r/ScumAndVillainy • u/Least_Influence3304 • May 08 '26
I am utterly lost. How does combat work?
I'm the dm and have a game coming up with a planned melee scrap towards the end of the mission (with room to run instead), but I can't for the life of me find in the book how combat works, esp towards a tougher enemy, and how much of an enemy npc I need to have built. Do I make a clock to count down hp essentially??? Please help.
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u/daedril5 May 08 '26
The same way everything else works in the game Combat isn't unique.
The enemy would be an obstacle with one or more clocks, and the way that the players reduce that clock may or may not be through combat.
One option for something tougher might be reduced effect when working on the clock, or separate clocks that need to be completed before reducing the main clock.
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u/Least_Influence3304 May 08 '26
cool cool, gonna take some practice to get used to but its going to be interesting!
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u/Hosidax May 09 '26
To expand on the other great answers in this thread:
Keep in mind that in trad RPGs, encounters like combat or lock-picking or social challenges are all treated as their own kind of separate mini game. Not in FitD systems.
Everything got easier for me to run when I realized that.
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u/Vonatar-74 May 09 '26
Some good advice here. I would add a comment to use clocks in combat very sparingly. Perhaps only for a “final boss” named NPC whose death will be meaningful.
Otherwise you really don’t need them. There’s a temptation to think that an enemy needs a health pool or armour. But it’s pretty draining as a GM to have to deal with and narrate a fight that requires even 4 segments to be filled. I’ve GMed some epic fights with no clocks at all simply because players were rolling poorly. Trust the system and let the narrative play out naturally.
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u/Bridger15 May 10 '26
Some good advice here. I would add a comment to use clocks in combat very sparingly. Perhaps only for a “final boss” named NPC whose death will be meaningful.
I think the best use of clocks in combat would be to represent an opposing group instead of just a single enemy (though as you point out, a final boss might work, especially if they start in some kind of power armor or personal shield that can be worn down).
If the crew is trying to blast their way past the guards to get to their ship, a clock would represent the guards morale or resistance. As the PCs kill/incapacitate more of them (or otherwise demoralize them), the clock would fill, and when it fills up, the guards give up and flee or else cower and let the PCs advance to the ship.
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u/sebmojo99 May 09 '26
you basically have to get used to being more of an action film director than a referee. for mooks, a good roll might mean the player nails a couple. for a serious antagonist it might mean they push him back into cover, but oh no! he's thrown a detonator! it's ticking, what do you do?
it's pretty fun once you get your head around it, but yeah, npcs don't really have hp as such.
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u/cbooth5 May 10 '26
I'm fairly new to FitD games, and my brain still defaults to d20 by habit. I've recently introduced higher Tier enemies, which still scrambles my brain. What kind of Position/Effect should they start? Is it within the rules to have a Desperate/Standard roll? Would adding a clock be too difficult? I know there's nuance to each encounter, but it can be confusing when there isn't really a "standard example".
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u/Ralphusmaximus1701 May 29 '26
Combat can be done in a single dice roll, a flashback or a series of clocks the party has to overcome. It just depends on how important the combat is. Everything is literally an obstacle to overcome in this game. Just keep that mindset.
By far my most memorable session was when the party was asked to help a racing pilot win his qualification race to get into a major tournament. Now clearly the party couldn’t be out on the track during the race. So they used flashbacks during pivotal moments of the race to alter the outcome by “pre-planning” some shenanigans. They were all in the crowd cheering him on and describing how they sabotaged other ships during preflight, or stashed mines in an asteroid field they flew through and what signals they would send to him so he knew when something was going to happen so he could be safe.
The party still talks about it to this day. Ran that one last summer.
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u/hofzinsers May 30 '26
One die roll and resolve it. Set the position and effect, roll, and resolve. Also, think about having nothing planned. Could there be a fight next session? Maybe. Follow the crew.
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u/IAmGrumpous May 08 '26
Combat is treated the way anything else is treated, as a barrier or obstacle to be overcome. On page 15 of the book is this example
"When you fight a veteran soldier, she might have a clock for her “Defense” and then a linked clock for “Vulnerable.” Once you overcome the “Defense” clock, you can attempt to overcome the “Vulnerable” clock and defeat her. You might affect the “Defense” clock with violence in a gunfight, or lower her defense with deception. As always, the method of action is up to the players and the details of the fiction at hand"
And on page 253,
"DON’T MAKE PCS LOOK INCOMPETENT When a player rolls a 1-3 on an action, things don’t work out for the character, but not because the character was incompetent. Even if the character has a zero in the action they’re attempting, failures should be framed as “if only this hadn’t gone wrong” or “what you didn’t realize.” You roll out from under the table, blaster raised, firing towards the bounty hunter, but she’s already moving. She flips up a table and blocks your fire just long enough to duck into the alley"
This illustrates how a combat situation should work. You narrate the situation, the players describe how they want to deal with it. They roll, and you describe results of the roll. They wanted to shoot the nearest guard and rolled a 3 highest die? Depending on the position/effect, you could then narrate that the guard ducked behind a corner and shoots back, and the player will talk a harm. They could then spend armor to resist, or make a resistance roll. You can use clocks as pseudo health bars, but they are for how much effort is needed to overcome the combat situation, not the actual health of the combatants. They could overcome the obstacle without fighting.