Let's talk about personal combat: That's people hurting people.

The scale in personal combat is counted down to the meter -- if a map is used, it is preferable to use hexes. One turn represent six seconds. Weapons have a base range in meters, and the way we compute various ranges for almost all weapons is like this:

Ranges	Short	Medium	Long	Extreme
Computation	Base	Base * 2	Base * 4	Base * 8
Penalty	0	-1	-2	-3
Example	5	10	20	40

Naturally, this is for projectile weapons. But, let us proceed to the combat sequence. Let us suppose that this is not an ambush situation, and the two opponents see each other simultaneously. Now things happen in this order:

Step	Actions to Take
1	Declarations, Initiative -- Check Combat Sense
2	Resolve Movement Actions
3	Take Care of Miscellaneous Events

Now, what does each step mean?

The Steps - Broken Out

Step 1: Roll Combat Sense. The person with the highest score gains the initiative, and it is that person who decides who goes first. If a person fumbles (ie. Rolls zero) the Combat Sense roll, they can try to dodge attacks, but cannot take any actions – make up a good reason, like being stunned at seeing a gun pointed at them, being distracted by a flash or glint and so on. What about declarations? A couple important things: A player can declare that the are going completely defensive which grants them a +2 to dodge, but consumes all their actions. They're just too busy dodging to do anything else. Also this is the time to declare wether a character is taking multiple actions or not ... this CANNOT be done after taking actions. Each extra action imposes a -1 to all actions in that round.

Step 2: Resolve Actions, and Movement. Actions can be anything from picking things up, preparing a system or planting explosives and taking cover to reading the newspaper or taking time to aim. Apply damage as it happens.

Step 3: This is where all sorts of wacky stuff happens, like the arrival or artillery, nuclear warheads, and errr ... right.

Now, how do we actually do combat? Simple. This is nearly the same for ranged and hand to hand or melee weapons, but since there are differences, let us examine all three.

First, determine the range between the opponents. This way you know which range modifier to apply to the attacker's roll. When the attack is executed, the attacker rolls his small arms skill (or heavy weapons if you're that sort of person ... ahem) and adds all of the relevant modifiers to the roll, such as weapon accuracy, his movement, and the range penalty, and obscurement if any. The defender then rolls dodge and adds his or her modifiers, those being defender's movement, possible declaration of defense from step 1, and any available cover.

If the attack hits (Attacker's total greater than defender's total), figure and apply the damage for the appropriate weapon type. From this you know if the defender has taken a flesh or deep wound – flesh wounds give a -1 to all actions (deep brusing, shallow cuts/penetration, distracting pain) and deep wounds give a -2 (severely broken bones, damaged vitals, severe bleeding). One must roll a health roll modified by the total action penalties incurred from the wounds to remain conscious – you just have to beat a 1. This means, roll your health, then subtract 1*flesh wounds and subtract 2*deep wounds and hopefully you have a 1 or better. Otherwise the character loses consciousness for a number or rounds equal to the roll of a die. If the total wound penalties equal a character's system shock, that character automatically falls unconscious and needs immediate medical attention to survive. If the wounding penalties exceed the character's system shock score, the character will die.

How Much Damage?

Ranged Combat: Every ranged weapon is given a damage rating in the form of a number. Multiply the difference between the attacker and defender's totals by the damage rating of the weapon to find out how much damage is applied to the target.

For Melee weapons: Use them the same way as ranged, but obviously do not apply a range penalty. The attacker checks the melee skill, while the defender can check melee to parry/block or dodge to dodge the attack, but not both. Damage is equal to your AD score plus the weapon's damage times the difference between the attacker's total and defender's total, assuming the attack was successful.

For Hand to Hand Combat: Same as Melee, though damage comes only from your UD score and you may obviously not use any weapons.

Special Situations

How do ambushes work?

The attacker rolls stealth of small arms (or whichever offensive skill he/she wishes to use) or stealth, taking the lowest of the two, vs 1+defender's movement/cover modifiers, but the defender does not get a dodge.

Is sniping an ambush?

It can be -- and sniping from far away doesn't require you to use stealth either if you haven't been spotted. Just the sniping skill.

A Few Useful Tables

Attacker's Modifiers
Range	Attacker Movement	Intoxication	Lighting	Aiming	Weapon Accuracy
Point Blank (<= 3m): +1 Short: +0 Medium: -1 Long: -2 Extreme: -3	Stationary: 0 Walking: -1 Jogging: -2 Running: -3	Mild: -1 Moderate: -2 Heavy: -3	Poor: -1 Very Poor: -2 Barely: -3 No Light: -4	Per Round: +1 Called Shot: -2 CS To Head: -3 CS while Sniping: -0 CS Sniping, To Head: -1	Varies with weapon

Defender's Modifiers
Movement	Cover	Intoxication
Stationary: -1 Walking: 0 Jogging: +1 Running: +2 Dodging (Cumulative): +2	Under Light Cover: +1 Completely Hidden by Light Cover: +2 Under Heavy Cover: +3 Completely Hidden by Heavy Cover: Automatic Success	Mild: -1 Moderate: -2 Heavy: -3

Speed	Formula
Sprinting Running Jogging Walking	25 + 5*( FIT + Athletics Skill ) 2/3 Sprinting 1/2 Sprinting 1/3 Sprinting