Field Reference 05
Part one is look-up: numbers to grab mid-turn. Part two explains how a fight flows and which option to pick. Page numbers are the SWADE core rulebook.
Card deal each round, count down Ace to Two, ties by suit — Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs. Joker acts any time and gets +2 to all Trait and damage rolls. Reshuffle after any round a Joker appears.p91–92
| Free | Move your Pace, plus one action. |
| Run | Add your running die (d6 default, never Aces) to Pace. −2 to all actions this turn. |
| 2″ per 1″ | Climbing, crawling, swimming, difficult ground. |
| −2 / −4 | Multi-Action: two actions is −2 to each, three is −4 to each. Declared before rolling.p103 |
| Hold | Take no action and keep your card to act later, including interrupting someone.p92 |
| Surprise | Ambushers are automatically on Hold. Victims roll Notice; those who fail get no card and can't act at all in the first round.p108 |
Melee hits vs the target's Parry. Ranged hits vs a flat 4, then apply these.
| — | Short — the first figure in the weapon's range |
| −2 | Medium — the second figure |
| −4 | Long — the third figure |
| −8 | Extreme — up to four times the Long figure |
Extreme Range needs the Aim option, but Aiming doesn't reduce the penalty there — it only makes the shot possible at all. A scope softens it to −6. Thrown weapons can't reach Extreme Range.p93
| −2 | Light — a quarter of the target obscured |
| −4 | Medium — half obscured, or the target is prone |
| −6 | Heavy — three-quarters obscured |
| −8 | Near total — barely visible |
If the shot would have hit without the cover penalty, the obstacle acts as Armor: heavy glass or a wooden shield +2, sheet metal or a car door +4, an oak door or cinder block +6, brick +8, stone or a tree +10. A person or creature in the way subtracts its Toughness instead.p99
| −2 | Dim — twilight, light fog, full moon |
| −4 | Dark — typical night with some ambient light; targets aren't visible past 10″ |
| −6 | Pitch darkness — targets can't be seen at all |
| +1 to +4 | Gang Up — +1 per additional adjacent attacker who isn't Stunned, to a maximum of +4. Each ally adjacent to the defender cancels one point.p101 |
| +4 | The Drop — target bound or completely unaware. Also +4 damage. Doesn't stack with Vulnerable.p100 |
| +2 | Target is Vulnerable |
| +2 | Touch attack — you only need to make contactp108 |
| +1 | Two melee weapons, if the foe has one weapon or none and no shield. No bonus against Natural Weapons.p108 |
| −2 | Attacker is Distracted |
| −2 | Unstable platform — firing from a mount or moving vehiclep109 |
| −2 | Off-hand, without Ambidextrous |
| −4 | Ranged attack at a prone target 3″ or further (doesn't stack with Cover)p104 |
| −4 | Limb — no extra damage |
| −4 | Head or vitals — +4 damage |
| −6 | Hand — target drops what it's holding |
| −6 | Small target — an eye, an armour joint |
When creatures of different Scale fight, the smaller adds the difference to its attacks and the larger subtracts it. Tiny −6, Very Small −4, Small −2, Normal 0, Large +2, Huge +4, Gargantuan +6. For Called Shots use the Scale of the part you're aiming at, not the creature.p106
+2 to Fighting and +2 damage for the turn, but Vulnerable until the end of your next turn — not just this one. Combines with Multi-Actions, Frenzy and Sweep.
+4 Parry until the start of your next turn. Takes your whole turn — no other action, no Multi-Actions. You may move normally but not run.
Add +2 or +4 to a Fighting roll and subtract the same from damage if it hits. Chosen per attack, before rolling. Can't be combined with Wild Attack.
Attack the weapon or the hand holding it — a Called Shot. Hit the weapon and you roll damage against the item; hit the hand and the target may drop it.
Only against attacks that say they may be evaded — flamethrowers, breath weapons and similar. An Athletics roll avoids or reduces the effect.
A completely helpless victim can be dispatched with a lethal weapon as an action — automatic unless the GM rules otherwise.
Any plausible skill, opposed by the attribute that skill is linked to. Success makes him Distracted or Vulnerable — your choice. A raise also Shakes him, and the GM may allow other effects such as a tripped foe going prone.
Roll a relevant skill: +1 to an ally's next roll, +2 with a raise. Maximum +4 from all Support combined — except Strength checks, which have no cap.
Every adjacent foe gets a free attack as you leave.
