I've run into a movement issue that I hope you all can help me with.

Let's say an orc is fighting an elf, and is engagement range. The orc moves away, going from engagement to close, close to medium, and then spends one maneuver to move towards long distance, as per the FAQ. Now, let's say the elf takes a shot at him with an action card that has a maximum distance of medium.

What distance is the orc considered to be at?

Is he still at medium, even though he's halfway to long? Is he at long? You could say that since he hasn't reached long yet, he's at medium, but what if it was the other way around and he was approaching the elf, going from long to medium. Would he still be at long if he was halfway to medium? That wouldn't make any sense, given that if a character was at medium, and a character was at long, and both of them moved towards each other, they would still be in the exact same spot.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing, but it is something I am wrestling with. I love the concept of the abstract system - it's what helps to sell me over other RPGs - but some situations do arise with using it.

Halfway to long is still medium. Not until you've spent all the required manouvers do you get to be at the new distance.

By RAW, if you moved from medium towards long, you count as being at medium range, while if you moved from long towards medium, you count as being at long range.

The FAQ changes this with the concept of relative partial movement, so that if two characters take one manoeuvre towards each other from long range, they're now at medium. The implication is that this also applies to the case where one character is moving towards and one is moving away, and the case where both characters are moving away. For example:

1. If two characters start at medium range and each make one manoeuvre away from each other, they're now at long range.
2. If two characters start at medium range, one makes a manoeuvre away and the other then makes a manoeuvre towards, they're still at medium range.

Note that by the original wording, case 1 left the characters at medium range, while case 2 ended with the characters at close range.

You may wish to sanitise this a little by treating the in-between points as always either the closest or furthest range for the purposes of ranged shots and other range-dependent effects. I don't see it making much difference to game balance.

Nothing to stop you or the GM from adding a black misfortune dice (not another purple challenge die) for being almost at long range.

Tang86 said:

Hey. Hey, I like that. I like that a lot.

Great idea. Thanks.

Edit: Oh, and thanks for the post, jaj22. That does help me figure out the distances a bit more.