Ymladd

Attack and defense

Combat is struggle and thus almost all attacks in it meet opposition. In order to determine if an attempt, for example an attack on an opponent, is successful, an effort score is compared with a resistance score and some randomness is added. Both scores can be the sums of several other scores, all of which must be balanced. Talents and skill of the fighting characters, equipment and environmental factors can all play a role. Details of the composition of effort and resistance scores can be found below.
If an effort score is greater than or equal to the corresponding resistance score, then the effort succeeds; otherwise it fails. However ... randomness can change the outcome. For each attempt, throw a 6-sided die. If a 1 or 2 comes up, lower the outcome by one point; for 3 or 4, leave it unchanged; for 5 or 6, up the outcome by one point. Repeat this until a neutral 3 or 4 comes up, or a value that would reverse the process.

This way of applying randomness can raise or lower outcomes to extreme highs or lows, though the chance of such extremes is low. Most results will hover around the unmodified scores.

Building blocks

As mentioned above, the outcome of attacks is determined by several factors. The main ones, which appear again and again, are listed below; other environmental factors are detailed further ahead.

• Weapons: These enhance to natural fighting power of characters. For humans, with limited power in their fists and feet, they are very important in combat. With weapons characters can skirmish, attack and defend, and harm opponents once the defense of an opponent is broken. They have various scores, all in the 0 - 9 range.
• Armor: Is a (set of) purely defensive piece(s) of equipment, which in Ymlað diminish the amount of harm that is suffered from physical attacks. Armor has a score that lies in the 0 - 8 range.
• Shield: Is a special kind of weapon, which in Ymlað can only be used for defense, not attack. Use of a shield in a fight gives a skirmish (see below) bonus that depends on its size: cavalry +1, medium +2, body +3. Shields only work against opponents who are in front of the shield bearer.
• Talents: Ymlað calls the physical abilities of characters talents. For this system, only two are relevant: strength and dexterity. Strength is simply muscular strength; dexterity a mix of suppleness and agility, balance, (hand-eye-) co-ordination and reaction speed.
  GMs may want to add endurance to determine how long the strength of fighters lasts in combat and even mental talents to gauge willpower, perception of the enemy, psychological manipulation and such, but all these are outside the scope of the basic system. Talents lie in the 0 - 4 range.
• Skills: As is explained below, Ymlað discerns four fighting styles / ranges. These are missile combat, formation combat, melee combat and close combat. Each has a separate skill. No skill is required to wear armor. GMs may want to add an extra generic combat skill that encompasses alertness, tactical insight, combat psychology and other factors that appy to all four fighting styles. Skills lie in the 0 - 6 range.

Ymlað does not use talent or skill scores themselves, only the corresponding modifiers:

Many RPG systems use different ranges for talents and skills, or even different talents and skills themselves. GMs should map these to Ymlað. For example the 'ability scores' of Dungeons & Dragons, ranging from 3 to 18, can be mapped to Ymlað modifiers as 3 to 5 → -2; 6 to 8 → -1; 9 to 12 → 0; 13 to 15 → +1; 16 to 18 → +2. GURPS sticks to a narrower range, so there the mapping of 'attributes' could be 6 to 7 → -2; 8 to 9 → -1; 10 to 12 → 0; 13 to 14 → +1; 15 to 16 → +2. F.A.T.A.L. 'agility' maps to Ymlað dexterity; in other systems strength is more or less equal to 'brawn' or 'power'. Most RPG system have some kind of strength and dexterity score that can be mapped.

Rounds

To keep things simple, Ymlað divides combat into rounds follow each other. During each round, each participant in combat may attempt one attack. Some RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons use rounds of a minute in length; others less, down to just a few seconds. Unlike some RPGs, there is no room for multiple attacks per round. Several seconds and even a full minute may seem long for a single attack, but remember that nothing is simple in the chaos of combat. Threats, feints, other distractions and maneuvering take up most of the time, often far more than the actual attack. It is up to the GM to decide on a proper length for combat rounds.
A good RPG system should allow other actions than combat attacks, but these are outside the scope of this system. Combat rounds keep succeeding each other until the combat ends because the losing side has been defeated, makes a run for it, surrenders or otherwise stops fighting.

