Combat

Combat in Halcyon Aces is fast, tactical, and card-hungry. It uses zone-based positioning, a three-action economy, and the same draw-play-fatigue loop from core resolution. This chapter covers everything from turn structure to damage calculation to the moment a character goes down.

Zones

Halcyon Aces uses abstract zones instead of a grid. The GM defines zones based on the environment. A tavern might have three zones (bar, floor, balcony). A forest clearing might have five (north clearing, south clearing, treeline east, treeline west, ridge). Zones are connected by the GM's description—if two zones are adjacent, you can Stride between them.

Range Bands

Three range bands determine what you can reach from your current zone:

Round Structure & Initiative

Combat proceeds in rounds. At the start of combat, every combatant draws 1 card from the top of their deck. This card goes directly to fatigue (it's the cost of reading the battlefield). The card's effective value determines your place in the initiative order: highest acts first. This initiative order remains fixed for the entire combat.

On a tie, suit breaks it: ♠ > ♦ > ♣ > ♥ (Spirit > Mind > Body > Heart).

Modifying Initiative

• Heavy weapons impose -1 to your initiative card's value
• The Perk Quick Draw lets you draw 2 cards and pick 1 for initiative (the other returns to deck bottom)
• Seize Initiative: On any round after the first, a combatant may spend 1 action to discard 1 card from their hand to fatigue, then draw 1 new card. Your position in the turn order changes to match the new card's effective value for that round only.

Your Turn: Three Actions

On your turn, you have 3 Actions. Spend them in any combination, in any order. You can repeat actions.

Reactions

You get 1 Reaction per round, which refreshes at the start of your turn. Reactions trigger off specific events and don't cost actions. Every character has access to one default Reaction:

Additional Reactions can be gained through Traits and Perks. You can only use one Reaction per trigger—if two Reactions could apply, choose one.

Making an Attack (Strike)

When you Strike, draw cards equal to the relevant stat (Body for melee weapons, Mind for ranged weapons and firearms). Play one card. If the effective value meets or exceeds the target's Guard, the attack hits.

Damage

When an attack hits, calculate damage:

Note: If the EV exactly equals Guard, you hit for 0 + Weapon Bonus. Even a grazing blow deals weapon damage.

Critical Hits

If your effective value exceeds the target's Guard or Resolve by 6 or more, you score a Critical Hit. Crits have two powerful effects:

Weapon Properties and Crits

Some weapon properties interact with crits:

• Keen lowers the crit threshold to 5+ over defense
• Brutal doubles your stat bonus on crit instead of adding it once
• Staggering inflicts the Stunned status on crit
• Sweeping deals half damage to an adjacent enemy on crit
• Disarming forces the target to drop their weapon on crit

Active Guard

Spending 2 actions enters you into a defensive stance that lasts until your next turn. When you enter Active Guard, draw cards equal to your Body stat and play one. The played card's effective value becomes your Guard against all attacks until your next turn, replacing your passive Guard.

Only the one played card goes to fatigue—the rest return to the bottom of your deck. This makes Active Guard a single investment: one card spent, one strong defense established.

Multiple Strikes

You can Strike more than once per turn, but each subsequent Strike suffers a cumulative -2 penalty to effective value. Your second Strike is at -2 EV; your third (if you spend all three actions on Strikes) is at -4 EV.

Some weapons modify this. Quick and Combo weapons (like shortbows and gauntlets) remove the penalty on the second Strike made with that weapon, making them ideal for rapid attackers.

Dual Wielding

When you wield two weapons with the Light property, you can fight with both simultaneously. Dual wielding follows these rules:

• Off-Hand Strike: Your second Strike each turn may use the off-hand weapon. This Strike ignores the normal -2 multi-attack penalty, but it deals only the off-hand weapon's bonus damage (not the main hand's). Your third Strike (if any) still suffers the cumulative -4 penalty as normal.
• Draw and Play: Both Strikes use the same stat for their attack check (Body for melee, Mind for ranged). You draw and play as normal for each Strike—dual wielding doesn't grant extra cards or change the draw process.
• Switching Weapons: You don't need to spend an Interact action to switch between your two Light weapons during your turn. The act of dual wielding assumes fluid weapon transitions.

Broken & Defeat

When a character reaches 0 Vitality, they are Broken: unconscious and unable to act.

Stabilization Checks

On each subsequent turn, the Broken character draws 1 card from their deck:

• Ace: They stabilize at 1 Vitality and regain consciousness (but are still prone and weakened).
• Face card (J, Q, K): They hold on—still Broken, but the card does not count as a Failing Draw.
• Number card (2–10): It counts as a Failing Draw and the card goes to fatigue.

