Initiative Roll and Action Points
From Sagataflwiki
This article is about the Initiative Roll, to generate a number of Action Points (APs) for each character per Round, with the higher number of APs getting to act first.
This article will also touch upon Action Point expenditure, and the concept of the "Bank" for storing unused APs that can carry over to the next Round, but these subjects will be dealt with in greater detail in separate articles (especially Action Point expenditure!).
Contents |
The Reflexes Roll
The Initiative Roll is a roll for the Reflexes derived statistic (derived from Dexterity and Intelligence (Thinking Speed), modified by an Advantage), that generates a number of Action Points. To this is added any Action Points stored in the AP Bank (often just called "Bank" or "the Bank"), and this total number determines the initiative count, when the character gets to act.
For instance, Helen rolls 2S to generate 12 APs and has nothing stored in her Bank. Roberto rolls 1S to generate 11 APs and has 2 APs stored in his Bank, so his AP total is 13 AP and therefore he gets to act first.
| Roll | Result (Always) |
|---|---|
| 1S | 11 AP |
| 2S | 12 AP |
| 3S | 13 AP |
| 4S | 14 AP |
| 5S | 15 AP |
| +1S | +1 AP |
| Roll | Result (Normal) | Warrior Reflexes I | Warrior Reflexes II |
|---|---|---|---|
| f-1 | 8 AP | 8 AP | 8 AP |
| F-2 | 6 AP | 6 AP | 7 AP |
| F-3 | 4 AP | 5 AP | 6 AP |
| F-4 | 2 AP | 3 AP | 5 AP |
| F-5 | 0 AP | 1 AP | 3 AP |
| F-6 | =0 AP | 0 AP | 1 AP |
Any result from F-5 and up generates a number of APs that are added to the APs stored in our Bank. A roll result of F-6, however, generates zero AP and also causes you to lose any APs stored in your Bank.
Some characters have Martial Arts Stunts that alters the Fumble outcomes. Normally you look in the second column under Result, but some characters have the Stunt Warrior Reflexes I; they look in the third column. A few have Warrior Reflexes II, and look in the fourth column. These Stunts represent experience in useful combat reactions and habits.
Action Point usage
Action Points can be used to four different types of Actions:
- Offensive Actions
- Reactions (usually defensive)
- Move Actions or Steps
- Other Actions
Some actions cost one or more Rounds to perform, and have little or no AP costs, or they cost a fraction of a Round (usually 1 Second or 1/10 Second) and still have little or no AP cost, such as Spellcasting.
Reactions are special in that they are performed out-of-turn as a reaction (hene the name) to some other character's actions. Usually, a reaction is defensive action in response to an offensive action, e.g. if Roberto tries to swing his mace at Helen, she gets to attempt to Dodge, Block, Deflect or Parry, even though it's not her turn to act.
Offensive Actions
Offensive actions are normal attacks, and special attacks such as Power Strike, Critical Strike and Precise Strike, but also attempts to Trip or Disarm.
Charge is a Move Action, as explained further down, not classified as an Offensive Action
Reactions
Reactions are usually defensive in nature, such as Parry (using a weapon), Deflect (the equivalent of parry but done unarmed), Block (using a shield to parry) and Dodge (which normally costs 1 Fatigue Point and requires the character to move 1 hex randomly). A Reaction is always performed in response to another character's action.
A special Reaction is the Tactical Strike, performed as a response to a character moving into an adjacent hex to the one one is standing in, without this other character performing a Charge on oneself. A Tactical Strike functions as a normal attack, except the AP cost is lower. Usually much lower. Tactical Strikes are therefore highly useful to "control ground", serving to discourage enemies from trying to run or otherwise move past one, e.g. to get within melee range of more vulnerable allies further behind (traditionally, the lightly armoured noncombatant spellcaster).
Move Actions
Move Actions are actions that lets the character move a number of hexes, noting that some hexes cound double or triple because of obstacles or otherwie being difficult Terrain. The three most common Move Actions are Walk, Run and Charge.
Walk is a "safe" Move Action, one that can be performed in relative safety even on ground that is slippery, covered with caltrops or marbled, or otherwise difficlt. Run is more efficient, you get to move further per AP, but it's not safe, so if you Run over unsafe ground, you risk becoming unbalanced or even falling prone. Running also costs 1 Fatigue Point per Move Action.
Charge combines a movement with a melee or unarmed attack (or with a weapon attack, such as a crossbow or firearm), and costs 2 FP. Like Run, it is an unsafe Move Action, when the surface moved over is dangerous.
