In this example, Seraph and the Sphinx will engage in a friendly match of fisticuffs. They promise not to use their powers. (Seraph can throw bolts of lightning, and Sphinx can turn people into babies. Could make for a good re-match later on!)
Seraph has a Combat Roll of 14, a Combat Pool of 1, and a Hand Damage of 6. He has 43 VP and 74 EP. His Move Roll is 29. Seraph is played by Biff.
Sphinx has a Combat Roll of 11, a Combat Pool of 1, and a Hand Damage of 7. She has 34 VP and 38 EP. Her Move Roll is 19. Sphinx is played by Sarah.
Okay, it’s segment 0. No one is surprised, so each player rolls their first Combat Roll. Biff rolls 20, and Sarah rolls 12. Since Seraph needs a 15 or less for a success, he misses by 5. This is going to give him a -2 Attack, a -2 Damage, and a 0 Defense. Sphinx has succeeded by 0 points. Her Attack, Damage, and Defense are at +0. Both attacks have a Performance Time of 15, so they are both performed at segment 15. They each use 1 EP, since the Combat Roll starts at row 5, plus 3 EP, since Hand Damage starts at row 7, for a total of 4 EP.
Segment 15: Seraph’s Attack of -2 is not good enough to hit Sphinx’s Defense of 0. Sphinx’s Attack of 0 is good enough to hit Seraph’s Defense of 0. Her base damage is 7, plus 0 is still 7. Seraph takes 7 VP damage. He has 36 VP left. (Normally, of course, there’d be a chance for Seraph’s automatic Skin Temper bonus to reduce this. Seraph is consciously not using that bonus right now.)
Now, they roll their Combat Roll again. Biff rolls 6 and Sarah rolls 14. Seraph’s Quality is 9, and Sphinx missed by 2. Her Attack and Damage are -1 and her Defense is 0. She’ll attack on segment 30 (15+15). Biff decides that Seraph will reduce his Performance Time twice. This costs 6 Q and halves his Performance Time twice, to 4 segments. He uses 1 Q to increase his Attack to 1, and 2 Q to increase his Defense to 1. His attack will be finished on segment 19 (15 plus 4). They each use 4 EP (1 for the Combat Roll, 3 for Hand Damage) more EP, for a total of 8 EP lost each.
Segment 19: Seraph hits Sphinx. His Attack of 1 is better than her Defense of 0. He does 6 points damage to her. She now has 28 VP.
Biff decides to do 1 less point of damage this time, to reduce the EP cost by 1 row (to 2 EP). He rolls 1 on his Combat Roll. Seraph is doing very well. This gives him a Quality of 14. He uses 9 Q to halve the Performance Time three times, to 2 Segments. He uses 4 Q to increase his Defense to 2, and the remaining 1 Q to increase his Attack to 1. He’ll attack again on segment 21. He uses 3 more EP, for a total of 11.
Segment 21: Seraph does 5 points to Sphinx. She now has 23 VP.
Biff rolls 10 for his Combat Roll. This gives him 5 Q. He uses 4 to increase his Defense to 2, and 1 to increase his Attack to 1. He’ll attack on segment 36. He uses 4 more EP (doing maximum Hand Damage again), for a total of 15.
Segment 30: Sphinx’s -1 Attack is not enough to hit Seraph’s 2 Defense.
Sarah rolls -3 on her Combat Roll. This gives her a Quality of 15. She uses 12 to reduce her Performance Time down to 1 segment (15, halved 4 times!) and the other 3 to increase her Attack to 3. She’ll attack again on segment 31. She uses 4 EP, for a total of 12.
Segment 31: Sphinx’s 3 Attack is good enough to hit Seraph’s 2 Defense. She does 7 points damage to him, reducing him to 29 VP.
Sarah rolls 5 on her Combat Roll. This gives her a Quality of 7. She uses 3 points to reduce the Performance Time to 8, 2 points to increase her Defense to 1, and 2 points to increase her Attack to 2. She’ll complete her attack on segment 39. She uses 4 EP, for a total of 16.
Segment 36: Seraph’s 1 Attack is good enough to hit Sphinx’s 1 Defense. He does 6 points damage, leaving her with 19 VP.
Biff rolls 0 for his Combat Roll, giving him a Quality of 15. He uses 9 to reduce his Performance Time to 2 segments, 4 to increase his Defense to 2, and 2 to increase his Attack to 2. He’ll attack on segment 38. He uses 4 EP, for a total of 19.
Segment 38: Seraph’s Attack of 2 hits Sphinx’s Defense of 1. He does 6 points damage. She has 13 points left.
Biff rolls 8 for his Combat Roll, giving him a Quality of 7. He uses 3 to reduce his Performance Time to 8 segments, 2 to increase his Defense to 1, and 2 to increase his Attack to 2. He’ll attack again on segment 46. He uses 4 for EP, for a total of 23.
Segment 39: Sphinx’s 2 Attack will hit Seraph’s Defense of 1. She does 7 points damage, reducing him to 22 VP.
Sarah rolls 15 on her Combat Roll. This is -3 Q, giving her an Attack of -1, a Defense of 0, and -1 to Damage. She’ll attack on segment 54. She uses 4 more EP, for a total of 22.
Segment 46: Seraph’s 2 Attack hits Sphinx’s 0 Defense. He does 6 points damage, bringing her to 7 VP.
Biff rolls 13 for his Combat Roll, for a Quality of 2. He uses both to increase his Attack to 2. He’ll attack on segment 61. He uses 4 more EP, for 27 EP lost total.
Segment 50: One round has gone by. If any special powers were being used (Seraph’s Electrostatic Protection field, for example), they’d be paid for now.
Segment 54: Sphinx’s Attack of -1 does not hit Seraph’s Defense of 0.
Sarah rolls 18. This is a Quality of -6, giving her an Attack of -2, a Defense of -1, and a Damage of -2. She’ll attack on segment 69. She uses 4 more EP, for 26 EP lost total.
Segment 61: Seraph’s Attack of 2 easily hits Sarah’s Defense of -1. He does 6 more points of damage, bringing her to 1.
Seeing that she’s quite worn down by this fighting, Seraph stops the match.
Segment 62: Seeing as Seraph has stopped, Sphinx stops as well. Since she’s in the middle of trying to punch him, though, that might be hard. Her Drop an Action roll is her Learning (14) plus her Agility (10), minus 6 (the negative Q for this action), on the Sphere Chart, or 11. Sarah rolls 8. Dropping an action has a Performance Time of 6 segments. She uses 3 Q to reduce this to 3 segments. Dropping the action uses 2 EP. During those 3 segments, her Defense is reduced by 1 more, to -1. She’s finished at segment 65.
Aftermath: The combat was completed in 62 segments, or around 15 seconds. Because they were both fighting all-out, they’ve used a lot of EP. Seraph has used 27 EP and Sphinx has used 28 EP. They have 47 and 10 EP left, respectively.
Seraph has 22 VP left. Sphinx has 1 VP left.
Seraph has a Healing Roll of 13. Plus 8 (his current Body DP, on the Sphere Chart) gives him 21. He’ll heal 11 VP and 10 EP per round as long as he is resting. Sphinx’s Healing Roll is 10 plus 5, or 15, so she’ll heal 8 points of VP and 7 points of EP per round. However, when healing their EP, they’ll add 1 point of EP to EP Lost (Heals Sleeping) when the EP Lost goes past 20 and 10, for a total of 2 EP Lost (Heals Sleeping).