Bakuhatsu Conflict

This covers the various forms of Combat and Conflict in Bakuhatsu Gakuen

Sometimes, people don't get along, and that's unfortunate for them, but probably good for people who want some kind of conflict in their story. In general, when two people want different outcomes, the clash involves making relevant Tests, with the best result winning. Some things are a little more complex than that, however.

Winning Debates

Debates are actually really simple. If you're trying to convince a crowd, then it's a straight-up opposed Language Studies Test, simple as that. Alternatively, you may wish to make a big deal about it, granting several "turns" to speak. Each turn, you put forward one argument and make the Test, each participant gaining votes equal to their marks, and each turn being able to use powers or subterfuge to change things, with the winner being whoever has the most votes at the end. It is recommended that there be a number of turns equal to the group size, as a general rule.

Fanbases in Debates

If someone has their Fanbase present for a debate, then treat their Fanbase rating as automatic marks for the final tally. If the opponent tries to destroy their Fanbase beforehand and fails, then instead treat the Fanbase as automatic marks every round of arguments. People don't much like it when you piss all over a group of the audience.

If a character influences a sufficiently large crowd with a general goal of "Agree that I am awesome" (as opposed to directing them to some task or convincing them of some fact or philosophy), with the difference in marks being at least as many as the group size, they may gain a Fanbase or increase an existing one - providing their Fanbase was not actually present in the crowd. You can't double-convince the believers, after all, you have to genuinely gain the adoration of a fresh crowd. If the Fanbase was present for the losing side and the winner would normally gain a Fanbase from their victory, they may choose to either gain a lesser one (from the remainder of the crowd) or make a destruction attempt against the existing Fanbase.

Arguments

When two people try to convince each other of things, they take turns making arguments (Language Studies opposed by Philosophy and Ethics). Depending on how crazy or extreme the point of view is, they can suffer a Dice Penalty of 0 ("We don't like each other but we have to work together on this", "I did score better in every math exam so I know my numbers!"), 1 ("We don't like each other but we have to work together on this and I should be the boss!"), 2 ("I know you personally love your money and think all tax is theft, but we need roads and hospitals, and Rand's books are built out of failure and unicorn AIDS"), 3 ("Your plan has merit but there's a glaring hole I'm surprised you didn't see. Trust me, the best plan is mine."), 4 ("Okay, this is the only plan that can work. You're going to have to get your tits out for this."), or 5 ("The fact that you won the popularity contest doesn't mean you're more popular, just that you're better at telling people you're more popular in a rigged system. If anything it's proof that I am more popular!"). A character may bring their Fanbase to bear in this, using its Rating as bonus dice as they basically make a lot of noise and try to bulldoze the conversation.

After you have both had a turn, if you both agree on the point of view (one person persuaded the other), it is over. Otherwise, if you both persuaded each other, then treat it as a tie - there is a compromise halfway if possible, otherwise you break it down based on Seniority, otherwise try again - the exception being if it would be hilarious if they both persuade each other and walk away with exchanged views, definitely do that. If nobody succeeded, try again.

Attacking a Fanbase

If one character wishes to destroy the fan support of another character, they basically have two methods of doing this: character assassination, where they "attack" the Fanbase on their own, or fan direction, where they unleash their own Fanbase against it in direct conflict. Technically they have a third option, of levelling violence personally against all of the fans, but that is handled in the normal way of violence (see below), and might be considered uncouth.

Character Assassination

The character must find and address the Fanbase (or a significantly large portion of them) out of combat time, and unleash a good speech or performance of some kind against them. She makes a Language Studies test, needing to score as many Marks as the Rating, plus one for every Fanbase Trait that is particularly relevant to its defence ("You only like her because of her glasses" is a terrible attack against a Moe fanbase for meganeko). If she rolls that many Marks, she reduces its size by one, and each Mark in excess of that reduces it again. If she reduces it to zero, they disperse and the Fanbase is destroyed. If the subject of a Fanbase's attention is made aware of what is going on, they should always have a chance to respond and turn it into a Debate, protecting their interests. Of course, if they are unable to get to the people in question in time, then they can offer no opposition.

