Time - Battle Mechanic

[zephyr_cirrus]

Well, here's a time mechanic I came up with for use in the RPG that I'm currently working on.  Just tell me what you think of it and what could make it better:

1. All characters declare what they're going to do before the battle starts.  Then, all of them roll a TIME Roll in order to establish an attack order.  The character with the highest result goes first (I'll call him the 1st character), the character with the second highest result goes second (2nd character), etc. etc. etc.

2. The characters play out their actions in order, and the other characters are allowed to react to their actions (they can only react, so they cannot initiate the action being played out, nor can they react in any way that affects somebody else - a character acting on the other side of the battle would not cause the archer to randomly fire off an arrow at them unless they are in a clear, straight, close line of sight with the archer in the first place).

3. After the first character goes, everybody adds the difference between the first character's time score and the second character's time score to their own scores. (NOTE: the first character doesn't add this to their own time score).

4. The first character rolls another time roll, and is redistributed back into the order of attack.  This makes it possible for an exceptionally fast character to act even many times in a row before the other characters are able to, but it requires consistency and a good deal of luck to do so.

NOTES
*I was thinking about adding penalties to one's time score for reacting to somebody's actions
*I was thinking about also adding penalties to one's time score for combo attacks
*These penalties could and would change the order of attack.

[zephyr_cirrus]

Now, when I said I wanted people to tell me what they think, I meant i WANTED THEM TO TELL ME WHAT THEY THINK.

[Jasper]

I don't know what I think, because I don't really understand how it will play yet.  Two main questions:

1. What influences the baseline Time roll? Is it pure luck? Attributes/skills? Player-spent resources?

2. What does reacting to an action entail? Is it just a static kind of reaction, like avoiding it, or is it active? Can one character react and thereby interrupt or disrupt someone else's action?


As for you possible additions. What's the purpose of having multiple actions? That will decide whether penalties will do what you want. Also, why have combo attacks if multiple actions in a row are already provided for?

[zephyr_cirrus]

The roll is based on a character's Dexterity and Intelligence (just so were clear, this is not D&D), plus a 3d100 roll.  As for luck, what I meant is a character can act many times in a row, but they have to improve every time they roll in order to do so.  Once they do not improve even once, they are distributed back into the order of attack where they would normally be.  One need not do the math in order to know it takes a good measure of luck to consistently turn up higher numbers.  This particular characteristic of the mechanic also rewards people for starting low(if a fast character does poorly on an initial time roll, but still ends up in first, they have plenty of space to improve their rolls).

Reacting to it entails both, in a sense, because the defending character is allowed a defense roll against which the attacker makes an attack roll(passive), or they can counter attack their opponents (active).  (The latter of which was what I was referring to in the first place).  Certain abilities (tied to skill levels) allow for the interruption or disruption of an opponent's action.

I think what you mean by multiple actions is where a character is done with their turn, and they roll a time roll in order to be put back into the order of attack.  This isn't exactly multiple actions, because the new time roll basically signals another turn.  What I was going for with this was the ability to not have to wait for everybody else to go (basically not having an ordinary boring cycling attack order everybody has seen before).  Please clarify if this is what you meant.

As for combo attacks, those occur in the same turn, and can be made after a first attack at a penalty.  Basically, the player has a choice between making an attack now, and run the risk of their attack failing, or risk waiting until later in the battle to make their attack at no penalty( and thus be forced to endure the attacks of others in the process).

[Jasper]

I think what you mean by multiple actions is where a character is done with their turn, and they roll a time roll in order to be put back into the order of attack...Please clarify if this is what you meant.

I was going back to when you said "This makes it possible for an exceptionally fast character to act even many times in a row before the other characters are able to."

[Lee Short]

A similar mechanic that I've used in the past is to have a (roll + modifier) that determines how long it takes you to do a given action.  At any given time, the lowest initiative acts.  Each time you complete an action, you add your new roll to your old initiative.  

Example:  Grog the barbarian is fighting Urg the orc chieftain.  Their initial initiative rolls are 12 and 16 respectively:

Grog     Urg
12         16
[Grog is lowest, so he acts, and then rolls a 19 for initiative]
31        16
[Urg is lowest, so he acts and rolls an 11 for initiative]
31       27  
[Urg is lowest, so he acts and rolls a 27 for initiative]
. . .

We've found that in practice, it's best to use smaller numbers (d10 or d20 based) for this system, and that even small differences in rolls modifiers can make a pretty big difference.

