Toward more dynamic combat

[mrinku]

I guess I was thinking in terms of some of the ideas being thrown around in which abort was, essentially, no longer tied to an action in the future. Opportunity of attack comes to mind in this. Having a rule that applies to all seems fairer to me than GM caveat having to deal with all such cases. It also would effectively get rid of gaming the speed chart, which is a good thing. No one would have reason to assume any unoccupied opponent was unable to mess with them.

 

Fairness is relative; if you're playing a tournament wargame, fairness is critical or noses are quickly put out of joint. RPGs are asymmetrical games, however, with the GM controlling the "fairness" or otherwise of a situation. This cuts both ways - sometimes players need a bail-out.

[bigdamnhero]

I guess I was thinking in terms of some of the ideas being thrown around in which abort was, essentially, no longer tied to an action in the future. Opportunity of attack comes to mind in this.

Just to clarify: the Attack of Opportunity rule I was proposing is entirely tied to an action in the future. You don't get an additional action, you're simply taking your next action early like any other Abort. It follows all other rules for Aborting.

[indy523]

OK, first, in a "real fight", can't Slow Poke attack attack when Speedy gets within reach, whether or not Speedy plans to move back out of reach after making his attack? You can't do that in Hero System now (or can you? see below). Second, don't many boxers and martial artists in real life move forward, attack and move back, avoiding counterattack? "He can't lay a glove on The Champ!"

 

* I suggest Slow Poke being ready to attack when Speedy moves in simply means Slow Poke held an action to do just that. Speedy comes rushing back from downstairs, and Slow Poke clobbers him as soon as he gets in range, since Slow Poke has just been watching the stairwell out of the corner of his eye, waiting for Speedy to pop back up (or he used his half move to move 10 m right up to the stairwell, and Speedy also gets knocked back down the stairs when Slow Poke uses his reserved half phase).

 

Yes in real life Boxers can do that which is why the rule for aborting to a dodge exists or martial arts strikes that are +0OCV, +3DCV +1DC damage.  In real fights opponents can attack each other without holding an action..  Speedy can rush Slow Poke and Slow Poke can swing back at him.  To strike someone, correct that to move from outside a person's combat zone, dodge under his reach, then purposely strike him with a damaging blow, back out of the reach of that person and extract himself from combat and dodge out of sight is something that would take an incredible amount of skill and is not likely to ever happen to another fighter who is skilled even if they are bigger and slower.

 

I am merely pointing out that the rules were developed for tis reason to simulate actual combat.  If you run up and punch someone, even by surprise in real life and you don't knock them out, they are going to turn around and strike back.  IF you turn tail and run afterward as fast as possible you make it easier for the individual to retaliate.  In your scenario Speedy does not even need extra speed to outclass Slowpoke.  He gets to move in to slowpoke, attack him and move out consistently.  Slow Poke if he has the same speed as Speedy has to lose half his actions, holding them waiting on Speedy to come out and attack him. All speedy has to do is hold his next attack to one segment after it is Slowpoke's turn to attack.  Slow Poke loses the held action, has to reset the next one and then Speedy strikes and Speedy halving SlowPoke's attacks always has that extra action to abort.

 

Why?  Because Speedy is a world class sprinter.  You can apply that rule as a GM if you like but you will have a lot of pissed off players.  The general rule of RPG's is, if you can see to attack me then I can attack you back.  Rules are written this way because it grants a modicum of fairness to the game.  But more importantly if you keep opening a closet door and running straight at me turn after turn striking me why do I have to hold an action to strike you.  Your tactic by the third time you do this will be rote.  If anything it would be easier to club you.

 

Personally if you want to grant speedy characters some of this benefit then I would suggest it happen with martial arts maneuvers that allow a full move and do move by damage added (velocity/10).  In that case the character strikes as he moves by, his momentum carrying him and the character had to learn a skill to do that (the martial arts maneuver).  At least then it is palatable and not just because so and so has 4m more speed than I do.