Fan Direction

The character has to have her Fanbase around, or at least a significantly large portion of them, and then direct them to destroy the "enemy" Fanbase. It can take some time, but eventually they will clash: each rolls a number of dice equal to their Rating, plus two for each Trait that is particularly relevant to the contest, and if one rolls more Marks than the other, the loser's rating is permanently reduced by the difference in Marks rolled. If reduced to zero, a Fanbase is destroyed. If the defender wins, they can choose to not damage the attacker and merely drive them off - they are immune to that Fanbase from then on, and the attacking Fanbase can have no further effect in the Episode.

Sneaking and Hiding

This is a simple affair that is designed to be quick and easy to resolve, rather than being realistic and in-depth.

If someone or something is not actively hiding, just difficult to see, you just need a Difficult Science Test or a Standard Art, Forensics or Hunting Test to spot them.

When someone is actually hiding, it becomes an opposed Test at the first opportunity to possibly see them: after that opportunity has passed, there are no more Tests until situations change: either you saw them or you didn't. Hiding uses Behaviour Assessment, except for animals which use Hunting. To spot them, you use Science (with a Penalty of 3 dice), Art, Forensics or Hunting.

Letting Your Fists Do the Talking

Punching people in the face will be a common form of conflict, and will get a lot of attention. First step is to determine the turn order, following these steps.

Initiative/Turn Order

1. If one side catches the other completely by surprise, they automatically go first. The other side must be aware of your presence, not just "unprepared for you to attack".
2. Otherwise, arrange everyone into groups based on how much Enhanced Speed they have - ES 4 goes first, then 3, then 2, then 1, then the rest.
3. Within any of these Speed groups, roll Gym Tests. Better rolls go first, ties act at the same time.

The turn order is rolled once at the beginning of combat, and kept until combat ends. It can be modified as it goes, however - if someone joins, add them to the existing turn order as though nobody had been caught aware. A turn lasts around 10 seconds, give or take, allowing for speech, movement, collateral damage and so on.

Example

Eiko (A), Biko (B) and Shiko (C) surprise Diko (D), Iiko (E), Efuko (F) and Juiko (G). The turn order looks like this:
A, B and C
D, E, F and G

Now, Eiko and Iiko have Enhanced Speed 1, and Juiko has Enhanced Speed 3, so it becomes this:
A
B and C
G
E
D and F

Biko, Shiko, Diko and Efuko all need to roll Gym, getting 1, 2, 4 and 3 marks respectively. So now we have:
A
B
C
G
E
D
F

Taking Actions

On your turn, you can take both a Major Action and a Minor Action, in any order. Here are the most common examples of the actions.

Major Actions:

• Move 40 metres (modified by Enhanced Speed)
• Make an attack
• Guard somebody or something
• Actively defend
• Assist

Minor Actions:

• Move up to 10 metres (modified by Enhanced Speed)
• Stand up
• Pick an item up
• Swap carried items into or out of your hands
• Shadow someone within arms' reach
• Focus

Not an Action, Just Do It:

• Speak/Shout without activating a speech-based Power
• Drop a held item
• Open or close a door
• Drop to the ground

Attacking

When you attack someone, you make an attack Test - in most cases, this is a Gym Test, though various characters can used different Subjects for different attacks. Energy beams can always use Science, for instance. Hitting an unaware target is Trivial, but in other general cases, it is Basic.

Attacks typically deal damage based on the base damage of the weapon, plus one for every extra Mark rolled beyond those needed to hit, a bonus or penalty from your Gym Grade (if using a melee or thrown/launched weapon), and possibly a circumstantial modifier. Some things might be listed as using a Subject "in place of Gym" for the purposes of damage - use the chart below but replace "Gym Grade" with the relevant Subject's Grade. Some Powers are resolved as attacks, and have a listed damage of their own. Whenever you may modify damage with your Gym Grade, you can apply a bonus from Enhanced Strength.

