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Post by Stefan [GM] on Aug 4, 2011 20:00:14 GMT -7
First draft. While this all makes sense in my head right now, tell me if things aren't clear or simply stupid. Attachement at Bottom illustrates.
Initiative Score
A character's Initiative Score equals her Initiative Attribute (Reaction + Intuition), plus the sum of a number of dice, equal to her Initiative Passes.
The characters act according to their score - from highest to lowest.
If two characters get the same score, compare their Initiative Attribute, then Reaction, and finally Edge, to determine who gets to act just a split-second faster.
Damage modifiers effect the Initiative Score directly. Deduct any damage modifiers from the total score. This is also done in real time throughout the combat sequence and might alter existing initiative orders as damage is dealt.
Compare it to SR4: Taking 42 as example, he has an Initiative of 14 with three passes. With this new system, he would have a minimun Initiatve of 17 (14 + 3D6 rolled 1) and a maximum of 32 (14 + 3D6 rolled 6). So with no luck he can only act twice, with lots of luck he will act 4 times. But usually he will average somewhere in the middle (assuming dice aren't fixed,
) of 21-30, which will give him his 3 passes, that he had before.
Resolving Combat
After everybody rolled initiative, stick to the following steps to resolve combat.
1) The character with the highest score acts first. As per normal rules, she can use either two simple actions, or one complex action, as well as one free action.
After the character has used her actions, deduct 10 points straight off of her Initiative Score.
2) After deducting 10 points of the character, check the Initiative Scores again. The last character will have a new place in the list, as do any damaged characters. Whoever is now on top of the list will get her/his action - even if it is the same character, that just acted.
3) Once a character drops to 0 or less on her Initiative Score, she won't have any actions left for this combat turn. Repeat Step 1) and 2) until all characters fall to or below 0 on their scores.
4) Roll new Initiatives.
Delayed Actions
In some cases characters might want to hold their actions until a later time in the combat turn. In that case continue the combat as normal, skipping to next character in line. The character holding her action can jump in at any time before his next turn would be. If the character doesn't act until his next initiative turn, he will lose the held action.
The player must declar her intention to jump in before the current character rolled any dice. If the dice are aleady rolled, however, the intervening character may make an Edge(2) test or spend 1 Edge to interrupt after all.
Bloody has a score of 20 for this combat turn. There are also a Goon, acting at 16 and Bloody's Halloweener Chummer, going on a shameful 10. Since the Ganger started the fight, however, Bloody decides to leave it to him to finish it, too. So he holds his action.
The Goon, played by the GM, declares his intention to shoot the Ganger straight into the head. Bloody was hoping for some fist-fight action, but the Goon plays dirty. Very well, before the GM rolls for the Goon, Bloody declares that he would like to use his action now. Bloody knocks the gun out of the Goon's hand.
Assume Bloody would have thought that his Ganger-friend can handle one shot, and didn't intervene, the GM would have rolled for the Goon's shot. After everything said and done, the GM announces 7 hits for the Goon and the Ganger only get's one hit on his defense. Bloody now has to roll or spend edge to intervene and save his chummer from a bullet straight into his braincase. If he does, and he succeeds, he has the chance to use his held action to take out the Goon in the nick of time.
A character has to either hold all his actions, or use them. She can't use one simple action and hold the second to intervene at a later time.
Simple Actions
I mentioned this in my original post about the alternate combat sequence. However, I find that a 5-point rule would cause too many complications, and so I've decided to scrap this idea.
As per normal rules, a character must use all her available actions during her turn, or hold all of them until a later time. The character can't use one simple action and hold the other. You've got your shot, use it or lose it.
This being said, every acting character loses 10 points after her turn, whether all actions have been used or not.
Free actions, however, can be used at any time before the character would act again. If the free action has not been used until the character’s turn comes aground again, it will he lost and replaced with the new free action from the new turn.
Interrupt actions
Any actions, that would take up the next initiative pass will take an additional 10 points instead. If the character wouldn't have another turn this combat turn, she will lose 10 points of her initiative score the next combat turn right away.
Surprise
Surprise will be handled and Calculated as normal. However, instead of effecting the first initiative pass, it will become its own pass all together.
Every character rolls their initiative attribute. Modifiers for perception and ambush apply as normal, as do glitches.
Then, all characters act in order of their hits, and as per normal rules, nobody can act against people, that scored more hits on their surprise test.
After everybody has had their turn, roll initiative as normal and proceed with combat as described above.
Timed items
Some items are timed to do whatever it is they're doing, at certain predetermined time. Explosives are the most common item in a combat situation.
Once activated, a timed item will have its own initiative score, which is equal to the character’s current score at the time of the setup, -10. This score will be the same during all turns and will not change until the timer is up.
