Attacking Someone

Combat is really not fundamentally different from other actions, so in Story Arc, it's treated the same way. Basically, an attack is just an action where you're trying to hurt someone, or adversely affect him in some way (although we encourage you to think of your attack in terms of how well you accomplish your goal, not necessarily in terms of how much damage you do to your opponent).

Still, much of the time combat success is determined by wound size, which is decided by equating degrees with Wound Threshold. Each degree of success when attacking someone subtracts a point from his current Wound Threshold, until he's defeated (see "Death and Defeat," below).

If you're attacking someone with a weapon, you usually have an advantage; this chart should give you some idea of the kinds of benefits imparted by various kinds of weapons. There are two basic categories of benefits — plusses and multipliers. Normally, weapons that don't use chemical, magical, mechanical, or electrical reactions fall into the "plusses" category, with perhaps a few exceptions for weapons that exert a relatively minor mechanical force (such as crossbows). These weapons largely have to rely on the force of the user to do damage (when you hit someone with a sword, the damage you do is largely proportional to how hard you hit).

Simple Weapon Modifiers

Weapons capable of doing more damage than this are generally those capable of exerting force far surpassing that of the person wielding them.

Complex Weapon Modifiers

Beyond x4 damage, there may not be much of a reason to roll, assuming there's someone competent at the controls. The target is probably ash.

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