Most weapons take one minor action to draw and another minor action to reload, but some weapons are especially fast or slow.Ī character who spends a minor action aiming at a target gets a +1 DM to his next attack on the target, as long as the character does nothing except aim until he makes his attack. The number of minor actions to ready or reload a weapon is listed in the description of each weapon. The time taken to draw a weapon depends on its size and ease of use. Crouching also halves movement.Ī character can change to any one of the three stances – prone, crouched or standing – as a minor action. Difficult terrain, such as rubble, mud or thick underbrush can halve a character’s movement, allowing him to move only three metres per movement action. This gives him a +2 bonus to his Initiative for that round only but all his actions receive a -1 DM. Hastening your action lets you act sooner but at a penalty to your roll.Īt the start of each combat round a character may declare that he is acting hastily. Recoil slows you down if you are using a weapon heavier than you can handle. Reactions reduce your Initiative in order to allow you to defend yourself from attacks. Any changes affect your Initiative for one round only – either the current round if you have yet to act or the following round if you have acted already. Initiative is not re-rolled but is dynamic, and may be adjusted up and down by actions taken during a round.ĭuring the course of a round a character’s Initiative score may be changed by reactions, recoil and hastening. Once everyone has acted a combat round is over and a new round begins. When a character acts, he takes all his actions at once. If they are still tied, then characters act simultaneously. If two characters have the same Initiative, the character with the highest Dexterity goes first.
Actions are taken in descending order of Initiative. In a combat round each character gets a minor action and a significant action. If some of the combatants are ready for combat and some are not, such as in an ambush, the prepared characters are considered to get an automatic 12 on their roll, giving them an Initiative of 12 + Dexterity DM.Ĭharacters who have the Tactics skill may make a Tactics check and add the Effect of this check to the Initiative of everyone in their unit.Įach combat round lasts around six seconds of game time. Initiative determines the order that characters act in, but it can also be spent to react to events.
If the combatants are all unprepared for combat, then each rolls 2d6 and adds their Dexterity DM to determine starting Initiative.