[Explanations] Dark Heresy

[Linguz]

EXPLANATION: COMBAT

Combat in Dark Heresy is done by initiative and rounds, each round lasting just a few seconds. During each individual attack, one rolls multiple die for accuracy, damage, hit location, enemy's dodge, and maybe something else that I'm forgetting.

Step 0) Only done before the first round starts. Roll a 1d10 and add your Agility Bonus to it. That is your initiative and tells who goes first.

Step 1) Roll a 1d100 and see if it's below your modified Ballistic Skill (BS) or your modified Weapon Skill (WS) if it's a melee attack.

Step 2) Roll another 1d100 to see where the attack will hit.
01-10: Head. 11-20: Right Arm. 21-30: Left Arm. 31-70: Body. 71-85: Right Leg. 86-100: Left Leg.

Step 3) This only happens if the hit is scored and if the enemy is aware of the attack. Enemy does a 1d100 and checks it against his modified Agility (Ag) to see if he dodges. If the enemy succeeds, there is no damage. When dodging full-auto, semi-auto, or point blank scatter, each degree of success dodges an extra bullet. When dodging area of effect, they move their Agility Bonus in meters. If it gets them out of the area, it's dodged. If the explosion is too large, they fail.

Step 4) If the hit does connect, you roll a 1d10, 1d5, 2d5, or whatever you need to roll for the damage and then add the modifiers (+2 or +3 or something else for some weapons. Some talents add more damage). You take the Armor Points that the enemy has in the location of impact (found by Step 2) and subtract the damage done by them. Armor Points are received from armor protecting a specific area, areas, or your entire body and your Toughness Bonus for your entire body. If this is a melee attack, you add your Strength Bonus in damage.


-< Example >-


Here is an example, I will be using Invisiblecastle.com to roll and link to the rolls.

Nidal, 40 BS, 25 T, 35 Ag, 10 wounds, using an autogun, wearing a flak jacket.
Malfure, 30 BS, 40 T, 30 Ag, 14 wounds, using a combat shotgun, wearing a guard flak armour.
They are currently 6m apart.

They start by rolling a 1d10 each for initiative and adding their agility bonus. Nidal got a 4, so her initiative is a 7. Malfure got a 2, so his initiative is a 5.

Nidal levels her gun and fires full auto on Malfure. (+10 BS from distance. +20 BS from full auto. Total of 70.) She rolls a 51, so with a single degree of success, two bullets are flying at Malfure. (Rolling for hit locations.) The bullets fly at his left arm and right arm.

Malfure, knowing she's firing, tries to dodge. He succeeds with a single degree of success, allowing him to dodge both bullets. Knowing his shotgun works best at 3m or less, he takes a half action to move forward 3m, making the distance be 3m. He fires his combat shotgun at her. (+30 BS from distance. Total of 60 BS.) He rolls a 37, making two of the bullets fly at her. The bullets fly at her body and right arm.

Nidal tries to dodge, but her roll comes up a 97 and she fails.

Malfure rolls for damage on both his shots, doing a total of 22, 10 and 12.

Because of Nidal's 25 Toughness, she stops 2 damage from each bullet, dropping them to 8 and 10. Her armor further protects her, stopping 3 damage from each bullet, dropping them to a 5 and a 7.

Unfortunately for Nidal, she only has 10 wounds, making this drop her into 2 critical damage to the right arm. (I check the critical damage table for impact and arm.) The attack leaves a deep bruise, making her take a level of fatigue (and therefore be at a -10 on all further rolls).

-< End Example >-

As you can see from the rolls, I didn't make anything up. This was a single round of actions, ending up with Nidal getting severely hurt and if she doesn't take Malfure out next round before he goes, it will most likely be the end of her.

Critical Damage is only used for important characters, like the PCs. Most NPCs die upon reaching 0 wounds.

[Linguz]

EXPLANATION: INTERACTION & OTHER TESTS

Whenever you speak to someone, you do not have to make an interaction test for a specified skill. You only need to when actually trying to do something more. When you do decide to use a skill, there are a few steps, like combat.

Step 1) Make a post stating how it's being done, most likely including some speech.
Step 2) Roll a 1d100 for your characteristic, usually Fellowship, but it can be Strength.
Step 3) The DM should roll a 1d100 for the enemy's opposed check, if there is one.
Step 4) If Step2 is a success and has more degrees than Step3, then it's a success and the other person should react accordingly. If it's a failure, there can be repercussions depending on the degrees of failure.


-< Example >-


Here is an example, I will be using Invisiblecastle.com to roll and link to the rolls.

Nidal, 45 Fel.
Malfure, 40 Per.

Nidal sees Malfure guarding the door, a combat shotgun in his hands. Knowing that she can't take him on, she approaches him quickly and speaks, "Guard! Someone just killed somebody else with a knife! Someone needs to stop him!" ((Roll: Deceive - 23, Success by 2 degrees))

Malfure, being a guard, tries to see if she is speaking the truth through scrutiny. ((Roll: 64, failure.)) Believing that she is speaking the truth, he goes off in the direction that she pointed to try to find and catch the fake murderer.

Nidal, seeing that the path was now clear, entered the building to continue her mission.

-< Example 2 >-

Deceive can also be used in conjunction with Barter to sell or buy items at an increased or decreased cost.

Nidal, 45 Fel.
Shop Keeper, 30 Per, 40 Fel.

Nidal held out the lasgun, pointing to it and telling the shop keeper, "How much can I get for this?"

Being a common gun, the shop keeper simply states, "30 thrones."

Nidal, not liking the price, attempts to deceive the man, "30 thrones? This gun was the last soldier standing's gun in the war over in Cantus! I demand more thrones for it." (Roll: 8, deceive, success.)

Being a wary merchant, he looked over the gun to determine by himself. It was beat up but of good overall quality. (Roll: 74, scrutiny, failure.) He believed her claim and upped his price, "200 thrones."

Nidal smiled, knowing she had won. (Roll: 19, barter, success.) "Better, but that's still pretty low. I'm thinking... no lower than 250 thrones."

The shop keeper nodded and gave her the money.

-< End Examples >-

That last example isn't made up. I actually did sell a cheaply made gun, which was actually bad quality, for a couple times more than its total value by saying it used to belong to a soldier of some kind, and then increased said price by bartering. One can do a lot by using tests instead of violence. How you choose to solve a problem or do an interaction is up to you, though. Want to intimidate a shop keeper into higher prices? Go ahead. There's a galaxy of options to use for each interaction or problem, be creative.

If you have any questions on how certain skills would be used, go ahead and ask me and I'll look into it if I don't know immediately.