Missile rate of fire

Like fighters who wield hand weapons, missile weapon users can theoretically often fire multiple missiles in one round. But to make sure that they hit, they have to aim carefully, limiting their rate of fire to one missile per round too. Some missile weapons, for example crossbows, are so slow to reload that they cannot even achieve that rate. Their users must spend one or even multiple rounds loading, before they can take a shot. These rates of fire are listed in the missile weapon table. Most missile weapons and all hand weapons have a 'fire rate' of 1, which means tey can be used to perform an attack every round.

Initiative

In combat, attacks and counterattacks alternate. Each round a fighter may make an attack and his opponent also. But who goes first? Ymlað sticks to a random order that is determined by the roll of a 20-sided die (d20). The dice are rolled and attacks are attempted in the order of the die roll results, from low to high. If a character is incapacitated before attempting his attack, then the attempt is of course aborted. If initiative is equal, attacks occur simultaneously and effects, if they succeed, also. In dire situations, this might result in a 'mutual kill', where two fighters strike each other down at the same time.

Missile

In missile combat fighters are out of hand weapon reach of each other. Instead, they throw or shoot missiles at each other.
The formula for effort is dexterity modifier + missile skill modifier + weapon missile score. The formula for resistance is body missile resistance + 3 * shield bonus. Many additional environmental factors affect missile combat, see the chapter on modifiers for details.

Fighters who for some reason are at a disadvantage may want to change the type of combat. If there are no obstacles in the way, they may run up to the enemy and engage in 'contact' fighting without a large void in between (see below). How many rounds are needed to bridge the gap depends on distance, terrain and the length of the combat rounds. If they are able to run up the missile user, that character is forced to abandon missile combat and switch to melee or formation fighting (see below). Of course if an opportunity presents itself the character may try to run away and start firing missiles once more.

Formation

Formations are generally broad groups of fighters lined up in one or more rows. There is very little room for maneuver. The reach of the weapons is much more important, so polearms are favorite. As a result, the two sides in formation fighting tend to be somewhat apart, though their weapons are in contact with each other.
Formation fighting is always forward. If enemies manage to outflank the formation or attack from the rear, then they may change the combat to melee (see below). Therefore, formations are usually wide, to prevent this. Or the situation can favor formation fighting, for instance when a small number or possibly even a single fighter is defending a narrow recess. Another possibility is the charge with lance of a knight from horseback, which ensures that at least the first attack will be a formation attack.
The formula for effort is body skirmish modifier + formation skill modifier + weapon formation score. The formula for resistance is body skirmish modifier + formation skill modifier + weapon formation score + 2 * shield bonus. Unlike most other skirmishing styles, dexterity plays no significant part. Fighters can attack the enemy right in front of them. If they wield a spear or other type of polearm, they can also attack the enemy to the left and right, if any, but not beyond that.

Melee

Melee is also contact combat, where two or more fighters engage each other at fairly close range. Unlike formation fighting, maneuver is important: combatants circle each other, dash forward and spring back again. In most fantasy combat, melee will be the dominant style.
The formula for effort is body skirmish modifier + dexterity modifier + melee skill modifier + weapon melee score. The formula for resistance is body skirmish modifier + dexterity modifier + melee skill modifier + weapon melee score + shield bonus. Fighters can attack any enemies in front of them who are within striking range, which is a couple of meters maximum.

If one party wants to fight in formation style and the other in melee, the result will be a formation fight if the first can secure its flanks and rear and melee otherwise. If the formation fighters have their way, the melee fighters may be able to cut holes in the enemy formation by making successful formation, not melee attacks. Once they take a man down they may move in and engage in melee combat as they prefer to, even when there is still formation style fighting going on left and right of them. If the formation has secondary, tertiary or other rows, they may continue to attack in formation style and in their turn may be able to close the gap.

