Twilight: 2000 Combat Guide - Ammo, Armor, Suppression, Close Combat, Explosives, and Injuries

Introduction

Twilight: 2000 combat is dangerous because every useful answer costs something. Shooting can save the group, but it spends ammunition, gives away a position, can damage the weapon, and may leave someone bleeding in the mud. Staying put may protect the group for a moment, but enemies can flank, suppress, or set the building on fire. Running may be the smartest move, but somebody has to cover it.

The Player's Manual is plain about that cost: combat can take a heavy toll, and sometimes retreat is the wiser choice. Before the initiative cards come out, ask what the group needs from this encounter. Escape a roadblock? Get a wounded person into cover? Keep raiders off a vehicle long enough to start it? Protect civilians while the group withdraws? Those goals produce better decisions than treating every hostile contact as a fight to the last survivor.

This guide covers the whole firefight in the order the table meets it: the round and its actions, ammunition, suppression and overwatch, close combat, where a hit lands, what armor and cover stop, explosives and demolition, and what the medic does afterward.

Hot Take

Read the after-action questions out loud after every fight, including the ones the group won easily. Combat in this game is bought on credit. The spent magazines, the reliability the weapon lost to a push, the external wound that needs Medical Aid within the Shift, the ablated armor level, the farmer who watched the truck pull away: none of that is charged during the round, so a table that skips the accounting learns the wrong lesson about how cheap shooting is.

The checklist is the mechanism that teaches players to avoid the next fight. A group that has said aloud "four reloads and most of the medic's supplies to clear a roadblock we could have driven around" will look for another route next session. That instinct is what every section above is actually trying to build.

What Combat Tracks

Combat uses a hex map when precise positions, movement, and shooting range matter. One hex is 10 meters across. Theater-of-the-mind play can work for a small close-quarters fight or an exchange at very long range, but the map earns its place as soon as cover, lanes of fire, vehicles, or a retreat route matter.

A competent survivor is more than a good shot. A scout who sees the ambush first, a driver who keeps the exit clear, a medic who can reach the wounded, and a teammate who keeps the enemy's heads down can each decide the encounter.

For the underlying dice procedure, including modifiers and pushing rolls, start with the Twilight: 2000 Dice Mechanics Guide. The sections below show why those rolls matter once danger has a map. For the round-by-round rules reference on terrain, ambushes, and social conflict, use Twilight: 2000 Combat Rules.

The Round: Initiative Creates Windows, Not Guarantees

Combat rounds are roughly five to ten seconds. At the start of a conflict, each participant draws an initiative card; low numbers act first. The order normally holds for the rest of the fight. A fully surprising first attack gets the number-one card in the first round, while an ambush has further positioning and detection consequences.

On a turn, a survivor gets either:

• One slow action and one fast action.
• Or two fast actions.

Actions refresh at the start of the next round, and nearly every tactic in this guide comes back to that split. Firing a firearm is slow. Aiming, seeking cover, running, reloading successfully, assuming overwatch, drawing accessible gear, and retreating are fast. First aid, firing heavy weapons, getting an item out of a backpack, and persuading an opponent are slow.

A basic, competent turn might be: take cover and fire; aim and fire; run and drop a backpack; or draw a medkit and start first aid, but only if the kit is already accessible. Getting a needed item out of a backpack in a firefight takes a slow action and a Mobility roll. Pack for the likely emergency before the first shot.

Initiative Can Be Shared

Willing combatants who can communicate may swap initiative cards before acting. The rule is easy to overlook and very useful. A medic can move earlier after someone else clears a route. A shooter can give up an early slot to cover a driver. Swapping does not restore actions already spent, and reactive actions such as blocking or overwatch still interrupt the order when their trigger occurs.

Do not make the swap a performance test. Say what the group is trying to coordinate, confirm that communication is possible, and use the rule to open a real window.

Cover, Visibility, and Movement Keep People Alive

Cover changes the chance that an attack reaches a body, and it can combine with worn armor. Debris, forest, interiors, barriers, and vehicles give different kinds of protection. Cover also shapes visibility and movement; an approach that looks safe may be slow, may hide an enemy, or may block the next shot.

Use these habits before shooting:

1. Name the threat and the route. Identify the hex, doorway, vehicle, or wall the group is worried about and where everyone goes if the plan fails.
2. Improve the position first. Seeking cover is usually a fast action. Going prone is free on your turn, although getting up later costs a fast action.
3. Check line of sight and light. Terrain, darkness, smoke, rain, and elevation can all change a shot. Smoke can break line of sight entirely, and blind fire is much less reliable.
4. Keep the group out of one obvious lane. Friends standing in a line of fire are in danger when a shot misses; check the official line-of-fire rule before shooting past them.
5. Treat a vehicle as useful but breakable. It can be cover, transport, cargo space, and a loud objective for everyone nearby.

The Coolness Under Fire Guide explains the composure roll behind suppression, and the armor and cover section below covers exactly what protection does once a shot lands.

Make Actions Serve a Goal

The action lists include more than attacks, and that is on purpose. Combat can include movement, persuasion, medical aid, rallying a stressed survivor, getting into or out of a vehicle, shoving, disarming, grappling, and helping another person. A survivor who spends every turn shooting gives up many of the game's best ways out of a bad situation.

Helping another survivor costs an action of the same type and must be declared before the roll. An extra set of hands can make a climb, repair, first-aid attempt, or other urgent action more reliable, but the helper gives up part of their own turn to do it.

Ranged Combat: What a Shot Actually Does

Firing a handheld firearm is a slow action that uses Ranged Combat. Range, target movement, light, weather, terrain, stance, and aim all affect the roll. A hit applies the weapon's base damage plus one for each extra success, then gets a hit location, then armor and cover. The full attack procedure, range bands, and aiming rules live in Twilight: 2000 Ranged Combat, and the Weapons List compares the guns themselves.

This page picks up at the decisions around the shot: how many rounds to spend, what the shot does to the target's nerve, and what happens once it lands.

Ammo Scarcity and Fire Discipline

Ammunition scarcity works when every shot is tied to a purpose. A magazine is more than stored damage. It is encumbrance, trade value, a future reload, and a finite answer to whatever comes around the next corner.

The game makes that pressure concrete. Players track the rounds in the current magazine or belt, their spare reloads, the cost of high-volume fire, and the weapon's reliability. A group that does this consistently feels real scarcity without artificial rationing: it sees the consequences mid-fight and again at the next settlement.

Track Three Ammunition Resources

For each firearm, record three separate things:

Firearms hold ammunition in magazines or ammo belts and can only load the correct caliber. A loaded weapon includes its ammunition in its own weight. An extra magazine weighs one-quarter of an encumbrance unit, while an ammo belt normally weighs a full unit. Loose small-arms ammunition follows the same quarter-unit guideline for every 25 rounds.

