The Archive

Part Two: The Rules

• Part One: The True Account
• Part Two: The Rules

Chapter Nineteen: Action and Conflict

T here are no idle participants in Sundered Earth.

When a Hobgoblin trench-fighter swings a length of rebar, the target does not stand still. They roll to stop it. When a Witch weaves a blood-hex across a crowded room, the target fights back with their own spirit. Both sides generate a score simultaneously. The margin between those two numbers dictates who walks away and who bleeds.

Defense in d20+ is always active. The right preparation, the correct augment, or the perfect moment of commitment can reverse a situation that looked entirely hopeless.

The Anatomy of a Turn

On your turn in combat, you are granted a strict pool of resources. You must choose your allocation at the start of the turn and commit to it.

Action Economy

Choose one of the following distributions the moment your turn begins:

2 Actions + 1 Move

1 Action + 2 Moves

You cannot blend them. Taking two Actions and two Moves is illegal unless a specific, high-tier ability explicitly breaks the rules of physics for you.

Actions are the primary currency of your survival. Striking an enemy, triggering an ability tagged [Action], making a contested check, or performing a Setup Action all cost exactly one Action.

The No-Repeat Skill Rule: You cannot use the same Skill for both of your Actions in a single turn. Swinging a bat (Might) and then throwing a knife (Grace) is legal. Swinging a bat twice (Might + Might) is not.

Example exception: The Bounty Hunter's Locked On ability suspends this rule, provided both Actions target a designated Quarry.

Beats

You also possess up to 2 Beats available at nearly any point during your turn. You can spend them before your first Action, in the space between Actions, or after your final Move.

Beats cover the split-second reflexes of combat. Dropping a magazine, kicking over a table, shouting a tactical command, or triggering an ability specifically tagged [Beat]. Beats do not consume your Actions, and they are entirely exempt from the No-Repeat Skill Rule. They are just small moments.

Reactions

Reactions trigger automatically in response to a specific, stated condition. They resolve entirely outside of your turn. They do not consume your Actions, Beats, or Moves. Every detail of a Reaction (its exact trigger, its cooldown, and its effect) is codified on the specific ability that grants it.

Reactions are ability-granted. A Persona with no Reaction ability has none of the following available. They are earned through Profession advancement.

The types that exist in Book 1:

Counter-attacks: when an opponent misses you or deals a wound, you make a free attack in return. No action cost, weapon does not exhaust.

Interceptions: when an ally is targeted, you redirect the attack to yourself and roll defense in their place.

Contested nullification:when an ability targets you, you roll against it to cancel it entirely before it resolves.

Defense enhancement: when targeted by an attack, you add augment dice to your defense roll before it resolves.

Nullification: you stop a non-physical attack outright, without rolling.

Bonus turns: after a specific trigger condition, you take a full additional turn immediately.

Movement and Distance

Sundered Earth does not count squares on a grid. It measures the lethal proximity between you and the enemy. Every combatant exists in one of four abstract distance categories relative to their target. The app tracks this geometry dynamically.

A Move represents deliberate tactical repositioning. Spending one Move allows you to perform one of the following:

Move: Change your distance category relative to a target or zone by one step (e.g., Close to Ranged, or Ranged to Close). Moving recklessly through a contested zone may trigger violent Reactions from opponents if their abilities specify it.

Take Cover: You throw yourself behind an environmental obstacle within your current zone. Cover reduces your exposure to ranged attacks, imposing mechanical penalties on the attacker. You remain visible and targetable; cover stops bullets, it does not stop them from knowing where you are. Leaving cover does not cost an action.

Enter Concealment: Instead of changing distance, you spend your Move to vanish. You make a Grace check using all applicable augment dice. The result becomes your Concealment Score. You are removed from the targeting pool entirely until an attacker successfully burns a Beat to locate you with a Sense check.

Stand: If you are knocked into the Prone condition, you must spend a Move action to return to your feet. You can only Stand and Move in the same turn if you Move twice and Act once.

The Contested Roll

When you launch an attack, both you and your target roll simultaneously.

Attacker: d20 + Skill Score + Augment Dice Defender: d20 + Targeted Trait + Augment Dice Margin = Attacker Score − Defender Score

Attacker result equals or exceeds Defender: The Attacker wins. Wounds are dealt according to the Mounting Success table below.

Defender result exceeds Attacker: The Defender wins. The attack is entirely deflected, absorbed, or dodged. No damage is dealt.

The defending Trait must logically match the assault. Physical violence is met with Body. Arcane or emotional attacks are resisted with Spirit. Psychic intrusion requires Mind. If the nature of the defense is ambiguous, the Conductor dictates the terms.

Defenders may apply any qualifying augment dice, obeying the same strict rules (one per type, capped by the current Trait score). A defender who has prepared their ground brings those banked advantages into the clash.

