Hi there.
I just read the "It's About Time" articles and GLAIVE.
(http://www.gamesdiner.com/about_time_part1
http://www.gamesdiner.com/about_time_part2
http://www.gamesdiner.com/about_time_part3
http://gamesdiner.com/gurps/glaive.htm)
There are some thought:
Normaly a character in GURPS get two actions per turn. By default thats one defence and one attack.
A player opting for an AllOut-something can do to differnt things:
1) He/she can trade an attach for an defence and vice versa.
2) He/She can merge the two actions into one. Getting a bonus to ToHit or to damage or defence.
The first thing can be put down to "You have two actions. Do as you willst."
On the other hand there are mechanics that allow the player to get more attacks (e.g. the Jab in Boxing) or to trade ToHit for a malus on ToDefend for the "victim" (Fast Attack or Fast Blow in one of the Compendiums. Can't remember).
I think that all follows the same machanics and should be put together. And I think the Ready Penalty from GLAIVE fits in perfectly.
The Fast Attack can be interpreted as an attack with insufficiant readying, making it less predictable ("You have to lerne to attack without giving a clue to your opponent in before, grasshopper.") or an attack perfomed with higher speed making it less controllable to attacker and defender ("Wow. Thet kick came out of nowhere.")
The Ready Penalty states that an attack with this weapon needs more time than just one action to be performed right.
This all can be put into some easy rules:
A defence is an counterattack on the attacking weapon with -4 for difficulty (like in FEND)
Merging two actions into one action with +4
Splitting one action into two actions with -4
Trading X ToHit for -X the opponents ToDefend (going faster, less controll)
Trading X(?) effective ST for -X the opponents ToDefend (making the attack shorter, les powerfull but less predictable too, a Jab)
The rules may be superposed at will. For every player or as maneuvers. Maybe for every player with an extra penality for those not having the approviate maneuver-skill.
In this way the skilled figthers are getting their extra attacks without ratig DX double.
On action points:
I like the idea. But I would say, to make it more fluent, every character gets the same ammount per round but can keep leftover points from the last round. (Maybe one should use tokens to keep track.) The player with the most points can act, paying points approviate for the action and his speed (or slowness rather).
On start of the first round the players may get son extra points for ther reaction time (initiative) with situation modifiers.
Players that Wait have to pay action points so that they have the same ammount as the acting player at the start of his action (the time moves on). Maybe they can save that points for defence since defence is an Waiting Maneuver.
A Player who is attacked may act out of turn, but has to pay action points never the less. There should be a defence penality for the difference between the actionpoints of attacker and defender. The difference should be calculated with the points after attack and defence making slow attacks easier to defend and a defence with a fast weapon more effectiv.
The Players get their new action points just befor one of'em hit a negativ number.
I think I will try this someday with my Go pices as tokens. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28board_game%29)
Should be fun.
alimantando
Re: Attack speed
Mon, 2007-02-26 14:14 — tboneTwo actions per turn, yes – OR, if you like, you could call it ONE full action, with the default attack and defense each being a partly-held-back "half action".
Same thing, different words. So sticking with your take:
Interesting stuff, though the GLAIVE ready penalty doesn't work quite the same as GURPS mechanics for faster-than-default attacks. The GLAIVE ready penalty says, "You made a normal attack from a full ready position, at no penalty; you're still fast enough to act again right away, but from a poorer position and thus at a penalty, until you get back into a full ready position." Whereas the GURPS quick attacks apply a penalty to both (or all if 3+) attacks.
So the GLAIVE rule always allows the first attack without any penalty... BUT, since that first attack has to be preceded by a full Ready under GLAIVE, hmm, even the first attack is technically slower-paced, and I think what you're saying makes sense.
I'm not sure how to best combine that Ready penalty with the now-official rules for Rapid Strike (-6 to all attacks, for each extra attack). On the surface, it's easy: the penalties just stack. If you have a short sword and a -2 Ready penalty, you'll take -2 on any action nor preceded by a Ready; if you make two attacks in a turn using Rapid Strike, you'll take -8 on the first attack (or -6 if it was preceded by Ready), and -8 on the second attack. Easy enough.
But it seems Ready penalty should determine whether the fighter can even attempt the Rapid Strike, so that a heavy sword affording a -4 penalty (close to requiring Ready between actions), would not be able to make the Rapid Strike under any circumstance.
I suspect there's a sleek master rule waiting to be discovered, and an update of GLAIVE will be the place to polish it.
On action points:
Keep leftover points from previous rounds? Hmm, that immediately raises caution flags: what happens if you save points for two turns (or 10, or 100...)?
Have you tried something like your proposal on the gaming table?
Re: Attack speed
Mon, 2007-02-26 21:45 — Esteemed Visitor (not verified)Can't do that. Because the player with the most points is the one who's turn it is and if he choses to wait he has to pay the difference to the next player (time moves on). That means after that "next" player its his turn again. He can wait again, if he want.
The keeping of left over points is for situations like: 3 players with 1, 2 and 3 points. The player with 3 point wants do do something the requires 4 points. So his action simply endures into the next second and every player gets new x points. Then comes the player with 2+x points (provided he does not spend points on defending)
And no, I did not test it jet. :-)
You have a point there. There is/should be a limit to what you can achive using strength instead of preparation. Maybe one could take the amount by which the character is under the ST to use the weapon without a penality into acount, too. That makes it more complicated. But you would have to calculate that only once just like your damage.
Like I sad. I did not test it jet.
Now that I think about it: Is there in "reality" a difference between a (melee) weapon that has to be readied and a (melee) weapon that is simply slow?
Maybe flail or whip compared to mace or something.
Re: Attack speed
Thu, 2007-03-01 00:41 — tboneThe point system sounds interesting, though I'm lacking the full grasp, and the time, to polish it and test it myself. If you do run a test, even a simple one, please post an example run-through here.
I guess not, except that for a typical swung rigid weapon (slow or fast), you could attack again on the "backswing" (maybe at some penalty) instead of re-readying to a proper position. (GLAIVE's Ready penalty could be seen as representing that.) Whereas some flexible weapons, like a whip, might be useless after a strike until fully re-readied.
Or so I speculate.