacting quickly during combat is represented by DEX, which is tied into SRs, rather than MOV.

This means that a combatant with a superhuman MOV of 40 can travel 120m. and then attack. They simply do so at SR 40. making them very unlikely to go first.

Note that some types of wepaon will require an appropriate skill roll to be used while moving; see later entries.