Image by Mark Frost from Pixabay, contrast slightly enhanced by Mike

0. Fundamentals (repeated for all posts:)

— The Sixes System is a minimalist game system suitable for any and all genres.

— It has been used in my Dr Who campaign since September 2014, which has just come to a successful conclusion.

— Characters are constructed using a point-buy methodology with NPCs generatable using die rolls for speed.

— Success or Failure on tasks is determined by adding dice to a pool based on ability and circumstances which are then rolled against a target number determined by the GM.

13. Simple Attacks

A simple attack is one-on-one. It may or may not involve the use of a weapon. Success or failure is determined in the same way as any other skill use with one exception: the target value is based on the defender’s stats, not the attacker’s abilities. If the means of defining the target value hasn’t been explained to the attacking player, they will see no overt differences between an attack roll and any other example of skill use.

• Attack Roll: #d6 = Stat used* + Purpose used + Appropriate Skill* + Weapon* ranks
  &nbsp:&nbsp:&nbsp:&nbsp:&nbsp:* = may be defined by weapon specifics.
• Target Number: (Stat used for defense + Purpose + Relevant Skill, if any) × A + #sixes × (6-A).
  • These values normally derive from the Defending Character, but there can be exceptions. Most artillery doesn’t target a specific individual or location or vehicle, it targets the surface where those things are expected to be. In such cases, it can be more appropriate to treat this as a normal skill use instead of an attack.
  • The defending character can normally specify what defensive technique they are employing, which in turn defines the Stat, Purpose and Skill. However, some weapons may mandate one or more of these specific elements; this is especially true of area effect attacks, where a direct strike is not necessary in order to inflict harm.
  • A is a critical value, the required average, which varies with the manner of attack and is set by the GM accordingly. Some weapons and some defenses may specifically adjust this value. This process is so important that it will be detailed in its own subsection, below.

Range is simply a factor that the GM should use to allocate required sixes and is divided into three categories: close, moderate, and long. Specifics will vary from weapon to weapon, but there are some generic values to use (in the absence of anything more specific) given in subsections 4.5 and 4.6.

13.1 Setting A

The attack mode in combination with the defense mode defines the A that is required. In general, the more such a combination relies on battering through defenses by force, the higher the target but the higher the damage that occurs on a success. The more a combination is all about speed and maneuvering, the lower the target (success comes more easily) but the less damage is done.

Base A is normally 3. This may be increased to 3.5 if the GM wants successful attacks to be more infrequent, effectively de-emphasizing combat, or reduced to 2.75 if the GM wants the campaign to be more of a meat-grinder. It is entirely permissible to establish one general baseline and to vary that for specific combat encounters.

While there are some rules below, this is extremely responsive to genre, and GMs should feel free to establish some variation to better simulate the style of adventuring that he wants.

The following list integrates all the options in sequence of likelihood to damage:

• Force vs Resistance: +1 A, +1/d damage
• Force vs Force: +0.75 A, +2/3d
• Force vs Finesse: +0.75 A, +1/2d
• Force vs Dodge: +0.5 A, +1/3d
• Resistance vs Force: +1 A to disarm, +0.5 to damage without disarming, +1/4d
• Resistance vs Resistance: +0.5 A, +2/3d
• Maneuver vs Resistance: +0.5 A, +1/3d
• Resistance vs Finesse: +0.25 A, +1/3d
• Finesse vs Resistance: +0.25 A, +0d
• Maneuver vs Force: +0.25 A, -1/3d
• Finesse vs Dodge: +0 A, -1/2d
• Resistance vs Dodge: +0 A, +0d
• Finesse vs Force: +0 A, -1/2d
• Maneuver vs Dodge: +0 A, -2/3d
• Finesse vs Finesse: -0.25 A, -1/d
• Maneuver vs Finesse: -0.5 A, -1/d

This is the same list, but in related groups of attack mode:

• Force vs Force: +0.75 A, +2/3d
• Force vs Resistance: +1 A, +1/d damage
• Force vs Dodge: +0.5 A, +1/3d
• Force vs Finesse: +0.75 A, +1/2d
• Resistance vs Force: +1 A to disarm, +0.5 to damage without disarming, +1/4d
• Resistance vs Resistance: +0.5 A, +2/3d
• Resistance vs Dodge: +0 A, +0d
• Resistance vs Finesse: +0.25 A, +1/3d
• Maneuver vs Force: +0.25 A, -1/3d
• Maneuver vs Resistance: +0.5 A, +1/3d
• Maneuver vs Dodge: +0 A, -2/3d
• Maneuver vs Finesse: -0.5 A, -1/d
• Finesse vs Resistance: +0.25 A, +0d
• Finesse vs Dodge: +0 A, -1/2d
• Finesse vs Force: +0 A, -1/2d
• Finesse vs Finesse: -0.25 A, -1/d

Image by Vlad Mineev from Pixabay, contrast enhanced and slight tonal shift by Mike

Some definitions:

• Force as an attack is confronting defenses head-on and battering your way through them. Think broadswords and axes – and most firearms and crossbows.
• Force as a defense is confronting attacks head-on and attempting to prevent the attack even reaching any defense. Think of it as defending yourself with a broadsword.
• Resistance as an attack is attempting to use a shield to create an opening in the enemy’s defense and then taking advantage of it.
• Resistance as a defense is using some sort of shield to absorb the attack. It includes taking cover.
• Maneuver is attempting to re-position yourself relative to the target through some sort of movement (includes acrobatic & gymnastic moves) in order to attack a vulnerable flank or rear.
• Dodge is the defensive equivalent of Maneuver and represents an attempt to be somewhere where the attack isn’t, or to position your body and limbs to achieve the same end. It includes throwing yourself prone in order to take advantage of low cover.
• Finesse as an attack is employing a weapon that relies on speed and skill, not force. Think rapiers and epees and lightsabers. Finesse also includes any other form of ‘attack’ through skill use, eg Engineering (to drop a ceiling or support timber on an enemy), Persuasion (talking the enemy out of attacking you), Intimidation (convincing the enemy that it’s too dangerous to attack you), etc., and the use of bows.
• Finesse as a defense is employing a weapon that relies on speed and skill to deflect an attack into a place that the defender isn’t or to block it. It also includes tricks like attempting to shoot a weapon out of your enemy’s hand.

Obviously, there may be situations not covered by the above; these should be interpreted by the GM using these as guidelines. In general, the higher the A adjustment, the more ‘bang’ the character should get if he succeeds.

Furthermore, the busy GM can ignore all of this as he sees fit – no tweaks to the chance to inflict damage and no adjustment to the amount of damage any given weapon inflicts – or can substitute his own values that seem appropriate to the situation, using these as a guideline.

13.2 Allowing for Cover

Cover works by adjusting A:

• no cover: -0.5 A
• partial cover: +0 A
• substantial cover: +0.5 A
• total cover: +0.75 A
• active cover: as above +0.25 A, to a maximum of +1 A.
  Active cover is cover behind which the target can maneuver without being observed by the attacker. It includes things like trenches and walls, and may also include vehicles, etc., depending on the circumstances.

The GM needs to adjust the above for circumstances – if a character has cover but the cover is a flimsy material and the attacker can see through it in some way, it might as well not be there, and there is a lot of ground in between these extremes – so considerable judgment is needed.

13.3 Improvised Weapons

Improvised weapons are almost always Finesse attacks. They do 1 Color A dice in addition to any from base stats (see 13.6).

13.4 Voluntary Adjustment

This is a game where intentions matter. Characters are at liberty to examine the circumstances of the fight and voluntarily “pull their punch”. This adds a further +0.5 A adjustment but halves any damage inflicted and adds an extra Color A damage die (see 13.6 below). When this is done with firearms, it represents a deliberate attempt to only wound the target.

13.5 Kill-shots

In some genres, it may be appropriate for characters (especially villains) to occasionally attempt a Kill-shot. This adds an additional +1 A but triples the number of Color B dice, making it far more likely to produce lethal effects (see 13.6 below).

Note that it is entirely possible to attempt a “Kill-shot” with an Improvised Weapon, but this is generally a sign of desperation.