Three Failing Draws and the character is Defeated.

Ally Stabilization

An ally can stabilize a Broken character by spending 1 action and succeeding on a Heart check while adjacent. The DC starts at 10 and increases by 2 for each Failing Draw the Broken character has accumulated (DC 10, then 12, then 14). On success, the character stabilizes at 1 Vitality.

Defeat

If a Broken character accumulates three Failing Draws (three number cards), or if their deck is completely empty (no cards to draw), they are Defeated. What Defeat means narratively—death, capture, permanent injury—is up to the table and the GM.

Combo Attacks & Team Ultimates

When allies fight in sync, the result is greater than the sum of its parts. These are optional rules that reward coordination and teamwork with cinematic, high-impact plays.

Link Strikes

A Link Strike is a coordinated attack between two allies. To perform a Link Strike, both characters must meet all of the following conditions:

1. Both characters must act on consecutive initiative draws (one immediately after the other in the round). If another character or enemy acts between them, the Link is broken.
2. Both characters must target the same enemy (or at least one overlapping target if using multi-target attacks).
3. Each character spends 1 action on their turn toward the Link Strike. This replaces their normal Strike for that action. They still have their remaining actions for movement, Techniques, or anything else.

Resolution: Both characters draw for their attacks simultaneously. Take the higher effective value between the two draws and add +2 EV to it. This is the Link Strike's final EV, compared against the target's defense once. If it hits, the damage is calculated from whichever attacker's weapon and stats produced the higher EV, plus a flat +3 bonus damage representing the combined force.

A Critical Hit on a Link Strike adds the stat bonus of both attackers (the primary attacker's stat + the supporting attacker's stat).

Team Ultimates

A Team Ultimate is the big moment. The screen goes dark. Lines of light trace between every party member. The camera pulls back. Everyone moves as one. A Team Ultimate is available once per combat and requires the participation of at least three player characters.

Activation: Any player character can call for a Team Ultimate on their turn by spending 2 actions. Every other participating ally must spend a Reaction to join. (Characters who have already used their Reaction this round cannot join.) The calling character is the Lead; everyone else is Support.

Resolution: The Lead makes an attack draw as normal using their weapon and stats. Each Support character draws 1 card from their own deck and adds +1 EV per card that matches the Lead's attack stat suit (Resonance suit). Cards that don't match still go to fatigue, they just don't add the bonus. The Lead's final EV is their draw result + all matching Support bonuses + 3 flat EV.

Damage: If the Team Ultimate hits, damage is calculated from the Lead's weapon and stats as normal, plus +2 bonus damage per participating Support character. A three-person Team Ultimate adds +4 bonus damage; four-person adds +6.

Target: A Team Ultimate can target a single enemy or a zone (Lead's choice at declaration). If targeting a zone, compare the final EV against each enemy's defense separately, but apply the full damage calculation to each target hit.

Multi-Target Attacks

Some Techniques target multiple enemies. Dual targets two enemies (make one draw, compare your EV against each target's defense separately). Sweep targets all enemies in a zone (same process, compare against each).

Weapon properties can also enable multi-target attacks: Sweeping (crit effect) deals half damage to an adjacent enemy, and Scatter (firearms) hits all targets in a zone at the cost of -1 bonus damage.

Improvised Weapons

Sometimes you don't have a weapon. Sometimes the weapon is a chair, a bottle, a rock, or whatever's at hand.

• Standard Improvised Weapon (bottle, rock, tool, loose brick): +0 bonus damage. No properties. Uses Body for melee attacks. Can be Thrown at Near range using Body.
• Heavy Improvised Weapon (chair, table leg, iron pot, crate): +1 bonus damage. Heavy property (-1 initiative). Uses Body for melee attacks. Cannot be thrown.

The GM has final say on what counts as an improvised weapon and whether it's standard or heavy. Improvised weapons break on a Critical Hit—the item is destroyed after dealing crit damage. The Brawler Talent (+2 EV with unarmed or improvised weapons) applies to all improvised weapon attacks.

Falling Damage

When a character falls from a significant height, they take 1 damage per 10 feet fallen. The falling character may attempt a Body check to reduce the damage by half (rounded down). The DC scales with the fall:

The DC formula is 8 + 1 per 10 feet fallen. Falls of 50 feet or more are potentially lethal for low-Vitality characters.

A character who falls onto another creature deals half the falling damage to that creature as well (both parties take damage). Landing on a soft surface (water, hay, deep snow) reduces fall damage by half before the Body check.

Falling damage cannot crit. It simply happens.