Characters are softly limited to 2 Move Actions per Round. If a character wishes to perform a 3rd Move Action in any given Round, he must pay 1 FP in addition to all other costs (e..g for Run or Charge), and a 4th Move Action has an added cost of 3 FP.
A 5th Move Action is largely hypothetical, it'll be very rare for a character to be able to afford 5 Move Actions in a Round, even with many Banked APs, a good Initiative Roll, and Martial Arts Stunts to reduce the AP cost of Walking. Solid rules for the 5th Move have not yet been made, but are likely to cost 5 FP, limit the chracter to a Walk, treating this Walk as unsafe (as if it was a Run), and costing 1 Willpower Point.
Step
The Step does not count as a Move Action, so a character can perform as many as these as he wants, as long as he can pay the AP cost. The AP cost depends on the character's Fleetness, but is usually 2 APs per hex.
Steps are a "safe" movement option, so there's no need to worry over dangerous ground, and also they do not cost Fatigue Points (except maybe in borderline absurd cases, like trying to Step in tournament plate mail; creating rules for this is hardly a priority).
Other Move Actions
Other possible Move Actions include Jumping, Sneaking, Crawling and various Parkour-like actions. These count as Move Action, thus sofly limiting the character to 2 per Round.
Swimming and Climbing will most likely be full-Round actions, and thus not need to be handled as Move Actions, but this is not certain yet.
Other Actions
Other Actions may cost APs, or be full-Round Actions. A full-Round Action still costs 1 AP, just to prevent characters who rolled F-6 on Initiative from performing them. Any excess APs may be banked.
Spellcasting
Spellcasting counts as an Other Action, but special rules need to be made for Spellcasting with an CTI of less than 1 Round, e.g. 1 Second or 1/10 Second.
One option is that CTI 1s Spellcasting happens on the Initative Counts of 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2, with the Spell finishing and being cast once the required Progres has been accumulated. One problem with this is that if a Spell goes off on the count of 6 and is an attack spell, the target may not have enough APs to perform a Defensive Action.
For normal CTI 1 Round Spellcasting, if a Spell is completed in a given Round, then it is cast immediately when the next Round begins at a cost of 1 AP, after which the caster can spend the entire Round beginning to cast another Spell, or he can use his remaining APs for someting else.
The AP Bank
The AP Bank is a character's ability to store unused Action Points that can then be used in the next Round, and which also serves to improve his AP Count so that he gets to act sooner.
All Mammalian and Avian characters automatically have a Bank that can contain 1 AP, due to their neural structure. More primitive life forms may not have this, although note that highly evolved reptiles, e.g. lizardmen, are likely to have quite sophisticated central nervous systems; the statement applies only to terrestrial life forms (but including dinosaurs!).
The Bank is the total amount of APs that may be stored, not the amount that may be accumulated per Round. The Bank size can also be increased via Lores and Martial Arts Stunts. It's fairly easy to get it to size 2 via a Lore, then to size 3 via a cheap Stunt and then to size 4 via an expensive Stunt. All of this has the Tactics: Individual Skill as a prerequisite, although larger scale Tacticss Skills can substitute as per the usual rules.
A larger Bank obviously increases the character's tactical flexibility, and any serious melee or unarmed fighter has a Bank size of 3. A Bank of 4 is attractive, but there are many other Stunts that may be more interesting, dependig on who and what the character is.
Getting more in depth
Examples II
Advice
Include any and all pertinent advice here. The goal is to increase the chance of each player having fun, by giving advice helping the player to decide whether to buy the ability or not (if the article is about one or more abilities) or use the option (if the article is about something that characters can choose to do), and later on how to make use of the ability (e.g. to avoid any pitfalls that aren't extremely obvious).
Please note
Clarify, elaborate, try to predict and answer questions that are somewhat likely to be asked during character creation or during play.
Mini-FAQ
Put in sub-sections (three ='s) each containing multiple Q&As, and insert a blank line between each individual Q&A.
sub-section
Q:
A:
Q:
A:
The world
A section mainly for the GM, or worldbuilder, about the world impact of the phenomenon, e.g. an Item Creation Power, or an attribute or other stat that may sometimes be starkly high or low relative to the Human average.
World impact
Talk about the effect on the world that this phenomenon would realistically have (taking into account such facts of human nature as greed, ambition and sexual impulses).
The Ärth setting
Talk about how this trait appears and functions in the Ärth historical fantasy setting.
Design Notes
Talk briefly about what the purpose of the mechanic is. Omit this section if it is extremely obvious to the target audience.
Quick mini-glossary
Explain terms of great relevance to the subject matter of the article here, but not terms that are of generally great importance (e.g. RD).
See also
Action Point table (This is a temporary article!)
Table to use
| A | B | C |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
