Unknown Armies:Non-Combat Actions

If you’re fighting someone, there’s an excellent chance it isn’t just because you’re a psycho. You want something. The two of you are fighting because the Maltese Falcon is on the table or because you’re trying to get out the door to your car or whatever. Trying to accomplish goals like these in the middle of a fight means you’re using non-combat actions. These are any actions you take that are not directly related to injury. The tactical use of magick qualifies as a combat action, such as using magick to whack somebody, or confuse them, or control them. But if you try to divine what you’re having for lunch tomorrow in the middle of a fight, that’s a non-combat action.

Short Actions

Any non-combat action takes at least two rounds. The first round, you declare your action but you still get to attack or dodge that round as normal. The second round, you can neither attack nor dodge—you just perform your action. Non-combat actions work this way because it requires presence of mind to do anything in a fight other than fight. Once you declare your action in the first round, you cannot change it in the second round. You can modulate it slightly if the GM allows it. If you declared that you were going to get in a car, you could change that to getting under the car instead.

Long Actions

The GM may rule that some non-combat actions take longer than two rounds. Remember that a round is roughly three seconds and plan accordingly. These longer actions work the same way as two-round actions: declare the first round, then spend the other rounds taking the action.

You have more freedom to modulate your actions when they’re stretched across a longer span of time. If you’re running for the door and it takes you four rounds, on round three or four you could decide to change direction and run in a different direction. But if you want to cancel a longer action and go back to fighting, you have to announce this during your turn one round and can then attack or dodge the next round.

Drawing Actions

It takes one round to draw a weapon, not two. When you declare you’re going to draw, you do it right away instead of making an attack or dodge. It’s ready for use next round. You have to draw a weapon before you can use it, of course—so you cannot shoot your gun on the first round of combat unless you were walking around with it in your hand before the combat began.

Simultaneous Actions

If your attack skill is 85% or higher and the GM approves, you can attack and either dodge or perform another action at the same time. Similarly, if your Dodge skill is 85%+, you can dodge and either attack or perform another action at the same time. If you’re such a lightning-quick bad mofo that your attack skill and Dodge skill are both 85% or higher, you can attack, dodge, and perform a non-combat action in the same round.