Taking Action Economy Lessons from MMOs

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BearsAreBrown
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Taking Action Economy Lessons from MMOs

Post by BearsAreBrown »

Full Round
-Basic
--Attack(s)
--Ability
-Movement
Special(s)

Each round you have a Full Round action which is made up of a Basic and a Movement action. Basic actions are made up of Attack and Ability actions. In addition to a Full Round action, players are granted Special actions per round. Any action may be taken at any point during the turn, even during each other.

Full Round Action- Little to no actions use this. Included for completeness and to separate it from Special Actions.
Basic Action- This is used by spells and major combat maneuvers that don't involve hitting things with a sword. When this action is taken the player does not make an Attack this round. These are things that in 3.5 would normally take a Full Round action. Examples; Raise Zombie, Cloud of Fog, Dragon Ally, Mind Control.
Attack Action(s)- This is an attack. A plain jane hit it with a sword attack. In WoW it's called a 'White Hit.' As players get more powerful they gain more Attack Actions per round. These are sometimes modified by Ability Actions.
Ability Action- The majority of abilities take this action. These are sometimes stand alone abilities and sometimes may augment Attack Actions. Raptor Strike is an Ability Action that causes the first Attack Action this round to deal 30 extra damage. Head Bonk is an Ability Action that deals 10 damage and denies the opponent they're next Ability Action. Examples; Fireball, Decapitate, Dog Whistle Arrow, Hurricane Fist, Bear Claw, Shoot Acid From Eyes.
Movement Action- You move with this. Sometimes abilities are Movement Actions. Seismic Step is a movement action ability that causes everywhere you step the become difficult terrain for the next round.
Special Actions-Attacks of Opportunity, interrupts, 5-ft steps and maintaining buff durations. You gain more of these as you become more powerful.

The attempt here is to separate abilities from attacks, allowing both on the same turn. The reason is that it might allow for a greater variety of abilities while lowering action paralysis. Warriors don't have to choose between hitting things with a sword and throwing sand in the Beholder's eye, they can do both. Many players fear using abilities that don't deal damage, this had led to all of 4e's powers being Weapon Damage + Rider effect. This is attempting to split the two, Weapon Damage is your Attack Action and the Rider effect is your Ability Action.

Spellcasters either rarely use Attack/Ability actions in favor of Basic actions or don't, depending on play style. A summoner or conjurer will generally use Basic Action spells all combat. An evoker or warlock will use attack and ability actions instead. All classes will have some type of Attack Action choice, be it magic blast, wands, or hit with sword.

This is meant to be used with a WoF system in which you roll to decide row and column on your matrix and may use abilities from the cross. This is meant to allow for greater options on the matrix to accommodate the wide mix of actions; you don't want to be stuck with a column with only 1 action of each type, and you also don't want the matrix to become too large.


Do you see any glaring issues? Is this needlessly complex or too simplistic? Am I falling for traps? What is shitty about it?
Last edited by BearsAreBrown on Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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RobbyPants
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Post by RobbyPants »

When you say specials can be used at any point in the round, does that mean when it's not your turn as well (interrupts)?
BearsAreBrown
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Post by BearsAreBrown »

All actions may be taken at any point during your turn. Say you're high enough level to have two attack actions. You may Attack, take half your Move action, use your Ability Action, finish our Move action, then take another Attack.

Specials are out of turn actions.
Finkin
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Post by Finkin »

Lots of MMOs have classes with channeled abilities, which I would count as a Full Round action. Not that it really matters, but it would at least give you something to put in the Full Round Action spot.
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RobbyPants
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Post by RobbyPants »

The basic idea seems sound.
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