🎯Encounter Setup

Proposed — not yet reviewed by GM

AI-generated content. Review and update status to canon once reviewed.

Encounter Setup governs how a combat encounter is staged — where the party deploys, where the enemies are, how far apart the sides start, and what awareness state both sides enter combat with. The goal is tactically varied encounters that don’t force melee PCs to spend entire turns walking and don’t deny ranged PCs their range advantage.

This page is for the GM. It does not introduce new combat actions or resources — it defines the procedure for staging the map before round 1 begins.

Overview

The setup pipeline:

1. Awareness is determined — either by 🗺 World Map Travel (random encounters) or by 👥 Stealth approach (party-led).
2. Map is selected — terrain type and pre-built layout. All maps in this game are pre-built; there is no procedural generation.
3. Engagement Band for the map (Close / Medium / Long / Extreme) is set at design time.
4. Deployment Zone is placed on the map based on awareness; the party places PCs within it.
5. Enemies are placed per the pre-built map, with posture (in cover, alert, 👥 Hidden, Overwatch) modified by their awareness state.
6. Surprise Round triggers per 😲 Surprise rules if applicable.
7. Combat begins.

Engagement Distance Bands

Each encounter has an engagement band — the rough distance between the two sides at the start of combat. The GM picks the band at map-design time. The band determines what kinds of weapons and tactics shine.

Band	Distance	Melee turns to engage	Designed for
Close	5–12 tiles	1 (Sprint+Charge from start)	Indoors, alleys, urban ruins, ambushes
Medium	12–24 tiles	2 (Sprint, then Sprint+Charge)	Default wasteland encounters
Long	24–40 tiles	3+, cover-hopping required	Open terrain, sniper setups
Extreme	40+ tiles	Special — requires terrain features (vehicles, vantage drops, broken sightlines)	Rare, scripted setpieces

The bands align with weapon range tiers (Close 1–15, Medium 15–30, Long 30–45, Extreme 45+). Mixing band against weapon profile is a design lever — e.g., a sniper enemy in a Medium-band map gives the party a chance to close before being whittled.

The Melee Protection Rule

The Melee Protection Rule

No encounter may start with a melee PC more than 24 tiles from the nearest engageable enemy OR the nearest piece of cover along a viable approach axis.

Encounters designed at Long or Extreme bands must include cover-to-cover approach corridors, with cover placed roughly every 10 tiles along the approach axis.

This guarantees melee PCs can engage by end of turn 2 in Close and Medium encounters, and by end of turn 3 in Long encounters via 💨 Sprint cover-to-cover. Extreme is the GM’s deliberate exception and should be rare and signposted.

If a map cannot satisfy this rule, redesign the map. Don’t build encounters that force melee PCs to spend the fight walking.

Deployment Zones

A Deployment Zone is a contiguous rectangular region on the combat map where the party places their starting tiles. Each PC picks any unoccupied tile in the zone. Within the zone, the party self-allocates positions — melee characters voluntarily take the forward-most tiles, ranged PCs take the back.

Zone size scales with the party’s awareness state. Sizes are exact to support pre-built TTS templates.

Awareness	Zone Size	Procedure	Adjacent allowed?
CRIT — Full Awareness	4×6	GM offers 2–3 zone locations; party picks one and places freely within	Only via successful 👤 Sneak Tests
Success — Detection	3×4	GM places the zone; party places freely within	Only via successful 👤 Sneak Tests
Failure — Unaware	2×2	GM places the zone where the party would plausibly be when they stumble in; party places within	No
CRITFAIL — Ambushed	1×2 cluster	GM assigns tiles directly	No; 😲 Surprise Round triggers
Stealth-led approach	—	Deployment zone overridden; placement per 👥 Stealth rules	Yes — canonical case

Adjacency — earned, not chosen

A PC may not deploy outside the forward edge of the zone (closer to an enemy than the zone allows) unless one of the following applies:

• Stealth approach. The PC succeeded their pre-combat 👤 Sneak Test and is placed per 👥 Stealth rules — anywhere along their approach path, including adjacent to an enemy if the path supports it.
• Narrative continuation. Prior fiction has already placed the PC adjacent (e.g., a social scene that escalates to combat with a punch). GM discretion.

The implication: a melee PC who wants alpha-strike adjacency invests in Sneak. Non-stealth melee PCs get the forward edge of the zone as their starting line, and rely on Sprint+Charge to close the rest.

