What´s up with the new combat action system? isn´t it very unfair to give high dex characters more actions than low dex characters?
Reads like very bad game design for me.
Any experiences?

I haven't read the new rules closely enough to comment on how they do it, but certainly in RQ2 and RQ3 DEX was one of the best stats to have. Not only could it give you what amounted to extra actions, it increased your chance to hit and parry.

That's how we did it in old-school sim. It's not fair, because life isn't fair.

QuoteThat's how we did it in old-school sim. It's not fair, because life isn't fair.

Yes, I´m all for this stuff. But having people being better as well as acting up to twice as much as others does strike me as bad. RQ III only gave everyone one attack, but you could move further AFAIK.

Much as I enjoyed the old Strike Rank system, I always liked the simplified implementation of Dexterity in SuperWorld.  Actions were categorised as Whole Actions, Half Actions, and Quarter Actions, each with a descending rank of usefulness or significance, and could be grouped in any combination to equal one Whole Action or less.  Characters could perform one Whole Action for every multiple of 10 they had in Dexterity.  Thus a character with a Dex of 9 could perform only one action per round, a character with a Dex of 19 could perform two per round, a Dex of 29 could perform three per round, and so on.  The GM would have a master chart of all characters' Dex scores, listed in descending order, like this:

   Dex 21 Patty
Dex 20
Dex 19 Jim
Dex 18
Dex 17 Cathy
Dex 16 Kelly
Dex 15
Dex 14
Dex 13 Ted
Dex 12
Dex 11 Paul, Patty
Dex 10 Karen
Dex 9 Jim
Dex 8
Dex 7 Cathy
Dex 6 Kelly
Dex 5
Dex 4
Dex 3 Ted
Dex 2
Dex 1 Paul, Patty
He'd start at the top of the list, read off the name(s) and let them take an action, then move down to the next name(s) and have them take theirs.  It led to some interesting tactical situations with characters like the Flash or Spiderman having a Dex a couple of multiples higher than other characters, getting in two full actions before anyone else even has a chance to respond (like, say, Patty vs. Karen in the example above).

!i!

Hmmm, I ran SW, and I'm not sure that it's simpler than RQ strike ranks. What it does do is account for supers-level DEX.

Settembrini, what are the breakpoints? In RQ3 you could actually have two or even three attacks in a round (on different opponents) with a high skill and DEX.

Mmm. Maybe you guys are right. Actually most players will either have two or three actions, which is not too far away from each other. Will have to try it out.
Am I correct that MRQ assumes a 1 inch to 1m scale? With that much lethality, I will definitely play with FlipMats and Counters.

@Ian

SR did that for 2nd edition (1st too maybe, I've never played that and I don't recall for certain). Except that instead of a fixed Dex score you got the number from rolled initiative. The initiative roll was the total of a number of d6 plus a y constant value, which was based on what magic/implants you had.  Then they realized it really, really sucked with some people acting 3 times before others got their first action because with 3 Complex actions the fight could be over, SR having fairly deadly combat.

So with SR3 they kept the same basic system but modified it that so everyone acted once, in decending order of the rolled init.

SR4 has changed to a [mostly] fixed number initiative passes per turn with an unaugmented human at 1 and a cap at 4 (used to be you could get up to 6), you just roll to see who goes first. You can also spend Edge to go ahead of everyone that doesn't spend Edge and also spend Edge to get a single extra IP.

One thing to recall Settembrini, is that you only get one attack before the next guy goes. The breakpoints are such that it's highly unlikely that anyone, dedicated to combat or not, will have only one, and only a nearly superhuman hero of legend can get four.

So the difference between most combatants is between two and three, not one and four.  Combine that with one attack at a time rules and it doesn't seem horribly overpowered to get an extra attack at the end of the round...

You are right, Spike. I already fell in love with those rules. It´s to harnmaster what the RC is to 3.5.!