[Torg] Reboot: 3 New Initiative Systems Part I: The Simple System (LONG)

[Benjamin Grant]

Right off the bat, let me extend my sincere gratitude for reading through my entire post and thinking about it – I am enormously grateful to have been the recipient of your time and mental energy, your generosity is fully appreciated.

 

Thanks! :D

 

Now, on to your thoughts and ideas, and few response of my responses:

 

 

From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com [mailto:torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Phil Dack
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 5:12 AM
To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
Subject: Re: [Torg] Reboot: 3 New Initiative Systems Part I: The Simple System (LONG)

 

Interesting stuff in its way. I think you would benefit from checking out both CEATSII, an initiative system designed for Rolemaster that has some similar features, and also the initiative system used in the latest edition of Chivalry & Sorcery. You could also do worse than looking at the action point system used by certain PC games: the Xcom series and their bastard off-spring, the UFO series.

 

[Benn says]  I will try to get a hold of those or find some other way to check them out.

 

I've still got big issues with your system, and not just because I think its unnecessary. It's logically inconsistent. If you're doing a count-down, action-point style initiative system, why are you still limiting people to a single attack or defence? If an attack takes Speed 3, why can't I attack 3 or 4 times if my initiative is high enough?

 

[Benn says]  Two reasons.  For the Simple system I was trying to preserve Torg’s idea of what you can do in a round: a simple action, a full movement, a dramatic action, and a passive defense.  All I was trying to do with this system is better delineate the timing of those events within a round.  Also, the more complex system coming which I call the Perfect System does just that – it counts up, and it allows people as many actions as they can quickly do.

 

Why can't I move and draw a knife at the same time without penalty? (after all, both are "Simple" Actions that don't require a roll, unless you're pushing your speed)

 

[Benn says]  I am not inflexible on how movement is handled – after all, one of my suggestions was:

 

Movement note:  The easiest way to handle movement is to assign a speed of 3 to a character moving half his full movement allowance.  There are a few different ways to handle combining movement with other actions:

·         The easiest is to simply prohibit simultaneous movement and action.  Move before or after an action, but not during.

·         Or, you can permit a character to move half his movement amount while performing a simple action (since both have the same speed of 3), but not to move while performing a dramatic action.

·         You can of course choose to permit simultaneous movement during any action at all, without penalty.

·         Finally, (my favorite) you can permit simultaneous movement, but only as a multi-action using the one-on-many chart.  Normally one doesn’t have to roll for a movement or simple action, but this changes when one or both occurs as a multi-action.  Now the difficulty for either roll is 8, and of course, you also have to factor in the multi-action penalty:

 

 

While I personally tend to favor the last idea – as I find it believable that people can fumble if they do a simple action while moving flat out – the answer to your question is simply use the second of my suggested options “permit a character to move half his movement amount while performing a simple action (since both have the same speed of 3), but not to move while performing a dramatic action.” – I think this answers your needs as stated.

 

Few other general points:

·         If you flip it around to a count-up, rather than a count-down system you don't ever need to worry about held actions or aborting, because everything is calculated as an ongoing flow. Might be worth considering.

[Benn says]  Like I said, I do have count-up goodness in the yet to be revealed Perfect system, but I will try to see if there’s a way to use it in the Simple system that doesn’t break anything.  Hey – if it was a count up system, you would have to *subtract* your bonus number roll from 20, instead of add – which is kind of counter intuitive.  If people are fighting over going first, we could also be talking about negative initiative counts happening when things are most dramatic.  My gut says that count up won’t work with the Simple system, but will continue to think on it.

·         If initiative can be rolled, then I'd suggest it needs a skill. In particular, I suspect (without any actual experience!) that "cool" is more important than agility / dexterity in determining who goes first, and that as far as combat is concerned the most important factor is previous experience of combat. I am reflecting this in a traveller variant that I'm developing by having a value that measures the level of combat experience of each character. That might be too gritty for Torg, but should probably be abstracted in a skill at least.

[Benn says]  I specifically stayed away from skills factoring into Initiative because skills bring attributes, and I do not want one single attribute to determine initiative speed.  If we chose Dex, for example, that means that the psionicist is not going more slowly, even though his main skills do not partake of Dex.  The other solution of using the relevant attribute that round for that character means you need to know ahead of time what the character is doing, and if he changes his action to a different one, there can be significant inconsistencies.

