Re-Engineering MAPs

[Liquidsabre]

Greetings fellow D6'ers, I had an idea today about revamping the way D6 handles multiple actions and was hoping to get a few reactions (pun not intended).

Simply put, why not only receive a Multiple Action Penalty *after* the action(s) have taken place? i.e. 1st action (no penalty), 2nd action (-1 MAP), 3rd action (-2 MAP), etc. This would simplify the inclusion of reactions during the combat round and MAP tracking. A character may still declare a Full Dodge/Parry at any time but this roll suffers from all MAPs due to previous actions (if any) though the roll still adds to difficulties to-hit the character rather than replace.

One major issue that does come up is how multiple attacks in the same round are handled with a high number of skill dice. I'd like to handle this by introducing two well known concepts: (1) Area Attacks and (2) Diminishing Returns. The result should simplify as well as speed up game play.

First, Area Attacks involve making a single attack roll at half the available attack and damage dice pools (round up dice but lose pips) against a number of adjacent targets (adjacent to character for melee attacks and adjacent targets for ranged attacks). MAPs apply before dice pool is halved. Only one area attack may be made each round. [Note: Heavy Weapons also possess the persistent quality for area attacks in this particular house rule which include a suppression penalty to all rolls for characters in this area attack, penalty can be ignored but characters risk getting hit.

Second, diminishing returns is a concept I'd like to see implemented for multiple attack rolls made during the same combat round. After the first attack is made, all additional attacks in the same round are made at half the available dice pool (round up dice but lose pips, after MAPs are applied).

A Combined Action rule would also allow for multiple non-attack actions and a single attack action to be combined in one action but the MAPs for these actions apply immediately. Only one attack may be made per action.

Example: Rrowland the Wookie has 9D+1 Vibroaxe and decides to make a combiend action of moving (1st action) and making an area attack (2nd action) against 3 pirates now adjacent to him. His attack roll is 9D+1 minus 1D MAP = 8D+1 which is then halved to 4D+1 (pip was kept since dice did not round up). So he makes his 4D+1 attack roll against the 3 foes. Any foe hit would suffer 8D+1 halved = 4D+1 damage.

On his next action in the same round the pirate captain steps out and takes a shot at Rrowland who Dodges (3rd action) at 3D (Dodge 5D-2D MAP). Rwoland next decides to leap (4th action) at the pirate captain and make an attack (5th action). Before he rolls he already has a -2 MAP but since a combined action also includes the current actions MAP immediately, so he rolls a 9D+1 Vibroaxe skill -4D MAP for 5D+1. Being a second attack for the round, this is halved to 3D for his Vibroaxe attack with damage of 8D+1 if he hits. Truly an impressive set of actions for a single combat round! Though Rrowland is quite the seasoned combatant.

What this hopefully accomplishes is a distinct difference between relatively high and low combat skill game-play while keeping dice rolls + number of attack actions from getting too crazy during a single combat round. What I also hope this does is encourage more movement and other cinematic combat actions accompanying attacks as we often see in the movies due to non-combat skill pools remaining relatively high compared to making multiple attacks in one combat round.

[Final Note: We also use a house rule for Force Points mentioned on these boards that doubles all dice results (not dice pools) for two rounds that also helps keep the number of dice in check.]

Cheers!
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[garhkal]

It seems to be a little more math intensive..
Though do you still declare how many actions you wish to take? By your example it seems not.
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[Liquidsabre]

That's correct, no need to declare number of actions. When combat actions go around the table you just decide if you want to take an action or not, applying MAPs if any. I probably went into too much detail in my example but really the only math involved is keeping track of how many actions you've take in a round and halving dice pools.
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Belsarius: "All clear!"
Sarge: "Alright, now....wait a sec kid. Do you mean 'all clear' or is this a slavers-on-Daysum III 'all clear'?"

[garhkal]

Interesting.. never played before without some declaration of # actions.
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[Fallon Kell]

I've considered allowing a player to make a primary action at full dice and a secondary action as an afterthought at -2D in certain circumstances. Kinda splitting the difference between your proposal and the RAW.
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[Ankhanu]

[Grimace]

Have you tried this out in actual play yet, Liquidsabre?

As Ankhanu mentioned, and from my personal experience with doing the incrementally degrading MAP, it substantially alters the balance of the characters with the game. The characters become nigh unstoppable superheroes extremely quick, and can easily slap down many challenges even as a starting character.

By including your "diminishing returns", you seem to want to attempt to dispel this, but it seems to needlessly inject more calculations during the course of the turn which would slow things down even more than declaring actions and applying all MAPs from the beginning.

