One day left until I publish Segira, and it's coming along mostly well. There are always going to be things that I want to change, tweak and polish, but I think I'm going to be pretty happy with the finished result here.

I finally made a finished example of play; I'd started it but not gone into a combat. The new threat/situation system and simplified combat are, in my opinion, one of the crowning elements of this newer version of Hammercalled, and I think it makes the example of play go very smoothly. Still, it's pretty long, so I might find a way to cut it down a little. Any feedback would be appreciated.

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A Map of Yesov

New map, I don't like it as much in some ways, but it is a lot more legible.

I made a new map for Yesov and it's going to be followed by one for Segira. I think it's kind of ugly, honestly, but it's much more readable than the previous map and I'm not happy with the previous map to begin with. It needs to be polished a little, but it's a lot more functional.

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Example of Play

The GM, K, and the players, Therese (Jelena), Luke (Marko), and Arthur (Stanislav), are in the middle of a scenario where the players' characters, all Segirans, are passing by some Russian guards at a checkpoint on their way back from a successful reconnaissance mission.

This is an Environmental Threat: Potential Enemies. There is no Ongoing Risk, but the Activated Risk is a combat with several angry and well-equipped Russians; not a fight that the undercover resistance members want to deal with.

K doesn't necessarily need to know what the Thresholds are yet, but he'll say that this is supposed to be an easy (+10 test to Defuse) threat, and can modify from there based on whether or not the players' responses seem reasonable.

K: You've rolled up to the checkpoint, and the Russians watch you with suspicion. They ask to see your papers, and one of the guards goes to the trunk of your car.

Luke: I'm going to hand over the passports and do my best to smile and say that we're just passing through.

K: Alright, test against Marko's Presence. They've been checking people all day without incident, so you have a +10.

Luke rolls a d100, getting a result of 42. He compares this to Marko's Presence (29, adding in the +10 bonus that K mentioned and Marko's +5 from his "I am able to talk my way out of trouble" Specialization for a total of 44). Had he failed, he could add his Adrenalin for a boost, but that's not necessary now.

Luke: That's a success with a Margin of 4.

K: That's great, and you manage to assuage some of their fears. The guard waves you through even before his companion searches your trunk.

Therese: That's probably good, because all of our gear's in there.

Arthur: How far are we from Zastivo, again?

K: It's about two hour's drive to the west.

Arthur: Do we have enough gas to get there?

K: Yes, but about half-way there the bridge is out and you have to proceed on foot or find a way around.

Therese: Jelena knows this part of the country. What's the best route?

K: You think you have a good idea of how to get there either way, but test Awareness for the best possible result.

Therese: Can I use the map from her survival kit?

K: Sure.

Therese rolls a d100, getting a result of 59. Jelena's Awareness is 34, she has the Specialization "I am able to navigate the wilderness" at +10, and she gets an additional +10 from her survival kit, leaving her 5 points short. Unfortunately for her, she has already used all her Adrenalin.

Therese: I'm just a little short.

K: No matter, you're still able to find your way, but you stumble upon some bandits who are camped out in the woods.

Luke: Do they see us?

K: Not yet.

Arthur: Let's take them out. They're bandits, after all.

Therese: Can I get to a vantage?

K: No, it's too heavily forested.

Luke: Let's do this, then.

The fight takes place in a Situation with the Close Quarters Combat quality, meaning that certain weapons, like Jelena's Sniper Rifle, perform more poorly.

The Bandits are a Combatant Threat with a Bypass Threshold of 3 hits of 6 damage and a Defuse Threshold of 3 hits of 9 damage. If the players do enough damage to trigger the Bypass threshold, the bandits get in one turn of return fire and flee (causing their Active Risk); if they trigger the Defuse threshold they rout or kill the bandits before they retaliate.

They have no Ongoing Risk, but they have an Active Risk of two Danger+2 attacks against the PCs. K's set the Danger to 4, so the PCs risk taking 6 damage.

On the first turn, Luke rolls a 98 for Marko's attack with his pistol, causing it one level of Wear and also failing to do any damage to the bandits.

Arthur's character, Stanislav, is using an assault rifle, and he's darn good with it. His Combat Skill, specialization, and a point of Adrenalin get him to a final target number of 64, and he rolls a 62.

Since he is using an assault rifle, he calculates damage on the first shot by adding his Margin of 6 (from his tens-place) to the damage of the weapon (4), then adds three more "hits" of 4 damage because of the assault rifle's Automatic quality.

He combines the initial attack and the three hits from the Automatic quality to cause two hits; one for 10 damage from the original shot, and one for 12 damage by combining the three extra shots, since K tells him that will hit the Defuse threshold.

Now it's Jelena's turn to take a shot. With her Critical Strike ability and the Sniper Rifle's 5 damage, she's guaranteed to at least hit the Bypass threshold if she hits.

Unfortunately for her, she has a -10 penalty for being in Close Quarter Combat, which undoes her Specialization bonus entirely.
She needs to roll a 23 to succeed, and gets a 48. Not quite there!

K: Now that you've taken your actions, the bandits are going to respond. They try to return fire, especially at Stanislav, even though they're dropping like flies. You have two attacks incoming. Defend with Awareness +5.

Arthur rolls a 15 to evade the first attack (an easy success with Stanislav's 28 Awareness) and an 82 to avoid the second. Even with Adrenalin and Stanislav's specializations he's not dodging that.

Arthur: Looks like I'm taking 6 damage, minus two from the armor.

K: That's right. Now there's just one bandit left, though, and I assume you'd like to retaliate?

It's not looking so good for the remaining bandit. Arthur rolls a 22 on the die for his next attack, which means that he's hitting and doing enough damage to get to the Defuse threshold on the bandits.

That's enough to get them past the bandits and let them continue on with their journey to Zastivo.