My New System Post 1 of Part 2: Horizon to Zenith (Combat: Action Economy)

One of the first things that needs to be established before we go delving into much else is the action economy. This is a topic that not only affects combat, but it also affects exploration and musses around with the entire system. The biggest thing I'm going to think about in this post is the combat action economy, and I'll probably address the exploration action economy a bit, but will actually get to the main of that later. This will also probably tie directly into the upcoming post about turns and turn-taking. (Also, this is just to get a basic concept so I can start building the system; it will most likely be modified and/or re-hashed sometime later in development.)

Now, the action economy, for those not in the know, is what kind of actions you can take in what amount of time. Basically, say you only have 6 seconds worth of action in a turn, what can you do in those 6 seconds. In terms of gameplay, this usually talks about what kind of "time cost" there is on each ability. In D&D, everyone has the same turn structure, with different tiers of action. You only get one of this kind of action, one of that kind of action and one of those kind of actions per turn. Some actions cost you both your this and that kinds of action, but leave you able to take one of those kinds of actions. Other systems have used "action points", where every action has a cost and you only get so many action points per turn. When you run out of action points, you can't take any more actions, but if you still have action points left, you can take actions all throughout the turn until the next time you come up in the order and your action points reset.

Honestly, while the former kind of option seems primitive and quaint compared to the cutting edge of the "action points" system, I'm leaning more toward the D&D-esque action economy for simplicity's sake. One of the failings of the"action points" systems that I've played with was that it made people have to put too much time into thinking about their actions before taking them. It slowed combat to a crawl, in the game and in real life, which is the opposite of what I want to happen. However, this doesn't mean I'm going to be ripping off the D&D system entirely. No, I feel like that system could be scrapped and a new, more streamlined system be instituted, and one that fits modern design techniques better, too.

Most of the game could be run through a tiered system of actions. At the top, you have an entire turn, with actions that take the entire turn. Then, the turn needs to be split. Now, I'm not quite sure exactly how to break this down so that players can have enough actions to do what they need, but have few enough actions to keep things running smoothly.

There's one thing that D&D has, which is a tiny slice off of the "Full-turn" actions (I know there's nothing called a full-turn action, but you have the 1 round action [not to be confused with the full round action] which is basically the same idea) giving you various types of "quick", "immediate" or "swift" actions, which take tiny amounts of time and can typically be done freely as a reaction on the enemy's turn. These kind of actions can typically be taken regardless of what other actions you have taken prior. For the initial setup, we are not going to have these as part of the system.

So, let me break down the concept for you:

Full Turn Action

|

      Attack Action -- Movement Action

                                    |

                                    Partial Movement Actions

The Full Turn action, which I may have covered earlier, but enough of that jibber-jabber, is an action that takes the full turn. You use up all movement and attack actions by taking a full turn action. This means that a full turn action would need to make up for the fact that you can't move and can't attack, and would therefore either have to be worth more, but not tons more, or would have to be worth more in a specific situation. (For example, giving an archer or other kind of ranged character an ability that knocks an enemy that's gotten too close for comfort away from the character whilst doing damage to the knocked away enemy.)

The Attack Action (or Attack-Equivalent Action) is the basic action for attacking. As one would expect. The majority of attack actions would be attacks, but a lot of attack-equivalent actions would be actions that are not attacks, but use up your ability to attack in that turn. Things that usually up your damage on the next turn or increase your allies' damage, such as kicking an enemy on its back and immobilizing it until your friends can enact a Mexican hat dance on it.

The Movement Action (or Movement Equivalent Action) can be split into two Partial Movement Actions. Each partial move action allows you to move a certain number of movement squares (the actual distance depends on the scale)and the movement action allows you to move double that amount. Other move equivalent actions or partial move equivalent actions are usually things that allow you to either re-position yourself or your allies, or allow you alternate modes of transportation during a subsequent movement. Things such as growing claws that allow you to cling to walls would be a partial movement equivalent action. Or they're things that need to take up smaller amounts of time and that's a good place to put them.

And lastly, there is the Reaction. Reactions I will talk about in a subsequent post, as I really want to delve into the ramifications of reactions in a system and how to set them up with proper balance.

So, for this time, I will bid you adieu.