Close

Close combat is the most cramped type of contact combat. It is mainly wrestling, with a bit of stabbing and possible a few short strikes too. Long weapons are all but useless, but shorter ones can act as levers when one fighter tries to topple another, or simply to be rammed against the other from up close. The best weapons are the very short ones like daggers, which require little room to be effective.
If two fighters are both aiming for close combat, and they are near enough to each other, they can engage right away. This also happens when they accidentally crash into each other. But normally a fight starts as a melee. If one fighter wants to keep it that way but the other wants to attack in close combat, he/she must first make a successful melee attack, so not yet close combat, to close the distance. This does not do any harm, but allows him/her to follow up in the next round(s) with close combat attacks, which will do so if they succeed.
The other fighter can engage in close combat too, or try to disengage back to melee. For this to work, he/she must make a close combat counterattack, so not melee, which is also non-damaging. As backing off is easier than closing in, for such a disengagement attack the character receives a +4 bonus to effort, provided that (1) there is some room to retreat too and (2) that he/she is free of grappling harm (see ahead). Once successful, the style switches back to melee again.
The formula for close combat for both effort and resistance is body skirmish modifier + dexterity modifier + close skill modifier + weapon close score. The defender receives no shield bonus. Attackers can attack only the enemy who they are engaging in close combat, nobody else, even if nearby. Switching to somebody else requires first disengaging to melee style and closing in to the other fighter.

A few weapons in the weapons table further ahead have two close combat scores. These weapons can be used as sticks to aid in wrestling. This gives a +1 bonus to effort in close combat. But this forces the fighter to drop any shield, secondary weapon or something else from the off-hand.

Wounding

This by far the most common method of harm. The aim is to hurt the enemy until he/she cannot or will not fight anymore, or simply to kill.
There are three subtypes of wounding harm, which depend on how the weapon is used, not on talents or skills. Their effect is heavily modified by the armor that the defender is wearing. See the next chapter for details on that.

• Slashing is the main method of swords and axes. It deals a lot of harm because it creates large bleeding wounds, but is only effective against unarmored and lightly armored opponents.
• Piercing is the main method of picks, spears and most missiles weapons. Its wounds are smaller, so it does less harm than slashing, but retains its power against armor better.
• Pummeling is the domain of clubs and maces. Because the harm is spread over a large area it is the least damaging of the three, but also the least sensitive to armor.

Each weapon can be used in each of the three ways, but has different scores for each. Most weapons shine in only one, some also do well in a secondary way. Upon harming, the attacker must choose which harming subtype is to be used. If he/she goes for maximum harm, the choice usually is very straightforward.
The formula for effort is body harm modifier + strength modifier + weapon slashing/piercing/pummeling harm score. The formula for resistance is body harm modifier + armor harm reduction. For the latter, see the next section on armor.

Stunning

A stunning attempt tries to pummel the opponent senseless, without hurting him/her too much and to keep him/her alive, though a heavy blow may still kill. For a stun attempt, only the pummeling harm score of a weapon can be used. Half of stunning harm is brief, the other half long-lasting like wound harm. All odd points (first, third, fifth etc.) are brief; add even points (second, fourth, sixth etc.) long-lasting. The brief harm represents pain and dizziness that can be recovered in minutes, provided the character gets the opportunity to rest. Long-lasting harm, like wound harm, can take days or weeks to heal.
The formulas for effort and resistance are the same as those for wounding harm.

Grappling

While wounds are long term harm and (half of) stunning attacks short term harm, grappling harm is only very temporary. A successful grappling attack hinders an opponent, for instance by grabbing his/her belt or wrist, hanging on to a leg, topple him/her over, or best of all pin him/her down completely. It is instantly (partially or completely) dissolved when a grip is released or the opponent manages to break free, but it can be applied again in new attacks. Most weapons can inflict grappling harm only when skirmishing in close combat. Entangling missile weapons can do it in missile combat. Grappling harm is cumulative, so harm from multiple successful grappling attacks adds up.
The formula for both effort and resistance is 3 * body harm modifier + strength modifier + weapon grapple harm score.

