It was a good, though tiring weekend, and I will admit to eating way too much Pizza.
So...what have you got for me this week RPGaDay Challenge? I'm ready for anything!
Oh for Pete's Sake.
OK, I've actually mentioned this before, once or twice over the years, so I'll just repeat, and summarize it here.
I use some of the moves in Champions in my other games. Most notably, Holding Your Move, Move Through, and Move By.
Holding Your Move means that when it's your turn to act, you can say, "I hold my move", and we skip you. You can then take your action at anytime afterward, or even move twice in the next round. The held move is most often used by the toughest, or fastest character to interrupt an opponent's attack against a weaker team member.
Move Through is when you travel to your opponent (via flight, superspeed, while driving a car), hit them, and continue forward. This could be running them down with a motorcycle, or a flying tackle that drives them into, or through, a wall, or the ground.
A Move By is a hit, and run type attack. You go half your move distance, attack, then move away with the other half of your move.
Now, keep this in mind...
I use the mechanics from Champions 4th Edition for these actions so that I can figure out how hard/easy it is to pull them off, how much damage is caused, and so forth, and so on. As many of you may know, I don't like to focus on rule mechanics. I try my damnedest to de-emphasize the rules whenever possible. However, I often play with people who want, and need a little more crunch then is my default preference.
I get them to describe what they're doing without them knowing what rules I'm injecting, and then I use the mechanics for the above actions so they (the Players) feel it had some functional effect in the game.
Taa-daa! Everybody is happy, everybody wins!
AD
Barking Alien
I also tend to house rule initiative to whatever would be MUCH SIMPLER then what it is in 90% of the world's professionally published RPGs. Holy Smokes! What they hell is wrong with you game designers? We're not wargaming anymore. If who goes first, and who goes next really matters that much, it's your entire combat system that needs fixing, not initiative.
Chill out. Pick someone to go next. Whoever is siting to the left of the GM. Draws straws. WHO CARES! Just get the game moving.
As far as "who goes first" did you ever play around with Marvel Heroic's "player acting now chooses who goes next" approach? We thought that was a nice little rule that added both simplification and some tension to the game. That's a rule I'm tempted to use in some other games where there aren't heavy mechanics around initiative.
ReplyDeleteYes, we've used that system off, and on with a variety of games. It works well for most, less tactically oriented RPGs.
ReplyDeleteIt just blows my mind how much time, effort, and thought goes into Initiative rules in published games, in blog posts - what the heck? Just go. Just have someone go.