Partial-Round Movement

[Whill]

My game is house-ruled to have movement that can be concurrent to other actions (what can or can't be done while moving is determined by my judgement).

New movement is rolled on the action when the movement begins in a round, acknowledging that movement may actually occur only over the course of part of the round (so 'partial-round movement' in that it is not from the beginning of the round, may stop before the end of the round, or both). The speed is mentally calculated by me based on the total distance they intend to travel that round and considers at what point in the round the movement begins. My system also allows for continuous movement where the movement continues from the previous round (a new round's movement roll still rolled on that character's first action of the round) and may go on through the end of the round if not stopped that round. Acceleration and deceleration are just based on the speed of the previous round and works like it does in RAW. If a player is doing something else at the start of a movement, or doing something early in round's continuous movement, they may be able to roll both actions on the same turn (but are still MAPped as in R&E). Movement failures may not occur right when rolled as I will determine when over the course of the round's intended movement the wipe-out occurs.

My system eliminates the unrealism of movement actions occurring within the space of a single action, because, unlike RAW, movement actions in my game are a special category and can occur concurrently to multiple other actions. The downside to my movement system is that it isn't for everyone – Not all GMs are capable of the mental calculations without slowing down gameplay too much. Therefore I fully acknowledge that this is a 'works for me' solution that isn't a general suggestion for everyone.
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[deano]

Hi,

This is our house rules for movement:

Movement Rules

Every character and creature has a Move characteristic: it's how many meters per round the character moves while walking (most humans have a Move of 10). Moving is an action, just like firing a blaster or dodging an attack. A character can make one move action per round. A running or walking character uses their running skill or Dexterity attribute. A swimming character uses their swimming skill or Strength; a climbing character uses their climbing/jumping skill or Strength. For unusual movements — such as swimming or climbing — the Move is normally one third of the character's Move.

Movement Speeds
While a character may only make one move action in a round, they may select one of four movement speeds.

 Cautious Movement: This is a slow walk for a character, they move up to half their Move as a free action with no skill check required if the terrain is considered Very Easy, Easy, and Moderate. In Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrains, roll the character's running skill, but reduce the difficulty one level.

 Cruising Movement: Normal walking speed for a character — they move up to their Move speed. Moving at cruising speed counts as an action, but the character can automatically make the move for Very Easy, Easy and Moderate terrains. A character must roll their running skill for Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrains.

 High Speed: Jogging speed for a character — they move up to twice their Move speed, but the movement is spread over two action phases (does not need to be consecutive phases) during the course of the round. The character must roll their running for Very Easy, Easy or Moderate terrain. When moving at high speed, Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrains increase one difficulty level. Only one skill check is required and while the move is spread over two action phases, it still only counts as one action.

 All-Out: Running at all-out speed for a character — they move up to four times their Move speed, but the movement is spread over four consecutive action phases during the round. Characters making all-out movement may not do anything else in the round, including dodge or parry. Increase the difficulty one level for Very Easy, Easy and Moderate terrains. Increase the difficulty two levels for Difficult, Very Difficult or Heroic terrains. Only one skill check is required and counts as a full round action.

Lunge
As long as a character has not opted to make a movement action in the round, a character may make a special lunge movement action once per round. This allows a character to move up to a fifth of their Move speed to engage a target in melee or hand-to-hand combat as a free action and in combination with an attack action. No skill check required if the terrain is considered Very Easy, Easy, and Moderate. In Difficult, Very Difficult and Heroic terrains, roll the character's running skill, but reduce the difficulty one level.

Deano
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[Whill]

deano, thanks for sharing your version of the rules. Cautious and Cruising presumable take place within the space of one action as they do in RAW.

Regarding High Speed and All-Out taking multiple actions to cover the distances (2 and 4 respectively), the fact that All-Out covers twice the distance of High Speed but also takes twice the time (twice the number of actions within round) technically means that they are the same "speed" (distance divided by time). If Cruising does in fact only use one action in a round, then basically it would also be the same "speed" too, and only Cautious is actually "slower" (half-speed). This in effect is almost like the Blue Vader version where "moves" are all the same distance for the character or vehicle moving and the number of moves in a round determines the number of actions (time) they take and the total distance travelled, except that only one movement roll is made using the R&E rules for difficulty and the total movement in a round only costs one action for MAP calculation purposes as in R&E.

This system does address the dice rolling and MAP 'nickel and dime' complaint of Blue Vader's movement rules while spreading bigger movements out in the round, but I feel that the R&E "speed" nomenclature doesn't technically apply as each action phase has the same "speed" (except for Cautious being half-speed). And it still doesn't completely reflect continuous movement taking place over the course of an entire round with other actions being concurrent to it. Since all the RAW and house systems discussed here include an inherent "speed" as in the move stat as the character's or vehicle's default speed, perhaps it isn't that important to have "speeds" like in R&E. So this system with some of my tweaks to include continuous movement with concurrent actions is something to consider.
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[CRMcNeill]

A solution I’m considering is mandating that any Move action be the first action taken in a round, with an exception for partial round actions like my suggestion in the OP, or Deano’s Lunge. From there, break up the Move itself into segments of distance (but still part of the same action) so that, should something happen to interrupt the Move (like getting shot), there’d be an indicator for the GM as to how far the character traveled and where they end up at the end of the round.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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[pakman]

Like the lunge -


I have a similar mechanic - I call it a "half move" and it is a free action that can take place with any other action in my move rules (which I think are on the previous page). This can ONLY be done once per round.
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[cheshire]

I know that historically d20 has gotten a lot of hate around here, but let's be real. If this kind of incremental divisions of speed in combat is interesting, you might want to also mine the SAGA Edition for ideas. As much as there are things that the system does not do well, breaking down the minutia of movement and attack in combat is a place where it really shines.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.