Last week, I showed off the
anatomy of the round and how turn order works. This week, I’m going to talk
about what you can do when you take a turn.
“Action Economy” describes what you can do on your turn. Older
RPGs were a bit fuzzy about the action economy, and the games often relied on
the Game Master’s discretion about how long a described activity might take.
For example, one player might describe his character drawing a sword, opening a
door, running 20 yards across a room, attacking two orcs, and then scrambling
up the dais to take a defensive position. Without clear limits on what a
character can do, the GM is left to interpret how much of the description can
occur in one time increment—round, turns, or whatever.
Drawing a sword doesn’t take much time and neither does opening
the door, assuming the door is unlocked and not stuck. Running across the room,
especially at that distance, takes time as does making attacks, and taking the
defensive position. A GM might allow everything the player describes to happen
during a turn, while a stingier GM might limit the activity to drawing the
sword and opening the door. It all depends on style, temperament, and
interpretation.
As with other RPGs, combat (and other instances where precise
time-keeping is needed) in Shadow of the
Demon Lord unfolds over a series of 10-second rounds. Rather than assign a
quantity of seconds to a selection of tasks, the game abstracts the concept of
time and effort into a form of currency called actions. When you would do
something, you use (spend) the action to do so.
The number of actions you can spend during a round depends on
when you choose to take your turn. If you would go first by taking a fast turn,
the game assumes you spend extra effort to act before you opponents, so you can
only use just one action. If you give your opponents the chance to go first by
taking a slow turn, you can convert that extra effort into an additional
action, letting you use up to two actions instead of one.
Not all actions are equal when it comes to effort. Opening a
door takes a little, while attacking an enemy with a sword takes a lot. To
control the number of high-effort actions in the game, actions come in three
broad types: Complex, Simple, and Extra.
Complex
Actions
Activities that require a great
deal of focus and effort use a complex
action. You can only use one complex action
per round. If you take a fast turn, the one action you use can be a complex action. If you take a slow turn,
only one of the two actions you may use can be a complex action.
Some example activities you use a complex action to perform include attacking with a weapon, casting
a spell, concentrate on an ongoing magical effect, or run a great distance.
Many complex actions require a roll
of a d20 to determine if the activity happens or not.
Simple
Actions
Activities that do not require
much time or much effort use a simple action.
Unlike complex actions, you can use
as many simple actions as you like
based on when you take your turn. Taking a fast turn lets you use just one
action, either a complex or simple action. On a slow turn, one or
both of the actions you use can be simple.
You might use a simple action
to advance on an enemy combatant, retrieve something from your backpack, drink a
healing potion, cast a spell with a simple action casting time, reload a
crossbow or pistol, stand up from prone, mount or dismount a steed, and so on.
Where complex actions often require
rolls, simple actions usually do not.
Talents awarded to characters in higher-level groups allow
certain activities that once used a complex
action to be performed using a simple
action. For instance, at level 5, all warriors can make attacks with
weapons using a simple action. This
lets a warrior attack twice during a slow turn.
Extra
Actions
You may only use complex and simple actions when you take your turn. Sometimes, you may be able
to act outside your turn and when you do you use an extra action. Any activity that uses an extra action has a trigger, an event that specifies when you can
use the extra action. For example,
when a creature moves beyond your character’s reach, you may use an extra action to make a free attack
against that creature using a melee weapon you are wielding. Alternatively, when
it is your turn, you may use an extra action
to perform a minor activity such as drawing a weapon, opening a door, standing
up from prone, and so on. Spells and talents expand your options for using extra actions. Regardless of how many opportunities
you have for using extra actions, you
may only use one extra action per
round.
Actions
in Action
Here’s an example of how a
round of combat might unfold. Dan’s the Game Master and the 2nd-level group
consists of characters played by Joe, Bobby, Mindy, and Stacee. Joe plays an
orc warrior, Bobby an elf magician, Mindy a human rogue, and Stacee a human
priest. The characters have been tracking a band of cultists across the
countryside and finally corner them in a burned out shell of a tower. The group
rushes inside to fight them.
Dan
(the GM): One cultist stands behind a bloody altar made from
bones. Three more stand with swords drawn, faces inscrutable behind masks made
to look like baby faces. What do you do?
Since no one was
surprised, the first round begins with fast turns. Any players that want to may
take fast turns. They resolve their turns in any order and may use one action
(either complex or simple) on their turns.
Joe (Orc Warrior):
Death to my enemies! I charge the closest enemy.