A single attack unmodified by the attacker's Edges or combat options. Counterattack, First Strike and withdrawals all generate these.
Opposed Strength. Success moves the foe 1″, a raise 2″ and knocks him prone. You may follow.
Fists or blunt weapons; an edged weapon used flat takes −1. Wounds work normally, but Incapacitation means unconscious for 1d6 hours instead of dying.
If an attacker with The Drop deals enough to Shake you or worse, roll Vigor — at −2 if it was to the head — or drop unconscious for about half an hour.
Use the lower of Fighting and Riding. Mounts share the rider's Action Card and may attack threats to their front. A Shaken, Stunned or Wounded rider risks falling.
On a missed Shooting or throwing roll the GM may check whether anyone in the line of fire was hit. Dramatic moments only.
Hard to parry a blade barehanded — an armed attacker gains an edge. The two-weapon bonus doesn't apply against Natural Weapons.
| Rate of Fire | How many Shooting dice you roll in one action. Declare how many shots go at each target, roll that many dice, then assign them as you like among the declared targets. You may always fire fewer than the maximum.p93 |
| Recoil | −2 to Shooting whenever you fire at RoF 2 or more in a single action. Not cumulative between actions — fire three shots then one, and the second action is clean.p105 |
| Aiming | Spend a whole turn stationary with no other action. Next turn, on your first action only, either ignore up to 4 points of Range, Cover, Called Shot, Scale or Speed penalties, or add +2.p97 |
| Reloading | Nocking an arrow or a sling stone is free, once per action. A clip, magazine, speed loader or single round is an action. "Reload X" means X actions.p105 |
| Snapfire | Weapons so marked take a penalty if the shooter moved that round.p66 |
| In melee | Only one-handed weapons or powers — no long arms. TN is the defender's Parry rather than 4. Shooting at anyone else while in melee makes you instantly Vulnerable.p104 |
| AP | Armor Piercing cancels that many points of Armor only, never the underlying Toughness.p55 |
Blast, Cone and Stream templates target a location, so they ignore target-specific defences such as the Dodge Edge and speed penalties. Cover still applies where something solid sits between the blast's origin and the victim.
Deviation on a miss: 1d6″ for thrown weapons, 2d6″ for fired. Multiply by 2 at Medium range, 3 at Long, 4 at Extreme. Roll a d12 for direction, read like a clock face. A weapon never deviates more than half the distance to the original target.p98
Turns a rapid-firing weapon into an area attack. Uses three times the usual ammunition for its RoF and always causes Recoil. Place a Medium Blast Template and roll a single Shooting die regardless of Rate of Fire.
Everyone under the template is Distracted on a success. Those hit with a raise take damage — but only up to the weapon's Rate of Fire in targets, attacker's choice.
| < Tough | No effect |
| = or > | Shaken |
| +4 each | A Wound |
A raise on the attack roll adds +1d6 damage, and that die Aces. Melee damage is Strength + weapon die and is not a Trait roll, so no Wild Die.p94
Wound penalties are −1 each to every Trait roll and to Pace, capping at −3. Three Wounds is a Wild Card's limit; a fourth Incapacitates. Extras go down on the first.p95
After damage is rolled, before Wounds apply: spend a Benny, roll Vigor. Each success and raise cancels one Wound. Cancel them all and you shed Shaken too. Don't apply the Wound penalties you're about to take.p96
| Crit fail | Dead |
| Failure | Permanent Injury, and Bleeding Out |
| Success | Injury until the Wounds heal |
| Raise | Injury gone in 24 hours or when Wounds heal |
Bleeding Out: Vigor at the start of each turn. Fail and you die; a raise stabilises you. An ally can stabilise you with a Healing roll as an action.
10 minutes per Wound, −1 without a first aid kit. Success removes one Wound, a raise two, a Critical Failure adds one. The Golden Hour: one attempt per character per patient within the hour the Wounds were taken. After that it's natural healing or the greater healing power.
