An alternative to the Speed chart

[mrinku]

Just coming back in after a decade or so away, but my heart has belonged to Champions since 1985. 

 

Anyway, I got access to some 6th edition stuff and am having a go at updating the old campaign from 4th edition and because we'll be playing via Skype and will have fairly narrow session limits (one 2 and a half hour session a week) I was mulling over speeding up combat a bit and came up with the following idea. Apologies if this is something others have invented - I literally thought of it this morning!

 

Okay, so the idea is to ditch the speed chart altogether and have two 6-second rounds in a Turn, Round A and Round B (I used letters to avoid confusion with Phases and Segments). 

 

Characters act in descending order of SPD each round, with the usual DEX tiebreakers for equal SPD, and then get to use half of their SPD as actions all at one go. Odd numbered SPD characters get their extra one in Phase B, which is in line with how the current speed chart weights phases towards the end of a Turn.

 

Actions are held normally, but in practice you'll only need to hold your last action of a Round. Aborts work normally, but again you won't be able to abort again until your time to act has happened.

 

Haymakers would be limited to one per Round and land at the end of that Round. (If you have fast characters that routinely spam them, you probably shouldn't use this variant...)

 

A successful hand to hand Block results in the blocker going before the attacker on the next Round. This is an improvement IMHO since the current "if they act together in their next phase" rule has always felt wrong. It's meant to be a reward for a slow character that's outfought a faster one, but often enough the faster guy acts on an earlier segment and there's no effect.

 

I ran the idea through an example with my players and it seemed to work pretty smoothly (I can post the example - 6 VIPER agents vs three supers - tomorrow if you want, but the text is at work and it's a bit long to recreate). It may not be something to run EVERY combat, but you can always swap back to standard speed chart on the next turn if you want or need to. This variant changes no stats and has no effect on between turns stuff like the end of turn Recovery.

 

Now - pick it to shreds!

[Derek Hiemforth]

At a glance, it seems workable (though I'm sure some rough edges to sand off might be discovered during play). The main thing I'm wondering is what problem you seek to solve.  You mention speeding up combat, but this is the same number of actions overall; they're just clustered differently.  And it doesn't really address the most common concern with the Speed Chart (its predictability), because this setup would be equally predictable.  

[Hugh Neilson]

If I understand this correctly,if I have (say) a 6 SPD, then when my turn in a round comes up, I get to take 3 consecutive actions. So I can switch my Multipower to full offense, move all my levels to OCV (and/or damage), attack twice at full power, then switch my MP to a defenses slot, switch all my levels to DCV and Dodge, then remain in Turtle Mode until my turn comes up again in Round B.

 

Did I get that right?

[DasBroot]

Indeed. Unless you extend the 'cannot activate or deactivate a power more than once a phase' to mean 'once a round' you could end up with this (speed 6):

 

Super turtle mode activate!

 

Round A) Attack (1), attack (2), desolidify and break line of sight/effect by moving into the floor (3)

 

Round B ) Move out of floor , drop desolidify,  attack (1), attack (2), desolidify and move into floor (3).

 

Lots of ways for constant or persistent powers to become troublesome even excluding Hugh's already pointed out skill levels and pool slot allocation concerns.

[mrinku]

Sound points there. I will explain that my players aren't particularly gamey, so personally I'm not too worried about abuse too much.

 

I mainly see it as a way of speeding up combat when there's a lot of mooks and the players are getting multiple moves anyway. SPD6 super vs SPD 3 thugs already gets a free action for every thug one.

 

Maybe it's an idea that would better suit Heroic campaigns where the speed range is 2-4?

 

EDIT:

 

Thought of an easy tweak that seems to deal with the above concerns.

 

Instead of a character taking all their actions, count down the actions from the maximum for that Round (possibly from 6, but in many cases this will just be 3 or 2) and all characters that have than many actions take them in DEX order.

 

I've also changed it so that any remainder action gets taken in the first Round as this makes the sequence conform better to the normal speed chart.