Harm vs. skirmish style

Harm effects

Wounds, stunning and grappling all hurt a character. Minor wounds, fatigue, near misses and anxiety do not directly affect a character, but they add up. Once a harm threshold is exceeded, the character is really harmed. He/she suffers a -1 penalty to all combat skills, and also to other physical skills like running, jumping, throwing, juggling and the like. If more harm is suffered, penalties go up. If the harm total becomes too large, the character goes down and can fight no more. Beyond that, the character will die! The table below shows the entire range:

The harm threshold is a very important number that affects gameplay much. GMs can tune its value to their liking. A value as low as 1 makes combat realistic but dangerous; 2 is forgiving, 3 or more very forgiving. Very lenient GMs may even use a higher harm threshold for player characters than for non-player characters.

Different kinds of harm have different effects. Wounds cause bleeding, either mostly external (from slashing or piercing attacks), or internal bruises (from stunning attacks). Only grappling 'harm' does not do harm to the body, it just hinders movement. A character who has been harmed up to the 'incapacitated' level is bleeding to death, knocked out cold or a combination of these. 'Dead' means dead; 'wasted' means literally cut, ripped or smashed to pieces.
Grappling is less brutal than the other two. There 'incapacitated' means completely immobilized; 'dead' means not yet dead but suffocating towards death; 'wasted' means mangled and strangled to death.
During a fight a character may accumulate different kinds of harm. It is up to the GM to determine the precise effects.

Harm reduction

Unlike in some old fashioned RPG systems like Dungeons & Dragons, armor in Ymlað does not make a character less likely to be hit. Instead, it reduces harm from wounding and knockout attacks. Armor plays no role in grappling. The reduction depends on the wounding subtype and the difference between weapon harming score and armor score. One harm point per N armor points is subtracted, where N depends on the wounding subtype:

1. for slashing attacks, like sword or axe cuts
2. for piercing attacks with broad piercing weapons, like hunting spears or hunting arrows
3. for piercing attacks with narrow piercing weapons, like slim spears or bodkin arrows
4. for pummeling attacks, like club or mace blows

Note that there is a difference between broad and narrow piercers. They fit the general trend, i.e. the former do more harm but weaken more against armor, with the latter the other way around.
The table below translates the formulas above to effective numbers for the normal range of armor protection:

In case of mixed armor that has a non-integer value, fractions are rounded off normally to the nearest integer. Negative numbers mean zero harm, though the random die rolls can of course still modify them and possibly raise them above zero.

Protection and weight

The actual protection that a piece of armor provides depends on many factors: material, construction, thickness, hardness, which parts of the body it protects and how completely and how it all fits together. This is rather complicated so Ymlað simplifies this, while still allowing 'piecemeal' armor. The formula for armor protection is 2 * thickness * construction protection * body part importance. The formula for armor weight is 8 * thickness * construction weight * body part area. For other properties like flexibility, loudness, maintenance and others no formulas are provided. The GM must use his/her common sense in these matters.

Cloth and leather armor thickness is variable, depending on the number of layers, which can range from a few to up to 30. Metal armor thickness is variable too, on average 1 mm or less for the limbs, 2 mm for the torso and 3 mm for the head, though within these parts there is further variation, for example 2.5 mm at the front of the torso but only 1.5 mm at the sides or rear. Ymlað simply calls all these thicknesses 'average' and assigns them a factor of 1 for the formula above. Armor can be thicker or thinner than average. Again for simplicity only two alternative thicknesses are discerned: 'thick' with factor 3/2 and 'thin' with factor 2/3. Thicker or thinner than that makes armor too bulky or too flimsy.

The construction is divided into a few categories, each with its own protection and weight factors:

Body part area and importance describe which part of the body is covered and how relevant that is. The two are not completely the same. For example the head is more important than torso or limbs, so gets a higher importance than its area alone would justify. When calculating weight, importance does not matter but the actual surface area matters. See this article on armor for a table of body part areas and importances.

Helmets are a special case because they almost always have a plate construction, but do not always cover the head completely. Here 'construction' is 1 for skullcaps, 2 for open helmets, 3 for half-open helmets and 4 for closed helmets.

GMs may allow players to piece together their own armor sets, or prepare a number of prefab sets. Many variations on the rules outlined above are possible, like extra heavy but intimidating helmets with plumes or face masks; armor like breastplates and shin guards that protect only the front but not the rear; shoulder guards made from overlapping strips of metal that are mix between lamellar and laminar.

