There is no initiative roll. There are no turns. When a fight starts, everyone acts at once — choosing, committing, and living with the consequences on a shared timeline. Welcome to the timing track.

The Timing Track

When a situation turns violent — or when timing and sequencing matter — the GM calls for the timing track. Think of it as a number line starting at zero. Every action takes a certain number of counts, and you place a token on the count when your action will complete.

1. The GM sets the scene. Where are you? What's around you? How far apart is everyone? Weapons drawn or holstered?
2. Everyone declares their first action at once. Nobody has seen anyone else act yet — you're reacting to the situation, not to each other.
3. Place tokens. Drawing a sword takes 2 counts, so your token goes on count 2. Firing a revolver takes 3 counts — token on count 3. Casting a spell might take 3 or 4, depending on the spell.
4. The GM advances the track. Count by count. When it reaches your token, your action resolves.

Who Goes When?

When multiple tokens land on the same count, whoever started their action first resolves first. If two people started on the same count, they resolve truly simultaneously — both shots land, both spells fire, neither can react to the other.

After actions resolve, characters who need to declare new actions do so in order of PC (Physical Coordination), lowest first. Ties broken by AW, lowest first. This means the fastest, most coordinated characters declare last — they see what the opposition is committing to before they choose their response.

Changing Your Mind

You can abandon your current action at any time before it resolves. The counts you've already spent are gone, and your new action takes its normal speed plus a 1-count penalty. Sometimes it's worth eating that penalty to respond to a changing situation.

Making an Attack

Steel meets flesh. A bullet finds its mark. Here's what happens when your action token hits the count.

1. Roll d100 against your skill target — Melee, Ranged, or Firearms. Under the number? You hit.
2. Critical hit: if your roll falls within your crit range, double your damage dice. A roll of 00 is always a fumble — the weapon slips, the gun jams, something goes wrong. The GM decides what.
3. Roll damage using your weapon's dice.
4. Subtract armor soak. Use the Ballistic rating against firearms and high-velocity projectiles, or the Martial rating against melee weapons, brawling, and low-velocity attacks. Whatever's left fills their hit point track.
5. Check for armor degradation. If the raw damage exceeded the relevant soak rating, there's a 25% chance the armor loses 1 point from that rating permanently. Crushing weapons raise this to 50%. Armor wears down. Every fight costs something.

Attack Modifiers

Not every shot is clean. Not every swing is uncontested. These modifiers stack with each other and with wound penalties.

Situation	Modifier	Notes
Target in partial cover	-10%	Behind a barrel, around a corner
Target in heavy cover	-20%	Arrow slit, overturned table fortress
Firing into melee	-10%	Near-miss may hit an ally
Far range	-10%	Unless weapon has Accurate tag
Distant range	-20%	Accurate weapons and rifles only
Aimed shot	+10%	Costs +2 speed (you take your time)
Wound penalties	Varies	Stack with everything
Exhaustion penalties	Varies	Stack with everything

Active Defense

You don't have to stand there and take it. When an attack comes in, you can try to get out of the way — but it costs you.

Requirements: you must not be mid-action (your token can't be on the track). You get one active defense per count.

Choose your skill: Melee (parry the blow), Brawl (slip and redirect), or Athletics (dodge entirely). This is an opposed check — compare your margin of success against the attacker's margin. Defender wins ties. If you win, no damage. If you lose, the hit lands as normal.

The cost: whether you succeed or fail, your next action takes +2 speed. You spent precious time reacting instead of acting. Defending keeps you alive. It also keeps you on the back foot.

Parrying Weapons

Weapons with the Parrying tag — rapiers, basket-hilted swords — grant +10% when you use Melee for active defense. They're built for it.

Shields

Shields add their soak value passively against attacks from the front and flanks — Ballistic or Martial, whichever applies. You don't need to do anything — you're holding the shield, it's doing work. You can also actively block with an Athletics check for a chance to negate the hit entirely, same rules as active defense.

Range Bands

No rulers, no grids. Distance is described in four bands. If you can picture the scene, you can run the fight.

Band	Description	What Works Here
Close	Arm's reach	Melee weapons, brawling. This is where swords live.
Near	Same room, across a street	Ranged weapons at no penalty. Free movement within this band.
Far	Across a field, end of a corridor	-10% ranged (unless Accurate). Sprint to close.
Distant	Edge of visibility	-20% ranged. Only Accurate weapons and rifles.

