Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack/act

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Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack/act

Unread post by Asta »

Do you divide the attacks per round by the movement speed? Also, can a PC do anything while moving during an attack/action?
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Asta wrote:Do you divide the attacks per round by the movement speed?


Yes. You have a maximum distance you can run per melee round, and all your attacks per melee are divided in it if you do so.

Note, Shooting while running means it is a wild shot, so generally you want to minimize movement during a fight.

Also, can a PC do anything while moving during an attack/action?


Yes, so long as what you are doing is not, itself, taking an attack/action. You could, say, radio for help while running for cover and shooting at whatever you are running from (however, shooting while running like that would be a wild shot)

In genearl, Palladium is not designed for any kind of map based tactical play, and it's rules strongly discourage movement during combat by penalizing shots on the run heavily. Melee Attackers lack a penalty for moving to a target then attacking, but a complete lack of flanking rules means there is no real benefit to doing so.

It's closer to an action movie or Anime. Everyone has armor or is naturally very tough with dozens or hundreds of SDC/MDC and it takes many attacks to down one target. positioning is usually more about setting up cool setpeices or stragetic advantage than tactical bonuses.
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Glistam »

I've heard that the free preview for the Palladium Fantasy cutouts available online contain tactical movement rules of some sort that were "approved" by Kevin, making them some version of "official."
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Glistam wrote:I've heard that the free preview for the Palladium Fantasy cutouts available online contain tactical movement rules of some sort that were "approved" by Kevin, making them some version of "official."


No, the paper minatures are an optional product, which puts them in the same unoffical catagory as Rifter material. palladium is weird in that "Published by palladium" dosn't automatically mean "Endorsed by palladium".
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Killer Cyborg »

Asta wrote:Do you divide the attacks per round by the movement speed?


Kinda.
IIRC, there was an official character sheet that had it broken up that way, but I don't know of any official rule to that effect.
The problem if you do things that way (official or not) is that characters with more attacks end up being slower than characters with few attacks.
Say you have a monster with only 1 attack per melee, compared to a Merc with 5 attacks per melee.
If they can each run 100 yards per melee, then that monster will run at a speed of 100 yards per attack, and the Merc will run at a speed of 20 yards per attack.
So say the Merc wins init, and he starts running... he'll run his 20 yards, then the monster will run 100 yards, then the Merc will run another 20, then the Merc will run another 20, then the Merc will run another 20 yards, then the Merc will finally get to the finish line where the Monster is waiting patiently because he's all out of attacks.
Which doesn't make any sense.

Instead, you might try dividing the attacks per round of the character with the most attacks by the speed of each character, to find their speed in that particular combat round.
So in the race above, each character would move at a rate of 20 yards per second, regardless of how many attacks they happen to have.

Or, simpler, assume a standard of 5 attacks per melee for everybody, and divide 5 by their Speed for everybody.

It might not match up with their attacks exactly, but compensating for that will be less hassle than having slow, untrained combatants outrun fast, highly-trained combatants with equal speed any time there's a sprint.

Also, can a PC do anything while moving during an attack/action?


Yup.
If they try firing a gun, though, they'll be firing Wild as a rule, and there will be penalties.
And there will probably be penalties and/or skill checks if they're doing anything else, too.
This is one of the "common sense" areas, where the GM has final say on what exactly can and can not be done.
As a GM, I might allow a well-trained character swap out clips while running, especially if he drops the empty on the ground.
As a GM, I would probably NOT allow a character to perform surgery or first-aid on another character slung over his shoulder while he's running. Not without some pretty high penalties, anyway. ;)
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

Asta wrote:Do you divide the attacks per round by the movement speed? Also, can a PC do anything while moving during an attack/action?

Within reason a PC can do anything while moving during an attack/action. What I mean is that some things will take more actions to complete than others.

Movement speed /divided by the attacks per round would be how to go about it. However, I would make sure everything is being done in the same units since some movement can be listed in mph/kph for vehicles/PA but Spd attribute is something else. What you could also do is work out the speed in units per second, and how long in seconds a given action is (may want to round down/up for simplicity here). From there its multiplication of the two values for the maximum distance in one melee action. Its a longer way to get to the desired result.

As Killer Cyborg said, characters with more attacks can appear to be slower than ones with fewer attacks, Though this applies in short term (per attack), but in long term (per melee) it may not. Sort of why I suggest the longer route as that will showcase who is really faster better since an action is not a uniform measure of time.

Also the Speed Attribute already tells you how fast you can move per second. SPD *5 = Number of Yards per melee (15sec). There are 3 feet per yard, so SPD *5*3 (or SPD*15) gives Speed in feet per 15seconds.

That means SPD*5*3 /15 = number of feet per second, or simplified SPD = number of feet per second.
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Glistam »

Remember though that Spd is the fastest a character can go - it's their maximum, full-on sprint speed. One does not casually just move their speed attribute in feet every second. You book that.
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Killer Cyborg »

Glistam wrote:Remember though that Spd is the fastest a character can go - it's their maximum, full-on sprint speed. One does not casually just move their speed attribute in feet every second. You book that.


Good point.
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Re: Newbie question- How far can a PC move during one attack

Unread post by Augur »

Here's my formula:
SPD x 20 = yards per minute
x 3 = feet per minute
divided by 4 (melees per minute) = feet per melee
divided by APM = max. possible feet run per action
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