[indy523]

That is the example always given for not allowing attack-and-move. And yet it has literally never come up once in any game I've run or played where attack-and-move was allowed. Not once.

 

 

So if there is cover from building on either side of the street and you have a character that has enough half movement to go across the street why would he not move to the middle of the street or even move in a little to get better range make his attack and then duck for cover unseen at turn's end, because it is cheesy!  Denying that means you have to tell the characters to not do an obvious smart move because the rules have holes in them.  Rules will always have holes in them but why get rid of the movement stops after an attack rule that solves more holes than it leaves open.

 

The point of that rule is that once you shoot the gun you are getting the attention of every enemy in the room.  This will be when they notice you most and so phases end then. 

 

In the example above if speedy runs 10m toward the character, 10m away, then 5m downstairs and 5m through the door without attacking Slowpoke without a held action would not be able to stop him as his attention is on the battle at hand.  IF Speedy strikes him, this is a different story. At best he can move by and move in a straight line past Slow Poke.but otherwise Slowpoke will attempt to clothes line him because now Speedy has his attention..

[indy523]

I think people misunderstood my post.  I don't sit around like a dullard with a blank sheet and throw bad guys at the PCs marching in a line without any tactics or creativity.  I mean, you're giving good advice for mixing up things, but that's not the problem.  I have fights on top of speeding trains, in falling buildings, in a flooding sewer, during earthquakes, have something odd happen in the middle of the fight (a sinkhole opens, the weather changes so its muddy, etc), and so on.

 

The problem is not that players have nothing to change things up, its that no matter what you do, players aren't dumb and they will uncork their best power regularly to drop a target fast and efficiently, and like Massey said, 

 

 

And that's true when you change the environment, make the bad guys use unusual abilities and tactics, etc.  The idea isn't to negate the possibility that people get into patterns, but to give more options and encourage them to do so less.

 

More than anything I think Champions with its varied systems of defense and attacks has the most ability to force players into having options.

 

Take the Brickish Martial Arts fighter type AKA Luke Cage, Bullet proof, fairly good PD/ED bought resistant lets say 15 PD/!5 ED as such he does not waste points on deflection.  He is strongish (just under Spider-Man) say a 35 and a dedicated street fighter so Martial arts, Block (again he don't need to dodge), a +2 DC strike and a +4 DC and maybe a +2DC grab or throw. Maybe add +2DC with the martial arts

 

His favorite thing is to use ambidexterity two weapon fighting to pound with his fists twice a round for 11d6/11d6 or let loose with a kick for 13d6. Essentially the same attack each round when he requires just to knock the opponent out instead of capturing them.

 

But let's change up the opponents abilities and give him a Telekenitic bad guy to fight AKA Push,  he has a force field +30PDr but only 10rED.

but the bad guy has an enhanced TK punch add +6d6 HA to his 20 STR and all of this bought as AP while attacking.   Mr. Cage's direct effective attack is now not useful.  So maybe he spends time with his pal Iron fist and learns to focus his chi and develops Chi Hands applying a +1/4A AVAD on his STR and martial Arts allowing him to effect ED instead of PD.

 

Now he has a second option he keeps on hand for characters with more Physical Defense the ED and maybe he develops a version that AVAD to resistant defense or Power defense to handle even more exotic foes in the future (all could be bought with lockout because you use one at a time) -1/2L.

[Christopher R Taylor]

If the combat is more fluid, if your opponents and you have a greater capacity to reasonably use cover, then it is less likely that as often you will be in the position to use your power move, and will have to adjust.

 

 

Thats kind of what I had in mind, yeah.  A more dynamic battlefield means differences and shaking things up.  Its not like you can't march up and pound on bad guys, exchanging blows until one of you falls but more options means more interesting battles.