 

So if we have a combat with SPD 3,4,5,6 and 7, the sequence goes:

 

Round A:

Those with four actions (SPD 7)

Those with three or more actions (SPD 7, 6 and 5) 

Those with two or more actions (SPD 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)

Those with one or more action (SPD 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)

 

Round B:

Those with three or more actions (SPD 7 and 6) 

Those with two or more actions (SPD 7, 6, 5 and 4)

Those with one or more action (SPD 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)

 

It does still slightly advantage some faster characters at the start of the turn, however will result in a slightly better situation for the slower character later in the turn. And while the absolute action sequence is different to the standard chart, in cases where the faster character also has the higher DEX it's the same for SPD 5 vs SPD 6, which is a pretty common one: 6-5-6-5-6-5-6-6-5-6-5

 

SPD 6 vs SPD 4 now results in a 6-6-4-6-4-6-6-4-6-4 sequence instead of 6-4-6-6-4-6-4-6-6-4 one, which I don't think is going to break anyone's game or build. Other comparisons give similar results. SPD 1 still acts in the middle of the Turn (and after SPD2 unless they have a better DEX).

 

So, why bother at all if it's so similar? Well, I can hold these simple rules in my head and can easily remember when one character is going to act. That should speed up decision making. The only maths needed to work it out is dividing small integers by two. And I'd hope it would be easier to learn for new players (your mileage may vary).

 

Round two!

Edited June 30, 2017 by mrinku

[mrinku]

At a glance, it seems workable (though I'm sure some rough edges to sand off might be discovered during play). The main thing I'm wondering is what problem you seek to solve.  You mention speeding up combat, but this is the same number of actions overall; they're just clustered differently.  And it doesn't really address the most common concern with the Speed Chart (its predictability), because this setup would be equally predictable.  

 

Thought I'd directly answer these good points (using the tweaked version from my edit).

 

The "problem" is avoiding a look up table to plan forward. If I'm SPD 5 fighting one SPD 7 and one SPD 4 opponent, unless I have a VERY good memorisation of the table it'll take me a little while to work out when to dodge, when to hold, when the best time to launch a Haymaker and so forth. With this way of doing things it's a lot clearer - I'll get an extra action in Phase A before the SPD 4 guy, but the SPD 7 guy will get an extra action before me in both Phases.

 

For me, the predictability of the speed chart is not an issue at all, and this variant is not intended to address that.

 

EDIT:

 

Though.... if you wanted a bit of unpredictability you could have everyone roll their SPD as normal damage dice at the start of the Turn and count the BODY to give them their actual SPD for the Turn. That's a separate idea and can be used with the normal Speed Chart. If this would cause END issues in a carefully tuned character that had more SPD than they could handle, they can always choose to act at a lower speed, using the normal rule for that.

 

Also, Haymakers in the revised Round A/B idea need to change slightly, since there's no "next segment" for them to land at the end of. Instead, they would land at the end of the next group of actions, and nullify any regular action that character had (normal Haymaker rule about losing a Phase). I'm not fully happy with that, but Haymakers can be launched with varying penalties depending on the timing... a low DEX character going last on segment 6 often has a free shot since not many speeds act on segment 7, while high speed characters often expect to lose a phase throwing one.

[Hugh Neilson]

 

Sound points there. I will explain that my players aren't particularly gamey, so personally I'm not too worried about abuse too much.

If I'm SPD 5 fighting one SPD 7 and one SPD 4 opponent, unless I have a VERY good memorisation of the table it'll take me a little while to work out when to dodge, when to hold, when the best time to launch a Haymaker and so forth.

 Wait, what?  

 

How is gaming the speed chart an approach taken by players who are not particularly gamey (ignoring the alternative interpretation of what the SPD chart has to do with gamer funk)?

 

I mainly see it as a way of speeding up combat when there's a lot of mooks and the players are getting multiple moves anyway. SPD6 super vs SPD 3 thugs already gets a free action for every thug one.

I had not even thought about odd numbered SPD - so 10 points to go from SPD 4 to 5 gives me an extra action every round, and 10 points to go from SPD 5 to 6 means I act before the guys who spent their extra 10 points on +5 PD/ED, +2 DCs or +1 OCV and +1 DCV? Odd number SPD all the way!!! Looks like you picked up on that as well.

