Hi Jay
You have asked about different game systems and I know the Spycraft 2 system pretty well having wrote a dataset for PCGen for it. I don't actually play the game but there are a lot of interesting new mechanics in it and I've incorporated a few into my D&D game.
One in particular you may find of interest is a concept called Fluid Initiative. During combat a character has a variety of actions they might take, some include a penalty or bonus to his initiave which is applied the next round. So if a character takes an action which is particulaly involved it may lower his initiative score in the next round. There are also actions an opponant can take which can effect your initiative. The effect of this is a greater range of tactical decisions that can be made in combat.
It would be cool if InitTool could help track this. What would be needed is a place to put the penalty/bonus which would only be applied when the turn ended. If you had more than one you should be able to enter them separately and see the total before it was applied next turn.
This might also be useful for existing D&D game features such as readied actions and refocusing, in which case you may also want the ability to enter an absolute score instead of a bonus.
I haven't looked close to see if this is already handled (If so bravo) but I did read a comment from Dorpond to the effect that InitTool handles readied actions.
Fluid Initiative
Fluid Initiative
~ Eddy Anthony (MoSaT)
~ PCGen Data, Docs & Tracker Chimp
~ Outputsheet Tamarin & Mac build guru
~ PCGen Data, Docs & Tracker Chimp
~ Outputsheet Tamarin & Mac build guru
You can manually enter an initiative to any item in the encounter by opening it (File->Open->Selected Item or by double clicking). The wait state support
has a 'Go' function that takes the selected combatant with a wait state and makes it the current combatant. This does a permanent change to the initiative.
I have no concept of penalties/bonuses to the initiative that are applied during play and then removed later. If you could get me the rules I can look into adding this.
has a 'Go' function that takes the selected combatant with a wait state and makes it the current combatant. This does a permanent change to the initiative.
I have no concept of penalties/bonuses to the initiative that are applied during play and then removed later. If you could get me the rules I can look into adding this.
Fluid Initiative Modifier rules
Fluid Initiative Modifiers
Some actions modify a character’s Initiative Count, allowing him to act before or after other characters during later rounds. This adds an extra layer of strategy to each combat, giving each character greater control over the timing of his actions. At the end of each combat round, each character’s Initiative Count is modified as shown on Table 5.2: Fluid Initiative Modifiers (see right), to a maximum increase of +10 or a maximum decrease of –10 during any single combat round (including the effects of all abilities, feats, and other applicable effects, as well as actions taken during the current round). The single exception to this rule is the Press action.
If a character’s Initiative Count ever rises to 50 or more, his first action during the following combat round must be a Press action. If a character’s Initiative Count ever drops to 0 or less, three things happen, in the following order.
1. The character is sent reeling (see page 342).
2. The character becomes flat-footed (see page 342).
3. The character’s Initiative Count increases by 20, or to 1 (whichever is higher).
Unless otherwise specified, each fluid initiative modifier may be applied more than once per combat round. A character may not refuse a fluid initiative modifier, even if it forces him to take a Press action or sends him reeling.
Table 5.2: Fluid Initiative Modifiers (incomplete list)
Aim +1
Brace +1
Regroup +5 (+ Int modifier)
Attacks and Movement
Moving character’s Speed is reduced by terrain –2
Character fires a tactical weapon –2
Character uses a weapon for which he does not possess the appropriate proficiency –4
Character takes 1 or more final attacks –2 per attack
Character suffers 1 or more critical misses or failures –2 per action die spent
Character scores a Triumph +10
Conditions†
Character bleeding –1 per round
Character fatigued during the current round –3
Character exhausted during the current round –10
Some actions modify a character’s Initiative Count, allowing him to act before or after other characters during later rounds. This adds an extra layer of strategy to each combat, giving each character greater control over the timing of his actions. At the end of each combat round, each character’s Initiative Count is modified as shown on Table 5.2: Fluid Initiative Modifiers (see right), to a maximum increase of +10 or a maximum decrease of –10 during any single combat round (including the effects of all abilities, feats, and other applicable effects, as well as actions taken during the current round). The single exception to this rule is the Press action.
