GURPS Overhaul - Initiative

[Varyon]

This post is divided into four parts. The first post (this one) explains the system and gives the basics of it. The second and third cover the IP costs of various actions, and ways to modify this. The final has some modifications to The Last Gasp to make it mesh more readily with this system. As always, comments and criticisms are welcome. This is, unfortunately, probably my least-gameable Overhaul (with the possible exception of my RoF Overhaul) to date, so if anyone has advice on how to make something like this better work at the table, I'm all ears.

EDIT: This post now has a fifth part, a tl;dr summary of the system in general.

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This is a rules modification I've been working on for some time. The concept primarily steals from games such as Final Fantasy Tactics, wherein a character accumulates CT (Charge Time) until reaching 100, after which point they can act. How quickly each unit's CT fills depends on their speed, which can lead to a dynamic battlefield with a constantly changing turn order (adding to this the fact that the less a character does on his turn, the less CT he loses, can make things interesting indeed).

How to adapt this to GURPS? First, let's change CT to something more GURPS-y - we'll call them Initiative Points (IP). The easy option would be to have characters simply gain +Basic Speed (or a multiple thereof) to IP every time step, but this would result in high speed characters acting too quickly (Basic Speed +5 [100] would effectively give you ATR for free, in additon to the +5 Dodge and +5 Move). My solution is to break Basic Speed up a bit differently. First off, we have a new subtrait, Initiative (abbreviated Init), which is equal to Basic Speed +5. Every time step (1/10th of 1 second), characters gain +Init to IP. +1 Basic Speed [20] now consists of +1 Dodge [10] (yes, I've decreased the price of Improved Dodge) and +1 Init [10]. Note that under this system, Move is not directly influenced by Basic Speed, although Init does come into play for overland movement and the like. ATR is now a +0% Enhancement on Init - any ATR Init accumulates in a different "pool" than normal. Each pool functions normally and separately, as though there were two characters acting.

At the start of combat, characters roll against Initiative. MoS 0 starts the character out at IP 25, and the character gains +5 IP per additional point of success, or loses 5 IP per point of failure. Combat Reflexes gives a +2 to this roll and sets minimum IP at 0; ETS includes Combat Reflexes and also sets MoS 0 at IP 50. Lightning Reflexes is a Perk that grants +4 to this roll, which can stack with Combat Reflexes. The GM may opt to set a "floor" for such rolls in some situations - it's rarely appropriate for a character to start at negative IP when they initiate the hostilities! Thereafter, characters accumulate IP at a rate of Init per time step. Once a character reaches or exceeds IP 100 (retain any remainder, but total IP cannot exceed 100+Init), he or she can act, spending up to 100 IP. If multiple characters reach IP 100 simultaneously, the one with the highest IP goes first. If IP are equal, the one with the highest Init (Combat/Lightning Reflexes do add to this) goes first. If there is still a tie, have each character roll 1d, with the lowest roll going first (any tie here means truly simultaneous actions).

In cases of Total Surprise, the GM rolls 1d and multiplies by 100 - this is the initial IP malus each Surprised character suffers (optionally, roll seperately for each character). For Total or Partial Surprise, each Surprised character must roll against IQ (modified as usual for Combat Reflexes and the like). Multiply MoS or MoF by 50 - this is an additional IP bonus or malus. Prior to the Init roll, the highest possible IP is 0 (not the 25 or 50 from above).

Characters primarily expend IP during their own turns, for moving, attacking, drawing weapons, and so forth. They also expend IP in order to defend against attacks - too many attackers can easily result in no time to attempt any sort of counter offensive! Being harmed can be distracting as well - anytime the character is struck for 10% or more HP, he loses 10 IP per 10% (round down) HP in injury. Hardy characters can shrug off such abuse, however. Roll against HT, at +3 for HPT or -4 for LPT. Regain 10*MoS IP (5 IP for MoS 0) on a success (this can only negate lost IP, it cannot give you a net gain); critical success completely negates any IP loss. Additionally, if the character must roll against knockdown/stunning, failure causes the loss of 50*MoF IP instead of its normal effects. Pain itself can also be rather distracting - while under the effects of Pain, you must make the usual HT roll to ignore it every second (10 steps). Failing this results in a loss of IP as well as the Pain condition - this is 2 IP per time step for mild pain, 4 for moderate, 8 for severe, 12 for terrible, and 20 for agony. These values are halved for characters with High Pain Threshold. This persists for 1 second (10 steps).

A character cannot spend more IP than he has (and thus at 0 and lower cannot spend any at all), although injury, pain, and stunning effects can drop him below 0 IP.

A character at negative IP is Stunned - in addition to being unable to spend IP, the character drops whatever he is holding and may fall down (depending on how he was Stunned; mental stun typically won't knock you down, but physical stun typically will). This is typically bad enough, but the GM may also decide only a Dodge at -2 (on top of the -4 for not spending IP; see later) is an allowable defense.