Winds of Chaos

We just started a new TEW campaign last Friday. No big fights yet, so I have some time to tamper with the rules
I mainly want to change the order of combat, and the number of attacks you can make. I'd also like to have a more narrative combat, where players have room to describe their actions, without worrying whether that action is a guarded attack, or an all out attack, or a swift attack, and which bonuses and rules stuff come with those actions. The following rules are influenced by the Feng Shui RPG.

So ...

To determine when you can act in a round, roll 1d5 + Agility bonus. This should give a number between 1 and 10, let's call it a beat. Higher numbers act earlier, ties are resolved by the highest Agility score (and if the GM gives an NPC the same score as a PC, then the problems caused by that decision are on him).

Then, subtract 4 from that score. If that number is still higher than zero, you can act another time. So if your first action was at beat 7, you can make a second attack at beat 3.
Your A score shortens the pause between actions. With A2, you can act every three beats, with A3 you can act every two beats.
This avoids the problem that PCs with more than one attack will just use 'swift attack' all the time, while their A score still gives them an advantage.

You can delay your action for one beat to get a +10 on your attack, or by two beats, to get a +20. This allows players to adjust the whiff factor for their characters. Likewise, parrying or dodging cost one beat.


Do you see problems with a structure like this?

That 2A (and the hit location randomness) was what killed the creativity and/or tactical feel of 2nd edition combats, for me at least. Once you got 2A all those options faded away as swift attack was the only sensible option.
CapnZapp had a tweak to swift attack to make it less of an absolute choice for 2A characters. From my fuzzy memory think Swift Attack required 2A, but you only got the second attack if the first hit. Less of a perfect choice when you could couple a single attack with a beneficial modifier. or in your case soak up a beat or two.

Will you be giving out bonuses akin to those from the guarded/defensive type of options based on the players described actions? Or keeping that tied to the use of beats?

Armour wise, you going with an all over Armour Value to remove the need for hit locations and the chance of those not making any sense with the described action?
I can't remember if there were crit tables for separate locations.
Called shots might need debuffing if it's not an easy way to get around the location based armour, or keep with that effect but creatively described.

I think that I'll be skipping the random hit locations, and with that the armour value for specific body parts. IIRC, WFRP2 gives an option for a generic (that is, not body location-bound) armour, and I'll start with that.
It's a partly new group, and I'd like to see how narrative combat will work out.

At this moment I'm more concerned whether this beats concept from Feng Shui will work out the way I imagine it would.

The shots were a bugger to track in Feng Shui initially. I was doing it for all. For some reason I didn't put that on the players to handle. Should have done as they'd have had a better take on where they were in the sequence, to better know if they pushed an active dodge how it'd impact their shots.

FS2 provided a nifty track with counters for a visual understanding to them all.

With your proposed "sequence" being shorter than those Feng Shui characters they should manage it well enough.
Or you thinking of keeping track yourself and coming to them when they're up?

Been playing an old edition Shadowrun for some years now. That has a similar thing. Initiative is Reaction (typically
5-7) plus the initiative dice, a d6. Cyberwear or magic can increase that. Mine is sitting at reaction 6 with 4d6 added,
Each action knocks 10 off, so am commonly getting 3 actions in a round. I can keep track of mine in my head, but we're leaning on the GM to track all the initiative order. Simple enough, simpler than Feng Shui anyway with different shot costs for actions, and the active dodge, and interrupting.

Putting together a tracker could help, especially when you get into 2A territory. You or the player might forget the beat cost having gone down.