Combined armor

Some armor covers large parts of the body, some only a small part. Different pieces of armor can be combined, for example a suit of mail topped with a plate helmet. In this case, protection values are added up. Do not round the numbers to the nearest integer before everything has been added.
Some pieces of armor partially overlap, for example a lamellar cuirass that covers shoulders, torso and groin and a mail aventail that covers head, neck and again shoulders. It is even possible to wear two pieces of armor that cover the same body parts completely, for example two suits of mail. Not everything can be combined with everything. In general, two pieces of torso armor is feasible and sometimes even necessary. For example metal armor absolutely requires some cloth, preferably an aketon, a thin and light type of gambeson, underneath. But combining multiple pieces of overlapping head or limb armor is difficult or impossible. For example sticking one well fitting armored glove into another simply cannot be done. Common sense must be applied, the GM is the final arbiter.
Determining the net effect of double or overlapping armor can become quite complicated. Weight and cost are obviously the sum of all parts, but attributes like protection value and flexibility are much harder to figure out. If GM and players are willing they can perform elaborate calculations for the proper values. If not, simple rules like 'two pieces of torso armor give a 1 point bonus to armor protection score' must suffice.

Hardness

The ability of weapons to get through armor depends much on their hardness and the hardness of the opposing armor. Harder weapons do not do more harm than softer ones, but are better at armor penetration. Ymlað discerns several levels of hardness that depend on the type of materials used:

Of course materials like cloth are never used for weapons, except for practice weapons. Weapons are made of metal and usually quite hard. Armor is often, but not always a little softer. Ancient armor was bronze; most medieval armor was iron or mild steel; medium steel become common only later. GMs may also introduce an intermediate steel with a hardness of 5 if they like, or fantasy materials, for example Tolkien's mithril.

The difference between weapon and armor hardness, either positive or negative, is applied to the armor score, before adjustment for the type of attack, with a minimum armor protection of 0.

Encumbrance

Encumbrance is a measure of how heavy a character is burdened. It can be aggravated by things that hinder movement without adding weight, for example very stiff armor, being chained, bound or pinned down. The latter effects are not quantified here, they are up to the GM. Encumbrance gives a penalty to effort and resistance:

Height

A fighter who holds the higher ground and fights against an enemy lower down, gets a +1 bonus to skirmish effort when fighting in missile, formation or melee style, while the other side, fighting upwards, gets a -1 penalty. Examples are fighting from a rock or low wall, or from horseback against infantry. While skirmish effort is affected, resistance is not. For missile combat, the GM may assign higher bonuses for large height differences, for instance when shooting down from a high wall, tower or hill. On the other hand he/she may remove the bonus if the height is insignificant with regard to the range, for example when shooting arrows tens of meters away from horseback. Height difference is not relevant for close combat, where the fighters are wrestling with to each other too closely.

Angle

If somebody is attacked from the side, that character gets a -1 penalty to resistance as he/she is less likely to see the attack coming. This penalty does not apply to many herbivore animals, which have good side vision. If being attacked from behind, the penalty is -2, or -1 for sideways looking animals. Likewise, an attack from (straight) above or below give a -1 penalty. Of course the penalty is 0 for monsters who can look in all directions at once, like beholders.

Light

It is difficult to target an enemy when light is dim. Attackers get a penalty to effort: 0 in bright light or twilight; -1 in moonlight; -2 in starlight; -3 in utter darkness. But as defenders receive an equal penalty to resistance, the net effect is zero, unless one of the two is able to see in the dark.
For missile attacks, the penalties are higher: 0 in bright light; -1 in twilight; -2 to -3 in moonlight; -4 in starlight; -5 in utter darkness. There, they apply only to effort, not resistance.

Range

This applies to missile attacks only. All missile weapons are more accurate from up close than far away. At close range the attacker can shoot without problems, but at longer ranges he/she receives a penalty to effort. Because arrows and bolts are light and lose energy rapidly, hand bows and crossbows get a penalty to piercing harm too. Maximum range is the absolute maximum for the missile.