The downside of a Kill-shot attempt is that the attacking character is at -4 to their defense for the next round. So it banks heavily on putting the target down. Snipers attempt to use concealment and camouflage (and sometimes a prone or low position) to protect them despite this vulnerability.

Note that a coup-de-grace qualifies as attempting a Kill-shot.

13.6 Damage

The number of dice of damage inflicted is specified by weapon. If a character is attempting to use a raw skill (punching with Strength, martial arts with DEX or some other appropriate stat), the number of dice is the Stat used + Purpose used divided by five.

Each excess six that is rolled adds 1 additional damage dice to the total unless the character is “pulling his punches”, in which case it takes 2 excess sixes to add an extra die.

Half (round up) of these dice should be color A, the rest color B.

• Color A = temporary stat damage to defensive stat (lasts 1 round)
• Color B = enduring stat damage to defensive stat (heal 1 per hour)
• Difference = persistent damage to defense purpose (heal d6 per day)

Most of the attack forms described in 13.1 come with a damage adjustment. These are “extra damage dice” relative to the number of dice already in a damage pool, and should be included before division into the two colors.

For example, Resistance Vs Resistance attacks do +2/3 dice. If the number of damage dice is 2, that isn’t enough to meet the threshold, and no bonus is awarded for the attack.

If the character rolled one extra (natural) six more than required by the defending character’s target and the GM’s adjudication of circumstances, that becomes a third damage die, which does meet the threshold, adding 2 more dice to the total, which is 3+2=5 dice as a result. If the attacker rolled 2 excess sixes, that becomes 4+2=6 dice; a third excess d6 becomes 5+2=7 dice; and a fourth takes the baseline to six dice, and adds another +2 dice to the total, for 6+4=10 dice of damage.

The dice indicated are rolled and totaled within their colors and any defense provided by armor or shields, is applied to the roll. The remaining dice are totaled and the damage applied to the target.

Armor normally subtracts 0-5 per die (low values are far more common than high); Shields subtract 1 per die from color B and difference. However, weapon bonuses and magic reduce the value of armor and shields.

If you were in Armor 4 plate mail, with a shield 1, you are effectively eliminating all dice that don’t roll a six from the damage roll, and reduce those to doing only one point.

If your weapon had a +1 enhancement, you not only get an extra die with which to attack (and an extra chance to roll a six), you reduce the effectiveness of the defense by 1 – so only 1’s, 2’s, 3;s, and 4’s are eliminated from the damage roll, 5’s are reduced to 5-4=1, and sixes are reduced to 6-4=2.

If your weapon had a +3 enhancement (exceptionally rare), you would not only get three extra attack dice, but would reduce the defense to 5-3=2. Only ones and twos would be ineffective; 3’s would inflict 1 point, 4’s would do 2 points, 5’s would do 3, and 6’s would do 4.

If you had the 10 dice of damage demonstrated above (four extra sixes on the attack roll), that would be 5 dice of each color. Each of those dice could do 0 or 4 or anything in between – the average is 10/6. Multiply that by 5 dice and we get 50/6, which works out to 8 and 2 left over – so 4 times in six, the average will be 8 points and 2 times in six, the average will be nine.

That’s an average of 8 points of temporary damage and 8 points of enduring damage – and it could be worse. Few characters will have stats of 16; the odds are good that the success will make the character unconscious, and if the stat is 8 or less, may even put the character into critical condition.

Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay, top and bottom added by Mike

13.7 Forced Maneuvering

On a successful attack, the attacking character may move the defending character 2m per d6 damage in any direction physically possible. Note that many weapons will require the last die of movement to be “down”, and some weapons may add or subtract “virtual dice” for the purposes of causing movement. If an attack does no damage, the attacked character may choose where this movement leaves him positioned.

13.8 Effects and Natural Healing

A round, for these purposes, is defined as other characters having the opportunity to do something. “Walk up and execute a coup-de-grace” is “something”. “Take the money and run” is “something”. “Tie him up” is many “somethings” – “bind his hands” is “something”.

