Actually it's my understanding that you divide movement by the number of phases in the turn, not by the number of phases that the character has. Which could mean that someone with a low speed may not act until much later in the turn. For simplicity if you have multiple speeds in an encounter, I'd suggest that you divide movement by 4 and consider everyone moving at only 1/4 their movement per phase. If someone wants to move further than 1/4 their movement and then act, they act in a later in the turn. So if a 1 speed character wants to walk 4m then act, they start their movement on their action on phase 1 but do not actually take their action until phase 4. I would consider them delaying action until then. I hope that makes sense. *edit* OneTrik beat me to it. :)

With a speed of 1 you can charge that enemy, but you may not arrive at his location until a much later phase. When you arrive you can take your complex action (having withheld it until you arrive). This does mean that if the enemy has multiple phases you could be taking shots as you charge in. Melee sucks in ranged-combat based games... Don't bring a knife to a gun fight, you'll lose. =)

So...let me understand clearly: characters can walk 1m per action phase or run 5m?

so, considering the "normal" movement of 4/20, if one character has speed=1, can move 1/5, if speed=2 2/10, if speed=3 3/15, if speed=4 4/20? I realize that only now O_O

Nicochan wrote:

so, considering the "normal" movement of 4/20, if one character has speed=1, can move 1/5, if speed=2 2/10, if speed=3 3/15, if speed=4 4/20?

Nope. :) Every one can move thier "Movment Rate" in meters every turn. If your movment rate is (4/20, 8/40, 50/200, whatever) you can move that far in one [u]Turn[/u] no mater how many Action Phases you have. Sometimes it's important to know how far a character has moved in the just the first or second phase of the turn. "can my character make it to cover before the other character shoot's him?" The best way is the book way. Look at the number of passes in the turn, this will be determined by the character(s) with the highest Speed stat. Divide the movement-per-Turn of all character's by that number to get movement-per-Action-Phase. So sometimes movment-per-Action-Phase will be divided by two or three or, rarely, four. This is the method that is fair to everyone all the time. It doesn't screw fast characters by allowing slow characters to reach cover before they should. It doesn't screw slow characters by limiting their movement to something less than what they should be able to achieve in a turn. It's probably best not to over simplify things. If you go the (movement)÷4 route, someone will end up getting screwed out of distance because there's usually no one with 4 action phases.

I guess I don't understand how people deal with the ÷4 method when there's only 2 or 3 phases in the turn. It seems to me that it kind of messes up the simultaneity of actions in an action turn. (Something a GM should take care to describe or the 3 second Action Turn becomes a bunch of mini-turns) In the example of the speed 1 character acting in the 4th phase. If the turn only had two phases when does the speed 1 character who needs to run 20 meters get to act? Does he still have to wait for the "4th phase"? Does every one get 4 phases for movement even if everyone has completed their actions by the second phase? Or is movement backlogged and he moves 5 meters in the first phase, and 15 meters in the second phase cause there are not really 4 action phases? Aside from 1 npc I threw in just to be a dick :D I don't think we've ever had a character in the party with SPD 4 so, trust I'm not being critical, just wondering.

Any game with phases automatically breaks down the turn into mini-turns by its very nature. The only real difference between divide by 4 and divide by speed is that everyone knows just how far they move in a fraction of a second in the divide by 4 method, where as in the divide by speed method no one knows how far they can move until they determine how fast the fastest person is. So with /speed you may be able to move 20m then act in one combat, but the next combat rolls around and you can only run 4m before you have to act (or withhold your action until later in the turn). And the /speed becomes even more crazy when you have a character enter the fight part-way through with a higher speed than anyone had earlier in the fight. Where /4 stays stable. Anytime someone wants to move then act they can take their action at the end of their movement. It keeps is simple. The only thing complicated is how far can the character move in a fraction of a second. Divide by 4 makes this a fixed value, divide by speed makes it a variable value. I'm not sure I can simplify this any further. The only difference in game play between /4 and /speed is with /4 there is an invisible, inactive, non-interactive NPC with a speed of 4 in the combat. *edit* On a side note, as long as there is an initiative there is no simultaneity. The only things that happen at the same time are when two or more people roll the same initiative score. Because actions are (on your initiative score) declare then resolve actions there really is no simultaneity.

