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Post by Garage on Oct 8, 2015 10:38:24 GMT
We played our second session last night and one thing we quickly discarded was stating our actions before we rolled initiative.
I can't speak for the others but I felt it actually went a lot better. If I won the initiative and decided to just shoot an infected then I was attacked after I couldn't dodge.
If I lost the initiative was attacked then shot at the infected then I would have penalties.
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Post by rupethebear on Oct 8, 2015 12:16:31 GMT
I'm still playing a lot of AD&D so this is coming from that background. A spellcaster designates they are going to cast a spell then rolls initiative. If they have a crap roll and get hit before the spell is cast, the spell doesn't go off. I envisage a similar thing here when stating our actions. Just my 2 cents. By the way I love reading the reports on the nights play, keep 'em coming and find those pesky Bikers !
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nails
New Member
Posts: 34
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Post by nails on Oct 8, 2015 12:32:48 GMT
The one thing I found was that the declaration part is especially important when starting that you may dodge or not otherwise if you don't declare it you can't defend yourself. However it was smoother when we did what Gary has already mentioned.
One question though Oliver if you declare you were going to do something but end up being last on initiative and so the situation completely changes not allowing you to do your action does that mean you have lost your go or can you do something else instead.
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Post by Oliver R Shead on Oct 8, 2015 12:48:25 GMT
Hi guys, great points! Actually I've stopped declaring actions beforehand as well, because it adds to the immediacy of the game (if you see my post on "Dynamic Intiative" below, that will show you what I'm working on now - it's a flexible, loose system): Okay playtesters, here's a rule change we're working through! *Dynamic Initiative* Here's the new system: Dynamic Initiative is rolled for once at the beginning of the combat, and that order is maintained. You don't roll again each round. You also don't declare what you're doing at the beginning of the round. You just say what you're doing when you make your roll. This gives lower order initiatives some advantages too. HOWEVER, you CAN do things to change your Initiative order. If you make a Defensive action (like Dodging or Parrying, or Blocking, or running away), and beat your attacker's roll by 4 successes or more, then you have done a pretty cool manoeuvre, and have gained the upper hand. You might have ducked his swing then come up for a brutal counter-hook, or you tumble to the side and expose him to a knee kick, or stepped around the corner and then doubled-back to shoot at him with a sudden surprise. In this case, your Initiative is now ABOVE your attacker's. He or she doesn't go last, they just go below you. It is certainly best to describe this as much as possible - the player should say what their character is doing with the Defensive Action, which then gives them the advantage. This will make the combat more dynamic, and will give them the opportunity for better attacks. I.e. if they duck a punch, then they might be in a perfect spot to tackle the attacker, or give them a hook to the jaw - or whatever. Generally, it's best to give some variety to the type of attacks (it adds interest), rather than just doing a general strike fest. Now, here's the other way of changing the Initiative. You can disrupt the other person's attack. This is done by affecting the other character with some sort of attack. Like kicking a table into their shins, or kicking them in the groin, pushing them over, poking them in the eye, or doing anything that the Narrator feels would stagger them, stop them or stun them for a second (there are various attacks that stun, blind, choke, etc., in the rules, but the Narrator should adjudicate according to logic). The person making this disruptive attack would probably need to do a multi-action to manage this (i.e. Defend the attack coming in, then strike back), or they could just take the incoming attack (eat the bullet), then attack back. Again, the disruptive attack would have to be successful in order to work. So, for example, Zane is being attacked by a Cannibal, who has higher Initiative. The cannibal swings a club at Zane's head. He decides to Dodge the club, then kick the Cannibal in the shins (a multi-action, with -2 to the first roll and -3 to the second). He manages to just duck the cannibal's swing, then succeeds in kicking the cannibal with 4 successes. This staggers the cannibal, knocking him back for a moment - just long enough for Zane to gain the Initiative, step back and draw his pistol. The last way this could work is with disengagement. You put enough space between you that the combat is interrupted. You jump a barrier, you leap across a gap between buildings, you push your attacker out a window (then jump after them). At the Narrator's discretion, at any time he can have everyone in the combat (or any two characters) re-roll their Initiative. This should really only be done for dramatic effect, and not for simple book keeping "because you have to." Do what feels easy, organic and logical. So both are doable, but I found Dynamic Initiative works pretty well - though I often have people roll every round anyway, because we like doing that. If you declare taking actions, and something happens to make your action useless, the GM could either get them to make a Wis/Awareness check to be able to change their action, or they'd lose their action. Usually, they'd just lose their action (this can happen in real life, in the heat of the moment - you go to open the door, but it's blown apart before you get there, stunning you for a second, forcing you to change tack and re-think for just a second). On Defensive Actions I do have a rule that I use that will be getting into the book. That's the rule that if you make one Defensive Action in the round (whether it's a multi-action or not), then that will count against all attacks coming in at you, with a penalty of -1 to the successes for each attacker beyond the first. Also, with groups of attacking NPCs (extras, goons, non-heroes), I usually roll for them with one roll - I do this by adding an extra 1d10 for each attacker beyond the first. The level of that die (the bonus to the roll), is equivalent to the "goons" Skill level. So if Bob was being attacked by 6 goons, with a Dex of 5 and a Hand to Hand of 4, I would roll 5/4/4/4/4/4/4 - 7 dice! Believe it or not, that one roll is very quickly added up. The successes all count as, basically, one attack. In this case, I just have the pc make one Defensive roll with no penalties for each attacker beyond the first, but possibly penalties for their situation of being surrounded, or on the floor, or whatever. So say they're getting attacked by 3 different forms of attacks - a club strike, a gun, and an arrow. In that case, each attack would likely be rolled separately, and the Defender would make one Defensive roll which would count against each attack. Say they got 5 successes, then that would count as 5 against the first guy, 4 against the second, and 3 against the third. It would still only count as 1 action. This makes it possible to survive against large groups, and still do things, and also minimises the amount of rolling you need to do (because rolling to defend against 8 Infected every round can get irritating... that's if you're not just dying...). Does that all make sense?
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