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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 3457689" data-attributes="member: 2804">Difficulty for low level characters is a function of how tough their opponents are. Standing in the open is fine in Spycraft 2.0. I have played it several times. The game is definitely geared towards James Bond/Matrix style cinematics (which IMO suits Star Wars just fine). Even a level 1 character can wade through mooks in that game because the rules make it easy to take mooks down. The rules encourage you to stand there with guns blazing, because thats what happens in cool gun fights in movies.As far as combat rules systems for d20 based games goes, I see it like this:D&D core: A full attack action to make multiple attacks with no movement (other than 5' step), a standard action (which can be a single attack or spell), and a move action (lost if a full action is done). These rules lend themself more to gritty fights where characters find a favorable position and then stay there to take advantage of all their iterative attacks. Fights are quick and brutal. Damage over time or delayed effects rarely come into play because fights usually end quickly due to how fast damage is dealt. Monsters with special abilities and tactics rarely get full use out of them. However, ranged and melee are pretty evenly balanced.Spycraft core: 2 half actions per round, either of which can be move or attacks, heavily favors ranged combatants. Ranged combatants can blast away without having to waste attacks on movement. Melee combatants have to waste actions moving and when they do finally get into melee range they don't get any more attacks than the ranged guy gets. Spycraft compensates a little for this by allowing some melee builds to just be devastatingly effective once they do manage to get in close.Mutants and Masterminds core (and possibly SW Saga): Everyone gets a standard action and a move action per round. This effectively limits all characters to a single attack per round plus they can move which doesn't affect the attack they get. This encourages a more cinematic play style since movement is free (i.e. no tradeoff between moving and attacking needs to be thought about). It brings ranged and melee attackers back into balance. Ranged attackers can stand and shoot, but only get one shot per round while melee attackers get two movement actions to get into position. This mitigates the advantage of ranged combatants over melee attackers who often have to position themselves before they can attack. It also brings back the utility of damage over time effects and allows opponents with different abilities or attacks ample time to bring them to bear because combat lasts longer.</blockquote>

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