Stealing initiative, i think the rules are to slow and the machanics the hard to remember.

All that about rolling against/with reflex and such, always craps up by me and my players, often i can not even rememeber what to roll, and then adjusting with the expending dice mechanism, also slows the else action packed system. we have talked about that we thinks the stealing initiative mechanism is the only think who we really bogs the system down, thinking time.

We can all see that it works and are realistic and such, but there must be a less complicated and faster solution.

?

It really looks complicated, but it's usually very rarely used because of the high cost and the risk, so it shouldn't be a problem.

In fact I never needed it in my 6 or 7 ROS Sessions.

I also think it's too complicated.

I came up with an easier to remember alternate. But first...

I eliminate contest of reflexes. You act in the order of highest reflex first, period.

If you want to exceed your opponent's reflexes to act first...

pay 2 cp activation (could be 1 I suppose...)

Roll your Wit+Ag+Per divided by 3 (a new fixed characteristic?) versus a TN of opponent's Reflex. Your opponent does the same if he chooses to counter you, but he must also pay the activation cost.

In addition, for each 10 CP in your normal maximum Combat Pool, you may add 1 die (as the buyer only!) to this roll. These dice come out of your combat pool for the round though.

Each success grants you a 1 point attribute increase in Agility or Wit, for the purposes of recalculating your Reflexes, thereby altering whether you hit first or not.

The above could be further simplified depending on taste, if you don't like the idea of adding another attribute to the mix, take out perception and replace the iajutsu roll with the contest of reflexes. Also, each success could give you a point higher reflex, period. Then, highest reflex wins.

Depends on how simple you want it to be.

It's definitely too complicated.

In general, I don't think people should be buying initiative often. Why? I think it's unrealistic. After all, if you throw red at the beginning of a bout, won't you attack as fast as possible? How much faster can you really go? Yes sometimes going up against a faster opponent has a way of motivating you to move faster, but I found in my martial training that if you are all-around noticeably slower than your opponent, most of the time in a red-red situation, you lose.

Generally you attack as fast as you can, except in cases where you've already predetermined that you're using a feint or a simultanesou block and strike, maybe.

I've also toyed with the idea of requiring that you sacrifice one future Damage Level as part of the activation cost. The extra burst of speed makes you lose some of your impact.

Let me you know what you think.

Thanks,

-Alan

Poleaxe, i will try your rules, they sound good.

I would not have a problem with the buying initiative, but in our games people buy initiative ALOT, becouse they have gainged a few more dices becouse of experince and they now fully use there SA when possible.

bergh wrote: Stealing initiative, i think the rules are to slow and the machanics the hard to remember.

All that about rolling against/with reflex and such, always craps up by me and my players, often i can not even rememeber what to roll, and then adjusting with the expending dice mechanism, also slows the else action packed system. we have talked about that we thinks the stealing initiative mechanism is the only think who we really bogs the system down, thinking time.

We can all see that it works and are realistic and such, but there must be a less complicated and faster solution.

?

In my group we have used the steal initiative often when running our fights. The way the rule is set up works well for us. Granted we still have to take a peek at the rules for it from time to time, but it gets the feel right. In real life, stealing initiative is not easy, nor is it simple... ;)

[insert usual "it'll be in TFOB" comment here]

Brian.