Actions & Movement

[bigbobsr6000]

I use for each attack/action in a round:

1. Move action only. And no other action except calling out.
2. Move action and shoot wild. And no other action except calling out.
3. Attack action only. And no other action except calling out.

If they choose not to use a move action, they just loose that movement action for that round and is not added or adjusted for the rest of that round. If you have Spd 10 and 5 attacks/actions = Spd 2 per attack/action for that round. If you choose just to attack and not use a move action for your first attack/action of the round, then you only have 4 move actions at Spd 2 for the rest of the round.

It is not just movement it is also time. Spd 10 is how fast you can move in a 15 second round. If you spend 3 seconds doing just an attack, you only have 12 seconds left to move. So, if you redo the math, you are making the character faster by allowing him to the same Spd 10 in 12 seconds instead of the 15 second round.

Hope this helps, Big Bob....................

[mobuttu]

Houserule: I calculate the movement rate with a base of 4 actions, regardless of the PC total actions available. Thus, in any movement action there are comparable numbers between PC related to their Speed.

[Tinker Dragoon]

As the rulebook says, your character's movement per melee round is his/her Speed multiplied by 5, which is then divided among the number of attacks they possess. Easy enough. The problem for me comes when people start spending attacks outside of the usual initiative order, such as to dodge or using two attacks per use abilities like power punches. The obvious solution to this would be to recalculate the character's current unused movement for the round and divide it among their remaining attacks, but this requires constantly shifting numbers and doing on the fly math that bogs things down.

You divide by the number of attacks in order to determine how far the character can move in one melee attack during the melee round. Expending attacks on other actions means that the character loses that many opportunities to move, along with the equivalent distance.

In other words, by doing anything other than moving or performing automatic actions, you give up the ability to move your full distance.

[Killer Cyborg]

Expending attacks on other actions means that the character loses that many opportunities to move, along with the equivalent distance.

In other words, by doing anything other than moving or performing automatic actions, you give up the ability to move your full distance.

Do the books actually say this?

[bigbobsr6000]

Expending attacks on other actions means that the character loses that many opportunities to move, along with the equivalent distance.

In other words, by doing anything other than moving or performing automatic actions, you give up the ability to move your full distance.

Do the books actually say this?

No, I do not think and have not found where the rules state this

BUT……

Speed is = how much distance you can move in a melee round of 15 seconds. If you have 5 attacks/actions and you use 4 of those to just attack and not move and your last action is to run, that only leaves 3 seconds to do so (15 secs/5 attk/acts = 3 seconds per attk or action). Why would you be allowed to run your max distance in just 3 seconds that takes you a full 15 seconds minimum to do? It is a time constraint.

[Killer Cyborg]

Expending attacks on other actions means that the character loses that many opportunities to move, along with the equivalent distance.

In other words, by doing anything other than moving or performing automatic actions, you give up the ability to move your full distance.

Do the books actually say this?

No, I do not think and have not found where the rules state this

BUT……

Speed is = how much distance you can move in a melee round of 15 seconds. If you have 5 attacks/actions and you use 4 of those to just attack and not move and your last action is to run, that only leaves 3 seconds to do so (15 secs/5 attk/acts = 3 seconds per attk or action). Why would you be allowed to run your max distance in just 3 seconds that takes you a full 15 seconds minimum to do? It is a time constraint.

You shouldn't.

But you SHOULD be allowed to use all 5 attacks to shoot at various targets while running.
It would count as shooting Wild, but there's no reason it couldn't be done.
Ditto with dodging and running, or any other action that doesn't actively interfere with moving from place to place.

[bigbobsr6000]

Expending attacks on other actions means that the character loses that many opportunities to move, along with the equivalent distance.

In other words, by doing anything other than moving or performing automatic actions, you give up the ability to move your full distance.

Do the books actually say this?

No, I do not think and have not found where the rules state this

BUT……

Speed is = how much distance you can move in a melee round of 15 seconds. If you have 5 attacks/actions and you use 4 of those to just attack and not move and your last action is to run, that only leaves 3 seconds to do so (15 secs/5 attk/acts = 3 seconds per attk or action). Why would you be allowed to run your max distance in just 3 seconds that takes you a full 15 seconds minimum to do? It is a time constraint.