 

Still, I have an idea about that and it’s going into the Standard system – and the Perfect system doesn’t even suffer from this by its nature.

·         The cards add some nice touches to the ebb and flow of combat. You could easily combine both, letting the cards dictate approved actions and initiative line effects, and giving a +5/-5 modifier to initiative. Or ignore the initiative effect if you prefer.

[Benn says]  Sure, that’s a matter of taste.  The reason I am designing these system is to completely replace that mechanism, because I do not care for it, but nothing says you can’t have both, it’s up to the GM.

·         Simultaneous movement - I have an alternative suggestion for you. Any action carried out during movement takes 50% longer, so with initiative 18 if you start moving for 6 counts and drawing a weapon for 3 counts, you finish drawing on 13 and finish moving on 12. Movement in a system like this can cause problems though - movement in Torg is rated in terms of rounds, but each round in your iniative model is a variable number of counts. The higher the initiative, the smaller distance you move each count. That could get a bit fiddly for you....

[Benn says] It can get a bit fiddly, which scares me.  I think I do like the idea that half of your full move takes 3 counts, no matter what, and you can do that twice per round.  As far as what to do when you move while doing something else, one among the four or five options I suggested should work for anyone, I should think.  That’s why I came up with several options, to suit every taste.

·         Why flip a coin on tied initiative? Sometimes things just happen at the same time. It's a great cinematic staple - just think of the ending of Reservoir Dogs

[Benn says]  That’s completely doable.  In fact, you might even decide that if an action resolves at the same count as another action, they are simply to be treated as simultaneous, and that’s fine.  I was only worried that people resolving on the same count might not be that rare – and I think true simultaneous action should be somewhat rare – so I threw in a few more ways to break the tie, such as at that point comparing actions totals – which is also good because if someone Surged and/or Rushed to get more favorable timing, because of the action total penalties, he will still most likely be going after anyone else resolving that count.

Finally, I'm still concerned with your objective. I understand that you want a more "realistic" initiative system, but you don't seem to be taking into account that, by definition, reality varies by cosm. What's good for CE might not be good for Aysle or Nile Empire. Are you thinking of modifying your initiative system to reflect these different realities, and if so, how?

 Phil

[Benn says]  The argument that this system is a problem because cosms vary doesn’t work for me at all, I’m afraid, because that charge is true for *any* and *every* initiative system, including Torg.  *Any* system you come up with, by definition, will be static across the cosms unless cosm laws overrule it.  Frankly, I do not find the existing Torg Initiative system that appropriate for many modern cosms.

 

I would simply suggest solving the problem the way any Initiative system would have to in such a multi-genre game:  Different cosms, where appropriate and important, tweak the rules of initiative just like they tweak other rules.  That’s the point of cosm laws after all, isn’t it?

 

Also, just speaking to my use of Torg, I do not play the possibility wars scenario, and haven’t since it came out.  I have my own stories to tell.  And frankly, Torg is such a damn good game that I will pull it off the shelf even if am not even planning to go multi-genre.  I have used it for single world and single genre superhero games, fantasy games, horror games, modern games, sci-fi games, you name it.  So in creating these Initiative systems, I must confess that my life with Torg doesn’t contain Darkness Devices, Eternity Shards, High Lords, Cosms invading cosms, heck, I don’t even worry about transformation or disconnection even in the few multi-genre games I have run, preferring instead to simply have abilities unsupported by the cosm to “turn off” until the one leaves the cosm or one raises a reality bubble.  I only mention this in the interests of full disclosure.

 

Thank you very much for your response.



-Benn Grant

 

 

----- Original Message ----
From: Benjamin Grant <benn at 4efix.com>
To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
Cc: superchaosman at gmail.com; floweringmind at gmail.com; jeff at chaosphere.com
Sent: Friday, 20 June, 2008 12:45:47 AM
Subject: [Torg] Reboot: 3 New Initiative Systems Part I: The Simple System (LONG)

This is a reboot of the previous of the previous postings for two reasons:  first, mainly because I think it was a very bad idea for me to try to handle all three Initiative systems in one post, and second, having gone through the process now and analyzed initiative in RPGs in general I feel somewhat more prepared.  Some of the below may be reposted, but there are countless significant additions, deletions, and modifications, so it should probably be approached as a complete rewrite from the other post.