 

So if we have a combat with SPD 3,4,5,6 and 7, the sequence goes:

 

Round A:

Those with four actions (SPD 7)

Those with three or more actions (SPD 7, 6 and 5) 

Those with two or more actions (SPD 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)

Those with one or more action (SPD 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)

 

Round B:

Those with three or more actions (SPD 7 and 6) 

Those with two or more actions (SPD 7, 6, 5 and 4)

Those with one or more action (SPD 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3)

 

It does still slightly advantage some faster characters at the start of the turn, however will result in a slightly better situation for the slower character later in the turn. And while the absolute action sequence is different to the standard chart, in cases where the faster character also has the higher DEX it's the same for SPD 5 vs SPD 6, which is a pretty common one: 6-5-6-5-6-5-6-6-5-6-5

And this is somehow easier than the SPD chart? Mooks will be even more ineffectual as my SPD 7 gets to blast twice in a row, then take a third action before the mook can react. Comparable speeds move comparably to the old rules. So where is the big benefit?

 

So, why bother at all if it's so similar?

Precisely.

 

Well, I can hold these simple rules in my head and can easily remember when one character is going to act. That should speed up decision making. The only maths needed to work it out is dividing small integers by two. And I'd hope it would be easier to learn for new players (your mileage may vary).

 

I find having the characters' phases (I can use SPD, but I know the chart pretty well) on top of the sheet, index card, whatever I am using for each opponent, and sorting them by DEX, makes it pretty easy. It's Phase 2, so starting with the highest DEX opponent on top, each one either gets moved to the bottom (no phase this segment) or acts and gets moved to the bottom. KOd and out of the fight? Put that one back on the table, upside down. "Phase 2, any actions before DEX 29?" Either a player speaks up, or no one acts before my next card.

 

MMDV 

 

Also, Haymakers in the revised Round A/B idea need to change slightly, since there's no "next segment" for them to land at the end of. Instead, they would land at the end of the next group of actions, and nullify any regular action that character had (normal Haymaker rule about losing a Phase). I'm not fully happy with that, but Haymakers can be launched with varying penalties depending on the timing... a low DEX character going last on segment 6 often has a free shot since not many speeds act on segment 7, while high speed characters often expect to lose a phase throwing one.

So the higher my SPD, the more Haymakers suck even more than they do now. That's why I rarely see Haymakers used now, so adding a greater disincentive doesn't seem like a feature to a new system.

[DasBroot]

I don't even keep track of my players speeds, really.  I track when the enemies are going and call segments.  My combats go something like this (speed 4 enemy). When a segment is over I flip a d12 to the next number.

 

Call out:

 

1 Nobody? Segment over! *adjust d12)

2 (me! says someone with speed six) - resolve actions

3 (the mooks and players)

4 Player: Wait, I was supposed to go on 3! "I called it and declared segment over unchallenged. You held.  Stay off your phone. Fours?

 

etc

 

I know the mooks are going on 3, 6, 9, 12.  I trust the players to listen for their segment number.  I retcon them into holding if they miss it.  I don't worry about anything else.

 

(I'm super lazy in combat, though - one player has a dice roller and I have them use it on my behalf for any non-secret roll.  A fringe benefit is whoever gets nailed for 60 damage on a 12d6 attack blames the player with the roller instead of me fudging the dice )

[Chris Goodwin]

I've thought of doing this exact thing, including the odd SPD values and breaking them down between first- and second-round the way you did.  It comes out very similar to D&D style attacks per round, especially older editions where a character might start with one per round, then go to three per two rounds, then two per round, and so on.  I've always wondered how it would work in practice; it doesn't really seem that much easier to explain, but if it works well at the table then it might be worth it.  

[dmjalund]

the GM shouls already know the SPD of everyone involved

 

he could just make an list of order of action

[mrinku]

 Wait, what?  

