Ok. Here it is. The combat and basic do-stuff system I use in my game. It's a stand-alone from other game systems, but it can be bled into other PPG's. So far, I can use this definitely with both paladium- based games, and god knows that covers a lot of em, and tsr's own d and d.

Granted, both of these games have their own systems, and I have no interest in taking from them a ll. The cool stuff that they do, so I'm not. This is a system I developed because I found all other systems lacking. I'd say that Shadowrun came the closest to doing it right, but still missed the beat. Give it a look-see. You may feel comfortable with this system if you have played role-playing games before, and may find much of what is expressed here readily converted to yer own games. GOOOD

I built this to be as user friendly as possible. So let's get into it.

Ok. Lets talk about time. Ye may have spent ten seconds, or maybe thirty reading my spew. Regardless, you can consider that action in a term of SECONDS, who thinks in rounds?

THEE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS ROUNDS. Everything is considere3d in a term of seconds. They aren't ACTUALLY seconds; it's just a term. It doesn't take three seconds for a kid to kick ye in the shin, but we say it does as a matter of scale. So everything is rated in a number of seconds.

combat begins when some one decides combat begins.. As soon as someone does something with the intent to do some one else something wrong, we are in "seconds" scale.

FIRTS THING FIRST--INITIATIVE.

Everyone has a time at which they get involved in the combat. If ye don't want to get involved, get far enough away to not be in the seconds scale. That is the only way to escape combat.

Everyone can role a die. Some would say a d6, others a d10. Typical actions are anywhere from three to eight seconds long, so I typically go with a d10. The lowest number is the person who starts doing stuff first.

THAT IS NOT TRUE. Remember that combat doesn't start until someone starts combat. So here is the thing. The first person to do something starts on second one.

Confused? Here's an example.

Hubert has been waiting for about three days in this stupid tree. FINALLY the shmuck he was hired to kill shows up. He's had his crossbow loaded and ready to fire for quite some time now. So all he has to do is fire. He takes aim and the clock starts. We don't care if his aim is worth a damn or not. The point is the shmuck, who turns out to be his long lost brother Rupert, is being fired on. Rupert can now roll initiative. So Hubert fired on 1, and Rupert rolls a 2. So add 2 to 1 and Rupert begins to react on second 3. Taking cover, shaking his fist, thanking Allah for returning his long lost brother, I don't care. We know when he gets to do something.

Lets pretend he shakes his fist in rage. Hubert reloads his crossbow and fires again at Rupert. This takes say, fifteen seconds. So we are now on second (3+15=) 18, at which point, Rupert's ex-wife shows up and begins to harass Rupert. She gets to roll initiative, because she is entering combat. She rolls a seven, and will then be able to start doing stuff on (18+7=) 25. At this point, god only knows what the hell is happening.

What about surprise, kil? Well, that's up to u. If u feel that someone may be surprised, figure it out. U can do one of two things-- either make a separate roll for surprise, and tack that on to when they get to act, or just make the initiative die bigger. For example

RUPERT is not expecting to be attacked. We typically would roll a d10 in normal initiative, but Rupert is enjoying a crisp apple that is very thought consuming. Whoa shit! Crossbow fire! Surprise die is instead a d20. He just happens to have gotten lucky and rolled a two. If ye tack on a modifier, figure out what ye want it to be. If ye tack on a, say, a ten second modifier, that would give his hidden assailant (who we know to be Hubert, his long lost brother) time to reload and aim his crossbow before Rupert can figure out what is happening. So Rupert would roll initiative on second 11, ten after the beginning. Rolling a 2, Rupert begins on a 13. Ouch. That is much later. Teach him to enjoy apples.

NOW THAT WE KNOW WHEN YE GET START DOING STUFF, WHAT ARE YE GONNA DO? AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?

There are lots a stuff to do. And everything has its own time it takes to do it. Each is very different.

You can:

Run like hell

Hit someone

Cast a spell

Find something in yer backpack

Fire a weapon

Light a torch

Read a page in lord xazzon's super book of magic

Do psychic stuff

Blah blah blah

NOTHING CAN TAKE LESS THAN ONE SECOND TO PERFORM.

Each of these actions is based on your size. The bigger you are, the longer it takes to do stuff. This is because generally the bigger something is, the more damage it will do to someone. So size is penalized.

Here is the basic breakdown on size based movements. These times are referred to as NATURAL TIME, or just nattime

T= 1 sec

S=2 sec

M=4 sec

L=6 sec

G=8 sec

H=10 sec

GENERAL ACTIONS, drawing an arrow from yer quiver, hitting someone unequipped, drawing a weapon, taking a book off the shelf, lighting a torch, quickly shout something, ditching your backpack, whatever.

DEFENSE

There are three forms of defense: dodging, blocking, and parrying. Each of these actions requires 1 second each, no matter what. It is possible to defend against any single attack, no matter how fast.

ATTACKING

UNARMED, u use your nattime to determine how fast you can strike some on.

MELEE WEAPONS, u add your nattime to the speed of the weapon.

The type of weapon determines the weapon speed. Here is a good generalization:

S= less than a foot, under 5lbs, 1-4 secs.

M= less 5ft,under 20lbs, 4-10 secs

L= less 12 ft, under 40lbs, 9-18 secs

G= under 25 ft, under 100 lbs., 18-30 secs.

So your generic long sword, a medium weapon being around three to four feet long, weighing around 5 to ten pounds would take around 4 to 7 secs depending on its particular making, plus your nattime to strike some one. So if u were a human swinging a long sword at a different something, it would take around 8 to 10 seconds to hit. A kid or smaller creature than a human wee to do this, it would only take between 6- 10 seconds to do this. Unfair? Not really. That weapon is larger than the size s creature (an m class weapon) so he must wield it two handed. Fair enough. If he were fighting a human with a longsword, he would be faster than the human, but the human would have a free hand. So it is fairly even.

Notice that you would have plenty of time to defend against a sword swing that took ten seconds to get to you.

DISTANCE WEAPONS

Are different. They have phases. Loading, aiming, firing, and traveling time.

There are three types of weapons: simple, bows, mechanical, and firearms.

How far the opponent is and what the traveling weapon is determine travel time.

GUNS OTHER

PB 1 SEC 1 SEC

SH 1 SEC 1 SEC

MD 1 SEC 2 SEC

LG 2 SEC 3 SEC

XL 2 SEC 4 SEC

All weapons have different ranges, and distance categories. I'm not going into it here. Its not up to me to tell yea how far you can throw your axe, or how far away an AK 47 can cut down people. Ask your GM, or look it up.

Keep this in mind, though. It is possible to skip the aim phase if u just want to make a wild shot. This is quicker, but you don't get any bonuses to hit the target. Pretty much a raw roll is all you get.

MOVEMENT

Many systems have different ways to determine how far you can move in a moment.

I'm not going to tell you how to do this, but generally, a human of average existence walks at 6 feet /sec. So that is how I base stuff. Its called MOVE. Other people and creatures have different moves, but average human has a move of 6 (six feet per second)

You can move a hell of a lot faster than that if you want to. But there are penalties to doing this in a combat scenario, mainly, reduced awareness and capability.

So here is a look-see at the penalties that go with speeding up.

MOVE = FULL DEFENSE FULL OFFENSE