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Old 10-08-2019, 12:37 AM   #253
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
My guts say that if he doesn't take effort to attack, evade or stop, Red should be able to stop which ever of those approaches he takes.
But if I don't make an effort to do those things, then I wouldn't make any kind of approach...

IE there's no neutral...

An interesting question for example: what would happen if I was suddenly stunned and forced to take a "Do Nothing" on my next turn?

The maximum acceptable Move for a Do Nothing is 0. You can't move at all...

So would that mean....

1) someone who is stunned is forced to spend AP to decelerate to 0?
or...
2) a stunned person maintains their momentum in the direction they were traveling?

This could be mutually exclusive from a knockdown (where you might think the damage inflicted by the ground somehow provides free 0AP deceleration) since it isn't just Major Wounds that could cause a Stun state, but also an Affliction which puts you into Stun (must Do Nothing) status without knocking you to the ground.

If the answer is 2) instead of 1) then we still have the problem of what happens if momentum carries me through your hex to your rear hex... if that's a free no-AP evade, a free no-AP slam... since they're forced to "Do Nothing" it doesn't seem like choosing to Slam/Evade would be a reasonable option.

Stunned people CAN make active defenses at -4 though... as well as roll to maintain a grapple (if someone tries to Break Free) at -4, and those things DO consume Cole's Action Points... so a Do Nothing wouldn't necessarily mean an inability to spend AP...

I guess it's just a contrast in concept:
  • 1) coast wherever (random chance of accidental evade or accidental slam?)
    2) coast through my foe (slam)
    3) coast around/under/over my foe (evade)

2 or 3 would be AP-costing and give control, but 1 wouldn't cost AP if you take a "0 AP to maintain momentum" rules approach.

That's why I'm thinking maybe the solution is some sort of "you consume 1 AP per second to remain standing" type thing, but somehow mitigated by a role penalized by your present rate of travel, so that the faster a speed you maintain, the more AP you lose, while it costs less AP to keep your balance while moving at slow speeds (or not moving at all).

Like where you make a HT roll to mitigate AP loss from injury, instead make a HT roll to mitigate AP loss from keeping your balance while momentum carries you forward.

That or just charge a fixed rate based on speed, which would work better with fractional AP, for example:
  • 1) lying consumes 0 AP per second (most restful way to Do Nothing)
    2) sitting consumes 0.1 AP per second (next most restful way)
    3) standing consumes 0.2 AP per second
    4) kneeling/crawling/crouching consumes 0.3 AP per second
    5) each multiple of your Basic Speed (round up) you are in motion (whether due to momentum from previous turn or knockback or acceleration from present turn) consumes 0.1 if lying/sitting or 0.2 if standing or 0.3 if crawling, although either 0.2 or 0.3 can be reduced to 0.1 as soon as one voluntarily adopts a sitting or lying posture as a free action

Any ideas on tweaking that? I'm not 100% sure on (4) all I know is I can stand comfortably a lot longer than I can kneel/plank/crouch and the rates scaling with movement beyond rest are based on B387's Movement Point tiers.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
They're not in close combat, so Green could turn just a little and run past without passing through the hex, I think.
Good point, though I've never liked the "front-left and front-right take just as much effort to enter as front-centre" weirdness. I begin to picture a guy sprinting around a central hex somehow at just as much speed as he can go forward. That's not how momentum works =/

It's a simple way out of the dilemma for our purposes, but still avoids the problem.

Since what we're talking about would not be an intentional slam (where I would roll at DX to hit you) but more like an accidental hit...

"Striking Into a Close Combat" (B392) begins that you strike into close combat at -2... then the last paragraph talks about how if you miss, you may accidentally hit something else...

I'm thinking of this example. Let's say I am Dorothy running down the Yellow Brick Road... let's say a brick is 6 inches long, that rounds up to (B19) SM-6 (for 7 inches) and +1 for being an elongated box would make it SM-5...

B404 allows Trampling if your SM exceeds something by 2, so Dorothy can Trample that Brick using an Attack. This would be at the usual -5 to hit it, but with -2 (since the brick is sharing a hex with other bricks) it is -7... and if Dorothy misses stepping on her intended brick, she then follows SIACC rules to see if her Trample attack hits a different brick instead...

This is rolled randomly to determine which target (which seems kind of strange, you'd think there'd be a higher chance to hit the more adjacent bricks, much like "Scatter" rules) and the lower of 9 or Dorothy's modified Trample skill (DX10-7 = skill 3!) is used to roll to see if she hits those other bricks...

Ultimately this would mean Dorothy would possibly miss ALL the bricks (not enough likely exist in a 1 yard hex to guarantee she'll roll three ones to get a critical success, the only way her Trample could hit!) and somehow Trample nothing at all...

This also leads to problems like if a hex was full of mice (literally no space free of a mouse) that even though you should miss the one you intend to squash, you ought to squash some other one (there being no place to aim free of mouse) with the only solution basically being that either you treat the mice as a collective entity (swarm) so probably the solution to make sure Dorothy will definitely trample one brick is to treat a brick road like a Swarm.

B461 "Any attack against a swarm hits automatically. The swarm gets no defense roll."

That's a weird bit though... ie you can automatically Stamp Kick a swarm of rats even if that swarm is occupying the same hex as their Rat King master, there's no chance of accidentally stomping on Rat King's foot or leg?

The problem with automatic hitting is there's nothing to apply the -2 to, and no way for a miss to result in a 9 or less roll to accidentally hit other targets in the hex... IE to accidentally knock into you when I'm just trying place my foot on a piece of the Yellow Brick Swarm...

Maybe swarms should just be +4 to hit, like if you were to target the hex containing the swarm (B414 Attacking an Area) ...

Perhaps moving through an area could function somehow like a Bombardment AE? Like there's a random chance (8 or less, modified by Size Modifier) of bumping into every target occupying that hex, which they can actively defend against?

Perhaps since it's like a "melee bombardment" it could be defended against at +2 like it was a Telegraphic Attack?

Last edited by Plane; 10-08-2019 at 12:57 AM.
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