Altering the Initiative Order

[Harald387]

Is there any canonical way to slow down your own Speed in the initiative order so that, for the entire fight from start to finish, you act at a Speed lower than your own?

Here's the situation: In one of the groups I play in, our Knight has a speed of 7. Our Wizard has a speed of 6. Enemies frequently fall into the '5-6' range, meaning they act after the Wizard, but before the Knight gets another turn.

As the Wizard, I am fond of spells like Roundabout, Tanglefoot, Stun, and Mental Stun - all cheap, fast spells which can lower an enemy's defenses in various ways. Our Knight would love to take advantage of this, but finds that the enemies frequently do inconvenient things like 'turn around again' or 'get to their knees' or 'recover from stun'.

Is there a canonical way to reduce speed for the initiative order (not as a Disadvantage, but on a fight-by-fight basis)? Does it break anything to allow a character to act at a later time in the order than his Speed would indicate?

[KingJohn]

Hi,

I'm playing the Knight in question. Not a GURPS fan in general, but I'm trying, for this game.

That being said: It's apparently "0 points" to drop Basic Speed by 2 and up Move and Dodge to the same degree to compensate. Which, given the way encounters have gone in this game, I very well might do, simply because moving AFTER the Wizard/Cleric Amalgam is a serious advantage.

The Wizard turns people around and stuns them and all that stuff.
The Cleric, even if she doesn't do ANYTHING magical, attacks them, and makes them use up a Defense roll on her. As it is, she hits a lot because I (and the Swashbuckler and the Scout) make people defend themselves HARD, and they're down to Dodge At Best by the time she comes around. If NOTHING ELSE, she could force a guy to use a Defense against an attack, and thus let me through against the lower Defenses with my much-more-damaging Attacks.

[ErhnamDJ]

Just use a Wait maneuver to go after them.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

Just use a Wait maneuver to go after them.

Wait doesn't do that in GURPS. Not with nearly the same flexibility.

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Wait doesn't do that in GURPS. Not with nearly the same flexibility.

I can't Wait to take my turn until after Jim-Bob the cleric does something?

[KingJohn]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

I can't Wait to take my turn until after Jim-Bob the cleric does something?

I am told: No. I am not an expert, I might be wrong, but if I am then so are the other people involved.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

I can't Wait to take my turn until after Jim-Bob the cleric does something?

Not "I wait for Jim-Bob to do something, then I do ... whatever I feel like!" no.

From Basic Set, page 366:

Do nothing unless a particular
event you specified in advance
occurs before your next turn; e.g., a
foe moves into range. If that hap-
pens, you may transform your Wait
into an Attack, Feint, All-Out Attack
(you must specify the option before
acting), or Ready maneuver.

If you wan to do anything other than Attack, Feint, All-Out Attack, or Ready, you're hosed. Emphasis mine.

Further:
You must specify exactly what your
action will be when you take the Wait
maneuver, and what will trigger it. For
instance, “I’ll make an All-Out Attack
(Determined) with my sword on the
first orc to move toward me.”

You can't take an arbitrary maneuver after Jim-Bob - you have to say "After Jim-Bob does his thing, I Attack the orc with my sword, making two Rapid Strikes." I don't think you have to specify hit location or Deceptive Attack or such until you actually go.

[KingJohn]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

Just use a Wait maneuver to go after them.

Doesn't work - I need to declare what I am waiting for, and what I will do when that triggers, every round.

Sure, SOMETIMES that works just fine - "I wait for the Wizard to act, and then Attack this dude in front of me" - but what if That Dude goes after me and before the Wizard and Moves? I've just lost my action completely, since no matter what the Wizard does, I'm not able to Attack that dude. And what happens if, after I declare my Wait, the Wizard decides to do something completely different that screws up my plan, or critically succeeds on the "debilitating" spell and it turns into "incapacitating" and my attack on that guy is wasted?

I would rather be able to simply say, outright, "I go after that person, for this entire fight", even if I can't do a D&D-style "Delay" that moves my init number down on the fly round-to-round.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

I can't Wait to take my turn until after Jim-Bob the cleric does something?

Sure you can.

Originally Posted by KingJohn

I need to declare what I am waiting for, and what I will do when that triggers, every round.

Yes, but you are allowed to name broad triggers and broad reactions as long as they aren't vague (not the same as broad) and provided that your maneuver is declared. A perfectly legal Wait would be "I wait until after my pal Jim-Bob acts, and then take an Attack maneuver against whomever Jim-Bob attacked, or my nearest foe otherwise." Complex? Sure, but it's legal. The trigger and action are specified, and most important, the maneuver is declared.

That said, you certainly can elect to use less than your full resources. You're allowed to strike at lower ST, move at less than full Move, etc. There's no reason at all why you couldn't choose to operate at lower Basic Speed. Parents do this all the time when shepherding their kids!

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Kromm

... There's no reason at all why you couldn't choose to operate at lower Basic Speed. Parents do this all the time when shepherding their kids!

OMG! I was right! This is nearly historic.