Thursday, December 6, 2012

Moldavy/Cook Combat Sequence

Over on the StackExchange RPG site somebody asked about Moldavy/Cook combat. I did a little digging and found a surprisingly straightforward system very similar to what I use in my own Majestic Wilderlands/Swords and Wizardry games.

On page B24 it gives five things in order to resolve
  1. Morale check
  2. Movement, except if you start in melee special rules applies (explained later) and you forfeit casting spells if you move
  3. Missile Combat
  4. Casting Spells
  5. Melee
It doesn't make note of arming oneself. If you look at the section at using oil or holy water they both don't make mention of readying the item. It seems the assumption that within 10 seconds it just happens 

On page B47 it notes that using a magic, except for weapons, armor, and protective devices, require concentration. While it could have been written clearer it probably means that using a magic item is the same as casting a spell. I.E. using a magic item is the only thing you can do in that round. This seems to apply to scrolls and potions as well.

With the exception of magic items and spells, you could generally abstract the above sequence into allowing the character to move and do one significant and time consuming action. Or to abstract it further the character can do two actions but only one of those actions can be an attack and only one of the actions can be a movement. So you can move and attack, but not move and move, or attack and attack. Casting spells and using magic items consume two actions.

4 comments:

bholmes said...

If a character starts in melee and doesn't move, can they attack before spells go off? Seems odd if that's not the case.

Robert Conley said...

They would be in melee and can't do missile fire, use magic items, or cast spells.

bholmes said...

Ok that's what I thought.

Now what happens if the Wizard begins casting a spell and an enemy moves in to melee range but technically hasn't had a chance to melee?

I assume the spell would go off. Thus the only way to stop a wizard on the first round of combat would be to use range weapons, surprise them, or cast a spell that interrupts them first?

Hawkmansdaddy said...

...or have Initiative. The side with initiative performs actions is the above order, then the side with the next highest initiative, and so on.