13.8.1 Unconsciousness

If a character runs out of stat due to temporary stat damage, he is rendered unconscious. He gets a recovery attempt 1 round later per point of stat below zero; if this succeeds, the character comes to, but must spend the next round reorienting himself, which includes attempting to estimate how long he was ‘out’. He will recover the remainder of his temporary stat loss one round later.

If the recovery check doesn’t succeed, the character will heal 1 point of temporary stat damage per minute; each time they do so, they may make another recovery attempt.

Recovery attempts are determined by adding half of the character’s highest remaining stat to the (temporarily reduced) stat affected by the attacks he has endured (the half-stat should play into the GM’s choice of descriptive language for the process). To this, the character may add the value of whichever Purpose best describes how the character would attempt to recover – usually Defend/Repair, but occasionally Attack/(Re-)build or Analyze/Understand.

The result is the number of d6 that the character has to roll. Only dice that come up six are counted; they persist until the next check, when they are assumed to have been rolled and come up sixes. After each check, the character heals 1 point of temporary stat loss per six rolled. If those are sufficient to return the character to positive stats, the character will wake up but remain groggy for the next d6 rounds, at the end of which time, any remaining temporary stat damage will be recovered.

If multiple stats are negative at the same time, the character can only heal one of the affected stats each minute, and all of them have to be positive before he will awaken.

If the character is so badly impacted by temporary damage that the recovery total is zero or less dice, he is in a coma.

13.8.2 Coma

Comatose patients can be healed by medical intervention as though the temporary stat damage was Persistent (see 13.10 below).

Recovery attempts take place once per hour, and the character can now add 1 dice for every stat above zero. However, in order to heal one point of damage, all dice on the roll must come up sixes (Sixes still accumulate from roll to roll).

Only when sufficient recovery has taken place that the character is positive in all stats does he return to a normal “unconscious” state and resume rolling as described above, with a pool total of no sixes.

13.8.3 Critical Condition

If a character has accumulated sufficient Enduring stat damage that a stat is reduced to zero or less from that alone, he is in a critical condition and will lose 1 point from one of his Purposes each minute (player’s choice as to which).

Treatment by a Paramedic or Surgeon (see 13.9 below) may first slow this loss to 1 every 2 hours, 1 every 3 hours,.1 every 4 hours, and so on up to 1 a day, then none – a total of 24 steps. Additional sixes above target count as additional steps along this sequence.

Multiple rolls may be thus required to stabilize the patient, i.e. prevent further losses. Failure reduces the benefits by 1 step and prevents further attempts by a Paramedic; full surgery is required. A critical failure reduces the benefits by 1 step per natural 1 rolled.

A paramedic’s function is purely to stabilize the patient sufficiently that they can survive surgery. What that actually means is a decision to be made by the GM, who can assess wound lethality as grades 1 through 4 – where 4 is the most serious. More on that in section 13.10. As a general rule of thumb, 3 hours without a loss is ample for a grade-1, six hours for a grade-2, 12 hours for a grade 3, and 18 hours for a grade 4. This should be ample time to perform the surgery involved, with a reasonable allowance for setbacks and complications along the way.

Of course, there’s the caveat that the more serious injuries (grades 3 and 4) might need such surgery before this can be achieved – in fact, the more serious the injury, the more likely this is to occur.

13.8.4 Death and Resuscitation

If one of the character’s Purposes is reduced to zero or less, they are facing Immanent Death – or, more precisely, are technically Dead but may be able to be resuscitated. Every 10 seconds that passes reduces all four of the Purposes by 1 and requires a survival check. This is either a Strength or Self-defined Stat roll – no skills, and no purposes. Some character traits may add additional dice, and some disadvantages remove dice, however.

To continue dying, the roll must produce one natural six for each point of Purpose below zero. On a success, the character may restore 1 point to that Purpose. If the character doesn’t produce enough sixes, they may apply the one(s) they have rolled, but their condition will worsen. Eventually, as the Purposes deteriorate, more sixes will be required than the roll permits, and the character will be irretrievably dead.

