Basic rules question...

[WlfSamurai]

So when a character chooses to dodge, they lose their next action/attack. It could even be from the next turn correct? And that happens for every attack a character dodges meaning if a character has 3 actions/attacks per round and gets attacked 3 times, they are out of actions for the melee round?

And one final question, does anyone know of a good way to keep track of all that? It is hard to keep track of what turn people do get an action and don't if they have dodged a lot. The only thing I can think of is a chart which could be cumbersome for each battle.

[J. Lionheart]

So when a character chooses to dodge, they lose their next action/attack. It could even be from the next turn correct? And that happens for every attack a character dodges meaning if a character has 3 actions/attacks per round and gets attacked 3 times, they are out of actions for the melee round?

If a character has 3 attacks, and dodges three times, they can't do anything else that melee round. You cannot dodge more times in a melee than you have attacks though, so if you have 3 attacks and get attacked 4 times, you can dodge the first three, but better hope the 4th one misses or can be parried, because you can't dodge it.

And one final question, does anyone know of a good way to keep track of all that? It is hard to keep track of what turn people do get an action and don't if they have dodged a lot. The only thing I can think of is a chart which could be cumbersome for each battle.

Tick marks always seem to work for me, either marking them off as they're used, or simply tallying them up as they're used. Combat charts are always a bit rough at first, but most folks can find a system that works for them. Scratch paper and a pencil usually are all that's needed.

[Novastar]

Uh-oh. You just asked one of the biggest "House rules" questions of all time for Palladium.

So when a character chooses to dodge, they lose their next action/attack. It could even be from the next turn correct?

By the rules, no. Once you're out of attacks in a round, you can no longer Dodge. That way you can't Dodge 60 times in one melee, saying you're using future actions.

On that note, I'll give you my House Rule...
I split the 15 second round into 5 phases, each 3 seconds long.
Attacks are evenly divided amongst the phases, as such:

Attack Schedule:
# of attacks Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5
1 attack: 0 0 1 0 0
2 attacks: 0 1 0 1 0
3 attacks: 1 0 1 0 1
4 attacks: 1 1 0 1 1
5 attacks: 1 1 1 1 1
6 attacks: 1 1 2 1 1
7 attacks: 1 2 1 2 1
8 attacks: 2 1 2 1 2
9 attacks: 2 2 1 2 2
10 attacks: 2 2 2 2 2

I also rule that a Dodge performed during a Phase works for the entire Phase (in effect, the Dodge set a difficulty that anyone shotting at him/her has to beat, in order to hit).

If you want, go to the "Hooray!" thread. About 2 or 3 posts down, I list out the House Rules I'm running with in my current campaign. And you can see other's comment's as well... (though, for the most part, the complaints were mostly about the rank structure...)

[WlfSamurai]

I understand that you can't borrow from the next melee round. What I was really asking was that if a character 3 attacks after using an attack this turn, and gets attacked and dodges twice, it will be 2 more turns before he/she gets an action again correct?

[WlfSamurai]

Great, thanks for confirming that. I appreciate it.