Gym Grade	Damage Modifier
F	-2
Any D	-1
Any C	+0
Any B	+1
Any A	+2
S	+3

Typical Weapons

Keep in mind that damage can be reduced to zero, but not below zero. If the result is zero, then no damage is dealt.

Weapon	Base Damage	Range	Damage Type
Basic Unarmed	-1	Melee	Blunt
Knife	0	Melee/Thrown	Sharp or Jabbing
Staff/Baton	0	Melee	Blunt
Dart/Shuriken	1	Thrown	Jabbing
Kendo Stick/Big Club	1	Melee	Blunt
Spear	1	Melee/Thrown	Jabbing
Tennis Ball	1	Launched 30m/+10m	Blunt
Handgun	1	10 m/+5m	Jabbing
Sword/Axe	2	Melee	Sharp
Rifle	2	50m/+20m	Jabbing
Unarmed (Lotus Fist)	3	Melee	Blunt or Jabbing
Shotgun	3	10m	Blunt
Chainsaw	3	Melee	Sharp
Massive Object	4	Melee/Thrown	Blunt
Bazooka	4	100m, Blast	Fire and Blunt

Thrown objects have a range of 1 metre per Partial Grade above F in Gym - so a D+ would be 3 metres, a B- would be 7 metres and S would be 13m.

Ranged Weapons that have a range of X/+X have the first number as the basic range. The second range is an increment - for every iteration of this past the basic range, subtract 1 from the dice pool. If a character Focuses, they can negate up to three dice of penalties caused by range.

A Bazooka has a 5m radius Blast for the explosion of the rocket fired. Make one attack, and test it against everyone in the area, as well as the terrain.

A Tennis Ball only applies if launched by someone in the Tennis Club - they're the only kind who can turn it into a deadly weapon. People in similar sporting clubs can do the same with the ball their sport uses, with the same attributes as the Tennis Ball.

There are two Unarmed Attacks listed: the weaker one for anyone who isn't in Lotus Fist, and the better one for those who are.

Once damage is added up, and any Resistances subtracted, if the total is 1 or greater, subtract this from the target's Hit Points. Once someone falls below zero Hit Points, they are knocked out cold. If both the player of the attacker and player of the defender agree it would be suitably cool, then limb loss, coma or death may follow. Otherwise they are just knocked out and will wake up with 1 Hit Point within 1d6 minutes if attended to, or 1d6 hours if left on their own.

Types of Damage

There are several types of damage, which often makes no difference. But sometimes things have Resistances, Immunities and Weaknesses. The types are as follows:

• Air: getting thrown by a tornado (which is half Air, half Blunt), wind "whipping" or slicing at you, suffocating or being caught in a vacuum all count as Air. This blows objects around, disperses smoke clouds, extinguishes small flames and so on.
• Blunt: this covers most forms of punching, kicking and bashing, as well as falling and being landed upon. Shockwaves are also blunt, along with most ground/earth/stone attacks. This often knocks people around.
• Cold: this is typically cold weather, or being in icy water, or weird negative energy that saps heat from things. Smacking someone with an ice club is half Blunt, half Cold. This can freeze small amounts of liquid.
• Fire: this covers actual fire but also intense heat such as lasers, sun burn and orbital light cannons. This burns things and can set it on fire or melt ice.
• Jabbing: this is the stabbing kind of sharp, as opposed to slashing. Getting bitten or shot would be jabbing, as would stepping on a caltrop.
• Mental: this covers emotional trauma, ghostly possession, and mental psychic attacks. Even being incredibly sad can be a cause of Mental damage.
• Poison: this covers traditional toxins, smoke inhalation, disease, infection, parasites, radiation, plants growing inside you, some curses and even allergies. "Plant" attacks are usually Poison.
• Sharp: this covers slashing and tearing, but not stabbing. Things get shredded by this, and there is usually blood. Running through brambles causes Sharp damage.
• Shock: electricity is the main form of Shock, but plasma and "spooky dark lightning effect" would also be covered. This can short electrical goods out, or power them up.
• Water: water attacks are typically Blunt as well, but there is also drowning. Acid is also considered Water damage. Water douses fires and leaves the area wet and slippery.

