Damage Call Examples, Part 2

Good morning Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with the second part of my discussion on the rules on how we declare attacks and skills in the world of Dystopia Rising. I started this discussion last week with my first blog post, but we also had a really neat story written by Shan detailing some important events for some of our casted characters (in case you missed it!).

FAQs and Feedback

First, I’d like to address a few comments on my last post before we get it into it! Thanks for all the feedback, as I love hearing how these posts help you better understand the rules of DR.

• It was mentioned about some confusion with the Poison keyword in the DR Corebook (pg. 105) and how I described Poison Damage. Threats in the wastes have access to other skills and abilities that are not listed in the Corebook, in materials that are provided to the Guides and STs of the local games. While the Poison keyword in the Corebook covers most of the mechanics for how ITEMS that deal with Poison function, there are several attacks and abilities used by monsters that all use the same phrase of “poisonous strike” or something similar. While I called this damage type “Poison” damage, it is actually officially called during an attack as “Mind” damage instead. The monsters will declare “10 Mind Damage” as an attack, instead of using the phrase “Poison”. I’ve edited the previous blog post to be more specific about this Damage Type.

• While I outlined some cool things in my nifty chart I made last week, I used some phrases like Damage Modifier, Delivery Modifier, etc. It should be noted that none of these things have an consistent official name in the book, but is simply the phrase I used to describe them. It’s clear from the mechanics that each step of a Damage Call follows a certain logic, and these terms are just my way to describe each step. If you’ve heard it called something else, that’s entirely fine! I think my terms are pretty elegant and clearly describe a thing we can see in the book, and I hope you agree. :)

• The rules of DR are in a constant state of interpretation and flux at the moment. We have an expected FAQ due from our DR National team soon, so some of these things I’ve described here may change in the future. There are also several skills and abilities that appear on Blueprints and crafted items that do not have an official ruling on how they work yet. I’ve updated our DR: TX Rules Page with the most recent updates that I have, and I’ll make sure we have a solid repository for these kinds of clarifications for our local game.

The Damage Call in Practice

Now that FAQs are done, let’s talk a little bit more about how the Damage Call works in the game with some examples of how easy or complicated this can be. Remember, I covered the breakdown of each step of the Call in my previous blog post, but I’ve included the handy dandy chart from last week below to describe the six parts of a Damage Call.

The example above is a rather complicated call that includes every part of the Damage Call, so let’s look at some breakdowns of other calls.

MELEE ATTACKS

• Toothpiq Chopper - The Toothpiq Chopper is a great example of a crafted item that allows a character to deliver a Spike Damage Call (any attack that does MORE than base damage). The blueprint rule with Master Melee Standard states that “Spend 10 Mind to do 15 damage on next attempted Strike.” Let’s examine the Damage Call for the weapon by itself first:

  • The Master effect while using this item effect is declared simply as “15!” or “15 DAMAGE!”. It’s not necessary to declare ‘damage’ as this is assumed to be the Damage Type unless you say something different.

  • Since we use a boffer to make this attack, the Delivery Method is assumed to be a melee Strike and isn’t declared out loud. Since it’s not a Psionic attack or Unique ability, we have no Delivery Modifier or Skill Name used either.

  • The only parts we declare for this strike are the Damage Amount of “15”. Since it’s just basic damage, we don’t need to declare a Damage Modifier and there is no extra Damage Affix or Effect.

  • Even though a Spike Damage Call does way more damage than a normal swing, it still applies to Armor first, then Body unless a different Damage Modifier is used. Spike Damage is a great way to break through armor to soften up a target if you don’t have easy access to BODY damage types.

• Let’s discuss some common complications to an attack like this:

  • The Piercing Strike (p. 113) skill allows us to change the Damage Modifier or Damage Type to “Body” instead. If you paid the Mind to use this skill, you could STACK it with the Toothpiq Chopper effects to declare “15 BODY!” as your attack. Because we’ve changed the Damage Modifier, it’s important to include that in the Damage Call. Since the attack is Body damage, it skips past their Armor and deals damage directly to their Body pool.

    • Remember, BODY damage supersedes other damage types. If you were using a weapon that normally swung for BANE damage, the BODY damage type would be applied, and it would lose the BANE type for that swing. (p. 113)

  • The Proficient Combat Tactics skill (p. 114) allows us to change the Delivery Method to attack more than one target in range. When you use this skill you can change the Damage Call to “SCATTER SHOT! 15 DAMAGE!”.

