Movement during Initiative
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For the longest time people have been running their full movement rate without being touched simply because they had higher initiative. The books are generally unclear about how much you can move before being struck by a ranged opponent, but realism dictates you don't immediately reach your destination BEFORE they get a chance to pull the trigger. However, this gray area also restricts supernaturals - who should be able to rely on speed alone to get out of dodge. This homebrew system builds on top of the M20 basics to hopefully deliver an answer to the issue. While it's a bit more complex, it should be a tad more fair compared to how it is played currently.
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When carrying someone or something over 25kg, the maximum movement speed is your Jogging rate. (12 + Dexterity)
1 /distance unit is equal to both 1 yard and 1 meter in-game for purpose of discerning movement or range/radius.
1 /distance unit is also the equivalent of 3 feet (1 yard), while paradoxically also the equivalent of 1 meter.
This is for simplicity's sake since some books clash between the metric system and that other dumb system.
How much can you move before being shot at?
Basically - assuming a turn is 3 to 5 seconds - then the entirety of your movement pool is traversed and as such split during these few seconds, rather than taking place immediately. Common sense, yeah?
It doesn't take a whole 3 seconds to pull the trigger and shoot someone before they manage to flee either, right? Well - no.
Reaction time plays a factor in this - which defers you to your Initiative score. Here's how it works:
To determine how much you move in any given turn before someone reacts, compare your initiative to your opponents.
- If your initiative is greater than theirs by 1-5, you can run a fifth of your movement rate (20% | 1/5) [Movement per turn / 5]
- If your initiative is greater than theirs by 6-10, you can run an additional fifth. (40% | 2/5) [Movement per turn / 5 * 2]
- If your initiative is greater than theirs by 11-15, you can run an additional fifth (60% | 3/5) [Movement per turn / 5 * 3]
- If your initiative is greater than theirs by 16-20, you can run an additional fifth (80% | 4/5) [Movement per turn / 5 * 4]
- If your initiative is greater than theirs by 21+, you can run the entire way before they can react accordingly. [Movement per turn]
- Extra actions from Rage & Celerity occur after the entire movement chain was completed.
- Foresee (Patterns 3), Gut Instincts, Tremor Sense and other similar effects allow you to run 3/5 of your movement rate by default. For each 5 additional initiative points above theirs (6-10), then (11+) - you gain an additional fifth. For this reason, you roll Initiative regardless. Just because you have the Wits part covered and can react quick, doens't mean you are physically capable of doing so in time. Initiative applies here for this reason.
As an example: Damien Meark (38) is desperately fleeing a scene and trying to take cover 30 yards away behind a building. Igor Zdranovich (32) and Anthony Egan (21) are both using ranged attacks against him.
Let's assume Damien has a movement rate of [(15x3)+20] = 65. Igor's initiative is lower by 6, meaning Damien can only run 65/5 x 2 = 26 yards before being hit by a good ole' Ironhammer. He is just 4 yards away from taking full cover and is as such hit directly. Anthony Egan - on the other hand is greatly outmatched. With an initiative that's 17 points lower, he only fires after Damien covers four fifths (52 yards) of his movement rate. By that time, he's in full cover behind the wall and can no longer be hit at all.
Hit and Run tactics are disallowed!
Some of you might be thinking: my initiative is higher, I should be able to step out of cover - shoot someone and then dip back in with just half my movement rate.. since they react too slow, I can do it unharmed, yeehaw!
Hold your horses there buckaroo, cause it aint happening. Even if you have a greater initiative score, if you try and do this - you will be shot at the moment you leave your cover.
If you run at someone, stab then and then run away - they CAN stab you back in that exact moment, even if their initiative is 50 points lower.
"Reflexive" Movement
There are many cases in which a lower initiative target declares an attack, only for the other target to turn around and leave you in the dust. Since you didn't declare moving in pursuit, do you just hang there - unable to reach them or even budge an inch? Technically, you should because you were too lazy to write a "/me rushes towards their target and then strikes", and went with a "/me burns bloodpoint and attacks" instead. Since I dislike the "mean manager" attribute I've been given, I'll give you folks a pass.
If you wish to perform undeclared movement, roll Wits (difficulty 8). If you succeed, you can move at half your rate.
Willpower cannot be spent for an auto success, and you can only attempt this check DURING the declaration phase.
Once the rolling phase is on its way, you are no longer able to alter the course of events.
Flanked Strikes
Attacking someone from the side or from behind confers a difficulty reduction. However, since movement is reflexive, and a defender can spin around like a fidget spinner and block all attacks - it is unfeasible to take advantage of this. Likewise, you cannot use half your movement rate to move behind someone and then strike them. There are two notable exceptions to this, however.
a) The target is stunned or held still, whether by a grapple or other means such as telekinesis. NOTE however that the reductions from Stun/Grapple do not stack with Flanking.
b) The target is overwhelmed by multiple opponents, who coordinate their attacks at the same time. To perform this, the highest initiative attacker assumes position then yields their action until the perfect moment, striking along with the next person. For example, assuming Damien Meark (example above) pulls out his Riot Shield and desperately defends the bullets, Igor Zdranovich can go behind Meark - wait until Egan is ready to fire - and then attack at the same time. This will prevent Meark from turning around at an 180 degree. As a result, at least one of the attackers benefits from -2 to their CQC attacks, and further bypass the need to go around his shield for an effective -4 in difficulty reduction simply by using this tactic.
Jumping
Jumps and leaps are done with a Dexterity + Athletics 3 roll, and usually require a certain amount of successes to cover the distance fully.
Each success on the leap allows you to jump half a SAMP unit in height, or one SAMP unit in length. You can either estimate a distance visually or use /distance. The average height of a wall is 3 meters, so as a rough rule of thumb - each floor you try to leap up to requires 6 sucesses on average.
The following rounded up chart applies to supernatural forms.
For each success you can jump the following /distance SAMP unit:
Humanoid: 0.5 vertical, 1 horizontal
Crinos: 1 vertical, 1.5 horizontal
Hispo: 1.5 vertical, 2 horizontal
Lupus: 1 vertical, 2.5 horizontal