So "bring all the ammunition" is not a loadout plan. Belts give sustained fire but eat carrying capacity. Spare magazines are lighter but still compete with water, medical gear, tools, and food. Keep immediate reloads in combat gear where a fight can actually reach them, rather than buried in the backpack.

Ammo Dice Are a Deliberate Escalation

When firing a firearm, choose how many ammo dice to add. The maximum is the lower of the weapon's rate of fire or the rounds remaining minus one. With one round left, the survivor cannot add any ammo dice. An attack with no ammo dice uses exactly one round.

Ammo dice do not help the initial attack hit. Check base-die successes first. If the attack hits, each ammo-die success can add one damage or create an extra hit on the primary target or an eligible secondary target in the same hex. If the attack misses, one or more ammo-die successes can still force a suppression roll.

Add more ammo dice only when the possible result changes the situation:

• Protecting a withdrawal: suppression can buy movement and time even if the attack misses.
• Breaking a dangerous position: extra damage or extra hits may matter when the group has no safer route.
• Holding a lane: sustained fire can discourage an enemy from crossing open ground.
• Ending a fight already decided: usually a poor trade. Save the rounds and leave.

The useful question is "What am I trying to force the enemy to do?" A controlled shot conserves ammunition. A larger burst may create the suppression or damage needed to open a retreat route. Either can be right, depending on the group's actual objective.

Count the Ammunition After Every Attack

After an attack with ammo dice, add the numbers showing on all ammo dice, then add one. That total is the ammunition spent. If it equals or exceeds the rounds left in the magazine or belt, the load is empty.

The uncertainty is intentional. Choosing several ammo dice does not set a burst length; it accepts a wider range of ammunition use in exchange for a bigger possible effect. Mark spent rounds on the current magazine or belt immediately, then erase that tally and remove one spare reload from inventory when the weapon is reloaded.

Heavy weapons such as rocket launchers, grenade launchers, mortars, and howitzers skip ammo dice: each attack consumes one round. Bows and thrown weapons skip ammo dice entirely, spending an arrow or thrown weapon per attack instead, with their own recovery and preparation rules.

Reloading Is a Combat Decision

Once a firearm is empty, reload it with a Ranged Combat roll. Success makes the reload a fast action; failure makes it a slow action. A survivor can try with only a fast action left, but a failed roll forfeits that action because the reload needed more time.

An empty weapon therefore costs more than a number on the sheet. It can eat the action needed to move, aim, take cover, help a casualty, or react to a threat. Reload before the weapon becomes the group's only answer, and make sure whoever carries the spare ammunition knows where it is.

Practical reload discipline:

1. Know who needs which caliber. Compatible ammunition is worth more than a pile of mismatched cartridges.
2. Keep one response ready. Do not let every weapon run nearly empty at once as the group approaches danger.
3. Use cover and teammates. One survivor reloads while another watches or holds overwatch.
4. Reload during a lull, as a deliberate choice rather than a habit. A partly spent magazine may still be the right tool if moving or breaking contact matters more.
5. Say reload status aloud. The group cannot plan around information kept on one character sheet.

Pushing Can Jam the Weapon

When a player pushes a firearm attack, they reroll eligible ammo dice along with base dice. Each damaging result on a base die or ammo die reduces the weapon's reliability by one, including damaging results from the first roll. If two or more such results appear after pushing, the weapon jams once the attack resolves and cannot fire until cleared.

Clearing a jam is a slow action and needs the relevant weapon skill roll. Multiple attempts are allowed. The timing is the danger: the attack still happens, but the weapon can fail exactly when the group needs its next shot.

Push when failure would trap the team, expose a casualty, or let a threat close in. It is less attractive when the group has cover, a route out, or another way to solve the problem. More ammo dice raise the possible effect, and they also raise the number of dice that can damage the firearm on a push.

Gun Care and Weapon Reliability

Reliability is a survival resource. Gear damage from pushing or outside force reduces it; at zero, the item is broken and cannot be used. A broken weapon normally needs a shift of work, appropriate tools, a TECH roll, and a weapon spare part. A successful repair restores reliability based on the successes rolled, capped at the listed rating.

Routine care matters too. In each week a firearm has been used at least once, spend a stretch servicing it and make a TECH roll. If nobody services it or the roll fails, reliability drops one step. The Referee can also call for gun care after unusual exposure such as water or mud.

A simple field routine:

• After combat, record spent ammunition, jams, and reliability loss.
• Before travel or rest, decide who reloads, who services weapons, and who watches.
• Keep weapon tools and the right spare parts with the person who can use them.
• Do not spend the last spare part on a minor problem if a worse failure is likely ahead.

Bullets Are Also Currency

In the collapsed economy of Twilight: 2000, ammunition is a common base currency for barter. Listed prices use rounds of small-arms ammunition as a rough relative value, but the Referee sets what an NPC will actually accept or demand. Local needs can make a handful of cartridges worth more than a valuable item, or nearly worthless to someone with the wrong caliber.

So the group's ammunition has two jobs: protect the group and create options in settlements. Giving away a compatible reload can solve a social problem today and cause a combat problem tomorrow. Refusing every trade can leave the group without food, information, repair parts, or allies.

Suppression and Overwatch

Suppression and overwatch make Twilight: 2000 combat about control as much as damage. A burst that misses can still pin a survivor in place. A single held shot can make an alley, doorway, or road too dangerous to cross. A team that understands these rules can protect a retreat, move a medic, or wreck an enemy's plan without eliminating everyone on the other side.

The rule is deliberately human. Bullets, explosions, and sudden fire test whether people can keep acting, and that is what Coolness Under Fire and unit morale represent.

Suppression Begins With a CUF Roll

Suppression begins when qualifying danger makes a survivor roll Coolness Under Fire, or CUF, rather than from a separate attack roll. Only firearms, heavy weapons, and explosions can trigger it. Close-combat attacks, bows, and thrown weapons cannot.

Make an immediate CUF roll when either condition applies:

• Enemy fire hits the survivor, even if armor or cover fully deflects the damage.
• A firearm attack misses, but one or more of its ammo dice show a success.

Roll one base die for the survivor's current CUF rating. If they have line of sight to any non-incapacitated friendly fighter, also roll one base die for the current unit morale rating. A CUF roll is not an action and cannot be pushed.

A wall or flak jacket can stop damage without stopping fear. A missed burst does not suppress its target automatically either; it creates the CUF test, and the result depends on the survivor's composure and, when they can see a capable friend, the unit's shared morale.

Failed CUF: Prone, Stressed, and Out of Actions

If the CUF roll fails, the survivor is suppressed. Apply all three effects at once:

1. They drop prone.
2. They suffer 1 point of stress.
3. They lose both actions on their next turn.

After that turn, the survivor is no longer suppressed. Suppression is short but severe, and it breaks the team's planned sequence. The medic may not reach the wounded. The driver may not start the vehicle. The person covering a doorway may be flat on the ground when the enemy moves.