The actual ranges depend on the type of weapon; for example bows shoot farther than axes can be thrown. See the tables for details.

Wind

This applies to missile attacks only. Wind blows missiles off course and makes targeting difficult. Again the attacker gets a penalty to effort: 0 for dead calm or light wind; -1 for moderate wind; -2 for strong wind; -4 for gales.

Moving target

This applies to missile attacks only. Shooting at a moving target is more difficult than at a stationary one. Missile resistance gets a +1 bonus if the defender is walking, +2 if running.

Cover

This applies to missile attacks only. If a defender is protected by a solid barrier, then he/she receives a bonus to resistance that is proportional to the size of the body that is covered. If the full body is hidden then the bonus is +10. If the cover is not solid, for instance foliage rather than a wall, then the bonus is decreased. The GM decides on the effectiveness of the cover based on its density and solidity.
The cover provided by shields is handled by the shield bonus, see above. I If a defender crouches behind his shield, rather than standing upright, then the shield effectively is one size larger than it actually is. So a cavalry shield counts as a medium shield and medium as body. Crouching behind a body shield gives no additional bonus. If both cover and shield apply then their bonuses are cumulative, though if they overlap each other, then only the extra cover is added to the shield bonus.

Mounted combat

A fighter who sits on top of a horse or similar mount and fights against infantry on the ground has a height advantage (see above). If horse and rider are moving and bouncing up and down in a walk or amble, a missile user in the saddle gets a -1 penalty to missile skirmish effort. At a faster pace, trot, canter or gallop the penalty is -2. Large bows like longbows, daikyu, infantry crossbows, siege crossbows and blowguns cannot be used from horseback.

Charge

A fighter may charge towards an enemy in an attempt to do extra harm, overrun him/her or just to frighten. This can be done only once; for a repeat the fighter must first disengage, put some distance between him/her and the enemy, then charge again.
In a charge, normal initiative rules are abandoned. The wielder of the body and weapon with the longest reach attacks first. If reach is equal, then initiative is rolled.
Piercing contact weapons get a +1 bonus to harm effort, which may apply to both attacker and defender. With missile weapons range category is reduced just like for extra strong missile users, see the chapter on harming. The reverse also holds; if the attacker is running backwards or delivering a 'Parthian shot', weapon range category is increased. Of course a missile user will not run all the way up to a defender, just enough to gain extra speed and power, fire / shoot, then stop.

Hand weapons

Weapons that have two close combat skirmish scores can be used as levers in grappling, though this requires two hands instead of one. The first number is for one-handed use, the second for two-handed.
Many weapons that are not listed below are similar to one of the types that are listed. For example a Macedonian sarissa is a pike; a Roman gladius is a short sword; a Danish axe is a great axe; an African iklwa is a stabbing javelin; a rungu is a light throwing club. A Japanese nagamaki is somewhat similar to a long sword, an o-dachi a two-hander. There are many more examples to be found in martial history. Some exotic weapon types are not listed, like the Indian chakram; the Japanese bokken and war fan; Okinawan sai or tonfa; Mesoamerican macuahuitl; fictional klingon bat'leth.

Missile weapons

Some weapons are listed twice in the table below.
For hand bows, (h) signals the use of broad hunting arrows; (w) = heavier but narrower bodkin war arrows. All crossbows listed use bodkin war bolts.
For slings, (s) denotes plain stones; (l) lead bullets.

Body size

In Ymlað humans are the norm, so they have a body size of 0. Many creatures are smaller (negative body size) or larger (positive body size) than humans. For example a hobbit has size -1, an average bear size 2. See the bestiary in Totte for a full list of sizes and example creatures.
This affects combat much:

Note that the body missile resistance and body skirmish modifer have the same value. The differences are that the former applies only to (missile) resistance and decreases with size difference, while the latter to both (formation / melee / close) effort and resistance and increases with size difference.

Natural weaponry

Animals (and some monsters) do not wield weapons, but use parts of their body for attack. Though inferior to most man made weapons, they are better than human fists. The table below gives some guidelines on how to rate the combat value of these natural weapons. The GM decides on actual values for each type of creature.