I am still trying to come up with a system (or three) that permits interrupts, held actions, and handles somewhat more sophisticated matters - even in this the Simple version - than standard Torg does as written.

 

As I said before, different gamers have different needs.   Some people want things extremely accurate, even if that slows down the game.  Some people want things extremely simple and fast, even if that leads to some loss of granularity and over-generalization.  And some people want a little of both.  That's why I have come up with three separate initiative systems called Simple, Standard, and Perfect.  This post will be about the Simple Initiative System only.

Note that the ideas here have obviously still not been play-tested, and should be consider pre-alpha - working out the core concepts of the system, but not yet perhaps consisting of a fully detailed and fully implemented system (though it may be closer to release than thought.)  Some sections are even more off-the-cuff and are so noted.

Also note that while I am wild to hear what you guys think of all this, I have to admit I am not open at all to being told that this is unnecessary, or a waste of time, or that I should use the rules as written.  This post has a starting point of trying something *different* with the initiative system, to permit some things that are not now possible, and to approach the subject more generally and comprehensively.

Note:  Torg treats dramatic encounters (where the players are facing a significant or possibility-rated foe) and standard encounters (where the players are facing unimportant ords) differently for the purposes of initiative, favoring foes during dramatic encounters but favoring the players during standard encounters.  I have not implemented that feature in any of the three following systems, but it would be easy to add it into the Simple and Standard Initiative Systems:  just add 5 to the players initiative for standard encounters, and add 5 to the antagonists initiative for dramatic encounters.

 

Another Torg Note:  The Haste card is *not* included as part of this system.  What does that mean?  Either:

·         continue using Haste cards as a way to trump the following system, the way Haste cards do, or 

·         remove the Haste cards from the game, or 

·         find a new use for them, such as “+10 to Initiative” or “1 Haste card offsets 9 Action penalty points due to Rushing or Surging, or both”, or something else.  Your call.  Personally, I like the idea of them being able to trump the whole system below.

 

Also, you guys may be thinking, “This 47 page post is the simple system?!  WTF?” – at least those of you who read this far.

 

This *is* the simple system.  There are five reasons that it probably seems more complex than it is:

·         I am not good at explaining things simply and succinctly.  I tend to be verbose and use more words than I need to.  A proper writer could probably distill this essay to half its size.

·         I use a LOT of examples, one’s that are more sidebar text than rule text.  Remove all the examples and the core system is far shorter.  Of course, the example are there for a reason so I will be leaving them in.

·         I included a few optional rules, such as simultaneous movement.  If that’s too complex, chuck the optional rules.

·         Much of the remaining pieces that are a little less simple are for unusual situations that should rarely occur.  The core of the system is ultimately pretty basic, it’s just some of the special circumstances get a little more sophisticated.

·         This system has not yet been playtested.  It’s quite likely that after playtesting better ways to abbreviate, streamline, and more compactly explain the rules would emerge.

 

So, without further ado:


The Simple Initiative System

Basic Order: 

All characters start with a 20 initiative.  When going into round-by-round action, each character makes a roll to generate a bonus number, applying to the 20.  That becomes their base initiative until the end of the round-by-round action.  (Note: under the simple system this is the only roll you make for initiative.)

Every time a character performs an action, the GM assigns the action an Action Speed, which represent how much time the action takes to complete:  Very Fast 0, Fast +3, Normal +6, Slow +9, Very Slow +12.

The following sums up the guidelines for how the GM assigns Action Speeds:

Action Speed Chart

·         Very Fast: Speed 0 applies if your action is as fast as: thinking a thought, shouting a command or warning, blinking, a prepped and/or held action like pulling a trigger or pressing a button your finger is already on, etc.

o   These are actions that can happen nigh instantly.  Rolled actions generally do not operate this fast unless the action is already prepped, like having drawn the gun and aimed last round.

o   Note: Because they have a speed of 0 and resolve the same count they are begun, Very Fast actions are the only kind of action that resolves at the bottom of the count.  However, since purpose of the bottom of the count is for announcing and commencing actions, anyone who wishes to do so (and who can) may announce their actions before any Very Fast actions are resolved.

o   Once any Very Fast actions are being resolved, all Very Fast actions must be resolved.  Once all Very Fast actions are resolved, people may announce further actions this count (assuming that their Base Initiative is equal or greater than the current count, that they are not in the middle of an action in progress, and that they have an appropriate action left to use.) 

