# Running Combat ## *four steps, many Spotlights, under fifteen minutes* The FellGuide teaches a player to fight from inside one Fell. You run everything else in the room. The enemies, the order the round resolves in, and the pace. A LoreFell fight is meant to be fast and cinematic, so the work behind the screen is mostly about keeping it that way. ## The round is yours to drive Every round runs the same four steps. Three of them belong to you. 1. **You Commit.** Before anyone declares, you secretly write down what every enemy is doing this round. Once it is written, it is locked, the same way the Fell will be locked. Commit honestly. The hidden intentions are what make the players' planning a real gamble. 2. **Players Plan.** They talk. You listen. What they coordinate tells you where to point the danger. 3. **Everyone Declares.** Acts lock as they are spoken. Reacts are held loose and can move to a better moment. 4. **You Resolve.** You narrate the round as a sequence of Spotlights. Effects and Afflictions you set this round wake at the start of the next one. So do theirs. ## Committing enemy Acts Enemies play by the player's rules. One Act and one React each, movement folded into them. Write the Act as an intention, not a die result. "The warbeast lunges at the healer." "The archer falls back to the rubble and looses on whoever broke cover." When the Spotlight reaches that enemy, you roll it out against whatever the Fell actually did. Commit to pressure, not to perfect play. Enemies that always make the optimal choice feel like math. Enemies that go for the throat, hold a grudge, or panic feel like a fight. ## Ordering Spotlights A round does not resolve all at once. You move through it one Spotlight at a time, and you choose the order. Lead with whatever carries the most danger or the most drama. The ritual about to complete. The Fell about to be overrun. The relic crossing the floor. > [!note] Choosing the next Spotlight > > - What happens here changes what the players hoped would happen elsewhere? > - Where is a React waiting to trigger? Resolve into it and let the player spend it. > - What will the table most want to see? Open there. Resolve everything tied to one Spotlight before you move to the next. That is what keeps a simultaneous round legible instead of a pile of dice. ## Keeping it under fifteen minutes Target combat length is under fifteen minutes. You hold that line. - Roll enemy actions in the open and fast. Do not deliberate every move behind the screen. - Narrate damage as consequence, not arithmetic. The number lands, the body answers. - When a fight is decided, end it. Let the Fell finish a beaten enemy without three more rounds of cleanup. - A fight that has made its point is over even if a creature still breathes. Have it flee, yield, or fall. ## Pressing the Fell You have the same tools they do, plus the battlefield itself. Enemy Reacts intercept and counter. A Fellmark against a Fell lands an Affliction. A second Fellmark on the bonus damage roll triggers an Impairment, doubles the damage, and rolls on the Impairment table. And when the ground itself should turn, you spend a Disruption to raise a Pale. See Discord Points and Disruptions. If an Epic or Forsaken enemy is on the field, the Fell already carry its Discordant from the first breath of the fight. See Building Crucibles. Use that weight to raise tension, not to win. The fight is hard because the story needs it hard. See Building Crucibles for how much weight a given enemy should carry. ## Staging an Ambush Ambush turns on awareness, not a die alone. Before you call for a roll, decide whether the Fell could plausibly be unseen, weighing their approach, the terrain, and where the enemy holds its attention. If the approach is sound, set the enemy Vigilance as the number to beat and have the party roll Presence. On a success the Fell open with a free Act each before you Commit, and your enemies take no React against it. Hold the same standard against the party. An enemy with every reason to lie in wait earns the same free opening, and a party that walks in blind should feel the cost. Use the rule to reward scouting and patience rather than to punish ordinary travel.