Mark the status where everyone can see it: a token, a turned initiative card, a note by the character. The method matters less than nobody forgetting that the next turn is gone.

Panic Spreads in a Shared Hex

When a survivor fails a CUF roll and becomes suppressed, every friendly fighter in the same hex immediately rolls CUF too. Each person makes only one CUF roll from a single attack, so the effect does not keep multiplying from the same fire.

Packing people into one protected-looking space is risky for that reason. One bad result can disrupt everyone sharing it. Spread across several cover positions, keep sight of allies where possible, and decide who actually needs to be in the same hex.

Suppression Inside Vehicles

A target fully inside a vehicle cannot be suppressed, though vehicle rules can still force them to bail out. That is no license to relax inside a truck or APC. The vehicle may be damaged, get trapped, draw attention, or turn into a worse escape problem. It only changes how incoming fire affects the people inside.

Unit Morale Makes the Group a Resource

The unit morale die joins the CUF die only when the survivor can see a non-incapacitated friendly fighter. That condition matters. Smoke, walls, full cover, darkness, separation, and downed allies can leave someone facing the roll on CUF alone.

At character creation, the group starts with unit morale equal to its highest Command skill, and the score can change during play. In a fight, it represents what a survivor draws from seeing someone else still there and able to act.

The group cannot always keep line of sight. Sometimes a smoke grenade, a wall, or a retreat route is worth more than the morale die. Notice the tradeoff instead of claiming both safety and support.

Overwatch: Hold a Specific Hex

Overwatch lets a survivor prepare a shot against one hex they can see, including their own. Spend a fast action to take the position and mark the watched hex. A survivor with a telescopic sight may instead spend a slow action to take overwatch and get the normal sight benefits when firing.

Between taking overwatch and their next turn, the survivor can fire once at a target in the watched hex, at a moment of their choosing, breaking initiative order. The shot resolves before other declared actions, so an enemy cannot change a stated action after the overwatch shot alters the scene.

The attack counts as a normal aimed ranged attack and spends the survivor's slow action. Useful overwatch therefore means keeping that slow action unused. A survivor who fires, gives first aid, or does anything else slow on their own turn has nothing left for the held shot.

Use overwatch to make a retreat possible, cover a medic, hold a doorway, or keep a known threat from crossing open ground.

Name the Hex and the Trigger

Overwatch is much clearer when the player says two things aloud:

• Watched hex: "I cover the intersection beyond the truck," not "I watch the street."
• Trigger: "I fire if someone moves from the doorway into that intersection," not "I shoot when it feels right."

The rules let the shooter fire whenever they like at a target in the watched hex, but a stated trigger prevents confusion and turns the shot into a coordination tool. A teammate can move knowing exactly which lane is protected.

The Costs and Limits of Overwatch

Overwatch is strong because it controls timing. It does not grant unlimited reactions.

Overwatch lasts until the survivor breaks it or one of four things happens: they take any action other than the overwatch shot, they are attacked in close combat, they take damage, or they are suppressed. That includes sensible choices like moving to better cover or reloading. The survivor has to decide whether the held lane or the new action matters more.

Suppression and Overwatch Together

The two rules make a strong team pattern, with no guarantee attached:

1. A shooter sets overwatch on the dangerous crossing.
2. Another survivor moves, treats someone, starts a vehicle, or retreats while the lane is covered.
3. If an enemy enters the watched hex, the overwatch shot can resolve before their stated action.
4. If incoming fire triggers suppression, the group reassesses: the overwatch shooter may lose the position, the moving survivor may lose their next turn, and the plan may need to change.

The goal is a few seconds of safer action. A team that used overwatch to get the wounded behind a barrier or get the vehicle moving has succeeded even if it never beats the enemy.

A missed firearm attack with ammo-die successes can still force a CUF roll, so a shooter on overwatch can use a burst to deny a hex even without a hit. The target may hold together. The system creates pressure, not certainty, and firing wildly is not the same as effective suppression: more ammo dice spend more rounds and add risk on a push. Use enough fire to serve the objective, then keep the weapon, reloads, and exit route for the next decision.

Close Combat

Close combat is what happens when distance, cover, or a plan has already failed. It can be decisive, but it is rarely clean. A hallway, vehicle door, surprise meeting, barricade, or rushed retreat can put survivors in the same hex as an active enemy. At that point the question is usually "How do we take control of this moment and leave with everyone who can still move?" rather than "How do I win a duel?"

The rules support damaging attacks, but also blocking, knocking someone down, taking a weapon away, holding someone in place, and retreating. Each has a different action cost and exposure. Pick the result the group needs instead of the move that sounds most impressive.

When Close Combat Applies

Close combat happens when attacker and target share a hex and no barrier separates them. It uses the Close Combat skill. A wall, sandbag line, interior divider, or other barrier matters even inside a shared hex: the attacker must cross it before making a close-combat attack. Terrain cover does not protect against close combat.

Most close-combat attacks are slow actions, which shapes the round. A survivor can move into the hex and attack only if both costs fit the available actions. Someone who already spent their fast action may have nothing left to block with. Someone who spends a slow action grappling has committed to something that changes what both fighters can do next.

Start every close-range scene by establishing four facts:

1. Who is in the same hex, and is a barrier actually between them?
2. Who still has a fast action to block, shove, disarm, or retreat?
3. What is the group after: escape, restraint, protecting an ally, recovering an object, or stopping a threat?
4. Where does the group go once the struggle ends?

The Basic Close-Combat Attack

A successful close-combat attack applies the weapon's base damage plus one for each extra success. Roll a random hit location and apply armor. If damage after armor and cover reaches the weapon's critical threshold, the attack also causes a critical injury.

Pushing has a particular cost here. Each 1 on a pushed close-combat roll either reduces the weapon's reliability by one or, for an unarmed attack, deals one point of damage to the attacker. If a weapon breaks, it breaks after the attack resolves. Forcing the moment can damage the tool or the person using it.

A hit that drops a threat may be necessary. A hit that starts a lethal injury, turns witnesses hostile, or leaves the group stuck in the same room can still be a costly result. Think about what happens after the strike.

Stance and Aimed Blows

Stance is a major modifier in a cramped fight:

• A prone attacker takes -2, and any hit against a standing opponent automatically strikes the legs.
• An attack against a prone target gains +2.
• An attack against a defenseless or unaware target gains +3; being prone does not add to that bonus.
• An aimed blow takes -2 but lets the attacker choose head, torso, leg, or arm.

Falling down has real consequences. A prone fighter is easier to hit, slower to stand, and limited in what they can do next, which is why a shove or diving blow can matter even without damage.

An aimed blow is worth it only when the location changes the group's problem: stopping someone using an arm, hitting a leg to prevent pursuit, or picking a body area where protection differs. If the group just needs the enemy out of the doorway, a shove, disarm, or retreat is often the better choice.