·         Fast: Speed 3 applies if your action is as fast as: speaking a short sentence, drawing your weapon, pressing a button near you, moving half your maximum movement, any other simple action

o   These are usually what Torg calls Simple Actions, which are not usually rolled.  Under some circumstances a rolled action can be this fast, such as a mental power, a perception check, using a fast weapon like a dagger, or possibly firing a gun in the same general direction it is already pointed.

·         Normal: Speed 6 applies if your action is as fast as: speaking an average sentence, a standard attack with a standard weapon, a standard dramatic action or skill roll, or moving your full maximum movement.

o   A large number of actions in Torg are, all other things being equal, Normal actions.

·         Slow: Speed 9 applies if your action is as fast as: speaking a few sentences, using a slow firing weapon or a weapon that takes time to rev up, swinging a large, cumbersome, and/or heavy weapon like a great axe or a large broadsword.

o   These are usually normal actions with a Complication – a very heavy sword, an unreliable gun, a normal weapon used while inebriated, and so on.  Of course, some actions simply take this long – such as, perhaps, an Evidence Analysis attempt, depending on the GM.

·         Very Slow: Speed 12 applies if your action is as fast as: speaking a paragraph or two, picking up a disassembled weapon, assembling it (assuming you know how) and firing; closing to melee then executing a melee attack.

o   These are usually actions such as First Aid, Language, and other actions where time must be taken and there may be several steps.

Normally in Torg one gets to do several things in a single round: a simple action, a full move action, a dramatic action, and (if that dramatic action was not an active defense) a passive defense.  Under this system that remains true.

Let’s say Andy is going into round-by-round, so everyone rolls an initiative bonus number – Andy’s is a -2.  That means that Andy’s BI (Base Initiative) is going to be 18.

On Andy’s first turn he can start his actions when the GM counts down to and reaches 18.  Let’s say that at the bottom (end) of count 18 Andy wants to draw his gun and fire at Brad.  The GM says that drawing the gun is a simple action with a Speed of 3, and that means that Andy’s simple action would resolve at the top of count 15.  The GM continues counting down, and at the top of count 15 resolves Andy’s simple action, informing Andy that he now has his gun out.  After resolving any other action due this count, but before progressing to the next count, the GM asks Andy if he would like to take the shot at Brad, which the GM notes would be a speed 6 action and resolve at the top of count 9?  Andy says yes.  The GM resumes counting down, taking care of other actions along the way, until the top of count 9, where the GM asks Andy for a roll, and resolves the attack.  Andy still has his full movement action left, if he wishes to do so.

In this way, actions are announced at the bottom of the appropriate count, and resolved at the top of the next appropriate count.  Note: if two actions resolve on the same count, and the order in which they resolve is important, the one with the higher action total resolves first.  If that ties, than the higher Base Initiative goes first.  If that ties, flip a coin.

Also, if two players announcing their actions at the bottom of the same count do not want the other to be able to be informed as to their action prior to their announcement, they can announce their action to the GM in secret, by written form or some other private method.  Of course, it’s far easier to have players that get along.

Movement note:  The easiest way to handle movement is to assign a speed of 3 to a character moving half his full movement allowance.  There are a few different ways to handle combining movement with other actions:

·         The easiest is to simply prohibit simultaneous movement and action.  Move before or after an action, but not during.

·         Or, you can permit a character to move half his movement amount while performing a simple action (since both have the same speed of 3), but not to move while performing a dramatic action.

·         You can of course choose to permit simultaneous movement during any action at all, without penalty.

·         Finally, (my favorite) you can permit simultaneous movement, but only as a multi-action using the one-on-many chart.  Normally one doesn’t have to roll for a movement or simple action, but this changes when one or both occurs as a multi-action.  Now the difficulty for either roll is 8, and of course, you also have to factor in the multi-action penalty:

o   On his Base Initiative count of 18, Andy tell the GM that he wants rush Brad (who is Andy’s full movement value away) while pulling out his dagger and attacking him.

o   The GM decides that Andy can get to Brad by moving half his movement rate in 3 counts twice.  During this time, the GM continues, Andy will have his dagger drawn after 3 counts and will be able to resolve his attack after 3 more counts (since a dagger attack is Faster than Normal.)

