Charge Moves

Currently, this is how charge-up moves work:

Charging Up

Certain abilities must take a turn to charge up before the actual effect goes off.

• Declare that you’re charging and pay the cost associated.
  • You don’t have to say what exactly you’re charging, except to the DM.
• While you’re charging, you cannot defend in any way.
  
• On your next turn, the charge-up ability goes off.
  • You cannot start charging up an ability on bonus turns.

I have a few suggested tweaks to it. The first tweak would be, when an attack is fired at you, you can cancel the charge and defend against the attack at a small penalty. If there's a Magic cost on it, you would get some of it back. Secondly, (this is primarily for outside of battle), you'd be able to indefinitely hold a charged up attack, once charged.

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Which brings up the next issue. During battle, it takes a round for something to charge. But outside of battle, there's no way of determining how long that actually takes, especially due to the discrepancy between in-game time and actual time. Additionally, because it says "Charge one turn", it implies that it's only usable during battle, when in fact, anything that can be used in-battle can also be used outside of battle (that's the intention, at least).


So, should this issue of how long a charge-up move takes outside of battle be up to the DM or should be up to a system (no DM's discretion involved)? Post your thoughts and opinions below on it, and if you have an idea for a system, post that as well. If you have an idea for completely revamping the charge system, fire away.


Feel free to comment on the suggested tweaks as well, but more importantly, the question above.

While it would be good to give an estimate for the out-of-battle time equivalent to a single turn, I don't think it should be strict by any means. The DM should be able to leverage charging in a much more fluid way outside of the bounds of combat.

I would like to see a system that has absolutely no DM's discretion involved in it, because that's how the battle system charge-ups work, so why can't something be thought of for out-of-combat? Otherwise, keep charge-ups to in-combat only.

Essentially, what you want is a system for a period of undefined time (because there are no turns outside of in-battle) that is normally ignored by everything (DM, players, and all systems). So, in order to do that, we'd have to create a separate entity to support even the idea of that session. But what is that entity? If it's in-game time, that would be controlled by the DM, so that throws that idea out of the window.

Until the entity is created that allows a system to exist (which we don't know what it is), there is no way to implement even the idea of a system that denies DM's discretion. I am not opposed to the idea, I simply haven't figured out a way to implement it in a way that makes sense.


In the meantime though, I am against disabling them outside of battle, because if it is capable of working via DM's discretion, then why should it get removed? What exactly is it about a DM allowing the possibility of something that a system normally can't do so bad? Isn't that the point of a DM in the first place?

I am against disabling them outside of battle

I am against allowing DM's discretion to be the fallback for everything. We have a system for in-battle, and if these moves are to be allowed out of battle, a system is needed for it, not a DM's discretion fallback system.

One of the primary roles of the DM is to help orchestrate out-of-combat events. While it would be good to give at least a basic time frame for the typical charge, I do not think it makes sense to have a rigorous definition, since any events that occur out-of-combat do not fall within the rigorous turn-based restrictions of combat itself.

Who needs time when you have rolls?

Charge-Up Moves

Certain abilities take multiple turns to charge-up before the actual effect goes off.

• Declare what you're charging and pay the cost associated. This consumes an action.
  
• All charge-up moves will list how many turns (not rounds) that you need to charge for. This includes everyone's turns, including the turn you start charging.
  • While you are charging, you cannot defend in any way. However, you can Cancel the charge on any turn, though it's not a flawless cancel.
    • For the remainder of that turn, your dice when defending is decreased by 2 * (total affinity level requirements).
      
    • You only recover half of the cost back.
  • If it's your turn and you're still charging, you can use an action to Absorb the charge.
    • This counts as canceling the charge. However, you recover the full cost back, and you get no penalties.
  • Once the move is charged, you can use it on any of your turns.
    • Using the move will, of course, consume the charge.
  • You cannot have more than one move charged at a time.
    • If you attempt to charge-up another move while you already have one move fully charged, the new move will overwrite the charged-up move and start from the beginning of the charge-up phase.

So the rules are expanding for Charge-Up Moves, but mainly, this allows a lot more flexibility with them.

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Now, to answer the question that started this whole issue in the first place, how do Charge-Up Moves work when you're not in-battle?

Charge-Up Moves Out-of-combat

There is no actual charge-up "time". Essentially, when you say you're using one outside of battle, the charge-up phase is skipped, and the move goes off. Most Charge-Up Moves will have a description of some sort that describes the charge-up phase itself. You are more than welcome to use this charge-up phase intentionally outside of battle - however, at any time, you can use the actual move itself or cancel the charge.

Charge-Up Moves for Sneak Attacks

Various charge-up moves, when you start charging, cause some sort of effect that can be sensed with a Spot Check. Some other moves don't have a description, and those moves, when you charge, should not proc a Spot Check.

However, for the moves that do proc a Spot Check, if you are spotted while charging up, the target can "counterattack" you, so to speak. This "charge-up time" is now considered a "period of time in which the target can spot you and, if he does, take an action". This action is the equivalent of taking an action in-battle, so he can attack you, he can try and run away, he can cast a spell, etc. You are able to cancel the Charge-Up Move if he decides to attack you. However, you are not able to absorb the Charge-Up Move if he attacks you.

If you're not spotted when you start charging, then the charge-up time is considered null and void, meaning you can use the move immediately.

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You can read more about Sneak Attacks in this thread.

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So, how do you folks like this suggestion?