---
title: "Physical Combat Rules"
description: "Complete physical combat system for Project Sol including initiative, action points, wound levels, armor soaking, combat modifiers (cover, flanking, prone), and natural recovery."
type: guide
domain: tcg
tags: [project-sol, combat, initiative, wounds, damage, recovery]
---

# Physical Combat

Physical combat is cyclical: everyone rolls Initiative and acts from highest to lowest and then loops back to the top. Each combat round takes roughly 10 seconds. If any combatants are surprised, they start the combat with only one action point. When a character may act during a combat round, they have three action points to spend on combat actions. At the end of their turn, their points refresh. The action points may be spent as Reactions before their turn, but they lose access to the points until their points refresh at the end of their next turn.

# Combat Sequence

1. **Determining Awareness:** The GM establishes whether any combatants may be surprised. Any combatants who may be surprised may make a Surprise Test: Reaction + Intuition (3), Instant. Surprised characters only start combat with one action point.

2. **Determining Initiative Order:** The players roll an Initiative Test: REA + INT + any Initiative bonuses for all present combatants. Enemies have a static initiative score rolled by their leader. Each player who rolls higher, acts before the enemies each round. Other players act after the enemies. Players may act in any order when it is their turn.

3. **Combat Round:** In initiative order, characters may spend their action points. At the end of each character's turn, their action points refresh as normal.

4. **Continuing Combat:** If a new character enters combat, they roll an initiative test to determine their initiative score and the GM inserts them into the established initiative order with their full action points. They do not take a turn if they joined in the middle of a round; they are eligible for a regular turn the following round.

# Actions in Combat

Many pieces of gear provide actions available to the character. In general, attack actions will be <Weapon Skill> + Attribute vs REA + INT to inflict a wound.

In addition to gear- and weapon-specific actions, below are actions available to all characters.

## Actions in Combat

*(See Actions in Combat database in Notion for complete list)*

# Damage in Combat

When an attack is successful, meaning the attacker rolled as many or more hits than the defender, attack damage is determined by the weapon used.

Before the defender takes the wound listed for the weapon's attack, they roll their Armor dice pool to soak damage. Each hit on this test decreases the level of the wound to a minimum of zero. If it is reduced to zero, the attack was a grazing hit and deals no damage.

## Wounds

Player characters start with the ability to take 1 level 3 wound, 2 level 2 wounds, and 3 level 1 wounds. When taking a wound, note the in-character wound taken in the box. If you have no boxes available for the wound being taken, increase the wound level by one. If a character ever runs out of boxes to take a wound, they die.

Each wound level imposes a penalty on the character. Multiple wounds of a single level do not increase the penalty. So 1 level 1 wound would impose the same penalty as 3 level 1 wounds.

Level 3 wounds will leave behind evidence of the wound long after it is healed. That may be a scar or a character personality effect based on the source of the wound.

When a character takes a number of wounds greater than or equal to their BOD, they enter their last stand. They no longer refresh their action points; when they run out, they fall unconscious.

## Critical Successes In Combat

Unless otherwise noted, a critical success on an attack roll increases the Wound level of the attack by 1. This stacks for multiples of 3 net hits: 6 net hits increases by 2, 9 net hits increases by 3, etc.

### Wound Penalties

| Wound Level | Penalty |
| --- | --- |
| *(See Wound Penalties database for specific penalties)* | |

# Combat Modifiers

## Concealment

Concealment and line of sight between characters is determined by drawing lines between corners of the two characters. If a straight line can be drawn from all corners of Character A's square to all corners of Character B's square, they have clear line of sight and no concealment. If no straight lines can be drawn from any corner of Character A's square to any corner of Character B's square, they have concealment and may not be targeted by an attack.

## Cover

When a character has cover from another character attacking them, they gain a dice pool bonus to their dodge (REA + INT) pool based on the type of cover. A targeted character is considered to have cover if the attacking character has line of sight on the target and lines from all corners of the attacking character's square cross through the targeted character's cover.

### Cover Bonuses

| Cover Type | Bonus |
| --- | --- |
| *(See Cover Bonuses database for specific bonuses)* | |

## Flanked

Flanking is determined in a similar fashion to line of sight. A targeted character is flanked if any two enemy characters can draw a line from any corner of enemy character A's square to any corner of enemy character B's that crosses through the targeted character. A flanked character suffers a dice pool penalty of 2 when dodging attacks.

## Prone

Being prone provides a dice pool bonus of 2 to dodge ranged attacks and a dice pool penalty of 2 to dodge melee attacks. The Stand Up/Go Prone action can be used in combat to change position.

# Injury and Recovery

## Natural Recovery

To recover from wounds, characters make one BOD + WIL test per wound detailed below. Wounds must be recovered from lowest level to highest. The character must rest for the entire duration for it to count - forced naps and unconsciousness also do the trick.

### Natural Recovery

- Action Type: None
- Test: BOD + WIL (1 / 3 / 5), (2 / 8 / 24 hours)
  - *(Nested: Level 1 wounds heal after 2 hours rest, Level 2 after 8 hours, Level 3 after 24 hours)*
- Point Cost: None
- Description: The threshold and duration of the natural recovery attempt depends on the level of the wound being recovered. For level 1 wounds, the first numbers are used; for level 2 wounds, the second numbers are used; and for level 3 wounds, the third numbers are used.

## Medkits

Medkits may be be used to both heal characters in the heat of battle as well as support the natural recovery of wounds. Full details can be found in the biotech equipment section.