[bigdamnhero]

So if there is cover from building on either side of the street and you have a character that has enough half movement to go across the street why would he not move to the middle of the street or even move in a little to get better range make his attack and then duck for cover unseen at turn's end, because it is cheesy!  Denying that means you have to tell the characters to not do an obvious smart move because the rules have holes in them.  Rules will always have holes in them but why get rid of the movement stops after an attack rule that solves more holes than it leaves open.

In that situation, my normal response is to say "OK, but before you can get around the corner the guy gets a shot off at you." And of course it works both ways if villains try the same tactic. Sure it's a little artificial, but IMO the hole that leaves is several orders of magnitude smaller than the hole from saying you can't move at all after attacking. The only difference is we're used to the latter hole because it's been in RAW for so long. And more important to me: because most players tend to think of attacking first and movement as an afterthought, it makes for much more movement in combat.

 

YMMV and all that of course. But I do find it telling that whenever the topic comes up (every 1d6+6 months it seems) the objections are almost always from people who have never tried it because they're convinced it'd be a nightmare. I don't see a lot of (or any) posts from people saying "We actually tried it, it caused problems, and we switched back."

 

Edit: Actually re-reading your post it sounds like you're suggesting some sort of move-attack-move thing? You still only get two half-actions, so if you move before attacking, you don't also get to move afterwards. Or did I misunderstand you?

[mrinku]

Most of us probably run Mooks simply (major villains less so), but there is some value in fully utilising the existing rules for Held Actions, Blocks and Aborts to mix things up for the PCs. Making the opposition use teamwork and smarter tactics should force the players to respond.

 

This works even better when the players are overconfident or complacent. I remember an old article on VIPER 5 man teams (possibly Adventurer's Club) that used this a bit.

[Doc Democracy]

Yes in real life Boxers can do that which is why the rule for aborting to a dodge exists or martial arts strikes that are +0OCV, +3DCV +1DC damage.  In real fights opponents can attack each other without holding an action..

But part of that is because "in real life" there are no such thing as actions...

 

In your scenario Speedy does not even need extra speed to outclass Slowpoke.  He gets to move in to slowpoke, attack him and move out consistently.  Slow Poke if he has the same speed as Speedy has to lose half his actions, holding them waiting on Speedy to come out and attack him. All speedy has to do is hold his next attack to one segment after it is Slowpoke's turn to attack.  Slow Poke loses the held action, has to reset the next one and then Speedy strikes and Speedy halving SlowPoke's attacks always has that extra action to abort.

 

Hmm.  Maybe I have been doing this wrong all my life but my experience does not bear out what you represent here.  Let me go through this segment by segment for Speedy and Slowpoke in my game.  I am going to assume both are SPD 5.

 

On segment 12 Slowpoke is in the middle of the street while Speedy is watching him, safely out of sight.

 

On segment 3 Speedy rushes out, taking Slowpoke by surprise, tries to hit him and runs off to cover again, out of range for Slowpoke to get to him.  Slowpoke decides to hold his action, "If Speedy runs out again, I will hit him".

 

On segment 5, when Speedy is able to act again he rushes out.  Now Slowpoke is still waiting, he has (in my game) lost his segment 3 action phase, but the intent remains unless he tells me different and given that Speedy has to move to get there he has an advantage in getting in the first blow - he has been waiting for this to happen.  Slowpoke tries to hit Speedy before Speedy gets to try and hit him. (A lot might happen here but I am going to presume both miss just to get to the next phase where they are once again separated by distance and both have an action phase coming up)

 

On segment 8, Slowpoke indicates he will continue to wait on Speedy to attack and, when he does, he wants to hit him as he arrives.  Speedy now has to decide whether he wants to attack, whether he wants to think about a new strategy because this one does not allow him to attack unmolested or to gain any significant additional attacks over Slowpoke.