Movement

Moving within your current band is free — you're already there. Moving one band closer or farther requires a Sprint action: speed 3. You can't attack and close distance in the same action unless you're already at Close range making a melee attack.

Scatter Weapons

Shotguns and other weapons with the Scatter tag hit harder up close and lose punch at range. At Close range, add +1d6 damage. At Far range, subtract -1d6 damage. They're room-clearers, not sniper tools.

Taking Cover

Partial cover gives attackers -10%. Heavy cover gives -20%. You can spend a speed 2 action to Take Cover — diving behind a wall, flipping a table, ducking into a doorway. After that, you have cover until you leave it.

Weapons & Armor

Full weapon tables, armor ratings, weapon tags, and Galvanic oddities are in Arms & Equipment. Here's what matters for combat:

• Every weapon has a speed (counts on the timing track) and damage (dice rolled on hit).
• Armor has two soak ratings: Ballistic (firearms) and Martial (melee). Use whichever matches the attack.
• If raw damage exceeds soak, there's a 25% chance the armor loses 1 soak point. Crushing weapons raise this to 50%.
• Weapons with the Parrying tag grant +10% on active defense.
• Shields add soak passively against frontal attacks.

The Malfunction System

Magic and machinery don't mix. The more sorcery saturates the air, the more your finely machined firearm becomes an expensive paperweight — or worse.

Every firearm shot is a two-step process. First, roll Reliability — does the weapon fire at all? Then roll Ranged — does the shot hit? The weapon has to work before your aim matters. Every shot, every time — even in clean air.

Reliability works like any other d100 roll-under check. Roll at or under your weapon's effective Reliability and it fires. Roll over and it malfunctions — shot doesn't fire, action wasted.

The Aetheric/Galvanic balance shifts effective Reliability by 2 per net point. Net Aetheric makes guns less reliable. Net Galvanic makes them more reliable. At effective Reliability 100+, the weapon cannot fail. At 0 or below, it simply doesn't function.

Malfunction Severity

When a weapon malfunctions, roll d10 to see how bad it is. Galvanic weapons add +1 to the severity roll.

d10	Result	Effect
1–5	Click	Didn't fire. Clear it and try again next action.
6–7	Jam	Weapon is jammed. Clearing takes the weapon's reload time.
8	Misfire	A stray shot fires in a random direction. Someone nearby might have a bad day.
9	Mechanical Failure	Something broke internally. Weapon needs proper repair — it's done for this fight.
10+	Catastrophic	The weapon is destroyed. Shrapnel deals 1d6 damage to the wielder.

A Fight in the Alley

Let's put it all together. This is a full worked example — two player characters against two armed thugs.

Count 0 — First declarations (all simultaneous). Nobody has seen anyone act yet. Everyone commits blind.

• Kael: draws his sword (speed 2, token at count 2)
• Sera: begins casting Force (casting time 2, token at count 2)
• Thug A: fires revolver at Kael (speed 3, token at count 3)
• Thug B: fires revolver at Sera (speed 3, token at count 3)

Count 2 — Kael and Sera resolve simultaneously. Both started at count 0, so they go together. Kael's sword is drawn. He immediately declares a melee attack on Thug A (Medium weapon, speed 5, token at count 7). He's at Near range — closing the last step to Close is part of the attack.

Sera's Force spell fires. She rolls 2d100 (wild caster): a 38 and a 72. Her target is 55. The 38 is 17 under; the 72 is 17 over. Equal distance — she takes the 38. Margin 17, that's Standard tier. She could suppress it to Weak (her target of 55 allows 2 tiers of suppression), but Standard Force does 2d6 damage. She keeps it. Targets Thug B. Damage: 2d6 = 8. Sera pays 4 exhaustion. Backlash check: 15% chance at Standard for a wild caster. She rolls 67 — no backlash. The area gains +2 Aetheric accumulation.

Count 3 — Both thugs fire. Both started at count 0, so they resolve simultaneously. Sera's spell already went off at count 2 — the area is at +2 Aetheric. Both revolvers are at effective Reliability 95 − 4 = 91. Barely degraded, but the clock is ticking.