 

Hugh, wasn't able to work out how to reply to your individual points as you did with mine, so I'll address them in summary:

 

The comment I made about my players not being too gamey was in relation to my original, flawed idea that allowed them to take half their actions at once. I don't think they'd use it in the manner that others posted, but I admit I could be wrong

 

 You're quite right that under this variant some speeds vs some other speeds get an extra tap earlier in the Turn, but that will mean losing a tap later on. In the case of SPD7 vs SPD4 the current sequence, assuming SPD7 has higher DEX, is 7-4-7-7-4-7-7-4-7-7-4

with the variant going 7-7-7-4-7-4-7-7-4-7-4. I fully take your concern about the triple tap, and agree the speed chart is fairer (it should always remain the default) because it DOES spread actions more evenly. But in framing this example, it took me about four times as long to write down the 7vs4 sequence from a table as it did to mentally work out the variant sequence.

 

And as ever, SPD 7 annoys. Good work zeroing in on that inconvenient Prime

 

Shifting the odd action to the second Round may end up being a better approach. I'll need to analyze it better. (Edit: Another way to do things might be to have everyone take their first action then their second, then their third etc. Might mirror the later double and triple taps better. And maybe use SPD as first tiebreaker.) 

 

The haymaker thing bothers me too. But the fact that the existing chart gives differing results based on speed does as well. SPD/DEX builds probably shouldn't be using them much anyway: -5 DCV for two whole segments is not something you do lightly. 

 

And yeah, it looks complex written down. But I talked to a person yesterday who has never played HERO, though they're a veteran RPG gamer, and I was able to explain the concept in about a minute to the point that they fully understood it. Someone who would need briefing in concepts such as "number of actions in a turn" "initiative order" and "held actions" would take a bit longer, but that would be needed for explaining the speed chart anyway.

 

In thirty years I've yet to fully memorise the speed chart, and my eyesight isn't what it was. Wasting time switching focus from the minis or screen to check the chart (EDIT: or a running sheet, which is what I normally use) and back all the time is going to slow me more than you may credit. My hope is that this idea, which gives something approximating the chart, will be an easier thing for some players and GMs to hold in their head.

 

We haven't playtested this yet (I only had the idea yesterday and I've aready overhauled it). I plan to run things RAW to start with and once the players are familiar with that to trial this idea and see how it affects things in play. If the answer is more than "not much, really" it's a fail, otherwise I'll use it when it's appropriate.

[Hugh Neilson]

To me, the big issue is the greater the number of unopposed actions a character can be confident of getting, the greater the potential for unbalance. Using the SPD chart, I would Hold actions if I see Mr. 7 SPD setting up to abuse that block where he gets multiple actions. He may get away with "nuke, then turtle up" once. But give him more unopposed actions, especially front loaded, and the issue gets worse.

 

EXAMPLE:

 

Present system

 

7 turtle up -

4 attack -

7 All out attack -

7 Turtle up-

4 delay-

7 WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE DELAYED? So if I all out attack, he gets to retaliate? WAAAHHHHH

 

PROPOSED SYSTEM

 

7-all out attack

7-all out attack

7-turtle up

 

4-7-4-7-7-4-7-

 

4 Now, if he makes it this far, the 4 SPD should turtle up - that will waste 3 of the 7 SPD character's actions before 4 SPD he gets another one. Or he should have Aborted to Turtle the first move 7 SPD got, for a similar effect.

 

The more the phases are bunched up, the more that can be abused.

 

If we're looking for the "D&D effect", why not let each character take half their suite of phases, all in DEX order, without the ability to reallocate levels, change maneuvers, reassign MP points, etc. So if 7 SPD wants to turtle up, that's how all of his actions for that round get resolved.

[mrinku]

How potentially abusive it can get vs the standard chart is pretty sensitive to the relative speeds in question. Within a speed range of two it's not too bad. I'm starting to think the idea may have it's best use in Heroic campaigns where the speed range is typically 2-4, though a hero fight with everyone in the 5-7 range doesn't go too bad, and 3-6  works when you're just phoning it in against a bunch of mooks. If the low speed enemies are numerous, it will also mitigate the effect a little.

