Maybe Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles ISN'T so bad. After all, it's provided me many hours of entertainment already by way of simply hunting down the ways it utterly fails to emulate its namesake. Last night I found myself reading it and getting a bit of a nostalgia groove on for games of Invid slaying in years gone by. That's when I wandered headfirst into the combat section and it dawned on me that combat had changed much more than I realized.
First, it would be a good idea for me to summarize combat in the Palladium game system as I had been led to understand it. My view of it was formed after reading the combat examples in Ninjas & Superspies and the original Rifts corebook. I'm fairly sure my interpretation of it was how the game was intended to work back then.
Each character has several attacks per round, and each character can perform one attack in initiative order. Each attack is a phase. Everyone's first attack is during phase 1. Everyone's second attack is during phase 2, and so on.
When you just used regular attacks and parries (or auto-dodges) this is a very simple procedure. When you toss defenses which use an attack, like dodges, or attacks which use multiple attacks from your total, like power punches, it gets more complicated.
A power attack normally cost 2 attacks to perform. So, the first phase would be spent preparing for the attack. The attack didn't actually go off until the second phase when your initiative came around again.
A dodge cost your next attack that melee round. So, when you were attacked you spend your next attack and rolled your dodge. The dodge roll stayed in effect until the next phase when your attack came up. But since that attack had been "borrowed" in order to dodge, you didn't actually get to do anything that phase. Your dodge roll expired and combat proceeded.
This was how I understood Palladium combat to work until now. But upon more careful reading of
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles and Rifts Ultimate Edition, I'm convinced the world has changed. Combat now follows a subtly different procdure with a great impact on how things are handled.
In the new method, characters still have several attacks per round. Although, now it's best to think of them as a sort of Action Point pool rather than as a literal number of attack phases a character can act.
There are still attack phases. The winner of initiative goes first, followed by the next, and so on until it all wraps around and the high roller comes up again. But, instead of a phase representing a certain Attack number, it now represents an opportunity to spend attacks from the pool. When it's your turn, you simply deduct the action cost of your attack from your total. The same is done whenever you must defend. Here's an example:
Bill and Ted are having a gunfight. Bill has 5 attacks per round. Ted has 6 attacks per round. Bill wins initiative.
For his turn, Bill chooses to fire a quick shot at Ted. This uses one attack. Bill notes he has 4 attacks remaining. In response, Ted dodges the attack. This uses one of Ted's attacks. Ted notes he has 5 attacks left.
Now Ted's turn comes up. Ted decides to perform an aimed called shot on Bill. This takes two attacks. The two attacks are deducted from Ted's total of 5, and he is left with 3 attacks. Bill dodges, reducing his total to 3 attacks remaining.
Bill responds by trying to close the distance. The GM determines it will cost him 2 actions to close the distance. Bill deducts the cost and has 1 attack remaining.
It's Ted's turn again. He decides to perform a quick snap shot costing a single attack. This reduces his total to 2 attacks remaining. Bill decides to dodge the point blank shot, using his last remaining attack.
Bill has no actions left, so he doesn't get any more attack phases.
Ted still has 2 attacks, and can use them both to shot Bill.
And that's how I understand it works now. Another major difference is that dodges don't work like they used to. A dodge roll used to stay in effect until your spot in the initative order came up again. Now a dodge roll is only applicable against he single attack dodged. Another dodge difference is that dodges can now be borrowed from the next round's attacks, whereas they could not be in the old rules. Altogether, this new way is like a blending of the old combat procedure and the one found in the Rifts N-Gage game.
I think I'd keep the old dodge rule rather than use the new nerfed one, and have each regular action using dodge roll remain in effect until the character next gets an attack phase, or the end of the round, whichever comes first.
Tags: Palladium Robotech Rifts Combat
