Re: [BNW] First Move Question

[MKirk2112@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/21/2000 8:54:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Jason.Olivier@LibertyMutual.com writes:

<< Subj:     RE: [BNW] First Move Question
 Date:  8/21/2000 8:54:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:  Jason.Olivier@LibertyMutual.com (Olivier, Jason)
 Sender:    owner-bnw@gamerz.net
 Reply-to:  bnw@gamerz.net
 To:    bnw@gamerz.net ('bnw@gamerz.net')
 
 
    <snip from Howie>
 > We had this situation come up in our game tonight:
 > Rapido, the team's Speedster, was stuck on the roof of a hospital with the
 > leader of the merc's they were fighting, a Gunner. 
 > Rapido's initiative was 12 to the Gunner's 16.
 > Gunner shoots in 16 and hits with three rounds.  Rapido aborts his action
 > on 12 to dodge and activates his Afterimages Trick.
 >  Rapido had also wanted to use First Move - can he do it in this situation
 > and when does he get the extra actions?
 > My opinion is that yes, he can still use First Move.  He will get 3
 > actions on 12.  If he uses one of them to dodge on 16, he still has 2
 > actions left, on his initiative of 12.  If there was someone else on the
 > roof with an initiative of 14, he still goes before Rapido.
 > Opinions?
    _____
 
    Doesn't this trick (first move) take an action to activate? If it
 does then he would only get one action with the above scenario (takes 1 to
 activate, 1 to dodge, 1 action left).
 
    I personally would not allowed him to use this at action 12. It
 would have gone off at his/her next action (as the dodge would wipe out the
 first action).
 
    I also had a session this weekend that I have some questions about
 but I will pose in an additional note.
 
    Jason Olivier
    "The first person to send a note to the BNW List except for AB"
 
 
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First Move in and of itself does not seem to require an action, it just 
requires you to "sacrifice" an action to make it work, at least that's how I 
read the description in the rulebook.  It doesn't seem to "go off" at any 
point in the turn, it just requires you to sacrifice an action and you can do 
it.  So, I don't think that the First Move trick occurs at 12 in the round, 
it just requires Rapido to sacrifice an action.

However, it seems that this situation is one in which the player wants 
his/her character to perform 2 Tricks ... Afterimage and First Move.  So, one 
extra success than normal would be needed to pull of the Afterimage trick.  
Since First Move doesn't have a set number of successes needed, there are no 
additional successes needed to pull it off, but I think the Guide would be 
fair in ruling that an additional action must be sacrificed which works out 
to one extra success.  This is a HUGE penalty, however, and I may not enforce 
it.

I would let the player do this, but I would have played it out differently.  
He has a total of 3 actions for his initiative 12 roll.  He has to sacrifice 
one to make the First Move trick work, so now he has 2 left.  He could do the 
dodge on 16, so that leaves him with 1 action remaining, but the Afterimage 
trick would have a Difficulty of 15 not the normal 10 because he has 
attempted two Tricks rather than one.  That leaves him with 1 action that he 
can take on 12.  So, he wouldn't want to do the First Move trick at all, 
because he could just dodge normally on 16 and have 2 actions remaining.  He 
just couldn't do both actions at once.  In order to do what was described, I 
would rule that he needed a total of 4 actions ... one spent dodging, one 
spent on doing the First Move trick, and 2 spent at 12.  Three or fewer 
actions just doesn't cut it with this example.  As I said before, I think the 
Guide would be fair in ruling that even an additional action must be 
sacrificed to do both the First Move and Afterimage tricks, but that's really 
tough!

This example, I think, points out an interesting thing about the First Move 
trick.  It sounds so great when you read it, but in reality, it really isn't 
that good of a trick.  For one, you need 3 actions (minimum 10 on the roll 
total) to make it worthwhile at all, and I personally think you need 4 
actions (minimum 15 on the roll total) to make it worthwhile.  How often does 
that happen?  Even for Speedsters, this is a fairly rare occurrence.

My 2-cents.

Guide Matt