| Shaken | Move and free actions only. Free Spirit roll at the start of your turn to recover, or spend a Benny. Shaken again while Shaken causes a Wound.p203 |
| Distracted | −2 to all Trait rolls until the end of your next turn.p100 |
| Vulnerable | +2 for others to hit you, until the end of your next turn.p100 |
| Stunned | Vulnerable, prone, cannot act. Vigor at the start of your turn to recover.p106 |
| Entangled | Can't move, and Vulnerable.p98 |
| Bound | Can't move, Distracted and Vulnerable, and no physical action but breaking free.p98 |
| Prone | Ranged attacks from 3″+ take −4 to hit you; melee gets +2 against you.p104 |
| Fatigued | −1 to all Trait rolls |
| Exhausted | −2 to all Trait rolls. A third level Incapacitates.p203 |
Breaking free from Entangled or Bound is an action: Strength at −2, or Athletics. Success frees an Entangled character from one entanglement, or improves Bound to Entangled; a raise frees a Bound character outright. Fail against a physical device — handcuffs, a net — and you can't retry until the situation changes.p98
An opposed Athletics roll. Success makes the foe Entangled; a raise makes him Bound. Success against someone already Entangled upgrades him to Bound.
Attack against the wielder's Parry if it's held, or 2 if motionless. Damage equal to or above the object's Toughness breaks it. Attacks against Bound or Entangled targets hit automatically, and you may Wild Attack for +2 damage.
1d6 damage per 2″ (four yards) fallen, to a maximum of 10d6. Halved with a successful Athletics roll if the fall was intentional.
The numbers above are half of it. What follows is how a fight actually flows, and how to decide what to do with your turn.
The card deal is what makes SWADE combat feel unlike initiative-order systems. Order is redealt every round, so you might act last one round and first the next. You can't reliably plan two turns ahead — and a character who goes late then early effectively gets a double turn.
Jokers are the big swing. Acting whenever you like plus +2 to everything is frequently the difference between a plan working and not. You can hold a Joker until the moment matters, including interrupting someone mid-action.
Holding your card is underused. You keep the card, do nothing, and act later — including interrupting. Exactly right for "I shoot the first thing that comes through that door."
Fights are short. Extras drop on one Wound, so a group of ordinary enemies threatens through numbers and Gang Up rather than staying power. Most fights resolve in three or four rounds and turn on one or two rolls rather than grinding down.
You get your full Pace and an action every turn at no cost. There's almost never a reason to stand still. Move to break line of sight, reach cover, set up Gang Up, or make yourself a worse target.
The two options that let a non-combatant matter, and they get conflated. Support hands an ally +1 or +2 — unopposed, low risk, reliable. Test is an opposed roll that inflicts a state: Distracted at −2 to everything, or Vulnerable so everyone hits at +2.
The book is explicit that a Support roll narrated as tripping someone doesn't actually trip them — no Distracted, no prone, no Shaken. If you want the state, you have to Test for it. The trade is that Test can fail against a defender's roll while Support only needs a 4.
Rule of thumb: Test when a big attack is coming and you want it to land. Support when an ally's roll is close and needs a nudge.
+2 to hit and +2 damage is substantial, and Vulnerable until the end of your next turn is a real cost — everyone attacking you gets +2 for a full round. Worth it to finish something off. Poor as an opener.
Every additional adjacent attacker adds +1, up to +4. Three characters on one enemy each swing at +2. It costs nothing but positioning, and positioning is free. A table that isn't using Gang Up is leaving the largest available modifier on the floor.
Two actions at −2 each is often worse than one clean action, because failing twice accomplishes nothing. Worth it when −2 still leaves you comfortably likely to succeed, or when one of the actions needs no roll.
A full turn spent Aiming buys up to 4 points of penalty relief next turn. Against heavy cover or extreme range that's often better odds than two rushed shots.
The damage system is swingy — exploding dice mean any attack can in principle kill anyone. What keeps characters alive isn't Toughness. It's Bennies.
Soak is the most important thing to remember. Damage is rolled, and before it becomes Wounds you may spend a Benny and roll Vigor, cancelling one Wound per success and raise. Soak everything and you shed Shaken as well. A character who Soaks routinely is dramatically harder to kill than the same character who doesn't — and new players consistently forget the option exists.
Shaken is a soft lock. Move and free actions only. Recovering costs your turn unless you spend a Benny — which works at any time, including on someone else's turn. Being Shaken while already Shaken becomes a Wound, so it's a spiral worth breaking early.
Wound penalties compound. Each Wound is −1 to everything, so a hurt character misses more, Soaks worse, and fails the Spirit rolls to unshake. That's why the system hands out metacurrency freely: Bennies are the brake on the death spiral, and hoarding them is how characters die.
Cover beats armour. −4 for medium cover is a bigger swing than most armour provides, costs nothing, and if the shot would have hit anyway the obstacle absorbs damage on top. Getting behind something is almost always the strongest defensive move available.