Combat Flowchart first draft
- Thread starter Stainless
- Start date
Now I have both flowcharts laid out in front of me, so I thought I'd pass some comments.
Initiative is now the Effect of a check rather than the actual value of the roll. This means it can have negative values. That's fine as I understand the concept of the number line and negative values. But surprisingly some people don't; I hope they will be few and far between or that they'll learn some maths through playing Traveller (autodidactism has always been a fringe benefit of playing RPGs).
The range for Initiative used to be (2 to 12) + Dex bonus. It's now (-6 to +4) + Dex/Int bonus. Thus, there is one LESS possible Initiative value making it a slightly less granular experience. All things being equal, it means there will be slightly MORE occurrences of Initiative draws. I'm not sure that's such a good thing.
Ambush Boon/Bane mechanic. I wonder if the double dipping (Ambusher advantaged AND Ambushed disadvantaged) may make that a little heavy handed.
Acting hastily is unchanged.
Dealing with Initiative draws is unchanged.
Acting on Initiative rank is unchanged except now one can no longer delay until the next round and thus act first in that round. Not a big loss and easy to house-rule back in. But it wasn't that complex a rule so minimal streamlining gain from its deletion.
One Significant action + one Minor action (or convert the Significant action into two Minor actions) is unchanged.
No Minor action if seriously wounded has been removed (indeed the "Seriously wounded" concept has been deleted entirely). I find that a pity but it's easily house ruled back in. As with Delayed action above, minimal streamlining gain from its deletion.
Diving for cover now added to the repertoire of reactions. So here's an example where the rules have actually become more complex.
Dodging/parrying no longer needs to be declared before the attack roll. I think that's good streamlining and prevents potential player/GM "conflict" when the declaration was intended but forgotten.
Dodging/parrying no longer affects subsequent Initiative. This is also great streamlining as it was a real pain to try and do the housekeeping on that.
Prone now allows 1/4 movement rate and there is no prohibition on melee attacks or dodging whilst prone. I feel that's an improvement as it all makes sense (you can crawl, stab and roll whilst lying on the ground).
With the removal of the Seriously wounded state, there is now no penalty on movement for being wounded. That's not very realistic. Nuff said.
Aiming for the kill (rule from Mercenary) has been removed. Rule One will have to be used now for those who want to specify a special extra damaging attack.
Leadership check remains but has been qualified to benefiting an "within-contact" individual. That's a good detail to thwart the rules lawyers.
Thrown attack has been removed and subsumed into a Ranged attack.
Melee attack no longer allows STR DM to help the to-hit roll. Arguable if that's realistic or not, but not a big deal to me.
Recoil and Heft calculations and their impact on subsequent Initiative has been removed. A great bit of streamlining. How many people really took the time to keep track of that?
Dodging target used to get a blanket -1 DM. That's now -DEX DM or Athletics (dexterity) skill whichever is higher. This seems more intuitive.
Parry remains unchanged.
Diving for cover added. Why is that a blanket -2 DM when the same logic for Dodging is surely the same? A more dexterous and/or athletic character should be able to dive further/quicker. I suppose the problem is 2X DEX DM/Athletics (dexterity) skill is overkill and making it Dodge -1 means some arithmetic gets in the way of play. I suppose it's mot a big one but for anyone with a high DEX DM or Athletics (dexterity) skill, Diving for cover will never be used.
Target in cover has been added. Seems sensible.
Armour unchanged except virtual armour is granted for targets in cover. Some of the values are debatable if viewed as real armour. If viewed simply as game mechanic benefits to justify difficulties associated with attacking targets in cover, it seems OK, but then again the -2 DM to-hit for being in cover is already there. Is this double dipping again?
Full auto fire no longer has the strange skill cap at 1. Never did understand that rule. Great to see it go. Still rolling the same number of to-hit dice, but the sorting into pairs as you see fit has been removed. That sounds more realistic. More bullets means more chances of hitting.
Burst adds damage as before but it's +1 per damage die instead of +Auto rating. Seems odd that full auto gives one more chances of hitting because more bullets are flying whilst Burst is the same (more bullets flying) but you get the advantage of "automatic success" for hits. Why not keep it consistent, viz. Burst means roll half Auto rating and Auto means roll full Auto rating.