The application of the MAPs encompass that "rushing to get everything done in 5 seconds" that Ankhanu mentioned. If the character is attempting to move, attack 3 targets, leap and attack a 4th target all in a single 5 second round, every single action is going to be done more hastily and with less precision than if only a couple of things are done in the same 5 seconds. Using your method, you have no reduction, a reduction plus an additional reduction that you have to calculate separately, another reduction, and another reduction with yet another reduction that must be calculated. Compare that to announcing 6 actions, applying a -5D to all of them, and then getting on with the die rolls. No additional calculations, no additional considerations if the character is attacking twice in the same round or whatnot.

While the idea of revamping the MAP is certainly something to consider, the method that you're presenting not only has proven itself to lead to overpowered characters, but also incorporates additional and needless calculations during the course of a 5 second round. The game already has a tendency to make those 5 seconds last upwards of a few minutes due to the dice rolling, I don't think increasing that time with additional calculations that need to be figured with each action is the way to go....for Star Wars.

Would this work in another D6 game, such as a superhero game or a James Bond superspy type game...possibly. But for Star Wars, I don't think this would help make anything simpler.

All that said, if you've tested this and it works great for your group, then by all means use it. I know of a couple of groups that use the incremental reduction of MAPs because they interpreted it a different way when they started gaming with Star Wars and never changed once they learned otherwise. So if you've always done it that way and it works for you, or you enjoy the characters being so much more effectively powerful, then use it and enjoy it.

[JT Swift]

This is similar to my House Rules for combat.

We roll Perception for initiative. ALL actions in a turn are simultaneous - so its to your advantage to go last after you've seen what everyone else does.

So lowest Perception roll goes first.
They pick their Top Priority action [rolled at full dice], their 2nd Priority [rolled at -1D], 3rd [-2D] and so forth.

If you have to draw or load a gun you MUST do that preparation before you can fire the gun. [so another -1D there]

If you going early in the turn you probably want to make some dodge or parry rolls cuz someone will probably end up shooting at you. [and will definitely take advantage and shoot at you if you decided not to roll a dodge]. If your going near the end of the turn you might have the liberty to skip dodging cuz you can see nobody is going to shoot at you.

If you decided to shoot at someone who hasn't had their turn yet you skip to that character and decided if they want to dodge and if its going to be their top priority or not [give that in my game all damage dice on ranged weapons roll 5s, pretty much everyone makes dodge their top priority]. Once the dodge is rolled then the attacker can (if they desire) roll, take out a die, roll, take out a die, until they're out of dice.

Yes, this results in most characters declaring "Dodge and then fire till I'm out of dice" but in the movies that most of what we see. Characters ducking, running, and firing 2-8 times in any given 5 second period. Combat is ruthless and [despite all the die rolls] fast.
[you quickly learn to roll, subtract a die, roll again, subtract another die].

If it becomes plot critical to know exactly who shot first I use the fast draw rules from the Corporate Sector SB.

Full dodges are as stated. Dodge + Range Modifier. And not other actions that turn [well, I usually allow running away].

For Called Shots to particular body parts [or vehicle section] my house rule is that if you make a called shot its the ONLY attack you can make that turn. That keeps the players from making every attack a called shot.

I've been using this system for about 10 years of Star Wars gaming.
The upshot is that dodges are MUCH more powerful. Getting hit is MUCH more dangerous. And every lets loose with lots of crazy poorly aimed shots [most of which miss]. All of this seems to reflect the movies pretty well in my opinion.

GM Tricks to speed up large combat...

* Pistols have a max fire rate of 5 times per turn. Rifles 10 times.

* Combine fire automatically happens whenever two or more NPCs shoot at a character. [I prefer 1st edition revised combine fire bonus cuz it makes low level baddies dangerous in large numbers].

* [IF you trust the Players!] Tell each PC the dodges of the targets they selected and let them roll all their attacks on their own while you record the dodges and actions of the next player in line.

* Omit wild die [and replace with a regular die] for any rolls made by minor NPCs [rule of thumb: if they don't have a name they are minor]

* Assume large groups of NPCs all roll 3.5 on all their dice for dodge. So all 10 stormtroopers have dodges of 14. You can do this for STR rolls to speed things up further.

As with all things YMMV.
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[Fallon Kell]

[garhkal]

Can't remember if it was 1e vampire where i saw the rule or not, but you declared your actions in order of Perception from lowest to highest rolled result, but RESOLVED it in order of highest to lowest.

That way the more perceptive (well the better rolled) would gain a benefit of knowing what those before them did.
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[Liquidsabre]

[garhkal]

I know one gm proposed a rule that if you say declared 3 actions, they would go the normal map route, but if you only went with 1 action, any additional you took got hit with a further -1d penalty..
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[Ankhanu]

Should give it a test, Liquid. It might work for your games, where it didn't work for mine. I am a bit strict on rules and how they interact with theme for Star Wars, many here are much more relaxed than I am.

[jmanski]

We just go the route that each player declares number of actions, and may take that many actions in that round.
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