Quick clarification regarding Reactions

[Flakpanzer]

Hi all,

Reading the Reaction rules this morning, and just wanted a bit of a clarification.

Say your character gets Initiative, and decides to shoot once with a Blaster twice (-1D Multiple Action Penalty), then later in the round, decides to use a Reaction skill to dodge...This would be a third action and suffer a -2D penalty.

If you have initiative on an opponent, there is never really a reason to state up front that you are going to perform an action and a reaction, correct?

If you did, you would be penalized the multi-action penalty to both that first action, and a reaction. Whereas, if you declare a reaction when you get shot at (after having already performed another action in the turn), your first action gets away without suffering the Reaction multi-action penalty and only the actual Reaction suffers the multi-action penalty.

Am I getting this right?

Thanks.

[shootingwomprats]

You essentially have it correct. The side that won initiative, in order of highest Perception to lowest declares how many actions they are going to perform and declares their first action. This continues with the person who has the next highest Perception and so on. When one side is done, the same is done for the side that lost initiative. Once everyone has performed their first actions, all those who declared second actions go in the same initiative order and so on until all actions are performed.

Actions do not need to be declared in advance and do not include reactive skills (brawling parry, dodge, melee parry, etc). No matter how many actions are declared a character may only move once. Every action declared after the first is assessed a -1D MAP to all skill rolls.

A reactive skill does not have to be declared until the character is being engaged. Reactive skills may be used in two ways:

1. as additional "free" action but must pay an additional MAP for using it.
2. If more than one action was declared the character may opt to "burn" his remaining actions to preform the reactive skill with no further MAP penalty other than the original MAP.

Example: Zohm declares three actions and his first action is going to be to shoot at the Stormtrooper over by the doorway. Three actions means all his skill rolls are at -2D. He fires his blaster pistol and misses the trooper. Later in the round he specforce trooper takes aim at Zohm with a really big blaster rifle at short range. Knowing he does not want to get hit with that, he declares he is dodging. This is considered a fourth action, all skill rolls are now rolled at -3D. He decides he can't afford that extra -1D to his dodge at this point and declares he is going to burn his second and third actions to not take an additional penalty to his dodge. So now he rolls his dodge at -2D instead of -3D but in doing so he has no further actions in the round.

As a side note, characters must declare if they are going to augment their reactive skill with Character Points before the GM rolls for the opposing character.

Example: Zohm rolls his dodge and gets an 11, he decides to spend a Character Points and rolls a 3 for a total of 14, he decides to spend another Character Point and rolls a 5 for a total of 19. He can only spend up to two Character Points. The GM difficulty number to hit Zohm is now 19 regardless of what range the enemy are firing from.

Remember that the new difficulty number lasts until the end of the round. Characters do not keep making a reactive skill roll every time they are engaged. Its once and lasts until the end of the round.

Hope that helps.
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[Flakpanzer]

Thank you.

Great explanation.

I think the thing that 'seemed funny to me' was if you only declare one action, and then later take a reaction, that first action isn't penalized the -1D penalty (only the reaction is).

If you declare two actions, the first action is at a -1D penalty, and if you decide to "burn" the second one as a reaction, then both end up getting the -1D penalty.

[shootingwomprats]

Glad I was able to help. Any further questions let us know. If you have not looked at it, the G+ community Star Wars D6

[garhkal]

Cause of that little 'glitch' in the wording, it seems anyone can wait to get shot to dodge. So there is never any reason to ever declare a reaction skill.
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[shootingwomprats]

[Whill]

[garhkal]

That's why i find it a glitch. Cause you can take any # of reactions, after the fact, and only penalize them (and any other actions you have from then on). Unlike regular actions which by the rules of multiple action penalties, gets ALL actions penalized.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[DougRed4]

I (and my players) have always considered this to be a 'glitch' as well, and there's not a perfect work-around (that we've found, anyway). The way we play is to "try to be honest", more or less. In other words, when it comes time for a player to declare their actions for the turn, they generally will try to factor in if they feel they are likely to dodge. That said, there's no penalty if they honestly never intended to dodge and then suddenly (later) decide to do so. They'd just pay the appropriate MAP later.

I was agreeing with SWR until he got to this part. After this I do not agree that these are correct interpretations of the RAW. FWIW, I agree 100% with everything Whill wrote.

[shootingwomprats]

[DougRed4]

[shootingwomprats]

[garhkal]

You can also go up to 5CP for a skill roll in a specialty.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[shootingwomprats]

[DougRed4]