Recovery

If you lack any special abilities that grant faster healing, it's still not too bad. Characters regain a single hit point per hour of rest, or for eight hours of activity (a school day, more or less). This is slow, but not too likely to crop up: if you're not dead, the school nurse can generally fix you up very quickly. Applying First Aid is a Basic Health Test, and restores 1 Hit Point as well as removing one Affliction. Every mark beyond the basic one restores another Hit Point or removes another affliction. You can also make a Basic Health Test to generally nurse someone to health when they are resting - they regain twice as many Hit Points and cannot get worse or develop new symptoms. Setting bones, performing surgery, treating severe burns and such is a Difficult Health Test and restores 1d6 Hit Points per mark rolled (including the basic ones rolled to pass the Test, not just excess marks) as well as removing an Affliction. Neurosurgery, nano-surgery and similar things are considered Ridiculous, but they make someone completely healthy again, even negating otherwise permanent effects.

Attacking Objects

Attacking an object that is animate and can fight back is just like fighting anyone else - it has its own Grades and so on. Inanimate objects, however, are like attacking unaware foes: you automatically hit, and just need to deal damage. Most basic objects only have one Hit Point - windows, wooden doors, tables, chairs, trash cans, clothes, priceless antique vases and so on. Lockers, vending machines and other sturdy things have three Hit Points, which still isn't much. Steel doors, walls, and the like have five Hit Points. Many objects have various Resistances - cloth resists everything except Sharp and Fire, Wood resists Poison, Cold and Air and reduces incoming non-Fire damage by 1 (after any Resistances are applied), and Metal resists Poison, Cold, Air, Water, Jabbing and Sharp, and also reduces all incoming damage by 2 points after Resistances. TRITANIUM metal has twice as many Hit Points and reduces incoming damage by 6 (after resistances). Mindless objects are immune to Mental damage, whereas advanced computers and such are not.

Guarding

With a Major Action, you can elect to guard a person, object, area or exit that you can physically reach. Until your next turn, you have a "spare" Major Action that can be used against someone entering the area, trying to use the exit, or trying to interact with the object or person. Typically this is an attack, but it needn't be - it could even be an Assist if it's the right person doing it.

Shadowing

By spending a Minor Action, you may shadow someone who is within arms' reach. When they move, you move as well (up to your Major Action movement limit), preventing their escape unless they're faster than you. You may Shadow someone at the same time as Guarding or Defending them.

Tricky Moves

A Tricky Move is resolved just like an attack, except instead of damaging someone, you merely impede them. Examples include:

• Grabbing onto them, causing them to be Distracted if they interact with anyone other than you, and they need to beat you at an opposed Gym Test in order to move.
• Throw/Shove them, with an opposed Gym Test. Success allows you to move them half the distance you could hurl a thrown weapon, or the full distance if you roll 3 marks more than them. They also fall over, landing prone.
• Making an opposed Gym Test to snatch an item from their hands, or a relatively easy-to-take object from their person (necklace, loose backpack, hat). If your Test result beats theirs and also beats an Extreme difficulty, you can steal any item off them like the fillings in their teeth or a pilot out of an enclosed vehicle.

Defending

When Defending, you either defend yourself from all attacks, someone within reach from all attacks, or everyone from one target you can reach. Basically, you spend your Major Action so that incoming attacks are less effective. Until your next turn, all attacks either against the target (if protecting them from others) or from the target (if blocking them) are Difficult Tests and also require the attacker to Focus. On both cases you have to be able to reach the subject of your Defend action when the attack is being made. If you Focus when Defending, the relevant attackers also suffer a -3 Penalty to their dice pool.

