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<blockquote data-quote="TBeholder" data-source="post: 7026754" data-attributes="member: 41606">Not &quot;too&quot;, that's the only time Speed Factor could make sense.The problem with Speed Factor is that usually it makes shorter weapons go before longer ones. Derp. Right?It's not inherently nonsensical, however - it's out of context.Common sense tells me Speed Factor would be useful:1) For determining surprise. E.g. if you drop out of invisibility and start swinging a poleaxe, the other guy is not very likely to be still too flatfooted to dodge it by the time you'll go through with this - but shanking someone with a dagger is another matter entirely. Or2) If it actually meant attacking more or less often (perhaps with caveats).Indeed, it came from AD&amp;D1 - which had time quantization with &quot;segments&quot; smaller than &quot;rounds&quot; (which were retained, along with turns, despite being less than meaningful), allowing to have indeed different frequencies. But this approach as implemented in AD&amp;D1 turned out to be an unholy mess and was ditched in AD&amp;D2, while Speed Factor remained as an atavism.Now, e.g. Hackmaster has continuous time too, and it uses weapon speed - but then, it doesn't have 3 arbitrary time units in the way, just seconds.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TBeholder, post: 7026754, member: 41606"] Not "too", that's the only time Speed Factor could make sense. The problem with Speed Factor is that usually it makes shorter weapons go before longer ones. Derp. Right? It's not inherently nonsensical, however - it's [I]out of context[/I]. Common sense tells me Speed Factor [I]would[/I] be useful: 1) For determining surprise. E.g. if you drop out of invisibility and start swinging a poleaxe, the other guy is not very likely to be [I]still[/I] too flatfooted to dodge it by the time you'll go through with this - but shanking someone with a dagger is another matter entirely. Or 2) If it actually meant attacking more or less often (perhaps with caveats). Indeed, it came from AD&D[B]1[/B] - which had time quantization with "segments" smaller than "rounds" (which were retained, [I]along with turns[/I], despite being less than meaningful), allowing to have indeed different frequencies. But this approach [I]as implemented in AD&D1[/I] turned out to be an unholy mess and was ditched in AD&D2, while Speed Factor remained as an atavism. Now, e.g. Hackmaster has continuous time too, and it uses weapon speed - but then, it doesn't have 3 arbitrary time units in the way, just seconds. [/QUOTE]

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