DEATH MUNCHKIN! Table of Contents & Legal Notices

16. Action Resolution and Combat

Last updated 5-April-2002

Table of Contents


16.1: There is no such thing as an "Opposed Action" in the usual sense that the standard FUDGE rules use the term.

All Action Rolls — most of which will be Skill Rolls but a few of which will be other things like Perception Rolls — are considered "Unopposed."  This was done to cut the number of separate dice rolls in half so that you're not rolling dice all day.

This is not to say that the Difficulty Level of making an Action Roll doesn't take an unwilling target into account.

16.1.1: The Difficulty Level of an Action Roll against an unwilling target is based on an Attribute Level or Skill Level the target posesses.

For example, if you wanted to hit a man-sized creature with your club, you would make a Specific Melee Weapon (Club) Skill roll at a Difficulty Level equal to your target's Agility Attribute.  If you wanted to seduce somebody, you would make a Seduction Skill roll at a Difficulty Level equal to your target's Willpower.

16.1.2: The Difficulty Level of an Action Roll that "opposes" an action already in progress is based on the other action's previous Action Roll.

While Opposed Actions in the traditional FUDGE sense are not used in Death Munchkin!, there are some circumstances where the success of one Action Roll logically depends on how well a previous Action Roll succeeded.  For example, a Disguise Skill roll is normally only made once, when the Disguise is first put on, but people may be looking at the Disguised person several minutes or even hours later.  In such a circumstance, the Difficulty Level of the passerbys' Perception Rolls (to see through the Disguise) is equal to rolled degree of the Disguised person's most recent Disguise Skill Roll.

16.2: The Alternating Combat Turns rules from FUDGE section 4.23 are used.

Combat is not simultaneous.  Each participant acts independently, at separate times on separate turns.  The outcome of one turn may affect the next; if you cut an orc in half with your greatsword, the orc cannot counterattack even if it hadn't gotten its turn yet.

As described in section 16.1, melee combat does not use Opposed Actions.  Instead, a melee attack requires an Action Roll at a Difficulty Level usually equal to the target's Agility Attribute.

16.2.1: Initiative is determined by relative Agility Rolls.

At the start of combat, each participant makes an Agility Roll.  The rolled degree of each Agility Roll serves as that participant's Initiative Level for the remainder of combat.  All participants then take turns through each round in order from highest Initiative Level to lowest.

16.2.2: Some characters act so quickly, they can take more than one turn per round.

The rule for this will be decided upon later.  No munchkin RPG is complete if it doesn't allow PCs to make multiple attacks per round.

If, for whatever reason, a character is allowed to take more than one turn in a round, his Running Speed will be divided in half during each turn for purposes of determining how much ground he can cover, and his Initiative Level on each subsequent turn within the round will be 3 levels lower than his rolled Initiative Level.

16.2.3: Some defensive actions can be taken out-of-turn.

If your combat turn has not yet arrived on a given round, you may forfeit your upcoming turn in exchange for taking a Defensive Action Out-Of-Turn.  The Defensive Actions you may make out-of-turn are: The effects of these actions take place immediately.  However, you may only take a Defensive Action Out-Of-Turn if you are aware of an attack being made against you, and your decision to take a Defensive Action Out-Of-Turn must be made before the attack is rolled.

16.3: Whenever you are attacked, you have a Difficulty To Be Hit (DTBH) against that attack.

Your DTBH is the Difficulty Level for the attack to succeed.  It can vary according to the circumstances.

16.3.1: Your base DTBH is as follows:

16.3.2: Circumstances can modify your DTBH.

CircumstanceDTBH modifier
You're grabbing someone-2
Attacker made a half move this turn+1
You can't see/pinpoint attacker-2
You're in combat, but not aware of attack-2
Attacker is 10 meters away+1
Attacker is even farther away+1 per 2x distance
Attack made with the off-hand+1
Negative modifiers to DTBH are applied first.  No negative modifier can bring your DTBH below Terrible.

16.3.3: Here is an example of combat.

