Forbidden Lands Players Handbook

card – and thus your initiative for the round
– with another player character. This can be
done at the start of the fight or at the start
of the round, but never during a round. You
and the other player character must be able
to speak to each other to exchange initiatives.
You can exchange initiative cards with an
enemy through the FEINT action (see Close
Combat).
EXAMPLE
On their way from the old ruined castle, a
few cheap gems and old books being all they
have to show for it, Nirmena the half-elf
and Tyrgar the dwarf are spotted by three
orcs at the edge of the forest. They grin
and get ready for a fight. All five draw
an initiative card each. Nirmena draws
6, Tyrgar 4, and the orcs 2, 3 and 9. The
initiative order is Orc 1, Orc 2, Tyrgar,
Nirmena, Orc 3.
SLOW ACTIONS &
FAST ACTIONS
When it is your turn to act, you can perform
one slow action and one fast action, or two fast
actions. A slow action usually consists of rolling
for a skill. A fast action is quicker and
doesn’t always require a dice roll, but can do
so. See the lists of typical slow and fast actions
below. How these work is explained in detail
in the sections Close Combat and Ranged
Combat, later in this chapter.
PREREQUISITES: Some actions can only be
performed if certain conditions are met. Often
this is a feature of the weapon you are using.
Features of weapons and other items are explained
later in this chapter.
NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
In typical conflicts, the GM
draws one initiative card per
NPC. If there are a lot of NPCs
and the number of combatants
is above ten, the GM will
split the NPCs into groups. All
the NPCs with identical stats
will form a single group, and
the GM will draw one initiative
card per group instead of one
per individual. All the NPCs in a
group act at the same time in
the turn order. In what order
they act individually within the
group is up to the GM.
MONSTERS
The kind of horrible creatures
that are commonly called
monsters don’t act as regular
enemies in combat. Monsters
draw initiative normally, but
then follow their own rules.
Read more in Chapter 5 of the
Gamemaster’s Guide.
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combat & damage