 

As well, if the particular fight involves everyone beating up on similar speed opposite numbers I can see it working okay. When Robin yells "Titans, switch targets!" you can go back to the regular speed chart

 

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

[Hugh Neilson]

If the goal was to reduce complexity, switching back and forth seems likely to achieve the opposite result. Especially if the original concern is "I can't remember which phases each SPD acts on", using the SPD chart sometimes, but not always, seems like it will exacerbate the problem.

 

Seems like it would be easier to just set a "standard SPD" for everyone and alternate actions based on DEX. Let's say the standard is 6, so every 6th action you get a free recovery (now called "Post-Action 6").

 

If you want some opponents who are less super, maybe we establish that combat-trained non-Supers only act on every other Super Action round, and non-combatants only act on every third action round - but now we are getting back to a SPD chart, aren't we?

[Christopher R Taylor]

My favorite concept for an alternate speed system is rolling 2d6 and trying to get under your Speed score each segment; success means you act.  Failure means you wait til next segment and roll again.  You always move at least once per speed point in a turn, and can sacrifice your roll this segment and the next, to move immediately, if you're past phase 6 and haven't moved.  Just an idea I scribbled down on paper, never tried.  It would involve a lot more rolling and probably wouldn't work but it sounds interesting.

[Hugh Neilson]

2d6 makes for strange odds, as every point from SPD 1 to 7 is more valuable, after which it becomes less valuable. 1d12 will work out over time on average.

 

The "deck of cards" approach (shuffle a deck, or more than one, or one or more full suits) and flip over one card to set the phase 1 - 10, J=11, Q = 12, K = PS12, ensures that, if we have a long enough encounter, the same number of phases are available. 1 suit makes sure you get each phase + PS12 once, with nothing coming up twice.

 

Both are more random, not something the OP had wanted, but neither requires monitoring the SPD chart.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I don't agree that the 1-7 would be more valuable, its the center sweet spot in the shallow bell that will come up more often (5-8 roughly) and the higher your speed, the significantly better chance you can roll equal to or under it.  And since pretty much nobody has a 1 speed, 2-12 works.  But the bell does funny things to odds, which would make a d12 more flat and more fair its just not quite as Hero to use funny dice

[mrinku]

Hugh, a card deck appproach is a solid idea, though random chance being what it is you'll end up with streaks, and it will run radically different.

 

Christopher, I can also see issues because of the bell curve with that one.

 

EDIT: Actually a non-shuffled deck of cards might not be a bad solution. A basic version would have a card for each speed's phases, placed in the order that they occur in the Turn. At the start of combat you exclude the cards for speeds not present (and this does usually stay pretty constant with a particular group).

 

A fancy version would have one for each character or mook group so that you can also place them in DEX order. 

 

Turn them over one at a time and resolve the phase, making sure you keep them in order, then do the same thing next turn.

 

Hmm. Actually the simplest version would only need 12 cards, with each segments' phasing speeds written on it. 

 

Surely someone's thought of that before?

[Hugh Neilson]

I don't agree that the 1-7 would be more valuable, its the center sweet spot in the shallow bell that will come up more often (5-8 roughly) and the higher your speed, the significantly better chance you can roll equal to or under it.  And since pretty much nobody has a 1 speed, 2-12 works.  But the bell does funny things to odds, which would make a d12 more flat and more fair its just not quite as Hero to use funny dice

Sorry you and math don't get along, but I have to side with math being right. Odds of the rolls on 2d6:

 

1 - 0% (s/b 8.33%)

2 - 2.78% (s/b 16.67%)

3 - 8.33% (s/b 25%, so we've cut SPD 3 by 2/3 to move as often as SPD 1)

4 - 16.67% (yep, SPD 4 will move twice as often as SPD 3 under your model - s/b 33.33%, so half as often under your model)

5 - 27.78% (s/b 41.67%, so SPD 6 is the new SPD 5)

6 - 41.67% (s/b 50%)

7 - 58.33% (s/b 58.33% so bank on - this is the sweet spot as SPD 6 to 7 gets me 1/6 more actions)

8 - 72.22% (s/b 66.67%)

9 - 83.33% (s/b 75%)

10 - 91.67% (s/b 83.33%)

11 - 97.22% (s/b 91.67%)

12 - 100% (matches, of course)

 

Hugh, a card deck appproach is a solid idea, though random chance being what it is you'll end up with streaks, and it will run radically different.

