Potestas
Time within the game is usually unstructured. However, when characters enter into perilous situations, the passage of time can become very important. In such circumstances, Potestas divides time into Rounds of 3 seconds. Within a Round each character may perform an offensive action (e.g. attack with a melee or missile weapon, charge an opponent, or use magic) or a miscellaneous action (e.g. prepare a weapon or item for use), as well as perform one or more defensive actions as required (e.g. defend against an attack or dodge a missile) or move about. Characters moving at Fast or Top Speed are limited to charging as their offensive action, and characters moving at Top Speed cannot perform defensive actions.
A Resolution Roll is made by all characters at the start of a crisis to determine the sequence of being the active character during each Round that follows. The character's Initiative is the active Ability; there are no other modifiers. The character with the greatest Degree of Success may be the first active character, and so on until all characters have had an opportunity to act. The character with the higher Initiative modifier acts first if there is a tie, except that any character who had a Success on the Initiative Roll may always act before any character who had a Fail.
Characters do not have to act when they first have an opportunity: they may instead wait and act later in the Round. If a character waits to act until another character is eligible to act and then wishes to be the active player, the character with the higher Initiative modifier acts first, except that any character who had a Success on the Initiative Roll may always act before any character who had a Fail. This may not be the character who had been waiting.
Example: Gudlwa the sorcerer is in battle with his mentally controlled friend, Menelaos the warrior. At the start of the round, both make an Initiative Resolution Roll. Menelaos has an Initiative of +5, and the player rolls 6 + 5 = 11. Success! The Degree of Success is 11 - 11 = +0. Gudlwa has an Initiative of +2 , and the player rolls 12 + 2 = 14. Success! The Degree of Success is 14 - 11 = +3. Gudlwa is the first active character. Rather than attack his friend, Gudlwa tries to persuade Menelaos to surrender, and chooses to wait to act. Menelaos is second to act, and tries to hit Gudlwa with his sword. Gudlwa decides to cast a protective spell, but because Menelaos has a higher Initiative score (+5 compared to +2) and did not Fail his Initiative Roll, Menelaos is the active character. If Menelaos had rolled a 5 + 5 = 10, he would have Failed the roll, and Gudlwa would still be the active character.
With most Skills, you apply your full modifier whenever a Resolution Roll is called for: however, some Skills cannot be used more than three times in a Round. A character with the appropriate Skill bonus can make three attacks, defend against three attacks, cast three spells, etc. The player must distribute the character's Skill bonus between actions: the more times you try to do the same thing in one Round, the less effective you are. The distributed bonus must add up to the character's total bonus, and none of the bonus can be greater than the total bonus. Once you run out of points to distribute or have used your Skill three times, you automatically have a modifier of +0.
Example: Clothild and Yarblek are joined in battle by Yarblek's brother, Karyak. Clothild decides to split her Defend bonus of +4 against the two attackers, applying +2 to each for a total of +4 from skill bonus and characteristic modifier. When Karyak attacks her, Clothild commits +2 to her Defend, leaving her with a reserve of +2. Yarblek decides to split his Attack bonus of +2 and try to hit twice with +1 (for a total of +3 with each attack). Clothild must decide whether to split her remaining Defend bonus of +2 or to have no Defend bonus against one attack. If both Yarblek and Karyak decided to attack twice, Clothild would have been forced to have no Defend bonus against at least one attack: she could not have split her Defend four ways.