Impulse Move System
 

Hi,

With all this talk about facing and manoeuvre has anyone used a speed chart?

We used to use this in Champions and Star Fleet Battles back in the day.

Basically the turn is divided into a number of impulses or segments.

Speed Chart

Each figure can move one hex and/or make one hex side change of face on their segment.

A figure with MA 6 would move on segments 2,4,6,8,10, and 12.

Although that chart looks scary, in practice it works quite well.

Re: Impulse Move System
 

Speaking as a person who has been playing wargames since 1967 (51 years, can you believe it?), I have to say that I never enjoyed those kind of games. They tend to chop up the turn too much and make it painful (and very lengthy) to play.

The whole advantage of TFT in my mind is speed of play, especially in combat (even though it's a ton more "realistic" than "Theater of the Mind" combat like in OD&D or even AD&D), which allows us to move the story right along.

Re: Impulse Move System
 

I still have fond memories of playing Star Fleet Battles back in the ancient past, and I’ve taken a look at Champions. Using a Speed Chart is probably way too much crunch for official TFT rules, but for those who want this level of detail in movement, it could work as a house rule.

I would tend to associate that much complexity with GURPS rather than TFT, but it’s all a matter of personal preference.

Re: Impulse Move System
 

It does get very choppy

Re: Impulse Move System
 

I love Champions, and I love Car Wars, and part of the reason I love them is for their impulse move systems... but I'm not sure it really fits with TFT.

That said, the Champions creators played a lot of TFT and it shows in their games, so I wouldn't say it was a foreign concept.

Re: Impulse Move System
 

When we had played TFT so much that we wanted more complexity (1980-1984-5 or so), we started a big house-rule redesign project and one thing we tried included impulse movement and action systems.

There's potential for cool things, but it's not easy to do well and it is a huge jump in complexity and detail. Seemed like overkill.

Phoenix Command also uses an impulse system (and there is a module for melee weapons), but also seems like overkill even just in the movement system. But it is interesting and some people like it.

If you're interested in this and haven't tried GURPS, I'd suggest you try it first. It goes part-way but is much simpler, faster, and easier to use. Turns are 1 second rather than 5, and the movement and actions of figures are interleaved (so not everyone on a side moves at once). The result is really nice and playable. I think it gets you most of the benefit of an impulse system without most of the work and slowness.