For example, let’s say that a character takes 7 points of damage to his Defend purpose, which was only 4 to start with. That puts him at -3. His other Purposes are 4, 3, and 2, respectively. His self-defined stat is Pulp Hero at 9; the GM considers that to include heroic survival of injuries, and so can be used for a survival check. Since his Pulp Hero is 9, and his strength only 7, the player accepts that offer.

When the time comes to make a survival check, he loses one point from each of his Purposes: which are now 3, 2, -4, and 1 as a result, which means that he needs 4 sixes on his 10-dice roll. The odds are not good. The character does well, rolling three sixes, but not well enough. He applies the three successes to his defense purpose, raising it to -1.

When the next survival check is due, the character again loses 1 from each of the 4 Purposes, reducing them to 2, 1, -2, and 0, respectively. The good news: the character only requires 2 sixes on his 10 dice. The bad news: he only gets one. He applies that 1 to the defense Purpose, again raising it to -1.

When the third survival check is required, the Purposes again decline, now to 1, 0, -2, -1. The character now needs 3 sixes. He only gets one, which he applies to his defense, again lifting it to -1. His Purposes are now 1, 0, -1, -1.

Forty seconds after being wounded, his Purposes are again reduced, now reaching 0, -1, -2, -2. The character needs five sixes from his 10 dice. He gets two, and applies them all to his defense, finally getting it up to zero. He is clearly fighting for his life and just barely clinging on.

Fifty seconds after his injury, the Purposes are reduced once more, to -1, -2, -1, -3. He needs 7 sixes from 10 dice to stabilize, and knows that is not likely to happen. What’s more, if the slide into oblivion is not checked, at the 3 minute mark, his Purposes will be -2, -3, -2, and -4 – a total of -15. Since there is no way to get 15 sixes from 10 dice, he will be fully dead, having taken a minute to die. To hang on for one more roll, he needs to recover to the point that the loss in Purpose will be only 10; and 10-4=6. So one six will be enough to buy him another chance.

He again does well, again getting 3 sixes. He applies one to his Explain, and two to his Analyze, improving his position to -1, -1, -1, -1.

At the one minute mark, still clinging to life, his Purposes deteriorate again, to -2, -2, -2, -2. That means that he now needs 8 sixes from ten rolls to recover, but two will be enough to buy another ten seconds. He rolls, and gets those two minimum; he applies them both to his attack, just so that he can say that he has recovered ground in all four Purposes. He is now at 0, -2, -2, -2.

At one minute and ten seconds, he enters what he knows will be terminal decline. His purposes drop to -1, -3, -3, -3, and he needs all ten dice to come up sixes – but four will continue his protracted death spiral. He doesn’t need Table 6 to know that there is very little chance of rolling 60 on 10d6 – in fact, there’s less than 0.1% chance, according to that table. But getting 4 dice to come up box cars might just be possible. He rolls, and gets 2 sixes, and dies.

Image by Etienne Marais from Pixabay, slight tonal shift by Mike

A paramedic can attempt to resuscitate the dying character. This requires a paramedic or surgeon roll. Every six – natural or virtual – over the minimum requirement adds 1 to the character’s wounded Purposes. This requires CPR and mouth-to-mouth as a minimum; if a defibrillator is available, it permits any one results to be re-rolled. If the result is enough to elevate all the character’s Purposes above zero, the patient has been resuscitated. But paramedic rolls for this purpose can only be made every thirty seconds. If the paramedic rolls no sixes over the minimum, he at least prevents the next survival check.

The example therefore shows how critical it is for a dying patient to receive immediate medical intervention.

If a paramedic was at the patient instantly, before the first survival check, the paramedic would have needed three sixes to resuscitate the patient – quite doable. Even a single extra six or two at this point would have been enough, given the patient’s rally at the ten second mark. Let’s assume that there’s no defibrillator, that the paramedic has 8 (stat) +3 (purpose) +3 (skill) +2 (medical bag) = 16d6, and that the GM requires 2 + 2 = 4 sixes. That means 12 dice at an average (set by the GM) of 3.5 – giving a target of 42+24=66. The paramedic rolls 2 × 1’s, 3 × 2’s, 4 × 3’s, no 4’s, 3 × 5’s, and 4 × 6’s. That’s a total of 59 – not enough.