 

In addition, because we have waived the cannot move after attack, Slowpoke is making his way, after attacks toward a more defensible position that Speedy might not be able to negotiate to get in and out of or to give Slowpoke more tactical advantages.  he might also be moving to a point where Speedy cannot get out of move range after attacking because Slowpoke has made the distance to attack too far.

 

I just don't see Slowpoke losing phases.  Even if Speedy has a greater SPD, Slowpoke can still wait until he attacks.  If he gives up an action phase because he is holding an action, I might even give him a +1 OCV for being set and ready for the attack.

 

But that might just be me, I have not gone and looked at the rules, I know that if they do not agree with me here, I will simply ignore them for a more satisfying gaming outcome.

 

Doc

[massey]

I think people misunderstood my post.  I don't sit around like a dullard with a blank sheet and throw bad guys at the PCs marching in a line without any tactics or creativity.  I mean, you're giving good advice for mixing up things, but that's not the problem.  I have fights on top of speeding trains, in falling buildings, in a flooding sewer, during earthquakes, have something odd happen in the middle of the fight (a sinkhole opens, the weather changes so its muddy, etc), and so on.

 

The problem is not that players have nothing to change things up, its that no matter what you do, players aren't dumb and they will uncork their best power regularly to drop a target fast and efficiently, and like Massey said, 

 

 

And that's true when you change the environment, make the bad guys use unusual abilities and tactics, etc.  The idea isn't to negate the possibility that people get into patterns, but to give more options and encourage them to do so less.

 

Perhaps the problem is that they've got a "best power".  Perhaps the issue is more in the character builds and less in the tactics that they're using.  I mean, I don't know what the issue is, because I'm not in your game.  But if they have one attack that is clearly better than all their other moves, then that's what they're going to use all the time.

 

When 5th edition first came out, I built a character to take advantage of the new Rapid Attack rules.  The GM had made some funky ruling on dice limits, but for whatever reason he wasn't fully applying advantages to it.  So you couldn't have a 12D6 Energy Blast, but you could have a 2D6 RKA with +4 Increased Stun Multiplier.  I don't know, he wasn't a very good GM.  But I built a character with an 8D6 Armor Piercing EB, 1/2 End.  And I bought the character the Rapid Fire talent, and several levels with his attack.  I bought him combat skill levels to offset his DCV penalty when using the maneuver.  He was constructed so he could always rapid fire like 5 times per phase, pretty accurately, with no penalty.

 

Surprise, surprise, but the only move I ever did in that game was to rapid fire my EB at every single opponent.  The character was built to just do that one move, and that one move was way better than anything else he could have done.  Tactically, it was a very boring character to play.  He really didn't have any versatility.  When all you have is a hammer...

 

Maybe your players are running into that situation.  If so, maybe tweaking their character builds would help out.  I'm not saying make the characters' primary attacks weaker, you might need to make their secondary attacks stronger.  I've seen people do "Superman" writeups where they give him a 60 Str, and then a 1D6 RKA for his heat vision.  Well, of course he's never going to use his heat vision in combat, because it sucks.  It would probably need to be at least a 3 1/2D6 RKA before it becomes a viable option to just smashing things.  And sometimes active points are not a good enough measure of effectiveness.  A 7D6 Energy Blast, x2 KB is 61 active points.  But it's a lot less powerful in actual gameplay than a normal 12D6 EB.  So perhaps some characters will need given a few extra points to secondary abilities to make them realistic combat options.

[Hugh Neilson]

Yes in real life Boxers can do that which is why the rule for aborting to a dodge exists or martial arts strikes that are +0OCV, +3DCV +1DC damage.

Doc has covered a lot of this pretty well. In real life, we don’t get to see a phase by phase breakdown of the bout in a sports article.

 

In real fights opponents can attack each other without holding an action.. Speedy can rush Slow Poke and Slow Poke can swing back at him. To strike someone, correct that to move from outside a person's combat zone, dodge under his reach, then purposely strike him with a damaging blow, back out of the reach of that person and extract himself from combat and dodge out of sight is something that would take an incredible amount of skill and is not likely to ever happen to another fighter who is skilled even if they are bigger and slower.