Enemy placement

Enemies are placed per the pre-built map. Their posture (in cover, alert, on Overwatch, 👥 Hidden) is modified by their awareness state, but their positions are not. Enemies may reposition in-fiction (a sentry on patrol, a sniper relocating between rounds), but not as a setup-time response to the party’s awareness state.

Awareness-to-Setup Table

For random encounters generated by 🗺 World Map Travel:

Group Test Result	Awareness	Deployment Zone	Surprise Round?
CRIT (Leader CRITs)	Full Awareness	4×6, party picks from 2–3 GM-offered locations; may start 👥 Hidden if Sneak Tests pass	If party Sneak Attacks
Success	Detection	3×4, GM-placed; cover typically available on party’s side	If party Sneak Attacks
Failure	Unaware	2×2, GM-placed; no extra cover	Possible if enemies were prepared
CRITFAIL	Ambushed	1×2, GM-assigned, often in the open or in enemy fireline	Yes, in enemies’ favor

For fixed-location encounters where the party knows what they’re walking into (briefing, scouting, prior visit), treat as Success or CRIT depending on prep level.

Stealth-Led Encounters

When the party initiates combat via a Sneak Attack or pre-combat 👥 Stealth approach:

• The deployment zone system is overridden for stealthed PCs. PCs who succeeded their pre-combat Sneak Test are placed per 👥 Stealth rules — anywhere along their approach path, including adjacent to an enemy.
• PCs who did not attempt or failed their Sneak Test are placed at the deployment zone matching the rest of the party’s awareness band (typically Success or CRIT if a teammate snuck successfully).
• The 😲 Surprise Round triggers per 😲 Surprise rules if a Sneak Attack hits its target.

This is the canonical “we crept up and timed our strike” scenario, and the only path for non-stealth-trained PCs to start adjacent to enemies.

Fixed Location Design Rubric

All combat maps in this game are pre-built. When designing a fixed-location combat map:

1. Pick an engagement band first. Decide whether the map is Close, Medium, Long, or Extreme. Don’t mix bands within one map without intentional design (e.g., a sniper perch overlooking a close-quarters yard).
2. Place at least one viable approach axis for melee — a path with cover roughly every 10 tiles. No map should consist of pure open ground at Long/Extreme bands.
3. Break defender firelines along the melee approach. If every tile of the melee path is covered by two or more enemies with full sightline, the encounter is a turkey shoot. Break sightlines at least once along the axis.
4. Mark candidate deployment zones at design time. For a CRIT (4×6) zone, identify 2–3 viable placements on the map. For Success/Failure (3×4, 2×2), identify the default placement and one alternate. This makes table-time setup fast.
5. Note the forward edge distance for each candidate zone to the nearest enemy. This is the number the 💨 Sprint+Charge math is checked against.

Modifiers

Setup is further affected by:

• 🗺 Scout — Reduces Detection DC by 2 for 24 hours, making Success/CRIT awareness more likely on subsequent encounters.
• Cautious Nature — Affected PC is immune to 😲 Surprised and always acts in any Surprise Round.
• Night Vision / Night Person / Ghost — Adjust detection at night; relevant for Stealth-led encounters and for resolving ambush conditions.
• Weather and time of day — Modify Detection DC per 🗺 World Map Travel.
• Vehicle speed — Higher speed increases Detection DC, making CRITFAIL ambushes more likely.

Quick Reference

Setup Pipeline

1. Determine awareness — World Map Group Test, or Stealth approach
2. Select map and engagement band — Close / Medium / Long / Extreme
3. Place deployment zone per awareness:
   • CRIT: 4×6 (party picks from 2–3 options)
   • Success: 3×4 (GM-placed)
   • Failure: 2×2 (GM-placed)
   • CRITFAIL: 1×2 cluster (GM-assigned)
   • Stealth: overridden, per Sneak rules
4. Party places PCs within zone (or per Stealth approach)
5. Enemies placed per pre-built map + posture
6. Surprise Round if triggered
7. Begin combat

Melee Protection Rule

• Max 24 tiles from melee PC to nearest engageable enemy OR approach cover
• Long/Extreme bands: cover every ~10 tiles along approach axis
• Melee must be able to engage by end of turn 2 (Close/Medium) or turn 3 (Long)

See Also

• 🗺 World Map Travel — random encounter generation, Detection DC, Group Test outcomes
• 😲 Surprise — Surprise Round triggers and effects
• Sneak Attack — opening combat from stealth
• 👥 Stealth — pre-combat awareness states (Undetected, Hidden, Hunt, Detected)
• 💨 Sprint — melee closing mechanics, including the Charge rule