Thus, the patient’s story described above continues unchanged until after the thirty second mark, when the purposes have declined to 0, -1, -2, -2, and the patient needs five sixes from his 10 dice. The paramedic can make a second check before that. This time he rolls 75 – nine more than the target, which is 9/(6-3.5) = 9/2.5 = 18/5 = 3 and three-fifths extra virtual sixes. That adds three to the character’s Purposes, reducing them to 0, -1, -1, 0. The character only needs two sixes from his 10 dice, which is what he achieved – so the patient has been successfully resuscitated.

But what if the Paramedic didn’t reach the character until twenty seconds after the injury – still very quickly? With all else unchanged?

That means that the first (failed) attempt took place at 20-something seconds, and the second can take place at 50-something seconds. The patient’s grim determination to hang on has brought him to the point of having Purposes of -1, -1, -1, -1 at the 50-second mark. The Paramedic roll yields three extra sizes, as explained above, so three of these can be raised to the zero point. The next paramedic check is possible at 80-something seconds.

At the one-minute mark, the patient is able to skip his next survival roll, because the paramedic check succeeded, and he does not deteriorate, either. At 70 seconds, he again begins to slip away, his Purposes deteriorating to -1, -1, -1, -2, and he needs five sixes. He gets two, and applies them to the failing Analyze Purpose.

At 80 seconds, he declines to -2, -2, -2, -1 and gets 2 sixes, which he applies to his Attack Purpose. This is the point at which he died without intervention; with the paramedic’s assistance, he has been able to hang on. His purposes are 0, -2, -2, -1.

The paramedic rolls one of those amazingly lucky rolls that come along every now and then – no 1’s, 2’s, 1 × 3’s, 4 × 4’s, 6 × 5’s, and 4 × 6’s, an even better total of 79. That’s 13 more than the target. 13/(6-3.5) = 13/2.5 = 26/5 = 5 and one-fifth sixes more than needed. He applies the five points of healing and gets the Purposes to 0, 0, 0, 0. Since none of them are below zero, the character is no longer dying.

Thirty seconds later, the paramedic is able to make a normal paramedic healing check. For this check, because the patient is no longer in danger of dying, the referee lowers the average for success to 3, and reduces the number of sixes needed to 2+1=3.. But the Paramedic has to decide how many of his three ranks he is going to allocate to healing and how many to a successful roll. Since the patient is no longer at risk, he decides to set aside all three for healing, and rely on his medical bag to give him the edge needed for success. That means that he now has 8 (stat) +3 (purpose) +2 (medical bag) = 13d6.

That sets a target of 3 × 10 = 30+18 = 48. The paramedic responds with another good roll, mostly fives, for a total of 55, 7 more than the target. But the degree of success is no longer important; once he has succeeded, he does 1d6 healing per rank in his paramedic skill. He rolls 3d6 and gets 13. The patient would like to distribute this healing amongst his Purposes, but he can’t (as explained below); he has to first apply it to stat damage (temporary and then enduring), which will almost certainly consume all 13. The patient will have to recover most of his lost Purposes at the normal rate, though further medical care may assist in that process.

Note that the recovery of Purpose at the full rate shown requires complete bed-rest. If characters are active for part of the day, the recovery is proportionally reduced. A character that rests only for 8 hours and otherwise maintains a normal work schedule is only resting for 1/3 of the day, and so only gets 1/3 of the healing – a d2, in other words. A character who rests for 12 hours a day is only resting for half the day, and only gets d3 recovery. A character who rests for 16 hours a day is resting for 2/3 of the day, and recovers 2/3 of the normal rate, or a d4.

Various medical supports can double this rate or add +# to it. Medication administered under a doctor’s supervision adds +1 to +3 (depending on the effectiveness of the drug and the skill of the doctor). Constant nursing attention (or a bio-bed of some sort) can double it. Regeneration tanks or other such techniques can triple it. A rank-4 regeneration spell could quadruple it. But the character has to be healing naturally in the first place.