o   However, the GM does rule that for the first three counts Andy will be simultaneously running flat out and pulling his dagger, and that this counts as a one-on-many multi-action.  This means that Andy has to take a -2 penalty to one for the actions (Andy’s choice) and a -4 penalty to the other.

o   Also, since usually under these kinds of circumstances Andy doesn’t roll, now he will have to roll for both actions, an 8 or better.  If Andy fails the movement roll, he probably stumbles, if Andy fails the “draw dagger” roll, he fumbles at the dagger without managing to draw it.

o   Andy makes that roll at the top of count 18 - 3, or 15.  Let’s assume that Andy succeeds at both checks.

o   At the bottom (end) of count 15 the GM asks do you still want to move the other half of your movement rate while attacking Brad with the dagger?  Andy says yes.

o   At the top of count 12 (15-3) the GM has Andy choose which action gets the -2 and which gets the -4 from the one-on-many penalty.  Andy rolls.  If Andy succeeds at both checks, then he has successfully attacked Brad, and the GM needs to calculate damage.

Note:  In order to resolve an action that requires certain circumstances, you only need to have the appropriate circumstance present at time of resolution, unless the GM rules otherwise.  In other words, you do not have to be in melee range at the start of your melee action, but you do have to be in melee range at its resolution.

Optional rule:  You can resolve your action if the appropriate circumstances were present at some point between the start of the action and it’s resolution.  This is a very tricky idea to implement, and should be used with caution.  This would permit a swordsman to begin a melee attack outside of melee range, move into melee range and back out, and still resolve the melee attack, having been performed on-the-fly.  It may be a good idea to assign this kind of maneuver a -3 or -6 action total penalty.  This rule is truly optional, since even without it you can perform a melee action that begins outside of melee range, and immediately follow it with a speed 3 half full movement, if you have movement left in this round.

Holding one's Action

Holding an action is simple:  when your initiative count is reached, tell the GM you are Holding your action.  At any point later in the round, you can announce that you are done holding, and wish to act.  You are then treated on this round only as having a Base Initiative(BI) of whatever the current count is.

 

If the round ends, and your action is still held, you may choose whether or not you wish to reroll your Initiative, adding that to 20 as usual.  You also automatically get to go first next round, regardless of your initiative, whether or not you choose to reroll.  The initial count is assumed to be either a) three higher than the Max Base of those who did not hold their action for the whole round, or b) your own BI, if that is higher.

 

If multiple people hold their action to the end of the round, each gets to act next round before everyone else who didn’t hold, in the order of their Base Initiative.  They may also reroll their Base Initiative is they wish.  Each person gets a Count of their own to act on, and there must be at least 3 counts between them.  Of course, one can always choose to instead act on one’s actual BI if that is more favorable.

 

(This means that if 3 people hold their actions through the end of the round, and the highest BI of a person who didn’t hold last round is 20, then the count would start at 29 for the person who has held the longest, 26 for the person who has held the next longest, 23 for the person who has held the shortest, and 20 for the best BI of those who did not hold, and so on.)

 

It is also possible to Hold a prepped action in some cases.  For example, you can point a gun at someone and tell them to “Stop.”, or pause your sword thrust a foot from their heart. Pointing the gun at someone (for example) still takes a Normal speed action of 6 counts, but at the end the shooter can pause the resolution of the action, perhaps saying to the GM “I wait one count to see if they stop.”  At any time while the action is still paused, it is a usually a Very Fast action to resume and resolve the action, should one want to.

 

Also, if multiple Very Fast actions are announced on the same count, as mentioned before, they resolve in order of action total.  

Optional Rule:  When rerolling one’s Base Initiative, one can choose to keep the old roll if that was more favorable.

 

Improving One's Initiative: Surging

If you feel like you need to improve your Initiative you can Surge.  To Surge you need to decide how many Surge points you want to add to your initiative total, from a minimum of three to a maximum of ten.  Ideally you would inform the GM of this at the very beginning of the round, but you can announce this as late as right before you roll for your action.  As soon as you begin to Surge you add the Surge points immediately to your initiative total for this round only, but you must subtract the same number of points from every other action total generated this round.

