04-12-2020, 09:53 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
How about a house rule that says for every third round past the fifth without a Concentrate (Observe) maneurver characters suffer cumulative penalities on things like defending from side hexes, Tactics rolls, etc.?
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04-12-2020, 10:01 AM | #12 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
This would work quite poorly with basic Magic and somewhat poorly with any other time-limited magic. That's assuming that you still count FP expenditures by the 1 second Turn. If you fiddle Spell Durations and maintenance intervals to match Melee actions that might be a different problem.
Soem characters really don't stand around ;looking at stuff while they make up their minds what to do. Their "tactics" are already decided upon. I present as an example Nyx the Barbarian. What Nyx is going to do every round of comabt is either Attack with a Flail in a TA to the Skull or Move to set up such an attack if she's killed everyone within flail's reach. Oh, and she's going to do this scary fast because she has an Item that casts Great Haste on her. These things are baked into the character and you're just excluding this character concept from your game. This would be your right as GM but Nyx's player would pout. It might also disrupt gun combat. Gun combat is one thing Gurps does comaprativley well becaue it uses realistic ROFs. Soem characters might jsut stand in place while they look at things but msot should be moving whiel they look of delay their observation phases until they have achieved hard cover. WWI type machine gunners with water-cooling and long belts also attack somewhat like Nyx for long seconds at a ime. I also don't quite see the point if PCs and NPCs stand around looking at stuff symmetrically. If Moves and Evaluates and other non-Attack Actions aren't hapening in the added time, The added time appears to be msotly a phantasmal addition. You say there is time being spent but it doesn't affect wehat's happenign in the game except for Spell timing and other time-based measurements like vehicle speed. Be they chariots or airplanes vehicles do not stop while a command and control phase is taking place.
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Fred Brackin |
04-12-2020, 11:25 AM | #13 |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
Martial Arts addresses this somewhat via the rules for flurries. There's also a Pyramid article somewhere where every action requires spending "Action Points" which eventually need to be replenished by taking certain maneuvers like Evaluate or even Do Nothing. When I've run mock combats to test the "Action Points" idea, though, it felt like it could use some more baking, so to speak.
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04-12-2020, 12:09 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
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Your Nyx the Barbarian's strategy would not happen in this theoretical game, no; but basically any house rule is going to advantage, disadvantage, allow, or disallow some characters. So frankly, I don't see this as an actual objection. Your other points are good ones. Last edited by Say, it isn't that bad!; 04-12-2020 at 12:13 PM. |
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04-12-2020, 12:11 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
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However, Donny Brook has a good idea that could be combined with Action Points that I'll address next. |
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04-12-2020, 12:12 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
I like this. The rate of accumulation needs testing, but I think this could be really good combined with the Action Points suggested by Michael Thayne - that is, taking said penalties after running into the negatives for Action Points, and based on how far into the negatives you are.
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04-12-2020, 12:57 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
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04-12-2020, 01:00 PM | #18 | |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
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In many GURPSy fights, it doesn't last long enough to burn through your AP. The 12-14 AP most line combatants have is good for five to seven rounds of combat unless you're doing a lot of All-Out, Rapid Strike, or other 'burst of energy' activity, or - as written - sprinting around the battlefield like a particularly hyperactive ferret. I'm not saying it's perfect (it's not). But it never has behaved as suggested (look around before you can do anything). The purpose of it was to organically introduce lulls and flurries into combat (which it does, by all reports) by having a currency. It also allows using an outlast strategy, where a very fit fighter with high HT and/or other purchased advantages to pull what is effectively a Rope-a-Dope: making the other fighter wear themselves out faster than you, after which their options are extremely limited.
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04-12-2020, 01:11 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
Quote:
__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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04-12-2020, 01:35 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Re: Fixing round length in GURPS
Quote:
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Tags |
gurps, house rules, rounds, rules |
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