Most important action/combat terms
From Sagataflwiki
This article briefly defines the most important terms, abbreviations and acronyms pertinent to physical actions (especially combat and movement), sorted alphabetically. Note that there are separate articles for more specific terms as well as for important English language words that are not specific to Sagatafl.
Action Class
Action Class is a system used to classify and categorize combat actions based on how quick they are to carry out and how much and how fast their execution speed can be improved.
There are five Action Classes of Combat Actions, going from Class A with a base Action Point (AP) cost of 6 AP, and to Class E with a base AP cost of 14. Thus Class A is used for things that tend to be quick, such as staff parries and shield blocks, Class C is used for "normal" things like regular sword attacks, and Class E is used for slow things such as Power Strike.
Each Action Class has its own progression for how applied Speed Factors (SF) reduce the AP cost, as shown in the Initiative table on the character sheet. For Class C, each SF simply reduces the AP cost by 1, whereas for Class A and B there are some "dead levels" where the AP cost is not reduced for specific SFs, and for Class D and E, there are some SF values where the AP cost is reduced by two. This funkiness only occurs at SF3 and higher. Always count on SF1 and SF2 to reduce the AP cost of any Combat Action by 1 or 2, respectively.
Further Action Classes may be created to cover Move Actions.
high-Agility Skills
Skills that are Agility-High are ones that are affected by the larger of the two Fleetness Skill roll modifiers. These Skills involve swift and precise full-body movement, and tend to have the Agility Attribute heavily present in their APT Block, e.g. with weight 3/7, 4/7 or even 5/7. Examples are Dodge, Acrobatics, Jumping, Stealth, Climbing, and the various unarmed combat skills (Brawling, Judo, Karate and Wrestling), and quick "fencing"-like weapon styles. The Agility Attribute itself also takes the greater Fleetness modifier, as do Balance rolls.
Note that for very normal Fleetness values, of 3 or close to 3, the greater modifier is zero.
low-Agility Skills
Skills that are Agility-Low are affected by the smaller of the two Fleetness Skill roll modifiers. These Skills require a modest amount of swift full-body movement and legwork to be used properly, and tend to have some Agility presence in their APT Block, usually with weight 1/7 or 2/7, such as most melee weapon Skills, excepting the "swift" and more fencing-like styles.
Note that the smaller Fleetness Skill roll modifier tends to be zero, unless the character's Fleetness is rather far from the default value of 3.
non-Agility Skills
These are skills that are not affected by either of the Fleetness Skill roll modifiers. They include most (if not all) ranged attack Skills, although some heavy armours may have intrinsic "special case"-penalties to some or all forms of ranged attack. Also Lockpicking and Traps and most other physical Skills, and probably all mental Skills, are unaffected by Fleetness. Such Skills tend to have little or no Agility presence in their APT Blocks; a weighting higher than 1/7 would be unusual.
AP
Action Point, a number of Points that each character generates each Round, used to determine how he can act and how much he can do. Highest AP count gets to act first, and each action or reaction costs a number of AP. Characters may continue to act as long as they have remaining AP, but there are few things that can be done with small amounts of AP, and so some unspent AP can be put into the Bank to carry over to the next Round.
AP are generated with an Initiative Roll, sometimes penalized for Surprise in the first Round. The AP cost of specific Actions is reduced via Speed Factors, abbreviated SF.
AV
AV, or Armour Value, is a number that indicates the degree of injury protection that a character enjoys (it is not yet clear whether non-living ntities like vehicles will use have AVs, or will instead use some other mechanic). Natural AV, such as from thick scales, and worn AV, from armour, are added together (and multiplied by the number of unCountered Successes) and are subject to Armour Piercing (PA). After this, magical or mystical or otherwise supernatural AV is added (also multiplied by unCountered Successes), with any given character usually only being allowed to enjoy a single source of AV (if a character is subject to multiple supernatural AV values, ignore all but the highest). This sum is subtracted from Damage Rolls.
Bank
Sometimes called the AP Bank, this is a value that represents a character's ability to store unused Action Points (AP) which then carry over to the next Round and go "on top" of whatever AP his Initiative Roll generates.
All characters of mammalian and avian species are born with a Bank size of 1, as a function of their neurostructure. A bank-less such creature would be a profoundly retarded specimen and would be entirely unsuited as a player character´(although not necessarily in such a helpless and incompetent state as to warrant the term "vegetable"). Less sophisticated biological families, such as ichthyoids, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, are born with a Bank size of zero, but exceptions should be made for highly evolved species, such as for velociraptors and for humanoid reptilians, and perhaps (but not necessarily) for humanoid insectoids or arachnids.
Extremely sophistcated life forms (hyper-evolved species) may be born with higher natural Bank sizes (2, very rarely 3), and the same should perhaps be the case for sophisticated robots.
On top of whatever natural Bank a character is born with, he can increase his Bank size, usually by up to 3, with the first +1 being via a simple Lore, the next +1 requiring either an expensive Lore or an inexpensive Martial Arts Stunt (this has not yet been decided), and the last +1 being an expensive MA Stunt.
Since most Combat Actions, and even many Reactions, cost several AP, characters in combat will often find themselves with a few APs at the end of a Round that they have nothing worthwhile to spend on. For this reason, it is very advantageous to increase one's Bank size, and any even half-serious combatant (e.g. a "rogue" with some fencing experience, or a scholar who used to be a duellist in his university days decades ago) should have a Bank size of 2, while for a serious combatant it is debatable whether a Bank size of 4 is the best choice, or if one should go for a Bank size of 3 and then spend the saved SP on other combat-relevant traits.
Please note that the Bank size defines the total number of AP that may be stored. It does not define the number of AP per Round that may be saved up, to be unleashed en masse at an opportune time.
Bash
Blood
Blow
The term Blow was originally used in Sagatafl to define the number of attacks per weapon or other held item (shield, e.g.) that a character can make per Round, but this is no longer used. See AP for information.
CFP
Critical Strike
Effect Strike
A hypothetical combat action, that works like Critical Strike, but instead of intending to cause a griveous general Wound, the attacker wants to achieve a specific effect, usually some form of abstract leg injury to reduce the target's mobility, or some kind of abstractr arm injury to impair the target's ability to use weapons.
This is a hypothetical game element, and if implemented will be there to compensate for the fact that Sagatafl does not use hit locations and specific injury effects.
Encumbrance
Fleetness
Hardiness
HP
hx
Initiative Roll
Martial Arts
Move Action
PA
Pace
Power Strike
Precise Strike
Reaction
A Reaction is a Combat Action that can be performed only as a response to an Action by another character. Examples include Block, Deflect, Dodge, Parry and Tactical Strik. Actions that are not Reactions can only be performed when it is the character's time to act (based on AP count).
Reactions cost AP, but tend to cost less than non-Reaction Actions.
Recovery
Round
SD
SF
Strike
A Strike is a specific combat action, thus distinct from an attack. See Critical Strike, Precise Strike, Power Strike and Tactical Strike for explanations (and Effect Strike for a hypothetical variant of Critical Strike).
