Movement in BRP

[Atgxtg]

Another question for those with BRP ZERO (BTW that''s probably the coolest name yet for the game).

How is movement sequenced in the game. Is the a combat phase then a movement phase? or is conbat and moment occurring at the same time?

For instance, if two characters are having a running gun fight, do they:

1) both shoot, then both move.

2) both move, then both shoot.

3) One shoot and moves, then the other guy shoots and moves.

4) One moves, then shoots, then the other moves and shoots.

[Atgxtg]

No one know how movement works?

[Lord Twig]

In every round you act on your Dex rank. You can move up to 30m if that is all you do. Or you can move 29m or less and act on 1/4 your Dex rank. If you move 15m or less you can act on 1/2 your Dex rank.

If instead you attack on your Dex rank you can also move up to 5m at the same time.

If you can take additional actions, such as firing a gun multiple times a round, each additional action happens on your Dex rank -5. So if you had a Light pistol and wanted to fire 3 times you would need a Dex of 11 or better and would act on Dex, Dex-5 and Dex-10 ranks.

This is a quick and dirty explanation based on my reading the section 5 minutes ago.

[Atgxtg]

Thanks. That's what I needed to know.

[Kloster]

What occurs with the optional strike ranks?

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[NickMiddleton]

What occurs with the optional strike ranks?

Pretty much as RQIII IIRC, at least in the play test draft - you can commence moving on your DEX SR at typically 3m / SR etc.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

[Kloster]

Pretty much as RQIII IIRC, at least in the play test draft - you can commence moving on your DEX SR at typically 3m / SR etc.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

Thanks Nick.

Does that means you're slower with SR than without?

It seems strange.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Celhan]

Thanks Nick.

Does that means you're slower with SR than without?

It seems strange.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

I'm not sure what the anwer is in BRP zero, but a similar question dogged me in RQ3. I expect the answer is "yes, you're slower if you use the SR rules, but then everyone else is proportionally slowed, and the result is a wash (except that higher DEX characters will be faster than lower DEX, because of the strike rank)." But read on.

In the Combat chapter of RQ3, it says you commence movement on your DEX SR. Does this apply every round, or only when you commence a new movement? In subsequent rounds, if you have not reached or changed your objective, do you continue to move on SR 1, 2, and so on, since you're not commencing movement that round?

I know this sounds like a spurious argument. The general rule was that didn't carry over action from one round to the next-- you start moving on your DEX SR every round, and never do anything before that (except sometimes spells, but that was the only named exception).

However, in my most recent campaign game (Elfquest-- but it used the same SR rules as RQIII) I allowed movement on all SR as long as it was movement commenced in some previous round. For example, a PC sights a deer at just outside his thrown spear range; the deer hasn't noticed him. The PC's wolf starts to move at its DEX SR. The deer starts to move at its DEX SR +3 (because it's surprised-- failed its Listen and Scent rolls, I guess). The wolf gains some ground on the deer, showing the intended effect of the SR rules: giving an advantage in speed to the character with the quicker reaction time.

In the following round, assuming the deer's still on its feet, both animals move in all 10 SR (10 x their basic move)... or faster if they push it. The deer doesn't need to leap into a run from a standing start-- it's already going. The wolf's surprise advantage evaporates, and it becomes a pure contest of running speed and endurance.

To continue the example, let's say the following round the PC hears a distress cry from one of his tribe mates behind him. He gives his wolf the signal to break off the chase and turn around... but he can't give that signal to the wolf until his own DEX SR. He ends up 2 full SR of movement further away before the wolf can turn around. If I were feeling particularly mean, I might have the signal given on the PC's DEX SR (say SR3), and have the wolf react on its own DEX SR after that (say SR5).

Anyway, sorry for the digression. I thought this might be of use in the case that BRP Zero uses the RQ3 SR rules verbatim.

[Kloster]

IIRC, in RQ III, You move starts at your DEX SR when moving while doing something else (like fighting). If it is a continuous move and you do nothing else, you start moving at your DEX SR of 1st round, and move 3m (for a human) each SR, like a cart moves each SR.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Celhan]

IIRC, in RQ III, You move starts at your DEX SR when moving while doing something else (like fighting). If it is a continuous move and you do nothing else, you start moving at your DEX SR of 1st round, and move 3m (for a human) each SR, like a cart moves each SR.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Oh... okay. So I made the wrong assumption; but ironically the rules I was playing by were correct in general outline.

Thanks! I feel better about that now.

[deleriad]

IIRC, in RQ III, You move starts at your DEX SR when moving while doing something else (like fighting). If it is a continuous move and you do nothing else, you start moving at your DEX SR of 1st round, and move 3m (for a human) each SR, like a cart moves each SR.

That's not what it says in the RQ3 rulebook. Player's Book p46.

"an adventurer must start moving on the SR equal to his/her DEX SR. ... During the next melee round he can move at 3m. per SR, beginning again on his DEX SR."

[Atgxtg]

That's not what it says in the RQ3 rulebook. Player's Book p46.

"an adventurer must start moving on the SR equal to his/her DEX SR. ... During the next melee round he can move at 3m. per SR, beginning again on his DEX SR."

That's what I thought it said, too.

[soltakss]

Rules must be tempered with common sense.

