combat time *again*

Though your opponent would probably know you're angry and such, if they beat you on initiative you haven't yet drawn your sword. So would they have any reason to pre-empt your attack? Or even to go into defense? It depends on the GMs philosophy, but I'd say that the answer is yes. Effectively it's the same thing as when a duelist knows to strike. Even if you haven't pulled your blade yet, you've committed yourself to doing so - those who roll higher initiative see that commitment and just happen to react faster to your decition than you do. It makes a heck of a lot more sense in my mind than saying that the people with the best reactions can't do anything in the round you draw your blade because they didn't know you were going to do it. That attitude make initiative completely redundant as far as I'm concerned. If initiative does not actually determine who goes first, what is its point?

I really do not like the idea of forced actions. When someone wants to attack someone, they are not committed to the attack. If they decide to attack and then want to change their mind, they can make a feint or some other 'non-attack' attack. But when somebody initiates combat, it should be clear that that's what they do. Otherwise, you run into situations where the defender appears to be making the first aggressive move simply because he won initiative. Samurai Bill is a dishonourable dog and decides to attack mild-mannered Samurai Joe without warning, first walking up close with his sword in its saya. Unfortunately for him, he's really slow and Joe reacts fast enough to prepare for the attack, drawing his sword and taking up a defensive stance. Bill decides not to do draw at all, starts crying like a little girl and accuses Joe of being a murderous psycho. What's up with that? Heck, Bill could do this on purpose if he was sure enough he wouldn't get cut down.

Samurai Bill is a dishonourable dog and decides to attack mild-mannered Samurai Joe without warning, first walking up close with his sword in its saya. Unfortunately for him, he's really slow and Joe reacts fast enough to prepare for the attack, drawing his sword and taking up a defensive stance. Bill decides not to do draw at all, starts crying like a little girl and accuses Joe of being a murderous psycho. What's up with that? Heck, Bill could do this on purpose if he was sure enough he wouldn't get cut down. Doing this intentionally wouldn't even be a problem in my mind. However it would mean that if Bill won the initiative he shouldn't be able to attack. The problem is being able to have it both ways. If you win initiative you get your attack, if you lose initiative you can claim that you never intended to attack in the first place. Even though combat turns are treated as discrete, we are told to consider them as roughly simultaneous - that means that if Bill was going to attack, his hand should at least be on his blade as Joe settles into stance. If Bill subsequently decides to play the bullied coward (next round), that's fine - but at very least Joe will know that Bill intended to draw, and anyone else who was watching when the 'fight' broke out would have a chance of having seen the truth. And how would this scenario fit my 'intent forces action' model? Simple, Bill intentionally fails his forced Iaijutsu roll (leaving his sword in it's scabbard and his hand upon it).

I plan on hammering this out for Masters of War as this is a very common question (right after two weapons fighting giving an extra attack). What starts combat time? What happens if the faster character doesn't know combat has started and what action can he take since he doesn't know he is going to be attacked?

The way I play this is with a character (PC or NPC) 'going for their sword' or the equivalent. At that point they roll initiative and sometimes the person who went for their sword first is not the first to strike. I don't see a problem with that. Player: I go to draw my sword! Rolls initiative GM: Before you get to strike, the Kenshinzen bisects you. No need for forced actions, the intent was declared, all parties believed it was going to kick off, even if someone may have chickened out and gone FD depending on the rolls, so all go for their weapons. You lose you die. Simple as. Personally I only allow characters to focus once before it kicks off. Maximum. You have a nice LOS on your target? Sure, take aim and when you're ready to fire roll initiative. If you beat them, you get your raise. If they beat you, they get to go FD. Deal with it.

View Full Version: combat time *again*

View Full Version: combat time again