Blocking: Spend a Fast Action Before You Need It

When an enemy attacks in close combat, a survivor can declare a block before the attacker rolls. Blocking costs a fast action and happens outside the normal turn order. Each blocking success removes one success from the attacker's result; extra blocking successes do nothing. It is not an opposed roll, and the defender can push after the attacker has declared and made any push.

Blocking changes an attack before damage happens, but it is not free. Every block uses one of the survivor's two actions for the round, leaving one fewer for their own turn. Once both actions are spent, blocking is done until the next round. Unused actions can be saved to block later in the current round, but they do not carry over into the next one.

Declare blocks openly. The timing is part of the choice, and it stops anyone defending after the result is known.

Shove, Disarm, and Grapple

Damage is only one way to control a person, and these options often fit the goal better.

Shove or trip. As a fast action, roll Close Combat. One success is enough unless the opponent has higher Strength, in which case it takes two. Success knocks the target prone. It deals no damage, extra successes add nothing, and the target can block. Use it to give allies a moment to move or to turn a standing threat into a vulnerable one. A prone enemy may still have friends, a weapon, and a turn coming.

Disarm. As a fast action, roll Close Combat to make a target drop an item. One success knocks loose a one-handed item; a two-handed item needs two. The item lands in the same hex. It deals no damage and can be blocked. Disarming works best when the group has a plan for the dropped weapon, because a rifle on the floor is not safe if its owner or another enemy can grab it first. Someone may need to shove the target, pick up the weapon, or retreat past a barrier while the target is down.

Grapple. Grappling is a slow action, uses no weapon, and can be blocked. On success, both fighters fall prone, the opponent drops held weapons, and the opponent cannot move. Their only possible action is breaking free with a slow, opposed Close Combat roll. The grappler's only action is a grapple attack: an unarmed attack that is fast and cannot be blocked. Grappling is for restraint. It stops movement and weapon use, but it pins the grappler to the same hex with both people on the ground, so it works best when allies can secure the scene, collect the dropped weapon, or leave once the threat is contained.

Diving Blow

If a survivor runs into an enemy's hex and then makes an unarmed attack in the same round, it is a diving blow at +2. On a hit, it deals normal damage and both fighters fall prone. On a miss, only the attacker falls. It can be blocked.

Use it when closing distance right now matters more than staying upright: stopping an enemy from reaching a door, hitting someone before they can aim, or starting a scramble that lets the rest of the group get out. A prone attacker may end up next to an enemy with allies, weapons, and a fast action still in hand.

Retreat: Leaving Is a Roll With Teeth

An active enemy in the same hex prevents an ordinary run. To leave, roll Mobility to retreat. On success, move out of the hex. On failure, the survivor still moves out, but the enemy gets an immediate free close-combat attack. That attack happens out of turn order, costs the enemy no actions, and cannot be blocked.

A failed retreat does not trap anyone; it makes the exit painful. Plan the exit before entering the hex, and give allies a reason to block, shove, grapple, or hold overwatch to cover it.

1. Is the objective done, or does someone still need to stay in the hex?
2. Does the survivor have a fast action for retreat, and where will they land?
3. Can an ally block, disarm, shove, or otherwise reduce the threat first?
4. If the Mobility roll fails, can the group protect or treat the survivor right away?

Retreat is not a failure of nerve. In a survival game it is often the action that keeps the people and supplies needed for the next problem.

Putting the Close-Combat Options Together

Close combat gets deadlier when the group treats it as one character's scene. Name who guards the exit, who handles a dropped weapon, and who gives aid if the retreat attack lands.

Hit Locations and Damage

A successful attack matters because location, protection, damage, and aftermath all change the next decision. A hit to a protected torso differs from one to a bare leg. A hit that does no damage can still trigger suppression. A survivor at hit capacity may be alive but able to do nothing except crawl and wait for help.

Resolve a Hit in This Order

For an attack against a human target:

1. Confirm the attack result. A ranged or close-combat hit starts at the weapon's base damage plus one per extra success. Explosions have their own attack procedure but also use hit locations when they hit.
2. Determine the hit location. Roll the D6 location die, unless a called shot or aimed blow lets the attacker choose.
3. Apply cover and armor. Check whether protection covers that location, then apply the protection procedure.
4. Record damage. Add final damage to the target's running total.
5. Check for a critical injury. If final damage reaches the weapon's critical threshold, use that location's critical-injury table.
6. Check capacity and response. If damage reaches hit capacity, the target is incapacitated. Work out who can give aid, how to protect the position, and how to move the casualty safely.

Do not jump from "I hit" to a dramatic injury description. Resolve the steps in order and let the result shape the scene.

The Location Roll: Legs, Torso, Arm, or Head

After a human target is hit by ranged combat, close combat, or an explosion, roll a D6:

The table is compact on purpose. It creates uncertainty without an anatomy simulation on every attack. What matters is that equipment, cover, and critical-injury effects all depend on location.

Do not roll a location for damage from pushing a Strength or Agility skill roll. That damage is strain or self-inflicted harm, so record it directly; armor and cover do not reduce it.

Called Shots and Aimed Blows

A ranged called shot or close-combat aimed blow takes -2 but lets the attacker choose head, torso, arm, or leg. It trades hit chance for control over what a hit might change, so use it with a concrete reason:

• Leg: stop a dangerous opponent from pursuing or changing position.
• Arm: interfere with a weapon, tool, or two-handed task.
• Torso: aim at the largest, most conventional area when its protection is the deciding factor.
• Head: a very serious choice, taken at -2, only when the fiction demands it.

Called shots are not an excuse for gratuitous description. State the tactical goal before rolling. If no location-specific result matters, the normal roll is faster and keeps the uncertainty where it belongs.

Minor NPCs Use a Faster Procedure

To cut bookkeeping, minor NPCs can use simplified damage. The Referee need not track their damage points. A hit automatically suppresses that target and similar NPCs in the same hex, and a critical hit incapacitates immediately. Skip the location roll unless the NPC has armor or cover.

This is a pacing tool, not a reason to make NPCs feel disposable. Use full rules for key opponents, allies, and anyone whose survival matters to the scene. It keeps a large engagement from turning into a spreadsheet.

Incapacitation, critical injuries, and death saves follow in the healing section, because the moment a hit crosses those lines the problem belongs to the medic.

Armor, Cover, and Protection

Protection is valuable because it changes what a hit can do. It does not excuse the next bad decision. Armor may deflect damage, cover may make a route possible, and a vehicle may give a group a few more choices. None of them removes suppression, exposure, broken equipment, or the need to leave a bad position.

Treat armor as part of a position. Ask what body part is exposed, what actually covers it, and whether the team can improve that protection before the next attack.

