Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tactical Movement
People seem to find tactical movement a little challenging, I’m not sure why. Here’s my simplistic model:
Play on a hex map. Each hex is 5’ (half a turns movement). You must end movement in a hex, no weird, “I’m 12 feet away” tricks, this isn’t HeroClix. Movement seems normal so far, right?
To move, on your turn, declare your move. As a free action, you can move 10’, no roll required, except to deal with movement difficulty. Or, you can choose to stretch your movement. Declare your intent; your final move must be consistent with this intent. Make your roll, obeying timing engine constraints (thoughts to come). Decide if you’re using the full roll (full action), or whatever you beat critically (free action). Move that distance, assuming you also beat the movement difficulty associated with each hex you are moving through.
What’s movement difficulty? Terrain might have difficulties associated with it. A square occupied by an enemy is implicitly opposed by the enemy’s choice of combat abilities (Melee/Fight). Also, enemies may have imposed a tactical difficulty on a given set of hexes.
Tactical difficulty - as a free action, a character may attempt to constrain the battlespace. To do so, they assert how they are doing so, and make a Tactics roll to constrain a set of hexes (with a penalty of -5 x ((number of hexes-1)+(gap in hexes between affected hexes and character)). The difficulty is applied to those hexes until the end of the round. Example: Tan Dun wants to make it difficult for Amethyst Ting to get past him to attack Number Seven Swallow. Having beaten Amethyst Ting on Initiative, he takes a free action to constrain two hexes out from him (building a five hex wide barrier). He rolls his Tactics (3+1) with a -15 modifier (4 hexes, no gap between himself and the nearest hexes, and all hexes are adjacent). He rolls (3,5,8,8, and matches an 8 in his river. His roll of 38 thus imposes a movement difficulty of 23 on all four squares. Amethyst Ting will need at least 33 (or 23+lightfoot 2) to pass him this turn.