Focus

Various tasks require you to Focus, or grant a benefit if you Focus. That's what this is: you spend your Minor Action concentrating so that you can perform the task properly. Some conditions also require you to Focus in order to act normally. If you are attempting something that has no need for Focusing or benefit from it, and you are not suffering from a condition that requires you to Focus, then there is no point to it. When you Focus, you specifically gain one benefit to one action or relief from one condition - you can't just Focus in general and activate all benefits.

Status Afflictions

Sometimes, people don't feel so great. Things sometimes affect your fighting capabilities in a problematic way. There aren't many actual status afflictions, instead, one affliction could mean many different things. This is specified by its descriptors, so if a mysterious white powder caused you to be Distracted as a Physical, Poison effect, that's "high on drugs" and we don't need to list "high on drugs" as a separate thing from "someone is grabbing your arm".

Afraid

This is typically a Mental, Fear condition, resisted with a Philosophy and Ethics Test. Characters that are Afraid have to Focus in order to attack anything or to approach the source of their fear. If the fear is felt towards a specific thing, it is cured one minute after leaving its presence. It the fear is caused by circumstances, it is cured one minute after the circumstances end. If a strange effect causes general fear, it lasts as long as the effect dictates.

Blocked

This is typically an Energy condition. A character who is Blocked has their inner energy locked down or something similar, and cannot use their own Energy abilities. At the end of each turn, roll 1d6. On a 6, the condition ends. If you Focus, you can roll two dice and if either of them comes up as a six, the effects end.

Burning

A Burning character isn't necessarily on fire, they're just taking constant damage - bleeding out, doused in acid, filled with flesh-eating spiders that are crawling in their skin, a magic arrow is burrowing towards their heart, poison, infected chakra, crippling pain… whatever. The character takes a single point of damage each turn (bypassing any effects that reduce damage), and suffer a Partial Grade Penalty to everything they do. When first subjected to the effect, they must pass a Basic Philosophy and Ethics Test or become Distracted for the duration. Things that cause Burning generally list what ends the effect. If you Resist or are Immune to the damage type that caused it, you are also immune to the Burning it causes.

Confused

This is not necessarily actual confusion, but covers any situation where a character's actions are unreliable - actual confusion, partially resisting mind control, hypnosis, a blind rage, actual blindness, fighting illusions, being in zero-G and so on. A Confused character may elect to just take no actions, standing there and trying to make sense of things - this allows for no terrible mishaps on their part. Alternatively, if they Focus, they may declare their Major Action and then attempt a Basic Test - Philosophy and Ethics for a Mental effect, or Health if Physical. If they pass the Test, they move in the right direction, target the right opponents and so on, merely suffering a one die Penalty to all rolls (other than the resistance test). Otherwise, random directions or targets are chosen from those nearby. If they don't even Focus and just act, the Test is Extreme. If attacking and suffering from the random target, a character will never attack their Best Friend, Idol, Beloved, Sempai, or anyone who is Lucky. If available, they will always end up attacking their Rival, Enemy or someone who is Unlucky. At the end of every turn, they may roll 1d6. On the roll of a six, they are free from the effects of the condition - even if they are still actually blind or something, they can handle the situation for the time being. If they took no action, they roll 2 dice, and if either one is a six they're free from the effects.

Distracted

Being Distracted is what happens when something is impeding you in some way. This could include being drunk, entangled, pulled down by a magnetic field, half-hypnotised, tired, or in terrible pain. As a situational effect, it ends when the cause goes away. The character moves at half speed, and unless they Focus on resisting the effect, they suffer a Full Grade Penalty on everything they do.

Immobile

An Immobile character can take no actions. This may be because their chakra are completely blocked, or because they were affected by a paralysis drug, they're asleep, tied up, frozen solid… whatever. Basically, they cannot move or perform actions. The exception is if their various abilities would logically end the conditions causing the Immobile condition - so if they are Immobile because they are tied up, but have Hunting as an Elective, they could escape with a Difficult Test. If it's because they're frozen solid, but they radiate extreme heat, then it will end on its own in a few rounds.

