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Heya guys, just ran my first game and used the pregenerated characters with my players doing their best to rescue captured lotus coalition from a prison and it was a little rocky with a few rules and had some questions. There is a good chance the answers are in the book as I haven’t read it cover to cover, but would appreciate some help.
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The first question was damage. I know basically everything is done with d20 rolls, but when I looked at the book I couldn’t confirm if damage was d20+ modifiers. adding a d20 Seemed excessively high, but adding nothing seemed very low with some characters (bamboo for example) being unlikely to be able to penetrate armor. I decided to go with a middle ground by taking damage and adding a d10 (except guns which I left at the straight 15 listed in the weapons section) the combats went pretty quickly but I’d like to find how it’s supposed to be done. Is damage supposed to be variable?

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Next thing was Bows (yumi) the damage is listed as being based off Power, but not how it’s determined I ended up just saying it was the same as the grasping shadow had listed. Also I saw Strike and thrown weapons for combat modifiers. After looking at Aim it seemed to me bows were based on Strike and used that which seemed to work, but again I wasn’t sure. Also are bows/thrown weapons able to be performed with the various strike options? I just left it as with a bow the player must use light, I figured that gave a good reason to go into melee. Is Strike the correct bonus? Can bows be used with different attacks?  How is bow damage determined? Also reloading guns, how does that work, speed action etc?
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For healing there are rules for Holistics being used to treat wounds, but it doesn’t seem to have any affect listed if it is performed. I ruled that it doubled healing times with a DC20 roll (10 with no activity in a day) which was likely a bit high. Without a bamboo character it seemed an expedient way to get a character back in the game after a couple days rather than a week.
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With currency, I saw weapons had costs like 1, 2, or 3.. But what are they using Yen? I think I missed it in the book.
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Also I noticed the living scroll pre gen is listed at 4 actions, but it looks like they should have 2 due to their martial arts, if not how did they get so many?
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I think there were a few more questions, but that seems good for now. Thanks in advance for help figuring these things out we had a good time, but being new to the rule system I pulled a lot out of my back pocket

No problem. I’ll answer in the order you asked them.

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Damage is a combination of your Base Damage + Attack Maneuver + Weapon. So, for instance, if i had Base Damage +2, then attack with a Full Strike which is +3 damage and then also have a sword which is +2 (L) damage, my total for my hits is 7 (L) per hit. the d20 is just to see if you hit, not for damage. Now, if you wanted to super power your game, you could always add more damage. It’s not a lot if you are fighting, say, an Oni, but it’s more than enough if you’re fighting a regular person that only has 8 Health in the first place.

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All you combat bonuses are derived from your Attributes. It says that having a high POW is important so that your arrows do more damage from having a high Base Damage. also, Strike is used for close combat and Throw is used for ranged combat. You’ll also see that each weapon has bonuses associated and the Yumi ONLY has a Throw Bonus, because it’s not a close combat weapon. Damage is determined by your Base Damage + Arrow Type. So, with my Base Damage of 2 of again and a standard arrow with +3 (L), my total damage for an arrow is 5 (L). Reloading is tacked on to the end of the action and is your 11-AGY, meaning if you have an AGY of 7, it’s a speed of 4 to reload and be ready for another arrow.

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Costs are based on Class. Read the very beginning of Chapter 5

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the Living Chronicle is using Crane style where she gets a lot of extra actions. She gets 2 from her fighting style, that’s true, but EVERYONE has at least 2. So, her base 2, plus 2 from her fighting style. There you go!

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Hopefully that makes it clear. for more on the combat and equipment, and i’m gonna sound like a butthead here, read through the Equipment and Combat Chapter. See, told ya. If you have any other questions, of course post them here and we can get them answered too.

-Oni

PS: Also, we’d love to hear the details of your game too. Post those to the Actual Play forum.

Thanks for the quick response, I think part of the confusion with bows was that ‘Aim’ specifies a bonus to strike which is the melee skill.

Crane style got me I think because it has one step that breaks the norm by listing the extra action second and it looked like it was a set rule to put it first when I looked at all the other martial arts, skimming misses stuff occasionally, not sure how I missed the other bonus attack there though. That definitely makes the living scroll better in a fight.

My players and I had thought the damage might need a slight boost mostly because you expect a ninja to be able to take a guard out before they have a chance to call out/alert the others which seems to be lacking a bit. Even with the damage boost I gave my players had to focus 2 ninjas on one surprised guard taking two actions each to actually take him out quickly. It may have been due to low rolls though.

I had a few other questions I remembered.
**Are you able to use holistics for healing HP damage faster or is that wushu affects only?
**The balance pregen character has spitting earth which can affect multiple targets, Does it count as a simultaneous action when doing so? I had not given a modifier since it made the character sacrifice Yang.
**If a character chooses not to dodge or parry is it an automatic hit? (assuming a natural 1 isn’t rolled?)
**Surprise characters start at 9 on the speed chart, but are they able to dodge/parry? I ran with them not being able to do so against the first attack (and was going by if no evasion is performed the hit is automatic)
**Movement is an action, I did not see an option for charging or move + attack. The main issue I have with this is if on character has more attacks they can simply use one to step away and deny attacks from another character as they would have to move up (using an action) to continue. Once again I may have just missed it.

Thanks again for any info