RogerBW's Blog: Genesys Core Rulebook (part 3, combat and other tasks)

You now have a character. Now let's break it.

Combat… starts with a distinction between "narrative" and "structured" gameplay. I think this is aimed at people coming from D&D: it's the idea that much of the time you don't need to be tracking people's specific actions moment by moment; sometimes you can just talk about what's happening, and only when the details matter do you move to initiative order and precision. (And there's no support here for tactical maps and measured movement.) In other words, the sort of thing most gamers I know tend to do anyway…

That initiative order is odd in itself. Everyone involved in a fight makes a roll against their Cool (if they were expecting trouble) or Vigilance (if they're surprised); all these rolls are sorted into order based on the quality of that result, but they aren't the order in which those specific characters will act. Rather, they're slots for either any PC or any NPC; when a player slot comes up, the players decide among themselves which PC will act in it (though you still only get one action per character per round).

Within a character's turn, they can do three sorts of thing: Incidentals, which are unlimited but generally minor in effect (dropping a held item, speaking); Manoeuvres, generally one per turn (though you can get another with help from your allies, by taking strain, or by forgoing your Action), and by definition not requiring a die roll (moving, aiming, diving behind cover); and Actions, one per turn, which do require a die roll (shooting, picking a lock, doing first aid). The order of these within the turn is up to the player. This sort of formalism is probably familiar to modern D&D/Pathfinder players.

This structure makes many complicated things simple. Aim and shoot? Add one Boost die to your attack roll, but that's not an option if you wanted to spend your manoeuvre on getting into cover before shooting (which would give the enemy a Setback die to hit you), or on drawing your weapon. Movement is in range bands (engaged, short, medium, long, extreme) with the longest being "outside shouting distance", so distances can matter without needing a map to show who's where. Smoke, cover, high gravity, and so on add Setback dice to whatever's being done.

Actual attacks use the universal resolution mechanic; each Success after the first adds a point of damage to the weapon's fixed value, and if you get enough Advantage you can also roll a Critical Hit. Unhealed criticals, even if the immediate effect has worn off, are how you can actually die rather than just losing consciousness. Some complicated weapons can use Advantages to activate special powers (such as Sunder, to break the target's gear).

Social encounters work basically like combat (I think I saw this approach first in Lace & Steel), although much of the time they can just be treated narratively (which is what I've been doing so far in my own games) with an opposed roll. The more formal approach might be used during a complex negotiation, in which each side is building up Strain (mental fatigue) until one or the other hits their threshold and concedes. To make this more interesting, you can use actions to attempt to determine your opposition's Motivations (desire, fear, strength and flaw), and then try to slant what you say to take advantage of them; I like the idea, but I haven't felt a need for it yet.

(to be continued)

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