| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Achille Autran) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | A(nother) new initiative system... |
| Date: | Fri Apr 6 16:15:01 2001 |
SR2 and SR3 intiative systems "stack" the actions either at the end or at
the beggining of the round. Neither is even remotely realistic. If we had
to fill a time window (a round) with a given number of actions, it would be
good to spread them regularly... Unfortunately the SR initiative isn't well
suited for that. I designed such a system some time ago, but it used a
table and wasn't very fluid. So the idea is to take the middle ground:
stack the actions in the middle of the round, by centering the rolled
initiative score. I don't know if this makes much sense, so let's go to rules:
Initiatice is rolled as usual, and actions are counted as usual (18 rolled,
two actions). Then, the Initiative Score is halved, rounded up, and is
considered the character's first combat phase. Then, it's the usual SR2
sequence, where the character can act every ten, err, let's say Initiative
Index. But the difference with previous systems, is that the Initiative
Index is allowed to go negative, until everybody performs the number of
actions allowed by their first roll. In case of a tie, usual rules apply.
It's probably not very clear, so let's see a few examples:
Joe, our friendly snail shaman, rolls init 6 - he will act in 6/2 = 3 and
that's all.
Helena the physad rolls 15 - she will act in 15/2 = 8 and 8-10 = -2
Sam, wired bodyguard, gets a 25 - he will act in 13, 3 (before Joe) and -7
Merou the Uber-munchkin cyberdemon gets a 41 (yucks !) - he will kick the
group's collective ass in 21, 11, 1 -9 and -19.
Acting order will be: Merou, Sam, Merou, Helena, Sam, Joe, Merou, Helena,
Sam, Merou, Merou
With this rule, fastest characters still act first, but can act several
time before slower people, unlike under the SR3 rule. However, faster
people will more often act several times /after/ the slower ones. If you
don't like this, you can change the "step" between two active Phases for a
character from 10 to a lower number - 5 will end up like SR2 standard...
With a step of 8, the above examples would be:
Joe - 3
Helena - 8, 0
Sam - 13, 5, -2
Merou - 21, 13, 5, -2, -10
Acting order will be: Merou, Merou, Sam, Helena, Merou, Sam, Joe, Helena,
Merou, Sam, Merou.
In fact, thinking about it, it's just changing the "step"... My system is
SR2 with a step of 20. Well, almost, due to rounding. SR2 with step 20 on
the above example would give:
Joe - 6
Helena - 15, -5
Sam - 25, 5 (rounding error before), -15
Merou - 41, 21, 1, -19, -39
Large steps help slower characters. With a VERY large step (e.g. 100), you
get SR3. Low steps favour fast ones. A value of 20 (or first dividing by 2,
then step 10) is easy enough to calculate, but something around 15 should
produce a more even spread... It feels weird in my example that Sam can't
act twice before Joe, despite a huge difference in Initiative Score.
The "stacking" problem is still there though, as if slow people acted in a
very short time span, whereas fast ones are more regular... Neatly solving
this would need a major rework that I don't wan't to tackle.
So... If you managed to live so far... Wad'aya'fink ? :-)
Molloy
