Combat

When Agents get into fights they kill people. Agents might get beaten up but Agents don’t die unless it’s dramatically appropriate. There is no reason to use Hit Points, Damage Boxes, or any sort of arbitrary measurement to track how close an Agent is to death. Agents have two states of being, Healthy or “Almost Dead”. When appropriate, Operations spends a point of Setback and an Agent gets shot, making them ” Almost Dead”. It is as simple as that. When “Almost Dead” the Agent can not make Wagers on any rolls. This represents a loss of finite control present in an uninjured agent.

Now we ask, how do Agents kill people? The answer depends on who their fighting. There are two types of Non-Player Characters (NPCs) that Agents can encounter. “Other Agents” and “Everyone Else”. Other Agents aren’t always other spies either, just any character that is considered on par with an Agent. We’ll get to more of that in a minute but first lets take a look at “Everyone Else”.

The first thing to remember is that Agents have been trained to kill. Even if Aries is your weakest Area, you were still taught to put two in the chest and one in the head. When you fire a gun, people die. You were shown how five pounds of pressure can crush a windpipe. When you punch someone, they die. To kill “Everyone Else” you roll Aries against a TN 5. If you beat TN 5, they die. This means if you only have one die to roll you have a 1/3rd chance to kill anyone you meet.

You can make Wagers on these rolls and for very Wager you make you kill an additional target within range. If you have a gun in your hand you only need line of sight and a reasonable range. Without a gun anyone you can reach is in range. Operations is final arbitrator on if a target is close enough. Remember you roll to kill one person, everyone after that dies with a wager. When three goons rush you, it takes two wagers to kill all of them. Of course, if you miss… everyone lives, Operations gets a point of Setback, and things just got real bad for you real quick.

There might be times when you don’t want to kill Everyone Else. When you want to capture a target alive you need to make Two Wagers. Killing is too ingrained into your muscles that you have to force yourself not to kill. Two Wagers and you incapacitate a single Target, additional Wagers kill additional Targets like normal. In order to incapacitate multiple Targets it takes multiple rolls, one per target. Of course, it would just be easier to kill all but one of them.

Now that we understand Everyone Else lets talk about Other Agents. Other Agents operate slightly different but with the same principles. Instead of the fixed Target Number of Five, they have a Target Number chosen by Operations and they take multiple Wagers to kill. Other Agents have an Agent Rank, which represents the number of Wagers that need to be accumulated against them in order to be killed. They have an Agent TN that you need to roll equal to or higher than. By surpassing that TN you gain one free Wager against that Agent’s Rank. This means that even if you can’t spend Wagers you can still slowly overcome other Agents. That free Wager can only be applied against the Agent’s Rank, it can not be used for anything else.

Unlike Everyone Else, Operations can’t save Other Agents outright by spending Setback. Instead Operations is required to spend a point of Setback to reduce the Wagers you spend against Other Agents. In other words, Operations spends a point of Setback to cancel out one Wagers against an Agent’s Rank.

For additional effect you can opt to target specific areas of the body on any target. Each location costs a specific number of wagers. With Two Wagers you shoot them in the arms or legs. With Three Wagers it is in their hand or foot. Four Wagers is for fingers and toes. Lastly, Five Wagers is a bullet in the Head. A bullet in the head is fatal and Operations can’t spend Setback to save their life. This means that if you make Five Wagers against Everyone Else or Other Agents you can declare it a Head shot and that NPC is dead. Sometimes, if an Other Agent is Rank 5 or higher, it is better to shoot them in the head than accumulate Wagers against them. Remember, you must make these wagers prior to rolling and the free Wager to gain for passing an Agent’s TN can not be used for called shots.

You might notice that there has been no mention of initiative. That is because Everyone Else and Agents never act against Agents directly. Operations can spend Setback against Agents at any time and everyone is considered to be acting at the same time. Operations simply decides what order Agents roll dice in, we suggest Clockwise from Operations.

When fighting has started everyone currently in the scene has to roll something. Aries is likely killing people, Scorpio might be hiding, Virgo could be hacking a computer, and Gemini might duck behind cover hoping not to be shot. Every round every Agent present decides what they are doing and makes a roll. Even if they aren’t killing people, you’re in the thick of it and you could cause Setback.

No you ask what happens when two Agents get into it with each other? Treat each as if they were Other Agents with an Agent Rank equal to their highest Area Rank and an Agent TN equal to their lowest Area times five. Then both Agents then set aside Wagers in secret and make a roll. If either Agent the passes the other Agent’s TN they apply those Wagers against that Agent’s Rank. Don’t forget about the Free Wager for passing the Agent TN. Unlike Other Agents once an Agent has Wagers equal or greater than his Rank he is considered Almost Dead. If at any point an Agent is considered Almost Dead it only takes one Wager and one Agent Point, in addition to any spent to gather dice, to kill him. That Wager must be spent during a separate round then the one where the Agent became Almost Dead. You can not make extra Wagers to kill an Agent who is not Almost Dead, you have to spend a round making them Almost Dead first.

Example: Mike, the team’s Capricorn, has had enough of Jeremy, the team’s Virgo. Mike is a Rank 5 Capricorn and Jeremy is a Rank 4 Virgo. Mike’s lowest Area is a 1 Virgo while Jeremy’s lowest Area is a 2 Capricorn\Gemini\Scorpio. Ironically they both have an Aries of 3. This means that Mike is a Rank 5 Agent with a TN 5 and Jeremy is a Rank 4 Agent with a TN 10. Both spend an Agent Point and gather additional dice, resulting in Mike having 7 dice and Jeremy having 6. Both set aside Wagers in secret than reveal that Jeremy has two Wagers while Mike has three Wagers. This means they are both rolling four dice. Mike rolls 6, 6, 4, & 1. Keeping a total of 15. Jeremy rolls 2, 4, 1, & 2. Keeping a total of 8. Both beat their respective TN, and Jeremy does Three Wagers against and Mike has Four Wagers against Jeremy. Mike opts to use all Four Wagers against Jeremy’s Rank and he is “Almost Dead”. If the fight continue for another round Mike only needs to make One Wager and spend an Agent Point to kill Jeremy.

Example: In the above example if Mike would have started as “Almost Dead” (from either fighting with other Agents or from Operations Spending Setback) then Jeremy would have only had to make a single Wager and spend one more Agent Point to kill Mike. Mike’s Wagers would still be applied against Jeremy and after the fight Jeremy would still be “Almost Dead” but Mike would be “Dead Dead”.