Yup - as I indicated, this does not satisfy your goal of maintaining non-random actions, nor do die roll systems.

 

EDIT: Actually a non-shuffled deck of cards might not be a bad solution. A basic version would have a card for each speed's phases, placed in the order that they occur in the Turn. At the start of combat you exclude the cards for speeds not present (and this does usually stay pretty constant with a particular group).

 

A fancy version would have one for each character or mook group so that you can also place them in DEX order.

As a compromise, you could use index cards with all characters who act on that phase listed in order of DEX.

 

Of course, as soon as I see a GM so very prepared, I want to buy an AoE DEX drain... and it also does not make tracking delayed actions any easier. Although, with a card for each character, these could be removed from the deck, put face up to the side, until they act, but then you have to get them back into the deck. I guess you could number the back, since they will be in order anyway. You can also remove anyone KOd to the point they are out of the battle.

 

Turn them over one at a time and resolve the phase, making sure you keep them in order, then do the same thing next turn.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Sorry you and math don't get along, but I have to side with math being right. Odds of the rolls on 2d6

 

 

Um... the higher the number, the more likely the roll total, according to math.  That's how math works: you don't just take the individual number, you take the total of the odds of all the numbers.  You're only looking at each individual number, not the range.  According to your post, I'm more likely to roll under 4 than I am under 12, and that's just inaccurate.

 

Here's a useful table showing what I mean:

 

 

 

 

See, if you just look at each number, the odds are different and can be pretty good even at low numbers.  But if you look at the range, the higher the number you're trying to roll under, the better the odds you can succeed.

[mrinku]

Chris's system protects low speed characters with the ability to opt out and burn a segment after segment 6, if I understand it right. So the dice don't fully dictate the proceedings. 

 

My concern with it is a similar to that levelled at my original ideas, in that it sets up a highly likely run of  actions early in the turn when the speed difference is wider.

 

I could see it being particularly useful for combats where the speeds were at the higher end of the scale (say 6 to 9) to mix it up amongst the fast set. I don't think it would work so well for a low end range such as you would see in a Heroic campaign. But with SPD 2-4 maybe you could use 1D6 and less segments?

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah, if you have like 7 or 8 speed you're very likely to get a bunch of phases in a row early in the turn, which might be the whole difference in the fight.  Never playtested it to see, so who knows how it would work.  I think I had a more complicated system in the notes (which I can't find) involving subtracting 1 from the die for every roll you fail to act in, until you get a phase or something.  But it would probably end up being a huge headache to run.

[Hugh Neilson]

Sorry you and math don't get along, but I have to side with math being right. Odds of the rolls on 2d6:

 

1 - 0% (s/b 8.33%)

2 - 2.78% (s/b 16.67%)

3 - 8.33% (s/b 25%, so we've cut SPD 3 by 2/3 to move as often as SPD 1)

4 - 16.67% (yep, SPD 4 will move twice as often as SPD 3 under your model - s/b 33.33%, so half as often under your model)

5 - 27.78% (s/b 41.67%, so SPD 6 is the new SPD 5)

6 - 41.67% (s/b 50%)

7 - 58.33% (s/b 58.33% so bank on - this is the sweet spot as SPD 6 to 7 gets me 1/6 more actions)

8 - 72.22% (s/b 66.67%)

9 - 83.33% (s/b 75%)

10 - 91.67% (s/b 83.33%)

11 - 97.22% (s/b 91.67%)

12 - 100% (matches, of course)

 

 

Um... the higher the number, the more likely the roll total, according to math.  That's how math works: you don't just take the individual number, you take the total of the odds of all the numbers.  You're only looking at each individual number, not the range.  According to your post, I'm more likely to roll under 4 than I am under 12, and that's just inaccurate.

