Fria Ligans forum

I'm currently 2 sessions into my Mutant Year Zero campaign (just made it to the Pure Plant!) but I am reading a ton of different YZE games, so I am getting various ancillary rules mixed up.

Are there any guidelines (in any of the books or supplements) regarding delaying actions in Combat? I know things like the Chronicler's Inspire or the general Defend Action sacrifices your next Action. But if a player is going on Initiative 10 and a Zone-Ghoul goes on Initiative 8 but is 2 Range Bands away, the player won't want to use their Action as a Maneuver to get within Arm's Length (or is it Near? lol). So can they use their Maneuver to move 1 Range Band closer, then declare they are holding their Action until the enemy moves into Arm's Length and then attack them before the enemy gets a chance to attack?

Tactically, it makes sense, but once my players started doing it, combat felt significantly easier (this is early on afterall). I want to chalk that up to just good planning and tactics on their part, they do tend to think very tactically, but the difference was stark enough that something felt a little off compared to the APs I've listened to and the accounts I've read. Would it be better to say they can use the Action, but can't interrupt the enemy's turn to do so (they can attack after the enemy uses their Maneuver and Action?). I guess if it's something they can do, I can do it too, leading to lots of stand-offs I'm sure. Should I let them, but make them change their Initiative to that number, potentially with devastating knock-on effects if certain things end on their next Turn essentially giving them a path to extending certain effects beyond what feels RAI? The game can be brutal, I know, so I am tempted to be as generous as possible on this, but I also tend to be an overly generous GM and I don't want to undermine the intended brutality of the system.

I'm more than comfortable coming up with a solution that works for us and out playstyle, but I want to 1) get the opinions of seasoned GMs and 2) make sure I'm not overlooking any rules or design intentions. I know they significantly increased the complexity of combat for later games like Aliens and Forbidden Lands, but I struggled to find any specifics for those either.

Thank you for any suggestions or advice y'all can give me! I am LOVING all the Free League games so much and really cannot wait until I have system mastery, but I know it'll take some time.

Not saving your action per se but when we played we allowed a player with a better init to lower his init if he wanted it to.

Later expansions (I think it was introduced in Mechatron) adds the Overwatch rule but that is for ranged fire only. Basically it goes that you spend your maneuver to go into overwatch mode (and also choose a direction) and then you save your action. Anytime from this point and your next turn, you can temporary halt the init and shoot at something in your overwatch direction, then the init continues.

Ah yeah, I remember that from Alien as well. Makes a lot of sense, I think. I'll probably incorporate that as well, though we haven't had many situations yet where it might apply as only one person has a ranged weapon yet! That'll change though.

Now was that ruling you made for them to reduce their overall Init down to whatever lower number they want and leave it there permanently (or until they use a stunt to move it back up) or just for that one round? Initially I just let them delay but keep their rolled Init, which felt a bit too lenient. I'd rather make them commit to changing. My only concern there is strategically using that to prolong status effects (I think that applies to MYZ like it might to other games), but perhaps avoided if I declare status effects end on the Initiative they were started on, rather the specific player's Init. An edge case for sure, but I like thinking through the ramifications of my rulings so I don't get blindsided and need to revisit. lol

Thanks for the response!

Yes, they could just lower their init (when it come up) to any lower number if they wanted to.

Fantastic, seems like a good solution that preserves as much of the game as possible. Thanks for the guidance!

For me whenever a player wants to hold an action they need to declare what they are holding their action for, overwatch, aim and prepared shot etc, this means that the action is held until this individual comes into range or a certain effect triggers that action. However if the thing you are waiting to happen does not occur then the turn could be missed, I have even had players write secretly down what they are waiting for, so that as the GM I am unaware of the held action trigger. Its fun to keep thigs from the GM and avoids that metta game moment.
As for close combat, if the PC is waiting for an enemy to close on them, their held action would be a defend role as with any response to close combat attack, but I would give the PC an extra 2xD6 to demonstrate a brace stance. I added a new Skill of 'Come and get it F***er' for my combat PC, like a Taunt or challenge skill which gave an extra 3xd6 in this situation and meant that enemies were drawn to them.