Aug 05 09:11 1998

To: Dan

Copy to: Jerm
Copy to: Jert

From: Froccer

Subject: re:1. Initative

Hey guys,

I take it from the previous letter, that we are supposed to resubmit our
proposals for rule changes regarding initiative.

I submitted the basic system on Jul 10 in a message labelled :

re:Initative and attacks

To recap, here is the basic system:

1) roll d20 for initiative as normal

2) divide your initiative by your number of attacks, rounding up

3) divide up the round into phases; the first phase will be the person with the
highest initiative (e.g. if a person has 22 for initiative, then there will
be 22 combat phases)

4) determine the combat phase when each person can attack by taking their
initiative roll, and subtract the number found in step 2; do this for each
of your attacks (e.g. if a person has 22 for initiative and has 6 attacks,
he would take his turns on 22, 18, 14, 10, 6, and 2)
5) if a person has more attacks than his initiative roll, then procede as
normal, but that person will lose unspent attacks after the last combat
phase of the round (phase 1) is finished (e.g. if a person has 5 attacks
and rolls 4 for initiave, he would take his turns on 4, 3, 2, and 1
; he would then lose an attack; note that
there would be actions that would allow you to spend that extra attack such
as firing an extended burst or dodging).

** 5) has been changed from its original context, due to discussion; it used to
read: if a person has more attacks than his initiative roll, then procede as
normal, but that person takes more attacks at the end of the round (i.e.
a person with 6 attacks, rolling a 5 for initiative, would take his turns
on 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and at the end of the round)

There are a couple of problems with this system that I hope to resolve with
a couple of clarifications / additions to these rules.

1) I have just come to the realization that there are some instances when a
person will roll high on initiative, but will wind up losing an attack. In
certain instances it will make more sense to round down the number found in
step number 2 above.

For example: A character has 7 attacks and rolls a 22 for inititative.
Following the steps outlined above, the character will take his attacks on
22, 18, 14, 10, 6, and 2 (losing an attack). With this rule addition he
will take his attacks on 22, 19, 16, 13, 10, 7, and 4.

The idea here is to spread out a character's attacks as evenly as possible
throughout the attack round to prevent (generally speaking) getting many
attacks in a row.

The general rule of thumb being that the character should not lose attacks
unless the initiative roll is low.

2) When declaring an action that requires you to skip your next action (i.e.
making a dodge or firing an extended burst), your next combat phase action
is skipped to reflect the time it has taken to perform that action.

3) An action that will otherwise go unspent during the course of the combat
round may be used at any time during that combat round (to prevent characters
from being stiffed for a very poor initiative roll).

4) A character may delay an action if he decides he does not want to perform
an action on his combat phase. In such instances, an extra combat phase
is added at the end of the round (phase 1; I thought about subtracting the
number found is step 2 from the last combat phase that the character has to
determine when the delay occurs, but I can't see it being anything other than
phase 1). Note that you cannot delay an action if you already have an action
occuring on phase 1 of the combat round (this also prevents you from
declaring more than one delay in a combat round).

5) At anytime during the combat round, a character may declare that he is
doing a "constant dodge". In this case, the character rolls to dodge, and
adds any bonuses he might have. This is the number now needed to hit this
character until his next action comes up (or in some cases, until the end
of the round). This will normally considered to be like a dodge (an action is
spent meaning that you miss your next combat phase). Note that you cannot
perform ANY other actions while doing a constant dodge (no declaring other
dodges, firing back, hitting a button that is going to shut off the nuke that
is going to ruin your day, etc...).

So what do you guys think?

If you need more examples, I can make plenty of them. Also, if any part appears
confusing, let me know and I will try to explain it more thoroughly.

Froccer