Nappa v Tenshinahn
Combat Begins
Tenshinhan volunteers to hold off the lumbering behemoth Saiyan–Nappa. In this 1-on-1 fight, players will compare each character’s Agility to determine who has the first action in the contest. The Game Manager could also include story details to determine who goes first if it’s a surprise attack. The GM would also help to determine the initial distance between the two warriors. For this example, we are going to assume Nappa and Tenshinhan (Tien from now on) are one lesser action’s movement length from each other and both currently on the ground (not flying).
With an Agility comparison of 3 to 2, Tien has the opportunity to take the first turn. With the innate sense that he is outmatched, he doesn’t want to go toe-to-toe with the large alien just yet, so he opts to start with an Energy Attack.
First Strike, Tien’s Basic Energy Attack
While there are plenty of special abilities which involve the use of Energy Attacks, any character who has invested in the Energy Attack Specialty can perform a basic Energy Attack by spending EP. Let’s play this out with Tien using the least amount of EP possible–it’s an attack to test the waters, to see what he’s really up against.
Each turn a character can perform two Lesser Actions or one Greater Action. A basic Energy Attack is a Lesser Action. As we have stated, he is in range already for this attack, so he does not need to move before he blasts.
With his action declared, Tien will now make a Chi test against Nappa’s Energy Defense. Since this specific test is an Energy Attack, he will get 1 bonus die from his Specialty level of 1 in Energy Attack. Let’s look at the numbers:
Determining If It Hits
Tien: Rolls 4 total d6 (3 Chi + 1 Energy Attack Bonus Dice) and keeps the totals from the 3 highest shown numbers.
Tien would keep the 4, 5, and 6 for a total of 15. Nappa’s Energy Defense is 10, and he did not attempt to Dodge the attack. The blast hits!
Damage
Basic Energy Attacks deal 1D6 of damage for every Rank of Chi + 1 for every level the character has in the Energy Attack Specialty.
This attack would deal 3D6 + 1 points of HP damage–with a deduction from Nappa’s Tough Rating, which we’ll get to shortly.
+1
For a total damage value of 15! Tien should be proud.
With his Saiyan Armor on, however, Nappa has a Tough Rating of 7. This means that any damage that Nappa receives is reduced by 7.
As a result of the hit, Nappa takes 8 Hit Points of damage, leaving him with 92 remaining HP. It’s a size-able scrape, but certainly nothing he needs to worry about–especially when he closes the gap between the himself and Tien.
Tien’s 2nd Lesser Action
The player controlling Tien now has an interesting decision. On Nappa’s turn, the Saiyan could send some Energy Attacks back, he could try some trickery, or he could charge in for Hand-to-Hand combat.
Tien could charge in first and try to gain the upper hand, he could also prepare by going defensive and perform the common action of Block, or he could send an even bigger blast Nappa’s way.
For this example, we’re going to go with the latter. The first Energy Attack only cost Tien 2 EP (the standard cost), he still has plenty of energy left–82 EP. Now, he will spend extra EP in order to deal more damage. Characters can spend an extra amount of EP equal to their Spirit rank while performing an Energy Attack in order to add that amount to the damage of the blast.
So, this time, Tien will spend a total of 5 EP in order to add 3 points of damage to the attack.
He rolls his 4 dice and keeps 3 (his Chi Rank) for a total of 15. We know the attack will hit because Nappa still has an Energy Defense value of 10.
Now, we’ll roll for damage:
+5
The base damage for this second attack is 14. When we take away Nappa’s Tough Rating of 7, Tien’s second attack reduces his total HP down to 85.
With a starting amount of HP set to half of Nappa’s starting HP, the three-eyed warrior is sure to be in for a fight for his life.
Be sure to check out Part 2 for when Nappa strikes back!
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-Tommy
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