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From: cc100jr@gitpyr.UUCP (Joel M. Rives)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Movement and Dying Nasties
Message-ID: <866@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 09:57:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.866
Posted: Wed Oct  9 09:57:57 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Oct-85 05:56:49 EDT
References: <117@drutx.UUCP> <16707@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: GIT, Atlanta
Lines: 66
Summary: Agree: shorter time period for round


     I must agree wholeheartedly to the suggestion to shorten the D&D 
melee round.  Before I abandoned AD&D (in favor of Runequest and RoleMaster),
my response to the various discrepant and/or unworkable rules was to alter
them - after much debate amoungst those who's opinions in the matter I value.
This, of course, is exactly what is suggestd in the rulebooks!  From a realistic
point of view, this provides problems of it's own... namely: divergence between
various groups. Such divergence makes traveling from one campaign to another
more and more difficult and - for those who like conferencing - interaction
with players from around the globe a bit trying.

     Forgive me, for I have digressed again!!!

     Anyway, as I was saying, one rule in AD&D which I found truly beneficial
to alter was the melee round time/space relationship. This however, has some 
far reaching ramifications and must not be approached lightly. In my campaign,
the melee round was reduced to 12 seconds (the same as it is in Champions,
Fantasy Heros and Runequest). Movement was calculated for each character in 
terms of meters/second and the twelve segments of the round were ticked off
in succession. In order for this to work, it was necissary to recalculate
the amount of time it took to perform certain actions. In the initial round 
of melee, each character rolled 1D6 and subtracted (or added) their DEX
attack/reaction adjustment to arrive at a varying delay period much like
an initiative roll. After that, a character would expend segments dependant
upon the action taken. 

     Let me give you a few examples of time factors for various actions.
In order for a fighter to run up to a mage and strike him (assuming they are 
some distance apart), the fighter must first expend 3 segments to initiate
the run (building up steam so to speak), after which - given that the fighter
has been determined to have a movement factor of... say 4 meters/second - the
player can then move the character two - 2 meter hexes (this is the scale
we found most useful) for every segment of the game. Furthermore, let us
assume the mage has decided to cast a lightning bolt at the onrushing fighter.
In the Players Handbook, it is stated that a lightning bolt requires 3 segments
of casting time. From the original time scale, this would mean 18 seconds. If
you wish to strongly emphasise a magic-poor world, one where magic power is
hard to come by and difficult to practice (thus generally discouraging all 
but the most determined player from following the path of wizardry), you can
certainly maintain the casting times for AD&D spells as they are now. On the
other hand, you could choose to translate casting time directly, segment-for-
segment. In the later case, a lightning bolt would require only 3 seconds to 
cast and the mage would give the fighter quite a shock before the fighter 
was able to react. A better option for the fighter in this instance would be 
to fire an arrow (or throw a knife to disrupt the spell). You might optionally
choose to have no delay period for movement, in which case, the lightning
bolt would have struck the fighter after three seconds of movement at 2 hexes
per second. We also used weapon speed factors to determine when a weapon would
strike - altered by the attack/reaction adjustment derived from DEX. So, if the
fighter with a DEX of 14 (no bonus) attacked with a short sword (weapon speed
factor of 4 I think... don't have the books here at my office); then the attack
would arrive on the fourth second. Thus, even if the fighter were standing
right next to the mage, the fighter would still get zapped !!!  

    The two methods of determining spell casting time listed above are the
extremes as far as I am concerned.  The actual method we used was closer to
the later method. Anyway, It is easy to see how altering the time factor in
D&D requires a great deal of game balance forethought. I recommend, for those
who may be considering such a change, that they read through the rules for
Runequest or Fantasy Heros.  What's more, I fully recommend that you play
thes other games, if you haven't already.

			      skippin' o'er th' time lines ag'in,
			      Whisper Spirit

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