[zephyr_cirrus]

JASPER

Well, that is not multiple actions, really.  Those are multiple turns.  And although I use getting more than one turn in a row, what the mechanic is really meant to do is allow a (relatively) faster character to act more often than the slower characters(instead of everybody getting the same number of turns).  You could equate it to getting two turns in a row in Monopoly: you didn't roll doubles, but you get to roll again anyway.  In a single turn of monopoly, you move, and possibly construct houses or hotels, buy property, sell property, pay fines, make money, and go to jail.  This mechanic is the same way, except there are penalties for doing extra stuff.

Just so were clear, I was talking about the same thing too, but I didn't clearly say so in my last post (ironically, when I was asking you to clarifY)

LEE

I can see why you would use low numbers (b/c with a 3d100 roll, the math can get to be pretty encumbering), but in my system, there is no huge progression of numbers; the numbers float between 1 and 500, and simply proxy up during battle until somebody breaks the record time score.  I was thinking about the feasability of using a system like yours, and just decided it wouldn't work with d100 rolls (the rest of what I have was all already in d100 rolls, so I had to use that, and simply had an epiphany about this mechanic).

[Albert of Feh]

An odd bit of behavior for you to consider. First situation:

Say you have four participants. Two of them are very fast, and roll very close to one another. Two of them are slow, and roll close to each other, but much lower.

The first fast person has a turn. Everyone else increments only slightly, because the second person was close to him. He reinserts himself back near the top in second place, just below the former second person. Person 1 gets almost a free action, through no fault of his own. This could happen several times before the two lower people catch up.

Second situation:

This time, only one of the four participants is very fast. He goes first, and everyone else increments up by a lot. When he reinserts, they will be roughly on par with him.

Because of a lack of competition, he will likely get fewer actions in relation to those significantly slower than him, even though his own numbers don't change.

I suppose this is somewhat ameliorated if the range of values given by 3d100 is Large compared to Dex+Int. But in that case, luck of the dice matters much more than your character's actual skill.


Also, I have to note that I reflexively wince at any situation that calls for a 3d100. That's six dice rolled and two additions required to just get a single value.

[zephyr_cirrus]

I don't understand how a LACK of competition would give him less actions.  He should still roll at about the same level (give or take about 50), which (assuming he rolled at the median of his highest possible result) would give him about a 50% chance of going again, and a 50% chance of not going again.  After the other characters act, they still have to roll as well,  and their rolls would probably still be much lower than fast character, and he would get to go again - he would simply have to wait a while.  This would mean that he did not get to move before everybody else as often (he would get less "bonus" turns), but he would still get the same amount of turns.  And, if he was the only exceptionally fast character, then he could be the only one with high enough attributes to get a "bonus" attack at all in the first place, which would guarantee that he'd get at least as many turns as everybody else.  And even if he would conceivably get less turns, wouldn't this situation even things out with the first situation?  If you have one situation when the fast character gets more turns than average balance out the situation when he gets less turns than average?

In reference to your first situation, I didn't notice that before, but I think that I actually like it, because it gives an advantage to the fast characters.  However, I do see your point of how it could begin to look unrealistic if both fast characters get about 10 turns before anybody else can act, so I'll have to think about how I can fix that.  Any suggestions?

[zephyr_cirrus]

I don't know if this applies to anybody else, but I have a graphing calculator (Texas Instruments TI 83-Plus) that can roll dice for me.  So, instead of having to roll six dice every single time I would like to resolve a conflict, I just have to press three buttons (its exactly three buttons) on my calculator to get a 3d100 roll (6 initially, if I don't want decimals).  True, this takes away the fun of rolling dice, but its advantages are incredible: Now, you can generate a d13 roll on a calculator, or you can get half numbers and all sorts of decimals, and it gets around the fact that more dice makes a situation less random - now you can simply put the highest possible number into your calculator, and get a result.

For those of you out there with a TI-83 Plus (or any other Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator), and want to use it for your die rolls, here's how you do it:

1. Press MATH.
2. scroll over to the PRB tab.
3. Press ENTER.
4. Enter the highest possible number from your die roll (for d6, press 6. for d8, press 8.)
5. Press ENTER again.
6. If you want to generate more than one of the same number, press ENTER again.

7. To turn off decimals, go to MODE.
8. Go down one, right one, and press ENTER.
9. Press (2nd) MODE.