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Old 01-12-2015, 09:38 AM   #28
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: GURPS Overhaul - Initiative, Revised

Move: So, as noted above, the example revealed several holes to me. The first that jumped out was movement cost - very few things divide evenly into 50, so that's going to cause a lot of nasty fractional costs. There's also the fact that under my system, Basic Move is a statistic that doesn't actually mean anything in and of itself - you've got to divide it into 50 to get movement costs, multiply it by Init/10 to get overland movement rate, and so forth.

Instead, it's probably more useful to define movement cost as a statistic itself. It starts at 10 IP. Every -1 IP is [5], down to a minimum of 5 IP, for [25] - beyond this, get Enhanced Move (likely with Second Nature +150%). Every +3 IP is [-5], to a maximum of 35 IP for [-25] - beyond this, you basically don't have a combat-relevant movement rate. If you can move really slowly - say around a yard a minute - that's probably good for [-35] or so. Being completely immobile is worth [-50].

Encumbrance throws another monkey wrench in, but that's not too difficult to adjust for. If we say every BL lb is +25% (round final value up) to movement cost, that gives us finer gradations than the current system while matching up decently well with it (note here, however, that reaching BL lb is Light, 2xBL is Medium, and so forth, rather than exceeding these values). So, for a Move 10 character (that is, one who pays 10 IP for every yard), below BL is 10 IP per yard, 1xBL is 13, 2xBL is 15, 3x is 18, 4x is 20, 5x is 23, 6x is 25, 7x is 28, 8x is 30, 9x is 33, 10x is 35. Using the normal (x0.8, x0.6, x0.4, x0.2) values, we'd instead see 10, 10, 12.5, 16.7, 25, 25, 25, 50, 50, 50, 50. So my system is a bit less harsh but is probably comparable.

To determine overland movement rate in yards per second, divide 5xInit by movement cost. A Step is how far you can go with 10 IP, round down, to a minimum of 1 yard.

To continue avoiding having to deal with fractions, require all characters to have integer Init scores. For this, simply round off Init and give the character some points back - [2] if he lost .25, [5] if he lost .5, [7] if he lost .75. Don't count this toward the Disadvantage Limit.


Active Defenses: Next up are some issues with defenses. First off, I forgot to include the fact that characters with TbaM/WM should have halved penalties for decreasing the IP costs. Whether or not Dodge benefits from this is up the GM, although I'd personally go with "No."

The other issue is that it's typically best to just stick to your best (for the cost) defense without varying things up at all. With normal GURPS, you suffer from higher and higher penalties as you keep relying on the same defense. IP costs are meant to represent this - as if you want to have a chance at acting you'll need to take a penalty to reduce IP costs - but fail to allow you to slow the loss by varying defenses up.

There needs to be a difference in IP costs between sticking to the same defense and switching things up - but should I go for a Carrot, or a Stick? The carrot approach would be thus - if you have already taken an Active Defense since your last turn*, and you take an Active Defense now that is different from what you took previously (to include Parrying with a different weapon), you enjoy a -10 to IP cost, to a minimum of 5 IP. The stick approach is just the opposite - if you have already taken an Active Defense since your last turn, and you take an Active Defense that is the same as the previous one, you suffer a +10 to IP cost.
I'm leaning toward Carrot, with a slight modification - it's -5 IP to take a different Active Defense than the previous one, and a further -5 IP to take an Active Defense that you haven't yet taken this turn. Once IP cost reaches 10, these become -2.5 IP each instead (round final cost up). If using Parrying With Two-Handed Weapons (MA123), treat eligible weapons as though they were two different ones for purposes of this rule (thus you could Parry at full cost, then Parry at -10 to IP, then Parry indefinitely for -5 to IP).

*A turn here is defined as the amount of time between getting to take Maneuvers.


Rate of Fire: The most problematic issue of all, however, is RoF. As seen in my example, Rcl no longer means anything, and full auto fire is probably far too accurate. How to resolve this?

The fastest way is to use normal GURPS RoF rules for attack bonuses, number of hits, and so forth, and resolve it all in one Tick. The firing character will fail to regenerate IP for the next few Ticks, depending on how long (up to 1 full second) he opted to fire. This is highly unrealistic (we're combining the fire of up to a full second into 1/5th of a second), but it's easy. Slightly more complicated would be to do the above but actually have the hits occur over the course of a few Ticks.

My preferred method, however, is to do away with GURPS RoF rules, which have serious issues of their own, and resolve things a bit... differently. I'm still working that bit out, however.

Last edited by Varyon; 01-13-2015 at 07:40 AM.
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