Thu 29 Jul 2021, 15:52
I like the idea of weapons altering initiative, but I feel it's not easy to incorporate this feature into the game. It also seems counter-intuitive for pistols, SMGs etc. alter inititive in every instance as opposed to close-quarter combat.
Personally, I was very fond of the 1-10 card deck initiative presented in the core rules, because it avoids the problem of multiple characters having to share "turns". One could always add jack, queen and king and even a joker, if more than ten initiative slots are needed. Another simple solution is to make numbered chits and let everyone draw blind.
If one wants to incorporate weapon-based initiative modifiers, I would like to see the unambigious initiative order of the core system to be kept in place. As such, pistols, SMGs and might allow you to swap initiative cards with characters, with which you are in direct close-quarter combat (i. e. "same hex" respectively within 5 meters). The order would be for all SMG-equipped characters to change initiative with other characters (even against their will) in order of the original initiative order, then for characters equipped with pistols to do the same, but in the current order.
This allows for pistol-wielders to have to definite say, but the party with the higher SMG ratio could use their superior weaponry to pave the general way of inititive cards, because having more SMGs would allow them to "bunker" good initiative cards, of which not all might be successfully redistributed by the opposing force, simply because they have more shorter weapons. That's not how superiority of firepower works in my view. Also, carbines might be "safe" from having their initiative been taken away, allowing SMG and pistol wielding characters only to steal initiative cards from characters with rifles or heavier weapons.
This could get messy real fast though, bogging down play, which I think is now rather quick. And I like that.
liber & infractus