• Thug A shoots Kael: Reliability check first — rolls 44 against 91. The revolver fires. Ranged roll: 44 against skill 50. Hit. Damage: 2d6 = 9. That's a firearm — Kael's leather coat has Ballistic 0. No protection. All 9 damage fills his OK tier (which holds 9). He's standing, but one more scratch drops him to Harmed. He really needs a ballistic vest.
• Thug B shoots Sera: Reliability check — rolls 38 against 91. Fires. Ranged roll: 71 against skill 50. Miss. The bullet sparks off the alley wall.

Count 3 — New declarations. Now declaration order matters. Three characters need to choose: Sera (PC +0), Thug A (PC +0, AW -1), Thug B (PC +0, AW -1). The thugs declare first (tied PC, lower AW). Then Sera. She gets to see what they're committing to before she decides.

• Thug A: fires again at Kael (speed 3, token at 6)
• Thug B: took 8 damage. 7 fills his OK tier, 1 overflows to Harmed. He's at -10%. Fires at Sera anyway (skill now 40, token at 6).
• Sera: sees both thugs shooting again. Casts Force a second time (casting time 2, token at count 5).

Note: Kael doesn't declare — his sword attack is already on the track at count 7.

Count 5 — Sera's second Force. She rolls 2d100: a 29 and a 84. The 84 is farther from 55 (29 away vs 26 away). Wild casters take the farther die — she's stuck with the 84. That's over her target. Misfire. The Force spell rebounds — Sera pays 2 exhaustion and takes 1d6 = 3 damage as invisible force slams her backward into the alley wall. Backlash check at misfire rate: rolls 72 — no backlash this time, but the magic already bit her. No accumulation — the spell didn't manifest, just went wrong. Area stays at +2 Aetheric. This is the wild caster's bargain — access to every spell in your schools, but the dice can betray you. And when they do, it hurts.

Count 6 — Both thugs fire. Accumulation is still +2. Revolvers are at effective Reliability 91.

• Thug A shoots Kael: Reliability check — rolls 61 against 91. Fires. Ranged roll: 61 against 50. Miss.
• Thug B shoots Sera: Reliability check — rolls 55 against 91. Fires. Ranged roll: 55 against 40 (wound penalty). Miss.

Count 7 — Kael's sword connects. Rolls 22 against Melee 66. Hit — margin 44. Crit range is 2 (skill 66 is in the 51-75 bracket, crits on 64-66). Rolled 22, not a crit. Damage: 1d8+1 = 7. Thug A has no armor and has taken no damage yet — Kael's 7 fills 7 of his 9 OK boxes. He's standing but hurting.

After count 7: Thug A is wounded but still in OK. Thug B is in Harmed from Sera's first spell. Sera took 3 damage from her own misfire and paid 2 exhaustion for nothing — the accumulation hasn't climbed because the spell never manifested. The revolvers are still at effective Reliability 91, not the 87 they'd be at if both spells had landed. Sera needs her next cast to connect — and she's already hurt.

Count 7 — Thug B gets desperate. He's Harmed, his revolver is getting twitchy, and there's a wild caster throwing bolts of force down the alley. He reaches into his coat and pulls out a small brass device covered in coiled wire — a Galvanic force generator. He flips the switch. The air hums. The streetlights flicker.

The generator is a sustained Galvanic device. Every 3 counts, it produces −2 Galvanic shift, pulling the balance back toward neutral. It activated at count 7 — its first pulse hits at count 10.

Count 10 — The generator pulses. The balance was +2 Aetheric. The generator pulls it to 0. Neutral. The revolvers are back to full Reliability 95. Sera's casting target is back to her base 55. One pulse and the advantage from her first spell is gone.

Count 13 — Another pulse. Balance drops to −2 Galvanic. Now the Engine is winning. The revolvers are at effective Reliability 95 + 4 = 99 — nearly impossible to jam. Sera's casting target drops to 55 − 4 = 51. Her spells are harder to land and her wild dice just got crueler. If the generator keeps running, count 16 pushes to −4: Reliability 103 (cannot malfunction), casting target 47. The Veil is being smothered.

Kael eyes the humming device on Thug B's belt. If he can close the distance and smash it, the balance swings back to neutral. If he can't, the thugs' guns are about to become perfect — and Sera's magic is about to become useless.