    • Scatter Shot is a Delivery Method. Instead of needing to make a successful hit with your boffer, you simply declare up to FIVE targets within 5 feet of you that are automatically hit. They can still use Avoid to prevent the attack. Most folks will make this Damage Call, then point at the 5 targets in range immediately after the call.

    • Important reminder on Scatter Shot is that it has a unique rule that the Damage Amount cannot be improved above 20. If you use an item that deals 30 Damage on a swing and use Scatter Shot, it is reduced to 20 damage instead.

RANGED ATTACKS

Let’s look at a pretty common Ranged Attack next:

• The Mountain Rifle blueprint allows for a skilled Projectile user to make shots at incredible range. With the Profession Focus Achievement, or PFA, (p. 144) of Marksman, you can use this weapon to brutal efficiency. The call for the PFA ability of this weapon is declared as “Line of Sight, 30 Damage, No Defend!”.

  • Line of Sight is a Delivery Method, and the rules for this are found on p. 104. This allows you to declare a target out to about 50 feet from you and automatically hit with your attack.

  • IMPORTANT NOTE! An important clarification to Line of Sight effects is that the type of defense used to prevent the effects is the SAME as the weapon it is used by. In almost every case, this is a Firearm so the normal instance of this will be prevented by the Avoid skill. In the rare types this Delivery Method is used in other ways, it’ll usually be accompanied by the “No Avoid!” effect to make it very clear.

  • The Damage Amount of this attack is 30, and there is no particular Damage Modifier. Unless there is some listed restriction, you could stack an attack like this with Piercing Strike or other Damage Modifiers.

  • The final statement of this call is the Damage Affix or Effect. The call of “No Defend!” means that an NPC cannot use the Defend ability to prevent this attack. This weapon is brutal against NPCs that only have Defend, but can still be Avoided by another player or an NPC that as the Avoid skill.

PSIONIC ATTACKS

Finally, let’s talk about a Psionic attack that uses the Area of Effect rules to hit everyone in a nearby area.

• Master Pyrokinetics (p. 138) - This is a very powerful Psionic skill available to characters that can purchase Master tier skills. This Skill is declared as “PSIONIC: 3 Steps - 30 Body, Self Break All Brews and Injections”. Let’s break down each part below:

  • The first part of the call is the Delivery Modifier — “Psionic”. This lets us know the power is a psionic ability and be resisted with the Mental Endurance skill. Remember that Psionic is the only Delivery Modifier at the moment.

    • However, one weird complication here is that Master Pyro can ONLY be resisted by MASTER Mental Endurance and this isn’t part of the call. This is a great example of an exception to this rule, but it’s basically the only exception that I can find in any published materials.

  • The Delivery Method is declared in the call as “3 Steps”. This means that this attack is NOT delivered with a white packet like most psionic attacks but rather is a small area of effect attack. This is also one of the few exceptions to the common range of Area attacks - any attack that uses the Area of Effect call hits everyone within 10 feet of the user.

    • IMPORTANT NOTE! Unless otherwise specified, Area of Effect attacks always hurt you as well as your opponents. This attack targets EVERYONE, including you, your friends, and anyone nearby. If an AOE effect would exclude you as a target, it will generally involve the phrase “SELF IMMUNE” in the call.

  • The Damage Amount and Damage Type is declared in the call as “30 Body”. This means you take 30 points of damage, and it skips your Armor to hit your Body pool directly. Ouch! This is one of the bigger attacks that you can easily get access to as a player and it’s pretty brutal.

  • The Damage Affix, or Effect is declared last, and this one is uniquely targeted against the USER, not the target. In this case, any item with the Brew or Injectable keyword is immediately BROKEN and destroyed. Better hope someone nearby can pick you up from Bleed Out, cause you are in some serious danger!

WRAP UP!

That’s it for this week, but we will be continuing this discussion next week in Part 3 as we explore how the Timing of Attacks works, and how Damage Calls interact with various defenses. We’ll also tackle the dreaded “Why is MURDER stopped by my Striker’s Coat?” question!

BONUS CONTENT: Here’s a sneak peek for our eventual discussion of how BANE and DAMAGE REDUCTION work, illustrated in a cute zombie doodle done by Shan.