Last night in our game, a player asked about the possibility of waiting for an enemy to attempt a certain movement and then attempting to interrupt him doing it.

Basically, an enemy droid was going to try to reach the player character by crossing a narrow walkway.

The PC wanted to try to interrupt the droid while the droid was on the walkway. Something like using a "Readied action" in D&D.

I know you can approximate this with the fluid initiative system in SWRP, but how would you manage letting the PC actually interrupt the enemy's movement?

I've been considering implementing Attack of Opportunity and Readied Action style behaviors in the SWRP system, but haven't committed to it yet. I like the idea that you have to take a specific Disengage action to get out of range of a melee fighter who can reach you.

By RAW you simply can't.

If the walkway is wide enough the PC can't even block it. If it's narrow... hmmm.

Personally I'd allow him to take a "Blocking" action. He places himself in the walkway and declares his action is to be an Obstacle. Any enemy trying to pass him would have to make a check (Athletics? Brawl probably, Melee maybe) with the difficulty set by the character's Brawl/Athletics/Melee.

Failure and the passer is stuck on one side and engaged. Success and the enemy pushes him down/out of the way/slides past him, whatever.

If you think it's appropriate allow the check to do damage to the loser, probably base weapon damage.

i know this "takes the roll out of the players hands"* but it's the best I can think up on short notice.

* Having the Players making the rolls is a thing with FFG Star Wars. The whole "fail forward" mindset.

The flexible initiative system basically covers this, but we've been so ingrained with the d20 tactical style of fixed initiative slots where someone can only go in the order in which they rolled initiative. In addition, the system is supposed to be narrative rather than tactical, so the "waiting until the droid is on the walkway" can be part of the narrated action. In essence the player in question takes the initiative slot before the droid, and takes actions against the droid that are then narrated to be an interruption.

Another alternative is to take the initiative slot after the droid, and narrate the same thing, but it's less likely to be an interruption.

That makes sense, Agatheron. It's basically what we did in the moment.

What would y'all do, for example, in this case:

PC Sasha says "If the droid goes after the control panel, I want to interrupt him and stop him from activating the alarm."

PC Jaz says "If the droid goes for the blast door, I want to interrupt him and stop him from escaping."

Where it's dependent on what the NPC seems to be doing, which actions the PCs take and in what order. Ideas?

My GM has just been letting us ready actions, mostly just holding our fire until the enemy appears (like covering the rear or watching a door). It doesn't happen too often. We are old gamers and the EotE initiative system as written is just too limiting. I ran D&D 3.5 for several years and find it more flexible in what the players could do.

As far as Attacks of Opportunity, I don't see a need for them. Upgrading a maneuver to leave hand-to-hand combat to an action should be a sufficient penalty. I'd only do that if it left the enemy unengaged. (So if two PCs are fighting and one disengages, then that PC wouldn't suffer a penalty). I don't think this situation has ever come up in our game as we don't have a Wookie and are all shooty types.

The flexible initiative system basically covers this, but we've been so ingrained with the d20 tactical style of fixed initiative slots where someone can only go in the order in which they rolled initiative. In addition, the system is supposed to be narrative rather than tactical, so the "waiting until the droid is on the walkway" can be part of the narrated action. In essence the player in question takes the initiative slot before the droid, and takes actions against the droid that are then narrated to be an interruption.

What would y'all do, for example, in this case:

PC Sasha says "If the droid goes after the control panel, I want to interrupt him and stop him from activating the alarm."

PC Jaz says "If the droid goes for the blast door, I want to interrupt him and stop him from escaping."

Where it's dependent on what the NPC seems to be doing, which actions the PCs take and in what order. Ideas?

Though my group has allowed people to "take their Action" and then just "delayed" it until the enemies showed up a few times when we seriously beat them in the initiative, the enemies weren't "in range", and there was really nothing to do other than take cover and wait.

My GM has just been letting us ready actions, mostly just holding our fire until the enemy appears (like covering the rear or watching a door). It doesn't happen too often. We are old gamers and the EotE initiative system as written is just too limiting. I ran D&D 3.5 for several years and find it more flexible in what the players could do.

That isn't the initiative system from 3.5 that is more flexible, but the list of all the possible actions from being a more tactical rules system. Frankly, I find that system far too cumbersome in general and prefer things like Savage Worlds card based initiative or this one's Slot based initiative to be far more flexible than the 3.5/Pathfinder. In D20, you go in the same order round after round, even if it might be better for another person to go first. If you do anything but take your actions that round, you are stuck in the new order until the end of combat. There's a rule for everything and everything has its rule... so, unless a rule says you can, you can't... seems to be how that system was built up.

Not so with EotE/AoR/FD... Anyone can use any slot, and they can change which slot they use each round, keeping everyone focused on the game. What is allowed is what the players and GM decide is allowed for the characters.

As others have said, the initiative system does not allow the delayed or interrupting maneuvers that that other system allows.

The trick is to, as Yoda says, unlearn what you have learned. Consider this: the droid going for the control panel, spend a destiny point to upgrade the difficulty of his action and then if despair comes up narratively describe the outcome. A triumph could also be spent before the action to 'change the oucome of a battle'. This could be retracting a panel, closing a blast door, or having a Gnk droid overload and explode, which forces the droid to go to a different panel.

Samophlange, I like that too.

In the D&D 5th edition games I've run, I have been using the flexible SWRP-style initiative, and we don't really mess with readied actions there either.