 

Here's a useful table showing what I mean:

 

See, if you just look at each number, the odds are different and can be pretty good even at low numbers.  But if you look at the range, the higher the number you're trying to roll under, the better the odds you can succeed.

 

   If you look at your "useful table", under "result or less", you will find that those are the percentages I provided.

 

I then added, in parentheses right beside, what the probabilities SHOULD be to result in the same likelihood of a phase in any one segment as if we use "roll d12 equal to or less than your SPD", which is the same percentage as the proportion of phases you act in under the SPD chart.

 

So I stand by my statement - under the present model, SPD 3 acts in 25%of all phases  (that's 3 phases divided by a 12 segment turn   just to be clear).  Under your model, it acts in 8.33% of all phases, only 1 chance in 12, or the equivalent of a SPD of 1 in the RAW.

 

Under your model, SPD 6 acts in 41.67% of all phases, which is 5/12, so the equivalent of 5 SPD in the RAW.

 

SPD 9 under your model acts as frequently as SPD 10 under RAW.

 

Buying my SPD up from 6 to 7 changes the odds of a phase from 41.67% to 58.33%, which means SPD 7 acts when SPD 6 does not 1/6 of the time, instead of 1/12.  1/6 is 2/12, so that one speed point is worth double what it would be on a pure linear scale.

 

Over time, the SPDs will act on how many phases out of 12?

 

1 SPD - not at all

 

2 SPD - 0.333, or about 1 phase every 3 turns

 

3 SPD - 1 phase in 12

 

4 SPD - 2 phases in 12

 

5 SPD - about 3 1/3 phases in 12

 

6 SPD - about 5 phases in 12

 

Hence my comment - SPD 6 is the new SPD 5 - it will act just as often, on average.

 

Up to here, everyone gets less phases than they do under RAW.  But stay tuned...

 

7 SPD - gets 7 phases out of 12

 

And then it gets better!

 

8 SPD gets 8 2/3 phases out of 12 (an extra 2 actions every 3 turns)

 

9 SPD acts 10 times in 12 - so SPD 9 is the new SPD 10

 

10 SPD now acts 11 times in 12 - so SPD 10 is the new 11

 

SPD 11 acts 11 2/3 times, only missing a single phase every 3 turns.

 

And, of course, SPD 12 is guaranteed, so this also matches the current RAW - but spending 10 points to get one extra action every 3 turns seems like a lot when the cost to go from 5 phases a turn (6 SPD) to 7 (7 SPD) is the same 10 points. 

 

The math does not lie!

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I get all that but you insisted that speed 1-7 would benefit the most from such a system,

 

2d6 makes for strange odds, as every point from SPD 1 to 7 is more valuable, after which it becomes less valuable

 

which is what I responded to in the negative: no, it would not.  That's what I've been countering, not anything about individual percentages.

 

 As you just pointed out, the higher the speed, the more likely you will roll it, to the point where it actually becomes more likely (in terms of odds) that you'll move than you ought to.

 

I already pointed out the problem with the bell curve (some phases get too many) and the system as I described it specifically stated: you get as many actions as you normally would and no more.  And it also had a system to help people move when they aren't being lucky.

 

As mrinku and others have noted, it has its own flaws, but those don't happen to be ones the idea suffers from.

[Hugh Neilson]

From SPD 2 to SPD 7, each added SPD point under your model gets more benefit because the incremental likelihood of getting a phase is higher.

 

Spending 10 points to go from a 2 to a 3 SPD gives you an added 5.56% chance to get a phase each time you roll. Spending 10 points to go from a 10 SPD to an 11 SPD gives you the same 5.55% increase to your chances of getting a phase.

 

Spending 10 points to go from 6 SPD to 7 SPD increases your chance of an action by 16.66%, over triple that 5.55% chance.

 

The two investments do not generate equal, or remotely equal, benefits. It’s like paying 5 points to increase an attack, and getting +1d6 sometimes, and +1 to the roll on other occasions. SPD points in the middle are more valuable than SPD points on the ends using a 2d6 method.