Resolve Protection in This Order

Once an attack hits a human target, resolve armor and cover in a fixed sequence:

1. Find the hit location. Protection only helps if it covers the body part hit.
2. Identify every relevant protection source. Use the most effective worn body armor, then add applicable cover or vehicle armor.
3. Apply the weapon armor modifier. Modify the armor level before checking penetration. A weapon applies no armor modifier to a completely unarmored target.
4. Check the penetration limit. A weapon whose base damage is two or more steps below the modified armor level is fully deflected, however many extra successes were rolled.
5. Reduce damage by the modified armor level. If damage reaches zero, the hit is fully deflected.
6. Check ablation after penetration. Penetrated armor or cover can lose a level, so update what remains.

This order prevents the common mistake of subtracting protection from damage before checking whether the weapon could penetrate at all. It also keeps the fiction honest: a helmet protects a head, a flak jacket protects what it covers, and a wall protects only what is behind it.

Reading Armor Stat Entries

Body armor entries name the locations they protect, weigh something, and carry an armor level. Read each entry as a plan for a particular kind of exposure, and take the exact coverage, protection, weight, and price from the Player's Manual.

Armor level is not a flat damage-reduction number. It interacts with the hit location, the other protection present, the weapon used, and the attack result. The practical decision comes before combat: which body parts will this mission expose? A group moving through a building, firing over a barrier, riding unbuttoned, or carrying a casualty exposes different locations than a group moving quietly through open country.

Body armor also has an encumbrance cost, so wearing it competes with water, food, medical supplies, tools, ammunition, and the capacity to carry a casualty.

Do not pack armor in a backpack for a threat that arrives without warning. Do not haul a heavy load all day for a fight the group only imagines at the end, either. Match the choice to when and where exposure is likely.

Coverage Matters More Than the Item Name

Do not apply a protection value just because a survivor wears or stands near something protective. Establish the hit location first, then the exact protection between the attack and that location.

Partial cover can save a torso or legs while leaving head or arms exposed. To fire across a barrier, a survivor must expose head and arms, so a barricade helps without becoming a force field. Full cover breaks line of sight and normally makes an attack impossible unless the Referee decides the attacker knows roughly where the target is.

Cover is usually the first protection a group can improve. A better firing position can help several people at once and does not need carrying, repairing, or replacing.

Worn Layers Do Not Stack

Multiple layers of body armor do nothing extra. Use only the most effective worn armor. Stacking every jacket, vest, and improvised layer into one number makes protection far stronger than intended and removes the value of maneuver.

Body armor does combine with cover or vehicle armor when both protect the location hit. A survivor with good body armor behind a solid obstacle can survive threats that either alone might not stop.

• Choose the single best applicable worn body armor.
• Add applicable cover or vehicle armor.
• Do not add another worn layer because it is also on the sheet.
• Reassess after the target moves, changes facing, climbs out, or exposes a different location.

The question is never "How much armor does this character own?" It is "What protects this location from this direction right now?" Put the best armor on the survivor most likely to be exposed, then improve their route, cover, and communication instead of turning everyone into a tank.

Armor Modifiers and Penetration Limits

Weapons handle armor differently. The armor modifier changes the armor level before damage is reduced, and it matters only when there is armor to modify.

Then check the penetration limit. If base damage is two or more steps below the modified armor level, the attack is fully deflected no matter how many extra successes were rolled. Extra successes raise ordinary damage; they cannot make an inadequate weapon beat that protection.

If the attack can penetrate, reduce final damage by the modified armor level. Damage reduced to zero is also a full deflection. Keep that distinction in play, because it tells the group whether it is surviving marginal hits or whether its weapons cannot touch the target at all. If they cannot, change position, find another tool, or make the target leave its protection instead of repeating useless attacks.

Keep it quick at the table: state the protection, apply the modifier, check the limit, and describe the result. A round glances off, a barrier splinters, or a hit gets through.

A Deflected Hit Can Still Stop the Plan

Full deflection is not the same as no effect. The survivor still makes a CUF roll to avoid suppression, and explosions add their own pressure even when cover or armor soaks the damage. The impact, the noise, and the realization that someone is shooting can still cost actions.

That cuts both ways. An armored group pinned behind a wall is still losing the initiative. A group that cannot penetrate a vehicle may still force its crew to hesitate, change route, abandon a firing position, or call for help.

Ablation and Armor Repair

When armor or cover is penetrated, roll a D6 base die. On a 1, that protection loses one armor level. At zero, it no longer protects.

Record the loss as it happens. A position that was safe early in a fight can become unsafe after repeated penetrations, and a damaged wall, vehicle panel, or barrier can be the difference between a controlled withdrawal and a casualty.

Repair is deliberate work. A TECH roll and a shift of work restore one armor level per success, capped at the original rating. Do not quietly reset armor after the scene; repair competes with sleep, travel, guard duty, medical care, and other repairs. The Vehicle Repair Guide applies the same time-and-tools discipline to bigger protection systems.

Vehicle Armor Is Directional Protection

Vehicles use the same steps: apply the relevant armor and the weapon modifier, check the penetration limit, and reduce damage if the attack gets through. The difference is facing. Vehicle armor is listed separately for front, side, and rear; the attacker's position decides which applies, and attacks from above or below use rear armor. Worn armor combines with vehicle armor for protected occupants, while passengers outside or leaning from hatches and windows are far more exposed.

Keep the strongest face toward the threat when possible. A flanked crew has a problem even while the vehicle still runs, and armor cannot replace fuel, crew, working components, or a route. The Vehicle Combat Guide and Vehicle Stats Guide cover the full vehicle procedure.

A Quick Armor Check Before Contact

Before a likely fight or dangerous crossing, answer these:

1. Which locations does each survivor's worn armor actually cover?
2. What cover can the group reach before it has to shoot?
3. Which weapons or hazards are most likely, and how do they interact with armor?
4. Who is exposed by a hatch, window, firing position, or casualty carry?
5. Has any body armor, cover, or vehicle armor been ablated since the last check?
6. If the group is suppressed, where does it move, or how does it break contact?
7. If someone is hit, who has medical gear and a route to safety?

If the group cannot answer these, its armor is wishful thinking. Reposition, scout, negotiate, reduce exposure, or change the mission before the first attack answers for you.

Explosives, Grenades, and Demolition

Explosives are area-control tools with consequences. A grenade can force an enemy out of cover, a minefield can change a route, and smoke can make a withdrawal possible. The same effects can knock down allies, wreck a plan, close an escape, or turn a tense scene into a rescue.

Make the decision legible: state the target hex, identify everyone in the area, check cover and prone status, resolve the blast, then decide what the group does while people are suppressed, separated, or exposed. Everything here is about tabletop rules and fictional play. It is not real-world explosives guidance.

Blast Power Falls Away From the Detonation

Explosions have a blast power from A through D. They apply full power in the detonation hex and lose one step per hex beyond it. Below D, the blast has no effect.

For each person in range, roll two base dice matching the modified blast power. The roll cannot be pushed. One or more successes means a hit, and base damage rises by one for each additional success. Then roll a normal hit location and apply protection.