Once it's the items time to "act", it will go trigger, which is usually 10 points after the character first set it up. If this lowers the item's score below 0, it will trigger first thing next combat turn.
Munchkin throws a grenade into a crowd of bad security people. His current initiative scores is 17. Unless the security guards to something about it, the grenade will has “its action” during at 7, and it will use the action to, well, explode.
Some explosives (and other items) can be programmed to trigger after a desired amount of time has passed. In that case, the character setting up the item determines the amount of “ticks” the item will take, which are measured in 10-Point intervals.
So, the first tick counts at 10 points after the setup. For bookkeeping, the item should be noted in the list of initiative scores as its own entity, losing 10 point for every tick at its turn.
This might carry over into new combat rounds.
Edge
Edge can effect initiative in a couple of ways.
Changing Initiatives and other stuff[/i]
Sometimes the characters' initiatve changes in the middle of the combat. Switching to VR, casting a Reflex Increasing Spell, Astral Projection, etc, all alter the base initiative and the amount of passes. If the a character is changing his current state, ie switching from AR to VR, adjust his initiative score according to his new base initiative, +2 for each extra pass he would be getting. If he switches to a slower state, ie VR to AR, adjust his score according to his base initiative, -2 for each pass he would be losing.
For example, UnFleshed One has an initiative of 11 in meatspace. He uses his action to go into full VR (hot SIM), which increases his base initiative attribute by 3, so a total of 14. He also gains two extra passes, which increases is initiative again by 4, to a total of 18. Since this is a free action, he is now free to cause havoc in the matrix faster than he did before (and might even be able to go again before anybody else, if no one has a higher score than 7...).
If he would have doen the opposite, and switched from VR to AR at a score of 18, he would lose 1 point due to lower base initiative, and another 4 due to lack of extra passes, so he drops to a total of 11 and opens up the stage for other's, that are before 11.
Character's might call upon their Spirits and Sprites during combat. The second they appear, whether summoned/compiled or simply called (bound or registered spirit/sprites), they will roll der initiative as would anybody else. However, if they are faster than their masters, they will hold their action until given a task. Remember that they will lose their held action if not issued a task until their next turn.
Initiative Score
A character's Initiative Score equals her Initiative Attribute (Reaction + Intuition), plus the sum of a number of dice, equal to her Initiative Passes.
The characters act according to their score - from highest to lowest.
If two characters get the same score, compare their Initiative Attribute, then Reaction, and finally Edge, to determine who gets to act just a split-second faster.
Damage modifiers effect the Initiative Score directly. Deduct any damage modifiers from the total score. This is also done in real time throughout the combat sequence and might alter existing initiative orders as damage is dealt.
Compare it to SR4: Taking 42 as example, he has an Initiative of 14 with three passes. With this new system, he would have a minimun Initiatve of 17 (14 + 3D6 rolled 1) and a maximum of 32 (14 + 3D6 rolled 6). So with no luck he can only act twice, with lots of luck he will act 4 times. But usually he will average somewhere in the middle (assuming dice aren't fixed,
) of 21-30, which will give him his 3 passes, that he had before. Resolving Combat
After everybody rolled initiative, stick to the following steps to resolve combat.
1) The character with the highest score acts first. As per normal rules, she can use either two simple actions, or one complex action, as well as one free action.
After the character has used her actions, deduct 10 points straight off of her Initiative Score.
2) After deducting 10 points of the character, check the Initiative Scores again. The last character will have a new place in the list, as do any damaged characters. Whoever is now on top of the list will get her/his action - even if it is the same character, that just acted.
3) Once a character drops to 0 or less on her Initiative Score, she won't have any actions left for this combat turn. Repeat Step 1) and 2) until all characters fall to or below 0 on their scores.
4) Roll new Initiatives.
Delayed Actions
In some cases characters might want to hold their actions until a later time in the combat turn. In that case continue the combat as normal, skipping to next character in line. The character holding her action can jump in at any time before his next turn would be. If the character doesn't act until his next initiative turn, he will lose the held action.
The player must declar her intention to jump in before the current character rolled any dice. If the dice are aleady rolled, however, the intervening character may make an Edge(2) test or spend 1 Edge to interrupt after all.
Bloody has a score of 20 for this combat turn. There are also a Goon, acting at 16 and Bloody's Halloweener Chummer, going on a shameful 10. Since the Ganger started the fight, however, Bloody decides to leave it to him to finish it, too. So he holds his action.
The Goon, played by the GM, declares his intention to shoot the Ganger straight into the head. Bloody was hoping for some fist-fight action, but the Goon plays dirty. Very well, before the GM rolls for the Goon, Bloody declares that he would like to use his action now. Bloody knocks the gun out of the Goon's hand.