Example:  Andy is going into round-by-round action, and rolls his starting Initiative roll getting a 6, for a Bonus Number of -5, applied to the starting Initiative total of 20 means that Andy's Base Initiative for the rest of the fight will be a 15.  Andy knows that his opponent is probably faster, so Andy decides right at the start of the first round to Surge for 10 points.  This makes his initiative a 25 for this round only.  However, the price is that Andy must subtract 10 from all action totals for the rest of the round.  Andy doesn't think his opponent has any kind of legendary dodge ability, so Andy rolls and gets an 18!  Andy spend a Hero Card and rolls again and gets a 7, transformed into a minimum 10 by the magic of possibilities, for a 28 total roll and a +9 Bonus Number.  Andy also spends an Adrenalin Card for a further +3.  His Fire Combat total is his 12 Dex plus his +4 Fire Combat, plus his 9 Bonus Number and his +3 from the Adrenalin Card, minus the ten point penalty - a total of 18 when all is said and done.  Turns out this is enough to hit his opponent!

At the end of the round his initiative goes back down to 15.

Improving One's Action Speed: Rushing

Rushing is different from Surging.  When you Surge, you are trying to be start acting sooner.  However, being starting sooner doesn’t make your actions themselves happen any faster – firing a gun still takes 6 counts.  You Surge to go *sooner*, but you Rush to go *faster*.  You Rush, for example, to fire a gun as a Fast action instead of a Normal one, or to draw your gun as a Very Fast action instead of a Fast one.

 

·         Very Fast actions cannot be Rushed.

·         Fast actions can be Rushed into becoming Very Fast actions.  The cost is a 3 point total on all subsequent action totals this round.

·         Normal actions can be Rushed into becoming Fast actions.  This also has a 3 point penalty.

·         Slow or Very Slow actions can be Rushed either one or two steps, again for 3 points of penalty per level of improvement.  Therefore Very Slow actions can become either Slow (-3AV) or Normal (-6AV) actions, and Slow actions can become either Normal actions (-3AV) or Fast actions (-6AV).

·         The maximum number of level improvements (Rushes) possible is one for Normal and Fast actions, or two for Slow or Very Slow actions.

·         Therefore, a Normal or Slow action can never become a Very Fast action.

·         Likewise, a Very Slow action can never become either a Fast or Very Fast action.

 

The Action Total penalties from Surging and Rushing *do* stack.

 

Example: Andy has a lackluster Base Initiative of 16.  He really wants to begin *and* resolve his action before Brad can do anything.  Andy tell the GM that Andy is going to Surge for 10 points.  This gives Andy a Base Initiative of 26 for this round only.  If Andy announces this early enough (say before the initiative countdown starts for this round) than Andy will get to act (that is, announce what action he is starting) on count 26.

 

Let’s say that Andy was half-asleep and only announces that he is going to Surge when the GM is calling count 21.  Then Andy can only surge for 5 points, since the earliest he can act is the bottom of the current count, and 21 – 16 = 5.  On the positive side, he would only take 5 points of penalty.

 

But let’s say that Andy was not half asleep, and told the GM at the very start.  When the GM hits count 26 (which may be the first count that round) the GM asks Andy what he wants to do.  Andy says that he wants to draw his gun and fire at Brad, and that he is Rushing both the Simple Action of drawing his gun and the Attack Action.

 

The GM rules that drawing his weapon is usually a Fast action, so that becomes Very Fast.   Shooting a gun is usually a Normal action, so that becomes a Fast action.

 

Since a Very Fast action has a speed of zero, the action happens immediately – Andy’s gun is out.  (A Very Fast action is the only kind of action to resolve at the bottom of a count.)  Since it’s still the bottom of count 26, everyone can still announce/start actions, even Andy.  The GM asks Andy if he wishes to follow through with a Fire Combat attack on Brad, to which Andy agrees.  Since his attack has been Rushed from Normal to Fast, it will resolve in 3 counts at the top of count 23.  The bad news for Andy is that with a ten-point Surge and two 3-point Rushes, Andy is looking at a SIXTEEN point action total penalty – he will have to use some resources for sure.  On the other hand, this penalty only penalizes his action total, not his effect total, so if he can manage to *hit* he should do some good damage.

 

Let’s say Andy rolls an 8, spends a possibility to roll a 15, and spend a hero card to roll a 3, which is applied as a 10.  That’s a 33 for a +10.  Andy also plays an Adrenalin card for a +13 total bonus.  12 Dex plus his +4 Fire Combat, plus 13 bonus number minus 16 penalty = 13 Action Total.  If that’s enough, than Andy is happy.  If it’s not enough, then perhaps Andy should have Surged and/or Rushed less.