Everyone in the blast area is automatically knocked prone and makes an immediate CUF roll against suppression, even if the blast missed them. That does not apply to someone inside a vehicle or behind cover the blast cannot penetrate. An explosive can therefore be useful without dealing much damage: it interrupts actions, costs movement, and forces a choice between staying down and leaving cover.

Blast Cover and Going Prone

Solid cover protects shielded locations from an explosion the same way it does against gunfire, except when the explosion is in the target's own hex. A wall between the blast and a survivor can help. A wall inside the blast hex cannot be assumed to.

Going prone reduces the blast power affecting the target by one step. It improves the odds but may leave the survivor exposed to other threats or slow to act. The question after an explosive threat is simple: can the group get low, get behind solid cover, or get out of the area before it goes off?

Hand Grenades

Hand grenades follow the heavy-weapon rules with specific exceptions. They use Mobility instead of Heavy Weapons. Maximum range is short. Pulling the pin is a fast action. The throw needs no aiming action and takes no quick-shot penalty for skipping one.

Before the throw, establish the target hex and the likely consequence. Whether the grenade hits matters less than which routes it closes, who is in the blast area, what cover applies, and how the group will use the disruption.

If a grenade lands in a character's hex, that character can roll Mobility, without spending an action, to drop prone before it detonates. The rules also allow a character to dive onto the grenade to shield others in the hex, at the cost of automatic incapacitation and a severe torso critical injury. That is a rare, story-driven sacrifice rather than a routine defense.

Smoke Is an Information Tool

Dense smoke breaks line of sight. If the Referee decides a combatant likely knows the enemy's hex, they can still fire at it at -3; otherwise the shot is impossible. Smoke changes what each side knows and can safely try.

Use it to support a specific action:

• Cross an exposed space.
• Break line of sight before a retreat.
• Stop a distant firing position from supporting an enemy move.
• Hide a casualty extraction from direct observation.
• Force an opponent to close in before it can use range.

Smoke does not make the team invisible. It can hide enemies, blind friendly observers, block a planned overwatch lane, and obscure a minefield or route. It also cuts the group off from the unit morale die when allies lose sight of each other. State the movement plan before filling a hex with smoke.

Heavy Weapons Add Aim, Reload, and Deviation

Rocket launchers, grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles, mortars, and howitzers use Heavy Weapons. They must be aimed before firing, with no quick-shot option. Aiming is normally fast, firing is slow, and each shot usually needs a slow-action reload. They do not use ammo dice except for specific listed exceptions, and when a weapon has both direct damage and an explosive effect, the two are resolved separately.

A failed attack with an explosive effect deviates under the game's deviation procedure. Resolve the new impact hex instead of treating the miss as nothing. A stray explosive can change the terrain, hit the wrong people, and force an immediate rethink. Indirect fire also needs a forward observer with line of sight and communication.

Heavy weapons work best against large targets or a chosen hex. They take -2 against an individual, and when targeting a hex rather than a specific target, extra successes have no effect. The Weapons List covers launchers, machine guns, crews, and portable firepower in more detail.

Minefields Are Terrain Problems

The rules divide mines into anti-personnel, anti-tank, and directional types. Treat any of them as terrain first. The player response is to stop, mark the danger, communicate, and use the game rules for detection, movement, or clearing.

For a detected anti-personnel minefield, movement drops to one hex per action with a RECON roll for each hex entered. A group moving in single file can have the leader make the detection roll while the others step in their footsteps. Clearing a mined hex takes at least a stretch and a TECH roll, and failure sets off a mine.

Anti-tank mines are a vehicle problem, and directional mines hit an arc rather than all around. Their exact placement and handling stay with the Referee and the official rules.

For GMs, use mines sparingly. A suspected minefield can tell players that a route is contested, was abandoned in a hurry, or is still shaped by the war. It should not become a random tax on movement. Give clues and real choices, and resolve technical details through the rules without explaining how any device works.

Use Explosives to Create a Decision Window

A good explosive use usually opens a short window in which something else becomes possible. Build the follow-up into the plan:

1. Name the objective. Move, escape, open a lane, deny a route, or crack a fortified position.
2. Name the affected area. Include allies, civilians, unknown spaces, and the group's own exit.
3. Assign the follow-up. Who moves, who watches, who treats a casualty, who holds the new line?
4. Resolve the aftermath. Prone targets, suppression, smoke, deviation, and damaged cover can all change the order.
5. Reassess before repeating. The same choice may be much worse once the map has changed.

Demolition and Found Explosives

Outside the firefight, explosives raise a campaign question more than a tactical one. They can open a route, destroy a threat, create an obstacle, or rescue a desperate plan. They can also burn supplies the party cannot replace, destroy something it needed intact, draw attention to the wrong place, or leave the survivors with a harder problem than the one they started with. The question worth asking is "What does the group need to change, what does it lose by changing it this way, and what happens after everyone hears it?"

Use the official rules for explosions, mines, improvised devices, gear, and TECH tasks whenever characters try something hazardous. If a player asks for an operational detail beyond those rules, keep it fictional and abstract: name the needed skill or gear, resolve the task, and describe the result without a replicable method.

Define the Objective Before Choosing the Tool

An explosive is a tool; the objective is a specific change to the situation. Before committing a scarce resource, name which problem the party is solving:

• Open or close a route.
• Stop or delay pursuit.
• Remove a physical obstacle.
• Create a distraction.
• Force a decision from an enemy or rival group.
• Deny the use of something the party cannot hold.
• Signal that the party is willing to escalate.

Each has a different measure of success. Crossing a blocked route may mean reaching the far side before nightfall rather than reducing the obstacle to rubble. Delaying a pursuer may mean gaining one shift of travel rather than winning a fight outright. Denying a resource may include leaving alive without making the locals into enemies.

Explosives Are a Scarce Campaign Resource

The game includes explosive materials and related gear, but finding them should not make them routine. A rare item carries weight, transport risk, storage concerns, attention from other people, and the choice not to trade it for something else. When the party finds one, ask:

1. What future problem is this being saved for? A group with no answer is carrying risk without a plan.
2. What will it cost to move and protect? Encumbrance, vehicle space, time, and attention all count.
3. Who else would value it? A useful find can be a bargaining chip, a reason for conflict, or both.
4. What does the party give up by using it now? The answer gives a later decision weight.

A demolition resource can be a tool for access, a trade good, a reason to seek technical help, or a burden that makes travel less safe. Let the group decide which, then show that choice in the fiction.

Obstacles Are Not Automatically Demolition Targets

A good demolition scene starts with a real obstacle that affects the campaign: a blocked route, a threatening barrier, a contested position, a dangerous structure, or an object that decides who controls an area. Then offer more than one way forward.

Demolition earns its place when it shifts the odds in a way the alternatives cannot. The party may still choose it, but it should know what it has made harder afterward.

