Author Topic: SA Combat  (Read 1576 times)

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Offline captain jimmy

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SA Combat
« on: February 01, 2016, 04:44:37 PM »
So, what is Situational awareness: Combat for?
I'd interpret it as giving a bonus to your awareness, so in combat you're more likely to spot anything sneaking up behind you, or when the healer goes down, or similar. (Or possibly it would negate the penalties to spot you'd get 'cos you're distracted by the combat?)

In my RMSS group (and this also applies to Spacemaster privateers), the way it's done is different, and I'd like your thoughts on it.

The way it's used in our games is that every turn, you all make SA: combat rolls, and then starting at the lowest score (the worst), you declare your actions for that combat round in ascending order. The thinking is that the more SAC you have, the more you can read the combat, and so you can make your declarations knowing what others are doing.

This was used since I joined the group, it was only when I bought the rules myself (instead of borrowing them on the day) that I realised this wasn't in the rules. Has anyone else used this, or something like it?

It's also been suggested that given SAC is about 'knowing what's going on in combat', the way initiative works should be changed, so instead of using 3xQu, use In/SD/Qu+ranks in SAC.
This seems to me to be a step too far, turning what should be a niche skill that fighters have into something a lot more powerful.

What do people think?

Offline Ecthelion

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Re: SA Combat
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2016, 05:03:30 PM »
We're using SAC for detecting changes in combat, e.g. if an opponent wants to flee, if a new attacker is joining the fray. School of Hard Knocks has a good description for the SA category and some example difficulty ratings.

Offline jdale

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Re: SA Combat
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2016, 05:06:01 PM »
It does seem like it puts a lot of emphasis on it, and I think it presumes that the ability to respond quickly in combat is the same as your ability to notice things. But you can have trouble responding quickly enough to something that's right in your face. It's also a lot of extra rolling.

I think of many situational awareness skills as special-purpose Alertness. They can be used passively (no activity, GM rolls for you) but the progression is much better than Alertness. So in that one situation, you are effectively much more alert. I'm sure others have different interpretations though.
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Offline yammahoper

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Re: SA Combat
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2016, 05:32:02 PM »
I think you are developing a very good idea. I never liked how static init mods are as levels increase. A level 12 fighter with +3 qu mod should be quicker to the attack than a level 1 fighter with a +3 qu mod. As jdale points out, simple, elegant and quick works best.

I need to think on this.
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Offline RandalThor

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Re: SA Combat
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2016, 12:30:57 AM »
I think you are developing a very good idea. I never liked how static init mods are as levels increase. A level 12 fighter with +3 qu mod should be quicker to the attack than a level 1 fighter with a +3 qu mod. As jdale points out, simple, elegant and quick works best.

I need to think on this.
That's why I use their base abilities to generate a Base Initiative (for me it is generally a combination of their Quickness, Intuition and Agility - the three I really think matter), then use something a Situational Awareness: Combat check to generate a bonus (simply 1/10th the total roll) to add to the base to get their Total Initiative. I also tend to carry initiative over from round-to-round until something happens to call for a shift - such as a bunch of new combatants arriving, an earthquake, etc...
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