[Torg] Torg Initiative & Torg Combat Options

[Kansas Jim]

Benn writes:

>    1. At the end of the last round, Andy has his gun out, finger on the
>       trigger, pointing at Brad.  Brad's gun is in his holster.  Brad
>       gets first initiative, but Andy wants to shoot Brad if Brad makes
>       a move.  Who gets to pull a trigger first?

Andy in the previous round can declare either an Opportunity Attack
or a Location Attack to allow him to shoot Brad if Brad makes a move
in the next round, even if Brad wins the initiative.

If Andy declares it as a Location Attack, then the instant Brad moves
at all Andy shoots him. If it turns out that Brad was just going to
scratch his nose, well, that's unfortunate for Brad.

If Andy declares it as an Opportunity Attack, he makes a split-second
decision to shoot or not when the opportunity presents itself. If Brad
goes to scratch his nose, Andy can choose not to shoot him. If Brad goes
for his gun, Andy can decide to shoot him. But because he hesitates in
order to make that decision, instead of immediately reacting, there's a
-3 penalty to the attack.

[...]

>    3. Brad has his gun out, but not pointing at a hostage.  Andy has a
>       teleport mental power.  Andy tells the GM that if Brad points his
>       gun at the hostage, Andy will immediately teleport the hostage
>       out.  The round commences, with Brad winning initiative.  Brad
>       says he is shooting the hostage - can Brad shoot the hostage
>       before Andy can teleport him?

I'd say you could use the Location and Opportunity Attack rules for this
situation too.

[...]

>    5. Brad has a gun pressed to the hostage's head, finger on the
>       trigger.  Brad wants to kill the hostage if Andy tries to save
>       him.  Andy tries to teleport the hostage to safety.  What happens?

Here Brad is the one who has declared a Location Attack; as soon as
he perceives Andy acting he'll shoot the hostage.

>           * My Answer:  If the only sign of the teleport is it's effect
>             - that is the appearance or disappearance of something or
>             someone - then Brad is effectively only willing to shoot the
>             hostage after the hostage is already gone. 

Assuming that the teleportation is instantaneous, then yeah, I'd say
if there's no action Andy has to take to initiate the teleportation
than even with a Location Attack Brad won't have time to shoot the
hostage. On the other hand, if it's a Star Trek style dematerialization
that takes a few seconds, or if Andy has to wave his hand or something,
Brad would have time to shoot and possibly injure or kill the hostage as
the teleportation process begins.

>           * The Book Answer:  possibly that announcing one's action
>             reveals it, giving parties a chance to use that information
>             if they win initiative, before the action resolves?  Though
>             that does not seem fair.

My view is that even if you have initiative, you can only act on the
information you have available to you. If Andy's teleportation trick
requires no gestures, speaking or other noticable action on his part,
there's no way for Brad to know that Andy's declared he will use it.

> Now as to Torg combat options - is it only me, or aren't a lot of them, 
> um, not particularly worth it?  Vital Blow: -8AV +4 EV springs to mind, 

My players used Vital Blows all the time. If you're constantly scoring
action totals higher than you need to hit the target, why wouldn't
you trade some of those points for extra damage?

> as does the fact that I think you can Blindside any opponent simply by 
> winning initiative - since movement can happen just before you attack.  

Unless the target is being restrained or otherwise prevented from
moving, he can turn to face you as part of his passive defense while
you try to move around him. To get behind someone without them turning
to face you I've ruled that it requires using the Maneuver skill and
getting a Setback result. You could also do it with a Trick, get him to
turn around while you stay still!

Of course the easiest way to do it is to team up with a friend, while
one of you keeps the target's attention the other one can easily flank
him.

> Disarm I think works off the Vital Blow rules.  The rules covering 

There weren't any real rules for disarming attempts until the martial
arts rules in the Nippon Tech sourcebook, and there it was a discipline
so you could only attempt it if you knew the right style of martial
arts. There are rules for disarming someone in the R&E, simply put it's
a -2 penalty to the action value and you have to score a Good or
better success level with the damage total in order to disarm them.

> single shot/burst/semi-auto/full auto use of weapons seem a little 
> overly complex while the way ammunition is actually tracked seems 

Ignoring ammo for the moment, how are the rate of fire rules overly
complex? They've always seemed quite simple to me.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html