Movement in Palladium

[Mediapig71]

So I was thinking about the movement rules in Palladium... I kind of like to use a grid and counters when I play, and Palladium makes this a bit tough, with the multiple attacks and movement rates. For instance, a guy with Speed 20 and 2 attacks will move farther each action than a guy with Speed 20 and 8 attacks. Do people think this is a problem? How do others handle this?

I was thinking of treating movement like a "pool." You can move any amount, up to your entire movement pool, as one action. Once you are out of movement, you can no longer move, even if you have actions left (you could only use those to attack and defend.) You can only move 1/2 your total pool if you still want to attack as part of the same action.

That way, the guy with 2 attacks can't nesc. always out sprint the guy with 8, but they both end up moving the same distance for the round (as they should, since they both have the same speed.)

[Cinos]

I ended up sparcing out actions evenly over the round. This alone more or less fixes the problem. While the person with fewer actions still moves further per action, the one with more actions can do something meaningful, for example; Slow guy moves to flee, moving 10 Feet. Faster guy moves 3 feet, 3 feet, 3 feet, then attacks. Then the slow guy moves 10 Feet, faster guy moves 3, 3, 3 and attacks again, and so on. I also changed your movement from a distance to time element as it is, and just changed it to a much easier to deal with distance per action. This does require considerably more effort and balance and it greatly hinders those without at least 4 actions (i.e non-fighters).

[gdub411]

I was thinking of treating movement like a "pool." You can move any amount, up to your entire movement pool, as one action. Once you are out of movement, you can no longer move, even if you have actions left (you could only use those to attack and defend.) You can only move 1/2 your total pool if you still want to attack as part of the same action.

Exactly how I'm handling it, with the exception that there is a max based on speed but the math is a bit complicated to explain without much detail written. Rest assured it makes sense.

[MADMANMIKE]

Just because a person's top speed allows them to run, say 50ft per attack, does not mean that they can do so in the middle of combat. I'm working on paper minis for PF right now and each one comes with an NPC stat card. On the card I put the feet per attack at max speed, and divide that by four for the feet a character can move and still attack.

I've got some simple mini combat rules attached to the freebie sample page (comes with four gladiators and teasers of the two packages I'm finishing up now) that explain it, and suggest using 1 inch grids. There's also a 10 inch ruler with it so you can just print both pages and cut the ruler from the second to play a mini game right off...

Just waiting for edit; should be some printed out at the booth at GenCon..

[Mediapig71]

Please post a link when you can... I'd love to read those rules!

[talmor]

Do people think this is a problem? How do others handle this?

I'm still a new Palladium GM, but this doesn't really strike me as a problem. I view the guy with 8 attacks as being more PRECISE than the guy with 2, so if they both run the same distance, Capt. Eight Attacks can still throw 3 or 4 punches, while Lt. Slow McTwoAttacks only gets 1.

In the case of two or more characters engaging in some competition that involves raw speed, you would need to house rule it/take a pause from normal "you attack, then he attacks." I feel like this would come up fairly rarely, and in most circumstances additional rules won't help, since they'll be different enough to rely on GM's call. Just try to be fair and reasonable.

Of course, like I said, this doesn't flag as an issue for me in this system. Of course, the only game I'm used to with detailed movement rules was 3.x/4th Ed D&D, and is one of the reasons I stopped playing those games. I tend to prefer AD&D/WoD/BRP and, now, obviously, Palladium. I don't use grid combat.

[MADMANMIKE]

Please post a link when you can... I'd love to read those rules!

They're just the standard combat rules, pared down to the abilities of the Gladiators, ie includes Paired Weapons, Disarm, and body block/tackle (a couple of them have Wrestling), but doesn't include Body flip/Throw or Death Blow...

They'll be available from Palladium's catalog at DriveThruRPG.com when they're done..

[Damian Magecraft]

Check out this thread...
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=126657&hilit=+movement+in+combat
If you break the melee into three 5 sec phases and just list the movement as separate from actions and it works just fine.
(a neat side effect is the "fixing" of the disparity among apms)
You still run APM as normal except for the dividing them evenly among the phases.

[jaymz]

Check out this thread...
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=126657&hilit=+movement+in+combat
If you break the melee into three 5 sec phases and just list the movement as separate from actions and it works just fine.
(a neat side effect is the "fixing" of the disparity among apms)
You still run APM as normal except for the dividing them evenly among the phases.