 

Optional Rule:  Make the Speed Rating of your action worse by six to get a +3 Action Total bonus for taking your time.  This could be in place of the existing Aiming rules or in addition to them.

 

Interruptive Actions:

 

What if Andy want to act reactively or interruptively?  What if Andy does not want to shoot Brad, but will try to interrupt Brad's attack action if Brad tries anything?

It’s pretty simple.   You may successfully interrupt an action when you can begin your action after your opponent has begun his(possibly the same count) but resolve your action at least one count before your opponent’s action does.

 

Note that there is a huge difference between interrupting an action and simply going before an action.  If the bad guy has his finger on the button, and is ready to press it, interrupting his action (acting after he begins to press the button but before he completes the button press) is going to almost impossible.  However, acting before the bad guy is able to start pressing the button is a lot more possible.  Interruptive Actions are the former, and are not always possible.

To interrupt an action with your own action you must of course have an action of the proper kind left to use this round, such as Simple or Dramatic. You must also have a Base Initiative high enough to permit you to start the interruptive action you wish to take before the action you wish interrupt resolves.  You also have to be doing an action that is fast enough to resolve at least one count before the other action.

 

For example, Brad’s Base Initiative is 19, and on count 19 he announces that he is going to shoot the hostage.  The GM rules that since Brad had his gun out but not pointed in any particular direction, that this is a Normal Speed 6 action, due to resolve at the top of count 13.

 

Andy knows that if he wants to stop Brad he needs to resolve his action before that.  However, Andy’s Base Initiative is currently 14.  Andy doesn’t have many options – he is thinking of either throwing himself in the path of the bullet or tackling Brad.  Throwing himself in the path of the bullet would be potentially faster, but much more dangerous, so Andy says he’s going to tackle Brad before Brad can fire.

 

Andy knows that he has to resolve his tackle on or before count 14 to effectively interrupt Brad’s shot at count 13.  Andy asks the GM what action and what speed are involved in tackling Brad.  The GM rules that a Maneuver is the most appropriate skill, and also reminds him that Andy is half his movement rate away from Brad.  However, since Maneuver is about movement, the GM informs Andy that the 3 counts necessary to close the distance can be part of the Maneuver action and simultaneous with it, no multi-action or penalty necessary.  The GM also says that a standard Maneuver is a Normal 6 count action.

 

Andy tells the GM he is going to Rush his Maneuver, making it a Fast action and penalizing his action total by 3. He also Surges his Base Initiative from 14 to 17, incurring a further 3 penalty.

 

However, when the bottom of Initiative count 17 is reached, Andy can now announce he is doing his Fast Maneuver action, which as a speed 3 action resolves on count 14.  Andy is taking a 6 total action penalty, but if he can make the action check, he will tackle Brad in time.

 

What if Brad, seeing Andy rush him, had tried to fire even faster, Rushing his own action?

 

You cannot Rush your own action after it’s begun, the best you can do is abort it, and start a new action with a new speed.  (However, if Brad had started the round with his gun aimed right at the Hostage and finger on the trigger from the last round, and held that action paused there, Brad would be able to take Very Fast pull the trigger action at any time

 

Aborting or changing actions

 

To abort an action, simply tell the GM you are no longer doing it.  You will not be able to start to take a new action until two counts after the current one.  

 

Optional Rule:  With some skills, such as Fire Combat, you *can* (at your GMs discretion), instead of aborting your action:

·         Commit the same action with a different target, resolving at the same Initiative count but with a -3 Action Penalty, or

·         Commit the same action with a different target, take no Action Penalty, but resolve the attack at the same Initiative count plus three


The final note is that if one is afraid of being interrupted, the way to make sure that you are not is to make sure that you have a higher initiative and a faster action than anyone who would interrupt you.  Also, interrupting an action does not necessarily prevent the action that is interrupted, but can render the interrupted action no longer possible, such as if Andy kills Brad in one shot.

Conclusion 

 

I have been writing and rewriting this for three days now, I hope it does not fall on deaf or unkindly ears.

 

I eagerly await your comments, and look forward to what I hope will not be a tree falling in the middle of the forest.

 

-Benn Grant

 

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