Currently, in the combat system created by Palladium Books, participants in combat attack one after the other until everyone has used all of their attacks / actions per melee for that round. Unfortunately, using this system allows participants with more attacks per melee to attack repeatedly at the end of the melee after everyone else has used all of their attacks per melee, and unless the target's have auto-dodge, these targets cannot dodge any attacks from the participant with more attacks per melee. This document will attempt to address this problem by presenting an alternative for how combat participants use their attacks per melee within a melee round.
When combat begins, each participant in the combat rolls initiative, and applies any bonuses from their race, class, very high PP attribute, and any other source. This initiative roll determines how quickly the participant is able to react to the battle around them, the higher the number, the better. The initiative roll can be rolled at the beginning of combat and kept through the entire combat, or it could be rolled at the beginning of each melee, GM's discretion. Personally, I use the same initiative roll for entire combat and only roll initiative again when a "new" combat occurs.
After determining what the initiative is for all participants in the combat, each participant must decide, in order from highest initiative value to lowest initiative value, whether they will use a special attack at the beginning of the melee. This special attack requires one attack per melee and functions as a normal attack in all respects, except that it can be used at the beginning of the melee round and combat participants are not required to attack, and do not suffer any penalties for doing so. Participants only have one opportunity to use this special attack, and once they decide to use it or not, they cannot change their mind.
After taking, or not taking, the special attack at the beginning of the melee, all combat participants refer to the Attacks Per Melee Table section below to determine what order they take their attacks in. For participants that have taken the special attack at the beginning of the melee round, they refer to the table as if they had one less attack per melee; that attack was used at the beginning of the melee and is unavailable until the next round. For example, a participant with 8 attacks per melee that does not use the special attack would refer to the 8 attacks per melee row of the table, while a participant with 6 attacks per melee that used the special attack would refer to the 5 attacks per melee row of the table.
The melee then proceeds from the 1 second column of the table until it reaches the 15 second column of the table and each participant takes their turn in attacking. If two or more participants perform an action at the same time, such as both occurring in the 8 second column, then the participant with the highest initiative performs their action first. Also, if a participant performs two actions within the same second column, such as if they had 16 attacks per melee and it was in the 8 second column, then they would perform their second (or third, or forth, etc.) attack after everyone else has performed their first attack for that second column. even though a character may not be able to perform their action for several second columns, this does not prevent them from performing actions that require multiple attacks per melee, such as a power punch, and it does not prevent a participant from performing defensive actions, such as a normal dodge, that consumes their next melee action. As with the original system, a character cannot perform more actions or attacks in a given melee then they have attacks per melee, even if all the participant does is perform a normal dodge.
The table below has 15 rows representing the number of attacks per melee that a participant has from one attack per melee to 15 attacks and the melee, represented by the columns, is broken up into 15 one-second intervals. A melee round progresses from one second to the next, moving from one column to the next, and an "A" in the column means that the participant with this number of attacks per melee can perform an attack at this time. To determine how often a participant attacks if they have more then 15 attacks per melee, simply combine the 15 attacks per melee row with the second number, and the participant will not perform more then 1 attack in a given second column. For example, two determine when a participant with 24 attacks per melee attacks, simply combine the 15 attacks per melee row and the 9 attacks per melee row, and if a participant had 36 attacks per melee, combine the 15 attacks per melee row twice and the 6 attacks per melee row once.
| # of Attacks per Melee |
Seconds in a Melee Round | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |
| 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | A | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | - | - | - | A | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | A | - | - | - |
| 3 | - | - | - | A | - | - | - | A | - | - | - | A | - | - | - |
| 4 | - | - | A | - | - | A | - | - | - | A | - | - | A | - | - |
| 5 | - | A | - | - | A | - | - | A | - | - | A | - | - | A | - |
| 6 | - | A | - | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | - | A | - |
| 7 | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - |
| 8 | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A |
| 9 | A | - | A | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | - | A | A | - | A |
| 10 | A | - | A | A | - | A | A | - | A | A | - | A | A | - | A |
| 11 | A | A | - | A | A | - | A | A | A | - | A | A | - | A | A |
| 12 | A | A | A | - | A | A | A | - | A | A | A | - | A | A | A |
| 13 | A | A | A | - | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | - | A | A | A |
| 14 | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | - | A | A | A | A | A | A | A |
| 15 | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A |
Four people are involved in a brawl at the local tavern, although none are expert fighters, they all possess a basic level of hand-to-hand combat. The four brawlers are named Thomas with four attacks per melee, Rick with only three attacks per melee, Brian also with four attacks per melee, and Mike with an impressive five attacks per melee. To begin the combat, each brawler rolls initiative, and since none have any sort of bonus to initiative, it is a straight dice roll. Thomas rolls a 10, Rick rolls a measly 3, Brian rolls an excellent 18, and Mike finishes off with a mediocre 7. Since the GM is using the same initiative roll for the entire combat, these initiative numbers will not change.
To begin the first melee round, the GM asks Brian if he would like to make a special attack, but Brian declines, the GM then asks Thomas and Mike, both decide against performing that kind of special attack at the moment, but Rick decides that he will take the opportunity to make a special attack and deciding that he will attempt to strike Mike as he appears to be the biggest threat. Before Rick determines his strike roll, Mike decides he will dodge the attack, uses his first melee action of the combat. Rick rolls a 15 to strike, including modifiers and Mike rolls only a 6 to dodge with modifiers, which means that Rick lands a solid blow against his opponent.
Now that the special attacks are over, the normal sequence of attacks can begin, but since Rick used a special attack, he now uses the 2 attacks per melee row to determine when within the melee round he is able to attack. The 1st second passes with no one attacking, but in the 2nd second, Mike is scheduled for an attack. Unfortunately, Mike used this attack to dodge Rick's punch, so this attack has already been used. In the 3rd second, both Brian and Thomas are scheduled to attack, but since Brian has the highest initiative, he goes first. Knowing that taking down Mike also gives him a better chance at survival, Brian also tries to punch Mike, and again, Mike attempts to dodge, uses up his next melee attack to do so. Thomas is now allowed to attack and he also attempts to punch Mike, who attempts to dodge again, using up his third attack of the round. In the 4th second, Rick is able to perform his first normal attack for the round and strikes at Mike as well, forcing Mike to dodge for the forth straight time in a row. In the 5th second, Mike again is scheduled to make an attack, but he used this attack to dodge one of the attacks from another brawler, so again, Mike does nothing. In the 6th second, both Brian and Thomas can attack, and against Brian goes first because of his higher initiative and he decides to strike at Mike yet again, forcing the besieged brawler to dodge yet again, using up his fifth and last attack for that melee. Unfortunately for Mike, his troubled are not over as Thomas attacks him again, but since Mike no longer has attacks that he can use on dodging, Mike can only attempt to parry the incoming attack, which does not require the use of an attack per melee. The 7th, 8th, and 9th seconds all pass without anyone taking an action, but in the 10th second, Brian and Thomas again can attack and again Brian can attack first. This time, Brian decides to strike Thomas, but instead of dodging, Thomas decides to strike back at Brian. Since Thomas decided to strike Brian while Brian was striking Thomas, neither brawler can dodge the others attack, but after Brian's attack, Thomas has already made his attack, so it passes to the 11th second.
Combat will continue in this manner until all four brawlers stop fighting, generally by one side, or brawler in this case, defeating all of the other participants in the combat or at least forcing them to disengage from combat. Mike will eventually be able to attack again, but not until the start of the second round of combat, when everyone regains all of their attacks per melee and each can perform a special attack at the beginning of the melee round.