How to avoid killing your player characters as GM

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Farmer

My reading of it is that you can face any direction because "facing change" is not defined anywhere to be a single change, and a quick reality check says that it's extremely quick and easy to pivot up to 180 degrees either left or right, so there's no apparent physical limitation to overcome to achieve this.

On the other hand, stepping back, spinning around (or spinning around and then stepping forward, or spinning during a step to what started as your rear, and then striking a foe who was previously behind you, is much more involved than just stepping forward and striking a foe in front of you, or even stepping diagonally-forward with a 60-degree shift in facing to strike a foe over there. Now, I'd be more inclined under such an interpretation to give the attack a penalty when you need to spin around (probably the same -2 as for a pop-up attack, which this is similar to - you start your turn unable to properly see the foe) than to only allow for one facing change, but I could see other ways to handle it. A harsh GM might want to treat such an attack is something akin to a Wild Swing, so would call for the character to use a Move and Attack to get enough movement points to actually be able to turn all the way around - or an All Out Attack for a similar purpose (but sacrificing defenses to be able to turn and strike without penalty). Or maybe let a Step allow for changing facing by 2 sides if you don't move - which will let you hit anyone (although they may be in a front-side rather than front-center hex) if you aren't moving, or call for a Committed Attack to get an extra Step to be able to Step back and turn all the way around in one go.

I do think the RAI is that a Step allows you to change as many hex-sides as needed, however.