scogle
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 69
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Post by scogle on Jun 19, 2008 20:59:04 GMT -6
So I think I have most of the rules figured out. I gotta say, the organization in these books is absolutely awful (as if you guys don't already know that), but there's so little there that it's easy to find stuff. Anyway what I don't understand is movement. Men & Magic basically says that if you're carrying a lot of stuff, movement is restricted. What I don't understand is that the movement is given in inches. I checked the Chainmail rules and there it says one "inch" on the game-table is equal to 10 yards, and they say 1 side's turn is equal to 1 minute. Now even if that's what the movement in OD&D is referring to, it doesn't help me much. So a heavily encumbered character can move 60 yds/minute . . . whaaa? That doesn't help me at all So yeah I was just wondering how you guys handle this, or if there's some rule about it I missed.
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tank
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 58
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Post by tank on Jun 20, 2008 6:49:49 GMT -6
On page 8 of U&WA, it says that in the underworld, all distances are measured in feet and instructs you to convert all inches to tens of feet. So a armored foot unit will move 60' per move. On that same page, it says that a character gets two moves per 10 minute turn. So the same character can move 120' per turn. This speed is further doubled in flight/pursuit situations. In outdoor situations, you measure distance in yards instead of in feet (I can't provide a page number for this rule, though). So the same character could move 120 yards per turn outdoors. This makes no difference on your table (if you use figurines) because 1" = 10' indoors and 1" = 10 yds outdoors.
Melee rounds are only one minute long, but there's no movement rate specified for melee rounds in U&WA. There are also no movement rules in the man-to-man section of Chainmail. And the regular section of Chainmail doesn't really have any rules for moving in a melee either. Personally, I use the BECMI (B/X also?) movement rules for combat, in which a character's combat movement rate is one third of their listed rate. So light foot can move 40' per combat round indoors, heavy foot can move 30', and armored foot can move 20'. This movement is restricted to five feet if a character is in melee, unless they perform a fighting withdrawal or retreat.
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Post by makofan on Jun 20, 2008 7:28:19 GMT -6
I'd say I basically do what tank does
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Post by foster1941 on Jun 20, 2008 10:55:27 GMT -6
The 1" = 10 feet indoors, 10 yards outdoors is implicit (based on combining Tanks' citation from Vol. III with Chainmail) but AFAIK wasn't actually made explicit until an article by Gary Gygax in issue #15 of The Dragon. Per Chainmail, figures move their full move rate (in inches) per combat round, plus possible bonus for charging. It's specified somewhere in Chainmail (or perhaps only in Swords & Spells? EDIT: found it -- Chainmail p. 16; points 3 & 4 under Miscellaneous Melee Information; note also point 2 which establishes the 1" melee engagement range) that figures can move up to 1/2 (excluding charge) and engage in melee in the same round, but if they move over 1/2 they can only melee that round if they're charging. Swords & Spells specifies that you can't move and cast a spell in the same round. How movement affects missile fire varies widely depending on missile type (and troop type for elves and mounted archers). Philotomy lays it all out in a nice organized manner (much better than the actual rules themselves did) here.
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Post by philotomy on Jun 20, 2008 11:31:55 GMT -6
In addition to the link Foster gives, above, you might want to take a look at movement while exploring and movement in combat. Note, however, that the table provided in "movement in combat" is for a 10-12 second round, rather than a 1 min. round. Also, I use x2 movement for the charge, rather than x1.5; I think the double rate works better for man-to-man combat, as opposed to mass combat, and it's also simpler. That "movement while exploring" link lists a variant from the Holmes Basic rules that I like, breaking movement into three rates for exploring and mapping, moving normally (i.e. normal walking), and running (i.e. flight/pursuit).
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Post by philotomy on Jun 20, 2008 11:44:09 GMT -6
Swords & Spells specifies that you can't move and cast a spell in the same round. Also, spellcasters can't cast spells in melee (i.e. when they're engaged)*. That means you can interrupt a spell by getting within melee range of the spellcaster (i.e. "engaging" him). So even though it looks like the sequence favors spellcasters (all the spell phases coming before melee), there's often opportunity for Fighting Men to move and engage, interrupting a spell, if they have initiative. (Fast, low-level spells are still too quick to beat if the spellcaster is too distant and thus unengaged, making surprise very advantageous in those situations.) * - this is also from Swords & Spells, pg. 11. I need to add it to my page on the combat sequence. I left it off, initially, because I wasn't sure if I liked it, but it turns out that it works well in play.
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scogle
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 69
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Post by scogle on Jun 20, 2008 13:46:10 GMT -6
Thanks a lot guys! This will help a lot in the campaign I'm running. I really like that Philotomy site, it clarifies so much stuff that was confusing me before
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ant
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 243
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Post by ant on Jun 30, 2008 5:27:49 GMT -6
I strongly subscribe to philotomy's take on movement in combat (and a lot of his other takes, for that matter). It's worked a treat so far.
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