GURPS Combat: Action Points This is a largely not playtested version, last altered 20 Aug 98. You can copy and alter the material in here freely, as long as my name(and the nature of the changes) is added. This system replaces only the core of the combat system. The sections on ranged and close combat remain in place, for instance, substituting an Attack action for a Step And Attack maneuver, etc. Setup This system uses yard-hex maps, same as the regular system. Each character needs a copy of the charsheet expansion at the end of this file, preferrably a filled-out one. Action Action Points Actions are now based on a character's Action Rate, which is four times their Base Move. A character gets their Action Rate in Action Points(AP) per Turn, which are spent to perform actions. If not spent, they don't carry over to the next Turn; however, they can be spent toward an action requiring more points than you have available - by spending the remainder in the next Turn, you complete the action. An action can't take place until all the AP required have been spent toward it. Example: Thrax is in a fight. He takes three steps toward his opponent(directly in front of him, so it costs 12 AP) and begins an attack. An attack takes 10 AP, but he only has 9 left, so in the next Turn he spends 1 AP to complete the attack. Time Time is measured in fractions of an Action Rate. In the above example, Thrax moved forward for 12/21 or 57% of his AP; if his opponent were moving toward him the same distance, but had an Action Rate of 19, the opponent would have spent 12/19 or 63% of his AP. Thrax would arrive slightly before his opponent(.06 seconds, to be exact). Thrax would make his attack after 1/21 or 5% of his AP in the next Turn, and if his opponent tried to attack immediately after moving he'd take 3/19 or 16% of his AP to attack Thrax - Thrax would hit first(5% is before 16%). Pausing, Splitting, And Aborting A character can make two actions at once, by splitting the AP between them. This is important to Thrax's opponent, since he can't attack Thrax before Thrax hits him, but he could Block or Parry in the middle of the attack. If he really needed to Block fast, he could pause the attack to Block. If an action is paused for more than (HT * 4) AP, however, the character suffers 1 Fatigue. Every (HT * 4) more AP is another Fatigue. Paused time accumulates; if Thrax's opponent's HT is 10, and he pauses for 20 AP, continues the attack, and pauses it again for 21 AP, he suffers 1 Fatigue because the total time paused was just over 40 AP. An action can be aborted altogether by spending 1 AP. Some actions have penalties for stopping(pausing or aborting) in the middle. Unless specified otherwise, the action just doesn't happen. Waiting And Tiring A character can give up AP without doing anything. They're considered to spend the AP on waiting, which isn't an action. In fact, it's a good idea if a fight starts to last; I hereby offer the Fast Action optional rule. (You'll probably need some counters to represent your current Rest Count, which starts at zero.) In a period of 20 AP, if you spend no more than 5 AP on actions, your Rest Count goes down one(but never goes negative). If you spend 6 to 14 AP on actions, nothing happens. And if you spend 15 or more on actions, your Rest Count goes up by one. If your rest count reaches your HT, suffer one Fatigue and reset your Rest Count to zero. Actions Movement A step in a forward direction costs 4 AP if you turn in that direction while moving(only possible while moving into a forward hex), or 8 if you sidestep into it. After sidestepping, you can spend 4 AP to pivot to that direction, or you can spend 8 AP to continue one hex in that direction and pivot to the opposite. Stopping movement costs 1 AP(this is the same AP as to abort the movement). A one-hexside standing change of facing costs 3 AP. Changing position takes 15 AP if done alone, or 5 AP if split with an attack, feint, readying, concentrating, or done while such an action is paused. You *can't* then abort the action, though you can change it into a regular, 15AP change of position. Stopping a change of position costs 5 AP(the AP for aborting counts toward this), unless you want to fall. Some characters have a movement rate that is *not* equal to their Base Move. Encumbrance can also cause this. For such characters, take their Base Move and divide by their movement rate, and multiply the AP costs above by the result. (So a character with a Base Move of 10 and a movement rate of 30 would spend one and a third AP to travel one yard.) Readying Readying an item normally takes 10 AP. Readying an item from a rack, or from a person holding it out to you, or holding an item out to a person, takes 15 AP. The rack or person must be in your hex or an adjacent hex. Offense Attacking takes 10 AP. An all-out attack takes 20 AP, and gives either a +4 to skill or a +2 to damage. An all-out attack suffers a -1 to skill and -1 to damage if made while moving away from the target. If your opponent could see you initiate the attack from the beginning, they get a +2 to their active defense. Attacks are resolved just as in the Basic or Advanced systems in the gamebook. I suggest treating the attack and defense as a Contest of skill. Feinting takes 10 AP. Roll a Contest of your combat skill against your opponent's combat skill, shield skill, or DX(whichever's better). If you beat them, subtract your success margin from their active defenses(can't go negative) until they spend 20 AP. Note that while attacks suffer a +2 to defense if telegraphed, that's not a problem with a feint. Defense Parrying or blocking takes 4 AP. Dodging requires at least a half-hex of movement to be happening at the same time as the attack, and costs 2 AP. (A half-hex of movement costs 2 AP, reduces the Dodge roll by 2, and simply shifts the character around in the hex.) If you can get in multiple defenses before an attack hits you can defend multiple times, but only one of them can be a Dodge. Use the best result. Other Concentration takes 15 AP to get that Turn's worth of concentration. This does *not* normally mean a character with an Action Rate of 30 can concentrate at double speed, though that could be in a cinematic campaign. You can tell if someone is concentrating by beating them at a Quick Contest of IT. Altered Time Rate increases the number of Concentration actions you can take in a turn by one per level. Adapting Existing Characters Some slight modifications are required before an existing character can be used in this system. 1) Altered Time Rate. For fast characters, *instead* of the usual bonus from Altered Time Rate, you get an extra multiple of your Action Rate. So a character with a normal Action Rate of 21 that has +2 levels of Altered Time Rate gets an Action Rate of 63. 2) Enhanced Move, Super Running, etc. These alter the cost for one hex of movement(see the Movement action). 3) Increased Speed. This increases Action Rate. Expansion Sheets Timesheet The GM needs one or two of these. Everybody gets a counter, which they place at the point where their current action will conclude. The second copy is for the GM to keep track of various secret events, and usually, isn't really necessary. The timesheet is at members.xoom.com/Darekun/Timesheet.bmp as a squished bitmap. It's basically a graph of Y = 100 / X * K for integer values of K from 0 to X, with the field from (10, 0) to (30, 100) in view. When K is a whole multiple of 5 it's in black, otherwise it's in dark grey. Charsheet Expansion Base Move and Move are present only to determine the character's Action Rate and 1-Hex Move Cost. +------------------------------------------------+ | Name ______________ Base Move ___ Move ___ | | | | Action Rate ____ 1-Hex Move Cost ____ | +------------------------------------------------+