Movement in Ground Combat
Invading Space
Various movement actions, such as walking, crawling, or even jumping, can result in one character attempting to enter a square already occupied by another character. Doing so does not add any difficulty to the movement, but allows the character already occupying the square to parry the attempt to invade their space.
When a character’s space is being invaded, they may either parry with a melee weapon they wield or perform a body-block parry. Unarmed attacks qualify as a melee weapon for this purpose.
When parrying with a melee weapon, the character whose space is being invaded may make a parry roll with a melee weapon as normal. This parry is successful if it exceeds the invading characters’ defense. If successful, since they are parrying the invading characters body, they deal damage equal to weapon damage to the invading character, but do not prevent the character from invading their square.
Alternatively, the character whose space is being invaded may attempt a body-block parry. This option requires only two (2) AP. When a body-block parry occurs, both characters make Strength Attribute Rolls. If the invading character rolls higher on the roll, they squeeze into the same square as the opponent. Otherwise, the invading character simply wastes the movement AP.
If a character attempts to invade a space and is prevented from doing so, they may not make another attempt to invade the same space during the same cycle. This does not include maneuvers, such as pushing, which have a different AP cost and mechanism of action.
Reflexive Leap
A reflexive leap is a special maneuver that can be performed when an area of effect (AOE) that overlaps a character occurs. The character must be aware of the incoming AOE and capable of moving without penalty. To perform a reflexive leap, a character must have at least two (2) AP remaining. The character may then elect to reduce or prevent the damage by making an Attribute Roll that depends on their position within the AOE.
If there is a space adjacent to the character that is not included in the AOE effect, the character may make a difficulty eighteen (18) Celerity Attribute Roll to dive into the adjacent square, which completely avoids any damage. A character may choose to increase the difficult of this Attribute Roll by three (3) and spend an additional two (2) AP increase the leap distance by an additional meter. If a character is caught in the AOE with no way to leap out of the way, they may instead make a difficulty thirteen (13) Dexterity Attribute Roll to reduce the damage by half.
Rotating About
Some forms of movement require rotation about a fixed point in space, referred to as Rotating About. When a character is Rotating About an object or point, it means that the character travels in a circle around that object or point.
When a character Rotates About anything, they first identify the square containing what they are Rotating About. They then calculate the distance between that square, referred to as the pivot square, and the square the character is in before they began Rotating About.
The character then moves either clockwise or counter-clockwise around the pivot square (Figure: Rotate About Paths), always maintaining an equal distance between their current position and the position of the tile they are rotating about. Since squares are not circles, Rotate About Paths should be defined around the square whose distance most accurately matches the correct distance about the pivot square.
Unless otherwise specified, Rotating About a tile never allows a character to change directions and return to the tile they immediately travelled from. Instead they maintain the same clockwise or counterclockwise rotation.
Figure: Rotate About Paths. Paths (green) showing how a character (C) rotates about a the pivot point (P) given three different starting positions.
Movement in Zero Gravity
Though not desired, in some instances characters may find themselves forced to move in zero gravity at the Ground Scale of Combat. This can occur if artificial gravity is turned off or a character is forced into space.
If a character is not adjacent to any walls, they either slowly drift or maintain any momentum they previously had. If a character had no prior momentum, at the start of their turn in the cycle, they drift one (1) tile along their current trajectory. This trajectory is determined randomly at the time they cease to be exposed to gravity. By spending six (6) AP during their turn, a character can twist their body to alter the direction of their trajectory, though they cannot speed up. Non-stable objects similarly drift about but cannot change their own direction.
A character can have momentum by utilizing stable solid objects or being pushed by other characters. If characters are adjacent to a stable solid object, the may choose the begin drifting in a direction of their choosing or they can push off the object to travel in a single direction. Pushing off a stable solid object requires six (6) AP. When a character performs this action, they first determine a direction. This direction must be diagonal or perpendicular to the surface of the stable solid object (Figure: Push Off Directions in Zero Gravity). They then determine how fast they want to travel after pushing off, up to three (3) meters per cycle plus their Strength attribute bonus. Characters continue to move in the direction and speed of travel they selected during push off. If a character is moving from push off, they may spend four (4) AP to "break" their momentum and slow down their speed by one (1) meter. They cannot alter the direction of their travel from a push off without first reducing their speed to a drifting speed.
In addition to drifting and pushing off, characters can also crawl along stable solid objects. This works identically to normal crawling, costing two (2) AP for each square of movement instead of the usual one (1), but the character can travel in any direction as long as they remain adjacent to a stable solid object. If gravity suddenly disappears, characters may spend four (4) AP to immediately grab a stable solid object for crawling. If they have insufficient AP or are not adjacent to a suitable object, they instead begin drifting.
In addition to making movement more difficult, attacking and defending becomes more difficult when there is a lack of gravity. All characters receive a minus one (-1) penalty to their Defense in Zero Gravity. Additionally, characters that are drifting or traveling from push off do not add their Dexterity Attribute Modifier to their defense. Characters that are drifting or traveling by push off receive a minus two (-2) penalty to ranged attack rolls and a minus three (-3) penalty to melee attack rolls. Characters that are crawling take a minus one (-1) and minus two (-2) penalty respectively. These penalties persist until a character returns to normal gravity.
Figure: Push Off Directions in Zero Gravity.