The following is an example of play that uses pregenerated characters and monsters from the core NewEdo rulebook. This example skips over some contextual stuff - like the fact that no one should be walking around NewEdo with a sniper rifle slung over their shoulder - in favour of expedience for learning's sake.
Narrative information is delivered in white italics the meta description of how that narrative works in NewEdo's systems is shown in purple. Page references are to the core book (PDF and print). The players controlling the characters are referred to as Player A (controlling Aloha) and Player SK (controlling Serious Kim). The storyteller remains nameless and unloved...
This information will be most useful to folks who've already read Chapter 3: Game Mechanics 101. Anything without a page reference can be looked up in the book's Index.
The PCs in this scene are Aloha (p 294) and Serious Kim (p 297). These characters' stats are shown in the book, but we've assigned some numbers to their Fate Cards so rolling is more fun in this example. Here's how we assigned their Fates:
Aloha and Serious Kim are strolling through Mad City at 2am on a Tuesday, looking for yaki and trouble.
They hear a cacophony of cackles coming from a neon-lit alleyway, and reach an unspoken agreement that that is where they need to be. They turn left down the alley, passing dimly lit doorways and tall stacks of bottle crates as they descend into the urban depths.
Turning a corner, the two adventurers discover that the laughter they were after wasn’t that of riotous revellers, but rather the maniacal glee of a swarm of Floating Heads (p 282). The Heads, flying horrors who congregate in packs around scenes of misery, were flitting around a body on the ground that was bathed in blood.
The Heads cease their swirling and turn as one to glare at the interlopers. Aloha and Serious Kim hesitate, briefly, then draw their weapons, laughing to themselves about Fate and fortune.
The characters wander and encounter monsters. The storyteller decides that no one is Surprised (p 213) and makes a note of Initiative scores (p 206): Aloha has 48, Serious Kim has 37, and the Floating Heads have 27.
Aloha, Serious Kim, and the Floating Heads are all standing (…or floating) in the open. Chaos erupts as everyone reacts.
Step 4 of the Action Sequence (p 213) can be a little bananas on the first Round of combat, since participants usually aren’t in cover (p 223).
At this point, all participants are Exposed (p 214) to each other. During Step 4 of the Action Sequence, participants may make Quick Action Interrupt attacks against Exposed targets if they have a Quick Action available. NPCs must have the Exposed Attack ability (p 279) and an available action to take advantage of this cheap shot. The Floating Heads don’t have that ability, so the PCs get off easy this time.
Since you can draw a weapon as part of any attack that uses a Quick Action (p 234), both Aloha and Serious Kim will get the chance to do so during Step 4 of this Round.
Aloha unslings her sniper rifle and snap fires at the furthest enemy.
Proceeding in the order of Initiative, Aloha goes first. Player A rolls Aloha’s Fate (p 50), and gets a 13 – a number with no Fate associated with it. She then moves on to Aloha’s attack roll (p 215).
Attacking with the sniper rifle requires a Perception + Gunnery roll. Aloha has 27 Perception (2d10) and 4/8/8 (1d4 + 2d8) in Gunnery. She also gets a +1 to this roll from the sniper rifle’s Unlock (p 235). Player A rolls a big handful of dice and gets a total of 20, including the +1.
The Target Number for her attack equals her target’s Size (7) times her Range Modifier (in this case, 4x, since the target is in Long Range), for a total of 28. Aloha misses and Player A marks off one expended ammo.
Serious Kim curses at the Floating Heads, draws her machine pistol, and fires at the nearest target.
Kim’s gun spews electrical fire instead of bullets, lighting up the alley and surprising the shit out of Aloha.
Serious Kim is next in the Initiative order and can also use a Quick Action Interrupt to attack in Step 4 of the Action Sequence. Player SK decides attacking is a good use of her action economy, so Serious Kim draws her weapon and fires.
Player SK rolls on Kim’s Fate Card and gets an 88 – Elemental Chaos (p 125)! This Fate means Kim’s next attack (the one she’s currently making) hits automatically and does Elemental damage instead of Kinetic (p 219).
The target is enveloped in electricity and screams in horror and rage before disintegrating into a plume of greasy smoke.