Joe opts to take a
fast turn. He wants to attack one of the enemy soldiers, so he uses a complex action to attack with a melee
weapon. Since he’s moving as part of the attack (using the charge option, more
on this next time, he gets to move up to his Speed before he makes the attack
roll), he has a complication for his attack roll. But Joe’s playing a warrior, so
he has an asset for all attack rolls made using weapons. The asset from his
path cancels out the complication from the charge.
Joe: (Joe rolls a
d20). I got a 12 on the die and I have a +3 bonus from my Strength. That’s a
15.
GM: Success! Damage?
A battle axe normally
deals 1d6 + 2 damage. Warriors at level 2 deal 1d6 extra damage with their
weapon attacks, so Joe’s successful attack deals 2d6 + 2 damage.
Joe: 12 damage!
GM: Good hit. He’s
injured but still standing. Anyone else want to go?
Bobby (Elf Magician):
Yessir. I cast mystic darts. I’m
going to send two darts at the cultist Joe attacked and the last one at the guy
behind the altar. (Bobby rolls damage for each dart.) I rolled a 4 and a 6 for
the first guy and just 2 for the other. So, 10 damage to Joe’s target and 2 to
the other.
Mystic darts, a Wizardry spell, has a complex action casting time. It creates
three magical darts that automatically strike their targets. Each missile deals
1d6 damage.
GM: The two darts
blow apart Joe’s target. The cultist drops dead to the ground and promptly
voids his bowels. The last dart just clips the cultist. Mindy? Stacee?
Mindy (Human Rogue):
I’m taking a slow turn.
Stacee (Human Priest): Me
too.
GM: OK. It’s my turn.
The cultist behind the altar will be taking a slow turn. The other two cultists
charge Joe and attack with their swords. One gets a failure and the other gets
a success. Joe, the cultist stabs you in the arm. Take 5 damage.
Joe: Grrr.
GM: That’s it for me.
Stacee: I’ll go. First, I’m going to cast prayer to help Mindy and then I’ll
charge the cultist that attacked Joe.
As a priest, Stacee has
the prayer spell. She can cast it using
a simple action and chooses one
creature within short range (20 yards). The target has an asset for the next
roll it makes before the end of the round. Stacee then uses a complex action to attack one of the
cultists. She gets there by using the charge option, which lets her move up to
her Speed before making the attack.
GM: Sounds good to me. Roll to
attack, please.
Stacee makes an attack
roll against the target’s Armor Rating with her mace. She has a complication
for her roll because she charged.
Stacee: Damn. I
rolled a 5 and my complication dropped it by another 3.
GM: Ouch. Definitely
a failure. Mindy?
Mindy: I’m going to
move around the edge of the room and stick that cultist behind the altar with
my short sword.
Mindy uses a simple action to advance on the cultist
and uses a complex action to attack
it.
GM: OK. You move
around the fighting and close on the last cultist. Roll, but don’t forget the
asset from Stacee’s prayer spell.
Mindy: Right. I’m
also using my Trickery talent to get the extra asset too. I got an 18. Did I
hit?
Mindy rolls a d20 to
attack with her weapon. She has two assets for her attack roll, one from
Stacee’s prayer spell and the other
from her own Trickery talent, which gives her an asset to any one action roll,
attack roll, or reaction roll (all rolls of a d20) each round. She will add
only the highest number from all the assets she rolls. Mindy rolls a 9 on the
die, a 6 and a 2 on her assets, and adds +3 from her Agility. The total of her
roll is 18 (9 + 6 + 3).
GM: Yes ma’am.
Mindy: Crap. Just 2
damage.
GM: Check. OK. The
last cultist takes his turn. He withdraws from you and casts fire blast. Flames rush out from his
hands, filling a 3-yard long, cone-shaped area. Everything in the area takes 11
damage from the fire. Mindy, roll Agility to try to halve this damage.
The last cultist
takes a slow turn. He uses a simple action
to withdraw, which lets him move 1 yard without triggering free attacks. The fire blast spell has a casting time of complex action and deals 3d6 damage to
everything in the area. Any creature in the area may make an Agility reaction
roll. On a success, the creature takes half the damage instead. The number one
needs to equal or beat on an action roll or reaction roll is always 10.
Mindy: Ouch! I rolled and got
a 13, so I take half damage. That’s good news since I still have damage from
that fight with the ogre.
GM: We’re at the end of the round.
Nothing special happens here this time. OK. Who wants to take a turn?
After the end of the
round, the next round begins starting with fast turns.
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