I got two questions from yesterday's session.
A: When mages and matrix-users change from the physical world into the astral or matrix (and vice versa), how should their initiative be modified. 1) Do you reroll initiative (and presumably deduct 10, 20 etc, from it depending on the phase) or 2) do these characters generate seperate sets of initiative scores all the time, simply "just in case" or 3) something diffrent?
Page 160 of the Core Rule Book has the answers you want.
In some cases, a character’s Initiative Score or Base Initiative Dice may change in the middle of a Combat Turn. A player might gain Initiative by activating an augmentation, for example, or could receive a boost from a drug or spell or other enhancer. Conversely, a character who is wounded or whose vital equipment (weapon, augmentation, etc.) takes damage might lose Initiative.
If a character’s Initiative attribute changes, immediately apply the difference as a positive or negative modifier to the character’s Initiative Score. This new Initiative Score applies to all remaining actions in that Combat Turn. So a character with Initiative 8 and an Initiative Score of 11 who activates an implant that changes his Initiative to 10 (+2) immediately raises his Initiative Score to 13 (11 + 2).
If the number of Base Initiative Dice available to a character increases, that character immediately rolls the extra Initiative Dice and adds the sum to their current Initiative Score for that Combat Turn. So a magician with 1d6 Initiative dice who takes his first action to astrally project (2d6 Base Initiative Dice) gains the die (and the change in Initiative) for their Astral Initiative during that Combat Turn. (In this case, the magician would also replace their Reaction + Intuition for Physical Initiative with Intuition x 2 for Astral Initiative.)
If the number of Initiative Dice available to a character decreases, then that character immediately rolls the number of lost dice and subtracts the total from their Initiative Score (along with any decrease to their Initiative Attribute).
Initiative also changes when a character or NPC is injured. Wound modifiers are applied directly to the character’s Initiative attribute. These changes are made immediately after the injury occurs and can affect the initiative order even within the same Initiative Pass. These changes do not allow the character to act again; they simply change their Initiative score.
If a character enters combat after it has already begun, they should roll for their Initiative Score as normal and then subtract 10 for each Initiative Pass that has already occurred. This means they may get an Action Phase during the current Combat Turn or they may not, but at least they have a chance.
So, to use your example.
A Decker is in AR, his initiative is Reaction + Intuition + 1d6. Let's say it's 3 + 5 (+3 for the die) to equal 11. He then switches to hot-sim VR. His initiative is now Intuition + Data Processing + 4d6. We keep the Intuition (5), the first die rolled (3), and then add Data Processing and 3d6 to his score. The end result is his hot-sim VR initiative. If he switches back to AR, we simply remove his Data Processing, roll 3d6 and subtract that, and add back in his Reaction (3 in this case). Thus, we end back up at his AR initiative, however, this is likely different than his original AR initiative.
A Mage has initiative equal to Reaction + Intuition + 1d6 in the meat world. We'll say its 3 + 5 (+3 for the die) to equal 11. He then astrally projects. His initiative is now Intuition (5) times 2, and we roll 1d6 to add to the final result. If he stops projecting, we simply use Reaction + Intuition as his base, and roll 1d6 to subtract from his initiative score. We end up back in meat world initiative.
B: How do you dodge grenades launched or hurled at you and any other forms of attack with a blast radius. Specifically: What kind of defense allows you to get out of the blast radius (and to what degree?) and how does this attacking with blast weapons really work at all? I think I did not fully grasp the mechanic...
Currently, the only method of dodging grenades or Indirect AoE spells is on page 125 of Run & Gun; the new interrupt action "Run for your Life". You can also attempt to throw a grenade back with the "Right Back at Ya!" interrupt action on page 124 of Run & Gun.