Thanks guys. To me combat takes too long as it is. I usually try to avoid it. When 1+ hours of real time are used to show 6 seconds of game time, it makes it really hard for me to see things happening all at once I guess. I think I'm going to pose to my group my house rule of only 1 phase and see what they think. We've only had one combat so far (one 3 play sessions intotal playing EP), but after 20 years playing ShadowRun I'm very familiar with how slow combat can be with multiple passes/phases. I'm also very aware of how bored people with slow characters can get when there are a couple of fast ones in the fight. I think the longest/shortest combat I've ever run (once familiar with a system) was a ShadowRun fight after 5 hours (real time) of dice rolling and actions only to look back over the area and see that less than 1 minute of game time had gone by I (as GM) simply said "you guys win, I'm sick of dice" and we moved on. I can see EP doing the same thing mostly because of phases and breaking down the turns. Lucally we are all new enough to the system that moving to a 1 phase house rule will be painless. Thanks for all the insight.

This is the house rule that I proposed to my group: Suggested: Rather than Speed being how many phases you act in, all combat turns are only 1 phase long, your speed stat determines how many d10 you roll for initiative. So high speed still contributes to combat by increaseing your initiative score. I would also limit your number of quick actions to Speed +1 (unless otherwise noted). Breakdown: Pros: Easier combat progress (no slow person left behind) Easier movement breakdown (everyone can move their full movement on their action) Obvious limits on quick actions Combats will likely last longer (game time, not real time) Melee combat more viable (charging will actually get you where you're going) Cons: More Initiative rolls per combat Speed stat not quite as useful (is reducing a "must have" stat a con?) It's a house rule Now I just have to wait and see what the response is....

Well the team decided to not adopt the house rule. We are still running combat by the RAW system with the exception of Quick Actions. Though I suppose the way the rules are written it is up to the GM how many quick actions a character can take on their action phase so limiting quick actions to Speed+1 is still RAW as long as that's what the GM wants. :)

D-Miller wrote:

This is the house rule that I proposed to my group: Suggested: Rather than Speed being how many phases you act in, all combat turns are only 1 phase long, your speed stat determines how many d10 you roll for initiative. So high speed still contributes to combat by increaseing your initiative score. I would also limit your number of quick actions to Speed +1 (unless otherwise noted).

Similar idea I've seen done in a lot of Turn/Phases mechanics that builds on this is you roll one init die per SPD, and each INIT die represents the init count that an action happens on. Similar house rules have been used in Shadowrun as well. So, for example, a Fury morph with SPD 2 would roll 1d10 + INIT and 1d10 + INIT, recording both numbers. During the turn, the phases are thrown out, and you simply get to take a Complex Action on each Init Count that matches numbers you rolled. So, if that Fury rolled an 11 and a 14, they would get to act on count 14, and again on count 11. You simply divide movement for that character up by number of available complex actions. This serves a few purposes-- 1. High SPD characters, rolling more than one init, will more likely have at least one that goes before most of their low SPD opponents. 2. Rather than being in the first phase, and then getting wailed on in later phases, SPD 1 characters are more likely to act in 'about the middle' of the turn. 3. Everyone goes on their init counts. When all init counts have passed, you roll init and start over. You don't have to remember to pass through the 4 phases and don't risk missing or doubling up on one in a long fight. 4. If using the option to roll and keep init once, this really speeds up the flow of combat and makes it easy to remember who goes when. {Edit} 5. Just considered this, a person with a SPD 2+ also has the option of delaying their highest init action to react to combat conditions ("I'll hold a shot ready on that corner in case the enemy tries to rush our hacker") and using their lower init actions for what they want to do. My two cents. This is what I've suggested to the GM for our upcoming game, who is admittedly a little intimidated by the combat rules, and is relying on my experience to help him make sense of it.