Combat Movement

[stacktrace]

Reading through the rulebook several times as I prepare to start a RQ2 game has brought up many questions. Some I was able to answer through common sense, some through the wise words of those on this board. There is one item though that continues to make my head spin. And that is movement in combat.

The rulebook lists "move" as one of the actions a character can use during a turn. There are also some actions that allow you to combine movement with another action, such as Charging or attacks with ranged weapons.

Because of this, I originally thought, 1 action to move up to your movement rate each round.


The errata then states:

Movement: An Adventurer’s Movement Rate is the total distance
that can be moved in a Combat Round. Adventurers may move up
to their full Movement rate each Combat Round in one or more
Move Combat Actions.

So it seems that no matter what, the total amount of movement possible in a round cannot exceed a characters movement rate, but it also mentions being able to spend multiple actions on movement each round.

So by this understanding, a creature that had 3 combat actions and a move rate of 20 could do one of the following during a round (but certainly not limited to just these possibilities):

• Move 20 for one action, perform 2 other actions
  Move 20 and shoot for one action, perform 2 other actions
  Move 12 for one action, do some other action, Move 8 for one action

Do I have it right thusfar?


This subject has come up in various other threads on these boards and some of the discussions have only further confused me. I wish I had the link to the post to share, but in one case it seemed when Charging you could move up to your Sprint rate, not just your base move rate. So, just to be clear:


Can you Sprint in combat, and if so, what is the cost action wise?
When charging, do you use your base move or sprint move?


Thank you again for your time and thoughts.

 

[Titus]

The movement section on page 63 says:
"Sprinting: Multiply the base Movement by five and subtract the Armour Penalty. The result is how fast the Adventurer can move during short chases, or when charging."

So, yes, you can sprint when charging.

I don't think there is a CA cost for sprinting, unless the character wants to spend CA just moving. But I believe any skills you use while sprinting are restricted to a maximum of your Athletics skill (running) if it is lower than the skill you are using. I am not sure if the rules actually say that or not, but it is how I interpreted them. I may have been extrapolating from the mounted combat rules which restrict combat skills of the rider to not exceeding the ride skill and the Firing on the Move section. It seems appropriate. If you want to run around the battlefield firing arrows, you'd better be good at running. Otherwise, you should move at a more sedate speed while firing your bow.

By this, if you sprint as your charge move, then your attack skill is restricted by your athletics skill. This represents how under control you are when running.

My problem with combat movement:
I do have a problem with visualizing, or maybe rationalizing, movement where you can move all 8 (or 40) meters in your first CA and then can do anything but move with your next 2 or 3 CAs. It really begs for prorated movement. But I was having problems with that, too. Which is probably why the game does not use prorated movement.

 

[stacktrace]

Thanks for the reply Titus. The interaction between movement and Combat Actions has really thrown me for a loop and it is hard for me to even describe why, as there are moments of clarity that are quickly lost.

I guess it is just my own personal mental block. The rules in older editions were always so clear, perhaps I will just go back to how movement was handled in one of those.

 

[xdy]

Thanks for the reply Titus. The interaction between movement and Combat Actions has really thrown me for a loop and it is hard for me to even describe why, as there are moments of clarity that are quickly lost.

I guess it is just my own personal mental block. The rules in older editions were always so clear, perhaps I will just go back to how movement was handled in one of those.

Things may or may not clear up by joining this discussion on the combat system (as applied to fairly detailed combat using a square/hex grid for movement):
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43810

/Jonas

 

[Deleriad]

Thanks for the reply Titus. The interaction between movement and Combat Actions has really thrown me for a loop and it is hard for me to even describe why, as there are moments of clarity that are quickly lost.

I guess it is just my own personal mental block. The rules in older editions were always so clear, perhaps I will just go back to how movement was handled in one of those.

One way to think of it is that a character can a move a total of their (MOV rating*5) minus their Armour Penalty each combat round. So a standard human with a MOV of 8m could move 40m each Combat Round. If the person had an Armour Penalty of 5 then their total 'allowance' for the round is 35m.

You can perform this movement over any number of combat actions.

It is implicit I think that any Combat Action where you move further than your base Movement (8m for humans) counts as running/sprinting.

A lot of actions allow you to combine the action with some movement (usually 1/2 your MOV). So for example, if you have 3 CAs, a MOV of 8 and an allowance of 35m then on:
CA1 you could move 4m and combine it with an action.
CA2 you could run 20m
CA3 you still have up to 11m of Movement left that you could use (or not) as you like.

That's my understanding.

 

[stacktrace]

Very interesting take, it certainly is a different way of looking at it. Taking it further, you can divide a character's total Sprint move by their number of CAs and set a limit on the max movement per CA spent to this value.

There was another thread in which someone pointed out that the Sprint values for characters are rather steller by real world standards, and it is unlikely a character could do much of anything else if moving at that speed.

I am thinking of throwing out/modifying the bit in the errata about capping a character's total move in a combat round to their MOV value, as I think that is the thing causing me the most problems, and then just keeping it simple like:

> A character can move up to their MOV rate for 1 CA, certain actions can be combined if the MOV half or less than their total. Bonus CAs from an offhand weapon cannot be used for to move.
> A character can also forgo all actions in the combat round to move up to their Sprint value, a Charge action is the only action that can be combined with such movement.