I watched two Tae Kwon Do black belts spar at a tournament some years back. Both were instructors for the same organization, although at the time they lived in different cities at that time. One is considerably taller with longer arms. IIRC, he is a 1st dan black belt. The other was head instructor at his dojang, I think third or fourth dan. I will suggest both are “fighters who are skilled”. The smaller fighter routinely bounced back and avoided any contact by the fellow who should have had a reach advantage and, every now and then, darted in, got two or three contact blows in and darted back out.

 

In real life, people do not just stop moving to attack and become unable to move afterwards.

 

Of course, in real life, people do not “combat move” 40 meters in 3 or 4 seconds. Running around corners and up & down stairs at 36 kph isn’t “normal human” movement.

 

I am merely pointing out that the rules were developed for tis reason to simulate actual combat. If you run up and punch someone, even by surprise in real life and you don't knock them out, they are going to turn around and strike back. IF you turn tail and run afterward as fast as possible you make it easier for the individual to retaliate.

“Turn tail and run as fast as possible” is noncombat movement. Nothing in your example suggested noncombat movement.

 

In your scenario Speedy does not even need extra speed to outclass Slowpoke. He gets to move in to slowpoke, attack him and move out consistently. Slow Poke if he has the same speed as Speedy has to lose half his actions, holding them waiting on Speedy to come out and attack him.

No, he doesn’t, as Doc has pointed out. Even if all he does is stay where he was, out in the middle of the room, waiting for Speedy to come back, rather than use his own half phase of movement to go somewhere more tactically sound – say, right beside the stairwell.

 

Doc has covered the rest quite well – at any given point in time after that first attack by Speedy, Slow Poke has a held action. When Speedy comes charging up the stairs and Slow Poke is exactly where Speedy expects him to be, they make DEX rolls for who acts first – Speedy might get his attack first, but then Slow Poke attacks before he can do anything else. If Slow Poke had the sense to move where he won’t be immediately visible to Speedy, Slow Poke may get an automatic first move, or Speedy might need a PER roll to notice where Slow Poke went in time to alter his plans.

 

We’re talking about SlowPoke, not DumbAss.

 

All speedy has to do is hold his next attack to one segment after it is Slowpoke's turn to attack. Slow Poke loses the held action, has to reset the next one and then Speedy strikes and Speedy halving SlowPoke's attacks always has that extra action to abort.

Doc has already covered this. Like Doc, I would allow the character holding an action to continue holding (or to start holding his new action at the start of the segment), exactly as suggested on Hero 6e V2 p 20. Why? Because real life does not have defined beginning and end points for segments. The demarcation between the end of Segment 4 and the start of Segment 5 is not announced by a cute chick in a bikini with a “Segment 5” placard. Slow Poke did not hold an action “until the end of Segment 4”, he held it “until Speedy pops back up again”.

 

Why? Because Speedy is a world class sprinter. You can apply that rule as a GM if you like but you will have a lot of pissed off players. The general rule of RPG's is, if you can see to attack me then I can attack you back. Rules are written this way because it grants a modicum of fairness to the game. But more importantly if you keep opening a closet door and running straight at me turn after turn striking me why do I have to hold an action to strike you. Your tactic by the third time you do this will be rote. If anything it would be easier to club you.

Opening a door requires a half phase – 6r V2 p 23\. By extension, so does closing a door. That’s a half phase to open the door, a half phase to move, a half phase to attack and a half phase to close the door, even if we allow the attack to occur between portions of the movement. Taking four half phase actions requires two phases.

 

The reason that the character in your example can strike back when Speedy shows up again is that he DOES have a held action – he is not doing something else. If he is engaged in combat with three other opponents, has just taken a swing on one, and suddenly, up pops Speedy, he is still off balance from that last swing, and can’t react fast enough to take a shot on Speedy.