Mounting Success

When the attacker's margin is positive, they deal wounds. In this system, the margin does not merely determine if you strike true. It determines how many bones you break.

Every 10 full points of margin beyond the first adds an additional wound to the strike.

There is no hard ceiling. A margin of 50 deals 6 wounds. While the mathematics of the d20 curve make margins above 30 exceedingly rare, a flawlessly augmented Persona catching an unprepared opponent can end a fight in a single, catastrophic blow.

Threshold Reductions: Lethal Profession abilities can forcibly lower the Mounting Success threshold against a doomed target. A Witch's Hex drops the increment to 8. An Assassin's Naming reduces it to 5.

Critical Block: If the Defender wins the clash with a margin of 10 or more, it is categorized as a Critical Block. Specific high-tier defensive Titles trigger explicitly on this threshold, turning a perfect defense into a punishing counterattack.

The Death Spiral: Wound Tracks

Every Persona possesses three distinct wound tracks. When you suffer damage, it is subtracted from the track corresponding to the nature of the assault.

The d20+ system runs on a brutal pressure economy. Each wound reduces the current value of the relevant Trait by 1. Because your unified Skill Score is built upon your Trait, losing Trait value directly reduces your effectiveness. A Persona with a Body of 5 who absorbs 3 Body wounds now fights as if their Body were 2.

The longer a fight goes, the harder it becomes to survive it. Clever combatants manage their exposure ruthlessly, shielding the Trait most critical to their survival.

A Trait at Zero: That Trait is broken. The Persona can no longer take any action requiring that Trait.

Being Taken Out

A Persona is Out when either of the following conditions is met:

1. All three Trait tracks are reduced to zero simultaneously.

2. Any single Trait track remains at zero for 3 consecutive Turns, regardless of the state of the other two tracks.

Once Out, they can no longer act. What happens next depends entirely on context.

In a formal duel: Out equals defeat under the dueling rules. Terms were agreed prior to the duel.

In lethal combat: Out may mean death, capture, or incapacitation; the Conductor adjudicates based on the intentions of the winning side.

In non-lethal encounters (social confrontations, investigation challenges, interrogations): Out means concession, breakdown, or surrender.

Being Taken Out ends your leverage in the scene. What happens next is in the Conductor's hands.

Setup Actions and Tactical Advantage

Brute force is effective, but preparation is lethal.

A Setup Action is any Action explicitly declared as preparation: flanking through the dark, screaming a distracting feint, or calibrating a sniper's optic.

The Persona makes a relevant Skill check. The result of that check determines the Tactical Augment Die (TAD) banked for their next qualifying Action.

This TAD is added to the next qualifying Action taken in the same turn or the next. If unused, the moment passes and the die expires.

The upper rows of the table sit beyond the reach of any starting Persona. They exist for the veterans.

Company Assist: If you perform a Setup Action explicitly to benefit a teammate (calling out an armor gap, throwing suppressing fire, blinding a sensor), the TAD is granted to your ally instead. This is the definition of a Company operating at peak efficiency, and the mechanics explicitly reward it.

Speed and Initiative

Every Action in the game is assigned a Speed Lane based on its physical or arcane execution.

Fast: Short-draw blades, snap-reactions, light ranged weapons.

Mid: Standard strikes, most Skill checks, ordinary spellcasting.

Slow: Heavy ordnance, sledgehammers, catastrophic ritual magic.

When two combatants target each other, the faster Speed Lane always resolves first. A Fast attack launched against a Slow defender resolves before the defender’s weapon even begins to swing, potentially dropping them before they can strike.

Within the same Speed Lane, ties are broken by sheer willpower: Spirit → Mind → Body. If still identical, compare Power Scores. Higher goes first.

Declaring your speed before viewing your opponent's full action stack creates agonizing strategic tension. Readying a Slow, devastating attack leaves you wide open to Fast interrupts. Playing safe and Fast limits your damage ceiling. Every choice is a calculated wager.

Putting It Together

A typical exchange looks like this:

A Hobgoblin trench-fighter (Body 6, Might 9) declares a standard attack against an Ascendant Witch (Body 4). The Hobgoblin possesses a d8 Training die from years of brawling, a d6 Gear die from a rusted brutalist axe, and a d4 TAD banked from a flanking setup last turn.

The Witch possesses a d6 Training die and a d8 Magic die radiating from an active kinetic ward.

They roll simultaneously.

The Hobgoblin rolls a d20, adds 9 (Might), and rolls his three augment dice (d8 + d6 + d4). The Witch rolls a d20, adds 4 (Body), and rolls her two augment dice (d6 + d8).

The margin determines the wounds. It determines whether the Witch's arcane ward was enough to block the axe, or if the Hobgoblin's brutal preparation just ended her night.

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