Skill

Animals do not train for combat like humans do, but they do train. Young carnivores engage in mock fights, herbivores practice to become alpha male when they have grown up. Skill increases when the animals age and gain experience:

'Top adults' are not always the eldest animals. They are however the leaders of herds (for herbivores) or the most successful hunters (for carnivores). Skill levels listed are for close and possibly melee skill; formation skill is usually zero though some herbivores defend in groups. Missile skill is always zero.
And of course some 'monsters' like orcs fight all time, against their enemies and among themselves. Though they are too lazy and ignorant to become master swordsmen, this constant practice breeds skilled warriors. The average orc is a better warrior than the average human!

Group fights

In missile combat, fighter can shoot at anybody who is in sight and range; in formation combat, a maximum of three people in front of him/her; in close combat, a single opponent. But how does melee between two groups work out?
The GM should split groups into smaller groups of one against one or more. For example two against three becomes one subgroup of one against two and another of one against one. Players will want to pick specific opponents but of course the latter may want to do the same. Moving figurines around on a table will help to visualize and sort things out. The GM is the final arbiter in these matters.
Fending off multiple opponents is difficult. Therefore, in a situation of one against several, the second fighter of the group gets a +1 bonus to melee skirmish effort, the second gets a +2 bonus, and so on.
In general the maximum number of people that can attack one loner is six. More attackers just hamper each other. If they are wielding spears or polearms they can create a wider circle, increasing the limit to twelve. Differences in body size also change the limits, up to the discretion of the GM.
If one fighter faces many opponents some of them may be able to move to his flanks or even rear, which gives attack bonuses, see the chapter on modifiers. Therefore a sensible fighter who is outnumbered will try to back away against a barrier or into a corridor.

Dual wielding

Unlike many RPG systems, in Ymlað wielding one weapon in each hand does not allow extra attacks. It does give a +1 bonus to skirmishing effort and resistance in melee. Missile combat, formation fighting and close combat are not affected and neither is harm. Dual wielding is difficult and prevents the use of a shield. Only light weapons can be used in the off-hand, like daggers or short swords. Using larger weapons takes so much strength and time that the advantages of wielding two weapons are undone.

Using weapons and armor

Weapons are not only about skirmishing and harm. Size and weight determine how many can be carried and how visible they are. Some can be wielded as tools. Likewise, there is more to armor than protection. Again see the article on armor mentioned above for tables that specify weight, flexibility, comfort, cleaning, loudness, cost, durability, maintenance. A good GM will include at least some of these properties into the game. For example thieves who want to be stealthy cannot work with loud clanky armor; acrobates want them light and flexible; weak characters cannot bear heavy stuff. Weapons too have their pros and cons. Assassins may require daggers instead of swords because they can hide them under their clothes; characters who don't want to invest in missile skill might opt for crossbows that are easy to use.

Special attacks

A generic combat system like Ymlað can cover only the basics of combat in fantasy settings. Players can and should use their creativity to come up with novel modes of attack and defense. It is up to the GM to devise proper rules for them on the spot and try to keep those in balance with the rest of the system. Below is a list of alternatives that is presented without any rules, in random order, just for inspiration:

• Shield bashing: Why should the shield be a purely defensive weapon? Use it to knock your opponent off balance, then stab with spear or sword.
• Shield crashing: If a shield is in the way of an attack, why not remove it? Shatter it with an axe or sword blow, though prevent the weapon from getting stuck, or hook at away with an axe, warhammer or polearm.
• Disarming: Defeat your opponent but do not kill him/her, whack the weapon out of his/her hands and then demand surrender.
• Use the terrain: Drive your opponent back into thorn bushes, or even over the edge of a cliff.
• Improvised weapons: Wield a flaming torch, lay about you with a chair, tumble a table over several opponents.
• Targeted attacks: That pesky imp keeps flying away and swooping in from unexpected angles. Cut its wings and reduce it to a pest on foot.
• Psychic duel: Two fighters size each other up, gauge each and every movement, blink of an eye, trickle of sweat. The fight may be decided without a weapon having been drawn.
• The backstab: Sneak up from behind, engage in close combat with first initiative and surprise bonus and deliver a vile stab from behind with a dagger.
• Specialist weaponry: A normal spear will not do against a charging boar, it will just run through it. Bring a boar spear.
• Two-handed mastery: Guard that street or bridge like that viking in the Battle of Stamford Bridge by single-handedly holding off a horde of enemies with a greatsword, Danish axe or polearm. Or possibly try to disrupt a formation of pikemen.