You shouldn't.

But you SHOULD be allowed to use all 5 attacks to shoot at various targets while running.
It would count as shooting Wild, but there's no reason it couldn't be done.
Ditto with dodging and running, or any other action that doesn't actively interfere with moving from place to place.

Agreed

[sHaka]

SPD is also the number of feet your character can move per second (thanks for that gem Nimmy, can't believe I never noticed ).

So rather than working out your total movement per melee as you've stated, go by how long an attack is i.e. 5 attacks = 3 seconds (15/5) and a speed of 12 means (3X12) 36 feet per action. This way you don't have to work out how much of their allowance they've used, you know an absolute maximum they can move per action/attack.

[Nemo235]

Actually SPD*5 is the number of yards a character can run in 15 seconds.

What always confuses me is the flexibility of the timing.
A character's action lasts longer because they have less attacks, so they can move farther each action??

Let's look at the example above for character A:
His SPD=12 and # of attacks=5.

How far can he run in one 15 second round?
12 SPD * 5 yards a round = 60 yards a round

What is the duration of each of his attacks/actions?
15 second round / 5 attacks = 3 second actions

So how far can he run in each 3 second action?
60 yards per round / 5 attacks = 12 yards per action
_________________________________________________
Now let's formulate a character B:
His SPD=12 and # of attacks=3.

How far can he run in one 15 second round?
12 SPD * 5 yards a round = 60 yards a round

What is the duration of each of his attacks/actions?
15 second round / 3 attacks = 5 second actions

So how far can he run in each 3 second action?
60 yards per round / 3 attacks = 20 yards per action
_________________________________________________
Now let's look at a round:

Character A gets the initiative and does something. It doesn't matter much what he does in this example, but it takes 3 seconds.

Character B decides to run behind cover, or some similar movement.
Character B's movement action takes 5 seconds.

What happens after second 3 of character B's turn?
Character A's 3 second action is over, yet he stands there for 2 more seconds to let B finish his 5 seconds of movement.
How polite!

The same situation can happen in a foot race, even though the character's SPDs are the same per round...
A and B are racing to a point 18 yards away.
A runs 12 yards on his 3 second action.
B runs 20 yards on his 5 second action.

It doesn't make sense. But according to the rules as they are, B wins.
And don't even get me started on character C!

[sHaka]

The same situation can happen in a foot race, even though the character's SPDs are the same per round...
A and B are racing to a point 18 yards away.
A runs 12 yards on his 3 second action.
B runs 20 yards on his 5 second action.

It doesn't make sense. But according to the rules as they are, B wins.
And don't even get me started on character C!

It does make sense (though isn't easy to book-keep for a GM) if you consider the length of time involved.

If A and B are in a foot race you need to consider that while B runs 20 yards, by the time he's run that far (in 5 seconds) A has also covered 20 yards (12 yards / 3 seconds * 5 = 20). Both DO have the same speed after all. It's just one can cram more attacks into 15 seconds.

If you go by initiative B gets there sooner, but therein lies the problem - the movement system needs to be separated out from the initiative system. Just because it isn't your attack, it doesn't put your character on pause - he's still moving. It can be tough to keep track of, but a GM (if he wants the movement system to work) needs to consider that a character who is running is still travelling outside of his melee action.

[sHaka]

Just a thought though, has anyone ever noticed how off the Speed attribute seems to be? If my math is right, a character needs to only be Speed 34 to beat the fastest man in the world's time for the 100 meter dash. Just seems a bit low considering the bonuses one can get from skills like Running.

I hear you, but stats above thirty are meant to be rare amongst normal, unaugmented humans. It possible to get a spd of 34+ with a mundane character, but then I suppose in real life, someone is going to eventually beat the current world record. A lot of athletes probably already have in training, but only competition times count.

But yeah, perhaps it is a bit to easy for characters to get phenomenal running speeds - maybe players need to justify taking the running skill a bit better!