Nonlethal Combat and Capture

Overview

Not every fight should end in death or serious injury.

Nonlethal combat uses the same structure as other combat. The difference is intent: the acting character tries to remove an opponent as an active threat through position, restraint, surrender, disarmament, stun, exhaustion, fear, social leverage, magic, or capture rather than through lethal harm.

Nonlethal outcomes should still matter. A captured guard, pinned beast, stunned duelist, forced surrender, or broken weapon changes the scene and creates consequences.

Nonlethal Intent

Declare nonlethal intent before the roll when it affects risk.

Intent Meaning

Disable

Stop the target from acting effectively for the moment.

Disarm

Remove, break, bind, or deny a weapon, tool, focus, control device, or ritual object.

Pin

Hold the target in place, drive them down, trap them behind cover, or prevent escape.

Stun

Daze, shock, overload, unbalance, or temporarily incapacitate the target.

Restrain

Bind, lock, net, grapple, cuff, entangle, ward, or otherwise control movement.

Force Surrender

Make continued resistance obviously worse than yielding.

Capture

Remove the target from the fight and place them under control or custody.

Protect Alive

Defeat or control the target while avoiding lethal fallout.

The Storyteller should state any obvious danger before the roll: unstable ledges, firearms, fire, poison, vacuum, curses, panicked crowds, fragile hostages, or weapons that are hard to use gently.

Common Nonlethal Objectives

Use these objectives as defaults.

Objective Usual Result

Disarm

Apply Disarmed, deny a tool, break a weapon, or force the target to recover position before using it again.

Pin

Apply Pinned, deny movement, hold a doorway, keep the target behind cover, or stop pursuit.

Grapple

Apply Restrained, Off-Balance, or Held; both sides may be exposed to shared fallout.

Stun

Apply Stunned, Overloaded, Dazed, or similar pressure.

Trip or Throw

Apply Off-Balance, change distance, create exposure, or move the target into danger.

Intimidate Into Yielding

Trigger surrender, hesitation, morale loss, or enemy cohesion pressure.

Bind with Magic

Apply a fitting Condition, but expose the caster to cost, backlash, warding, or concentration pressure.

Take Alive

Defeat the target without lethal injury, usually requiring control of position after the decisive exchange.

Nonlethal objectives are not automatically softer. A failed disarm can expose the attacker; a failed restraint can give the target close control; a failed stun can escalate violence.

Nonlethal Exchange Results

Use this table when a player character presses a nonlethal objective.

Roll Outcome Default Nonlethal Result Momentum

Breakthrough 10

Achieve the objective strongly; capture, disable, disarm, pin, stun, or force surrender with an added advantage.

Player side keeps momentum.

Clean Success 8-9

Achieve the objective cleanly.

Enemy side gains momentum after the effect resolves unless the objective removes the active threat.

Costly Success 6-7

Achieve the objective, but take pressure, expose an ally, spend a resource, or accept partial control.

Enemy side gains momentum.

Unstable Result 4-5

Gain partial position, but the target remains dangerous or the restraint is insecure.

Enemy side gains momentum.

Trouble 1-3

The attempt fails; the target counters, escalates, escapes, wounds, or turns the restraint against the actor.

Enemy side gains momentum.

If the nonlethal objective removes the active threat from the fight, reduce group pressure or test enemy cohesion as appropriate.

Restraint and Escape

Restraint is a state of control, not a permanent lock.

Restraint State Meaning Escape Pressure

Checked

The target is blocked, interrupted, or briefly held back.

Clears if not maintained or exploited.

Pinned

The target cannot move freely without first answering the pin.

Needs a roll, help, position shift, or sacrifice to escape.

Restrained

The target’s body, limbs, tools, vehicle, magic, or movement are controlled.

Requires suitable leverage, help, tool use, magic, or time.

Bound

The target is secured after the immediate exchange.

Usually needs custody, tools, ritual care, or a later escape opportunity.

Restraint usually creates shared risk at close range. The restraining character may be vulnerable to allies, hidden weapons, teeth, magic, panic, environmental danger, or the target’s strength.

Surrender and Morale

Surrender is most credible when the target believes continued resistance is worse than yielding.

Surrender Trigger Use

Leader defeated or captured

Test enemy cohesion or force negotiation.

Escape route cut off

Apply pressure toward surrender, bargaining, or desperate violence.

Weapon, focus, or shield removed

Make surrender plausible if the target lacks another path.

Overwhelming position

Let a Clean Success or Breakthrough force surrender instead of wounds.

Social or oath pressure

Use Burdens and Bonds, law, rank, reputation, or duty to change willingness to continue.

Mercy offered credibly

Surrender becomes more likely if the target trusts the offer.

Some enemies will not surrender for reasons of fear, oath, mind control, fanaticism, hunger, programming, magic, or lack of self-preservation. In those cases, nonlethal victory may require physical restraint, disruption, or removing the controlling pressure.

Capture and Custody

Capture is not finished until the target can no longer immediately re-enter the fight.

For balance, treat capture as two linked goals: first establish control, then secure custody. Pinning, stunning, disarming, cornering, or persuading the target may establish control, but the scene remains unstable until the captors also have safety and means. A Clean Success can usually advance one of those goals. A Breakthrough may advance both. A Costly Success should advance control but create custody trouble, injury risk, noise, escape leverage, legal exposure, or danger to a bystander.

Improvised capture against an equal-tier dangerous target should be hard. The target is trying to stay alive, mobile, armed, unbound, unexposed, and out of custody, while the captors are accepting constraints that lethal force does not carry. As a calibration baseline, improvised equal-tier capture should succeed about one-third of the time.

Prepared capture is different. If the player characters bring meaningful restraints, ambush position, exit control, anti-escape tools, sedation, wards, jamming, legal authority, social leverage, or enough allies to secure custody, the odds should rise substantially. Prepared equal-tier capture should usually sit in the same heroic-favored band as other equal-tier encounters.

Capture Requirement Meaning

Control

The target is pinned, bound, stunned, trapped, surrounded, persuaded, or otherwise unable to act freely.

Safety

The captors have enough position to prevent immediate rescue, escape, or lethal accident.

Means

The captors have bindings, guards, wards, medicine, sedation, transport, legal authority, or other tools required by the situation.

Decision

The table knows whether the target is being detained, questioned, escorted, ransomed, judged, treated, or released.

Custody can become a new scene pressure. Prisoners need guarding, care, food, air, legitimacy, medical treatment, containment, or magical security.

Lethal Fallout

Nonlethal intent reduces lethal outcomes only when the fiction supports it.

Danger Possible Fallout

Deadly weapon

A Costly Success or Trouble may still cause a wound.

Dangerous terrain

A throw, pin, blast, or shove can cause falling, burning, drowning, vacuum exposure, or crushing.

Fragile target

Children, elders, sick people, wounded foes, prisoners, and small creatures may be hurt by force that would merely stun a trained fighter.

Unstable magic

Binding, stunning, or nullifying may backlash, drain, curse, or contaminate.

Panic or crowd

A nonlethal action may trigger flight, trampling, friendly fire, or collateral harm.

Harsh equipment

Heavy, Brutal, Volatile, Draining, or Unstable tags may make gentle use harder.

If the table wants a clean nonlethal takedown, the character should use appropriate tools, position, restraint, social leverage, or Talent support instead of relying on declared mercy alone.

Future Use

Later work should define example restraints, grappling Talents, stun weapons, sedation, prisons, magical custody, legal surrender, interrogation boundaries, hostage situations, and escape procedures.

The current document provides the combat-facing chassis for taking someone alive.