How it resolves

How an attack resolves

1 · Defense — Tech/sonic resolve vs E-Defense; everything else vs Evasion. Stunned caps Evasion at 5.

2 · Range + Engagement — Out of range = no hit. Ordnance with Min Range N is disarmed inside N spaces and reports TOO CLOSE. A ranged attack while adjacent to a hostile takes +1 Difficulty (Disengage removes it).

3 · Accuracy vs Difficulty — Net the accuracy dice against the difficulty dice; roll that many d6 and KEEP THE HIGHEST (never the sum). Add Grit; Impaired is −2. The full list of what feeds each side is the next card.

4 · Hit — Total ≥ defense hits. An Invisible target has a 50% miss first.

5 · Damage — Roll the weapon dice — full damage out to optimal range, which is half the weapon's max Range, rounded up. Past that the shot loses damage: Kinetic −2, Energy/Sonic −1, melee never, never below 1, and a Reliable minimum is untouched. Then Exposed doubles it; subtract Armor flat (AP/Shredded skip it); Brace halves what's left, front arc only. A clean hit always applies at least 1 after every reduction — the one exception is a pure-control grapple, which deals none. Reliable N lands on a miss, but Armor still eats it and the min-1 floor does not apply: Reliable 1 into Armor 3 does nothing.

6 · Apply — Overshield absorbs first, then HP. Burn is added. Knockback/Ram shoves (forced movement ignores Slowed). Shoved into a rock is a collision: 2d6 raw, Armor does not apply.

7 · At 0 HP — A Cantor loses 1 Structure, refills HP, rolls 1d6 (1 Stunned / 2–4 Impaired / 5–6 nothing); destroyed at Structure 0. Enemies are simply defeated at 0 HP.

What adds accuracy

Lock On — +1 die for the next attacker on that target, whoever it is. Consumed by an in-range attack.

Bolster — +1 die on your own next attack. Consumed.

Prone target — +1 die.

High ground — +1 die on a ranged shot fired from inside an elevated zone at a target outside it. This is the whole reason to take the ridge.

Flanking — +1 die into the target's side arc. Into its rear arc, +1 die and its defense drops by 2.

Swarm — +1 die per other friendly unit already adjacent to the target, capped at +3. Swarm-tagged weapons only.

Friendly aura — An allied field you are standing in (a Manta's green ring, for instance) hands its hit bonus to every ally shooting out of it.

What adds difficulty

Cover — +1 soft, +2 hard. See the conditions table for what physical cover does differently.

Engagement — +1 on a ranged attack made while adjacent to a hostile. Disengage clears it.

Your own facing — Firing out your side arc is +1; out your rear, +2. Broadside weapons invert this: clean off either flank, +3 through the bow or the stern, which in practice means blocked.

Facing lock — Firing locks your facing until your next activation. Turn & Brace (a Quick) is how you re-orient and raise a front shield in the same beat.

Capital vs. fighter — +2 when a Line or Broadside capital gun shoots something Size 1 or smaller. It is why a battle whale is eaten by a fighter screen.

Taunt — +2 on an enemy that shoots anyone other than the Taunting anchor, out to the greater of 5 spaces and the shooter's own weapon range. Against a capital in ship mode there is no reach limit at all.

All of it nets to one number and is rolled as that many d6, keep the highest. Five sources of accuracy is still one die, not five.

Damage, in detail

Blast N — On a hit, everything adjacent to the target takes half the raw damage minus its own Armor, friend or foe alike. The attacker and scenery objects are exempt, and the min-1 floor does not apply here.

Collisions — Knockback or a tractor reel into a rock costs 2d6 raw with no Armor, and you stop one space short. Ramming solid terrain deals 2d6 to yourself and 1d6 to the terrain.

Shatter — A destroyed rock of Size 2 or larger breaks into two or three 12-HP splinters. They are shootable, and they give cover in the meantime.

Aim — A Full action. Your next shot with an Aimable weapon (line-shaped weapons qualify) rolls a whole extra instance of its damage dice. It survives to your next activation and breaks the moment you move, fire, or take a hit.

Sniper's mark — A weapon tagged "+Nd6 vs a Locked target" rolls those extra damage dice whenever the target carries a Lock On. That is on top of Lock On's accuracy die, not instead of it.

On-hit riders — A weapon that lists a status on hit applies it automatically: Impaired, Exposed, Slowed, Shredded, Stunned, Immobilized, Jammed, Lock On, Off-Balance, Prone.

Conditions

The seven Stone Fractures (manifest at Overcharge, cleared by a Bond Move): Granite Lock, Carnelian Drag, Pyrite Sputter, Malachite Closed Air, Lapis Distortion, Obsidian Glamour, Quartz Silence.

Your turn

1 Move + (2 Quick or 1 Full) + unlimited Free + 1 Reaction. One-click on the board:

Quick — Boost, Bolster, Lock On, Grapple, Ram, Turn & Brace, Save, Cooldown.

Full — Stabilize, Disengage, Aim, the Bond Move, and the two Stone-gated calls (Umbral Veil and the Orbital Lance).

Reaction — Brace, Overwatch, Graze. The Graze is the only reaction that actually swings: you need Speed 4 or better, the runner has to be in your front arc within 3 spaces and not Disengaged, and it lands half damage.

Situational buttons appear when they apply: Stealth (Lapis and Obsidian only), Search (ship mode), Break grip (while Held). Stress (Cantors only) is spent by Cooldown (1st free per scene, then 1, then 2); at 0 Stress you are Stressed Out. A forced move off a lethal edge always allows the save.

Ground, hazards, and the clocks

Difficult terrain — every cell of it costs 1 extra to enter. The board meters this in the movement ring as you drag, and the server charges it too, so you cannot spend your way past it by clicking carefully.

Hazard regions — marked zones that hurt whatever stands in them. The board shows the shape; the GM calls the effect.

The Vespertide — on a Vespertide map the wave runs a three-round cycle. It gathers visibly on the round before, then breaks on rounds 3, 6, 9: everything in the low band takes 2 Energy and is Slowed until its next turn. Diving low is allowed. It is not free.

A tow clock — when a hauler is hooked, its captor drags it 6 spaces toward the exit at every round advance. Three tows and the cargo is off the map. Ram is the answer: a Quick, no roll, it knocks the tug Prone and the clock holds while it is down.

Rate of fire — every weapon line says how many times it may fire per turn, and that is enforced on the ground as well as in space. On the Cantor sheets it is 1 shot per turn across the board.

Sandbox mode — a board the GM has opened up for practice: no action pips, no rate of fire, no movement budget. Nothing on this page is enforced there.

The loop

Act to build your band → it Overcharges when it tops your reach (early on that is 4; it climbs as you unlock higher Oaths) → next turn your Fracture manifests → clear it with a Bond Move (your whole activation, Move included: the band drops to 0, you swear your Oath rung, you gain a Bond Token) or dodge with Cooldown (no Oath). Several Oaths together = the Choir Moment. Damage and Resonance are separate tracks: your Fracture fires from Overcharge, never from taking hits.