On your combat turn, you elect to attack an orc (which you are standind right next to) with your two-handed sword.  You have a Two-Handed Sword Skill Level of Good.  The orc you are attacking is not particularly plucky, and only has an Agility Attribute of Mediocre.  However, the orc, realizing its plight, decides to perform a Defensive Action Out-Of-Turn, and dodges.  The GM, who controls the orc, rolls really well — the orc's Rolled Degree for its Dodge skill is Great.  This means that for the remainder of this round, and until the orc's combat turn comes up again next round, the orc has a base DTBH of Great.

No other modifiers apply in this circumstance, so the orc's DTBH against being hit by your two-handed sword, and thus the Difficulty of hitting the orc with your two-handed sword, is Great.  This means that in order to hit the orc with your two-handed sword, you must now obtain at least a Rolled Degree of Great on your Two-Handed Sword Skill.  You roll 4dF, which come up two (+)'s, one (–), and one blank on the FUDGE dice.  This totals a net result of +1.  Your Two-Handed Sword Skill is Good, and the +1 means your Action Roll has a rolled degree of Great.  Since the Difficulty Level of your Skill Roll was also Great, you just succeeded in hitting the orc.

Now that your attack has succeeded, the GM must determine how badly the orc was hurt by it.  Your Strength Attribute is Fair, which is an ODF of 0, but a two-handed sword adds +3 to your ODF from the fact that it's a large two-handed weapon, and an additional +1 to your ODF from Sharpness.  The orc's natural Damage Capacity is Fair, which is a DDF of 0, but this orc happens to be wearing chain mail armor.  Chain mail is +2 to DDF, which brings the orc's DDF up to 2.  In addition, chain mail gives its wearer the equivalent of the Sharpness-Proof Hide Gift, so your sword's sharpness bonus is negated.  The ODF of your attack is thus 0 (for Strength Fair) + 3 (for two-handed sword without sharpness bonus) = 3.  Subtracting your ODF of 3 from the orc's DDF of 2 yields a net Damage Factor of 1.

Normally, this Damage Factor of 1 would be looked up in the first table of Section 4.55 of the FUDGE rules.  However, since your attack just barely hit, it is considered a graze, and its effect must instead be looked up on the table in Section 4.56 of the FUDGE rules.  This table reveals that, for any grazing wound with a net Damage Factor between 0 and 4, the result is one "Just A Scratch" wound.  The orc just receives a scratch from your sword and counts its blessings.  The orc would like to turn tail and run, but since it took a Defensive Action Out-Of-Turn, it had forfeited its combat turn and will not get another until the next round.

Unfortunately for you, one of the orc's orc-friends is hiding in the shadows behind you.  He elects to throw a dagger at your back.  The hidden orc's skill level with Thrown Dagger is Good.  Since you are unaware of the orc's attack, and since you already had your combat turn this round, you cannot take a Defensive Action Out-Of-Turn, and must rely solely on your Agility Attribute to avoid the dagger.  Your Agility Attribute is Fair, giving you a base DTBH of Fair.  Since you were unaware of the attack, a -2 modifier applies to your DTBH, bringing it down to Poor.  However, the orc throwing the dagger is 10 meters away, which gives you a +1 to your DTBH due to the long range; this raises it back up to a final DTBH of Mediocre.

The GM rolls 4dF for the orc, rolling one (+), one blank, and two (–)'s, for a net result of -1.  Since the orc's Thrown Dagger Skill level is Good, his rolled degree is Fair.  This is more than enough to hit your piddling DTBH of Mediocre; unlike your last two-handed sword attack, it won't be an attack that "just" hit and so will use the main wounding chart instead of the grazing chart for determining damage.  The orc's Strength is Good (ODF 1), and a dagger is +1 ODF for sharpness.  Your Damage Capacity is Fair (DDF 0), and you are only wearing leather armor, which gives +1 DDF and does not bestow the Sharpness-Proof Hide Gift upon its wearer.  Net Damage Factor = ODF 2 - DDF 1 = 1.  According to the first table in Section 4.55 of the FUDGE rules, this inflicts Just A Scratch on you.


Send comments regarding this Web page to: Roger M. Wilcox.
Roger M. Wilcox's homepage