WarZone Count

A free action-point combat expansion for OSR games. One shared count-down replaces initiative. Three reactions replace standing still. A small Zone map replaces the grid. Your attack rolls, AC, HP, damage, saves, spells, and morale stay exactly as your game wrote them.

Download the English and Korean PDFs below. Read the web edition — one page, EN/KO toggle. It is a companion module to Konsei Reiyotan, rebuilt from that game's combat core for OSR play.

Transparency note. A substantial portion of this material was created with the assistance of generative AI (LLMs) during planning, system design, drafting, prose refinement, and proofreading. Claude Code was used during system design, and Codex was used for the English draft and the Korean translation. The image generation process for this material used the GPT Image 2 model. Final editorial control and responsibility for publication remain with the creator.

What Is This?

WarZone Count is an add-on, not a replacement ruleset. You add exactly one number to every character and monster — Vigor — and combat changes shape:

• The Count. Whoever has the most Vigor left acts now. Fast combatants act first and more often; a spent combatant watches the line move without them. No initiative roll, no fixed turn order.
• Breaths. Your activation is a package: Move + Attack + a Readied reaction, or two Attacks and a Guard — up to 5 Vigor per Breath. Push past the limit and you Overload: the deed happens, the price comes after.
• Three reactions. Guard (cheap, pure protection), Parry & Riposte (thinner guard, but a miss becomes your counter), and Interdict (a set spear that stops whoever walks in). Prepay to react for free, or improvise at 1.5× the price.
• Rounds and Lulls. When everyone hits 0 Vigor, the round exhales: reload, first aid, rally, then everyone refills and the Count begins again.
• Zone battlefields. Front Lines, Back Lines, Flanks, the Melee, and Off-Map — a node map you can redraw on an index card. Control a Zone and its bonuses are yours alone; Breakthrough into a held line and risk being left Exposed.
• Casting under pressure. Spells split into Focus and Release. Cast safely across two Breaths and give your enemies a window, or force it in one and gamble on Overload.

Checks come in three difficulties only — written for both roll-under and DC tables (Standard check: roll-under ability / DC 10). Monsters need no conversion: Vigor = 8 + half HD (round up, max 13) — done.

What You Get

• Free English PDF (41 pages, v1.0) — the source edition.
• Free Korean PDF (41 pages, v1.0) — 한국어판.
• Free web edition — the full module as a single page with an EN/KO language toggle.
• Core rules in five short modules, plus three optional modules: Detailed Control, Squads, and Stances.
• A fully worked combat — eleven Breaths of a real fight, with every Vigor cost, reaction window, and Breakthrough shown on a timeline plate.
• Five monster overlays — a burrowing ambusher, pack hunters, a dragon, a centaur band, and a mercenary company, each using the host stat block unchanged.
• Three battlefield templates — a gate bridge bottleneck, a night market with rooftops and canals, and a dragon that is itself the battlefield.
• A one-page reference card with every cost, reaction, and Zone rule.

Compatibility

• Written for B/X-style OSR games: ascending or descending AC, attack bonus or THAC0, 2d6 morale or percentile.
• The host game keeps resolving everything it already resolves. WarZone Count only decides when actions happen, where they happen, and what tempo they cost.
• Pace is a feature: fights run faster and hit harder than stock play, and the module says so honestly — with tuning levers for low-level (1–3) campaigns.

Start Here

1. Download the PDF in your language below, or open the web edition.
2. Read the five core modules — a short, compact read.
3. Add a Vigor line to your monsters (8 + half HD, round up, max 13) and draw five Zones on an index card.
4. Run the worked combat once, then bring your own table's fight.

Design Lineage

WarZone Count is an independent OSR combat module based on combat concepts from Konsei Reiyotan (混世霊妖譚), reworked and recalibrated for OSR play. The core action-economy idea ultimately traces back to Nechronica - The Long Long Sequel - (永い後日談のネクロニカ), created by Ryou Kamiya.

한국어 안내. WarZone Count는 OSR 게임을 위한 무료 전투 확장 모듈입니다. 선공권 대신 하나의 공용 카운트다운, 세 가지 반응(방어·받아내기와 반격·견제), 그리고 구역 전장을 제공합니다. 아래에서 한국어판 PDF를 받거나, 웹판(한국어 전환)으로 바로 읽을 수 있습니다. 영문판이 정본이며 한국어판은 그 번역본입니다.

AI-use disclosure. See the Transparency note at the top of this page.

License. Text, tables, and rules explanations are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Not covered by the CC license (unless separately marked): cover images, interior illustrations and diagrams, logos, third-party quotations and references, third-party-rights material, and platform trademarks and service names.

Credits. © 2026 Shellman · Contact: @ds62hg / @trpg_ds62