I think that's it for now.
Initiative is now the Effect of a check rather than the actual value of the roll. This means it can have negative values. That's fine as I understand the concept of the number line and negative values. But surprisingly some people don't; I hope they will be few and far between or that they'll learn some maths through playing Traveller (autodidactism has always been a fringe benefit of playing RPGs).
The range for Initiative used to be (2 to 12) + Dex bonus. It's now (-6 to +4) + Dex/Int bonus. Thus, there is one LESS possible Initiative value making it a slightly less granular experience. All things being equal, it means there will be slightly MORE occurrences of Initiative draws. I'm not sure that's such a good thing.
Ambush Boon/Bane mechanic. I wonder if the double dipping (Ambusher advantaged AND Ambushed disadvantaged) may make that a little heavy handed.
Acting hastily is unchanged.
Dealing with Initiative draws is unchanged.
Acting on Initiative rank is unchanged except now one can no longer delay until the next round and thus act first in that round. Not a big loss and easy to house-rule back in. But it wasn't that complex a rule so minimal streamlining gain from its deletion.
One Significant action + one Minor action (or convert the Significant action into two Minor actions) is unchanged.
No Minor action if seriously wounded has been removed (indeed the "Seriously wounded" concept has been deleted entirely). I find that a pity but it's easily house ruled back in. As with Delayed action above, minimal streamlining gain from its deletion.
Diving for cover now added to the repertoire of reactions. So here's an example where the rules have actually become more complex.
Dodging/parrying no longer needs to be declared before the attack roll. I think that's good streamlining and prevents potential player/GM "conflict" when the declaration was intended but forgotten.
Dodging/parrying no longer affects subsequent Initiative. This is also great streamlining as it was a real pain to try and do the housekeeping on that.
Prone now allows 1/4 movement rate and there is no prohibition on melee attacks or dodging whilst prone. I feel that's an improvement as it all makes sense (you can crawl, stab and roll whilst lying on the ground).
With the removal of the Seriously wounded state, there is now no penalty on movement for being wounded. That's not very realistic. Nuff said.
Aiming for the kill (rule from Mercenary) has been removed. Rule One will have to be used now for those who want to specify a special extra damaging attack.
Leadership check remains but has been qualified to benefiting an "within-contact" individual. That's a good detail to thwart the rules lawyers.
Thrown attack has been removed and subsumed into a Ranged attack.
Melee attack no longer allows STR DM to help the to-hit roll. Arguable if that's realistic or not, but not a big deal to me.
Recoil and Heft calculations and their impact on subsequent Initiative has been removed. A great bit of streamlining. How many people really took the time to keep track of that?
Dodging target used to get a blanket -1 DM. That's now -DEX DM or Athletics (dexterity) skill whichever is higher. This seems more intuitive.
Parry remains unchanged.
Diving for cover added. Why is that a blanket -2 DM when the same logic for Dodging is surely the same? A more dexterous and/or athletic character should be able to dive further/quicker. I suppose the problem is 2X DEX DM/Athletics (dexterity) skill is overkill and making it Dodge -1 means some arithmetic gets in the way of play. I suppose it's mot a big one but for anyone with a high DEX DM or Athletics (dexterity) skill, Diving for cover will never be used.
Target in cover has been added. Seems sensible.
Armour unchanged except virtual armour is granted for targets in cover. Some of the values are debatable if viewed as real armour. If viewed simply as game mechanic benefits to justify difficulties associated with attacking targets in cover, it seems OK, but then again the -2 DM to-hit for being in cover is already there. Is this double dipping again?
Full auto fire no longer has the strange skill cap at 1. Never did understand that rule. Great to see it go. Still rolling the same number of to-hit dice, but the sorting into pairs as you see fit has been removed. That sounds more realistic. More bullets means more chances of hitting.
Burst adds damage as before but it's +1 per damage die instead of +Auto rating. Seems odd that full auto gives one more chances of hitting because more bullets are flying whilst Burst is the same (more bullets flying) but you get the advantage of "automatic success" for hits. Why not keep it consistent, viz. Burst means roll half Auto rating and Auto means roll full Auto rating.
I think that's it for now.
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