13.9 Further general guidelines

Attacks and defensive responses need to be specified in the usual manner. Where the character being attacked has no way of knowing that he IS being attacked, he cannot make any defensive action that is predicated upon such knowledge – you can’t dodge a sniper’s bullet. However, if the normal activity warrants it, an object may fortuitously intervene – this is for the GM to adjudicate. The more distant the shot and the slower the muzzle velocity of the round, the more travel time is involved for the attack, and the more likely it is that the character will have partial or full cover when it does, or have turned aside.

13.10 Healing Interventions

Natural healing rates are specified by the type of damage inflicted. When that’s not enough, or a character is in more serious condition, medical intervention may be required.

Medical intervention: does 1d6 healing per skill rank on success. Ranks allocated cannot be used to improve the chances of success. Damage is healed in order temporary – enduring – persistent. The Interval before a further intervention roll is permitted is the current timetable of healing (next round, next hour, or next day) – so it’s per round while there is temporary stat damage, per hour once all the temporary stat damage is healed (which may take longer than a round if the character is unconscious or comatose) Only once all stat damage has been healed can healing be directed toward Purpose damage – this is why it is called persistent damage, it lasts a long time. A critical failure on an intervention check does 2d6 damage.

The medical skills that are used to treat the different kinds of damage are:

• Temporary Damage: First Aid
• Enduring Damage: Paramedic
• Persistent Damage: Surgeon or Surgery

These are restricted in Skill Ranks:

• Paramedic Ranks cannot be higher than First Aid -1
• Surgeon or Surgery cannot be higher than Paramedic -2

A surgeon’s function is to remove malfunctioning and permanently damaged organs or parts of organs and replace them as necessary. A minor (grade 1) surgery is one in which no organ removals or organ replacements are actually necessary. This includes everything from stitching a bad wound to excising cysts or ingrown toenails. Removing non-essential organs is grade 2 and includes removing tonsils and appendixes, bowel resections, intestinal repairs, and even minor microsurgery to reattach digits. Grade 3 refers to more serious or substantial surgeries like skin grafts, minor coronary bypasses, etc. Grade 4 refers to repairing damage that is immediately life-threatening.

13.11 Healing Magic and Science

Healing spells and hi-tech wizardry should specify which of these skills it is equivalent to, and respect the limitations appropriately.

An example, using D&D/Pathfinder terminology, might be:

• Cure Light Wounds Spell (First Aid), 4 ranks
• Cell Regenerator (Paramedic), 3 ranks
• Cure Serious Wounds Spell (Paramedic), 1 rank
• Programmable Cyberdoc (0 ranks)

This character can heal using his different tools. His paramedic skill, i.e. his skill in using the “Cell Regenerator”, is as high as his “Cure Light Wounds” permits. He is better at using the Regenerator than he is using his other Paramedic-substitute, “Cure Serious Wounds”. He knows the minimum possible to actually Program the Cybernetic Doctor; his skill can be improved by 1 rank (= Paramedic -2). It seems likely that he has only just increased his skill with the Skill Regenerator and did not have enough points left to improve his skill with the Cyberdoc.

Image by Viergacht from Pixabay

14. Complex Attacks

A complex attack is one that is aimed at achieving a strategic goal as well as a tactical one. Tactics amount to one-one-one resolution of attacks; a complex attack is designed to achieve something in addition to the attempted success of the attacks.

A character only gets his full defense against a single attack at a time, even if the attack mode is different. Each subsequent attack in the same round on the same target is at -2 defense. A character being attacked may choose to dodge one attack, deflect a second with his shield, and brush aside a third with his weapon (more becomes problematic) – but doing all this at once is a big ask.

However, it may be even more effective for the attackers to employ Coordinated Team Actions (described in 5.14). These are decisions that must be made in advance.

Furthermore, with the piece-meal approach, the first attack may reduce a stat through damage, reducing the value for subsequent defensive moves. This is especially true of finesse and dodge as defensive techniques, because they may both rely on Dexterity; and force and resistance, because they may both rely on Strength. However, the character will usually be able to use his self-defined stat for at least one attack mode, distributing the impact across three stats instead of two.

