Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 8026003" data-attributes="member: 6776133">I can’t quite envision your WIP game’s process. So I’ll talk about 5E, conceptually. Let’s say that instead of number-based initiative, the turn order in a combat goes Missiles -> Melee -> Magic. In any round, anyone who is freely firing missiles goes first (enemy or ally alike). Once these are complete, anyone who is in melee goes (this includes people with ranged weapons who got caught in melee because they can’t fire freely when someone is messing with them). Once these are complete, spellcasters can fire off their magic spells. Once these are done, the round ends and the next round begins again with those who can freely shoot missiles. Now you wanted the last thing players were doing to affect the combat somehow. In my mind, their marching order stands in pretty well. Usually, you’ve got a forward/scout position (watching for baddies), a navigator/mapper (picking the path and keeping charts), a researcher/investigator (looking for traps, treasure, and secret doors or whatever), and a guard (just someone with weapons at the ready). So that marching order can affect the combat. The adventurer in the guard position can take their first turn during the missile phase. They were ready to spring into position the moment a fight broke out. The Scout can move to a position of their choice right away (perhaps before combat even starts). Having seen the danger, they can decide to fall back and take cover, hide for an ambush, move out to missile range, or move into melee. They’ll act when they shoot, fight, or cast, but to start they get to pick a nice spot to stand and get an advantage. The Navigator and Researcher get no special advantages. They just go when they go - the other two were covering this group. Hm. Then stances? Like you adopt a stance on your turn and it lasts until the start of your next turn.  I immediately think of offensive, defensive, and neutral/support stances. An offensive stance goes first but gives up reactions/quick actions for a speed, to-hit and/or, damage bonus. A defensive stance goes last, gains an AC bump or grants cover perhaps, and can use its two quick actions as attacks during later phases. And a neutral or support stance can decide to act when their phase comes up (between offense and defense) OR they can give up their action this round and “hold” it so they can act in a phase of their choosing in the next round. So in the missile phase, the aggressive shooters go first, the supports go second (or decide to hold), and the defensive shooters go last, and use their quick actions to fire off additional shots later in the round.  Following the missile phase, the melee phase begins. Aggressive combatants first, then neutral stance combatants (fight or hold), and defensive combatants last. Following the melee phase, the magic phase begins. Offensive casters, then neutral support casters (fight or hold), and finally defensive casters. The next round begins with the missile phase but any neutral/support stances that were held last round can jump in any phase they want. So you might get a melee attack or a spell in between the offensive and defensive shooters of round 2. You only need to do an initiative check when two opponents in the same phase have the same stance. (Two aggressive shooter opponents need to determine who fires first). Now this all seems complex but because it follows a pattern I think it’ll be easy and dynamic. Just keep the missile, melee, magic flow and have the players announce their stance when they go. Telegraph the enemy stances so the players can act accordingly.</blockquote>

Verification