 

Otherwise, every time anyone attacks Slow Poke, he should get to strike back – so if he’s attacked by six Ninjas, he should get six attacks before his phase as each one attacks him, then have his phase in which to act.

 

So if there is cover from building on either side of the street and you have a character that has enough half movement to go across the street why would he not move to the middle of the street or even move in a little to get better range make his attack and then duck for cover unseen at turn's end, because it is cheesy!

It seems I see that on TV all the time – the Hero darts out from behind cover of a parked car, sprints across open territory firing a shot or two at the Bad Guys, then ducks behind a dumpster. But why would we want the rules to simulate heroic fiction?

 

In the example above if speedy runs 10m toward the character, 10m away, then 5m downstairs and 5m through the door without attacking Slowpoke without a held action would not be able to stop him as his attention is on the battle at hand. IF Speedy strikes him, this is a different story. At best he can move by and move in a straight line past Slow Poke.but otherwise Slowpoke will attempt to clothes line him because now Speedy has his attention.

If Slow Poke is fully engaged in combat against Bean Pole, who never moves, and Speedy rushes in to attack him, should Slow Poke get to attack Speedy while using all of his actions to continue battling Bean Pole, or does Slow Poke have to choose how to use his limited actions available? I suggest that, once Slow Poke is paying attention to Speedy, he is using an action (held or otherwise) to engage Speedy, rather than to battle Bean Pole.

 

 

Take the Brickish Martial Arts fighter type AKA Luke Cage, Bullet proof, fairly good PD/ED bought resistant lets say 15 PD/!5 ED as such he does not waste points on deflection. He is strongish (just under Spider-Man) say a 35 and a dedicated street fighter so Martial arts, Block (again he don't need to dodge), a +2 DC strike and a +4 DC and maybe a +2DC grab or throw. Maybe add +2DC with the martial arts

 

His favorite thing is to use ambidexterity two weapon fighting to pound with his fists twice a round for 11d6/11d6 or let loose with a kick for 13d6. Essentially the same attack each round when he requires just to knock the opponent out instead of capturing them.

 

But let's change up the opponents abilities and give him a Telekenitic bad guy to fight AKA Push, he has a force field +30PDr but only 10rED.

 

but the bad guy has an enhanced TK punch add +6d6 HA to his 20 STR and all of this bought as AP while attacking. Mr. Cage's direct effective attack is now not useful. So maybe he spends time with his pal Iron fist and learns to focus his chi and develops Chi Hands applying a +1/4A AVAD on his STR and martial Arts allowing him to effect ED instead of PD.

 

Now he has a second option he keeps on hand for characters with more Physical Defense the ED and maybe he develops a version that AVAD to resistant defense or Power defense to handle even more exotic foes in the future (all could be bought with lockout because you use one at a time) -1/2L.

Because that is precisely what happens in the source material, right? That’s why Luke Cage now has a mini-Iron Fist and Danny Rand has steel-hard skin in the comics…oh wait, they did not grow each other’s powers to go with their own…

 

How does Luke Cage having an Iron Fist punch help him deal with a ranged TK attack anyway? Pretty sure Luke would deal with a high PD low ED opponent by using his high STR to pull an electrical line/conduit off its moorings and jolt the thug.

[DasBroot]

I guess what confuses me is that there's already a mechanic in the game that allows move-attack-move.

 

Move By (Passing Strike) and Strafe

 

Their penaties are harsh (half strength damage on move by, incredible OCV penalties that you specifically can't overcome with skill levels on Strafe) but they're there.

 

(As an aside how do hand attacks factor into move by? I've always halved them as well - so a 30 strength character with a 6d6 hand attack (12d6) does 6d6.  I've had players protest that only the strength is halved so it should be 9d6, for example.)