Introduction

Below is a description of an example adventure that uses the Ymlað combat system. Of course the focus is on combat, not on magic, thievery, puzzles, politics, roleplaying(!) or any other roleplaying aspect.
For this campaign, the GM uses a harm threshold of 2. He disregards weapon material hardness to make the calculations a little easier.
A party of five adventurers, a motley crew, has been through many game sessions and honed their skills substantially. They are stong in melee but not so formidable in other styles, as will be seen. They have gotten wind of a reclusive necromancer who from time to time abducts peasants and uses them for his dark magical experiments. He lives in a tower in the wilderness at the edge of agricultural lands that receive little attention from their feudal lords. The party intends to finish off the wizard, loot his place and maybe reap a reward from the peasants too. In the previous session they have located the tower of the necromancer, which stands on top of a hill and is guarded by undead warriors.

The party

• Hendrick plays Sir Florimond du Flaque, a knight in shining armor. He is very strong (+2 modifier), quite dexterous (+1 modifier) and his combat skills are missile 2, formation 2, melee 4, close 3. He wears complete set of plate armor plus closed helmet (armor 8.0) that he keeps in perfect condition through the labors of his servant Pankel. In combat, he wields a long poleaxe and keeps a dagger as backup weapon. Pankel carries an infantry crossbow that is called upon when missiles must be exchanged.
• Nellie plays Neelay, the group's scout and missile specialist. She is fairly strong (+1 modifier), very dexterous (+2 modifier) and her combat skills are missile 5, formation 1, melee 2, close 2. She wears a quilted gambeson with splint armor on her limbs and an open helmet on her head (armor 3). In missile combat she prefers a sling; in melee she fights with a saber.
• Björn plays Bjarne, a stout viking, because he likes to play vikings. He is very strong (+2 modifier), has average dexterity (0 modifier) and his combat skills are missile 0, formation 1, melee 4, close 2. He wears a mail hauberk with leather greaves, leather gauntlets and an open spangenhelm (armor 4). He owns a magical battle sword that is so fierce that it has the same harm reduction as pummeling weapons. The sword is wielded in combination with an infantry shield. His side weapon is a hand axe, suitable for both hacking and throwing.
• Richelle plays Kasumi, who is suspected to be a Japanese tengu, though this has not been confirmed. She does have a large nose. She is a sohei, a warrior monk, with decent strength (+1 modifier), decent dexterity (+1 modifier) and combat skills rated at missile 3, formation 4, melee 5, close 1. Her armor consists of a lamellar coat with splint guards for her lower arms and legs and a half-open helmet on her head (armor 5). In battle, she wields a naginata (sword staff) and sometimes employs shaken (throwing stars) or a short blowgun loaded with poisoned darts.
• Petro plays Tharn, a human spirit who is trapped in the body of a grey ape. It is yet unclear if Tharn wants to get back into human form or that he likes his new, silent yet strong shape. Tharn has the size of a horse or bear and the strength and reach that comes with that. On top of that, he is stronger than average (+1 modifier) and more supple (+1 modifier). His combat skills are a bit unsuited to his current shape: missile 2, formation 3, melee 4, close 2. He does not wear armor, though the party has urged him so have something custom-made to his size. He wields a morning star but gets a -1 penalty to effort on that because grey ape hand dexterity is somewhat less than human dexterity. In close combat he can also attack with his large fangs.

Below is listed a summary of the standard combat stats of the characters. All except Tharn have standard body size. None suffer from encumbrance penalties because they all are strong enough to bear their loads without difficulty.

And here are combat stats of their enemies. The skeletons have significant combat skill levels because they are undead warriors, mercenaries before the died. The skill levels listed are for the weapons that the skeletons prefer to use. If they are forced to switch to other weapons, skill levels are lower.

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