Chapter 11 — Combat
Combat in Wanderstar is the core resolution system (Chapter 5) under pressure. An attack is a test like any other — 2D6 + skill ≥ 8 — and harm is measured in trauma (Chapter 10), not hit points. This chapter formalizes the structure around that roll: the round, the actions you take in it, how distance and melee work, how a target fights back, and how cover blunts a blow.
Nothing here overrides the basics. If a situation isn't covered, fall back to a plain test and the GM's judgment.
Players roll; NPCs don't. By default the dice in a fight are the players'. When a character attacks, they roll as below. When an adversary attacks a character, the GM doesn't roll to hit — the character rolls to avoid it, and only a failure brings harm. The structure in this chapter (initiative, actions, range, reactions, cover) frames either side of that exchange; for running the opposition this way — and for the one roll the GM still makes — see Chapter 40. Fights between crewed vehicles or starships run on this same frame, scaled up — see Chapter 25.
Index§
- The Effect of a roll
- The combat round
- Actions on your turn
- Range
- Aiming
- Melee
- Reactions
- Cover
- Damage and trauma
- Special forms of attack
The Effect of a roll§
Many combat rules — and several weapon traits (Chapter 24) — refer to a roll's Effect: how far the 2D6 + skill total clears or falls short of the target number of 8.
Effect = (2D6 + skill) − 8
A total of 11 is Effect +3; a total of exactly 8 is Effect 0; a total of 5 is Effect −3. By default Effect is colour, not a damage bonus (Wanderstar has no tiered success — see Chapter 5); it matters only where a rule or trait calls for it.
The combat round§
A round is a short, abstract slice of time — a handful of seconds in which everyone acts once.
Initiative. At the start of a fight, each combatant rolls 2D6, with Dexterity granting Advantage or Disadvantage. Act from highest total to lowest; ties go to the higher Dexterity, then the GM's call. The order holds for the fight unless someone deliberately delays their turn. Initiative is a setup roll, not an action: apply the Dexterity Advantage or Disadvantage directly and for free, the same way characteristics apply during character creation — you neither spend Momentum to claim it nor gain Momentum from a Disadvantaged initiative roll. Momentum (Chapter 7) begins to flow once blows are actually traded.
Actions on your turn§
On your turn you get one Significant Action and any reasonable number of Minor Actions.
A Significant Action is the meaningful thing you do: make an attack, aim, reload, charge a weapon, suppress an area, administer first aid (Chapter 10), force a door. Most weapon traits that "spend an action" mean a Significant Action.
Minor Actions are the quick things around it: moving a short distance, drawing or stowing a weapon, dropping prone, shouting an order. You can take a few of these alongside your Significant Action, within reason and the GM's tolerance.
You may also give up your Significant Action to take a second round of movement, or to ready a reaction (see below).
Range§
Every ranged attack happens at a range band. Distances are guidelines, not survey lines.
| Band | Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Engaged | within reach (~1.5 m) | Hand-to-hand. Melee happens here. |
| Close | up to 10 m | Across a room. |
| Short | up to 30 m | A corridor, a street. |
| Medium | up to 100 m | The practical limit of the naked eye under fire. |
| Extreme | beyond 100 m | See the rule below. |
Effective range. Each ranged weapon has an effective band (set on its item entry). Attacks within it are made normally; attacks beyond it are made at Disadvantage.
The 100-metre rule. Past about 100 metres an unaided shooter cannot reliably pick out and track a target. Any attack at a target beyond 100 m is automatically treated as Extreme range — made at Disadvantage — regardless of the weapon. A weapon with the Scope trait ignores this rule, so long as the attacker takes an aim action first.
Firing while Engaged. A long arm is clumsy at grappling distance: ranged attacks made at Engaged range are at Disadvantage, unless the weapon is a one-handed or compact type the GM judges suited to it.
Aiming§
Spend a Significant Action to aim at a target. Your next attack against that target gains a situational Advantage (a GM-granted edge, so it costs 1 Momentum to activate — see Chapter 7), provided you do not move or lose sight of the target in between.
Aiming is what unlocks several traits: Scope needs an aim action to beat the 100-metre rule, and Precise weapons grant their Advantage specifically when you aim. Note the limit baked into the Auto trait: an automatic-fire attack gains nothing from aiming and cannot be made in the same action as an aim or a Scope shot.