What would y'all do, for example, in this case:

PC Sasha says "If the droid goes after the control panel, I want to interrupt him and stop him from activating the alarm."

PC Jaz says "If the droid goes for the blast door, I want to interrupt him and stop him from escaping."

Where it's dependent on what the NPC seems to be doing, which actions the PCs take and in what order. Ideas?

I haven't thought this completely through, but...

I think I'd let them defer. Instead, both PCs roll Vigilance on their turn, opposed by the droid's Cool or Deception. Then when the droid moves, the predicting player gets to act and interrupt. If they lost the roll, their difficulty is either increased or upgraded, and/or the droid might get to make a maneuver first, plus whatever effects from the dice roll can be applied in a normal combat situation (advantages, threats, etc).

This "hold" only lasts a turn and might mean they end up doing nothing. Next turn they can act in whatever initiative slot the party wants.

By RAW you simply can't.

If the walkway is wide enough the PC can't even block it. If it's narrow... hmmm.

Personally I'd allow him to take a "Blocking" action. He places himself in the walkway and declares his action is to be an Obstacle. Any enemy trying to pass him would have to make a check (Athletics? Brawl probably, Melee maybe) with the difficulty set by the character's Brawl/Athletics/Melee.

Technically, if a pathway is narrow enough and Player 1 has to move to an Engaged Range with NPC 2 to get around them, then NPC 2 is slowing them down. At the very least PC 1 has to move to Engage NPC 2, then spend another maneuver to break Engaged range with NPC 2 (this time on the other side of said NPC).

Any "blocking" shenanigans the GM wants to make, or treat the terrain as difficult because of the NPC is up to the GM.

Some situations are just narrated as having been interruptions, but any time that is (or is perceived to be) insufficient, I allow my players to take a "Prepare" Maneuver and then declare what specific event they are preparing for. Rarely, this may result in some sort of opposed roll, but I try to avoid that.

In the case where a person enters the area of a creature which would be big enough to get reach, or when a character leaves "engaged", am I not mistaken but isn't there a mention of the attacker using a setback die? I'm at work and can't recall the exact rule.

Wouldn't that represent something similar to attacks of opportunity?

I think I like most of the suggestions to just find a way to work it in the standard initiative system.

In our game, the PC had rolled a Triumph on a check and he wanted to use it to find a way to interrupt the enemy droid's walk across a tiny walkway.

We just upgraded the difficulty of the Coordination check the droid had to make, it seemed to make sense.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about the AoO or the Delayed Reaction stuff. When I first started with this system, all I could do was try to figure out ways to make it more like D20.

But the more I did that, the more I remembered that I'm playing this game for 3 primary reasons:

1. I love Star Wars

2. This system is really good.

3. I'm sick and tired of playing D20. I've been playing it for like 15 years now. I'm sick of it, and this system actually gives me an entirely new way to approach everything.

My advice would be to just start thinking of ways to interpret the rules as written in more creative ways, and less on adding or changing stuff around. The Dice alone can create all sorts of interesting situations.

Attacks of Opportunity are sort of like unexpected twists in the narrative. Maybe the enemy rolled some Despair? Sounds like a perfect opportunity for one of the players to do one quick Maneuver. 2 Despair? Maybe they get an Action or maybe 2 Players get a free Maneuver? This is something more akin to a House Rule, sure. But it's not like implementing an entirely new mechanic. It's simply a contingency for existing rules.

Readied Actions are... I just don't see a point for them, and frankly, they're basically traps set by the player that completely depend on whether or not the GM actually wants to purposefully fall for it. Sort of like

Player - "I'm readying a Fireball. If one of those skeletons pulls out a pink umbrella and starts to dance the jitterbug... I'm frying his a$$!"

GM - "Well it's fortunate that you did that, because that's exactly what he did!"

Player - "REALLY!?"

GM - "No... not really. He just attacks you."

Player - "Did you purposefully not do what I set my readied spell for?"

GM - "I'll never tell *giggle*"

Basically, the whole this is just arbitrary and unnecessary. If a player is just waiting for something specific to happen... they just need to wait for another Initiative slot, or delay the one they're on if all the PC's move before the enemies.

What would y'all do, for example, in this case:

PC Sasha says "If the droid goes after the control panel, I want to interrupt him and stop him from activating the alarm."

PC Jaz says "If the droid goes for the blast door, I want to interrupt him and stop him from escaping."

Where it's dependent on what the NPC seems to be doing, which actions the PCs take and in what order. Ideas?

I think I'd let them defer. Instead, both PCs roll Vigilance on their turn, opposed by the droid's Cool or Deception. Then when the droid moves, the predicting player gets to act and interrupt. If they lost the roll, their difficulty is either increased or upgraded, and/or the droid might get to make a maneuver first, plus whatever effects from the dice roll can be applied in a normal combat situation (advantages, threats, etc).

This "hold" only lasts a turn and might mean they end up doing nothing. Next turn they can act in whatever initiative slot the party wants.

I actually thought something similar, but I'd require a Cool check to hold an action, since it's basically an ambush of sorts, contingent upon a certain action. Making it an opposed or competitive or straight difficulty I'm not sure, but that would vary with situations and context I guess.

I'd say if they lose their check they can't hold and must either: perform action now or lose action this round - the latter could require a Despair of course...

Of course, I'm not sure I'd use this at all, unnecessary rolls really, but I think it makes at least as much sense as not. As the initiative system works though it's sort of already covered, as has been stated already.