[Christopher R Taylor]

Its interesting but if you break down real world or cinematic fights, you can actually do a Hero-Speed-System breakdown of phase by phase actions and their maneuvers in most cases.  Sometimes its tough, because of oddities in timing but it can be done with held phases, multiple power attacks, etc.

 

I guess what confuses me is that there's already a mechanic in the game that allows move-attack-move.

 

Which to me suggests that its not a game-breaking balance ruiner to actually allow movement after attack.  Rather a throwback to wargaming that never was questioned.

 

As an aside how do hand attacks factor into move by?

Only the strength is halved, the damage isn't.  Its like an HKA: your sword doesn't lose its damage, you just can't hit as hard with it.

[mrinku]

The demarcation between the end of Segment 4 and the start of Segment 5 is not announced by a cute chick in a bikini with a “Segment 5” placard. 

 

But it SO should

 

Nice example and discussion, Doc and Hugh.

[mrinku]

I guess what confuses me is that there's already a mechanic in the game that allows move-attack-move.

 

Move By (Passing Strike) and Strafe

 

Their penaties are harsh (half strength damage on move by, incredible OCV penalties that you specifically can't overcome with skill levels on Strafe) but they're there.

 

(As an aside how do hand attacks factor into move by? I've always halved them as well - so a 30 strength character with a 6d6 hand attack (12d6) does 6d6.  I've had players protest that only the strength is halved so it should be 9d6, for example.)

 

There's also Snap Shot for ranged attacks from cover; that doesn't have particularly difficult modifiers (-1 OCV). A strafe moving 3m-9m would also only get a -1 OCV.

 

As far as Hand Attack use for Movebys and Movethroughs, Champions Complete is explicit (p151) that it adds IF the GM agrees it makes sense based on the special effects of the HA and the maneuver. If it does, it's at normal effect and not halved.

 

My take there would be that most HAs would count for a moveby, since that's typically a normal attack done on the run, but often not for a movethough, which is meant to be a collision. A centaur with a lance would clearly add his HA/HKA Lance damage while doing a Moveby, but not if he rides over the target and tramples them (Movethough).

 

Given that there ARE maneuvers to cover move-attack-move, I don't much feel the need to add move-after-attack myself. But I don't have any real problem if you want to go there.

[Christopher R Taylor]

The demarcation between the end of Segment 4 and the start of Segment 5 is not announced by a cute chick in a bikini with a “Segment 5” placard. 

 

 

That would be a great way to attract players to the game at the convention; hire a hot girl to walk around the table with the segment number each phase.  Start out each fight with Michael Buffer shouting "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!"

[mrinku]

 

 

That would be a great way to attract players to the game at the convention; hire a hot girl to walk around the table with the segment number each phase.  Start out each fight with Michael Buffer shouting "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!"

 

 

Convention be damned. I'm now considering a set of 28mm cuties as markers...

[DasBroot]

There's also Snap Shot for ranged attacks from cover; that doesn't have particularly difficult modifiers (-1 OCV). A strafe moving 3m-9m would also only get a -1 OCV.

 

True, but it's -10 if you do a 60 meter jump (120 jump move, 60 m half-phase - 60 AP) whereas the Street Fighter style helicopter kick is -2.  Extreme, yes, but both can end you in cover (the kick is silly but rule legal) if you plot it out so the Strafe is paying an incredible -8 further penalty to inflict full damage (and the kick can apparently get around part of it's reduced damage by buying HA).

 

Snap shot, though, is pretty neat and overlooked in my games.

 

edit: No it's not. I just re-read it.  Sheesh.  You'd be better off doing a 6 meter strafe starting and ending behind whatever cover you started from.  No being exposed for an entire segment. Though it wouldn't be too bad if you went at the end of a common combat turn - like phase 4.  You're exposed for all of 5 but not a lot of people act on it and you're back in cover by 6.

 

Still... yeah. Strafe for a -1 penalty instead.