V20 Combat: Initiative, Attack, Defense, and Soak

The pieces, and who rolls them

Call a step table-standard when the engine does not roll it. The health track is the part the sheet actually keeps.

Initiative

Table standard is Dexterity + Wits + one die. The highest result acts first. The lowest declaration comes first, so the faster character answers a known intent. The engine does not roll this and does not sort the turn.

Attack and defense

The attack is an Attribute plus an Ability against the difficulty the Storyteller sets. Six is the usual default, not a law for every range. A declared dodge is Dexterity + Athletics. Each defense success removes one attack success. If none remain, there is no damage roll.

Damage

Once the hit stands, roll the weapon's damage at difficulty 6. The catalog's light pistol is 4 dice. Each remaining damage success is a health level before soak. This page's worked example does not add further dice for extra attack successes. Add those only if your table uses them. The engine never adds them.

Soak

Table standard for a vampire is Stamina + Fortitude, difficulty 6. Each soak success cancels one damage success. Aggravated damage, including fire and sunlight, is the Fortitude exception: Fortitude soaks it, and Stamina does not. The engine does not roll either pool. Fortitude on the sheet is a Storyteller-applied resistance, not an automatic soak.

Damage types and soak eligibility

Core V20 soak is normally difficulty 6. These are innate soak pools; armor and specific powers can add exceptions. Ordinary mortals have no Fortitude. For vampires, halve remaining bashing after soak, rounding down; lethal and aggravated are not halved. Fire and sunlight require Fortitude alone.

Run it in this order.

1. 01Declare the shot and any dodge or other action before the dice.
2. 02Order the turn with Dexterity + Wits + one die. That roll stays at the table.
3. 03Roll the attack at the difficulty set for the shot. Use 6 when the scene has not moved it.
4. 04Roll a declared dodge as Dexterity + Athletics. Subtract those successes from the attack. Stop if none remain.
5. 05Roll the weapon's printed damage at difficulty 6. Do not invent extra damage dice in this procedure.
6. 06Soak at the table with Stamina + Fortitude, difficulty 6. Record only the levels that remain, and name them bashing, lethal, or aggravated.

1. 01

   Soak stays at the table

   Stamina + Fortitude at difficulty 6 is the table standard for a vampire's bashing and lethal soak. It is not a function in the rules engine. Fortitude is catalogued as a core resistance, and the sheet tells the Storyteller to apply it. Armor can sit on an item as a passive rating. Nothing in the roll builder adds that rating, or Fortitude, to a soak pool, because no soak pool is built.

2. 02

   Bashing is halved only if the table does it

   The published vampire rule halves remaining bashing damage after soak, rounding down. Lethal and aggravated are not halved. The engine does not halve anything. It writes the type and the amount you apply. A bullet in the example below is lethal, so the halving rule would not touch it even at a table that uses the rule.

3. 03

   Celerity and Potence are not silent dice

   Celerity's catalog note is that each dot adds Dexterity-related dice and that blood buys extra physical actions. Potence is a Strength and damage mechanic. Neither is inserted into a pool by the roller. Extra Celerity actions still spend blood inside the generation's per-turn limit. The combat code will not take them for you, because there is no combat code.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the V20 engine to roll initiative or soak because the sheet shows Dexterity, Wits, Stamina, and Fortitude.
• Halving lethal or aggravated damage the way a table halves remaining bashing after soak.
• Adding Stamina to an aggravated soak. At the table, that soak is Fortitude alone. Fire and sunlight are aggravated.
• Adding attack successes beyond the first to the damage pool inside this procedure. Do that only if your table uses it. The engine will not.

One pistol, then the track

Every number below comes from the procedure on this page and from the catalog's light pistol. Soak is table arithmetic. The sheet receives the remainder.

• Rafael shoots, Irena soaks

  Rafael, Dexterity 3, Firearms 3, light pistol, damage 4. The Storyteller sets the shot at difficulty 6. The attack gets 2 successes. Irena, Gangrel, Dexterity 3, Athletics 2, Stamina 3, Fortitude 2. Her dodge at difficulty 6 gets 1 success. Damage on 4 dice at difficulty 6 gets 3 successes. Soak is Stamina 3 + Fortitude 2, five dice at difficulty 6, and gets 2 successes.

  One attack success remains, so the shot lands. Three damage successes minus two soak successes leaves one level. A bullet is lethal, so the table does not halve it. The engine records 1 lethal on Irena's seven-box track. It did not roll the initiative, the dodge, the damage, or the soak.

The track is the combat record

After the table finishes the sequence, the sheet stores health levels and the dice penalty those levels imply. It does not store a round, an initiative score, or a soak result.

• Damage is applied as bashing, lethal, or aggravated, packed in that order of severity, on exactly seven boxes. A blow that would pass the seventh box is returned for the Storyteller to adjudicate. It is not silently converted into torpor.
• The penalties on those boxes are 0, −1, −1, −2, −2, −5, and incapacitated. A later check can include that penalty. Incapacitated means the character cannot act until the track is recovered. Soak is still not rolled for them.
• Mending one blood point removes one bashing level, or one lethal level if no bashing remains. It does not remove aggravated damage, and it does not replay the fight.
• Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence remain Storyteller-applied. The roller will not add Fortitude to a Stamina pool or Celerity to a Dexterity pool unless the Storyteller puts that modifier on the check.

Frequently asked

Does the app roll soak?

No. Soak is table-standard: Stamina + Fortitude at difficulty 6 for bashing and lethal, and Fortitude alone for aggravated damage. You apply the levels that remain. The engine has no soak roll to correct.

What about initiative and Celerity?

Initiative is table-standard Dexterity + Wits + one die. The engine does not roll it and does not add Celerity to it. Celerity's recorded mechanic is Dexterity-related dice plus extra physical actions bought with blood. The Storyteller applies both. The sheet will spend the blood if you spend it. It will not take the extra action.

Do vampires halve bashing after soak?

At the table, yes: remaining bashing is halved after soak, rounding down. Lethal and aggravated are not. The app does not halve the amount you enter. If the table halved bashing from 3 to 1, enter 1 bashing. Do not enter 3 and expect the track to finish the arithmetic.

How does aggravated damage differ?

Fire and sunlight are aggravated. At the table, Fortitude soaks aggravated damage and Stamina does not. One blood point does not heal an aggravated level. This page does not state a number of days or nights for that recovery. The track can hold the aggravated boxes until something that is allowed removes them.

What does the seventh box do?

The seventh box is incapacitated. The character cannot act until health is recovered. Overflow past that box is not applied for you. It comes back as a case for adjudication. Incapacitated does not, by itself, roll a soak or spend the vampire's blood.

Related rules

• V20 Target Numbers
• V20 Blood Pool
• Combat and Soak