Rifters

I'd be interested in play-testing this online. It'd certainly be great to see characters with insane speeds get the bonus out of speed that was intended. Maybe we can put together a small test this weekend (around an hour or so)?

We can use the chat room

If anyone remembers there were rules from TMNT on Speed and dodging. it didn't go over too well with characters have broken bonuses to dodge. it was taken out of rifts (and the other game systems) for obvious reasons we have house rules for a reason and my group plays by a simpler set where everyone caps out at 5 (Actions)/ round but still keeping note of all actions the character is entitled to.. everything else is considered "Extra Actions" so juicers with 13 actions/round will have 5 attack actions and 8 extra actions they can be used for what ever Dodging, re-rolling that failed attack, holding them for that opportunity to save someone else whatever. we also use the Channeling rules from the rifter (22 I think) and mages with extra actions can use them to cast spells quicker it makes for a bit more streamlined and faster system so an entire session with 7 people playing isn't going through 1 combat the entire night.. and I've done that before and can't stand it when there is no story progression but then again I'm an old school player I started with AD&D when I was 7 and I'm turning 35 now.. Rifts is hands down my favorite system because of the versitility but again.. this is only what we do and we're happy with it

For everyone not enjoying the math, here's a simplification: the Speed attribute converts DIRECTLY to feet per second. This can remove a lot of needless calculations. the other thing to consider is the following

APM = Seconds per attack/action

2 = 7.5
3 = 5
4 = 3.75
5 = 3
6 = 2.5
7 = 2.14
8 = 1.88
9 = 1.66
10 = 1.5

approximating, you can use:

2 = 7
3 = 5
4 = 4
5 and 6 = 3
7, 8, 9, 10 = 2
>10 = 1

Why do I mention any of this at all? Now, this is all personal preference, but I think it makes sense and still goes with the spirit of the rules. Given your above situation, you really should be looking at your "Slow" guy - the one with only 4 actions per melee. It's going to take him nearly 4 seconds to act - which means "speedy" (assuming he has initiative - this is how you keep it relevant) may be able to get there in time. Take his speed, multiply by 4 (the amount of time it takes the SLOW guy to act), and see if it's less than the distance between them - if so, have speedy run up and mark off whatever number of actions it's going to take away from his total (if he's at half the distance or less, I'd say only one to run up; more, and id' take 2 of his actions, since we're going off of time here.) You see similar things happen for actions like power punches, etc, where the action may "take" more than one of your APM, but it is vague as to when these actions are used - before, after, or from the total.

I feel this keeps to the spirit of the rules in that Speed is Speed and distance is distance, and you shouldn't penalize a character for advancing. For those number crunchers, it makes sense because it's accounting for the same amount of time each is using to perform their desired action, and for the purist, it's giving Speed and Initiative their do, without requiring combat phases or other schemes. And for the casual gamer, it's rather easy to figure out in one's head - little math required.

Opinions?