Declaring actions and simultaneous actions

[masque]

There seems to be a lot of overthinking of the mechanics in this thread. If I want to run by a guy and shoot at him as I pass, I simply declare 2 actions, and my GM assigns an appropriate difficulty number. I don't see any reason why running towards and away from the dude are two separate actions.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Xynar]

Yes, exactly.
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Xynar
The Great Adventurer

[slaughterj]

[jmanski]

Yes, discussion is good.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[Gry Sarth]

NO! This is a Discussion Board! I won't tolerate any discussion going on here, you barbarians!
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[jmanski]

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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[CmdrDarmic]

Technically, doesn't all action occur, more or less, simultaneously? I mean, everything happens over the course of one 5-second round, but all running does not occur during the first second, then everyone's first shot during the next second, and so on. It is only broken down into steps in order to manage everything as easily as possible and to prevent some of the abuses that have been described in this thread.

I suppose, if you wanted to get really tedious, you could break down everything second-by-second and determine how much movement occurs each second, when each shot occurs, and so on, but that would cut into the enjoyment of the game.

Just remember Rule Number One: Pick a DC and role some dice. Don't punish people for wanting to try something the rules do not specifically cover. Just pick a DC, determine appropraite modifiers, roll some dice, and get on with it. Don't let this one situation drive down your enjoyment of the game.

To be totally honest, the person running across the street isn't going to get much of a shot, anyway. If you try to hit something under the described conditions, it will be more of an accident that you hit your target than any result of skill. To realistically stand a chance of hitting anything, you will have to pause, aim, and then take your shot, and this is covered by the rules. This does not even address the fact that it is a really bad idea to make such an obvious target of yourself.

[jmanski]

RPG's make it easy to "Monday morning quarterback", in a sense. Basically we take minutes to resolve seconds worth of actions.

Another part of the dilema is real life versus cinema. Do you want it to be realistic or cinematic? This is a personal choice- one that our group struggles with a lot. Can you run and shoot someone in real life? Maybe- it would be hard. Can a movie hero run and shoot someone? Yeah, unless the plot calls for him to miss......
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[slaughterj]

[jmanski]

You keep talking about these "artificial restrictions" and such but it seems like you are imposing them on yourself. I don't see any "barriers" that make action scenes less cinematic. Matter of fact, if you check the d6 rules carefully, there is a section that tells you to change rules as you see fit.

If you want cinematic, make it cinematic. Cinematic is kewl 8)
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[Gry Sarth]

I believe that following the rules to the letter is for people who don't have much of a grasp on them yet. Once you're confortable with the rules, you're supposed to have more freedom with them.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[joshrobertson]

While this thread is old, I have found it immensely interesting.

I would add a few things to this topic.

1. Initiative can be better thought of as a tactical advantage, thus the explanation of acting or waiting. If you are on top of a situation you may choose to watch it unfold and act at what you determine to be a critical moment.
2. Moving is an action and a character declares what speed they will be moving at. This speed level will have an impact on their ability to perform any given action as well as the terrain which can add on

Moving and shooting are 2 actions and per the rules that would incur a -1D to those roles. In the provided example the character will be moving across the street. I can only assume that the GM has continued to treat this event as 1 encounter and the initiative roles have remained the same. For this purpose I will assume the character has the initiative drop as the troopers are especially brilliant.
As the GM I would have the troopers taking 3 actions this round. 1st move, 2nd search, and 3rd fire.
Following this line I would have the character act first by moving and as soon as he comes and starts moving this is his first action and no roll is required as it is easy or very easy terrain to cross while at the same time the troopers are moving for their first action. The players second action comes up which is firing. He has only a -1D as he is moving across smooth ground ie. no penalty for crossing very easy terrain and he has only declared 2 actions. The difficulty associated with firing and moving is the -1D, terrain has no effect. The character fires and the troopers search action is basically negated...too bad for them. As the player has no additional actions the troopers have their third action which is firing. This is where some GM action will drop in and give the player a 1/4, 1/2 cover or no cover bonus based on what else is in the street, ie. dumpster, speeder, etc. maybe full cover, but he has run out into the street in plain view! This affords the troopers at the least the option to shoot if they declared that action.

I feel that the earlier discussions were focusing far to much on the “Webster Dictionary Definition” of wording such as "hesitate" or "hold". It is my opinion that wording should be considered in the context of the situation and no hard and fast rule will be able to cover every situation so go back to the often used “just pick a number and roll” rules default.
Hopefully you settled on a course of action long ago, but perhaps this helped and/or confused more people. If anyone aggress with me I would be curious to know that as well.
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I ain't in this for your revolution! I expect to be well paid! --Han Solo, Smuggler

[ifurin]

when i run my games and we get into combat i have my players tell me two things 1.) how many actions they are taking and 2.) what movement rate they will be moving. this lets me know what penalties to give them. i don't make my players move all at once i alow them to move a little bit per turn. usually we all agree on how we are going to do movement that way everyone has input into how the rules will work and it lets them play in a style they enjoy. (we have a tendency to mod the hell out of the rules) this works with my players because they are all experienced WEG star wars players. when i play with WEG noobs then i play more how the rules state to let them get used to things. in the running accross the road example, if i were running the game the ability to shoot the enemy would be based on what the character tells me what they are doing this action. i try to run my games as fluid and as fair as possible.

[joshrobertson]

Very interesting....
So based on the number of actions they are taking in any one particular round that is how you divide the distance they move during that round?
For instance....the move is 10 and they are making 2 actions...moving and shooting...so each action places them 5 meters ahead. In the example of running across the street the first action would place them 5 meters into the street and then they fire at this point and finish the round 5 more meters ahead for the full 10. Is that how you are running things?
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I ain't in this for your revolution! I expect to be well paid! --Han Solo, Smuggler

[ifurin]

we don't necessarly break up movement equally. if a character has a move of 10 and is taking 2 actions this round i'll alow the character to move part of his move (it doesn't have to be half or what ever) then take his shot and then move the rest. it's not how the rules work i know but it worked for our group at the time.