Assume Bloody would have thought that his Ganger-friend can handle one shot, and didn't intervene, the GM would have rolled for the Goon's shot. After everything said and done, the GM announces 7 hits for the Goon and the Ganger only get's one hit on his defense. Bloody now has to roll or spend edge to intervene and save his chummer from a bullet straight into his braincase. If he does, and he succeeds, he has the chance to use his held action to take out the Goon in the nick of time.
A character has to either hold all his actions, or use them. She can't use one simple action and hold the second to intervene at a later time.
I mentioned this in my original post about the alternate combat sequence. However, I find that a 5-point rule would cause too many complications, and so I've decided to scrap this idea.
As per normal rules, a character must use all her available actions during her turn, or hold all of them until a later time. The character can't use one simple action and hold the other. You've got your shot, use it or lose it.
This being said, every acting character loses 10 points after her turn, whether all actions have been used or not.
Free actions, however, can be used at any time before the character would act again. If the free action has not been used until the character’s turn comes aground again, it will he lost and replaced with the new free action from the new turn.
Interrupt actions
Any actions, that would take up the next initiative pass will take an additional 10 points instead. If the character wouldn't have another turn this combat turn, she will lose 10 points of her initiative score the next combat turn right away.
Surprise
Surprise will be handled and Calculated as normal. However, instead of effecting the first initiative pass, it will become its own pass all together.
Every character rolls their initiative attribute. Modifiers for perception and ambush apply as normal, as do glitches.
Then, all characters act in order of their hits, and as per normal rules, nobody can act against people, that scored more hits on their surprise test.
After everybody has had their turn, roll initiative as normal and proceed with combat as described above.
Timed items
Some items are timed to do whatever it is they're doing, at certain predetermined time. Explosives are the most common item in a combat situation.
Once activated, a timed item will have its own initiative score, which is equal to the character’s current score at the time of the setup, -10. This score will be the same during all turns and will not change until the timer is up.
Once it's the items time to "act", it will go trigger, which is usually 10 points after the character first set it up. If this lowers the item's score below 0, it will trigger first thing next combat turn.
Munchkin throws a grenade into a crowd of bad security people. His current initiative scores is 17. Unless the security guards to something about it, the grenade will has “its action” during at 7, and it will use the action to, well, explode.
Some explosives (and other items) can be programmed to trigger after a desired amount of time has passed. In that case, the character setting up the item determines the amount of “ticks” the item will take, which are measured in 10-Point intervals.
So, the first tick counts at 10 points after the setup. For bookkeeping, the item should be noted in the list of initiative scores as its own entity, losing 10 point for every tick at its turn.
This might carry over into new combat rounds.
Edge
Edge can effect initiative in a couple of ways.
- You can spend 1 Edge to gain 1 extra die to roll with for the initiative score. This also allows for open 6's on all initiative dice for this combat turn.
- 1 Edge can be spent to gain one additional turn, even if the initiative score is at or below 0 already. This turn can only be gained if there is at least one active character left in this combat turn. After spending 1 Edge, the character will be allowed to act as if he had a score of 1 - current damage does not effect this score, damage taken after the edge has been spent, however, will be effecting and might even lowering the character’s initiative to 0.
- By spending 1 edge, a character can go before another, currently acting character. This counts as interrupt action and will use up 10 points of the character’s score. The player must declare the use of edge before the current character resolved his actions.
Changing Initiatives and other stuff[/i]
Sometimes the characters' initiatve changes in the middle of the combat. Switching to VR, casting a Reflex Increasing Spell, Astral Projection, etc, all alter the base initiative and the amount of passes. If the a character is changing his current state, ie switching from AR to VR, adjust his initiative score according to his new base initiative, +2 for each extra pass he would be getting. If he switches to a slower state, ie VR to AR, adjust his score according to his base initiative, -2 for each pass he would be losing.
For example, UnFleshed One has an initiative of 11 in meatspace. He uses his action to go into full VR (hot SIM), which increases his base initiative attribute by 3, so a total of 14. He also gains two extra passes, which increases is initiative again by 4, to a total of 18. Since this is a free action, he is now free to cause havoc in the matrix faster than he did before (and might even be able to go again before anybody else, if no one has a higher score than 7...).
If he would have doen the opposite, and switched from VR to AR at a score of 18, he would lose 1 point due to lower base initiative, and another 4 due to lack of extra passes, so he drops to a total of 11 and opens up the stage for other's, that are before 11.
Character's might call upon their Spirits and Sprites during combat. The second they appear, whether summoned/compiled or simply called (bound or registered spirit/sprites), they will roll der initiative as would anybody else. However, if they are faster than their masters, they will hold their action until given a task. Remember that they will lose their held action if not issued a task until their next turn.
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