The middle way of movement systems?

[Brazeku]

As a Long (I mean Standard in d20 terms) action, you can make an Athletics check opposed by the Perception of your opponent. If you succeed, you move two ranges and Provoke other opponents only if you move 3 or more ranges relative to them. If you fail, you move one range, provoke normally, and Provoke your opponent as well.

I'm kinda curious about this. You provoke them if you move 3 or more ranges relative to them... does this mean they have to be moving in a different direction for you to provoke them? If so, why?

I am also generally leery of zone based mechanics, because unless there is a standardized zone size, things like area effects are going to get wonky. What if you want your area effect to straddle several zones? Line of sight could wind up being a mess, determining cover for individual sections of a zone. I dunno, it looks like a simplification but it seems really arbitrary.

EDIT: I'm assuming this is for no-miniatures play. I don't understand why you'd need a zone system unless you were running without miniatures.

 

[Ry]

With the normal short action, you can move 1 range increment. But let's say you're at Long range relative to a Manticore and Close range relative to a goblin. If you move from Long to Extreme relative to the manticore (1 range), you might move from Close to Short to Medium range with the Goblin (2 ranges). In this case, you Provoke the goblin because you're 'really' moving 2 ranges. The goblin can only attack if it has a ranged weapon handy.

With the Athletics check, you can move 2 range increments. But if you move 3 range increments relative to another target, you provoke them.

 

[Ry]

I'd like Legends to be mini or no-mini friendly. As for area of effects, the idea at least is to have a small number of distances. Legends doesn't inherit everything D&D has in terms of spells, so a spell could be defined as: affects everything within short range of target, within close range of target, within melee range of target, and so on.

 

[Brazeku]

With the normal short action, you can move 1 range increment. But let's say you're at Long range relative to a Manticore and Close range relative to a goblin. If you move from Long to Extreme relative to the manticore (1 range), you might move from Close to Short to Medium range with the Goblin (2 ranges). In this case, you Provoke the goblin because you're 'really' moving 2 ranges. The goblin can only attack if it has a ranged weapon handy.

With the Athletics check, you can move 2 range increments. But if you move 3 range increments relative to another target, you provoke them.

I understand now. I didn't notice the post above that indicated that there are different measures for the different ranges. That's an interesting mechanic, and I think it could make for neat spells and effects.

It's not less complicated, though. I don't think it will be faster than just regular measurement - the reason being that you are still defining the different ranges in terms of meters, relative to each other no less. You still have to keep track of how far something moves to determine whether or not something provokes or if additional targets will be caught in an area - so basically you're adding an extra calculation (sometimes several) in. You have to say 'I'm moving from medium to long range - that is 60 to 100 meters, therefore I've moved 40 meters. Now in relation to this guy I'm standing next to, I've moved 40 meters which is close to short (10 to 30) to the beginning of medium (40 meters) (this is all assuming the numbers you've given are the outer limits of the ranges as opposed to the inner). This could be a real nightmare in dealing with group battles.

EDIT: meters! Even though I'm a Canadian, I'm so used to seeing feet that that's what I wrote. Heck, in my own system I use YARDS.

As an aside: If you made all the ranges equal in size, some of the problems I mentioned above would be mitigated, but it would be very similar to just making the distance measurement system coarser and revising the provoking rules.