| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Damion Milliken) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Movement & Actions |
| Date: | Mon Aug 6 03:35:03 2001 |
I was thinking about movement, cover, and actions.
In the SR rules, it takes a Simple Action to "Change Position". This refers
to standing from a prone position, or properly going prone (as opposed to
falling) from a standing position. (Although the exact uses of going prone,
other than perhaps hiding behind low cover, are not elaborated on.)
To me, it seems reasonable to consider taking cover to be a "Change Position"
Simple Action, too. So someone hiding completely behind the edge of a wall
(8 points of cover ;-)) can get into 0, 2, 4, or 6 points with a Change
Position Action. If they get into 2 points and feel that they're getting
shot up too much, they can get into 6 points for another Change Position
Action. Likewise, someone standing nearby to some cover (like next to a
tree), and get into 2, 4, 6, or 8 points of cover for a Change Position
Action. Note that the act of getting into or out of cover with a Change
Position Simple Action does not involve moving, and so does not apply the
movement modifiers to actions.
Does this sound reasonable? Or do people think it would be better to
represent this by making characters move (walk) instead?
The other thing I was thinking about was when, during their movement, do
characters (have to) take their actions? Say Erif Gnab was walking past a
doorway. For arguments, sake, say he walks 4m this Pass. He is 2m from the
doorway to begin with, so he walks 2m to the doorway, fires his handgun at a
target through the doorway, and walks another 2m past the doorway (and thus
into full cover). He uses his remaining Simple Action to pull out a grenade.
I can see that this is a reasonable interpretation of the movement rules. As
a GM, I would probably make Erif spend a Free Action to Observe when he got
to the doorway, so that he could see what was on the other side.
Normally players (and GMs) in SR tend to have characters move first, then
take action. However, I can see that if we allow characters to, say, fire
then move (behind a building), then the dynamics of a SR firefight may
change significantly. Movement, and Delayed Actions in anticipation of
someone else running out of cover, firing, and then running back into cover,
will be the new way of fighting. I rather like this idea, as not only is it
more cinematic, it gets movement modifiers up the whazoo for combatants,
which means that they tend to miss a lot (which is more cinematic ;-)).
What does everyone think of this?
PS. How many people are still on the list? I'm thinking that it might be
time to finally migrate to the DumpShock Forums, and give ShadowRN the arse
:-(. The number of people on the list seems to have dwindled considerably in
the last year or two, and I've been taking a look around the forums (I hate
the forums, but that's another story ;-)), and there seem to be hundreds of
people over there. I wonder if there is any way to gate the forums to the
list, and vice-versa?
--
Damion Milliken University of Wollongong
Unofficial Shadowrun Guru E-mail: dam01@***.edu.au
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