If a character’s Initiative Count ever rises to 50 or more, his first action during the following combat round must be a Press action. If a character’s Initiative Count ever drops to 0 or less, three things happen, in the following order.
1. The character is sent reeling (see page 342).
2. The character becomes flat-footed (see page 342).
3. The character’s Initiative Count increases by 20, or to 1 (whichever is higher).
Unless otherwise specified, each fluid initiative modifier may be applied more than once per combat round. A character may not refuse a fluid initiative modifier, even if it forces him to take a Press action or sends him reeling.
Table 5.2: Fluid Initiative Modifiers (incomplete list)
Aim +1
Brace +1
Regroup +5 (+ Int modifier)
Attacks and Movement
Moving character’s Speed is reduced by terrain –2
Character fires a tactical weapon –2
Character uses a weapon for which he does not possess the appropriate proficiency –4
Character takes 1 or more final attacks –2 per attack
Character suffers 1 or more critical misses or failures –2 per action die spent
Character scores a Triumph +10
Conditions†
Character bleeding –1 per round
Character fatigued during the current round –3
Character exhausted during the current round –10
~ Eddy Anthony (MoSaT)
~ PCGen Data, Docs & Tracker Chimp
~ Outputsheet Tamarin & Mac build guru
~ PCGen Data, Docs & Tracker Chimp
~ Outputsheet Tamarin & Mac build guru
It does not mention actions opponants can take here but I do remember that from somewhere. At any rate what is done is at the end of the round you add up all the modifiers which apply and change the initiative accordingly and that become your new score in the next round.
It's pretty easy now to open the combatent and change the score, however since this is the primary function of the program it might do to make it even easier. How about a couple of buttons: one to reroll initiative for the selected PC and one to adjust initiative. The adjust button would open a window with one text field and let you type the number in, if you used plus or minus signs it would add to the existing value, otherwise the number input would be the new initiative. If you put a keyboard shortcut to these functions you could very quickly manually enter the values without toouching the mouse. I think this would be useful (even disregarding the fluid initiative concept) since I'm sure more than a few GM's allow thier players to make thier own rolls and input them manually.
It's pretty easy now to open the combatent and change the score, however since this is the primary function of the program it might do to make it even easier. How about a couple of buttons: one to reroll initiative for the selected PC and one to adjust initiative. The adjust button would open a window with one text field and let you type the number in, if you used plus or minus signs it would add to the existing value, otherwise the number input would be the new initiative. If you put a keyboard shortcut to these functions you could very quickly manually enter the values without toouching the mouse. I think this would be useful (even disregarding the fluid initiative concept) since I'm sure more than a few GM's allow thier players to make thier own rolls and input them manually.
~ Eddy Anthony (MoSaT)
~ PCGen Data, Docs & Tracker Chimp
~ Outputsheet Tamarin & Mac build guru
~ PCGen Data, Docs & Tracker Chimp
~ Outputsheet Tamarin & Mac build guru
So the change is a permanent change to initiative added at the end of the round? If that's the case, I'd like to hold off on this one until there is scripting support. The only reason I don't want to add the buttons is because I don't want to increase the complexity of the UI any more than I have to. When scripting is available, hopefully starting in the builds after the next one, we can make a game settings file specific to Spycraft 2 that would do the work at the beginning of each round. It could check a custom property that held all of the modifiers for a round, add that to the current initiative and then clear the custom property for the next round. This is the way I want to add game specific behavior in the future.
Init tool already has support for manual initiative. There are 2 check boxes in the Games->Options dialog that control this. One is for manual player entry and the other is for manual NPC entry. When an encounter is started, a little dialog pops up for the GM to enter the manual values. Any boxes not filled in get their initiative rolled in the normal way.
Init tool already has support for manual initiative. There are 2 check boxes in the Games->Options dialog that control this. One is for manual player entry and the other is for manual NPC entry. When an encounter is started, a little dialog pops up for the GM to enter the manual values. Any boxes not filled in get their initiative rolled in the normal way.
Thank you! I appreciate all the insight I can get into other game mechanics. I don't want to include everything in init tool or nobody could figure out how to use it. Besides, that is what the scripting is supposed to do. But, I don't want to block anything from working in init tool either. The more I'm aware of the more I can take into account.