Make the Consequence Chain Clear

In the rules, an explosion has an effect. In the story, it has consequences that spread outward. Tell players about the ones their characters could reasonably foresee before they commit.

The point is to let players choose the kind of problem they are willing to create, instead of punishing them for it afterward. If the group knows a shortcut will make noise, damage a valuable structure, and alarm a nearby settlement, choosing it says something about the characters.

A consistent sequence helps: state the objective in plain language, identify the official rule and required capability, establish local risks and what success would change, resolve the rule, then describe the new situation and its consequences. That gives everyone a job: the specialist rolls, others scout, carry gear, secure the retreat, watch, treat injuries, drive, or handle the aftermath.

Let Specialists Contribute Without Granting Certainty

Characters with technical experience, gear, or specialties should have a real role in a hazardous plan. They can say what the group needs to know, what uncertainty remains, make the official task roll, and help pick a safer fallback. They do not erase risk. Age, damage, poor storage, missing parts, time pressure, weather, and unfamiliar equipment all give the GM grounds to make an item uncertain without making the scene arbitrary.

Useful questions for the specialist:

• Is the party solving the right problem?
• What must be protected, moved, or cleared before the attempt?
• What condition is the found gear in?
• What is the best fallback if the plan cannot go ahead?
• What should the party keep in reserve for afterward?

Found Explosives Are Story Hooks

When survivors find hazardous gear in a cache, vehicle, abandoned building, or battlefield, its first value may be the question it raises. Who left it? Who was supposed to use it? Is anyone coming back? What were the owners trying to protect, destroy, or recover?

Condition and context keep the find grounded. A damaged container calls for caution. Missing associated gear may make the item less useful. A local faction may consider the cache its property. "You can tell it is hazardous, and you do not know whether it is reliable" is enough to create a choice: leave it, secure the area, find someone qualified, trade the information, or accept the risk under the official rules. The Scavenging Guide covers why a valuable find changes carrying capacity, priorities, travel plans, and the attention others pay to the party.

Mines and improvised devices stay at the level of game rules. The practical player question is whether the party has the capability, gear, time, and reason to deal with a hazardous object. If not, avoiding it, marking it in the fiction, warning others, or changing route are all smart choices.

A Pre-Commitment Briefing

Before a high-consequence plan, take one minute:

1. What must change for the mission to continue?
2. What are the non-explosive alternatives?
3. Which official rule and character capability apply?
4. What people, supplies, and routes must be protected?
5. What will draw attention or create a new obstacle?
6. Where does the party go immediately afterward?
7. What is the fallback if the plan cannot be tried or fails?

Write down the last two answers. They are the ones forgotten when the scene gets urgent. A retreat route, a rally point, a medical plan, and a decision about who talks to the locals afterward can matter more to the next session than the blast itself. The best demolition scenes change the campaign map: the road is open but everyone knows the group came through; the bridge is gone, and so is a possible escape; the threat is delayed, but a settlement now needs help.

Healing and Injuries

Healing is the next tactical problem after a fight, and it is never a pause button. The group has to make the position safe, decide who can help, account for any death-save clock, deal with infection risk, and decide whether it can afford to rest. A survivor back on their feet is not recovered, and a group with supplies is not automatically safe enough to use them.

This covers the game's Medical Aid, damage, and recovery procedures rather than real-world medical advice. Keep the official critical-injury tables at hand for exact results, effects, and healing times.

First Decide What Problem You Are Treating

Do not start with a generic "heal" roll. Identify the game condition, because each has its own procedure.

Incapacitation Is Urgent, Not Final

When accumulated damage equals or exceeds hit capacity, the character is incapacitated: knocked senseless or collapsed from pain, able only to crawl and mumble. They cannot take other actions or roll skills.

The fastest fix is a successful Medical Aid roll from someone in the same hex, as a slow action. Each success heals one damage immediately, which can put the survivor back on their feet if damage drops below hit capacity. More ordinary Medical Aid does not help after that until advanced medical gear is used or the survivor is incapacitated again.

If nobody helps within a shift, the survivor comes around anyway and heals one damage. That is a poor plan with a threat nearby. The group still has to hold the position, move the casualty, or stop the next attack from creating another casualty.

1. Stop continuing danger. Get cover, end exposure, or break contact before anyone else goes down.
2. Read the condition. Is the character only incapacitated, or is there a lethal critical injury with a death-save interval?
3. Get the right helper adjacent. Medical Aid for an incapacitated survivor requires sharing the hex.
4. Make the Medical Aid roll. Treat the slow action as a real cost while the rest of the group protects it.
5. Reassess the route. Standing, moving, and resting may each be dangerous under the current condition.

The Combat Medic specialty gives a bonus when helping an incapacitated character get up.

Critical Injuries Create a Second Clock

An attack causes a critical injury when final damage after armor and cover equals or exceeds the weapon's critical threshold. Use the table for the location struck. Arm criticals make the target drop held items; leg criticals make the target fall, on top of the listed effects.

If damage is two or more steps above the threshold, the injury is severe: roll two D10s and keep the higher. Every additional two steps adds another D10. Higher damage gets more dangerous without an anatomy lesson on every hit. Criticals can bring short-term limits, long recovery, permanent effects, or a lethal time limit.

Some critical injuries are lethal. The table result sets a death-save interval in rounds, stretches, or shifts. A death save is a Stamina roll. An incapacitated character can make it but cannot push; a conscious one can push normally. Failure means death. Success means another save after the same interval unless treatment improves things.

Put the interval on the table and plan around it. A round interval changes the current fight. A stretch interval changes the next movement decision. A shift interval changes the group's camp, travel, and supply choices.

Stabilization Improves the Clock

Medical Aid can stabilize a lethal critical injury. The attempt takes as long as the injury's current interval: a round, stretch, or shift. A round-level attempt is a slow action. Medical equipment can add a modifier, and a conscious survivor can treat themselves at -2.

On success, the time limit improves one category, round to stretch or stretch to shift. Once a shift-limit injury is treated successfully, the death saves stop. After a failed attempt, the caregiver can try again following a death save. The Field Surgeon specialty gives a bonus when treating critical injuries.

Moving a Casualty Can Be the Wrong First Move

A character with a lethal critical injury who moves must make an immediate death save. If someone else moves them, that helper rolls Medical Aid without spending an action; on a failure, the casualty makes an immediate death save.

Leaving someone in the open may be unacceptable, but rushing them through fire, rough ground, or a long march can trigger the very risk the group is trying to avoid. Before moving, ask:

• Is the current hex more dangerous than the route?
• Can the team create a safe window first with cover, smoke, or suppressive fire?
• Does the next position actually allow treatment, warmth, rest, and protection?

Infection Risk

Any external attack that deals one or more damage creates infection risk. If the wound is not treated with Medical Aid within a shift, make an infection roll under the game's infection procedure. A character can treat themselves if not incapacitated. Antibiotics give +3 when treating infected wounds and other bacterial infections.