As a general rule, if there are goals beyond the simple success or failure of an attack, the GM should assess them on a 1-4 scale (1 = easy, 4 = extremely difficult) and use the degree of success converted to additional sixes to meet the target. This might require one successful attack, two successful attacks, or even more. The referee is free to increase the number of sixes required if the target figures out what the attacker is trying to achieve and resists, or to reduce it (possibly to the point of immediate success) if circumstances change in a way more favorable to success.

I’ve demonstrated how to count virtual sixes in the examples above, but for the record:

• Subtract the required average from six. This determines the amount by which a roll must succeed to total a six more than required.
• Divide the actual margin of success by this (and round down) to determine the number of virtual sixes achieved over target.
  

  For example, the required average is 3-and-2-thirds. The roll is 16 over target.

  • 6 minus 3 2/3 = 2 1/3.
  • 16 divided by 2 1/3 = (3 × 6) divided by 3 × (2 1/3) = 48 divided by (6 + 1) = 48/7 = 6 and 6 sevenths – so, almost 7 sixes but not quite.

  For example, the required average is 3-and-one-quarter. The roll is 7 over target.

  • 6 minus 3 1/4 = 2 3/4.
  • 7 divided by 2 3/4 = (4 × 7) divided by 4 × (2 3/4) = 28 divided by (8 + 3) = 28/11 = 2 and a-fraction-that-can-be-ignored. Two sixes more than the actual number rolled.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay, contrast enhancement and tonal adjustment by Mike

15. Operating Machinery

It can be assumed that a machine will do what it is commanded to through whatever control interface it is designed to employ. Therefore, if the outcome of a skill check is unsuccessful, either more time is required (and will change that failure into a success), or the greatest likelihood is that the instructions issued to the machine are wrong – which includes the possibility that the machine simply cannot do what the character operating it has asked it to do.

Translated into game mechanics, that means that a single skill check can and should encompass the entire gamut of possible outcomes – with the bottom line that if the skill check succeeds, the machine does what the character wants it to do.

This includes operating vehicles and computer systems and everything in between. Only the most basic of machinery – muscle amplifiers like axes and saws and hoes and the like – may not do so. And even then, the right skill usually does so – lumberjack or farmer or whatever.

Even mechanical breakdowns can usually be traced to inappropriate instructions. Of course, it takes a truly spectacular failure to damage the machinery so significantly that it stops functioning – but if the machinery is delicate or worn, the degree of failure (and chances of success) start going way up and way down, respectively.

In other words, the normal game mechanics provides all the scope that you need to simulate (and check) the operation of any device; condition plays into the average required, which reduces the number of virtual sixes that are possible.

16. Character Interactions

There are all sorts of character interactions, and they all come down to an interpersonal skill against a resistance to that check. That means that the usual combat mechanics can be used to resolve such interactions; the manner of attack might be different, and the Stat and Purpose used to resist the interaction may be different, but the mechanism still works.

For the record, such ‘attacks’ are considered to be finesse attacks.

Character Interaction Skills – and this is just a partial list – include

• Bargaining or Bartering
• Bribery
• Conversation
• Interrogation
• Oratory
• Persuasion
• Seduction

…But the list could also include all sorts of things that aren’t quite so obvious, like “Savoire-Fair” or “Cool under fire” or “Calming Influence” or “Slippery as an Eel”. If the intent is to change the thoughts, decisions, or emotions of the target in some way, it falls under the general banner of Character Interaction.

Designer’s Notes & Discussions: Doing More

The Innovations

We often speak of a character’s training and/or skill when we speak of their ability in combat, but rarely is the skill system used as a framework for a combat system. In hindsight, it’s hard to see why. It’s even harder to understand why it’s taken this long for someone to have thought of it – and I include myself amongst those I’m criticizing.

It’s only when you reach this point that the universality of the skill mechanism becomes apparent. It works because it has several simple move parts that interact with each other to produce outcomes capable of both simple and complex interpretation.

Okay, so my internet is working but my telephone is not, following the switch to fiber-optic connection. I have three more articles written and uploaded, ready to go, but I’ll delay them if I get another part of the Sixes System finished in time.