Holding an action

[Zoo-Rik]

6E2 pg 20 states "Typically, a character must either Hold his Action until a specified lower DEX, or ...". Does this mean that if I hold until DEX 15, when DEX 15 come up I can no longer hold until DEX 12 ?

 

ie: Could I on my DEX of 20 I say 'hold until DEX 19', then on DEX 19 I say 'hold until DEX 18', etc.? (I know this is a laborious way of holding generically) Really I just want to know if the intention of the rules was to block this micro-second holding pattern or not?

 

Because if not then most held actions become easier to GM as a generic one.

[Steve Long]

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things.
 

When a character declares that he's Holding An Action, he has to specify how long he's holding it. If he says, "I'm holding until DEX 15" (perhaps to act together with another character), then when DEX 15 comes up he has to act, or he loses his Phase. He can't "mulitple Hold," DEX by DEX, as you describe. What he can do, of course, is specify some other condition that ends his Holding -- such as, "I'm going to Hold until the end of the Segment" or "I'm going to Hold until he comes around the corner." Then when the stated condition arrives, he has to act or lose his Phase.

 

That's the strict, by the book, answer, at least. In my experience, most GMs aren't particularly picky about letting characters Hold their actions for all sorts of reasons, so things like this don't often come up.