If you are running, do you stop running for 3 seconds in every 10? No, you carry on.

So, in this case I'd use common sense rather than sticking rigidly to the rules. So, someone who is moving across rounds will keep moving before their normal DEX SR.

Don't forget that in RQ3 Movement is not a combat action, unlike in RQM. I hope it isn't a combat action in BRP but I have a sneaky suspicion that it is going to be.

[Atgxtg]

Rules must be tempered with common sense.

Yeah, but my common sense tells me that some people are faster than others. I always viewed the DEX SR thing to be a way of segmenting the movement so that quicker character could move an extra 6 or 12m.

I think I'll pull out MC and see if it addresses that.

[NickMiddleton]

I always thought Strike Ranks did not exactly equal seconds, they "approximated" to them. And just because the physical actions is divided up in to rounds does NOT mean that what's being described unfolds in the same discontinuous fashion.

I always approached it that rounds, SR's etc. are all just tools to allow us to play as a game with some structure and plausibility dramatic close quarters action that otherwise would be too confusing.

So, DEX SR is an indication of overall speed of reactions. Everyone one "moves" at basically the same moment in any round: but people with better DEX SR (i.e. lower DEX SR) are fractionally faster, or have just read the unfolding situation better and get "the drop" on the other combatants, or are more alert to the important things in the environment of the battlefield - the net effect is that someone one with DEX 20+ covers 27m in a round (DEX SR1, 9 SR of movement at 3m / SR), but someone with DEX 11 covers only 21m (DEX SR 3, 7 SR of movement at 3m / SR). This does NOT mean the DEX 11 character "freezes" for 3 seconds out of every ten in every combat - it means they spend little fractions more working out what's going on or how to achieve what they want here and there throughout the fight.

The SR values are just a way to quantify all the mayhem and split second stuff in a way that makes it easy enough to follow that it can be a playable game.

Oh, and in BRP Zero whilst Move is listed under a heading of "Combat Actions" it is also specifically stated as being for un-engaged combatants (engaged combatants get a much more limited Move allowance).

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

[drohem]

I always thought Strike Ranks did not exactly equal seconds, they "approximated" to them. And just because the physical actions is divided up in to rounds does NOT mean that what's being described unfolds in the same discontinuous fashion.

I always approached it that rounds, SR's etc. are all just tools to allow us to play as a game with some structure and plausibility dramatic close quarters action that otherwise would be too confusing.

So, DEX SR is an indication of overall speed of reactions. Everyone one "moves" at basically the same moment in any round: but people with better DEX SR (i.e. lower DEX SR) are fractionally faster, or have just read the unfolding situation better and get "the drop" on the other combatants, or are more alert to the important things in the environment of the battlefield - the net effect is that someone one with DEX 20+ covers 27m in a round (DEX SR1, 9 SR of movement at 3m / SR), but someone with DEX 11 covers only 21m (DEX SR 3, 7 SR of movement at 3m / SR). This does NOT mean the DEX 11 character "freezes" for 3 seconds out of every ten in every combat - it means they spend little fractions more working out what's going on or how to achieve what they want here and there throughout the fight.

The SR values are just a way to quantify all the mayhem and split second stuff in a way that makes it easy enough to follow that it can be a playable game.

Oh, and in BRP Zero whilst Move is listed under a heading of "Combat Actions" it is also specifically stated as being for un-engaged combatants (engaged combatants get a much more limited Move allowance).

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

Well said sir! I wish I had that cookie emoticon; I give you a baker's dozen! :thumb:

[Atgxtg]

Oh so movement is differenrt for engaged combatants?

No debating, just wondering.

I'm working on something and movement sequencing kinda important.

Basically it along the lines of can someone move into range and shoot before the other gun gets to move and put some distance between the two. Ditto for vehicles.

While I know BRP has a version of the chase rules, I'm thinking along the lines of a running fight or aerial dogfight, or starfighters. I was wondering if it was both move that use the difference for ranging or one moves, shoots, then the other moves, shoots.

Depending on just how it works in the book might make a difference in how I work the maneuvers. When you got starships that move vast distances in a combat turn it can make a big difference of what range penalties apply.

[drohem]

An engaged or unengaged person can move up to 5 meters and make an attack and/or defensive action without penalty.

An unegaged person can move up to 30 meters in a combat round if no other action is taken; except for defensive via parry or dodge.

If a person moves between 6-15 meters in a combat round, then they can act at 1/2 their normal DEX rank.

If a person moves between 16-29 meters, then they can act at 1/4 DEX rank.

Movement modifers to DEX rank are applied first, then any other penalties are applied after.

[deleriad]

I always thought Strike Ranks did not exactly equal seconds, they "approximated" to them. And just because the physical actions is divided up in to rounds does NOT mean that what's being described unfolds in the same discontinuous fashion.

Something Steve Perrin has often said he is unhappy with is the expansion of SRs in RQ3. As Nick says above, SRs were basically an abstraction to help answer the question of who does what when. Unfortunately, RQ3 suffered SR creep where more and more stuff got loaded onto them until they started to look more as if each SR was an interval of time. I remember seeing what happened when I would watch people playing RQ3 with miniatures on a table and they would move their figure 3m each SR and then people would wonder how they could attack someone who had run past them before they could attack on their SR.