Melee§
Close combat is fought at Engaged range and rolled with Close Quarters (Strength).
Closing to engage. Moving into Engaged range with a hostile is a Minor Action, but it exposes you: a defender wielding a weapon with the Reach trait (a polearm, a whip, a long blade) gets to strike first as you close, and you cannot hit back until you have fought your way inside their guard — the round after you reach them.
Disengaging. Backing out of Engaged range under a foe's nose is dangerous; the GM may allow an opponent a free attack, or require a successful test, to break away cleanly.
Unarmed. A fist, a boot, a headbutt, or a grapple is a melee attack like any other — Close Quarters (Strength), 1D damage against the target's armor. It is feeble against anything armored, which is the point: bring a weapon. You may pull your blows to take a foe alive — declare it, and a hit that would mark trauma instead leaves them stunned or pinned rather than wounded (the GM sets how long), the unarmed echo of the Stun trait. A grapple is resolved as an opposed test (Chapter 5) of Close Quarters, or with an Entangle-style Strength test to break free.
Thrown weapons. A knife, spear, grenade, or rock thrown at a target is rolled with Ranged Weapons (Dexterity); lobbing an explosive onto a position rather than a person uses Explosives (Intellect), after which its Blast resolves as normal. Thrown attacks are short-ranged by nature — the weapon's listed range is its effective band, and a Strength Advantage extends it one band. Beyond that, the ordinary range rules and the 100-metre cap apply.
Reactions§
A reaction is taken out of turn, in response to an incoming attack. You may take one reaction per round for free; each further reaction in the same round costs 1 Momentum.
A successful reaction imposes Disadvantage on the attacker's roll. (Per the Momentum rules, an attacker forced to roll with Disadvantage still gains 1 Momentum for the harder roll — defending feeds your enemy's resource, so reactions are not without cost to the fight as a whole.)
| Reaction | Skill | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Dodge | Athletics (Dexterity) | Throw yourself clear of an attack you can see coming. Cannot be used against a Blast weapon — dive for cover instead. |
| Parry | Close Quarters (Strength) | Turn aside a melee attack. Useless against ranged attacks, and cannot stop a Smasher weapon, whose momentum simply bulls through. |
| Dive for cover | — | Drop behind nearby cover (see below). The standard response to grenades and area fire: it is the only defence allowed against a Blast weapon. |
Cover§
Cover is treated as a bonus to the target's armor, stacking on top of personal protection in the flat way armor always works (Chapter 10).
| Cover | Armor Bonus |
|---|---|
| Light — foliage, sheet metal, a wooden door | +2 |
| Solid — a masonry wall, a vehicle, a bulkhead | +4 |
| Total — fully behind hard cover | can't be targeted at all |
Cover only helps against fire it actually stands between you and the shooter. Against a Blast weapon, cover protects only if it lies between you and the centre of the blast, not merely between you and the attacker.
Damage and trauma§
On a hit, roll the weapon's damage and compare it to the target's armor: damage ≥ armor inflicts 1 trauma, and damage ≥ twice armor inflicts 2 trauma. Base armor is 3; gear and cover raise it. The full rules — the two trauma tracks, overflow, recovery, and death — live in Chapter 10. This damage-vs-armor comparison assumes attacker and target are the same scale; when they aren't — a rifle against a tank, a tank against a trooper — see Chapter 12 first.
Effect does not add to damage by default. Where a weapon trait changes this (adding to the damage roll, bypassing armor, redirecting trauma to the Mental track, and so on), the trait says so; see Chapter 24.
Special forms of attack§
These attack forms are defined in full on the weapon traits table (Chapter 24); collected here for reference:
- Burst & Full Auto (Auto) — trade ammunition for added damage or multiple attacks.
- Suppressive fire (Suppressive) — forgo a normal attack to pin an area; targets in it must take cover or act at Disadvantage until your next turn.
- Indirect fire (Artillery) — lob shots at targets out of sight, at Disadvantage, with scatter when the position is only guessed at.
- Area attacks (Blast, and Explosives skill) — roll damage against everything in the radius; defenders dive for cover.
- Charged and slow weapons (Charge, Slow, Reload, One Use) — weapons that cannot simply fire every round.