That makes post-fight care a real task even for survivors who never hit capacity. A group that wins and marches straight on may swap a present danger for a later condition it could have headed off.

• Note every character who took external attack damage.
• Before a shift passes, assign Medical Aid or note the infection roll that will be due.
• Track which medical supplies were used and which remain.
• Confirm that food, water, warmth, and sleep allow recovery to work normally.

Medical Supplies Change the Roll, Not the Stakes

Each medical supply has a limited role:

A personal medkit is gone once used, so cross it off. A larger kit has weight and faces the same travel and combat risks as other gear. Bonuses do not waive time requirements or make careless movement safe. Keep the medkit in combat gear: pulling it from a backpack mid-fight costs a slow action and a Mobility roll.

Recovery Takes Time and Basic Needs

Once a survivor is back on their feet, each full shift of rest or sleep heals one remaining damage. Damage and stress can recover at the same time. Critical injuries heal on their own day-based schedules, and their effects can outlast the damage. If a caregiver spends a shift a day tending the injury and succeeds at Medical Aid, that day counts double toward critical-injury healing.

Recovery depends on survival conditions. Starvation, dehydration, and hypothermia stop normal damage recovery, so a safe place, water, food, warmth, and time can be worth more than another weapon or another risky mile.

Stress Is the Second Failure Track

Stress is the mental counterpart to damage. It comes from pushing Empathy or Intelligence rolls, from suppression, from seeing a buddy hurt, and from other terrible events. Stress that reaches capacity incapacitates a survivor as surely as damage does, but rallying and recovery use different tools. A group can survive an exchange physically and still be too shaken to carry on with its plan.

For the character side of that pressure, see the Twilight: 2000 Character Creation Guide and its Background Guide. A buddy, moral code, and big dream make combat consequences matter beyond the equipment list.

Most groups should spend ammo dice on suppression far more than on damage. A missed burst that pins the enemy for a turn buys the medic, the driver, and the retreat in one roll, while a clean kill often just pulls the next raider into the same doorway. Tables that count bodies instead of turns lose people in this game.

The Cost After the Last Shot

The encounter is not over when the shooting stops. Account for magazines and belts, weapon condition, injuries, stress, lost gear, damaged armor, broken transport, noise, and who saw the fight. Scarcity turns a tactical win into a hard campaign decision.

Ask these after every fight:

• Who needs first aid, rest, or a rally before the group moves again?
• Whose wounds need Medical Aid within the shift to avoid an infection roll?
• What ammunition did we spend, and what can each weapon still fire?
• Did any weapon lose reliability or jam, and who will service it?
• Did armor, cover, clothing, or equipment take damage?
• Did the fight reveal our route, vehicle, camp, or community to someone dangerous?
• Are we still after the original objective, or does the fight call for a new plan?

The Twilight: 2000 Setting Primer keeps that larger survival context in view. A weapon can solve the threat in front of you. It cannot create food, fuel, safety, trust, or a place to sleep.

Common Combat Mistakes

Treating damage as the only result. Suppression, stress, lost actions, an empty magazine, and exposure can each lose the encounter. Check the whole position.

Standing in the open to improve a shot. A better modifier is rarely worth becoming the obvious target if another route, position, or moment exists.

Forgetting what is accessible. A medkit, reload, radio, or grenade in a backpack takes a slow action and a Mobility roll to retrieve. Keep immediate tools in combat gear.

Spending every round without a group goal. Say who is covering, who is moving, what hex matters, and what signals the withdrawal.

Treating ammo dice as hit dice. They add effects after a successful base attack or can force CUF after a miss; they never create the initial hit. Each burst also costs the dice total plus one, so mark it at once.

Pushing every burst and skipping gun care. Reliability loss and jams are part of the price, and an unserviced weapon can degrade before the next fight.

Calling every miss a suppression. A missed firearm attack forces CUF only when an ammo die succeeds, and the unit morale die applies only with line of sight to a non-incapacitated friend.

Holding overwatch on an area, or after spending the slow action. Choose one visible hex and save the slow action. Acting, being hurt, being attacked in close combat, or being suppressed ends it.

Blocking after the attack result. Declare the block before the attacker rolls, and remember it spends a fast action.

Disarming or grappling without a team plan. A dropped weapon stays in the hex, and a grapple leaves both fighters prone in the same place.

Treating a failed retreat as being stuck. The survivor still moves; the cost is a free attack that cannot be blocked.

Applying armor before the hit location, or stacking worn layers. Location decides which protection applies, and only the best worn armor counts alongside cover or vehicle armor.

Skipping the penetration limit or forgetting ablation. Check base damage against modified armor before counting extra successes, and record lost armor levels.

Treating a blast miss or a deflection as no effect. Both can still knock people down or force a CUF roll.

Using smoke or grenades without a movement plan. Smoke blinds both sides, and an explosive that closes the enemy's route can close yours.

Treating a minefield or found explosive as scenery or a free upgrade. Stop, communicate, and resolve it as a time, terrain, and consequence problem.

Calling incapacitation death, or moving a lethal casualty casually. Medical Aid can get the survivor up, and moving someone with a lethal critical can force an immediate death save.

Forgetting infection and lasting critical effects. External damage needs Medical Aid within a shift, and critical effects can persist after the damage heals.

Related Combat Guides

• Twilight: 2000 Combat Rules: initiative, actions, terrain, ambushes, and social conflict.
• Twilight: 2000 Ranged Combat: aiming, range, firearms, cover, and attack modifiers.
• Twilight: 2000 Weapons List: firearms, melee weapons, machine guns, and launchers by role, ammunition, range, and reliability.
• Twilight: 2000 Gear and Equipment Guide: loadouts, trade, and repair.
• Twilight: 2000 Field Guide: the full library.

The central lesson holds across every section above: the best combat plan gets the group through the scene with enough people, supplies, and hope left to keep surviving.

Where To Go From Here

Start with Twilight: 2000 Combat Rules if the round moved too fast above; it slows down initiative, actions, terrain, and the ambush roll that everything here assumes you already have. The bill for a firefight comes due in Twilight: 2000 Survival and Resources, where Shifts, food, water, and Radiation decide what a wounded party can actually cross. When the question turns to reloads, medical supplies, or what a repair costs in parts and time, the Gear and Equipment Guide carries the logistics behind every choice made on this page.

Source Scope

This guide summarizes Player's Manual Chapter 4, "Combat & Damage," including actions, ammunition and reloading, suppression and overwatch, close combat, hit locations, armor, explosions, and injuries, plus the manual's body armor, ammunition-as-currency, gun care, and medical supply concepts. It does not reproduce the book's weapon, armor, critical-injury, explosive, terrain, or action tables, or any setup, placement, or disarming procedure for explosives. Use the official rules for exact values and adjudication.