With that handy nod from Fate, Player SK rolls the machine pistol’s damage (2d10) and gets a 7 and a 10. Since 10s explode (p 44) on any 10 they roll, Player SK rolls that die again and gets a 4, for a total of 21 Elemental damage.
Serious Kim’s target only has 20 HP, so the 21 Elemental damage kills it instantly.
Player SK marks off one expended ammo regardless of her Fate Card roll.
Aloha ducks back around the corner and fires again at the furthest Floating Head.
Step 5 of the Action Sequence starts and all participants begin their Turns in the order of Initiative. You can see how a high Initiative score and the benefit of attacks against Exposed enemies grant a significant tactical advantage.
Aloha uses up 3m of her Move to duck around the corner into half cover.
Player A is frustrated by her first miss, so declares that she’ll spend 5 Temporary Legend to add +5 to Aloha’s next attack roll (p 45). Since she has already rolled her Fate once this Round, she can’t roll it again for this attack.
Rolling the same attack dice as before, Player A gets a total of 32, including the +5 from her use of Temporary Legend. Aloha hits.
The sniper round pierces the furthest Floating Head and it explodes into gory chunks, splattering the alley with arcane viscera.
The sniper rifle’s damage is 5d10 but Floating Heads have the Resistance, Kinetic ability (p 279). This means that Player A has to drop 1d10 from her damage roll.
Rolling 4d10, she gets a 8, 2, 8, and 5, for a total of 23. The Floating Head has 20 HP so the sniper shot kills it immediately.
Aloha has used up her Quick and Full Actions (with her attacks in Step 4 and 5 of the Action Sequence). She’s only used 3m of her Move, but Player A doesn’t want her to go anywhere else, so her Turn ends.
Not to be outdone, Serious Kim scrambles to the right, taking partial cover behind some crates. She’s got a machine pistol and she aint afraid to spray some bullets, so she lets out a burst, firing at the nearest surviving Floating Head.
Kim uses 4m of her Move to change position then enter half cover.
Her attack with the machine pistol is rolled as Perception + Small Arms. Kim’s Perception is 21 (2d10) and her Small Arms is 4/4/12 (2d4 +1d12). Rank 3 of Small Arms also grants her an ability that increases all attack rolls by her Skill Rank (in this case, +3) against targets with a lower Initiative than her – which applies against the Heads. Player SK rolls 2d10 + 2d4 +1d12 +3 to attack, getting a total of 30.
The Target Number to hit is her target’s Size (7) times the machine pistols Long Range Modifier (4x) = 28: she hits.
A spray of bullets thud into one of the Floating Heads as well as the brick wall behind it. The Head looks shocked, then laughs and spins on its axis, teasing Kim with a protruding tongue.
Player SK decided to fire the pistol on Burst (p 220). Burst fire doesn’t affect a weapon’s attack roll, it just increases the number(s) on which a gun’s attack will ‘explode’ (be re-rolled). In the case of a machine pistol, the Burst range is 8-10, meaning that any damage dice that roll an 8, 9, or 10 are kept and then re-rolled for additional damage. The only downside is a Burst will use up 10 of the rounds in the gun’s clip.
As mentioned above, the Floating Heads have the Resistance, Kinetic ability, so Player SK will have to drop 1d10 from her damage roll. Player SK rolls only 1d10 for damage this time – on her previous attack, the gun’s damage had been converted to Elemental because she rolled the Elemental Chaos Fate. This time she isn’t so lucky, and has to drop one dice because of the Head’s Resistance.
Player SK rolls a lonely 1d10 and gets a 7 – the Head is hurt, but not killed.
Kim snarls in frustration and jams a new clip into her gun.
Serious Kim has Two Weapon Fighting 1 (p 225), meaning she can reload a weapon by using 1m of Move instead of a Quick Action (which she’s already used up this Round).
She moved 4m to reposition and used up another 1m to reload, leaving her 3m of potential Move. Player SK leaves Kim where she is, in cover.
Kim’s Quick and Full Actions have been used up and she isn’t going to make any further movement, so her Turn ends.
The remaining Floating Heads cackle in glee, and circle toward the two interlopers…
The Floating Heads all have Initiative 27 and act at the same time in Step 5 of the Action Sequence. Aloha and Serious Kim will have to survive whatever the Heads dish out before a new Round begins and they get to act again…
