The act of running over a short distance at the greatest possible speed. Because of physiology, a runner's near-top speed cannot be maintained for more than 3 combat rounds (36 seconds) due to the depletion of phosphocreatine stores in the muscles. Even at amateur sprinting speeds, however, this can cover a considerable distance.
As a combat round is inconveniently long and vague where sprinting distances are concerned (in an Olympic race, reaction time, block clearance and achieving a speed of maximum acceleration all occur in a 4-second interval), the actual distance covered by a sprinter is broken down by action points expended rather than in terms of rounds.
Further, the highest speed possible by a character will be limited by any baggage or items the character may carry. In game terms (rather than reality, as I am lacking useful tables that can be applied to role-playing encumbrance), this will translate as a 40% reduction in potential distance covered per action point lost due to encumbrance the character carries. Since this will quickly reduce 'sprinting' speed to below normal speed, it may be presumed that when the character is able to move at a faster rate through combat running, it and the character's 'sprinting' speed should be seen as equal. The rule treats the matter this way to suspend any idea that sprinting ability is a form of combat superiority.
Alexis,
ReplyDeleteI like your rules on collision and sprint recovery.
had my fair share of tree branches hitting me above eye level while running in the bush. You got me thinking about encumbered running. The biggest pain with running with even small loads is that, unless they are well attached and tight against the body, they bounce around and throw you off balance. Out of interest I'm going to experiment with sprinting while loaded with a few different weights to see how much it affects my top speed.
K
You can look up military load studies. You would want ones studying combat activities. Others look at long distance travel.
ReplyDeletee.g.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=smhpapers
The thing about using real world data is that you need an effective means of tracking encumbrance. For my games, that's always been the biggest pain in the ass and I understand it's the same for Alexis (please correct me if I'm wrong). Which means you pretty much have to go with a system that favors playability over verisimilitude.
ReplyDeleteYou're completely right, Ozymandias. I looked through the document and it is completely useless. I don't have an accountable weight for any of the 'tiers' described without spending hours trying to track down weights through military sites - and that wouldn't matter anyway because we're talking about trained soldiers in a modern era, not ordinary people.
ReplyDeleteI've been through endless such 'studies' and in the end it always comes down to what sort of numbers can we create that won't break a delicate game structure. Most times, it's easiest to make something up that SOUNDS right - it doesn't have to be right, so long as the players can visualize the idea and accept the principle.