Initiative Rating Tracker
The IR Tracker is used to keep track of the initiative order during combat. Let's start with an example.
Example
In the following example, we see that it's the third round of combat. Melóna just received a serious S3 injury to his neck from an arrow from Nolóra and is now incapacitated. The GM just added the 'INC' condition to Melóna and the 'prone' and 'vanquished' conditions were automatically added, his awareness was set to 'Unaware,' and his engagement zone was set to zero. Since this is now Melóna's turn, the GM opened the INCAPACITATED section in the side panel to see the effects of the INC state. Earlier he had opened the 'Impaired Tests' section to confirm that Elben's Dodge tests were not impaired by his elbow injury.
The GM had prepared this encounter in advanced and saved it as an "IRT State" which he simply recalled when the time for the encounter came during play. All the combatants were set and the notes he prepared on the character's opponents are displayed at the bottom of the window.
Opening the tracker
To access it you select the menu Utilities/IR Tracker or press ⌘-T.
When you open the tracker it will show all the characters in the default group ('CHARACTERS'). You can select a different group with the menu at the bottom right of the window. After selecting the "OtSW" group for instance, the tracker will look like this. Remember to always begin with group selection.
Awareness level
When combatants are added to the Tracker they are set to the Aware state. This is represented to the left of their name by a green circle with a A. You can use the buttons in the toolbar at the top to set all combatants to any of the three awareness states, or modify individual awareness for a combatant by clicking in their indicator to the left of their name, which cycles between states: Aware, Unaware, Confused. See page 158 for awareness level. You can also check the side panel for the effects of each state.
Press ⌘-U to set all combatants to the Unaware status.
Press ⌘-C to set all combatants to the Confused status.
Press ⌘-A to set all combatants to the Aware status.
Combatant Information
Below each combatant's name is listed the follwing information:
- Size (M or S in the example below);
- Length of their longest weapon;
- Reach = Length plus Size modifier;
- Engagement Zone in feet (spaces) = Reach or a minimum of 5;
- Base Movement rate in feet (spaces).
Notice that Balthazar and the khanu both have weapons with LNG 5, but the khanu has a RCH of 4 because of its small size. Both have the same EZ because of the minimum of 5.
The Reach and Engagement Zone are modified by the conditions affecting the combatant. For example being unaware or confused.
You can change the length of the weapon of any combatant by using the LNG menu in the toolbar: just select a combatant first and then use the menu to apply a new LNG value. This is useful for example if a combatant picks up or changes weapon during combat.
Quick Entry
Aside from the characters in a group, you'll likely want to add other combatants. There are two ways to do that. The first one is by using the quick entry Add menu in the top toolbar.
If you add more than one of the same type of opponent they will be labelled automatically with an increasing index number. For example, adding 3 wolves (from the Wild Animals sub-menu) might look like this.
All the combatants in the quick entry menus have their Initiative set as in the rulebook. If you want a non-standard Gargú-aráki with an Initiative of 80 for example, use the manual entry method described below.
Manual Entry
To add a combatant that is not available in the quick entry menu, or a named NPCs for example, use the manual entry method. Using the fields at the very bottom of the window, type in the various combat information and a name and press the + button or press Enter.
Side Panel Information
To the right of the tracker is a small GM screen. It is modelled after the melee routine steps on page 157. Each step presents some information; the page number is given in parentheses.
Additional information is available when you see a chevron. Click on the text next to the chevron to display the information. For example click on INCAPACITATED to reveal its effects.
You can hide the side panel by clicking on the i button in the top toolbar or by pressing ⌘-I .
Tracker Use
Once you have set all the combatants, you're ready to start the first combat round. Proceed from top to bottom in IR order. When a combatant has acted, check the circle next to their name to indicate this. If a combatant choses to Ready an action (see page 161 sidebar), select the character in the list and add the Readied Action condition from the Conditions menu.
This will add the condition tag below the combatant's name and change the circle to a square with a R to show that this combatant is waiting to take their action.
Once the combatant takes their readied action, simply drag them to the new IR order. For example if Floria wants to act just before the first araki, this is what it would look like.
We see that her new IR has been set automatically to just below the khanu's at 59. This will be Flora's new IR from now on. As shown in the example above, when she has taken her action, clicking on the R to indicate that her turn is over removes the readied action condition automatically.
Conditions
There are a number of Conditions that can be applied to the combatants. To apply a condition, first select the combatant in the list, then use the Condition menu and select the one you want to apply. To remove a condition simply apply the same condition again, or you can remove all conditions at once with the Remove all option.
For example if a combatant fails a Morale Roll, you can add the withdrawing condition by first selecting the combatant, then adding the condition from the menu. You'll see that this automatically also apply the vanquished condition (see page 162 sidebar).
Tracking Injuries
To track injuries you add them to the right of the combatant's name. First click near the + and then type the injury as you would on the character sheet. For example for a serious 2 injury from a puncture wound to the right shoulder you could write something like R SH S2P. If there are multiple injuries, separate them with a \ or simply a coma.
At the end of the combat, after treating the wounds, write the injuries and their healing rates on the character sheet.
A New Round
When everyone has acted and a new round begins, press the "new round" button at the top (or press ⌘-R). This resets all the combatants' turn indicators and advances the round tracker.
The round tracker is hidden by default. You can show it by pressing the button at the top of the bottom section. There are tick marks every 6 rounds (30 seconds) and there are 24 rounds in total (2 minutes). The current round is indicated with a chevron underneath. You can click the checkboxes directly to set the round but if you use the 'new round' button (or press ⌘-R), the current-round advances automatically. You can reset the round tracker by clicking the word 'reset' just before the round indicator.
The example below shows that 2 rounds have been completed and that the 3rd round is underway.
Press ⌘-R to start a new Round and advance the round tracker.
Deleting a combatant from the IRT
Once a combatant is vanquished, you might want to remove them from the IR Tracker altogether. Or perhaps you want to keep the party on the IRT with their current injuries, ready for the next encounter, but don't want the vanquished adversaries to remain. In any case, you can simply select a combatant and press the ⌫ delete button to make them disappear from the IRT. Removed characters are, of course, only removed from the IRT, they are not deleted. There is no "are you sure" warning for this.
GM Notes
You can press the GM Notes button to disclose an area where you can enter information relevant to the encounter. You might use it to write notes or reminders for the next session, for example (but be sure to save in that case), or just notes of things to take care of after combat.
The main use of GM Notes, though, is to add notes for a specific encounter. You can prepare the combatants and notes in advance and save the IRT State (see below) for each of the prepared encounters in a game session. For example the following is an IRT state called Guthe Ford. The GM Notes section gives the weapons, armour, and impact for the NPCs.
You can select the size of the GM Notes depending on the information you want to write.
IRT States
You can save the current state of the IRT and recall it later, perhaps because you stopped a gaming session in the middle of an encounter, or to prepare in advance a series of planned encounters. You can set a name and Save the current state and Load it back at a later date.
If you save an IR State with the same name as an existing IR State, it will replace the previous state without warning.
When you save a state, the size of the GM notes selected as well as its open/close status is also saved.
