Combat

Dice
Combat in Continuum is decided by rolling a number of dice. We use a d10 system, whereupon the number of dice you roll depend on the dots in your character sheet for the skill/ability that you wish you use. Unless otherwise specified, every 6 and above counts as a Success. The amount of Successes that you score will determine any number of factors, but nominally speaking, you would need at least one Success in order to make something happen the way you want to make it happen.
 * Critical Fail: Every 1 rolled counts as a Failure. Each Failure detracts one success from your rolled successes. However, if you roll now successes and roll any number of 1's, that roll becomes known as a critical failure. Depending on the action, you may lose hold of your weapon for one round, injure yourself, or anything that the actual roleplay calls for. Sometimes a moderator may have to weigh in on what happens.
 * Outstanding Roll: Conversely, each 10 rolled counts as 2 successes.

Attack and Defense
Every duel in Continuum is handled as such. Whenever a group of people enter combat, they all roll Karma to see who has the highest successes. Highest gains initiative, and the rest on down go second, third, etc.

Every round, when it is his turn, each character may perform one attack and one defensive maneuver. The defensive maneuver is effected only if the character in question is under attack. Otherwise, he or she may not effect a defensive roll if nothing is attacking. Each round, when it is a character's turn to attack, he or she may opt to do more than one action. However, for each additional attack, the difficulty of each roll is increased by +2. Likewise, if a character finds himself under attack by two assailants, the first defensive roll has normal difficulty numbers... but the second defensive roll will have a +2 difficulty.

Tied Die Rolls
Should one opponent roll the same number of successes as the other one defending, then a tie breaker roll is required. Karma plays a part in this again, as both players roll their Karma attributes until one of them rolls more successes than the other. If the defender wins, the attack is avoided. If the offender wins, he rolls damage.

Damage
Damage is calculated easily enough. Whenever an attack strikes true, the offender rolls again. If it's a physical attack, then he rolls Strength, and number of successes equals number of hit points taken from the target. Supernatural abilities could be considered a little more potent, though damage is still calculated in similar fashion. For example, in magic's case, if the spell hits, roll Mystic Power + Spell, and the number of successes equals hit points taken.

If a character's hit points are reduced to 0, he or she is incapacitated. If his hit points go down further, he may lose his life.

Power Concepts
Given the open-ended manner in which a player may make up a character's powers and abilities, this list has been created to pretty much allow every player a glimpse into how these abilities should work in order for them to be balanced with the rest of the game.
 * Abilities that tweak Attributes usually affect them by a factor of every 3 successes counts as one success, rounded down. So if you roll 3 successes, you can affect an Attribute by 1 dot.
 * Abilities that tweak Traits follow the same rule as above, but by a factor of 2.
 * Abilities that grant extra actions also follow the 3 successes = 1 rule.
 * When performing some kind of action that has a duration, these actions usually will not stack. The duration in itself will depend on the number of successes, rounded down, left over from the opponent's attempt to dodge it. The effect will of course be determined by the potency of the attack. Example: You wish to cast a spell on an opponent that reduces his Dexterity Attribute. You roll Mystic Skill + Spell and gain 3 successes. Your opponent gains none. That means the spell works. Since mucking with Attributes means that every 3 successes equals 1 success, rounded down, the effects of your spell last for one round. After that you just have to roll Mystic Power + Spell in order to determine by how much your opponent's Attribute will be reduced.