Prone

This is always a Physical effect. A Prone character is lying down. Sitting and kneeling are not "half prone" or anything, they are treated as standing. A Prone characcter can only move at half speed, takes a Full Grade Penalty to Gym, and is treated as being unaware for all incoming attacks. Prone is negated by just standing up.

Bigger and Smaller Targets

There are six classes of size in this game, for combat purposes: Tiny, Small, Normal, Big, Massive and Awesome.
A Tiny creature is under 5cm tall.
A Small creature is under 30cm tall.
A Normal creature is bigger than Small but smaller than Big.
A Big creature is at least 10m tall.
A Massive creature is at least 50m tall.
An Awesome creature is at least 100m tall.

A character one or more sizes smaller cannot grab or shove a bigger foe without a special ability that says they can, and cannot reach weak points without leaping extra high, flying or using ranged attacks. They also deal half damage - the bigger target automatically Resists their damage, though if the character can negate Resistances, damage is not halved as normal. On the other hand, they never have to roll Opposed Tests to hit the bigger foe, and the hardest difficulty to hit them is Basic - a single mark is needed no matter what. If a target is two or more sizes bigger, damage is reduced to a single point unless the character has a way to bypass Resistance, but they always hit.

A character one or more sizes larger takes two-die Penalty when attacking smaller targets, but if they do hit, the targets must pass a Basic Health Test or be launched like a thrown weapon and suffer double damage. If two sizes larger, the test becomes Difficult. If three or more, it becomes Extreme.

Groups

Sometimes it's better to consider a group of people as one group and not a lot of people. Whether for targeting reasons, figuring out how hard it is to push through an area or whatever, use the following guidelines, keeping in mind that anyone awesome enough to be a named character in their own right should not be counted as part of a group.

• Size 1: 5-10 people
• Size 2: 11-50 people
• Size 3: 51-100 people
• Sizes 4-12: an extra 100 people each time (ie Size 5: 201-300, Size 8: 501-600)
• Sizes 13-21: an extra 1000 people each time (ie Size 13: 1001-2000, Size 17: 5001-6000)
• Sizes 22-30: an extra 10,000 people each time
• Sizes 31-39: an extra 100,000 people each time

And so on. So between one and two million people would be Size 40, for instance.

An area attack can just hit "whatever people are in the area" - determine the vague Group Size hit (see below) and, if that's at least a tenth of the total Group Size, the damage. Then make an estimate at how horribly maimed that group is, assuming they all have average HP for whatever they happen to be. Civillians are treated as First-Year students with a D in Health for this. If an attack could not damage at least a tenth of a group, consider it to be effectively immune - it's not that you can't personally stab one thousand guys, it's just that it's very slow and inefficient and nobody wants to sit around rolling for that.

When a group attacks, they have a "mob trample" attack: they have a dice pool equal to double their Group Size (with a maximum pool of 10 before any penalties are applied), and a Base Damage of 1, or 2 for Group Size 3+, or 3 for Group Size 12+. This can be resolved as an area attack against everything within close combat range of them.

Focus and Dedicated Projects

Not just in combat, some abilities require a character to Focus. When turns and actions are not being counted, this is not a big deal - characters can just Focus on one thing at a given time.

Certain long-term tasks, however, are Dedicated Projects. A Dedicated Project can last for several hours or even days, and takes up a place in the character's mind. A character can only work on one Dedicated Project at a time, however it does not have to be the sole focus of their attention - they may still eat, sleep, go to classes, even engage in combat providing certain minimum criteria are met regarding the project. Additionally, as long as they are working on a Dedicated Project, a character is too pre-occupied to Focus: if they wish to do so, they will have to abandon the project. In this case, if they go back to the project later they will need to start afresh from the beginning, having lost track of where they were.